An amazing press release from Christian Eminem imitator rapper KJ-52, which needs no comment:

KJ-52 has an uncanny ability to reach the youth of today in a clever and hip manner. It may be through the subject matter of his music, his tech savviness that connects hims to his fans on a continual basis (twitter, blogs, etc.), or his ultimate mission to point others to God through his work. With the release of his new project "Five Two Television," his weekly video devotions, and currently touring on the "Modern Day Heroes" tour with Group 1 Crew, KJ-52 is continually staying busy reaching out to his fans. We are excited to announce KJ-52's follow up single to his hit "End Of My Rope" titled "Calling You" (Featuring J.R.). "Calling You" will be hitting the rock airwaves 2/26!

KJ-52 describes "Calling You" as a single, "filled with text message speak (LOL, TTYL, etc.) and is an analogy of God's text message (His word) and how God seeks to have us in a relationship and just like others try to get ahold of us with a text. God does the same thing with his text (The Bible)."

Don't miss out on this catchy and relevant single "Calling You"! Seeking add commitments for 2/26 at Rock radio!

The CCM Patrol has gotten so few tips lately that we were starting to doubt that shit like this was still being made. Alas. And yay.

College football star Tim Tebow and his mother will appear in a Super Bowl commercial sponsored by Focus on the Family urging respect for life, the Catholic News Agency reports. Tebow's mother, Pam, defied medical advice to abort him when she had a serious infection, and the new ad will feature her telling the story.

The Tebows were missionaries in Phillipines when Pam was pregnant with Tim. He has been outspoken about his Christian faith during his stint as quarterback of the Florida Gators, discussing his virginity and painting scripture references under his eyes. He said his mother's story has convinced women not to have abortions.

Prepare yourself for the craziness of the day. ABC News’ website featured a story Monday in which we learn that a Michigan-based weapons manufacturer, Trijicon, provided the U.S. Military with rifle sights inscribed with cryptic scripture references.

The references are imprinted on the scopes in the same font as the serial number and are abbreviated to look coded such as, “2COR4:6” or “JN8:12.” And, to save you the “sword drill,” those passages read:

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” And, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” respectively.

Now, before we leap into how embarrassing this is for those of us who are Christians, never mind that much smaller group of us that are Christian pacifists, we should point out that this, of course, illegal.

We have been doing some substantial behind-the-scenes work to make the Patrol reading experience simpler and more natural. Our previous categorization system was relatively primitive, so most of the reworking has involved improving the way we categorize articles, and thus your ability to locate older content.

Ever wonder where fellow Patrol readers come from? A few miscellaneous geographical lists we picked out of our 2009 statistics:

Top Countries

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Germany

Top World Cities

1. New York, NY
2. London, UK
3. Washington, DC
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Los Angeles, CA

Top U.S. States

1. California
2. New York
3. Texas
4. Virginia
5. Pennsylvania

Oral Roberts (1918-2009)

Last night, I went with some friends to The New School for a panel on “Evangelicalism and the Contemporary Intellectual,” co-hosted by the literary journal n+1 and Eugene Lang College. Panelists included Malcolm Gladwell, James Wood, Christine Smallwood, and Caleb Crain (who moderated, mostly).

Of course, off the bat, one sees that there are no presently-evangelical intellectuals on that panel. (They’re all ex-evangelicals, to one degree or another.) As it turned out, this may have been a wise choice. The panelists spoke about their backgrounds and how their evangelical upbringing contributes to their work today as intellectuals, and then took questions from the audience. I suspect that had a known evangelical intellectual been on the panel – a philosopher, a minister, whatever – the Q&A session may have devolved into ad hominem attacks. It stayed mostly respectful, as these are non-evangelicals who nonetheless do not believe that evangelicalism is the worst thing to appear in America.

After the jump, what each had to say about their former evangelicalism and it’s larger implications.

Since we made our name ripping music that makes God sound like a florid sex partner or a flashing JumboTron, we have a pretty big soft spot for people still out there waging the righteous but pointless battle against the inanity of Christian music. That no one should expect any theological dept or spiritual seriousness out of what now passes for "church music" became a fossilized fact long before we started writing in 2006. But now, Anglican bishop Nick Baines suggests we look back even further to say, 1885, when some obviously-childless dude in Philadelphia composed "Away in a Manger."

In Why Wish You A Merry Christmas: What Matters (And What Doesn't) in the Festive Season, Baines powerfully echoes the doctrine of The CCM Patrol: Christmas carols are too hazy, childish, soft-edged and have way too many Victorian references to Jesus being the likes of "tender and mild." Kind of like when we said all those evangelical worship lyrics sound like the nauseating love scenes in romance novels and lead to the inevitable conclusion that God either is a pussy or has one.

More quotes from Baines explaining himself after the jump. 

Many of you will be travelling to your family's home today and tonight. There you may participate in the traditional night-before-Thanksgiving-get-togethers including, but not limited to, high school reunions, football games, obligatory yearly "how've you been" meetups at local pubs and other treasures of twenty-first century American awkwardness.

We here at Patrol want you to have a fun, safe and, above all, morally sound holiday weekend, so, with that in mind, we offer you this friendly reminder from the folks at the Encounter Generation Conference. And, oh yes, it's real. Mother Jones looked into it.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.