High court backs church in public benefits case
The U.S. Supreme Court struck a blow June 26 for the freedom of churches to participate in government programs with secular purposes. Seven of nine justices agreed the state of Missouri violated a church’s right to exercise its faith freely by barring it from participating in a government-run, playground-resurfacing program. In its opinion, the court said excluding Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia “from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious” to the U.S. Constitution.
Muslim converts breathe life into struggling churches
A soaring number of Muslims, many of them refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, are converting to Christianity, breathing new life into Europe’s once floundering Christian churches. The Muslims are flocking to various Christian denominations, experts said, including becoming Protestants, evangelical, or Catholic.
Case of gay couple’s wedding cake heads to Supreme Court
A Colorado clash between gay rights and religion started as an angry Facebook posting about a wedding cake but now has big implications for anti-discrimination laws in 22 states. Baker Jack Phillips is challenging a Colorado law that says he was wrong to have turned away a same-sex couple who wanted a cake to celebrate their 2012 wedding.
New York sues pro-life protesters
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit last week against several pro-life sidewalk counselors, seeking to stop their activities and enact a 16-foot buffer zone around an abortion center. The suit claims sidewalk counselors “repeatedly harassed, threatened, and menaced patients, families, escorts, and clinic staff at the Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens.”
Judge halts deportations of Detroit Christians to Iraq
More than 100 Iraqi Christians arrested in immigration raids earlier this month will get to stay in the United States—at least for another two weeks, according to an order issued yesterday by a federal judge in Detroit. The written order follows outcry from the Detroit area’s Chaldean Christians, who were shocked when officials detained scores of them on June 11.
Sources: Baptist Press, Fox News, ABC News, World Magazine, Christianity Today
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