The 3 - December 2, 2018

This week's edition of The 3 highlights these three stories of relevance to the Christian community.  They are: a significant meeting with the President of Nigeria and church leaders to discuss violence involving Islamic militants.  Also, a New Jersey university, despite student interest, has chosen not to allow a restaurant chain which is based on Christian values, to operate there.  And, a Department of Justice official has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a ruling on transgenders serving in the military.

3 - Nigerian church leaders meet with country's president

According to a church leader in Nigeria, in one state alone, the Plateau state, since March, over 600 Christians have been killed, presumably by Islamic militants - that is what Dacholom Datiri, president of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) told Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in a meeting last month, according to Morning Star News.

And, Datiri disputes the popular narrative that, these people are killed by unknown gunmen, or suspected herdsmen, or that there have been farmer-herders clashes,” adding, “All these are deceptive narratives deliberately framed to conceal the truth and continue to perpetrate the evil.”

The story says that Datiri related that, "The truth, he said, is that Muslim Fulani militias heavily armed with sophisticated guns, including AK47s, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades have attacked and killed Christians."  

And that death toll doesn't count people in other parts of Nigeria who have been attacked by militant groups such as Boko Haram. Datiri also questioned the commitment of the military to keeping Christians safe; he said, "Are we to believe that the armed forces sent to keep peace go with the instructions to protect them?” He added, “The implication is that they protect the aggressors and leave the victims mercilessly helpless.”

The story also reports:

For his part, Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong reportedly faulted Muslim and other community leaders for compounding the crisis of violence in the state by hiding criminals.

Buhari, a Fulani Muslim, responded to the Christian leaders by saying he did not doubt COCIN’s report on the atrocities committed against their communities.

“The communities (in Plateau) have lived long enough to know that there is nothing they can do without each other than to live together in harmony,” Buhari said. “As leaders, we must persuade the upcoming generation using every channel, particularly the educational institutions, to live together with our neighbors.”

Christian and Muslim leaders have to work harder to convince the upcoming generation that they must live together in the same country, Buhari said.

2 - Restaurant chain banned from university in values clash

The students at Rider University, which is located in New Jersey, were asked which fast-food chain they would like to have locate on their campus.  But, as FoxNews.com stated: "...once it became clear students were craving Chick-fil-A, the university excluded the option, citing concerns over the company’s attitudes towards the LGBTQ community."  The Fox story stated:

The school said in a statement that the Chick-fil-A option was removed “based on the company's record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ community.

It admitted that the move could be perceived as a “form of exclusion,” but the institution wanted to remain “faithful to our values of inclusion.”

This is yet another example of people who claim to be "inclusive," yet exclude points of view with which they disagree.  This, of course, stems from Chick-fil-A's CEO Dan Cathy and his comments a number of years ago in support of traditional marriage.  But, I have yet to see a report in which a Chick-fil-A restaurant denies service to anyone because of his or her views on same-sex marriage or to people who practice homosexuality.  (How would they even do that?)  In fact, the article says:

"Chick-fil-A is a restaurant company focused on food, service and hospitality, and our restaurants and licensed locations on college campuses welcome everyone. We have no policy of discrimination against any group, and we do not have a political or social agenda," the restaurant's spokesperson told CBS News.

1 - Administration requests swift action on transgenders serving in the military

The question of whether or not transgender individuals should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military is quite an important one, and the nation's Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court to fast-track its response on two important cases, according to a report on the Breitbart.com website, that reports that the President, in July 2017, attempted to reverse his predecessor's policy change to allow transgenders to serve.  The story continues, stating that the Department of Defense, "formulated a policy allowing some transgender individuals but not others. On December 2017, a federal district judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking DOD’s policy across the country."

The article says that Defense Secretary James Mattis "conducted a study, modifying the original assessment and recommending that some transgender individuals can serve, but those with a history of gender dysphoria that results in expensive gender-reassignment surgery and others therapies that render them unable to serve for significant lengths of time should not be able to serve in uniform."

The story continues:

In March 2018, President Trump adopted that recommended policy. On April 13, 2018, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington [State] refused to lift the preliminary injunction blocking the first version of the policy. The District of Columbia federal court likewise refused to lift its identical injunction on August 6 and the Central District of California did the same on September 18.

Those courts are in two circuits that are noted in the article to be "two of the most liberal courts in the nation, and widely expected to affirm the lower courts’ blocking of the policy."

Solicitor General Noel Francisco has asked the high court to, "bypass two federal appeals courts and render a final decision on President Donald Trump’s military transgender policy by summer 2019."