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A fundamental shift is transforming the religious right, long a force in presidential politics, as aging evangelical leaders split on the 2008 race and a new generation of pastors turns away from politics altogether. The immediate short-term result could be a boost for former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who supports gay right and legal abortion. Long-term consequences could deny the GOP an essential building block previously used for capturing the White House five out of the last seven presidential races.

The more you pay for a hotel room, the less likely a Bible will be there. Only 73 percent of luxury hotels provided a Bible compared with 99 percent of economy hotels. Location also plays a factor. Hotels with the lowest percentage of Bibles were in urban or resort areas. Those with the most were located near interstates and airports. One of those hotel chains, Kimpton, notes on their website, "As a result of a formal diversity initiative, Kimpton has embarked on its first ad campaign specifically targeting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers."

In "The Dawkins Delusion?", the new book by Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, they take to task Richard Dawkins and his recent bestseller "The God Delusion."

The Church of England ordained more women than men in the past year, reporting a total of 423 ordinations last year, 213 women and 210 men. That statistical development might seem insignificant considering new female priests outnumbered new male priest by only three, but the significant fact is that women outnumbered men as new priests for the first time, and it won't be the last.

The new book The Folly of Preaching contains a selection of lectures and sermons that have been presented at the Gladstone Festival of Preaching at Canada's McMaster Divinity College since 1992.

An increasing number of people in America and around the world don't believe in God. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has found 20 percent of Americans ages 18 to 25 say they have no religious affiliation or consider themselves atheists or agnostics, nearly double the rate of 20 years ago.

Speaking at the recent GodBlogCon (a conference for Christians interested in the new media), Mark Roberts presented a message entitled "Taking Your Ministry to the New Media - The Pastor as Godblogger." Mark presented 18 theses, including these:

Despite the surge of best-selling books attaching religion, author Dinesh D'Souza argues (in his new book What's So Great About Christianity) that religion - not atheism - is on the rise. In a recent interview he observed:

Given the rise of "militant atheism" in America, Albert Mohler recently interviewed author and columnist Dinesh D'Souza about his new book, "What's So Great About Christianity?"

You work hard to do your best in ministry. But if your efforts don't seem to be accomplishing much, it's time to ask yourself whether or not you're following biblical standards. Evaluating your ministry by these standards regularly can make the difference between failure and success.