ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Americans named President Obama as their No. 1 hero, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, in a new Harris poll.
Others in the top 10, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.
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(AP)
» Click to enlarge image
Jim Caviezel as Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ."(AP)
» Click to enlarge image
(AP)
People were asked whom they admired enough to call their heroes. Those surveyed were not shown a list of people to choose from. The Harris Poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,634 U.S. adults by Harris Interactive.
This question was first asked in a Harris Poll in 2001. In that survey Jesus Christ was the hero mentioned most often, followed by Martin Luther King, Colin Powell, John F. Kennedy and Mother Teresa.
The biggest changes upwards on this list into the top 10 since 2001, apart from Barack Obama, were:
— George W. Bush was rated only 19th in July 2001, when he had been president for six months, and is now number 5 on the list.
— John McCain, who was not in the top 20 in 2001, is now number 7.
— Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed his jet safely in the Hudson River, is ranked number 9.
Heroes who were in the top 10 in 2001 who have fallen sharply this year include:
— Colin Powell, who was number 3 and is now number 16.
— John Wayne, who was number 8 and has dropped out of the top 20.
— Michael Jordan, who was number 9 and is no longer in the top 20.
— Mother Teresa, who was number 5 and is now number 10.
Living display of Jesus' life draws record crowds
3:31 PM by Fery! GFRESH!
STERLING HEIGHTS -- Bethesda Christian Church's popular drive-through Christmas display logged more visitors than ever this year, as modern worshippers sought a leisurely -- and warmer -- way to celebrate the season.
More than 7,000 people wound through the church property at Metropolitan Parkway and Schoenherr during the four-day "Living Christmas Story" last week, the biggest attendance in its three-year history, organizers say.
The homage to the life of Jesus is "a gift to the community," Senior Pastor Analee Dunn said. "We don't always have things people can come to and feel comfortable ... especially if you're on a tight budget. Each year we get a little better at it."
More than 500 volunteers took part in the event that featured outdoor scenes stationed around the property. Drivers watch the story while creeping along in their vehicles and listening to the narration on a complementary compact disc. The event featured 11 scenes, each depicting an aspect of Jesus' life, including the angel visiting Mary, the Last Supper and Jesus walking on water.
Mary Cherry, 91, said the retelling of Jesus' life had a profound impact.
"We went through the gates of Jerusalem, and it felt like we were right there," said Cherry, who attended a preview show with seniors from Maple Village Retirement Center in Bloomfield Hills. "I have never seen anything like it. It was remarkable.
"It was such a contrast to what's going on in the world around us."
With the economy in the doldrums, "people are looking for hope," said the Rev. Timothy Helland, a family pastor at the church. "The story of Jesus is a story full of hope."
Denise Johnson said it was a necessary reminder of what the holiday is all about.
"Unfortunately, we sometimes forget the meaning of Christmas," said Johnson, a Medilodge employee. "It can see how it would become a family tradition. It was fabulous."
More than 7,000 people wound through the church property at Metropolitan Parkway and Schoenherr during the four-day "Living Christmas Story" last week, the biggest attendance in its three-year history, organizers say.
The homage to the life of Jesus is "a gift to the community," Senior Pastor Analee Dunn said. "We don't always have things people can come to and feel comfortable ... especially if you're on a tight budget. Each year we get a little better at it."
More than 500 volunteers took part in the event that featured outdoor scenes stationed around the property. Drivers watch the story while creeping along in their vehicles and listening to the narration on a complementary compact disc. The event featured 11 scenes, each depicting an aspect of Jesus' life, including the angel visiting Mary, the Last Supper and Jesus walking on water.
Mary Cherry, 91, said the retelling of Jesus' life had a profound impact.
"We went through the gates of Jerusalem, and it felt like we were right there," said Cherry, who attended a preview show with seniors from Maple Village Retirement Center in Bloomfield Hills. "I have never seen anything like it. It was remarkable.
"It was such a contrast to what's going on in the world around us."
