Just this week a new “Bible” has been launched with the help of some big names. TV Producer, Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey (of Touched By An Angel fame) along with Zondervan and Glo Bible has announced the release of a new mobile app – Bible360.

This little app promises to do big things. With Bible360 you can “surround yourself in God’s Word” the website says. The program has many features that are divided in five sections:

1. Bible – Provided in its natural order (canonically) and in four translations: NIV, ESV, The Message and KJV.
2. Atlas – Not flat maps, but zoomable, pan-able online maps with tons of photos.
3. Timeline – See where the events in the Bible happened in context with one another.
4. Media – You can organize the content of your Bible by media type including videos, vitual realities and photo.
5. Topical – Addresses major life questions of the Christian faith and helps you find biblical content by topic, person, place or thing through a zoomable interface.

“With Bible360, people everywhere now have the ability to explore Biblical History in an insightful, accessible and immersive way,” said Burnett and Downey in a joint statement. “We are thrilled to provide millions of people with a fresh visual experience as they enjoy this sacred text.”

“It is an honor to be collaborating with some of the leading content creators on this new, socially-charged app,” said Bible360 President, John Kilcullen. “It’s our hope that Bible360 will be a tool to empower people to dive deeper into the Bible and engage in valuable conversations about the book within their communities.”

A basic version of Bible360 is available now and free at bible360.com. A premium version of the app is also available. The app can be downloaded for use on iPads, iPhones, or your Mac or PC computer.

The above announcement comes with another announcement of Burnett and Downey’s doing. They are currently producing a 10 part miniseries, HISTORY, for the History television network to be aired next year. It is being produced by Downey’s Lightworkers Media and the footage will eventually be incorporated into the Bible360 app.

HISTORY is actually, Lightworkers’ second project. The first is a new animated series for preschool-aged children called Little Angels for Focus on the Family. Downey not only voices one of the characters, but produces the series with Phil Lollar, a writer for Focus’ Adventures in Odyssey series.

The pastor of a church in Oklahama was included recently in a publication’s list of the top 100 most creative business personalities in 2011.

Pastor Bobby Gruenewald of LifeChurch was listed in Fast Company magazine’s 2011 list of top 100 creative people in business for his work in making the YouVersion app that digitalizes the Bible.

Fast Company lauded Gruenewald for the YouVersion app because it “reimagines the bible for the digital age, letting users record reflections, choose reading plans, and share passages online,” The Christian Post reported.

Also on Fast Company’s top 100 list are Arianna Huffington, Conan O’Brien, Oprah Winfrey, Ryan Seacrest and Tina Fey, according to The Christian Post.

Fast Company said, “For Bobby Gruenewald, using a smartphone is a religious experience. Or at least it can be, now that the Oklahoma pastor has built the YouVersion app,” according to its website.

Gruenewald told Fast Company, “The printing press was revolutionary to the Bible. Today, everyone has a printing press.”  The website also noted that YouVersion has 16 million downloads and its users have browsed the bible’s pages for over 83 million hours.

Fast Company listed as Gruenewald’s strengths, “ideation, futuristic, activator, competitor [and] achiever,” with specialties in
technology strategy/development, communication strategy/PR, startup and venture investing and mergers and acquisitions, Fast Company’s website said.

Gruenewald, who hit No. 97 on the top 100 list, is also an advisory board member of EthnoGraphic Media and innovation leader at LifeChurch, according to Fast Company’s website.

Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch, told The Edmond Sun, “I’m thrilled to see a leader from the Christian church listed among the most creative business minds in America.”

Gruenewald joined LifeChurch in 2001. Before then, as a tech entrepreneur, he started two technology companies which he later sold. He also worked as a consultant for several startups using venture capital funds.

Gruenewald, who also performs and travels with a Christian rap group, told The Edmond Sun, “The backdrop for that experience is the unique time we live in — when there are more people alive than any point in history and they are more connected than ever before. All of that has come together with my passion for the church and for sharing who Jesus is with the world to allow me the privilege of doing what I do.”

