Afterlife accounts removed from stores
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention has stopped selling popular accounts of the afterlife like Heaven is for Real and 90 Minutes in Heaven at its national chain of Lifeway Christian Bookstores.
Last summer, Southern Baptists at their annual convention warned such books and films can lead people astray with “personal testimonies that cannot be corroborated” and sometimes conflict with Scripture.
They overwhelmingly passed a resolution declaring “the sufficiency of biblical revelation over subjective experiential” accounts of heaven and hell.
Lifeway spokesman Marty King said that resolution was taken into consideration, and Lifeway stopped ordering personal afterlife accounts last summer. Now, he said, “the remaining heaven visitation items have been removed from our stores and website and will not be replenished.”
— The Associated Press
Leader warns of anti-Semitism
WASHINGTON — A Jewish leader said recent tensions between the United States and Israel have contributed to a rise in global anti-Semitism.
Friction between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown over policy differences about the creation of a Palestinian state and the U.S.-led international nuclear talks with Iran.
The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, told a congressional committee Tuesday, that when people around the world see “even the best friend of Israel is having problems with them,” it provokes negative attitudes toward Jews.
Lauder said Jews in Europe are increasingly the targets of radical Islamic terrorism like the recent deadly attacks in Paris and Copenhagen.
He warned that unless the United States acts decisively to defeat Islamic terrorists in the Middle East and Africa, “the flame of radical Islam could stretch across all of Europe as well.”
— The Associated Press
Adoptions rejected under Alabama Bill
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama would allow adoption agencies
— including those with state contracts — to refuse to place children with same-sex couples on religious grounds, under a bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature.
Republican state Sen. Gerald Allen introduced the bill last week specifying that groups could refuse to participate in adoptions and foster care placements that violate their religious beliefs. The bill also would prohibit the state from refusing to license or contract with the groups that deny services to people on religious grounds.
Allen said he brought the bill to protect the faith-based groups, including children’s homes affiliated with Baptist and Catholic churches, in case the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide this June.
Opponents said the bill would provide legal cover for discrimination against a diverse array of families seeking to adopt.
— The Associated Press
‘Biblical marriage’ target of Texas rally
AUSTIN, Texas — About 250 people have rallied at the Texas Capitol in support of what they call “Biblical marriage” — the union of a man and a woman — at an event headlined by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Moore defended his instruction to Alabama’s state probate judges to deny marriage licenses to gay couples despite a federal ruling that Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. He said state courts have equal authority, and “no court has authority to redefine what God proposed in Genesis.”
Moore also said Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg should recuse themselves from gay marriage cases because they officiated at gay weddings.
The Coalition of African American Pastors also called for the justices’ recusals at a rally held earlier Monday at the Texas Capitol.
Meanwhile, about 50 gay rights activists gathered at a church near the Capitol for lunch and an ice cream social before lobbying lawmakers to support gay marriage.