SOUTHERN BAPTISTS-MARRIAGE
Southern Baptist head vows never to perform same-sex unions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is exhorting members to stand united against same-sex marriage and vows that he will never officiate at a same-sex union.
Pastor Ronnie Floyd was speaking to delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. But he says his message is also for the U.S. Supreme Court — which is expected to rule soon on whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry — and for all of America.
Floyd says God defined marriage in the Bible as a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman. Floyd said some churches “may be bowing down to the deception of the inclusiveness of same-sex marriage,” but he vowed that Southern Baptists “will not bow down.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm last week released a legal guide for churches that seeks to protect them from discrimination lawsuits by providing templates for things like membership policies, facility use polices and employment criteria
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228-a-12-(The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressing the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting)-“I completely refuse (applause fades)”-The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he won’t ever perform a same-sex wedding. (16 Jun 2015)
< 227-a-10-(The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressing the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting)-“for a lifetime (applause fades)”-The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says courts and governments can’t redefine marriage. (16 Jun 2015) < 224-w-31-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with the Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention)–The president of the Southern Baptist Convention says it will never accept same-sex marriage, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (16 Jun 2015) < 225-a-15-(The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressing the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting)-“book we stand (applause fades)”-The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says the Supreme Court has no right to redefine marriage. (16 Jun 2015) < 226-a-12-(The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressing the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting)-“we be silent”-The Reverend Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says Southern Baptists will never accept same-sex marriage. (16 Jun 2015) < SOUTH BEND MAYOR South Bend mayor comes out as gay in newspaper editorial SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has come out as gay in a newspaper editorial. Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tah-juhj) is seeking re-election this year in the city that’s home to the conservative University of Notre Dame. Buttigieg, the first-term Democratic mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city, said in the essay published in the South Bend Tribune that it wasn’t easy for him to divulge his sexuality, in part because Midwesterners “are instinctively private to begin with.” Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John Jenkins, said Tuesday in a statement that he’s “grateful to Mayor Buttigieg for his admirably honest, thoughtful and very personal statement, and endorse his call that we find a way to address difficult and often divisive issues together and without acrimony.” Micah Clark, executive director of the conservative Christian group American Family Association of Indiana, said he doesn’t consider Buttigieg’s announcement “relevant,” saying that if “a mayor announced that he’s heterosexual it wouldn’t matter, either.” OBIT-ELISABETH ELLIOT Christian author and missionary dies at 88 GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Christian author and missionary Elisabeth Elliott has died at the age of 88, according to a statement on her website. Her husband, Lars Gren, says Elliot died Monday morning. Gren says, “We rejoice for Elisabeth that she is home with her Lord.” WORLD magazine reports that Elliot had suffered from dementia for about a decade, and died at the couple’s home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Elliot’s first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while he and several other missionaries were trying to make contact with a remote tribe in Ecuador. She later became a missionary to the same tribe that killed her husband, converting many of them to Christianity, and remained with them for two years. After returning to the United States, Elliot authored more than 20 Christian books and became a popular speaker. Some of the Gateway to Joy programs she recorded between 1988 and 2001 can still be heard on the Bible Broadcasting Network. She began almost every program by saying, “‘You are loved with an everlasting love,’ – that’s what the Bible says – ‘and underneath are the everlasting arms.’ This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot.” Sound: 281-a-10-(File tape of Elisabeth Elliot, Christian author, speaker and missionary)-“trust and obey (second reference)(music fades)”-File tape of Elisabeth Elliot, from an undated Gateway to Joy broadcast. COURTESY: Bible Broadcasting Network ((Mandatory on-air credit)) (16 Jun 2015) < 280-a-09-(File tape of Elisabeth Elliot, Christian author, speaker and missionary)-“the everlasting arms”-File tape of Elisabeth Elliot, from an undated Gateway to Joy broadcast. COURTESY: Bible Broadcasting Network ((Mandatory on-air credit)) (16 Jun 2015) < CHILDREN FOUND DEAD 2 siblings found dead in gas-filled home are laid to rest NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Nearly 200 people have packed a Connecticut church for the funeral of two young siblings who authorities say were killed by their mother in a home filled with natural gas. The service for 7-year-old Daaron Moore and his 6-year-old sister, Aleisha Moore, was held Tuesday at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church in New Haven. Burial followed at a cemetery in Easton. Their bodies were found in their East Haven home on June 2. How they died still hasn’t been determined. Their mother, LeRoya Moore, is detained on murder charges and wasn’t allowed to attend the funeral. Police say she was found at the home with arm injuries resembling suicide-attempt wounds. Court documents say Moore left a note saying she was sending the children to heaven. AMISH SCHOOL SHOOTING Amish mourn trooper who comforted them after school massacre NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) — Members of the Amish community are mourning the death of a Pennsylvania state trooper who comforted and befriended survivors of a 2006 schoolhouse shooting rampage. Trooper