In today’s News:
The Rev. Dr. Ray Halm called to Glory
The Rev. Dr. Ray Halm, who served as president of Concordia University, Irvine (CUI), Calif., from 1980 to 1998, died Aug. 4. He was 79. Halm was the longest-serving president of CUI. Before becoming CUI president, he served congregations and schools in Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota as an LCMS teacher, administrator and pastor. He also served as vice-chairman of the LCMS Board for Higher Education, a member of the LCMS Blue Ribbon Task Force on Missions, and the Synod’s assistant secretary. Most recently, he acted as senior director of Concordia University Education Network while remaining an active ambassador for CUI.
Marines cave to atheists
The U.S. Marine Corps scheduled an annual training for military lawyers earlier this month, at which the Battle of Gettysburg would be discussed. The instructor for one portion of that training was supposed to be Jay Lorenzen, an Air Force veteran who taught for 10 years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Lorenzen’s biography, provided to the military lawyers in advance of the training, included references to Christianity, including his affiliation with Campus Crusade for Christ, now known as “Cru”, and a couple of religious-themed courses he teaches in his spare time. Several of those lawyers complained to Mikey Weinstein, who heads up a secular, anti-christian group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that Lorenzen was going to teach about religion. That allegation was false, but it didn’t matter. Jeremy Dys of First Liberty Institute said of the situation, “The Marine Corps bravely cancelled a speaker chosen to lead a discussion on the battlefield tactics and leadership lessons of Gettysburg based upon his expertise as a retired military officer and academy professor because that retired officer, in his speaker’s bio, confessed to be religious and associated with a religious organization.”
Dismemberment abortion ban upheld
Arkansas soon may be allowed to enforce a law to protect unborn babies from brutal dismemberment abortions after a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the state Ariday. The AP reports the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously vacated lower federal court injunction blocking the dismemberment abortion ban and three other pro-life state laws. The 2017 laws include the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from dismemberment abortion act, which protects nearly fully formed unborn babies from being brutally dismembered alive in the womb. These abortions typically are referred to as Dilation and Evacuation, or D&E, and are common in the second trimester when unborn babies are nearly fully developed. A second law, the Sex Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act, protects unborn babies from discriminatory sex-selection abortions. The other two laws involve requiring the remains of aborted babies to be buried or cremated and reporting evidence of the sexual abuse of young girls under 14 to authorities.