Indeed, he is passionate about changing lives through the world of God, and believes that today’s technology can be pivotal in helping people to “engage with the Bible,” he told The Christian Post.

The Bible app is available in 41 languages with Korean as the fastest growing language. It has changed the way people read the Bible, as now it can be accessed by users anywhere they happen to be, and verses can be shared on social networks.

The free YouVersion Bible app, which has been downloaded on over 11 million devices, recently hit a new record–1 million downloads in 11 days.

From Dec. 18 to 28, one million devices installed the YouVersion Bible app in their mobile devices, The Christian Post said.  On its website, there is also a provision for notes, a life journal reading plan, and a community forum.

Rev. Bobby Gruenewald, pastor of LifeChurch.tv (one of the 10 largest churches in the U.S.), told NewsOK that the YouVersion Bible app has several other milestones to celebrate. For example:

• It has made the list of Top 10 apps of iTunes 2010.
• It is on Apple’s list of Top 10 reference apps.
• Over four billion minutes were spent by users reading the Bible app.
• Over one million subscribed to the YouVersion Bible reading plans (which has options from 30 days to 730 days).
• The Bible app is downloaded every 1.14 seconds.

Gruenewald told NewsOK that he and the church leaders had no idea that the Bible app would become so popular. Nonetheless, they are pleased at the chance to spread the Gospel, which is the reason they made the app in the first place.

Gruenewald told NewsOK, “Part of the focus of the Bible app is to make it easy for people to read and share the Bible. We really see it as a real revolution in Bible engagement.”

According to NewsOK, the Bible app can be had on iPod Touch, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Winphone 7, iPad and most smart phones. Gruenewald said, “We’re just excited that the Bible is at the center of conversations.”

The Bible app is also global, and is offered on nine platforms in 20 languages. This week, they also released both a traditional and simplified Chinese version which will soon be available to the market, The Christian Post said.

The Christian Post noted that although the Chinese government has blocked some religious sites, the YouVersion is still available in the mainland, and it was not censored in China’s iTunes store.

YouVersion still has larger plans in spreading the gospel, The Christian Post said. By January alone, their goal is to have one billion minutes of bible reading by users—a lofty target since the first billion minutes they reached took them 18 months to achieve.

Apple rejected recently a revised iPhone/iPad “app” of the Manhattan Declaration, a document that upholds Christian beliefs on life, marriage and religious freedom, giving rise to fears of a growing intolerance of orthodox Christianity.

The Declaration’s website said Apple’s move is “appalling,” more so considering that 500,000 people, including Catholic bishops, Orthodox Church leaders and the heads of many major Protestant denominations have already signed it.

Christian leaders who signed the Declaration, which opposes, among others, embryonic stem cell research, abortion and same-sex marriage, include James Dobson, Charles Colson, Albert Mohler Jr., Richard Land and Timothy Dolan, Baptist Press said.

Apple said the content “violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people,” according to Baptist Press.

In its website the Manhattan Declaration wrote, “Apple is telling us that the apps’ content is considered ‘likely to expose a group to harm,’ and ‘to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others.’”

Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said Apple has curtailed civil discourse by removing the app, adding, “It is sadly ironic that a document written out of a growing unease about very real efforts in the culture ‘to marginalize the Christian voice in the public square, to redefine marriage, and to move away from the biblical view of the sanctity of life’ has itself been marginalized by Apple,” Baptist Press reported.

No objectionable content

Apple originally gave the Manhattan Document a 4+ rating, meaning “no objectionable content.” However, it pulled out the app after some 7,700 people from Change.org emailed Apple objecting to its content.

Apple removed the app, despite half a million signatories who supported the app; and rejected the revised version despite 47,000 people who signed online seeking its reinstatement, Baptist Press said.

Change.org called for “supporters of equal rights and the right of women to control their own bodies,” to stand together against the app. In its website, Change.org described the Declaration as “a cattle call for right-wing activists who think the most important issue facing the world is the ‘threat’ of same-sex couples getting married and starting families.”

