(The Scottish Sun) — BARMY officials have drawn up a “baffling” list of 21 sexualities for Scots to choose from in the 2021 census. Civil servants said terms including skoliosexual, gynephilic and demi-romantic will be understood. But Edinburgh University’s Dr. Kath Murray said the huge list could “blur” data. And census chiefs faced ridicule tonight […]
(Evangelical Focus) — The historic Protestant Church of Switzerland has voted to allow same-sex “marriages” in its churches. The Federation of Swiss Evangelical Churches (SEK) unites 26 regional Protestant churches in the central European country. After what was described as a “lively” but respectful debate during the SEK autumn assembly, 45 delegates voted in favor, […]
MANHATTAN — A federal judge nominated to the bench by then-President Barack Obama has struck down a rule recently issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that sought to protect the conscience rights of medical professionals and others who have objections to abortion or physician-assisted suicide. Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District […]
(CTV News) — A Montreal couple is calling for disciplinary measures against a psychologist they say counseled one of them to kill the terminally ill other. When Miranda Edwards was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, she said she was determined to fight it. “I want to live. I want every medical intervention possible,” […]
ALBANY, N.Y. — The Democratic governor of New York has signed a bill that codifies into state law already-existing federal rules prohibiting churches and nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Senate Bill 4347 states that “any corporation, association, trust, or community chest, fund, foundation, or limited liability company, organized and operated exclusively for religious, […]
(The Christian Institute) — A woman says she felt forced to resign from Doula UK after being labeled “transphobic” for saying only women can give birth. Lynsey McCarthy-Calvert was working for the charity — which provides women with “birth coaches” to assist them during pregnancy and childbirth — when she criticized Cancer Research UK for […]
HELSINKI — A lawmaker and pastor’s wife in Finland who was already being probed by police over a social media post in which she questioned the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s partnership with a Helsinki Pride event is now also facing a preliminary “incitement” investigation over a booklet that she wrote 15 years ago entitled “Male […]
Pakistan (Mission Network News) — The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is taking notice of attacks on places of worship. In countries like Pakistan, worship sites of minority religions are frequently targeted with violence. Forgotten Missionaries International (FMI) Executive Director Bruce Allen often hears reports from the field of attacks on Pakistani churches. […]
(Christian Solidarity Worldwide) — There have been no developments in the case of a protestant pastor and a co-worker who forcibly disappeared on Aug. 3 in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Pastor Aarón Méndez Ruiz and Alfredo Castillo de Luna were kidnapped from the AMAR migrant shelter, in Nuevo Laredo on the US-Mexico border, after Méndez Ruiz […]
WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed a rule that would provide protections for faith-based foster and adoption agencies that otherwise might lose federal grant funds for operating in accordance with their religious convictions — namely in declining to place children in households where there is not both a mother […]