With the economy in the doldrums, "people are looking for hope," said the Rev. Timothy Helland, a family pastor at the church. "The story of Jesus is a story full of hope."
Denise Johnson said it was a necessary reminder of what the holiday is all about.
"Unfortunately, we sometimes forget the meaning of Christmas," said Johnson, a Medilodge employee. "It can see how it would become a family tradition. It was fabulous."
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Baby Jesus missing from Paw Paw Nativity
3:30 PM by Fery! GFRESH!
PAW PAW -- Police are searching for a baby Jesus figurine that was taken recently from a Nativity scene in downtown Paw Paw, authorities said.
A member of the local Knights of Columbus, which set up the Nativity scene in the 100 block of West Michigan Avenue, discovered the theft Saturday and reported it to police, Paw Paw Police Chief Patrick W. Alspaugh said.
The figurine, which is believed to be made of Fiberglas, was taken some time between Dec. 10 and Saturday, Alspaugh said.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the theft or the whereabouts of the baby Jesus figurine to call police at (269) 657-5501.
Police to increase
patrols for holidays
KALAMAZOO -- Police agencies throughout Southwest Michigan will be among more than 200 from across the state that will put additional officers on the streets beginning Friday as part of holiday patrols, authorities said.
Police will be especially on the lookout for drunken drivers and drivers who are not wearing seat belts.
Officers from 16 counties -- including Kalamazoo, Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Calhoun, Cass, St. Joseph and Van Buren -- will take part.
The effort, to run through Jan. 4, is being funded by more than $500,000 in federal traffic-safety money from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
A member of the local Knights of Columbus, which set up the Nativity scene in the 100 block of West Michigan Avenue, discovered the theft Saturday and reported it to police, Paw Paw Police Chief Patrick W. Alspaugh said.
The figurine, which is believed to be made of Fiberglas, was taken some time between Dec. 10 and Saturday, Alspaugh said.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the theft or the whereabouts of the baby Jesus figurine to call police at (269) 657-5501.
Police to increase
patrols for holidays
KALAMAZOO -- Police agencies throughout Southwest Michigan will be among more than 200 from across the state that will put additional officers on the streets beginning Friday as part of holiday patrols, authorities said.
Police will be especially on the lookout for drunken drivers and drivers who are not wearing seat belts.
Officers from 16 counties -- including Kalamazoo, Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Calhoun, Cass, St. Joseph and Van Buren -- will take part.
The effort, to run through Jan. 4, is being funded by more than $500,000 in federal traffic-safety money from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
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Documentary explores 'lost years' of Jesus
3:58 PM by Fery! GFRESH!
LOS ANGELES - It's one of the greatest mysteries in the Bible - Jesus' childhood and the years before he started his public ministry. Now, a recently released documentary, "Jesus: The Lost Years," attempts to fill in the gaps of those silent years using oral histories, archaeological evidence and writings contained in Christian churches in Egypt.
Based on a book by best-selling author Paul Perry, filmmakers from Bent Pyramid Productions retrace the 1,000-mile route taken by Joseph, Mary and Jesus as they escaped to Egypt after King Herod vowed to kill all baby boys in Israel.
"They went from town to town, avoiding these soldiers who were following them," said Perry, a resident of Paradise Valley, Ariz. "Jesus performed miracles in different towns, he destroyed temples and idols. He left artifacts that are preserved to this day and he allowed for things to happen many years later, like visions and apparitions that occur to this day in Egypt."
The documentary was shown in select theaters last year, then released last month as a two-DVD set in Christian bookstores and other retail outlets. The Trinity Broadcasting Network is also showing the film on 12,000 stations worldwide.
"I'm not a Bible scholar and I don't know why the early years of Christ's life weren't chronicled more in the Bible," said Paul Crouch, chief of staff at the Santa Ana-based TBN. "It's just one of those mysteries of the Bible and they uncovered a little bit of it. "It's kind of like watching an 'Indiana Jones' movie or a great mystery unfolding or being solved. They didn't solve everything, but I found it very fascinating."
