Kirk Cameron’s Love Worth Fighting For tour visited 30 U.S. cities in 2012, drawing more than 65,000 people to the event designed to strengthen and encourage marriages.

“We are proud of the success that the Love Worth Fighting For tour has seen this year,” said Cameron, star of the hit movie Fireproof and featured speaker on the national tour organized by Feed Your Faith. “We’re excited to enter into the tour’s fifth year in 2013 and sharing the message with more people across the nation.”

Holiday shoppers rushing to finish their shopping in advance of Christmas greatly increased retail sales for the week ending Dec. 22, compared to the previous week, according to traffic counter ShopperTrak. Compared to last year, however, retail sales were down.

ShopperTrak reported that the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) increased more than 39% for the week ending Dec. 22, compared to the previous week.  On a year-over-year basis, the NRSE declined 2.5% compared to the same week in 2011.

Sarah Young’s Jesus Lives tops the General best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending Dec. 15, according to Pubtrack Christian data.

Christian-owned-and-operated Hobby Lobby Stores and Mardel Christian and Education were denied a request Dec. 20 to temporarily stop enforcement of the abortion pill mandate. The federal court decision means that the retail chains must provide the “morning after” and “week after” pills in their health insurance plans or face fines of up to $1.3 million per day.

Both companies are owned by the Green family of Oklahoma City, Okla., David Green, founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby, which has 500-plus locations.

Retailers are finding U.S. holiday sales growth weak this year in the wake of late October’s Hurricane Sandy and the ‘fiscal cliff’ stalemate in Washington, according to preliminary data.

Retail sales grew by 0.7% year-over-year in the Oct. 28-Dec. 24 period, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. In 2011, estimated holiday sales rose 2% and continued up in 2009-2010, rebounding from the recession that saw a holiday sales decrease 5.5% in 2008.

Earlier this year, "Where I Belong" set precedent as the first song to maintain No. 1 on the Billboard National Christian Audience chart for 15 consecutive weeks, passing singles by TobyMac and Phillips, Craig & Dean, who each held the top spot on the chart for 11 straight weeks. The song also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard CHR chart.

Atlanta-based band Third Dayhas earned another Gold record with its 2006 album, Christmas Offerings (Essential Records/Provident Distribution). The achievement marks the band’s ninth career RIAA Gold Album Award.