In today’s News:
Electors choose interim seminary president
At a meeting yesterday, the electors charged with calling the next president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis chose to issue a new call for candidates. Also yesterday, the Seminary’s Board of Regents named Dr. Daniel Preus Interim president effective July 1. He will serve until the new president is called and takes office. Preus previously served, at various times, as the LCMS’ first, third, fourth and fifth vice president. He also has served congregations in Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado and Missouri. From 1995–2001, he served as director of Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis, and from 2005–12, as director of Luther Academy, also in St. Louis, an organization devoted to promoting confessional Lutheran theology. The call for nominations is the second one issued for the presidency after the first round, originally issued in October, and the subsequent process resulted in a call that was declined last week.
Call accepted for LCMS Life Ministry
Deaconess Tiffany Manor has accepted a call from the LCMS Office of National Mission to serve as director of LCMS Life Ministry. She began her new role on April 14. Before joining the Office of National Mission, Manor served the LCMS New England District in the areas of church worker wellness, human care and school ministry. For the last several years, Manor has served on the Synod’s Ministerial Care Coalition, a project of Concordia Plan Services that began in 2014 to foster wide-ranging discussion and advocacy of worker wellness in the LCMS. Manor’s installation is currently scheduled for June 12 at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis.
Religious freedom priority in U.S. foreign policy
President Donald Trump Issued an executive order yesterday that prioritizes international religious freedom concerns for United States foreign policy. Specifically, it requires the U.S. Department of s\State and the U.S. Agency for International Development to create long-term strategic plans for advancing religious freedom internationally, provides $50 million per year for religious freedom programs and requires U.S. foreign service members to receive extensive training on religious freedom. The order also provides for the greater use of economic tools—including reductions of foreign assistance, visa restrictions, and sanctions—to advance religious freedom in countries that have been deemed serious religious liberty violators.
Dismemberment protection is struck down
A federal appeals court struck down a Kentucky law Friday that protects unborn babies from dismemberment abortions. The 2018 law prohibits abortions “that will result in the bodily dismemberment, crushing or human vivisection of the unborn child” while he or she is still alive. These gruesome methods commonly are used in D&E abortions in the second trimester. Last year, U.S. District judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., A nominee of pro-abortion President Bill Clinton, argued that the law creates an “undue burden” for women seeking second-trimester abortions. Friday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of EMW Women’s Surgical Center, the only abortion business in Kentucky, and a judge temporarily blocked the law in 2018 before Judge McKinley issued the injunction.
