YOUCEF NADARKHANI WATCH: “With pressure mounting, Iranian Supreme Court could rehear pastor’s case.”

Should Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s case be returned to the Supreme Court of Iran, that country’s highest court has agreed to review it, according to the pastor’s lawyer.

Mohammad Dadkah, Nadarkhani’s lawyer, confirmed the Supreme Court’s statement in a Thursday conversation with CNN. The reversal is a minor victory for the two-year-old legal battle; the Supreme Court passed on hearing the case in 2010.

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TURNING THE TABLES: “What Does Wall Street Really Want?”

Wall Street, are you willing to tie your bonuses to the well-being of the overall economy and not just the privatized bottom-line? What morals will guide the way you do your work? Will you sacrifice the quick buck to build an economy that will last and grow? Is it really your vocation to make so much for yourselves when so many people are hurting so much?

What do you really want, Wall Street?

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GOOD FOR THEM! “Young Evangelical Resist a ‘Politicized’ Faith.”

Evangelicalism is changing, said Russell Moore , Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, as the younger generation of evangelicals search for something deeper than the politicized “movement” based evangelicalism of their parents.  Moore discussed “evangelicals in the public square” at Princeton University, on October 3rd, with Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University in New Jersey. (George is also an IRD emeritus board member.)

Moore hopes to “see less and less of evangelical pastors who are foreign policy experts” or purport a Christian way “to deal with the debt ceiling issue.” He explained that “the more that evangelicals speak to everything with the same level of authority,” the more important issues are debased. “If you have a Christian position on gun control, your Christian position on the dignity of human life now is simply reduced down” to the “chaos” of other policy debates. A better approach, Moore said, is for evangelical pastors to maintain positions on “clearly revealed Christian truths” such as the “definition of marriage, or dignity of human life.”

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FALSE CHOICE: “Evangelism or justice—which do we choose?”

The short answer to how churches should “balance” such things is simple: follow Jesus. We are Christians. This means that as we grow in Christlikeness, we are concerned about the things that concern him. Jesus is the King of His Kingdom, and He loves whole persons, bodies as well as souls.

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THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN ATHLETE: “Sports with a Deeper Purpose.”

What’s so unique about the spiritual dynamics in sports?

Athletics provides deeply emotional experiences, so it’s in the context of an emotional experience that the teaching point can be made. When you have competed and lost, for example, the teaching point is, How do you handle disappointment [in other arenas]? How do you handle huge success? Where are we directing our joy as the result of success? Another notion that’s powerful is working together for a purpose, and that you can’t achieve that goal without your teammates. That deep sense of needing each other and leaning on one another is a powerful example of the body of Christ. And the fact that you are working for something beyond yourself, you are working on behalf of the team, in the same way that much of our Christian walk is modeled in a parallel fashion. So translating that from an experience on the field into kingdom work is the goal.

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ATHEISTS AT NOTRE DAME: “Atheist group denied official club status.”

The Student Activities Office (SAO) denied the club official recognition last year, citing a contradiction between Notre Dame’s mission and the intended purpose of the club.

“A club’s purpose ‘must be consistent with the University’s mission,'” the letter stated. “No organization, or member of any organization on behalf of the organization, may encourage or participate in any activity which contravenes the mission of the University or the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Love said the given reasoning was inconsistent with the University’s policy toward other, existing clubs.

“An easy rebuttal to that would be that we have a Jewish club, a Muslim club,” he said. “The only difference between us and them is that we don’t assume the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. We just thought if those clubs were allowed, we would also be allowed.”

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PLEASE, NO! “Gospel-Centered Hip Hop.”

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UH OH: “Report Says Tithing and Church Spending Hit Record Lows.”

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UH OH: “Humanists and atheists drive for wider global political impact.”

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THE LAW IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: “For Bachmann, God and Justice Were Intertwined.”

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PASTORAL DYNAMICS: “Disconnected.” This article is about how senior pastors and youth pastors can forge stronger relationships.