GOP-2016-RUBIO
Rubio: Same-sex marriage foes face ‘intolerance’
WASHINGTON (AP) β Senator Marco Rubio says advocates for gay marriage often show intolerance toward people like him who only support traditional marriage.
In remarks Wednesday at the Catholic University of America, the Florida Republican said opposition to same-sex marriage isn’t necessarily bigotry. But he said, “there is a growing intolerance on this issue” by gay rights advocates. He said, “This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy.”
Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, also said abortion involves not just the woman, but also “an unborn child” who he said “should be welcomed into life and protected in law.” He said Americans’ rights, including the right to life, come from God.
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GAY RIGHTS-RELIGIOUS RIGHTS
State Department accused of prioritizing gay rights over religious rights
WASHINGTON (AP) β A congressional conservative charges that the State Department is aggressively promoting gay rights at the expense of religious rights.
New Jersey Republican Chris Smith chaired a House hearing Wednesday on the plight of Meriam Ibrahim. The Sudanese Christian woman’s death sentence for apostasy was overturned, but she has been prevented from leaving Sudan with her American husband and children.
Smith said many ambassadors and foreign leaders have told him that the gay rights “agenda is what trumps everything in the U.S. foreign policy, so religious freedom, in a way, is seen as an impediment.”
State Department officials declined to testify at the hearing, but have said the U.S. promotes both religious and gay rights abroad.
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OBAMA-BIRTH CONTROL
Government drafting birth control accommodation
WASHINGTON (AP) β The Obama administration is developing a new way for religious nonprofits that object to paying for contraceptives in their health plans to opt out, without submitting a form they say violates their religious beliefs. The administration says it won’t involve shifting the costs to employees.
The government has been searching for solutions since the Supreme Court decided an evangelical college can avoid filling out the form while its case is being appealed.
The form lets faith-affiliated groups transfer responsibility for paying for birth control to insurers or third-party administrators. But Wheaton College and the Little Sisters of the Poor say just filling out that form makes them complicit in subsidizing coverage they oppose.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents both the nuns and the college, says they’re praying that the government’s new rules will let them focus on their ministry “without worrying about the threat of massive IRS penalties.”
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ATHEIST BOOTH-CITY HALL
Rejected atheist booth in city hall draws lawsuit
DETROIT (AP) β The American Civil Liberties Union and two other groups have filed a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction against a Michigan city’s ban on an atheist booth in a municipal building.
The groups say the Detroit suburb of Warren lets a church group run a “prayer station,” distribute religious materials, discuss religious beliefs and pray with visitors in a City Hall atrium but refuses to let atheist Douglas Marshall use the same space.
Their lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Detroit on behalf of the Warren resident. It says Marshall’s request in April to install a “reason station” was rejected by Mayor Jim Fouts.
Fouts says the “reason station” would be diametrically opposed to prayer and that he “will not accept a group” disparaging another group.
EDITOR FIRED-BLOG
Fired Iowa editor claims religious discrimination
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) β The former editor of an Iowa newspaper, the Newton Daily News, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming he was fired for expressing his religious beliefs.
In the complaint filed Wednesday, Bob Eschliman claimed religious discrimination and retaliation.
If the agency agrees with him it could order the newspaper’s parent company, Shaw Media, to pay damages including back pay.
Eschliman was fired May 6, a week after he wrote on a personal blog that gay organizations wanted to reword the Bible “to make their sinful nature ‘right with God.’ “
His attorney, Matt Whitaker, says Eschliman was “expressing his deeply held religious beliefs which are mainstream Christian beliefs.”
SCHOOL PRAYER COMPLAINT
Complaint ends teacher prayer in Indiana district
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) β An Indiana school district is telling teachers and other employees they can’t lead prayers during school-sponsored events.
The decision by the Vigo County School Corporation in Terre Haute follows a complaint made to the Freedom from Religion Foundation in May about a teacher leading a prayer to start a school awards banquet.
District superintendent Dan Tanoos told the Tribune-Star newspaper that he’ll continue to allow student-led prayers at events. He says he has previously allowed the teacher-led prayers but must live within the law.
