(SRN NEWS)- ( ) Thousands of Southern Baptists have voted overwhelmingly to advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote at the SBC’s annual meeting in Orlando this week sends a clear message that men alone should preach to congregations. The resolution easily exceeded the two-thirds majority […]
Religious News
RELIGION HEADLINES FRI 6-12
Audio By Carbonatix
(SRN NEWS)-
( ) Thousands of Southern Baptists have voted overwhelmingly to advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote at the SBC’s annual meeting in Orlando this week sends a clear message that men alone should preach to congregations. The resolution easily exceeded the two-thirds majority required to amend the denomination’s constitution. The ban will require a similar vote at next year’s annual meeting to gain final approval. The amendment would tighten existing restrictions in the SBC, which already has a faith statement opposing women pastors.
( ) A landmark legal decision in Italy could have consequences for Europe. An Italian court has decided to recognize an arrangement in which a four-year-old child has one mother and two fathers. The individuals all come from Germany and include a pair of gay married men and a woman who served as their surrogate. The arrangement is legal in Germany, but this new ruling also makes it legal in Italy and some say it could open the door for a kind of polyamorous union being accepted all across Europe. There are several members of the European Union that have not legalized same-sex marriage, let alone polyamory.
( ) The Pentagon’s recent revision to its list of Christian religions has reignited a long-standing debate about whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian denomination. Mormons identify as Christian. But a number of their core beliefs, particularly involving the Trinity, differ from Christianity. Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Republicans and Mormons, are challenging the Pentagon’s exclusion of their faith from its list of Christian religions. The Pentagon has removed nearly 200 faith systems from its list of recognized religions, but says the new rubric is not meant to question any faith’s legitimacy.