South Africa legalizes ‘gay marriage’
South Africa became the fifth country to legalize “gay marriage” Nov. 30 when acting president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signed a landmark bill into law. South Africa is the first African country to redefine marriage. Canada, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands also recognize “marriage” between homosexual couples. “We see this as a victorious movement for the gay and lesbian community in South Africa, especially in a continent that is still scornful toward homosexuals,” Vista Kalipa, media coordinator with the South African homosexual group Triangle Project, told Reuters. “We hope that other countries in Africa will actually begin to see this as a positive thing, reaffirming that homosexuality is indeed African.” Christians in the nation, though, saw it otherwise. “The Civil Union Bill justifies immorality and by inference calls sexual perversion a legitimate alternative lifestyle that should be openly accepted,” the South African Christian Action Network said in a statement. “It calls immorality and perversion true virtue and commendable freedom.” The new law redefines marriage to include “the voluntary union of two persons.”
Sullivan pledges ‘teetotaler’ agency trustees
Citing embarrassment over having spent more than 30 minutes debating the issue of whether trustees of Southern Baptist Convention entities should be limited to those who abstain from alcohol, John Sullivan, the executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, says he intends future action in the FBSC “on this very issue.” “We are not going to have people on our boards of trustees who do not believe in total abstinence,” Sullivan said to the loud applause of messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention. In June in Greensboro, N.C., messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting engaged in a lengthy debate on a recommendation concerning the use of alcoholic beverages. Messengers passed with more than a four-fifths majority a resolution not only opposing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol but also urging the exclusion of Southern Baptists who drink from election to the convention’s boards, committees and entities.
CP 1.06% ahead of last year’s pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 1.06 percent ahead of the same time frame in 2005. As of Nov. 30, 2006, the year-to-date total of $31,129,891 for Cooperative Program missions is $327,140 ahead of the $30,802,750 received at the same point in 2005. For the month, receipts of $15,770,935 were 5.73 percent, or $854,827, above the $14,916,108 received in November 2005.?Designated giving of $6,647,078 for the same year-to-date period is 3.93 percent, or $271,679, below gifts of $6,918,758 received at this point last year. The $3,758,207 in designated gifts received last month is $391,697 above the $3,366,509 received in November 2005, an increase of 11.64 percent. During the SBC’s last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, CP gifts topped the $200-million mark for the first time, totaling $200,601,536.
House falls short on fetal pain bill
The House of Representatives failed Dec. 6 to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass legislation requiring women to be informed of the pain their unborn children may experience if they have late-term abortions. The House voted 250-162 for the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act but fell 25 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval under the parliamentary rule by which it was considered. The measure would have mandated an abortion doctor give a woman who is at least 20 weeks pregnant information about the pain her unborn child could experience during the procedure. If the woman still decides to have an abortion, she would have the option of anesthesia for her unborn baby in order to reduce his pain.