Freedom from Religion Foundation attorney Sam Grover says the group sent a letter to the school district because it believes public school teachers must remain neutral toward religion while serving in their official capacity.
CONESVILLE CHURCH CLOSES
Conesville church closure like ‘losing a person’
CONESVILLE, Iowa (AP) β After 113 years, the Conesville Methodist Church is closing and some expect the historic structure in eastern Iowa will eventually be demolished.
On Saturday, church members hosted a sale of some church items. The church is for sale, too, but so far there haven’t been any offers.
Lay Leader Terri Fitchner told the Muscatine Journal that the closure reflects an aging congregation and no new members. There also has been a troublesome bat infestation.
Fitchner says most members will go to the Methodist church in nearby Nichols, Iowa.
Although the building is for sale, Fitchner says she thinks it’s “doomed to destruction.”
After attending the church since the 1960s, 73-year-old Kay Hill, says leaving it is “like you’re losing a person.”
BURNED AT CHURCH-JURY AWARD
Jury awards $471,798 to man burned at church
OCALA, Fla. (AP) β Jurors have determined that the Agape (ah-GAH’-pay) Baptist Church of Ocala, Florida, must pay more than $470,000 to a man who was severely burned after setting fire to a pile of trash while working off community service hours.
The verdict announced Tuesday in Ocala includes $300,000 for plaintiff Justin Castro’s past and future pain and suffering. Castro says he is “truly blessed.”
The Ocala Star-Banner reports that Castro was burned over 30 percent of his body in September 2011 after pouring gasoline over the brush and lighting it.
Church pastor Rev. Michael Hackathorn testified that he only asked Castro to put the brush in a pile, not to set it on fire.
The jury found that Castro was 17 percent negligent while the church, or the man who provided the gasoline, was 83 percent negligent.
ARIZONA EXECUTION-DRUGS
Arizona inmate dies 2 hours after execution began
FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) β A condemned Arizona inmate has died in an execution that took almost two hours.
Joseph Rudolph Wood gasped hundreds of times before he died. His defense lawyer called it a botched execution that should have taken 10 minutes.
Before receiving the lethal injection, the 55-year-old Wood looked at his victims’ family members as he delivered his final words, saying he was thankful for Jesus Christ as his savior. He said, “I take comfort knowing today my pain stops, and I said a prayer that on this or any other day you may find peace in all of your hearts and may God forgive you all.”
Wood was convicted in the 1989 shooting deaths of 29-year-old Debbie Dietz and 55-year-old Gene Dietz at an auto repair shop in Tucson.
Family members of the victims said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CHURCH
Gaza church takes in displaced Muslim Palestinians
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) β As the war in Gaza continues, some internally displaced Muslim Palestinians are being given refuge in a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City.
Nahed Al-Sarfaw says she fled her home in Gaza when Israel warned that it would be destroyed. She says a UN refugee center was too crowded, so she and her children went to the church, which opened its doors to them.
Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios says the displaced Palestinians arrive with nothing but their children and the clothes on their backs, so he and his neighbors are helping them as much as possible. Some of the refugees are sleeping on the church floor.
Alexios says he and his priests are providing food and water, milk for the children and medicines to those who are ill.
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NIGERIA-VIOLENCE
2 bombs kill at least 39 in Kaduna, north Nigeria
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) β Nigerian police say at least 39 people were killed Wednesday by two bombings in the northern city of Kaduna.
Police Commissioner Umar Usman Shehu said the first blast came after Sheik Dahiru Bauchi gave an annual Ramadan speech for thousands of faithful in an outdoor service. Sheik Bauchi is known for preaching against the violent extremism of Nigeria’s Islamic militants, Boko Haram.
The police commissioner said the second bombing came two and half hours later and killed dozens more. He said the bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace and witnesses saw dozens of bodies scattered in the rubble after the blast.
Kaduna is outside the region in Nigeria that is under emergency rule but it has been frequently targeted for violence by the Boko Haram militants.