Many of the stories Perry gleaned during the excursion are part of oral traditions or detailed in artifacts, scrolls and relics kept by the Christian Coptic Church. The denomination was founded by St. Mark nearly 2,000 years ago when he brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero. The Bible offers few details about Christ's time in Egypt. It chronicles how an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee to Egypt to escape Herod and how - after the king's death - the family eventually settled in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and was "filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."
Bible scholars believe Jesus' family spent several years in Egypt, but are skeptical of stories based on oral traditions and apocryphal texts such as the Infancy Gospels.
"When you look at it historically, there are no corroborating documents that come from the earliest stages of these traditions," said Jonathan Lunde, an associate professor of the New Testament at Biola University in La Mirada.
Jeffrey Siker, a professor of biblical studies and chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said that from a historical perspective, little else is known about Jesus' youth other than he probably lived in a rural village, spoke Aramaic, studied the Torah and worked in his father's carpentry trade.
"If you are asking what we do know about the so-called missing years, the answer is nothing," Siker said. "The lost years of Jesus are always going to be a Christmas special because it sells commercials and is inherently interesting, even though we know nothing about it." But while Western Bible scholars are skeptical of the oral traditions and Infancy Gospels, Perry said the clergy he interviewed from the Coptic Orthodox Church and Islamic community firmly believe in the historical accuracy of the oral traditions.
And during his trip, Perry and his team also filmed numerous archeological artifacts, including purported paintings of the holy family inside caves and a stone footprint of Jesus with an inscription on the back, "Footprint of God."
The source of the artifact is one of the many oral traditions related in the documentary. It says that when the holy family became thirsty in its travels, Jesus pressed his foot into the ground near a town called Sakha and water sprang out. The people in the area kept the footprint impression.
The footprint, recovered in the 1960s by workers who were digging in the area, is kept in a wooden case in a church Perry visited.
At another site, the Al-Muharraq Monastery where the holy family is believed to have stayed, a stone that believers say was the bed of Jesus is now an altar in the monastery.
During his trip, Perry - who also wrote "Saved by the Light" and "Closer to the Light" - also investigated reports of flashes of light above churches and the well-publicized appearance of Mary on the dome of a church in Zeitoun near Cairo in 1968.
The church is located on the site where the holy family stopped and an exhausted Mary said she just wanted to surrender to Herod's solders, Perry said.
"But Jesus encouraged her to get up and keep moving," Perry said.
"He said, 'If we are able to get away from these soldiers, someday every place she stopped will have a church devoted to Mary,' and in fact they do. There are 50 to 60 Virgin Mary churches in Egypt, and Zeitoun is one of them." Near the end of his trip, Perry said, he asked for a sign from God as to whether the stories he had heard were true. Perry believes he received his answer when he visited the Church of St. Mark in Asyut.
While writing books, Perry often takes photographs to help jog his memory later. In the evening, he set up his camera to take a time-exposed picture of the church without using a flash. And when he looked at the picture later, a "flash of heavenly light" had lit the top of the church.
"It was the day after my prayer when I drove to Asyut when I photographed the vision of light, which I took as an answer to my prayer," Perry said.
"Later that night, I showed the photograph to the bishop and asked him what it meant. He asked if I prayed for anything. I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, that's the answer."'
Based on a book by best-selling author Paul Perry, filmmakers from Bent Pyramid Productions retrace the 1,000-mile route taken by Joseph, Mary and Jesus as they escaped to Egypt after King Herod vowed to kill all baby boys in Israel.
"They went from town to town, avoiding these soldiers who were following them," said Perry, a resident of Paradise Valley, Ariz. "Jesus performed miracles in different towns, he destroyed temples and idols. He left artifacts that are preserved to this day and he allowed for things to happen many years later, like visions and apparitions that occur to this day in Egypt."
