Latest news with #Scripture
Chicago Tribune
13-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Worship news: Outdoor service, fashion show, new church opening
CrossPoint Church: 214 Court St. — CrossPoint Church will have an outdoor service at Bulldog Park beginning at 10:30 a.m. June 22. After the service, there will be bounce houses and outdoor games for recreation. Attendees should feel free to pack lunch to picnic with friends and family. Marquette Park United Methodist Church: 215 N Grand Blvd. — All are welcome to worship at 11:15 a.m. Sundays at Marquette Park United Methodist Church. There will be refreshments to follow in the Fellowship Hall. Dynasty Banquets Maria: 4125 Calumet Ave. — New Hope Church of Gary will have a Father's Day fashion show featuring all male models at 6 p.m. June 13. Tickets are on sale through Eventbrite: Bethel Church: 700 W 700N — Bethel women are invited to join Bethel's Church's women's summer bible study on June 19. The Bible study is an 8-week summer bible study that began June 5. The group will read through 'When You Pray' and explore different types of prayer modeled in Scripture. Childcare is available for $25 per child. For more information or to register, visit St. John Evangelist: 11301 W 93rd Ave. — Young adults ages 18 to 39 are invited to the 2025 Young Adult Summer Speakers Series, held each Wednesday evening from May 28 to June 25. The next session will begin at 7 p.m. on June 18 with speaker Sarahi Unzueta who will discuss 'Eyes that See, Corazón that Feels, a Table that Feeds' Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for food. Valparaiso St. Iakovos Greek Orthodox Church: 36 W 700 N — St. Iakovos Greek Orthodox Church will celebrate the opening of its new church this weekend, at 4 p.m. on June 14 at the church followed by a banquet at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. at Avalon Banquet Center, 3550 Lincoln Highway in Hobart. For more information, call 219-462-4052.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Southern Baptists' call for the US Supreme Court to overturn its same-sex marriage decision is part of a long history of opposing women's and LGBTQ+ people's rights
The Southern Baptist Convention has lost 3.6 million members over the past two decades and faces an ongoing sexual abuse crisis. At its June 2025 annual meeting, however, neither of those issues took up as much time as controversial social issues, including the denomination's stance on same-sex marriage. The group called for the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges – the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage – and the creation of laws that 'affirm marriage between one man and one woman.' Messengers – Southern Baptists' word for delegates from local churches – also asked for laws that would 'reflect the moral order revealed in Scripture and nature.' They also decried declining fertility rates, commercial surrogacy, Planned Parenthood, 'willful childlessness,' the normalization of 'transgender ideology,' and gender-affirming medical care. This detailed list targeting women's and LGBTQ+ rights was justified by an appeal to a God-ordained created order, as defined by Southern Baptists' interpretation of the Bible. In this created order, sex and gender are synonymous and are irrevocably defined by biology. The heterosexual nuclear family is the foundational institution of this order, with the father dominant over his wife and children – and children are a necessity if husbands and wives are to be faithful to God's design for the family. The resolution, On Restoring Moral Clarity through God's Design for Gender, Marriage, and the Family, passed easily in a denomination that was taken over from more moderate Southern Baptists by fundamentalists in the early 1990s, largely in response to women's progress in society and in the denomination. Southern Baptists were always conservative on issues of gender and sexuality. As I was entering a Southern Baptist seminary in the early 1980s, the denomination seemed poised to embrace social progress. I watched the takeover firsthand as a student and then as a professor of women and gender studies who studies Southern Baptists. This new resolution is the latest in a long history of Southern Baptist opposition to the progress of women and LGBTQ+ people. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Southern Baptists began to embrace the women's movement. Women started to attend Southern Baptist seminaries in record numbers, many claiming a call to serve as pastors. While Southern Baptist acceptance of LGBTQ+ people lagged far behind its nascent embrace of women's rights, progress did seem possible. Then in 1979, a group of Southern Baptist fundamentalists organized to wrest control of the denomination from the moderates who had led it for decades. Any hope for progress on changes regarding LGBTQ+ rights in the denomination quickly died. Across the next two decades, advances made by women, such as being ordained and serving as senior pastors, eroded and disappeared. The SBC had passed anti-gay resolutions in the 1970s defining homosexuality as 'deviant' and a 'sin.' But under the new fundamentalist rule, the SBC became even more vehemently anti-gay and anti-trans. In 1988, the SBC called homosexuality a 'perversion of divine standards,' 'a violation of nature and natural affections,' 'not a normal lifestyle,' and 'an abomination in the eyes of God.' In 1991, they decried government funding for the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference as a violation of 'the proper role and responsibility of government' because of its encouragement of 'sexual immorality.' Predictably, across the years, the convention spoke out against every effort to advance LGBTQ+ rights. This included supporting the Boy Scouts' ban of gay scouts, opposing military service by LGBTQ+ people, boycotting Disney for its support of LGBTQ+ people, calling on businesses to deny LGBTQ+ people domestic partner benefits and employment nondiscrimination to protect LGBTQ+ people, and supporting the Defense of Marriage Act that limited marriage to a woman and a man. The gender and sexuality topic, however, that has received the most attention from the convention has been marriage equality. Since 1980, the SBC has passed 22 resolutions that touch on same-sex marriage. The SBC passed its first resolution against same-sex marriage in 1996 after the Hawaii Supreme Court indicated the possibility it could rule in favor of same-sex marriage. The court never decided the issue because Hawaii's Legislature passed a bill defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In 1998, the convention amended its faith statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, to define marriage as 'the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment.' The denomination passed its next resolution in 2003 in response to the Vermont General Assembly's establishment of civil unions. The resolution opposed any efforts to validate same-sex marriages or partnerships, whether legislative, judicial or religious. In 2004, after the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages in that state, the convention called for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. It reiterated this call in 2006. When the California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, the SBC passed another resolution in 2008 warning of the dire consequences of allowing lesbians and gay men to marry, as people from other states would marry in California and return home to challenge their states' marriage bans. In 2011, the convention offered its support for the Defense of Marriage Act, followed in 2012 by a denunciation of the use of civil rights language to argue for marriage equality. The resolution argues that homosexuality 'does not qualify as a class meriting special protections, like race and gender.' When Obergefell was before the Supreme Court, the SBC called on the court to deny marriage equality. After Obergefell was decided in favor of same-sex marriage, the convention asked for Congress to pass the First Amendment Defense Act, which would have prohibited the federal government from discriminating against people based on their opposition to same-sex marriage. That same resolution also offers its support to state attorneys general challenging transgender rights. This was not the first time the SBC had spoken about transgender issues. As early as 2007, the denomination expressed its opposition to allowing transgender people to constitute a protected class in hate crimes legislation. In 2014, the convention stated its belief that gender is fixed and binary and subsequently that trans people should not be allowed gender-affirming care and that government officials should not validate transgender identity. In 2016, the denomination opposed access for transgender people to bathrooms matching their gender identities. In 2021, the convention invoked women's rights – in a denomination famous for its resistance to women's equality – as a reason to undermine trans rights. In its resolution opposing the proposed Equality Act, which would have added sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classifications, the SBC argued, 'The Equality Act would undermine decades of hard-fought civil rights protections for women and girls by threatening competition in sports and disregarding the privacy concerns women rightly have about sharing sleeping quarters and intimate facilities with members of the opposite sex.' This most recent resolution from June 2025 returns to the themes of fixed and binary gender, a divinely sanctioned hierarchical ordering of gender, and marriage as an institution limited to one woman and one man. While claiming these beliefs are 'universal truths,' the resolution argues that Obergefell is a 'legal fiction' because it denies the biological reality of male and female. Going further, this resolution claims that U.S. law on gender and sexuality should be based on the Bible. The duty of lawmakers, it states, is to 'pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law – about marriage, sex, human life, and family – and to oppose any law that denies or undermines what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.' By taking no action on sexual abuse while focusing its efforts on issues of gender and sexuality, the convention affirmed its decades-long conservative trajectory. It also underlined its willingness to encourage lawmakers to impose these standards on the rest of the nation. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Susan M. Shaw, Oregon State University Read more: Data on sexual orientation and gender is critical to public health – without it, health crises continue unnoticed Southern Baptist Convention votes to expel two churches with female pastors – a religion scholar explains how far back these battles go How women in the Southern Baptist Convention have fought for decades to be ordained Susan M. Shaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
US faith leaders opposed to ICE raids counsel nonviolent resistance and lead by example
