Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] For-Profit Corporation Is Not A Person With Ability To Exercise Religious Freedom Rights, Federal Court Says
[2] Reformed Church in the United States 267th Annual Synod Meets at Salem Ebenezer Reformed Church in Manitowic, Wisconsin 20-23 May 2013
[3] Orthodox Presbyterian Church 80th General Assembly Held 5-11 June 2013 at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California
[4] New Trinity Review Posted - “The Gospel Coalition: The 'New Calvinism's' Attack on the Bible and Its Epistemology" by Stephen M. Cope
[5] Glenn Beck’s Covenant America is a Mormon Hijacking of Christian Truth
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[1] For-Profit Corporation Is Not A Person With Ability To Exercise Religious Freedom Rights, Federal Court Says
[Editor’s Note: Americans United for Separation of Church and State Executive Director the Rev. Barry W. Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.]
A Michigan-based for-profit business that manufactures fuel systems, power-steering systems, and medical devices does not have the right to an exemption from the Obama administration’s birth control mandate, a federal appeals court ruled today.
In a unanimous opinion, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Autocam Corporation is not entitled to an exemption from the contraceptive mandate, which requires most businesses to provide workers with health insurance that includes no-cost birth control. The court said a secular, for-profit company is not a person that can exercise religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
Americans United Executive Director the Rev. Barry W. Lynn said the court made the right call. Secular corporations are not people with religious liberty rights, Lynn said.
“Religious liberty is for people, not Big Business,” Lynn asserted. “No corporation should ever be able to tell its employees that they can’t have access to contraceptive coverage simply because it offends the boss’ religious views.”
RFRA’s legislative history, the court said, “makes no mention of for-profit corporations. This is a sufficient indication that Congress did not intend the term ‘person’ to cover entities like Autocam when it enacted RFRA.”
The court added that Autocam’s Roman Catholic owners, John Kennedy and his family, do not have standing to bring claims on behalf of the company.
+ Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 518 C Street Northeast, Washington DC 20002, 202-466-3234, Fax: 202-466-2587, americansunited@au.org
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
[2] Reformed Church in the United States 267th Annual Synod Meets at Salem Ebenezer Reformed Church in Manitowic, Wisconsin 20-23 May 2013
Delegates from the forty-eight congregations organized into four classes of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) held their 267th Synod 20-23 May 2013 at Salem Ebenezer Reformed Church in Manitowic, Wisconsin. The RCUS traces its beginnings to the 1746 meeting of the Amsterdam Classis of the Dutch Reformed Church who sent the Rev. Michael Schlatter back to Pennsylvania to organize the ministers and congregations into a ‘coetus’, later called ‘classis’, that was to meet annually. The Rev. Sam Powell, reporting on the 267th RCUS Synod, wrote, “We have carried out the instructions of our Dutch brethren now for 267 years.”
Among the many items of business conducted at the 267th Synod, the Publications Committee presented an edited and improved edition of “Promoting a Biblical Sexual Morality” that was approved by the delegates. The book is available on Amazon.com in Kindle electronic format for US$0.99 and in paperback for US$3.86 plus shipping. Other RCUS books available on Amazon.com include “Three Forms of Unity, 2011 Edition”; “The Constitution of the Reformed Churches in the United States”; and “Study Helps on the Heidelberg Catechism” by the late Rev. Norm Jones.
+ Reformed Church in the United States, Post Office Box 486, Eureka, South Dakota 57437
[3] Orthodox Presbyterian Church 80th General Assembly Held 5-11 June 2013 at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California
The 80th General Assembly (GA) of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) was held 5-11 June 2013 at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California.
The assembly witnessed the reconciliation of the Presbytery of New Jersey (PNJ) with several OPC members that had been members of a church for whom the OPC in its 77th GA established a visitation committee to work for reconciliation between the church’s pastors and the now-former church members. The pastors refused to cooperate with the committee; the PNJ began the process to bring charges against the pastors; then the pastors declared the church independent of the OPC and later joined another denomination. The PNJ acknowledged their shortcomings in properly dealing with this matter, and the former church members forgave the PNJ of their offenses. The 80th GA gave praise to the Lord for the response of the PNJ and for the church members’ forgiveness and for their perseverance over several years.
