PASTOR STIRS CROWD OF 13,000 AT MIAMI EVENT

Guillermo Maldonado stood in front of his audience, opened his Bible, and shouted into his microphone, quoting the book of Galatians, extolling the ``supernatural power of God.''
He asked his audience -- some in tears and many with arms raised and heads cocked toward heaven -- to ``let your fire come down!''
It would have been a typical service for Maldonado, founding pastor of King Jesus Ministry, a Kendall church that is one of South Florida's largest, except he was speaking to more than 13,000 people at a packed sports arena in downtown Miami.
It was midday Friday, and the crowd -- which came bearing prayer books, notepads and flags representing a dozen Hispanic nations -- had packed into AmericanAirlines Arena for Day 2 of one of the region's largest Christian events.
Before it ends Saturday night, the Apostolic and Prophetic Conference, in its seventh year, will bring eight internationally known ministers to Miami.
Less a conference and more a series of fiery speeches and spiritual rejuvenation, it shows the growth of Maldonado's following, which was only a dozen people when he first began preaching in his living room 15 years ago, and the increasing popularity of Pentecostal forms of Christian worship, which stresses a personal and visceral connection with God.
``All of those who have never spoken in tongues, raise your hand!'' the Honduran-born Maldonado shouted in Spanish as he jumped, punched the air, ran and screamed intermittently throughout his two-hour sermon.
Audience members, bursting with energy, cheered the preacher on, as the English translator by his side told the audience: ``Drink! Speaking in tongues! Be filled!'' before they created a cacophony of sounds.
The 10,000-member church booked the Miami arena for the first time last year after the event outgrew its West Kendall grounds. It is charging a $103 admission to the event, and most attendees so far have come from Maldonado's church.
Yet, with international branches in Colombia and Honduras, a television ministry and his own product line of inspirational books, DVDs, CDs and prayer manuals, Maldonado's reach is wide. A mini-bookstore set up outside the stands was selling his newest book, Jesus Heals Your Sickness Today! for $12.99.
Other speakers Friday included pastor Alan Vincent of San Antonio and Bishop Tudor Bismark of Harare, Zimbabwe. Pastor Benny Hinn of Irving, Texas, who has caused controversy with his international ``miracle crusades,'' during which attendees claim to be cured of sickness and faint backward at the flick of his hand, was also scheduled to speak late Friday night.
Besna Usuaga, 30, a member of Maldonado's church, said Friday that she was excited to see her pastor and others such as Hinn, and to ``feel the spirit in me.'' Usuaga, of Kendall, came downtown with her husband, with whom she joined the church three years ago after years of being a lapsed Catholic. ``But it's not the people who go and preach that you're looking for,'' she said. ``It's the Lord.''
Usuaga is part of a growing trend. While Catholicism remains the dominant faith among Hispanics, a Pew survey released last year shows that 1.3 million of immigrant Hispanic Catholics have joined Pentecostal churches since coming to the United States. Almost half of all Hispanics who have joined Pentecostal denominations were raised as Catholics.
``Some people come to concerts here, some drink, some smoke marijuana,'' Usuaga said while taking a break on the arena's steps. ``But once you are here, once you are inside, you don't need any of that.''

EVANGELICALS CALLS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

WASHINGTON — An American evangelical Christian group is urging Congress to approve reforms to immigration laws in a resolution approved Thursday.
The National Association of Evangelicals' resolution, passed unanimously by the group's board of directors, recommends that immigration laws provide a path for the undocumented to eventually gain legal status, place a high priority on reuniting families and reduce backlogs of petitions in those areas.
"This resolution will be an important step forward in evangelical advocacy on behalf of immigrants, many of whom are members of evangelical churches across the United States," said Galen Carey, the association's government affairs director.
The association's president, Leith Anderson, said the process for legal immigration to the U.S. is antiquated, bureaucratic and needs to change.
Anderson told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship on Thursday that Congress needs to provide those living illegally in the U.S. the means to rectify their situation.
The Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals has a 75-member board that represents 40 denominations and scores of Christian organizations. However, it does not include some of the best-known conservative Christian bodies, including the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family.
The group has taken stands in recent years that have run counter to Christian right views.
It endorsed an anti-torture statement in 2007 that renounced torture and "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees." Other evangelical leaders have either resisted that view or remained silent on the issue.
The group has also argued that evangelicals have a biblical responsibility to the environment that includes combatting global warming. More tradition-minded evangelical activists believe an environmental focus distracts attention from abortion and gay marriage, or they don't believe in global warming or that human activity causes it.

