| | What do you know about the Respect for Marriage Act? | | Curated for you byCP Editors | | Good afternoon! It's Tuesday, November 29, and today's headlines include details about the Respect for Marriage Act, Franklin Graham's response to a student's claim that Jesus has a "trans" body, conservatives condemning former President Donald Trump's dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, and an Ohio church festival that is currently featuring 300 Nativity scenes. | | The Senate voted on Monday to end debate on a religious freedom amendment to the Respect for Marriage Act, with a vote on three other amendments possibly coming Tuesday afternoon and a vote on final passage expected soon after. The measure passed the initial cloture vote on Nov. 16. Supporters say the bill is necessary to ensure that the right to same-sex marriage established by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges remains intact amid concerns that the justices will revisit the decision following their ruling in June overturning the right to abortion established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. However, opponents contend that the legislation does not provide sufficient protections for those with deeply held beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman. | | This article from CP highlights four key details about the Respect for Marriage Act and the proposed amendments. Among the bunch: an amendment designed to address social conservatives' concerns about religious liberty protects explicitly faith-based organizations but religious freedom advocates have cautioned that the religious freedom protections do not go far enough, with law firm Liberty Counsel warning that "this bill will not protect the religious beliefs of people like the Christian website designer with 303 Creative," Lorie Smith, whose case against Colorado's anti-discrimination law requiring businesses that offer wedding website services to create websites advertising same-sex weddings will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading. | | P.S.Looking for a way to close out your week? Stay in the know with In Case You Missed It, a Friday-only newsletter that features a roundup of the top stories of the week and a selection of faith-based highlights. Subscribe here. |
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| Conservatives slam Trump's dinner with Kanye West, Nick Fuentes | | Several prominent conservatives are speaking out following former President Donald Trump's dinner last week with rapper Kanye West and white supremacist Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Trump's 2024 presidential campaign claimed that the meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida came at West's request and that Trump didn't know Fuentes would be present. Several Republican politicians, the Anti-Defamation League and Orthodox Jewish commentator and Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro condemned the meeting, with Shapiro tweeting, "A good way not to accidentally dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you don't know is not to dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you do know." Read more. | | Mom 'grateful' for armed Antifa at 'Transgender Storytime' | | Transgender activist and mother Amber Briggle says she is "grateful" a group of armed Antifa members stood guard outside a North Texas bookstore event during Transgender Awareness Week while she read books about gender and sexuality to a group of young children and their parents. Attendees reportedly received goodie bags with items such as rainbow flags with stickers. Earlier this year, the Briggle family was featured in a Disney commercial by GLAAD called "Protect Our Families." In the ad, the mother accused Americans who support bans on genital mutilation surgeries for children and the teaching of LGBT ideology in schools of trying to "tear our families apart." The ad featured Briggle narrating a background video of her daughter, who identifies as a boy named Max, in an attempt to persuade viewers that society should support parents who want their children to have puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, asserting a trans child "is no different than yours." Read more. | | Franklin Graham: Student's 'trans body' comments are 'repulsive' | | During a recent sermon at the University of Cambridge's Trinity College, a research student claimed that Jesus Christ has a "trans body," likening Jesus’ side wound and blood flowing to the groin in Jean Malouel’s 1400 work Pietà to looking like a vagina. Junior research fellow Joshua Heath's comments, which also included the assertion that Jesus' wound as depicted in the 14th-century Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg "takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance," prompted outrage, with one churchgoer writing a letter to Trinity College’s Dean Michael Banner recalling how they "left the service in tears." Evangelist Franklin Graham also criticized the sermon, calling it "repulsive and shameful." He further noted that "the Bible warns us about false teachers," adding that "this speaker and the dean at the University of Cambridge who defended him are false teachers, preaching heresy." Read more. |
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| The beauty of 'Giving Tuesday' | | In recognition of Giving Tuesday, Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle writes about incorporating giving as part of your family's holiday traditions. Pyle reflects on how such traditions have enriched her life and the lessons she and her family have learned through giving. "Use Giving Tuesday and the month of December to give and the holiday season will deliver the gifts of merry and brightness to your heart," she says. Read more. | | As US faces Iran in World Cup, this is why Iran’s protests matter | | Sally Momtazi, a U.K.-based producer and presenter with SAT-7 and a native of Iran, writes about why Iran's human rights protests at the World Cup are important. Momtazi discusses the control she lived under growing up in Iran, the moral revolution it is experiencing, and why Christians cannot be silent about those who are being oppressed. "I’m not welcome in my own country. Now living in the U.K., I cannot visit Iran for fear of arrest. I couldn’t even be there when my dad took his final breath. ... My hijab is gone. But I’m still not truly free. I long for the day when standing on Iranian soil with the Persian breeze blowing through my hair, I can freely and openly dance, worship and live as I choose," she writes. Read more. |
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| 300 Nativity scenes featured at Christmas festival | | St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio, is hosting a weekslong festival that features around 300 unique Nativity scenes, as well as artwork, crafts, music and food. The festival is part of the HeART Gallery, the church's artistic outreach ministry. In an interview with The Christian Post, HeART Gallery Director Kate Philabaum explained that the Nativity scenes collections are from both members of the congregation and local resident collectors. The nativities are paired with "themed decorated Christmas trees" and "table-scapes," with Philabaum adding that the ministry partnered with two estate companies to use items that were going to be discarded. "We undertake the task to refurbish and repurpose these materials as much as possible, as stewards of the environment. About 50% of our decorated trees and table items have been salvaged in this way," she said. Read more. | | Widow of Vineyard USA founder sues Anaheim pastors | | Carol Wimber-Wong, the widow of Vineyard USA founder John Wimber, and several former church board members have lodged a $62 million lawsuit against Anaheim pastors Alan and Kathryn Scott. The move comes nearly a year after the couple announced the church would break away from the charismatic denomination. The complaint, which was filed Nov. 10 in the California Superior Court for Orange County, contends that the Scotts sought the positions of senior pastors of Vineyard Anaheim in December 2017 with the "deceitful motive of controlling tens of millions of dollars of assets and disassociating with Vineyard USA." Read more. |
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| Kim Kardashian stops short of cutting ties with Balenciaga | | Pop icon Kim Kardashian says she is "currently re-evaluating" her relationship with luxury fashion brand Balenciaga following public outrage over their new holiday campaign that featured "disturbing images" of children. The brand debuted a campaign over the Thanksgiving holiday that showed young girls holding handbags shaped like teddy bears in fishnet tops and leather harnesses. The bears appeared to have battered eyes. An image on Balenciaga’s website of its "Hourglass" handbag also included a hidden reference to a 2008 Supreme Court decision that ruled on the constitutionality of laws prohibiting the pandering of child pornography. Kardashian did not commit to cutting ties with the brand, instead tweeting that she was "re-evaluating" her relationship with them based on "their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with—& the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children." Meanwhile, Balenciaga filed a lawsuit Friday against North Six, Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins, the creators of the initial campaign that drew controversy. Read more. | | | | | | | | Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow! -- CP Editors |
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