3 - Court rules funeral home must allow male employee to dress as a woman
A three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a Michigan funeral home that did not allow a male employee to dress as a female. WND.com reported that the court overturned a lower court ruling in favor of the funeral home based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The story states that former employee Anthony Stephens, according to one of the judges, was fired “on the basis of her transgender or transitioning status and her refusal to conform to sex-based stereotypes.”
The article says:
Stephens “presented as a man” during the course of his employment at the home operated by Thomas Rost, a Christian for more than 65 years. His business has a mission statement saying the “highest priority is to honor God in all that we do as a company and as individuals.”
He does not discriminate in his hiring.But Stephens would not comply with a company dress code for males working at the funeral home.
But a company dress code requires male employees to wear suits and ties, and females must wear skirts and business jackets.WND.com reports:
The district court ruled only the unlawful termination claim was at issue, and that argument then was rejected, because transgenderism is not a protected class under Title VII.One of the three judges, Karen Moore indicated that she believed...
...when Congress adopted the Title IX non-discrimination law in 1972, members intended it to include not only a persons’ “physiology” but also their “self-assigned ‘gender identity.'”Gary McCaleb of the Alliance Defending Freedom is quoted as saying, “Court opinions should interpret legal terms according to their plain meaning when Congress passed the law,” adding, “This opinion instead re-writes federal law and is directly contrary to decisions from other federal appellate courts. We are consulting with our client to consider their options for appeal.”
2 - Turkey considering life sentence for American pastor
The odd case of an American who has been pastoring in Turkey for 23 years continues, and there are indications that the Turkish government wants to sentence Andrew Brunson to life in prison. According to the WORLD Magazine website, "The indictment reportedly charges Brunson with being a member of and leading a terror organization." This results from the coup attempt that occurred in 2016 - Brunson has been in prison since October of that year.
The article states:
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the indictment, urging the Trump administration to redouble its efforts to secure Brunson’s freedom. “No stone should be left unturned in our efforts on behalf of this unjustly imprisoned American,” USCIRF Vice Chairwomen Sandra Jolley and Kristina Arriaga said in a statement.The commission is calling for sanctions "against those involved in this miscarriage of justice."
And, World Watch Monitor reported earlier this week:
The daughter of jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson appealed to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week to help secure her father’s release from prison in Turkey, where he has been jailed for the past 17 months.
Declaring that her father had been “falsely imprisoned for far too long”, his married daughter Jacqueline noted that Brunson “has still not been formally charged with any crime”, as shown in a video posted by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).WORLD reports that Turkish President Erdogan wants to trade Brunson for a Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is living in the U.S. and has been thought to be involved in that failed coup. That's the same Gulen who is involved in establishing a number of charter schools in America.
1 - ABC host apologizes to Vice-President, audience
An apology can be a powerful expression, and when it's a television star who insulted millions of Christians who believe in communication with God or Jesus, it certainly makes a strong statement.
This past Tuesday, co-host of The View, Joy Behar, after being urged by Vice-President Pence in a private conversation to apologize for offensive comments, stated, according to FoxNews.com, “I think Vice President Pence is right. I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith and I fell short of that,” adding, “I sincerely apologize for what I said.”
As the story stated:
Behar’s controversial comments resulted in the Media Research Center launching a campaign to hold Behar accountable for spewing “anti-Christian bigotry” after she said that communicating with Jesus is a “mental illness” during a Feb. 13 episode of “The View” when discussing Pence’s faith.On Hannity Monday night on the Fox News Channel, the Vice-President had said, “I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace; forgive as you've been forgiven,” adding, “I'm still encouraging her, to use the forum of that program or some other public forum, to apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended.”
The Media Research Council campaign, which resulted in 43,000 calls to "ABC and their advertisers," has now ended. However, the other View co-host involved in the derogatory comments, Sunny Hostin, has not apologized, to my knowledge. Her participation was pointed out by a guest on my show recently. She said, according to The Hill:
“I don’t know that I want my vice president, um — speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him,” co-host Sunny Hostin said of Pence.That's when Behar said: “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talk to you...That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct. Hearing voices.”
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