In the News (September 2024)
Majority still credits God for humankind
A majority of Americans still believe God played at least some role in the creation of humankind, but a majority also believe humans evolved from less advanced forms of life.
Though diminished from the early 2000s, the largest segment of Americans, 37 percent, are creationist purists, saying God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years.
Twenty-four percent of U.S. adults accept the scientific theory of evolution, that humans evolved from less advanced forms of life over millions of years without God’s involvement.
One in three, 34 percent, straddle both theories, saying humans evolved, but with God’s guidance.
These findings, from a May 1-23 Gallup poll, come at a time when Americans are increasingly likely to say they do not identify with a religion or belong to a house of worship, and that religion is not important in their daily lives.
Gallup began measuring Americans’ views of human origins using this question in 1982 and has intermittently tracked opinions since then. Belief in creationism and God-guided evolution reached their peaks of 47 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in 1999 and have since trended downward. Meanwhile, support for evolution without divine intervention has nearly tripled since 1999.
Appeals court revives photographer’s lawsuit
A federal appeals court panel has revived a lawsuit filed by a Christian photographer against a New York law that would force her to service same-sex wedding ceremonies.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 12 that Emilee Carpenter’s lawsuit over New York’s public accommodations law could continue.
Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, a Biden appointee, authored the opinion, writing that the lower court must consider Carpenter’s free speech claims “to determine whether the application of the law at issue actually compels Carpenter’s expressive conduct, rather than nonexpressive conduct that imposes an incidental burden on speech.”
Nathan urged the court to reconsider Carpenter’s claims in light of the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. The high court ruled 6-3 last year that Colorado could not force a Christian website designer to build websites celebrating gay marriage.
The appeals court panel denied Carpenter’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law against her, instead deciding to “remand to the district court to consider the application for preliminary injunctive relief on a developed factual record.”
Florida council to appeal ruling over prayer vigil
The Ocala City Council in Florida has appealed a federal judge’s decision that a 2014 prayer vigil held in the Ocala Downtown Square was unconstitutional.
The appeal of U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan’s decision was filed in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the city were to accept Corrigan’s decision, it would have to pay about $500,000 in legal fees to the plaintiffs. If the city wins, there is a chance for the plaintiffs to be responsible for the fees.
The vigil, which took place in September 2014, was backed by the late and former Ocala Police Department Chief Greg Graham, who asked citizens to pray for the end of violent crime after a series of shootings. After attending the vigil, plaintiffs Art Rojas, Lucinda Hale, Faniel Hale and Frances Jean Porgal filed the lawsuit against the city, Graham and then-Mayor Kent Guinn.
The plaintiffs argued that hosting a government-backed prayer vigil in the Ocala Downtown Square violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Corrigan first ruled in 2018 that the vigil was unconstitutional, then was directed to reconsider the case in 2022 when the city appealed the decision and won in the 11th Circuit.
Church of Nazarene drops LGBTQ-affirming minister
A Church of the Nazarene disciplinary board found Thomas J. Oord, a prominent theologian and now-former minister, guilty of teaching doctrines contrary to the church’s official position on human sexuality because of his acceptance of LGBTQ-plus individuals and same-sex relationships.
Oord was most recently the director of doctoral programs in open and relational theology at the online Northwind Theological Seminary.
“Our sincere prayer is that Oord will repent of his heretical teachings and devote his considerable talents in a way that he and all those whom he has led astray will find wholeness in Christ,” said a statement by the seven-member board announcing its verdict.
Oord told the Idaho Statesman he was not surprised the church stripped him of his clerical credentials but did not expect to also be excommunicated from the denomination that has over 2.6 million members.
200K people abused in care in New Zealand
New Zealand’s independent inquiry into decades of abuse of children and vulnerable adults released a blistering final report July 24 finding the country’s state agencies and churches failed to prevent, stop or admit to the mistreatment of those in their care.
The scale of abuse was “unimaginable,” with an estimated 200,000 people abused over seven decades, many of them Maori, New Zealand’s Indigenous people, the report said.
In response to the findings, New Zealand’s government agreed for the first time that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture, and pledged an apology to all those abused in state, foster and religious care since 1950.
The findings by the Royal Commission — the highest level of inquiry that can be undertaken in New Zealand — capped a six-year investigation that followed two decades of similar probes around the world, as nations struggle to reckon with authorities’ transgressions against children removed from their families and placed in care.
Christianity had key role in boarding school trauma
The U.S. Department of Interior’s report on its three-year investigation into federally funded Indian boarding schools — documenting the many Native American children who suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse in that system — shows the key role Christianity played in destroying tribal identity and family ties.
The Interior Department confirms that 973 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died in these schools. By the year 1900, 1 out of 5 Native American school-age children attended a boarding school.
Completing an initial study released in May 2022, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative’s second and final report lists 417 Indian boarding schools established between 1819 and 1969. Religious institutions or organizations ran more than half — 210 of 417 — of federal Indian boarding schools.
More than 18,600 children who entered the system have been identified by name, although those in many other institutions, such as orphanages, asylums and sanatoriums, were not included in the report. Almost 300 children who died have yet to be identified. Only 53 marked burial sites and 21 unmarked sites have been located.
Evangelical leaders: Don’t endorse from pulpit
According to the May/June 2024 Evangelical Leaders Survey, 98 percent of evangelical Christian leaders say pastors should not endorse candidates from the pulpit.
“Church leaders should inform, uplift and draw people into deeper discipleship that impacts how they engage in their communities, including how they vote,” said Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which released the survey. “Endorsing a political candidate is rarely helpful and most often breeds division.”
Based on a 1954 law known as the Johnson Amendment, the IRS bans all 501(c)(3) nonprofits — including churches — from active involvement in political campaigns. However, the Johnson Amendment does not restrict pastors from offering biblical guidance on contemporary issues, and many evangelical leaders say pastors have a clear responsibility to do so.
Kimberly Reisman, executive director of World Methodist Evangelism, said, “Endorsing from the pulpit further polarizes our current culture. God can use leaders from all parties, and to equate God’s will with the will of any political party or person is exceedingly dangerous and a threat to the overall witness of Christians in the United States.”
Satanic Temple loses discrimination suit
The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Boston declining to allow The Satanic Temple to give an invocation prior to city council meetings doesn’t violate constitutional prohibitions against the government establishing a religion.
The Satanic Temple sued Boston for religious discrimination after it was denied an invitation to deliver a legislative prayer, a custom at each Boston City Council meeting.
“The Constitution does not require that legislative bodies accept all speakers who request to give invocations,” the court said Aug. 6 in an opinion authored by Judge Sandra L. Lynch.
Council members have invited Christian, Jewish, Unitarian and Muslim speakers, as well as guests to give non-religious invocations, but the court noted council members tend to invite a member of their community to give the invocation, a decision the city claims involves politics, not religion.
The Satanic Temple failed to show “evidence of discrimination based on religious beliefs as to which speakers are invited, much less evidence of intentional discrimination,” the court said.
