Presbyterians add
same-sex unions
NEW YORK — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has approved a new definition of marriage that includes gay marriage.
The denomination is now the largest Protestant group to recognize same-sex marriage as Christian and allow same-sex weddings churchwide.
The new definition was endorsed last year by the denomination’s top legislative body as an amendment to the church constitution. The change required approval from the majority of regional bodies or presbyteries. The Covenant Network of Presbyterians says the critical vote came Tuesday from the Palisades Presbytery in New Jersey. The Presbytery of Arkansas approved the change during its annual meeting last month.
The denomination has about 1.8 million members and 10,000 congregations nationwide.
— The Associated Press
Snake handler
charged in assault
LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. — A Tennessee minister who has appeared on a reality TV show about handling snakes in church faces charges of assault and reckless endangerment.
Media outlets report that the charges against Andrew Hamblin stem from a domestic disturbance at a residence in Campbell County.
Hamblin is the pastor of the Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, which uses snake handling in services. He has appeared on the reality show Snake Salvation on the National Geographic Channel.
In 2013, state wildlife officials seized 53 copperheads and rattlesnakes from Hamblin and cited him for illegally keeping them, but a grand jury declined to indict him.
— The Associated Press
Swindler given
19-year sentence
ATLANTA — Federal prosecutors say a businessman accused of swindling churchgoers in an investment scheme has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
Authorities say 32-year-old Ephren Taylor II of Overland Park, Kan., was sentenced Tuesday to 19 years and seven months.
Prosecutors have said Taylor, former chief executive of North Carolina-based City Capital Corporation, convinced members of mostly black churches across the country to invest in small businesses and used their money to pay personal expenses. Prosecutors say more than 400 people invested more than $16 million in the scheme.
Taylor is ordered to pay more than $15.5 million in restitution.
— The Associated Press
Directors debate
employment act
WASHINGTON — Gay rights advocates say a federal law is needed to prohibit LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) discrimination in the workplace, and that religious exemptions should be few.
Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Monday that the nation’s “commitment to nondiscrimination trumps private prejudice.”
But Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, testified that “it is not necessarily immoral or irrational to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Clegg said a federal ban, which is not before the current Congress, would seek to “marginalize the views of Americans who believe that gay sex is a sin.”
— The Associated Press