Feb. 6, 2020: Trump's promise to Iraqi Christians in US; seminarian killed in Nigeria; United Airlines onboard porn
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— Willow Creek’s interim pastor to step down as church drops top candidates to fill Bill Hybels’ shoes
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Elders at Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago announced Thursday that Steve Gillen, their interim senior pastor, will step down on March 17. Gillen has been serving in the role since the church’s founder, Bill Hybels, resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal in 2018.
The announcement was made in an update from the elder board in which they also revealed that they are no longer considering two leading candidates they had settled on in December to fill the vacancy created by Hybels’ scandal.
— Abducted seminarian killed by kidnappers in Nigeria; 3 other seminarians released by captors
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is mourning the murder of an 18-year-old seminary student who was abducted earlier this month along with three other seminarians who have since been released.
An unnamed member of the seminary’s teaching staff told the papal charity organization Aid to the Church in Need that the student was an “orphan brought up by his grandmother” who grew up to become a “young and gifted seminarian.”
Armed kidnappings have become an increasing problem across Nigeria. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, at least 30 to 100 people were abducted in one night alone last month by men wearing military fatigues.
— United Airlines to train flight attendants to stop passengers from watching porn onboard
United Airlines is now training flight attendants to intervene when passengers are seen watch porn on their personal devices. A spokesperson for the airline told the National Center on Sexual Exploitation that their flight attendants began the new training in January to combat sexual harassment of passengers during flights.
Haley Halverson, vice president of advocacy and outreach for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in recent years, the number of passengers who watch pornography on their personal devices while on airplanes has increased dramatically.
— Trump promises to grant Iraqi Christians facing deportation extensions to stay
President Trump vowed last week to grant “extensions” to stay in the United States to some Iraqi Christians that his administration had earlier sought to deport despite concerns they could face persecution upon returning to the Middle East.
He made the promise to grant extensions to a community of Chaldean Catholic immigrants during a speech last Thursday at an auto parts manufacturing plant in Warren, Michigan.
Hundreds of Iraqi Christian immigrants live in the Detroit area. In the last few years, they have lived in fear of deportation as the administration focused on enforcing outstanding deportation orders from the Obama administration and other previous administrations.
— Trump to appoint first black pastor of Jimmy Carter’s church to help former prisoners
President Donald Trump is expected to name the Rev. Tony Lowden, the first black American to lead Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are longtime members, as the administration's "reentry czar," to help former prisoners reentering the workforce.
In a 2018 executive order Trump established a Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry that he tasked with developing recommendations for reform. Lowden will be named executive director of the council.
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