Ep. 193: Southern Baptists Meet, Seattle Pacific Fractures, and One of the Nation’s Largest Methodist Churches Departs

On today’s program, Seattle Pacific University is struggling with issues of human sexuality.  A three judge panel in Colorado ruled against a Christian school’s ability to hire and fire teachers based on belief.  And the United Methodist Church has settled a dispute with one of the largest churches in its denomination.  The church gets to leave and keep its building, but it will pay millions to the denomination.  We begin today with news from the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, which took place this week in Anaheim, California. A reminder:  our fiscal year ends on June 30, at the end of this month.  I’m not embarrassed to admit that we’ve been running so hard covering the news – and there’s been lots of it this month – that we have not done all we could on the fundraising front, and we’re running a bit behind.  Our goal for June is $20,000, and so far we’ve raised less than $5,000.  Now, I should add that it’s kind of normal that we get most of our funds in the last half of every month, so I’m not officially freaking out yet, but it would be great if you could take some of the drama out of next week and the following week by giving now if you already know you want to help us by the end of the month. So if you would like to help us get back on track and finish the year strong, just go to MinistryWatch.com and hit the donate button at the top of the page.  And if you give during the month of June, we’ll send you a copy of a book I wrote with Christian journalism legend Marvin Olasky called “Prodigal Press:  Confronting The Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media.” The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Cathy Goddard, Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Rod Pitzer, Shannon Cuthrell, Peter Smith, Holly Meyer, Yonat Shimron, Steve Rabey, Kim Roberts, Adelle M. Banks, Bob Smietana, and Christina Darnell. Until next time, may God bless you.