The Pew
Research Center’s second U.S. Religious Landscape Study, released today,
is well worth reading. Pew contends that Christianity has dropped from 78
percent of the American population to 70 percent within the last seven years. Over
the same seven-years time period — between 2007 and 2014 — those
unaffiliated with any religious tradition has jumped almost seven points,
from 16% to almost 23%, Pew found. Read the complete report at -- http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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