Religion take three

Get Religion blog compares the clueless News stories with the more accurate CSMonitor story about that pastor who asked her to be free of demons.

But in Africa, a shaman involved in evil can indeed lead to murder, drug use, and exploitation of women (e.g. telling men to rape "virgins" to be cured of HIV)...

And causing a spritual revival can work in other ways:

*In Cali, Colombia, home of the infamous drug cartel, pastors carried out a spiritual mapping campaign "gathering intelligence on political, social, and spiritual strongholds" in each of the city's 22 administrative zones. They began holding all-night prayer vigils involving thousands in the soccer stadium.

When vigils were followed by periods without homicides and the arrests of major cartel leaders, "a new openness to the Gospel was felt at all levels of society," and churches began to see "explosive growth."

Well, if you convert young men to Christianity, they won't join gangs that support the drug cartel, take drugs, or murder rival gang members.

Get Religion also notes the LATimes still doesn't know the difference between Pentecostals and Fundamentalists...no kidding. They even call ordinary Catholics fundamentalists...