Connect with us

California

Southern Baptists expel California megachurch for having female pastors

Published

on

Southern Baptists expel California megachurch for having female pastors


New Orleans — The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday upheld a decision to expel two churches — including Southern California megachurch Saddleback — for ordaining female pastors.

The approximately 13,000 representatives — known by the SBC as messengers —  also overwhelmingly voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would require that only men be employed as qualified pastors at member churches.

The vote at the annual convention in New Orleans was met with cheers and was praised by “messengers” like a Sunday sermon. 

“It puts us all on the same page about what a pastor is, and who a pastor is: a biblically qualified man,” Mike Law, a pastor at Arlington Baptist Church in Texas, said Wednesday of the amendment in an address to the convention.

Advertisement

The amendment will need a second vote by a two-thirds margin at next year’s convention in Indianapolis before it would take effect, according to the Baptist Press, the news service for SBC.  

The conservative SBC refused to reinstate Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Lake Forest, California, founded by the now retired Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” 

The SBC’s Executive Committee had voted in February to expel Saddleback, and Wednesday’s member vote upheld that decision.

Prior to the vote, Warren made a futile appeal to the messengers.

“I’m not asking you to agree with my church,” Warren told the convention Tuesday. “I am asking you to act like a Southern Baptist.”

Advertisement
Rick Warren
FILE — Pastor Rick Warren at Roma Downey’s star ceremony held on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Aug. 11, 2016 in Hollywood, California.

Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images


In total, five churches have been expelled from SBC for having women pastors. Also expelled Wednesday was Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

“This is a sad day for Southern Baptists because they are losing gifted and talented and called women of God, as we continue to proclaim the gospel. Why they want to get rid of folks like us, makes no sense,” Fern Creek pastor Linda Barnes Popham told CBS News, adding that the message the expulsion sends to millions of female members of SBC churches is that “you are not valued.”

SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, with more than 13 million members. However, it has seen its membership drop 9% over the past three years.  

Advertisement

The SBC was also rocked by a bombshell report released in May of 2022 which found that its Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse and stonewalled survivors.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

California

New law requiring California bars to offer drink spiking drug test kits takes effect July 1 | CNN

Published

on

New law requiring California bars to offer drink spiking drug test kits takes effect July 1 | CNN




CNN
 — 

A new law requiring many California bars and nightclubs to offer common date-rape drug test kits will take effect Tuesday, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The law, Assembly Bill 1013, requires approximately 2,400 establishments with a Type 48 license to have signage letting patrons know that drug testing kits are available.

Type 48 licenses are issued to bars and nightclubs and authorize the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits, according to the department.

Advertisement

The signage reads, “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”

The drug testing devices will either be offered for sale at a reasonable price or be given to customers for free, according to the department.

Devices could include test strips, stickers, or straws that can detect the presence of controlled substances in drinks.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

California

California bars required to offer drug testing kits starting July 1

Published

on

California bars required to offer drug testing kits starting July 1


California bars required to offer drug testing kits starting July 1 – CBS Sacramento

Watch CBS News


Bars and nightclubs across California will be required to have testing kits for date rape drugs, effective Monday.

Advertisement

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

California

Eagles’ Don Henley Files Lawsuit for Return of Handwritten ‘Hotel California’ Lyrics

Published

on

Eagles’ Don Henley Files Lawsuit for Return of Handwritten ‘Hotel California’ Lyrics


Eagles singer Don Henley filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday (June 28) seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s 1976 album Hotel California.

The civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court comes after prosecutors in March abruptly dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of scheming to sell the documents.

The Eagles co-founder has maintained the pages were stolen and had vowed to pursue a lawsuit when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.

“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,” Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday.

Advertisement

According to the lawsuit, the handwritten pages remain in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which declined to comment Friday on the litigation.

Lawyers for Kosinski and Inciardi dismissed the legal action as baseless, noting the criminal case was dropped after it was determined that Henley misled prosecutors by withholding critical information.

“Don Henley is desperate to rewrite history,” Shawn Crowley, Kosinski’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to litigating this case and bringing a lawsuit against Henley to hold him accountable for his repeated lies and misuse of the justice system.”

Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, said in a separate statement that the lawsuit attempts to “bully” and “perpetuate a false narrative.”

A lawyer for Horowitz, who isn’t named as a defendant as he doesn’t claim ownership of the materials, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Advertisement

During the trial, the men’s lawyers argued that Henley gave the lyrics pages decades ago to a writer who worked on a never-published Eagles biography and later sold the handwritten sheets to Horowitz. He, in turn, sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, who started putting some of the pages up for auction in 2012.

The criminal case was abruptly dropped after prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates.

Prosecutors and the defense said they received the material only after Henley and his lawyers made a last-minute decision to waive their attorney-client privilege shielding legal discussions.

Judge Curtis Farber, who presided over the nonjury trial that opened in late February, said witnesses and their lawyers used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging” and that prosecutors “were apparently manipulated.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending