The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland will withdraw its membership from the Maine Council of Churches over concerns about LGBT advocacy after a new rule was implemented making it easier for the council to take public stances on societal and political issues.

The Portland Press-Herald first reported on the diocese decision on Tuesday, which follows a council vote in February to make it so that a majority vote among the council’s eight member denominations is all that is needed for the council to take official stands on public policy issues.

Previously, it was an unwritten rule of the council to only take public stands after a unanimous vote by its member denominations.

With the change being enacted, it means that the Catholic diocese was outnumbered on the council when it came to issues pertaining to LGBT rights by left-leaning members of the council, including the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalists Association of Congregations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Episcopal Diocese of Maine and The New England Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The Texas Home School Coalition has seen an increase in interest in home schooling following the recent school shootings.

Texas Home School Coalition says it has been busy for months with inquiries after this year’s shootings in Parkland, Florida and Santa Fe, Texas.

“When the Parkland shooting happened, our phone calls and emails exploded,” said coalition president Tim Lambert. “In the last couple of months, our numbers have doubled. We’re dealing with probably between 1,200 and 1,400 calls and emails per month, and prior to that it was 600 to 700.”

Parents say they are also concerned about the environment of schools.

“One of the things we’ve seen definitely an uptick in the last five years is the aspect of violence. It’s the bullying. That is off the charts,” said Christopher Chin, president of Homeschool Louisiana.

“I think what happens with these school shootings is they’re the straws that broke the camel’s back,” Chin said. “I don’t think it’s the major decision-maker, but it’s in the back of parents’ minds.”

Brian D. Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Oregon, says there are three main reasons why parents choose homeschooling: to provide religious instruction or different values, dissatisfaction with the school’s curriculum, and worries about the school environment.

“Most…

A regional body of the United Methodist Church that previously refused to enforce the denomination’s ban on noncelibate homosexual clergy has upheld the ordination standards.

In 2016, the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the UMC joined a few other regional bodies in refusing to enforce the UMC Book of Discipline’s ban on clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

However, in a ruling given on Wednesday evening, Baltimore-Washington Area Bishop LaTrelle Easterling said that two individuals approved by the Board of Ordained Ministry for ordination and commissioning are ineligible due to violating the “practicing homosexuals” ban.

Bishop Easterling said in a statement posted to the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s website on Thursday that she believed “there are no winners here today,” adding that while she does not agree with the current Book of Discipline’s position on ordination standards, “it is the book upon which we order our work together, and live in covenant with one another.”

“In my opinion, when we pick and choose how and when we will uphold it, we begin the slippery slope…

Sharayah Colter, wife of Paige Patterson’s former chief of staff Scott Colter, has challenged several of the allegations that led to the former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president’s firing Wednesday, which she revealed was unceremoniously executed by telephone in the dead of night while he was on assignment in Germany.

Writing in a post on SBC Issues Thursday, Sharayah Colter, who previously worked as a journalist, argued that her husband’s former boss, whom she considered a personal friend, is “not guilty of all of which he has been accused in recent days,” including encouraging a former student not to report an alleged rape. Seminary officials, she said, did not give him an opportunity to defend himself at the May 30 meeting where the decision was made to fire him.

The board of trustees of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary located in Ft. Worth, Texas, announced Wednesday that Patterson had been fired effective immediately and that they had cut all ties with him after new details, which they did not reveal, emerged…

Franklin Graham recently made some controversial comments about sanctuary cities in California.

According to The Christian Post, Graham has been involved in a 10-city tour through California, the purpose of which is to encourage Christians to stand up for their values and to run for political office.

Graham said that “progressive” is “just another word for godless.” He also said California, with its liberal policies and politicians is a “sinking” state. Graham even told conservative Fox News columnist and host Todd Starnes that sanctuary cities such as San Francisco are a “little picture of Hell.”

Relevant Magazine provides the full quote: “People are leaving the state. The tax base is eroding. They are turning their once beautiful cities into sanctuary cities, which are just a little picture of Hell. Just go to San Francisco and go to this once-beautiful city and see what has happened to it.”

Nevertheless, Graham asserted, “I haven’t talked to anybody in the parties. We are staying out of the politics part of it but I do want Christians to vote and I want them to ask God before they vote, who they should vote. But, I don’t think the Christians should be silent. The Christian voice needs to be heard.”

Photo courtesy: Getty Images

Publication date: June 1, 2018

The former church of Rachael Denhollander has released a statement expressing remorse for not properly responding to the lawyer and former gymnast’s concerns over the church’s partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Denhollander gained notoriety in January when she testified against former USA Gymnastics physician Dr. Larry Nassar for his sexual crimes against gymnasts under his care, wherein she expressed her Christian belief in forgiveness.

Immanuel Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, Denhollander’s former church, sent a statement to The Washington Post which they also published on the church’s website.

In it, Immanuel Baptist Church acknowledged that when Denhollander previously said, “My advocacy for sexual assault victims … cost me my church,” they were the church she referenced without naming.

“As the pastors of Immanuel Baptist Church, we knew that we were that church. After years of membership at Immanuel, Rachael and her husband, Jacob, had left our church voluntarily just weeks before the Nassar trial began,” the IBC pastors said.

“Fortunately, because of Rachael’s decision not to name our church…

Syriac Orthodox Christians have welcomed the Turkish government’s return of 55 title deeds, representing nearly half of their ancient church properties in southeast Turkey, which had been confiscated by the state in recent years.

Fifty of the official property deeds were delivered to the Syriacs’ 4th century Mor Gabriel Monastery near Midyat, in Mardin province, on 22 May. The disputed documents were received in person by Archbishop Timotheos Samuel Aktaş, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Tur Abdin, and Kuryakos Ergün, chairman of the Mor Gabriel Foundation. An additional five title deeds were returned to another Syriac Christian foundation in Mardin.

The turnover of Syriac community deeds resulted from the 27 March passage of an omnibus bill in the Turkish Parliament. The newly amended measures signed into law by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan authorised the return of these historic Syriac properties, many predating Ottoman times, to their original owners.

“These returned deeds have created great joy here among the Syriac Christians in Mardin and those who live abroad.”

            Kuryakos Ergün

“This is the first time our property deeds have been returned,” Ergün told Cumhuriyet newspaper on 27 May, noting that the new judicial amendments had considerably reduced property ownership problems of southeast Turkey’s Syriac…