In today’s News:
ILC welcomes a new church body
The Board of Directors of the International Lutheran Council held online meetings Sept. 21, 2020, during which time the board voted to accept the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania – Lake Tanganyika Diocese (ELCT-LTD ) into membership. The church, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), counts more than 10,000 members, 35 pastors, and 22 congregations. It grew out of mission work in the ELCT’s Rukwa region and was formally constituted in 2014. The ELCT-LTD was registered as a legally autonomous diocese in 2015.
Christian photographer challenges state law
A Christian wedding photographer in Virginia is challenging a recent state law that would force him to defy his religious beliefs about marriage or face hefty penalties. Alliance Defending Freedom, the religious freedom legal group representing photographer Bob Updegrove, filed the case Monday night challenging the Virginia Values Act, which requires professionals to create content for same-sex weddings if they’re also creating content for weddings between a man and a woman. Updegrove captures photographs for churches, schools, businesses, and has photographed more than 300 weddings over the course of his career. Business owners who defy the law face up to $100,000 for each violation, according to Alliance Defending Freedom. The Virginia Values Act was approved by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and put into effect in July.
Pro-life display vandalized
Pro-abortion students at the University of North Texas made a game out of vandalizing an abortion memorial put together by the Young Conservatives of Texas on Wednesday. The pro-abortion students created four teams to play capture the flag — stealing the pro-life student group’s flags placed to raise awareness about the number of lives lost to abortion. The Young Conservatives of Texas had received permission from the university to put up 1,000 small pink flags to represent the lives lost to abortion. The display was also to include signs such as “abortion is murder” and “overturn roe v. Wade.” As soon as the display was announced, pro-abortion students began to plan how they would vandalize it. On the day of the pro-life event, pro-abortion students started stealing the signs and flags, with the theft captured on video. The pro-life campus group also received hate on social media.
Abortion harassers are sued
Obscene harassment, stalking and harmful assault by radical abortion militants have led Erika Schanzenbach to sue for recompense in Tennessee’s Sullivan County Chancery Court. Thomas More Society attorneys filed a lawsuit last Friday seeking damages and an injunction on behalf of Schanzenbach, a peaceful pro-life witness, as a result of the physical harm and emotional distress that she has suffered at the hands of members of a radical pro-abortion organization. The lawsuit names Denise Skeen, her adult daughter Alethea Skeen, and the Bristol Regional Women’s Center abortion facility as the abusers responsible for the wrongs perpetrated against Schanzenbach.