The 80th GA received fraternal greetings from several other Reformed denominations including Adam Kaloostian, United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA); Takanori Kobayashi, Presbyterian Church in Japan (PCJ); Jonathan Merica, Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS); F. Solano Portela, Presbyterian Church of Brazil (PCB); David J. Reese, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA); Lee A. Shelnutt, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP); L. Roy Taylor, Presbyterian Church in America (PCA); and Kurt Vetterli, Evangelical Reformed Church, Westminster Confession (ERCWC).
The 80th GA additionally arranged for the OPC GA’s gratitude to the Lord to be communicated to the Bible Presbyterian Church (BPC) for his faithfulness to them upon the 75th anniversary of their founding, and to assure the BPC that the OPC looks forward to ever deepening fellowship with the BPC in Christ.
+ The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 607 North Easton Road, Building E, Box P, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania 19090, 215-830-0900, Fax: 215-830-0350
+ Bible Presbyterian Church, statedclerk@bpc.org
+ United Reformed Churches in North America, c/o the Rev. Bradd Nymeyer, 227 1st Avenue Southeast, Sioux Center, Iowa 51250, 712-722-1965, statedclerk@urcna.org
+ Reformed Church in the United States, Post Office Box 486, Eureka, South Dakota 57437
+ Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), 7408 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15208, 412-731-1177, Fax: 412-731-8861
+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1 Cleveland Street Suite 110, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
[4] New Trinity Review Posted - “The Gospel Coalition: The 'New Calvinism's' Attack on the Bible and Its Epistemology" by Stephen M. Cope
The Trinity Foundation has posted the latest Trinity Review to their website.
"The Gospel Coalition: The 'New Calvinism's' Attack on the Bible and Its Epistemology" by Stephen M. Cope takes the leaders of The Gospel Coalition to task for their attack on the Bible through their faulty epistemology, as evidenced in their foundation documents - the Confessional Statement and the Theological Vision for Ministry - primarily authored by Drs. D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller.
The author, Stephen M. Cope holds a B.A. in History, an M.A. in Church History, and has completed most of his course work for a Ph.D in Church History and Theology from Bob Jones University and Seminary, Greenville, South Carolina.
+ The Trinity Foundation, Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692, 423-743-0199, Fax: 423-743-2005, tjtrinityfound@aol.com
[5] Glenn Beck’s Covenant America is a Mormon Hijacking of Christian Truth
Why is Glenn Beck’s Covenant America being criticized? It isn’t for the attendees desiring the good of liberty and patriotism in covenant but for Beck’s non-Christian solution. “Instead of finding Christian truth and God’s liberty, the Covenant America attendees are unknowingly participating in a Mormon hijacking of the USA’s covenant with God,” says Pastor Steven Andrew, president of USA Christian Ministries.
The pastor continued, “Americans want liberty, especially after the news of the NSA spying on Americans, schools refusing children to write about God, inferior healthcare with Obamacare and Barack Obama persecuting Christians in the military. The problem is that Covenant America twists our Christian nation’s covenant with the Lord to promote Beck’s Mormonism.”
“Freedom comes by re-affirming covenant with the one true God, not the Mormon cult. Beck is trying to get Americans to break covenant by switching to a foreign god. This is a very dangerous scheme from Satan. Without following the Lord, there is no freedom,” he says.
“What many don’t know is Mormons think that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, men become “Gods” and Christians are inferior. George Washington, John Adams and our Founding Fathers would avoid Beck,” the pastor continued.
He says, “God will give liberty to the USA if Americans turn away from foreign gods, such as the Mormon cult, welcome God to government, be pro-life and have God’s Marriage only of one man and one woman.”
The pastor has studied American history intimately. His book, “Making a Strong Christian Nation,” teaches “The USA’s Covenant with God” based on Scripture and history.
He continues, “Beck and speaker Timothy Ballard have shared their Mormon beliefs. Doesn’t Jesus tell us that Beck and Ballard are wolves in sheep’s clothing with another Jesus?”
“If you want God to replace Obama with a Christian Government with liberty and lower taxes, then put Jesus first by calling for a Christian government. Obeying God gives Americans hope,” he said.
+ USA Christian Ministries, 2059 Camden Avenue #280, San Jose, California 95124, Contact Page
