Oct. 26, 2019: US to protect holy sites worldwide; Always caves to trans activists; Christian ministry's lawsuit
Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019:
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— USCIRF launches $25 million campaign to protect holy sites worldwide
Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, has detailed the plans for a new $25 million campaign to protect and restore holy sites and places of worship throughout the world.
Brownback, who heads of the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Office, testified before the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Thursday where he shared the vision for the new campaign announced by President Donald Trump at the United Nations last month. Trump was the first president ever to convene a meeting at the U.N. solely on the topic of religious freedom.
During the congressional hearing, Brownback said the allocation of $25 million would be used to help protect religious heritage sites and possibly even restore the Tomb of Jonah, a Christian holy site that was destroyed in 2014 by the Islamic State in northern Iraq.
— Always removes female symbol from pads to appease transgender activists
The Always brand of feminine hygiene products is removing the Venus symbol from its sanitary pad wrappers to be more "inclusive" of men who identify as women and women who identify as men. The change will not affect the outer packaging on Always products. Customers will see this change starting in December.
Procter & Gamble brand Always did not confirm whether it felt pressured by transgender activist groups to remove the female symbol, but did say they made the change to: “meet the needs of everyone who uses our products.”
— Karen Swallow Prior leaving Liberty after 21 years to join SEBTS faculty
Beloved Liberty University English professor Karen Swallow Prior is leaving the institution she has served since 1999 to join the faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina beginning in the fall of 2020.
Prior is a senior fellow with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and was among several women who called on Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to take action against then President Paige Patterson over his past handling of a student who alleged she was sexually assaulted by another student.
— Christian ministry pushes ahead with discrimination lawsuit against Amazon, SPLC
A Christian ministry that filed a defamation lawsuit against Amazon and the Southern Poverty Law Center is now taking its case to an appeals court. After D. James Kennedy Ministries was banned from participating in the AmazonSmile charity program because it was labeled as a "hate group" by the SPLC because it opposes homosexuality, it filed a lawsuit against Amazon, Guidestar, and the SPLC, arguing that the entities engaged in defamation and religious discrimination.
A district court subsequently ruled against their complaint, and now they are appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. David Gibbs III of the National Center for Life and Liberty, which is helping to represent the D. James Kennedy Ministries, said if the ruling is allowed to stand, it could lead to churches being banned from services, such as deliveries from Amazon.
—Liberty University may sue writer over exposé piece on Jerry Falwell Jr.
Liberty University might be taking a journalist to court for an article detailing various allegations against the university’s President, Jerry Falwell Jr.
Breitbart News reported Tuesday that the university retained the services of the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres which has notable clients including President Donald Trump. In an interview with the conservative news publication, Falwell explained that he and Liberty “have a fiduciary duty to defend the school from this attack.”
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