Finance Agency Faces $500,000 Suit

* David Stevens, new director of the 1,500-member Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS), says the group must take the lead in promoting a biblical perspective on current medical issues. “The medical community and those we serve must develop firm moral stances on the key bioethical issues of our day: abortion, aids, euthanasia, human sexuality, in vitro fertilization, withdrawal of medical treatment, and the use of fetal tissue in research.” Stevens previously served as director of the World Medical Mission in Boone, North Carolina.

* Molly Marshall, the first woman granted tenure at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s school of theology in Louisville, Kentucky, resigned August 19 when informed by President R. Albert Mohler that charges for her dismissal would be initiated if she did not. Mohler indicated that the teachings of Marshall, who had been at the seminary since 1984 and tenured since 1988, had strayed outside acceptable boundaries. Marshall, whose resignation is effective December 31, has been accused of espousing universalism and feminist theological views, charges that she denies.

* The state of Mississippi is appealing a September decision by a U.S. district judge that the state’s new school prayer law is unconstitutional. The legislature passed a law earlier this year permitting student-led prayer at school-related activities. After the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way filed suits, the judge ruled that prayer should be allowed only at graduation ceremonies-because of previous court rulings-but that other student activities did not have sufficient safeguards providing for opt-out plans.

* Meanwhile, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court order in September, ruling that a portrait of Jesus that has been hanging in a Bloomingdale (Mich.) high school hallway for 30 years is unconstitutional because of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Student Eric Pensinger, an agnostic, had filed suit in 1992, claiming “psychological damage.”

* California Gov. Pete Wilson in September vetoed what would have been the first state law to allow unmarried couples, heterosexual or homosexual, to register with the state as “domestic partners” and receive some of the legal and property benefits of marriage rights. Wilson said governments should instead “encourage and reward marriage and the formation of strong families.”

* Wilson also signed a bill that makes intentional disruption of religious services a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail. The law is a response, in part, to a demonstration by homosexuals in 1993 outside Hamilton Square Baptist Church in San Francisco (CT, Nov. 8, 1993, p. 57). Church officials say rioters vandalized church property and hurled rocks at churchgoers.

* After receiving more than 100,000 letters of complaint, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted 3 to 0 on September 19 to drop religion from proposed workplace harassment guidelines. Numerous Christian groups had opposed the plan, fearing that everything from wearing a cross necklace to inviting a coworker to church could become grounds for a federal lawsuit (CT, April 25, 1994). The Senate and the House of Representatives voted to forbid the EEOC from enforcing the rules.

* “Latin America Evangelist,” the magazine of Latin America Mission since its founding in 1921, ceased publication with this month’s issue. The 20,000-circulation Miami-based quarterly magazine will be replaced with a bimonthly fundraising newsletter.

* Robert W. Provost became president September 1 of the Loves Park, Illinois-based Slavic Gospel Association, an interdenominational mission organization working in the former Soviet Union. Provost, who succeeds John B. Aker, has been European regional director for send International and president of Infocentre, Ltd.

* International Bible Society has published the Contemporary Vietnamese Bible, the first Vietnamese Bible translation since 1926. The International Bible Society began the translation in 1974 and finished the New Testament in 1982. “The Contemporary Vietnamese Bible is ready just as trade barriers are loosening and relations are warming,” International Bible Society president Lars Dunberg says. “The new Bible will find a ready audience.”

* Paul D. Kooistra is the new chief executive officer of Mission to the World, the Atlanta-based overseas missionary agency of the Presbyterian Church in America, which has more than 600 missionaries serving in 60 countries. Kooistra had been president of Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis for nine years.

* Elka, the first member of the Wai Wai tribe in Brazil to be converted to Christianity, died in August. Chief of his tribe at the time of his conversion in the 1950s, Elka is credited with converting many members of his tribe and establishing contact with several other unreached groups. “These were tribes that no foreign missionaries could reach,” John Miesel, associate director of UFM International, told CT. Elka’s story is chronicled in Zondervan’s Christ’s Witchdoctor, first published in 1963.

Copyright © 1994 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Re-engineering the Seminary?

Bringing the Poor to the Polls

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE: Church Refuses to Vacate Building

President, Quayle Tout Values Theme

Ministers Decry 'Censorship'

Camping Misses End of World

Is Word-Faith Movement Out on a Limb

State's Religious Ed Questioned in Nicaragua

Haitian Relief Teams Prepare to Return

News

Korean Presbyterian Church Refuses to Vacate Building

Tunnel Mystery Unearthed

Survey Questions Protestant Figures

Gridiron Star Tackles Urban Inner City Problems

BOOKS: Getting to Yes

BOOKS: Worth Mentioning

Whose Feminism?

PHILIP YANCEY: The Power of Writing

PHILIP YANCEY: The Power of Writing

ARTICLE: Shouting Heresy in the Temple of Darwin

News

Teaching Manhood in the Urban Jungle

News

News Briefs: October 24, 1994

Wire Story

Clinton Intervenes in RFRA Test Case

Wire Story

Prolifers Arrested in Cairo

Back from Bulgaria

Editorial

Get Real

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Cairoโ€™s Wake-up Call

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Take Us Out of the Ball Game

News

News Briefs: October 24, 1994

ARTICLE: The Good Capitalist

ARTICLE: Why They Helped the Jews

ARTICLE: The Translatorโ€™s Tale

Classic & Contemporary Excerpts from October 24, 1994

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letting the Boat Out of the Bag

News

Is Laughing for the Lord Holy?

View issue

Our Latest

Be Afraid

Be Afraid Bonus Episode 3: Scott Teems

Sometimes, thereโ€™s safety in numbers.

News

In Appalachia, Helene’s Water Crisis Taps a Global Christian Response

North Carolina churches are seeing people suffering dehydration. Disaster groups that work overseas are showing up to help.

Public Theology Project

The Bible Doesnโ€™t Fit an Information Age

Algorithms strip us of mystery. The Gospels restore our ability to be astonished by the truth.

Wire Story

Evangelicals for Harris Asked to โ€˜Cease and Desistโ€™ Billy Graham Ad

Franklin Graham says the campaign is โ€œtrying to mislead peopleโ€ by positioning his fatherโ€™s preaching in contrast to Donald Trump.

Facing My Limits in a Flood Zone

As a minister, Iโ€™m used to helping people during crisis. But trapped at home during Hurricane Helene, I could only care for who was in front of me.

5 Lessons Christians Can Learn from the Barmen Declaration

How a wartime confession resisted Hitlerโ€™s Nazification of the German church, and why its principles are still relevant today.

The Russell Moore Show

Autocracy, Robots, and Outlaws

Russell Moore and Ashley Hales, CTโ€™s editorial director for print, discuss what theyโ€™re reading.

News

Back at Shooting Site, Trump Supporters Pray for His Protection

Still shaken by the tragic attack, Butler, Pennsylvania, welcomed the former president back with cheers of triumph and a memorial for the previous rallyโ€™s victim.

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