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By MITCH TRAPHAGEN
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Christianity has gotten a bad rap lately. What with the occasional well-publicized scandal and all of the politicking (c’mon -- everyone knows that if you’re a conservative, you are the spawn of Satan and if you’re a liberal, you are Satan’s plaything), well it all makes it seem as those following the faith are a humorless lot. But then again, we all have a sense of humor, right? Certainly that has to be a God-given trait.
Well, that’s what the people who put together LarkNews.com believe, anyway. Their lead story this week is about how some church congregations are growing tired of spending time volunteering in third world nations and instead are focusing on — the wealthy.
 As more church-goers tire of spending vacation time in the Third World, churches are taking a break from poverty and targeting the luxury class with the gospel.
“Our worldview had gotten too narrow,” says one pastor. “Rich people need Jesus, too.”
Grace Family Church of Littleton, Colo., recently started a ministry called Higher Calling and sent a missions team to tony boutiques in Milan’s fashion district. The group reached out to watchmakers, jewelry store workers and super-wealthy patrons.
“People who were never interested in missions trips are jumping at the chance to go,” says the pastor.
Other church missions are seeing similar success. From the story:
At a super-luxury resort [on Bermuda], Taylor roams the pool deck wearing a big t-shirt that declares, “Jesus Made Me Rich.” When people comment on it, he replies that Jesus made him rich in heavenly blessings, then quickly goes into his testimony.
“Last year I was hefting cinder blocks, trying to relate to orphans and sleeping in a church with no roof,” says Taylor. “But now I’ve found my calling.”
In other news, it seems Mike Thomas of Cincinnati has grown a tad too familiar with the Holy Spirit, or, as he refers to Him, “the Ghostest with the mostest.” And a church congregation in Clearwater is experiencing headaches, heart flutters and general grumpiness due to a church-wide Starbucks fast.
“We thought this would be an easier fast, but it’s a challenge,” said the church pastor.
The good folks at LarkNews.com are trying to put a little humor (and, perhaps, some humanity) back into Christianity. Hopefully, they won’t be burned at the stake for it. Visit them at www.larknews.com.
Jumping to the other end of the good and evil spectrum, the Internet’s favorite evil, homicidal dictator is getting a reprieve on YouTube. Hundreds of parodies using a German made film entitled Downfall have been made showing Hitler reacting badly to everything from the University of Northern Iowa upsetting NCAA basketball tournament picks to the death of Michael Jackson. The film’s producer, Constantin Films, however, has not been thrilled with the use of their work (although the director of the film has expressed finding a bit of humor in them) and has recently been blamed for their removal from YouTube. By the end of last week, not a single parody of Hitler remained on the video hosting site.
Twenty-four hours later, he was back like a bad penny.
Adolph Hitler has probably never had so much defense. The screaming began as soon as the parodies started to fall from YouTube. Defenders noted that parodies are considered “fair use” under copyright laws and, thus, the Hitler clips should be exempt from the copyright enforcement of the producer. YouTube product manager Shenaz Zack cleared the air somewhat in a blog post last week saying, “If you believe your video is fair use, check the box that reads “This video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder.”
And suddenly Hitler was back — this time ranting about his removal from YouTube.
The videos are easy enough to find, just visit www.youtube.com and type Hilter into the search box. An FYI for parents: Besides the obvious (c’mon, it’s Hitler) and the overwhelming political incorrectness of the rather humorous videos, you may want to keep the viewing in check with any young children (at least those able to read the subtitles). It seems Hitler frequently has a bit of a potty mouth.
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