When the Rev. Edward Anderson rallied in Los Angeles this week against the Trump administration's intensifying immigration crackdown, he positioned himself between law enforcement and his fellow protesters, serving as a human buffer. Anderson, who leads McCarty Memorial Christian Church in the city's West Adams Terrace neighborhood, believes he was upholding his moral duty to stand against injustice, but in a nonviolent manner that his faith demands. 'It is imperative that people of faith speak out because silence in the face of injustice is complicity,' he said. Some U.S. religious leaders are taking a stand about President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, including ones citing Scripture to explain their support for his policies and others citing it to explain their resistance. For many of those condemning how federal agents are rounding up and deporting people who are in the country illegally, though, nonviolent resistance is the best — and only — way to effect positive change. State and local leaders have accused Trump of inflaming tensions and raising the risk of violence by deploying National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to the protests, which have been daily since last week. Although most have been peaceful, some have resulted in clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Elected officials, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, have called on protesters to remain peaceful, saying violence will only inflame the situation. It's a message religious leaders can get behind. 'The moral message is clear: we do not accept the world as it is. We respond to cruelty with courage, to hatred with love,' Rabbi Sharon Brous said this week at an interfaith vigil in Los Angeles, where the mayor imposed a downtown curfew. The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, senior pastor of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, said nonviolent resistance is a core belief of her congregation, which has been feeding and helping newly arrived immigrants and demonstrating to support them. 'We're like Jesus — nonviolent,' said Lewis. But nonviolence isn't silence, she said, adding that it 'often means confronting people with the truth. ... We understand that social change has happened because people of faith and spiritual imagination guided the streets peacefully.' Her flock plans to take part in one of Saturday's 'No Kings' rallies, which are happening in cities throughout the country to protest Trump's policies and which will take place during a military parade in Washington. Nonviolence and a slow path to change Nonviolent protest has a proven track record in the U.S., having been successfully used by, among others, the Rev. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement. However, Michael Nagler, co-founder of The Metta Center for Nonviolence, a California-based nonprofit involved in education and advocacy, cautioned that nonviolence and civil disobedience come with suffering and sacrifice. He pointed to the sacred Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita, which advises practicing action without getting attached to the result. 'Principled nonviolence comes from this awareness that the divine resides in each and every one of us and every life is precious,' he said. 'You believe that a solution can always be worked out where all parties have their legitimate needs met.' Nonviolence might not yield immediate results, but it eventually has a deeper impact and fewer casualties than the alternative, Nagler said. In the context of the current struggle, a positive result might mean getting the administration to deal with immigrants more humanely, he said. Faith leaders can play a crucial role in the demonstrations, said the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance. They can provide 'a sense of shield' and a 'spiritual force' for demonstrators, and inspire 'a reduction of harm and nonviolent presence ... in a space where it appears that there's only a spiraling of violence.' Partnering with local Los Angeles organizations and labor unions, Anderson said his congregation has led prayer vigils, helped migrants learn about their rights, and advised other faith leaders about what to do if ICE shows up at their houses of worship. 'As clergy and community leaders, we are not only called to preach justice but to embody it, to be present in the pain of our people, and to lift up the sacred worth of every human life,' he said in an email. Anderson said he draws strength from the Bible's calls to welcome the stranger, defend the oppressed and love thy neighbor. Views among faith leaders are hardly uniform, with others citing the Bible as a reason for supporting Trump's crackdown. There are many faith leaders, notably in the evangelical ranks, who support the immigration crackdown. 'I support 100% President Trump's goal of protecting our country from evildoers, whether from within or without,' said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter who is a Southern Baptist pastor at a Dallas megachurch. 'The president has authority from the Constitution and the Bible to do exactly what he's doing.' Regarding the protests, Jeffress said, 'People have a right to be wrong. But they don't have the right to be wrong in a violent manner.' Committed to interfaith action and working together The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which participated in an interfaith prayer vigil in Grand Park on Tuesday, said it plans to remain engaged. That gathering showed that people of different faiths can unite and pray for a compassionate way forward, said the Rev. Parker Sandoval, the Catholic archdiocese's vice chancellor. 'A lot of people are living in fear now, whether it's fear of violence or the fear of being separated from their families,' he said. 'God insists that we are not alone or without hope. Evil, no matter what form it takes, does not have the last word.' Seth Zuihō Segall, a Zen Buddhist priest affiliated with the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy, said he and his colleagues are appalled by images of masked, armed federal immigration agents 'whisking people off the streets and into cars.' He stressed via email that opposition to these developments should be nonviolent. 'Non-harming, non-hatred, and nonviolence are at the very core of the Buddha's message,' he wrote. 'We strive to treat all people — even those whose actions appall us — as buddhas-in-progress.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