Land, one of the original editors and signers of the Manhattan Document, wrote in his Baptist Press column, “The declaration does not promote hate or homophobia. Instead, the declaration proclaims that all human beings are loved by God and are worthy of respect.”

Macnn reported that “The actual declaration calls for signatories to …engage in civil disobedience where existing law is in conflict with Christian dogma.” It also noted that “[The document] is completely silent on the topics of war and capital punishment.”

However a review of the actual document at http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/the-declaration/read.aspx shows that the writers of the declaration call on the government and society to “protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.” It also mentions innocent victims of war, children orphaned by war; and decries genocide and “ethnic cleansing.”

Macnn also reported that the document says nothing about divorce and remarriage. However, the document says “the institution of marriage [is] already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, [and] is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies.”

Manhattan Declaration said on its website that they will appeal to Apple’s App Review Board to submit the matter for arbitration.

Colson wrote in his San Francisco Chronicle column, “If the Manhattan Declaration’s positions alone are enough to have its app removed, then I have to wonder whether Apple is considering removing other Bible-based — or even Jewish or Islamic — apps from its store.

“Apple has every right to decide what to offer in its app store and what not to offer. But it is chilling that such a culture-shaping company would so quickly take sides in a debate,” Baptist Press reported._objectionable

Several Christians launched recently a petition protesting Apple’s decision to remove an iPhone app from its store because it expresses the Christian stand on homosexuality and abortion.

The app in question, The Manhattan Declaration, enables Apple users to append their name to an ecumenical document that expresses support for the sanctity of life, religious liberty and traditional marriage, The Christian Post said.

Prior to its removal, over 478,000 people signed their names to support the Manhattan Declaration, CBN News said. However, the app was removed after some 7,700 members of Change.org asked that it be taken out.

The liberal organization, in an email that they sent to Apple, said the app contained “hateful and divisive language.” Apple, in compliance, took the Declaration out in late November during Thanksgiving, the Baptist Press said.

The Manhattan Declaration, penned by Chuck Colson, Timothy George and Robert George in 2009, is one of over 200,000 software programs in the app store. The 4,700 word statement was signed by 150 evangelical, Southern Baptist, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders, Baptist Press said.

The Declaration says, “[W]e will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act, nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s,” Baptist Press reported.

The Baptist Press noted that some beliefs in the Declaration are discussed on the floors of some legislatures, and dozens if not hundreds of apps use the word “gay” including “gay travel” and “gay news.”

Concern was expressed that although only owners of iPhones and iPads are affected for now, other Christian apps in the iTunes store may be similarly removed in the future, Baptist Press said.

Petition

A petition asking Apple to reinstate the Manhattan Declaration app has been signed by over 35,000 people. The petition states that the Manhattan Declaration, “in a civil, reasoned, and respectful way, promotes the sanctity of every human life, traditional marriage, and religious freedom,” the Baptist Press said.

Colson noted that when the app was first released in October it got a 4+ rating by Apple, which is the rate required to ensure that there is no objectionable material, The Christian Post said.

In a statement on its website Apple said, “We removed the Manhattan Declaration app from the App Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people,” CBN News reported.

However the Christian petition notes, “Despite the claims of some, the Manhattan Declaration does not promote hate or homophobia. It is not anti-gay. Rather, it proclaims that all human beings are loved by God and are worthy of respect. Civil discourse is a hallmark of a civilized and free society. Disagreement is not hate,” the Baptist Press reported.

The Berenstain Bears have a new book app and its a top seller in the iPhone app Store.

The Berenstain Bears have been around since 1962, but it’s only with their new book app that this fictional bear family could be clearly viewed as practicing Christians, The New Yorker said.

This is because in the “Golden Rule” book app, the Bears directly mention Matthew 7:12 in the story. The book app is the first of a “Living Lights” series of 12 books published by Zonderkidz, The New Yorker reported.

