EDMONTON, Canada – A 12-year-old transgender Alberta girl has been granted a new birth certificate that recognizes her as male. Wren Kauffman was presented with the new document on Sunday in Edmonton during a Pride festival brunch hosted by the city’s mayor. The province’s culture minister, Heather Klimchuk, made the presentation. Continue reading this story […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case surrounding whether high school graduations may be held in churches, allowing a lower court ruling to stand that declared the practice to be unconstitutional. The court issued its denial on Monday, with Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissenting. “It is perhaps the job […]
(RNS) — Many Muslims leave Islam when they are told their sexuality and faith are incompatible. But a new photo exhibit of homosexual and queer Muslims challenges that notion. The exhibit, which opens June 18 at the Toronto Public Library, captures the humanity of subjects with close-up, intimate images. It’s the latest example of LGBT […]
BRAWLEY, Calif. — The salutatorian at a high school in California recently defied school administrators who disallowed him from speaking about his faith at graduation, presenting a bold Christian speech that urged his classmates to stand for what is right. Brooks Hamby is a senior at Brawley Union High School. In a YouTube video posted […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri woman and her family are crediting prayer for saving her life after she was trapped in her wrecked car for over eight hours. Cassandra Wiggins, 39, was traveling to work on Thursday morning at approximately 7:00 a.m. when her car hydroplaned and she slid down an embankment out of […]
MADISON, Wisc. — One week after overturning Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban, Judge Barbara Crabb has issued a stay on her initial ruling, ending, for now, same-sex marriages in the state. Crabb cited the Herbert decision by the US Supreme Court wherein the court ordered a stay in a similar case in Utah. “[A] federal district […]
FAYETTE, Mo. — A Missouri school district has reached a settlement with a national humanist organization that filed a lawsuit in federal court over alleged practices that it said violated the U.S. Constitution by promoting Christianity on campus. The American Humanist Association (AHA) of Washington had filed suit in November 2013 against the Fayette School District […]
ROANOKE, Va. — Some Muslims in Virginia have expressed offense to local media over a gospel tract that is being distributed by a local church that denounces Islam. The Bible Baptist Church of Roanoke has been distributing tracts every Sunday in an effort to tell others about Jesus Christ. One tract that has generated controversy […]
DUNDEE, Scotland — Police in Scotland have dropped all charges against an American evangelist who was arrested earlier this week for offending a single bystander by allegedly making ‘homophobic comments.’ As previously reported, Evangelist Tony Miano, a retired police officer from California, was arrested for breach of peace in Dundee, Scotland in January following a complaint that […]
BALTIMORE (RNS) — The head of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offered an emotional apology to Southern Baptists for accepting a Muslim student into his school’s Ph.D. program — an unusual step for an evangelical seminary but one other schools have taken for years. “I made an exception to a rule that I assumed, probably wrongly, […]