Charisma Magazine

Megachurch pastor Billy Joe Daugherty died early Sunday morning after a brief battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was 57.

A memorial service will be held Nov. 30.

Daugherty, founder of 17,000-member Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla., announced last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer, spawning a global prayer chain for his healing.

In a statement released Sunday, church leaders said Daugherty "experienced his ultimate healing by entering into the presence of God." They said the pastor passed away peacefully at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, surrounded by his family.

The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, is undeniably inspirational. At a recent screening, many viewers were openly in tears.

But Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the Christian couple at the center of the film that opens Friday, hope the story of how they adopted a homeless black teenager who eventually became a first-round NFL draft pick does more than make people cry.

Evangelist Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron joined 1,200 Christians Wednesday in distributing 170,000 copies of Charles Darwin's evolution manifesto The Origin of Species—which features a 50-page introduction refuting Darwin's theory—at 100 universities across the nation.

Comfort initially planned to distribute copies of The Origin of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition at college campuses today, but atheists and students had threatened "unilateral resistance," including book burnings and protests, according to Comfort's Living Waters ministry.

The popular Twilight series, which has spawned a film franchise that releases its second installment, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Friday, is getting mixed reactions from Christians who alternately see it as a doorway into Satanism or a tool for evangelism.

Since 2005, Mormon author Stephenie Meyer's four novels about a vampire named Edward Cullen who hunts game rather than humans and falls in love with teenager Bella Swan have sold more than 70 million copies. The film adaptation of the first book, Twilight, generated $384 million.

Two sisters jailed in Iran for more than eight months after refusing to renounce their Christian faith were released Wednesday.

Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, were arrested March 5 on charges of "acting against state security" and "taking part in illegal gatherings."