Zonderkidz is the children’s book division of Christian publisher Zondervan. The book app was made in collaboration with Oceanhouse Media. Other titles in the series include The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers, The Berenstain Bears go to Sunday School and The Berenstain Bears: God Loves You, The New Yorker said.

The Berenstain Bears had always been wholesome, but they never outwardly dealt with any particular faith. A Facebook group had speculated that they were Jewish, and the blog Jew or Not Jew gave them a “Barely a Jew” status, The New Yorker said.

Husband and wife team Stan and Jan Berenstain authored all the books up until Stan’s death in 2005. Stan is Jewish, and his wife Jan was raised Episcopalian. The “Living Lights” series is authored by their son, Mike, The New Yorker said.

Book apps are enhanced ebooks with interactive features such as narration, background audio and artwork that changes with every scene. They can be accessed on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, PR Newswire said.

Annette Bourland, senior vice president and publisher of Zonderkidz said, “The Berenstain Bears books teach children how wonderful God is and the purpose he has in their lives.  The book apps have successfully brought the words and lessons of these books to life like no other format,” PR Newswire reported.

Michel Kripalani, president of Oceanhouse Media said, “As a child reads the story, individual words are highlighted. When they touch a picture, the app automatically zooms in on the words, building an association between the word and the image,” PR Newswire said.

Mike Berenstain said the Living Light series came about because the family through the years saw how Christian families appreciated the values-based book themes. “By dealing with religion through the fun and laughter of the Berenstain Bears, we hope to nurture these families in their goal of raising children secure in their faith,” The New Yorker reported.

iPhone--Photo credit Wikipedia/Wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Apple recently green-lighted the release of  yet another controversial app for the iPhone.

This time the app in question  could potentially be used by cheating spouses.

Called TigerText, the app “allows users to set a time limit on how long a text that they send will hang around after it has been read,”according to Time magazine.

Thirty-four year-old Pro-golfer Tiger Woods is still making headlines as news of his scandalous extra-marital affairs and racy text messages continues to circulate through national media.

Time’s report notes that TigerText, named “coincidentally” after Woods, is capable of deleting a sent text message from the recipient’s phone, the sender’s phone and any severs and databases in-between.

Apple fans and iPhone users know this is not the first time the company has green lighted a less-than-decent or morally questionable software option.

In July 2009, the “Hottest Girls” app hit Apple’s online store and, much to the dismay of countless parents, featured scantily clad lingerie models and even nude pornography stars.

Although Apple executives acted quickly to remove “Hottest Girls,” it seems they are content to approve TigerText, an app which Time suggested could potentially be used between a “prominent politician” and “his mistress.”

TigerText developer X Sigma Partners LLC will even allow potential customers to try the app for free.

At its Web site www.tigertext.com, Sigma Partners also promises the app will soon be available for the Blackberry and Android smartphones.

In response to TigerText’s release, dozens of sites have posted their thoughts on and even concerns with this ethically questionable application and its future ramifications on society as a whole.

Technology news magazine web site Wired noted that TigerText is being “billed as a tool for adulterers” with the slogan “Cover your Tracks.”

In a Technology & Science piece featured on MSNBC.com, PC World’s Sarah Jacobsson admitted that TigerText is “perfect for cheating spouses, shady politicians, sexting teens, and people who send a lot of stupid texts while drunk.”

With countless TigerText purchases ringing in every day, it is becoming increasingly apparent to technology gurus and culture and society researches nationwide just how much value Americans place on privacy and how much they are willing to pay for it.

Although  Sigma Partners founder Jeffery Evans denies marketing TigerText to “people trying to cheat,” the potential ramifications of such technology and subsequent damages to relationships may prove otherwise.

(Newsfactor) Recently, Apple found itself in the middle of yet another controversy about its App Store vetting practices after rejecting the Me So Holy app. Apple called the iPhone application "objectionable."

–Maurice Williams, The Underground staff writer