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U.S.

Arizona Court Upholds Common Sense Abortion Regs

Jennifer LeClaire

The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld new abortion regulations which require any woman seeking an abortion to meet face-to-face with the licensed physician performing the abortion at least 24 hours prior to the abortion.

The law also requires that parental consent forms be notarized in order for a minor to get an abortion. Health care providers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, may refuse to participate in abortions, provide contraceptives, or give out the “morning after pill” if they have moral or religious objections. The law also prohibits anyone who is not a licensed physician from performing an abortion.

U.S.

Church of God Celebrates 125 Years

Gina Meeks

The Church of God is celebrating its 125th anniversary in August. The following article describes how the denomination was born.

One and a quarter centuries ago Richard Green Spurling, best known as R.G. Spurling, issued a call to form what is now the Church of God. From the eight who responded to his invitation, our movement now numbers almost 7 million members in 181 nations and territories. Following his challenging message on Aug. 19, 1886, Spurling concluded: “As many Christians as are here present that are desirous to be free from all men-made creeds and traditions, and are willing to take the New Testament, or law of Christ, for your only rule of faith and practice; giving each other equal rights and privilege to read and interpret for yourselves as your conscience may dictate, and are willing to sit together as the Church of God to transact business [as] the same, come forward.”

With that invitation, the small band of believers meeting in Monroe County, Tenn., formed a congregation that they called the Christian Union. In this unexpected region of the country, people hungry for the restoration of New Testament Christianity sought God and came together to be God’s church. Out of their vision of Christian union, with the later addition of the experiences of sanctification and Spirit baptism, came the “Church of God” as we know our movement today.

World

Religious Restrictions On Rise in 23 Nations

Gina Meeks

A new study suggests that government-controlled religion restrictions or social hostilities involving religion are getting worse in nearly one third of the world.

Of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion, more than 2.2 billion people—32 percent—live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially between mid-2006 and mid-2009, according to a new study on global restrictions on religion released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Government restrictions or social hostilities declined in only about 1 percent of the world’s population.

U.S.

Evangelist Robert P. Evans Dies at 93

Gina Meeks

At 10 p.m. on July 28, at his home in Shell Point Retirement Community, Ft. Myers, Fla., Robert Philip Evans died at the age of 93. Just hours before, his daughter, Alyce, read to him passages from Angels, God’s Secret Agents, a book written by Billy Graham, where he describes how the angels would soon come and carry him away in their arms to be with his heavenly Father.

Longtime friend and colleague Billy Graham said of Evans, “Our close friendship goes way back to our days at Wheaton, and I am grateful for all our meetings throughout Europe that Bob organized. He was one of the greatest Christians I ever knew.”

Born in Baltimore on Feb. 21, 1918, Evans grew up in the jungles of Cameroon, West Africa, where his father, Roland Evans, served for decades with his wife as one of the great pioneer missionaries of his time. Evans graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, in 1939, where he met and married Jeanette Gruner. After completing his studies at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary), Philadelphia, Evans joined the Navy as a chaplain and traveled with U.S. combat troops in North Africa, Italy and France.

 

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