Sept. 16, 2019: Freedom March, NY to repeal 'conversion therapy' ban, church erases $43 million in medical debt
Monday, Sept. 16, 2019:
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— Ex-LGBT millennials hold Freedom March Orlando 3 years after Pulse mass shooting
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Hundreds of people gathered in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday for the Freedom March where attendees proclaimed their freedom from homosexuality and faith in Jesus Christ. The event was held three years after a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub carried out by a gunman who declared his allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group.
The first Freedom March was held in Washington, D.C., on May 5, 2018. Upcoming events will be held in Georgia in October and again in the nation’s capital on May 2020.
—Calif. legislature approves measure criticizing pastors for not embracing LGBT identities
The California Legislature has passed a resolution that blames religious leaders and groups that support sexual orientation change efforts therapies for the suicides and attempted suicides of those who identify as LGBT. The state Senate approved Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99 by a party-line vote earlier this month.
The nonbinding resolution was sponsored by Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low of San Jose. The text of ACR-99 criticizes pastors, counselors, and other religious ministers who offer their services to people with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. The resolution denounces religious views about sexual ethics that do not affirm LGBT identities as “stigmatizing beliefs” that contribute to depression and suicide.
— New York City to repeal ban on gay 'conversion therapy' amid legal battle
The New York city council is planning to repeal its two-year-old ban on “gay conversion therapy” to avoid a costly uphill legal fight. Its ban is currently being challenged by the conservative religious freedom legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, which has won nine U.S. Supreme Court cases in the last seven years.
Councilmembers fear that, if challenged in court, the city’s ban on sexual orientation change efforts therapies would be struck down by the Second Circuit and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
— Church erases $43 million in medical debt for Missouri families
A Missouri church has raised enough money to erase $43 million in medical debt incurred by families in that state. Pastors Keith Simon and Patrick Miller of The Crossing, a church based in Columbia, said the amount raised for those with medical debt was $431,597.30.
The Crossing partnered with a nonprofit known as RIP Medical Debt, which will use the church’s donation to purchase medical debt at a price of one cent on the dollar. Every person whose debt is forgiven will receive a note from RIP Medical Debt saying that The Crossing paid off their debt. The pastors called their effort a Jubilee in homage to the practice in Ancient Israel in which every 50 years all debts were forgiven.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/church-erases-43-million-medical-debt-missouri-families.html
— Faith groups speak out on Supreme Court allowing temporary enforcement of Trump asylum rule
Some Christian leaders and humanitarian groups are condemning the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow enforcement of a new rule that would prevent many immigrants traveling through Central America from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border.
The justices lifted a California federal court’s injunction against the new asylum policy announced by the Trump administration in July that would make nearly all immigrants who pass through another country on their way to the U.S. border without first seeking asylum in those countries ineligible for asylum in the U.S.
Matthew Soerens, national coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table and director of U.S. church mobilization for World Relief, said he was “deeply grieved” by the courts decision. Thousands of Central Americans make the treacherous journey to the U.S. every year in hopes of receiving asylum, and in recent years there has also been an influx in migrants from Africa and Asia coming to the U.S. border.
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