The documentary was shown in select theaters last year, then released last month as a two-DVD set in Christian bookstores and other retail outlets. The Trinity Broadcasting Network is also showing the film on 12,000 stations worldwide.
"I'm not a Bible scholar and I don't know why the early years of Christ's life weren't chronicled more in the Bible," said Paul Crouch, chief of staff at the Santa Ana-based TBN. "It's just one of those mysteries of the Bible and they uncovered a little bit of it. "It's kind of like watching an 'Indiana Jones' movie or a great mystery unfolding or being solved. They didn't solve everything, but I found it very fascinating."
Many of the stories Perry gleaned during the excursion are part of oral traditions or detailed in artifacts, scrolls and relics kept by the Christian Coptic Church. The denomination was founded by St. Mark nearly 2,000 years ago when he brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero. The Bible offers few details about Christ's time in Egypt. It chronicles how an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee to Egypt to escape Herod and how - after the king's death - the family eventually settled in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and was "filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."
Bible scholars believe Jesus' family spent several years in Egypt, but are skeptical of stories based on oral traditions and apocryphal texts such as the Infancy Gospels.
"When you look at it historically, there are no corroborating documents that come from the earliest stages of these traditions," said Jonathan Lunde, an associate professor of the New Testament at Biola University in La Mirada.
Jeffrey Siker, a professor of biblical studies and chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said that from a historical perspective, little else is known about Jesus' youth other than he probably lived in a rural village, spoke Aramaic, studied the Torah and worked in his father's carpentry trade.
"If you are asking what we do know about the so-called missing years, the answer is nothing," Siker said. "The lost years of Jesus are always going to be a Christmas special because it sells commercials and is inherently interesting, even though we know nothing about it." But while Western Bible scholars are skeptical of the oral traditions and Infancy Gospels, Perry said the clergy he interviewed from the Coptic Orthodox Church and Islamic community firmly believe in the historical accuracy of the oral traditions.
And during his trip, Perry and his team also filmed numerous archeological artifacts, including purported paintings of the holy family inside caves and a stone footprint of Jesus with an inscription on the back, "Footprint of God."
The source of the artifact is one of the many oral traditions related in the documentary. It says that when the holy family became thirsty in its travels, Jesus pressed his foot into the ground near a town called Sakha and water sprang out. The people in the area kept the footprint impression.
The footprint, recovered in the 1960s by workers who were digging in the area, is kept in a wooden case in a church Perry visited.
At another site, the Al-Muharraq Monastery where the holy family is believed to have stayed, a stone that believers say was the bed of Jesus is now an altar in the monastery.
During his trip, Perry - who also wrote "Saved by the Light" and "Closer to the Light" - also investigated reports of flashes of light above churches and the well-publicized appearance of Mary on the dome of a church in Zeitoun near Cairo in 1968.
The church is located on the site where the holy family stopped and an exhausted Mary said she just wanted to surrender to Herod's solders, Perry said.
"But Jesus encouraged her to get up and keep moving," Perry said.
"He said, 'If we are able to get away from these soldiers, someday every place she stopped will have a church devoted to Mary,' and in fact they do. There are 50 to 60 Virgin Mary churches in Egypt, and Zeitoun is one of them." Near the end of his trip, Perry said, he asked for a sign from God as to whether the stories he had heard were true. Perry believes he received his answer when he visited the Church of St. Mark in Asyut.
While writing books, Perry often takes photographs to help jog his memory later. In the evening, he set up his camera to take a time-exposed picture of the church without using a flash. And when he looked at the picture later, a "flash of heavenly light" had lit the top of the church.
"It was the day after my prayer when I drove to Asyut when I photographed the vision of light, which I took as an answer to my prayer," Perry said.
"Later that night, I showed the photograph to the bishop and asked him what it meant. He asked if I prayed for anything. I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, that's the answer."'
Posted in CONTROVERSY, MOVIE, NEWS | 0 Comments
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