Feb. 29, 2020: YouTube censorship, women's shelter, church breaks noise ordinance
Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020:
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— City of Bixby in Oklahoma might shut down popular church for being too loud
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Transformation Church in Bixby, Oklahoma, could soon be shut down after receiving 32 noise violation citations since it moved to its new location.
City Attorney Phil Frazier said they are looking at three different ways to fix the problem, including the drastic step of shutting down the church, led by pastor Michael Todd, or make a deal that would appease the community.
— US faith leaders meet victims of Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen
American faith leaders recently met with Nigerian villagers devastated by Boko Haram and Fulani tribesmen and key figures in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as part of a fact-finding mission to investigate reports of escalating violence in the West African country.
Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, are calling on the Nigerian government to provide basic protections to its citizens and ensure that children can return to school. Otherwise, they fear that Nigeria, the richest country on the continent, will become another Afghanistan.
— City stops funding rape shelter over refusal to admit men who identify as women
The Vancouver City Council in British Columbia voted this week to withdraw grant funding for a women’s shelter known as Vancouver Rape Relief over its policy of only allowing women into its peer counseling program.
The city council argued that the 47-year-old shelter’s policy of protecting women discriminates against men who identify as women and has resulted in a "lack of inclusivity."
— YouTube can censor conservative content, not bound by First Amendment
A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has unanimously ruled that YouTube can censor conservative content, as it is not compelled by the First Amendment to allow all viewpoints.
The popular conservative YouTube channel PragerU filed a lawsuit against YouTube and Google, accusing the entities of wrongfully censoring their videos. However, in a decision released Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing Prager’s lawsuit against the video-sharing website.
— Family complains after church denies boy communion because he’s autistic
A day after a New Jersey couple revealed that their 8-year-old son was denied First Communion by the Saint Aloysius Parish in Jackson due to his autism, the church reversed its decision after public outcry.
Nicole LaCugna told News 12 New Jersey that she thinks the decision by the church is unbiblical because: "Nowhere in the Bible does it ever show discrimination against anybody."
The church released a statement Wednesday on Facebook stating that after reviewing the Code of Canon Law, which states that Catholics cannot be denied the sacraments as long as they are properly prepared and are ready to receive them, they have found evidence to allow children with disabilities into the fold.
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