>> i'm surprised the leader in russia. i said, that's interesting, because we never get that picture. >> raising the russian orthodox church and backing it from a former communist regime. and we think that perhaps church attendance is going down in this country, but we shouldn't think that religion is not on the rise. >> except for here. it's practically disappeared in

europe, and we and yet, they just elected a woman bishop in the church of england, in the history? >> yeah. >> but religion, not all denominations in europe, they have just about disappeared, and the decline i think since the '60s here, but some have risen. pentecostal still goes strong and some evangelical churches some mega churches have had their problems. driscoll out of seattle who had five churches, and had all this influence, but he is accused of plagiarism as well as bullying and a few other things, and he had to step down. so the mega churches still seem to be on the rise on the whole, but they have issues and problems. >> and we go back to the appointment of the woman as bishop from the church of

england. this is the first, right? it's a significant step for women, and that may mean a pre-occur certificate. there's a lot of -- precursor, there's a lot of movement between the roman cat lock lick. >> joseph smith his the news. joseph smith, i think there for a long time did not want -- one of the founders of the mormon church. >> i guess they didn't want to acknowledge he had as many wives. what is it, 40? >> 40, the last one was 14. >> i'm not sure how they're handling that. whether they want to be transparent, let people know where they are.

>> great break for the mormon church, what else are you thinking about? >> i'm thinking about we go back to the women in church, even though pope francis has made some real strides, that's where he seems to back off of, women ordination, he still feels that's not where he's going to go at this time, and i'm not sure at any time, and yet, women are so important to the church and all they do for the church. and so it seems like, it seems to be a back step. not going forward with the denominations. catholics aren't the only ones. >> and not to try to link two very distinction issues, but you're taking about break-throughs in the church women's leadership in the church of england, being pushed but not

by the pope. but at the same time, the big issue of lesbian gay, trans-gender that was shaking the protestant churches, that seems to go around now. it's -- go away now. same gender marriages are not an issue now in the larger society, ants church is going to have to deal with that. >> 20 states, i think. >> really? >> they have gay marriage and lesbian marriage. >> an amazing transformation of attitudes in the last decade. >> some denominations have made break through, but still on the whole, it seems they are reluctant. >> ron swisher, we'll be right back and talk about top stories, religious and others, for 2014

>> maybe we'll get to 2015 and see how good a prophet he is. share some more of your views. >> we need to mention, ferguson missouri, that struck the whole nation around the race issue and the death of the young man, michael brown, and eric garner in new york. and demonstrations that involved race. it seemed like we are still far apart on that. it seems still to be the case we have such differences and views of what happened. at the same time, our compassion and concern about the death of the police officers in new york is what a tragedy, and senseless murder and i've had friends who are police officers and so they know what it's like, we all know what it's like for them to put their life on the line, and i

don't think anyone has not felt are bad or -- in those situations where grand juries seem to look the other way has struck some real deep cord, and for those that are not concerned about that and be -- look the other way, it's hard. >> you mentioned ferguson. lasting impact, i went to high school outside of st. louis, and that was the time, with the famous pruitt housing, housing people in big vet tall things down tone -- vertical things those were downtown for dream, and they leveled everything between downtown and forest park. as a result, there was the migration to the outer suburbs of people of color, mainly african-americans, but you could feel the tension when teddy and hampton and gail ai went to the

cardinals game, and took the rail from downtown. you could feel the tension between races there and unfortunately, it's not better but i have to say that if you go to ron swisher's church -- it's not that divided everywhere. >> one of the joys i have in my church. >> what else? >> let's go back to the religious dimension, and look what is the group called? >> where they kidnapped 250 or so young women, but they forced religion on them. i think they might have been christian in their affiliation, and commitment, and made them muslim. i think the muslim community would be upset about that, but that's what they did.

>> going back to the age of imperialism, the nation state border that were imposed were artificial, we have christians more towards the coast, and muslim inside, so we're seeing not representative of muslim and good theology. what else do you have? >> the israel in palestine, it's what, thousands were killed in the gaza strip, there's been a fight there for i don't know how long. and then you see where christians are leaving. and. >> that i think is just a light on the story that throughout the middle east, the number of christians who have left syria, iraq, iran, even -- where there has been significant christian minority there, giving that up in palestine, around jerusalem.

any thoughts on what needs to happen there? >> well, the interfaith community has tried to address that. i saw where this rabbi brought together jews and christians and even muslim, hindus from all different backgrounds out of, i think he's out of new york and so i think he's trying to make an effort in that area, and i think that has to be constantly done, the interfaith effort. >> you are talking about the value of interfaith dialogue pretty much everything. >> i think that's critical, and respecting other's religion and value in each, i think we have major steps to make in that area. >> indeed. >> anything before we go to break? short one, or you want to come back? >> i think we come back. >> we're going to go out a little early, and have more time with reverend ron swisher.