San Francisco Chronicle
12-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
US faith leaders opposed to ICE raids counsel nonviolent resistance and lead by example
When the Rev. Edward Anderson rallied in Los Angeles this week against the Trump administration's intensifying immigration crackdown, he positioned himself between law enforcement and his fellow protesters, serving as a human buffer. Anderson, who leads McCarty Memorial Christian Church in the city's West Adams Terrace neighborhood, believes he was upholding his moral duty to stand against injustice, but in a nonviolent manner that his faith demands. 'It is imperative that people of faith speak out because silence in the face of injustice is complicity,' he said. Some U.S. religious leaders are taking a stand about President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, including ones citing Scripture to explain their support for his policies and others citing it to explain their resistance. For many of those condemning how federal agents are rounding up and deporting people who are in the country illegally, though, nonviolent resistance is the best — and only — way to effect positive change. State and local leaders have accused Trump of inflaming tensions and raising the risk of violence by deploying National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to the protests, which have been daily since last week. Although most have been peaceful, some have resulted in clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Elected officials, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, have called on protesters to remain peaceful, saying violence will only inflame the situation. It's a message religious leaders can get behind. 'The moral message is clear: we do not accept the world as it is. We respond to cruelty with courage, to hatred with love,' Rabbi Sharon Brous said this week at an interfaith vigil in Los Angeles, where the mayor imposed a downtown curfew. The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, senior pastor of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, said nonviolent resistance is a core belief of her congregation, which has been feeding and helping newly arrived immigrants and demonstrating to support them. 'We're like Jesus — nonviolent,' said Lewis. But nonviolence isn't silence, she said, adding that it 'often means confronting people with the truth. ... We understand that social change has happened because people of faith and spiritual imagination guided the streets peacefully.' Her flock plans to take part in one of Saturday's 'No Kings' rallies, which are happening in cities throughout the country to protest Trump's policies and which will take place during a military parade in Washington. Nonviolence and a slow path to change Nonviolent protest has a proven track record in the U.S., having been successfully used by, among others, the Rev. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement. However, Michael Nagler, co-founder of The Metta Center for Nonviolence, a California-based nonprofit involved in education and advocacy, cautioned that nonviolence and civil disobedience come with suffering and sacrifice. He pointed to the sacred Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita, which advises practicing action without getting attached to the result. 'Principled nonviolence comes from this awareness that the divine resides in each and every one of us and every life is precious,' he said. 'You believe that a solution can always be worked out where all parties have their legitimate needs met.' Nonviolence might not yield immediate results, but it eventually has a deeper impact and fewer casualties than the alternative, Nagler said. In the context of the current struggle, a positive result might mean getting the administration to deal with immigrants more humanely, he said. Faith leaders can play a crucial role in the demonstrations, said the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance. They can provide 'a sense of shield' and a 'spiritual force' for demonstrators, and inspire 'a reduction of harm and nonviolent presence ... in a space where it appears that there's only a spiraling of violence.' Partnering with local Los Angeles organizations and labor unions, Anderson said his congregation has led prayer vigils, helped migrants learn about their rights, and advised other faith leaders about what to do if ICE shows up at their houses of worship. 'As clergy and community leaders, we are not only called to preach justice but to embody it, to be present in the pain of our people, and to lift up the sacred worth of every human life,' he said in an email. Anderson said he draws strength from the Bible's calls to welcome the stranger, defend the oppressed and love thy neighbor. Views among faith leaders are hardly uniform, with others citing the Bible as a reason for supporting Trump's crackdown. There are many faith leaders, notably in the evangelical ranks, who support the immigration crackdown. 'I support 100% President Trump's goal of protecting our country from evildoers, whether from within or without,' said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter who is a Southern Baptist pastor at a Dallas megachurch. 