A proposed amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution, which would have kept any church that affirms, appoints or employs a woman “as a pastor of any kind” from belonging to the SBC, got 60.74% of the vote Wednesday (June 11), just shy of the two-thirds majority needed to move forward. A similar proposal failed last year on a second vote. (Smietana, Religion News Service)
Read MoreThe overwhelming sentiment is: Sure, cigarettes are bad for you, but they make you look good — as evidenced by Lucy, who keeps her smokes in an elegant silver case, perhaps to emphasize how sleek the habit is, and brandishes them to show just how effortlessly hot she can look bringing one to her lips. (Zuckerman, The New York Times)
Read MoreNearly 30 percent of Americans now call themselves “religiously unaffiliated,” according to the most recent round of Pew polling data: making them the largest single religious bloc in the United States. And that number is only climbing. Among the members of Generation Z, at least a third have dispensed with religion altogether. (Burton, Airmail)
Read MoreThe Satanic Temple Iowa on Tuesday filed a complaint accusing state officials of discriminating against the group because of its members’ religion, having denied them access to the state Capitol building for a December holiday display and event. (Fingerhut, AP News)
Read MoreFormer Newsboys frontman Michael Tait confessed Tuesday to abusing drugs and alcohol and touching men “in an unwanted sensual way.” The statement comes days after multiple men came forward with allegations that Tait sexually assaulted them while touring with the chart-topping Christian band. (Silliman, Christianity Today)
Read MoreSouthern Baptists voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to call for the overturning of the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, with strategists citing the successful effort that overturned the right to legal abortions as a possible blueprint for the new fight. (Graham, The New York Times)
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