Good News From Mary Feb. 3, 2009

Survey Finds God Big in Mississippi, Not So Much in Vermont

Want to be almost certain you'll have religious neighbors? Move to Mississippi.

Prefer to be in the least religious state? Venture to Vermont.

A new Gallup Poll, based on more than 350,000 interviews, finds that the Magnolia State is the one where the most people -- 85 percent -- say yes when asked "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"

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Faith in Faith or Faith in God?

In 1980 Harvest House published a book by Larry Parker entitled We Let Our Son Die. The book tells the tragic story of how Larry and his wife — after being influenced by one of America's numerous "word of faith" (or "word-faith") teachers — withheld insulin from their diabetic son, Wesley. Predictably, Wesley went into a diabetic coma. The Parkers, warned about the impropriety of making a "negative confession," continued to "positively confess" Wesley's healing until the time of his death.

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Telescope sees smallest exoplanet

The smallest planet yet found outside the Solar System has been detected by a French space telescope.

The rocky world is less than twice the size of Earth.

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50 Years Later, Fans Remember 'The Day the Music Died'

It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

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Kentucky Sues Ohio City to Get Rock Back

The fight over a rock that lay for years at the bottom of the Ohio River spilled into federal court Tuesday when Kentucky sued an Ohio city, seeking the boulder's return.

Attorney General Jack Conway sued the city of Portsmouth, Ohio, and three men in federal court Tuesday over the 8-ton boulder known as Indian Head Rock. The lawsuit seeks the rock's return to Kentucky and the cost of damages.

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