THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn
Baptist Press reports Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd and 16 former SBC presidents sent President Barack Obama an open letter, calling him to action concerning ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria).
“The abuse, brutalization, and murder of children, women, and men that is occurring before the world calls our country to lead forward to bring this to an end,” reads the letter, which also calls ISIS “a continuing threat to world peace in a way unknown to us since the Nazis of World War II.”
In February, ISIS beheaded 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, adding to a long list of brutal acts in the Middle East. The terror group also reportedly kidnapped more than 200 Christians in Syria last week.
Of the hundreds of Christians kidnapped by ISIS, 19 have been released, multiple media outlets reported March 1. Read more at ChristianPost.com.
Nebraska’s embattled ban on same-sex marriage faced another challenge Monday, when a U.S. District Judge issued an injunction against it scheduled to go into effect March 9. CBS News reports the judge, Joseph Bataillon, ruled the ban unconstitutional in 2005, but it was reinstated by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals the next year.
Bataillon’s Monday ruling was appealed by the state’s attorney general.
Christian media – books, TV, podcasts and radio – is largely consumed by Christians, LifeWay Research reports in a new survey. But movies with faith themes may reach a wider audience, the research found.
Speaking of movies, Barna’s report on what we watched in 2014 is out and offers an interesting look at how the year’s most popular films differ from those that received award nominations. Of 30 films studied, the top five were mostly sequels, based on comic books, or family-friendly fare, with not a Best Picture nominee among them. See the list at Barna.com.
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