>> maybe we'll wander into 2015 in a minute. ron swisher, a couple other stories that are important to you? >> the rose bowl has -- we talk about interfaith earlier, and so i think that's the first time we'll have a float of the sikhs. >> it's good to come and to raise that. i wonder how many people, if you say, well what is a sikh. not too many people would know about that. >> united methodists are not having a float in the rose bowl. >> i don't think so. >> we have work to do! [ laughter ] >> one thing i wanted to bring up was the supreme court went in and looked at a thing called

burwel, and it was about hobby lobby. and hobby lobby said as the religious stance, the owner said i don't believe that my employees should have to pay into the healthcare system of the united states, and it's a religious thing that i feel that, it's against my faith, and the supreme court did what? >> supported it. >> supported it. said okay, you can take and opt out, and you do not have to pay for your employees to be into the medical insurance field, which is a huge deal, and i have to wonder, where is the supreme court going in defining the boundaries of the free exercise clause versus operation? >> many people support it. i'm interested to see how they come out on it. >> the fact that my personal belief trumps the participation

of my employees in the healthcare system. >> that's going to be huge. >> i'm not so sure about that one. now -- >> i think science and religion. the future of god is a new book out. >> what is the future of god? >> he challenges the atheists who have no respect, sam harris and the -- and richard dawkins, that they do not look at the other side at all. they dismiss it, they say, they said -- scientists want to investigate. they want empirical facts and knowledge. why don't think at least do something, work around that instead of dismissing it? and so he really challenges them on that in that the future of god, he says, is still very much

real. >> is chopra hindu? >> he is everything. he's written in every aspect but he's a strong believer in christ. i read many of his books, so he does seem to blend a lot of his religious beliefs. >> and he is saying to leave out god is a loss. >> tremendous loss. which gets back to what you're heavy on is the story. >> yes. yes. one of the things that i think is important in all of the, major religions, if you go back and look at the creation stories and the valuation stories of ethics, of who we are, of how to deal with trouble and loss, the major phase speaks to the same sort of human element of that and do some lifting up. but that's contingent, you have to november the stories of the -- know the stories of the

bible. and if you take the creation story in genesis, it happened in 7 days. well, don't argue the 7 days. argue about how consistent or accept how consistent that is with later scientific of how it all came into being. >> and the meaning behind it. the metapho, end of story. the story tells a story about the story, and we could see beyond that is correct we could see the importance -- that, we could see the importance. we were talking earlier about some of the worst movies i saw was noah, and the other -- >> he didn't like it because it had transformers in it. they made this stuff up and put it in. you know -- [ laughter ]

>> and i think, but as i was saying, you can get away with it if you don't know the story. >> in your preaching, in the little time we have left, the purpose of preaching then is what? to tell the story? >> tell the story, be faithful to the text, but also relate the text to the context. >> okay. >> i think that's the constant correlation, the text of scripture, the meaning that's purposed, connected to the context of our life and how we live our life. >> you're telling the story to the congregation, so we have a share basis. what do you mean be faithful to the text? >> at times, as i just suspensioned to the reference of the movie, we can distort it or do it just as we sometimes interpret it through our eyes be so subjective that we only want to support our point of view, and not look at the entire

text of what it's trying to say for people then, to people now, and trying too say to the people -- to say to the people of the future. and i think that's what is faithful to the text. >> and that's what we will continue to do. and ron swisher continues to host mosaic. >> anything exciting in the new year? >> again, when it comes to the religious stories and all we say, to try to have that interfaith. >> that's what mosaic is about. have a blessed new year, and we hope at a prosperous one for you. we'll see you again next months.

mallicoat. we kick off 2015 with our pitch....if you have a show idea......we would love to hear from you. go to facebook dot com slash bay sunday and comment to >> love to hear from you, to go facebook.com/baysunday. hopefully we can get in touch. time to get and i mean that truly. our first guests are township chefs identical twins that travel around the country, sharing delicious recipe, and they're home grown. sonoma county girls, all of 13, just had a birthday. they have a new cookbook out, we, heart, cooking. we love cooking totally tasty food for kids. so we have team andrews here. lily and audrey. first question, who is older? >> we were born at about the