Stick figures and pillowcases
Ministry leader Pam Kanaly is known for her whimsical stick figure drawings that she has used to embellish and illustrate many things over the years.
Those stick figures, along with scriptures, have adorned pillowcases that Kanaly has presented at Arise Ministries’ annual Survive ‘n’ Thrive Single Mothers Retreat.
Well, Arise Ministries of Edmond will have a booth today through Sunday at the Oklahoma Affair of the Heart at the State Fairgrounds.
Kanaly, (pictured below) who is co-founder 
of Arise, said the pillowcases will be for sale and she and Arise co-founder Shelley Pulliam will be on hand to introduce visitors to the ministry.
(Photo by Nate Billings/The Oklahoman: Antiffany McDaniel-Fears, of Oklahoma City, and her daughter Arianna Fears, posed for this 2006 photo holding an Arise Ministries pillowcase featuring a stick figure cartoon and Bible verse.)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Faith a sore spot at the Olympics?
I remember archery lessons in my freshman PE class in high school.
I really recall how bad I was at it and how grateful I was that I never had to do it again.
The sport is on my mind today after I read a recent story in the New York Times about U.S. Olympic archery coach Kisik Lee (pictured at right) stirring the waters, so to speak, at the games in Beijing.
It seems that Lee is a Christian and has baptized several people, including several of his archers, prior to the games in Beijing.
According to the Times, the United States Olympics Committee is concerned that Lee may have imposed his faith values on the U.S. archers who competed in Beijing. At least one archer’s parent, according to the story, was not happy with Lee on this issue, but was afraid that her child might draw some sort of retaliation if she spoke out.
Here’s what Lee had to say, responding to charges that he tried to impose his faith on his team. His comment was the Religion News Service’s Quote of the Day on Wednesday.
Read the Times story by clicking here: “For Coach, God and Archery are a Package Deal.”
What do you think? Did Lee go too far?
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Bush speaks out in China
AP PHOTO/Gerald Herbert Accompanied by Pastor Jian-An, President Bushmakes remarks after attending church at the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church during his visit to the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing, China on Aug. 10.
I saw Pres. Bush’s interview Sunday with Bob Costas, NBC Olympics commentator, in Beijing.
The president said he had attended a state-sanctioned church during his visit to China. My ears perked up when he said he has suggested that Chinese officials register underground house churches like they do state-sanctioned churches.
Bush’s comments to Costas more than hinted around religion — they really seemed to center around that theme.
In last week’s interview about the Voice of the Martyrs’ China prayer bracelets, Todd Nettleton, Voice of the Martyrs director of media development, said state-sanctioned Christian churches are those that the Chinese government allows to operate, thus the government has final say about who can preach there and what they can and cannot preach about.
The house churches that are not sanctioned in this way are called “underground” because they are not registered.
Nettleton said Voice of the Martyrs, based in Bartlesville, thinks that about 20 percent of Christians in China attend the state-sanctioned churches, while the majority attend underground churches because they feel more free to worship there.
“Obviously a lot of Christians say ‘Hey, we believe Christ is the head of the church not the Communist government’,” Nettleton said. “That’s why they refuse to come under those government controls.”
Will Chinese leaders take Bush’s suggestion seriously?
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