Jonathan Smith died at home Friday of pancreatic cancer. He was 47. Smith was one of the first troopers to force his way into a barricaded one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines where a milk truck driver fatally shot five girls and wounded five others before killing himself. The trooper helped carry the wounded girls outside. He also went on to befriend the survivors and the victims’ families. A member of the Amish community told the LNP newspaper that they took comfort in knowing Smith was looking after them. Fisher says the trooper “helped ease the pain.” CHURCH-LAWSUIT Kansas church settles lawsuit over dispute for new building WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A small Kansas congregation has settled its federal lawsuit stemming from a zoning dispute over church property. A court filing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas indicates the parties have agreed that Liberty Baptist Church can use land it owns in Crawford County for a new church outside Pittsburg city limits. The judge’s order dismisses the lawsuit. The congregation of 15 members sued the county in April after it was denied a conditional use permit, claiming the zoning laws violate the First Amendment and federal law. Pastor Sandy Stallings commended the commissioners in a news release for not dragging the case out at “great public expense.” The church agreed to plant some shrubs across its southern border and the county agreed to compensate it for some costs. VATICAN-ENCYCLICAL Vatican yanks credentials of reporter behind encyclical leak VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has suspended the press credentials of the Vatican columnist for the Italian newsweekly L’Espresso, which published a leaked draft of Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on the environment. A letter to Sandro Magister from the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, advising him of the sanction was posted in the Vatican press office Tuesday. L’Espresso published the 191-page draft of “Laudato Si” (Be Praised) on its website Monday, three days before the Vatican’s official launch. In the letter, Lombardi said publication of the draft was “incorrect” and caused problems for journalists who had been asked to respect the Vatican embargo on its release, as well as for the press office. Magister told The Associated Press that his editor, not he, obtained the document and decided to publish it. DOMINICAN-VATICAN-ABUSE Dominican AG hopeful that Vatican convicts ex-ambassador SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The attorney general of the Dominican Republic says he hopes the Vatican’s former ambassador to the Caribbean nation is convicted of charges that he sexually abused young boys. The Holy See announced Monday that Jozef Wesolowski has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing Dominican boys and having child pornography on his computer. Wesolowski will stand trial next month in a Vatican criminal court, the first time such a high-ranking Vatican official has been tried on sex abuse charges. On Tuesday, Dominican Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said the purported victims need justice. The Wesolowski case has, in his words, “deeply hurt our society, and there must be a decision that conforms with this fact.” The Polish-born Wesolowski was recalled by the Vatican in 2013. He has since been defrocked. ISRAEL-ANCIENT INSCRIPTION Israeli archaeologists find inscription of name from Bible JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s antiquities authority says archaeologists have discovered a rare 3,000-year-old inscription of a name mentioned in the Bible. The name “Eshbaal (ESH’-bayl) Ben Beda” appears on a large ceramic jar. Eshbaal in the Bible was a son of King Saul. Archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor say the jar belonged to a different Eshbaal, likely the owner of an agricultural estate. They said Tuesday it is the first time the name was discovered in an ancient inscription. It is one of only four inscriptions discovered from the biblical 10th century B.C. Kingdom of Judah, when King David is said to have reigned. Archaeologists pieced together the inscription from pottery shards found at a 2012 excavation in the Valley of Elah in central Israel. Sound: 250-a-16-(Yosef Garfinkel, archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in AP interview)-“David and Solomon (second reference)”-Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says the inscription of a biblical name on a jar dates from the time of Kings David and Solomon. (16 Jun 2015) < 251-a-15-(Yosef Garfinkel, archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in AP interview)-“generation to generation”-Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says the biblical name found on an ancient jar shows there was writing in the time of King David. (16 Jun 2015) < PROPHET CARTOON CONTEST Indictment: Man helped plan Texas cartoon contest shooting PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix-area man has been charged with helping plan an attack on a Draw Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas last month that ended with the two shooters’ deaths. An indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix alleges that Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem hosted the gunmen in his home beginning in January and provided the guns they used in the May 3 shooting. Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson were killed by police after they opened fire outside the event in Garland, Texas, where attendees drew cartoons of Muhammad that many Muslims consider blasphemous. The indictment says Kareem practiced shooting with Simpson and Soofi in the desert outside Phoenix between January and May. Kareem is charged with conspiracy, making false statements and interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit a felony. RAMADAN-DIABETICS’ DILEMMA Ramadan fast imposes difficult choice on diabetic Muslims AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Islam’s holy month of Ramadan is starting this week. Muslims will begin their annual observance on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the sighting of the crescent moon. But tens of millions of diabetic Muslims struggle each year with whether to fast during Ramadan, when most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset. Islam exempts the sick from fasting, but many Muslim diabetics can’t bring themselves to violate one of the five pillars of their religion. The problem is growing, particularly in the Arab world, where diabetes is spreading rapidly, temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and daylight lasts for 15 hours, increasing risks of low blood sugar and dehydration.