STUDY: MUSLIMS MAKE UP 25 PERCENT OF THE WORLD, NEARLY 1 IN 4 PEOPLE IS MUSLIM

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
The arduous task of determining the Muslim populations in 232 countries and territories involved analyzing census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, the report says. In cases where the data was a few years old, researchers projected 2009 numbers.
The report also sought to pinpoint the world's Sunni-Shiite breakdown, but difficulties arose because so few countries track sectarian affiliation, said Brian Grim, the project's senior researcher.
As a result, the Shiite numbers are not as precise; the report estimates that Shiites represent between 10 and 13 percent of the Muslim population, in line with or slightly lower than other studies. As much as 80 percent of the world's Shiite population lives in four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia.
About 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4 percent are in Europe and 0.3 percent are in the Americas. While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.
While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren't as scrutinized. The report identified about 317 million Muslims - or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population - living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
In several of these countries - from India to Nigeria and China to France - divisions featuring a volatile mix of religion, class and politics have contributed to tension and bloodshed among groups.
The immense size of majority-Hindu India is underscored by the fact that it boasts the third-largest Muslim population of any nation - yet Muslims account for just 13 percent of India's population.
"Most people think of the Muslim world being Muslims living mostly in Muslim-majority countries," Grim said. "But with India ... that sort of turns that on its head a bit."

21st CENTURY MESSIAH - A FINDOUT BY MICHAEL BELK A FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

What if Jesus Christ showed up in the 21st century? What would he look like? What would he do?
Michael Belk, a Florida fashion photographer turned biblical chronicler, decided to find out. He chose some of the more intriguing events in Jesus' life, hired 100 Italians to model the parts, then brought them all to Sassi di Matera, the ancient Italian village best known as the shooting location for Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."
The result is the 108-page photo book "Journeys with the Messiah."
Central to the casting was Sergio Muniz, the Italian actor who plays Jesus. He is shown in several provocative photos: going the "second mile" down a country road with a Nazi soldier, standing next to a circle of poker players, cradling the head of a devastated stockbroker in his lap, and preaching simplicity to a well-dressed Italian family in a Ferrari sports car.
Ancient and modern are juxtaposed. In one photo, a laughing Jesus in first-century robe and sandals sits at a street cafe, a cup of espresso on the table in front of him while a well-dressed man in an expensive suit sneaks away with several loaves of bread. The point of the photo comes from the Matthew 6:11 passage about trusting God for one's daily bread instead of hoarding it.
Another shows Jesus seated at a table graced with fine china and crystalware. Seated next to people in first-century garb, he appears to be telling a joke or story. Several observers in ball gowns and tuxedos listen in.
The idea of the book, along with an affiliated Web site (www.thejourneysproject.com) and DVD, is to bring home the relevance of a 2,000-year-old message.
"Image is everything," Mr. Belk says. "I want to make people stop and say, 'What is going on here?' "

AFRICA BISHOPS TALKS OF OBAMA IN RELIGIOUS TERMS

VATICAN CITY- African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms—putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.
"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it (Obama's presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world."
He acknowledged that Obama has earned the wrath of many conservative American bishops because of his support for abortion rights. Earlier this year, dozens of U.S. bishops denounced the leading U.S. Catholic university, Notre Dame, for giving Obama an honorary degree.
"We are definitely aware of it," Palmer-Buckle said. "But we feel it our duty to meet him and find out what are the things that unite us more than divide us."
Earlier this week, the Ghanian prelate leading the three-week meeting on the Church in Africa, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, cited Obama's election in saying he didn't see any reason why there couldn't now be a black pope.
And the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, told the formal synod itself that it would be wise to not ignore what he called a "primordial event" in recent times.
"If the election of a black as head of the United States of America was a divine sign and a sign from the Holy Spirit for the reconciliation of races and ethnic groups for peaceful relations ... this synod and the universal church would gain from not ignoring this primordial event of contemporary history which is far from being a banal game of political alliances," he said in his speech.
Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria gave more tangible reasons for praise in meeting with reporters.
"Obama has the authority to talk straight to our bad leaders and tell them they are messing up our countries," he said. Besides, he added, "In Africa we are always happy when our brother is big."