- Zondervan has purchased BibleGateway.com, an online reference of searchable Bible translations and one of the most popular Christian websites. The site’s previous owner, Gospel Communications International (previously Gospel Films), shuttered its Internet division and website-hosting ministry this fall after back-to-back years of significant financial losses. Zondervan will also acquire Gospel.com, which has offered website hosting to more than 300 ministries (including several Christian publishers). An internal Zondervan memo indicated the company plans to allow Bible Gateway to offer Bible translations and resources from a variety of publishers.
- Taylor University will close its Fort Wayne undergraduate campus after spending 16 years and millions of dollars trying to establish a successful branch in Indiana’s second-largest city. The decision by the evangelical college in Upland displaces about 340 students and 120 faculty and staff for the 2009 school year.
- A Presbyterian Church (USA) court ruled 9-0 that Janet Edwards did not violate church law or Scripture when the Pittsburgh pastor officiated at a lesbian couple’s wedding in June 2005. The Permanent Judicial Commission of Pittsburgh Presbytery concluded that the ceremony Edwards presided over “was not, and could not have been, a marriage ceremony” because neither Pennsylvania nor the PC(USA) recognizes gay marriage. “It can’t be an offense to the constitution to attempt to do the impossible,” said the unanimous decision. At least three other Presbyterian ministers have been investigated for officiating at same-sex weddings and all were ultimately found not guilty, said a member of Edwards’s defense team.
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