'The president has authority from the Constitution and the Bible to do exactly what he's doing.' Regarding the protests, Jeffress said, 'People have a right to be wrong. But they don't have the right to be wrong in a violent manner.' Committed to interfaith action and working together The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which participated in an interfaith prayer vigil in Grand Park on Tuesday, said it plans to remain engaged. That gathering showed that people of different faiths can unite and pray for a compassionate way forward, said the Rev. Parker Sandoval, the Catholic archdiocese's vice chancellor. 'A lot of people are living in fear now, whether it's fear of violence or the fear of being separated from their families,' he said. 'God insists that we are not alone or without hope. Evil, no matter what form it takes, does not have the last word.' Seth Zuihō Segall, a Zen Buddhist priest affiliated with the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy, said he and his colleagues are appalled by images of masked, armed federal immigration agents 'whisking people off the streets and into cars.' He stressed via email that opposition to these developments should be nonviolent. 'Non-harming, non-hatred, and nonviolence are at the very core of the Buddha's message,' he wrote. 'We strive to treat all people — even those whose actions appall us — as buddhas-in-progress.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Southern Baptists To Debate Bans On Pornography, Same-Sex Marriage, And Women Pastors
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, will convene its annual meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dallas, where members will consider resolutions calling for a legal ban on pornography, a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and measures to curtail sports betting and promote childbearing. The convention will also address internal controversies, including a proposed constitutional amendment to ban churches with women pastors and calls to defund its public policy arm. The resolutions, proposed by the official Committee on Resolutions, urge legislators to 'pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law — about marriage, sex, human life, and family' and to oppose laws contradicting 'what God has made plain through nature and Scripture,' the Associated Press reported. One resolution decries pornography as destructive and calls for its ban, while another seeks to limit sports betting. Another resolution criticizes 'willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate' and advocates for pro-natalist policies. Albert Mohler, longtime president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, said the resolutions reflect a divinely created order that 'is binding on all persons, in all times, everywhere.' However, some critics, like Nancy Ammerman, professor emerita of sociology of religion at Boston University and author of 'Baptist Battles,' call such language theocratic. 'When you talk about God's design for anything, there's not a lot of room for compromise,' she said. 'There's not a lot of room for people who don't have the same understanding of who God is and how God operates in the world.' The meeting coincides with the 40th anniversary of the 1985 Dallas convention, which saw a record 45,000 representatives and marked a turning point in the denomination's conservative shift. 'The 1985 showdown was 'the hinge convention in terms of the old and the new in the SBC,'' Mohler said, per AP. Today's debates occur among a solidly conservative membership, bolstered by political allies like House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has signaled openness to revisiting same-sex marriage. Internally, the convention faces tension over the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), its public policy arm, which some criticize for not supporting criminal charges for women seeking abortions despite its anti-abortion stance. Ten former Southern Baptist presidents endorsed continued funding, but the Center for Baptist Leadership has called for defunding, accusing the ERLC of ineffectiveness. ERLC president Brent Leatherwood defended the commission, stating, 'Without the ERLC, you will send the message to our nation's lawmakers and the public at large that the SBC has chosen to abandon the public square at a time when the Southern Baptist voice is most needed,' AP reported. A proposed constitutional amendment to ban churches with women pastors, which failed in 2024, is expected to resurface. The denomination's belief statement limits the pastor's role to men, but disagreements persist over whether this applies to assistant pastors. Recent expulsions of churches with women in pastoral roles have fueled the push for the amendment. Texas pastor Dwight McKissic, a Black pastor with conservative views, criticized the ERLC backlash, posting on X, 'The SBC is transitioning from an evangelical organization to a fundamentalist organization. Fewer and fewer Black churches will make the transition with them.' A group of Southern Baptist ethnic leaders also expressed concerns in April about Trump's immigration crackdown, stating in a video, 'Law and order are necessary, but enforcement must be accompanied with compassion that doesn't demonize those fleeing oppression, violence, and persecution.' The Center for Baptist Leadership countered, accusing the denominational Baptist Press and Leatherwood of working to 'weaponize empathy.' The convention's agenda includes little reference to specific actions by President Donald Trump, such as tariffs, immigration, or the pending budget bill affecting taxes, food aid, and Medicaid. Meanwhile, the denomination reports a membership of 12.7 million, down 2% in 2024, marking its 18th consecutive annual decline. However, baptisms rose to 250,643, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and reversing a long-term slide.
