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Oklahoma bishop regrets state enforcement plan
Oklahoma Bishop Rt Revd Poulson Reed has spoken out against a state court’s decision to set execution dates for 25 death row inmates within the next two years, ENS reported. In an email to his diocese on Tuesday, Bishop Reed said his position was “not overly partial” but “deeply rooted in Christian theology,” citing passages from Genesis to the Epistles . The state has a history of botched lethal injections, which led to more than five years of moratoriums on pending litigation until June, when Oklahoma’s attorney general asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an updated execution date. “Given the state of our state’s criminal justice system, our shared belief in the sanctity of human life and the proper functioning of state power leads us to call for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma,” the bishop wrote. Church leaders signed his letter.
Church founders fight to protect places of worship
UP Wild Church (a non-denominational ministry in the Diocese of Northern Michigan at U.S.), Lanni Lantto, is working to protect natural areas where church members worship from becoming commercial rocket launch sites, ENS reports. The church holds nature services and wilderness walks in the Upper Peninsula’s pine forests, inland lakes and along the shores of Lake Superior. The proposed Michigan Launch Initiative site would be built on private land directly adjacent to one of their places of worship. Environmental concerns among environmentalists include the threat of toxic substances spreading across the region, a failed rocket launch falling into Lake Superior and the risk of forest fires destroying ancient trees around the site.
Boston to pay $2 million in Christian flag case
The US city of Boston has agreed to pay more than $2.1 million to the Christian legal organization Liberty Lawyers, which supports a lawsuit brought by a conservative activist who demanded a Christian flag outside City Hall but was rejected. In May, the Supreme Court ruled that the city had rejected activist Harold Shurtleff’s “religious views” discrimination when it rejected his request to hang a white banner with a red cross on a blue background in honor of Constitution Day . September 2017 (News, May 6). Organizations may apply to temporarily replace the City of Boston flag outside the lobby with theirs. The settlement announced Tuesday by Liberty Counsel covers attorneys’ fees and other costs related to the legal dispute, The Associated Press reported. A lower court upheld City Hall’s decision.
Body exhumed against family’s wishes
A tribal community in Antargal, IndiaThe body of a 35-year-old Christian woman has been exhumed because she converted to Christianity against the wishes of her family, Global Christian Unity reports. The woman, Janki Sori, was buried on her family’s land on November 1; her body was exhumed two days later by members of a tribal group called Sarv Adivasi Samaj, who claimed their village belonged only to worshipers. People whose religions and cultures are predominantly animist and are said to be influenced by Hinduism. The body was reburied in a nearby village.
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