Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wayne Dyer leaves this world.<\/strong> The spiritual motivational speaker\/author has left this world at the age of 75.\u00a0 I would sometimes catch his PBS specials and found his focus on peace, positive intention, non-judgment, love and being united with God to be inspirational great daily goals. Believing in God, loving him through kindness to family, friends and strangers and putting positive ideas into the world is my idea of a life well lived. Thanks for the example, Wayne. Rest in Peace.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18150\"><strong>“Big Mountain Jesus” stays.<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/07\/gods-not-dead-sequel-wraps-as-real-life-religious-expression-case-plays-out-in-court-dcis-rediscover-jesus.html\">Updating an earlier post<\/a>, earlier today the Ninth<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18149\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18148\"> Court of Appeals agreed with the Becket Fund that a historical World War II memorial affectionately called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.becketfund.org\/montanajesusstatue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Big Mountain Jesus<\/a>\u201d by locals can remain standing in the ski slopes near Kalispell, Montana. The 60-year-old statue, located in the Flathead National Forest, honors soldiers who fought against the Nazis in the Alps of Italy.\u00a0 Lawyers at the Becket Fund defended the memorial against the <span id=\"yiv1496755511\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_33290\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_33289\">Freedom From Religion Foundation, <\/span><\/span><\/span>a Wisconsin-based militant atheist group demanding its removal and claiming that the mere presence of the\u00a0statue violated the First Amendment.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18147\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18146\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1441047229498_18145\">\u201cToday\u2019s decision rejects the idea that history and the First Amendment ought to be enemies,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Eric Baxter, Senior Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. \u201cFreedom From Religion Foundation wanted to use the First Amendment to erase\u00a0Big Mountain Jesus from memory, even though it is, as the Court recognized, a crucial part of the history of Montana. Thank goodness for common sense.\u201d Amen.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yiv1496755511\"><\/span><strong><span class=\"e2ma-style\">Singer and songwriter Tim Timmons is set to release his sophomore album, <em>Awake Our Souls<\/em>, on October 2, 2015 (<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"e2ma-style\"><strong>Reunion Records).<\/strong> After nearly two decades of ministry, this singer\/songwriter moves himself beyond believer to follower in ten new songs, which are also an invitation for every listener to discover life’s abundance in Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Awake Our Souls (Album EPK) - Tim Timmons\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LetVDMMoXWA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"e2ma-p-div\"><span class=\"e2ma-style\"><strong>In other music news: Grammy and 21-time Dove Award winning artist Jason Crabb is set to release his new album, <em>Whatever The Road<\/em>, on September 18.<\/strong> This is Crabb\u2019s fifth solo album of his career and his first with new label home Reunion Records, a division of Provident Label Group\/Sony Music. To promote his new album, Crabb is on tour throughout the summer and fall. To find a city near you, please visit his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.e2ma.net\/click\/n7gxkb\/fhz75d\/3ztypf\">tour page<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Wayne Dyer leaves this world. The spiritual motivational speaker\/author has left this world at the age of 75.\u00a0 I would sometimes catch his PBS specials and found his focus on peace, positive intention, non-judgment, love and being united with God to be inspirational great…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,9,10,12,1085,1591,4206,3586,31,1],"tags":[35,8637,8634,8515,8635,1119,8639,8641,8638,8636,8633,8640],"class_list":["post-6502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-books","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-education","category-forgiveness","category-good-works","category-power-of-prayer","category-religious-liberty-2","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-awake-our-souls","tag-becket-fund","tag-big-mountain-jesus","tag-eric-baxter","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation","tag-grammy-and-21-time-dove-award-winning-artist-jason-crabb","tag-provident-label-groupsony-music","tag-reunion-records","tag-tim-timmons","tag-wayne-dyer","tag-whatever-the-road"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wayne Dyer passes + "Big Mountain Jesus" stands + Timmons and Crabb releasing new albums<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/08\/wayne-dyer-passes-big-mountain-jesus-stands-timmons-and-crabb-releasing-new-albums.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wayne Dyer passes + "Big Mountain Jesus" stands + Timmons and Crabb releasing new albums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Wayne Dyer leaves this world. The spiritual motivational speaker\/author has left this world at the age of 75.\u00a0 I would sometimes catch his PBS specials and found his focus on peace, positive intention, non-judgment, love and being united with God to be inspirational great…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/08\/wayne-dyer-passes-big-mountain-jesus-stands-timmons-and-crabb-releasing-new-albums.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media & Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-31T20:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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The spiritual motivational speaker\/author has left this world at the age of 75.\u00a0 I would sometimes catch his PBS specials and found his focus on peace, positive intention, non-judgment, love and being united with God to be inspirational great…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/08\/wayne-dyer-passes-big-mountain-jesus-stands-timmons-and-crabb-releasing-new-albums.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media & Culture","article_published_time":"2015-08-31T20:00:15+00:00","author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}