3 - NBA pulls All-Star Game from Charlotte
This week, it was announced that the NBA would be relocating its scheduled 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina. The reason cited is the bill that was passed by the North Carolina legislature that would provide that citizens would use the restroom corresponding to their biological gender in state government buildings. According to Focus on the Family, citing the North Carolina Policy Council, HB2 was passed in order to:
- Rein in a rogue city council in Charlotte that acted beyond its legal authority;
- Establish a statewide bathroom privacy and safety law codifying existing state policy; and
- Enumerate and clarify existing state policy, as it relates to discrimination in employment and public accommodations.
The piece says that, "The law listed five categories for civil rights protections: race, religion, color, national origin and biological sex. This mirrors the standard in federal law and a majority of states across the U.S."
Kellie Fiodorek, Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, took the NBA to task, saying:
“The NBA has abandoned common sense and put politics ahead of principle. The North Carolina privacy law, which protects girls and women from being forced to share locker rooms and showers with men, is completely reasonable. Pulling the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte is unreasonable and hypocritical. If the NBA actually believed that there is no difference between men and women, it would merge its two leagues. Twenty years ago, the NBA recognized the innate and obvious biological differences between men and women when it created the WNBA. Today, the NBA hopes no one notices that it properly maintains separate leagues for men and women while it opposes the commonsense law that simply protected the dignity interests and privacy rights of North Carolinians. Twenty-three other states explicitly support the freedom of states to set their own policies and laws regarding locker rooms and restrooms. Even New Orleans, the alternative city often mentioned as a host for next year’s All-Star Game, allows for ‘separate bathroom, restroom, shower or similar facilities for males and females’ in its local ordinance. The NBA should stick to what it does best—showcasing the world’s greatest professional athletes and serving its diverse fan base—rather than showcasing its amateur political posturing and serving the narrow-minded power elite.”
Writing for The Stream, author and commentator Michael Brown said,
Let us not forget that when the NBA decided to bring the All Star game to Charlotte, the laws were just as they are today: Men were expected to use men’s bathrooms and locker rooms and women were expected to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
If this was so terrible, why did the NBA agree to bring their annual, weeklong, festive event here? The State legislature simply reversed a radical bill passed by the Charlotte City Council earlier this year, a bill which had effectively rendered all public bathrooms and locker rooms gender neutral.
The State simply put things back to where they were before. Why then the outcry from the NBA? Why punish the state for moving things back to the way they {sic} when everything was fine?
You can access my conversation with Bruce Hausknecht, Judicial Analyst for Focus on the Family, which included content about this development, by clicking here.
2 - United Methodist sector elects openly lesbian bishop
Just weeks after the General Conference of the United Methodist Church decided not to address church policy on sexuality, rather leaving it to a committee to make recommendations about certain issues, including the denomination's view on homosexuality, the Western Jurisdictional Conference of the Church decided to take matters into its own hands and appoint a gay bishop.
John Lomperis of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, wrote at the IRD website in a piece dated July 16:
United Methodists in the denomination’s liberal Western Jurisdiction have elected the first openly partnered gay bishop in the 13 million-member global church’s history. Pastor Karen Oliveto of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, who is married to another woman, will be consecrated a bishop during a Saturday afternoon service at the regional conference being held outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
After highlighting some of Oliveto's criticism of the ministry of St. Paul, support for the nation's largest abortion provider, and pastoring a church that had served as an illegal medical marijuana dispensary, Lomperis continued:
The United Methodist Church effectively shelved all legislation on sexuality at its recent General Conference. In doing so, the church retained language declaring homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” in its governing Book of Discipline. The church does not ordain “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” but some bishops have overlooked this restriction on a technicality that some non-celibate lesbian and gay candidates for ordination have not “self-avowed” their sexual practices.
Very importantly, the denomination’s South Central Jurisdiction, which has more than five times as many members, almost immediately voted to petition the Judicial Council, the “supreme court” of the denomination, to review the legality of such actions by the Western Jurisdiction.
After the election, Council of Bishops president Bruce Ough said, according to Religion News Service, that the Council is “monitoring this situation very closely.” He also said the council will continue its work of forming the commission to discuss sexuality.
1 - Evangelicals processing Trump nomination, acceptance speech
The Republican National Convention has come and gone, with the Democratic convention kicking off this week. And, there is a noted difference of opinion among Christian leaders about the prospect of a Donald Trump Presidency. After the platform committee developed and delegates to the Cleveland convention approved a life- and traditional marriage-affirming platform, then-presumptive nominee Donald Trump chose a Christian social conservative, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, as his Vice-Presidential running mate. And, Trump through out some comments to evangelicals during his acceptance speech. Some examples, according to Baptist Press:
He expressed gratitude to the "evangelical and religious community," saying, "I'll tell you what, the support they've given me -- and I'm not sure I totally deserve it -- has been so amazing and has had such a big reason for me being here tonight..."
Referring to the Johnson Amendment, preventing non-profit organizations, including churches, from endorsing political candidates, he said, "I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans."
He also promised to, as the Baptist Press article put it, "To replace the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia with 'a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophies.'"
The article says that Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and a Trump supporter, said on Twitter after the GOP nominee's speech, "Tonight the world witnessed the @realDonaldTrump I've come to know. Strong. Decisive. Compassionate." Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University, said that a vote for Trump is a vote for "conservative, pro-life justices to the Supreme Court," Falwell told delegates. He described the billionaire as a "true patriot."
Other Southern Baptist leaders were, well, less impressed:
Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted, "I have heard nothing tonight that would persuade me to change my mind & vote 4 @realDonaldTrump," adding, "The saddest political situation in my life."
Denny Burk, professor at Boyce College said in a blog post, "The party belongs to him, and the GOP as we have known it is officially dead," adding, "If ever the country needed its statesmen to be men of courage, it is right now. ... I ask you not to make your peace with the convention's outcome. You should actively oppose the candidate through the general election."
Christian leaders speaking out in favor of Trump include James Dobson and Tony Perkins. Those who have expressed opposition to Trump include Max Lucado and Russell Moore.
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