This just in: Not all Christians agree on marriage and sex! This schism even affects their schools!

From Get Religion-

How did I miss this story?

Apparently, there is some kind of move afoot in elite media to push for the establishment of the Episcopal Church, or perhaps the United Church of Christ, as the state-mandated religion in the United States. Have you heard about this?

That’s one way to read the remarkable media response to Second Lady Karen Pence’s decision to return to the teaching at an ordinary evangelical Protestant school that attempts to defend ordinary conservative or traditional Christian doctrine on sexuality. (Yes, I am writing about this issue again.)

Why bring up Episcopalians? Well, Episcopal schools are allowed to have lifestyle and doctrinal covenants that defend their church’s evolving pronouncements blending liberal Christian faith with the editorial pages of The New York Times. Private schools — on left and right — get to define the boundaries of their voluntary associations.

More here-

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2019/1/17/this-just-in-not-all-christians-agree-on-marriage-and-sex-this-schism-even-shows-up-in-their-schools

Keep politics out of the pulpit

From LA Times-

Under federal law, it is illegal for churches and other so-called 501c(3) nonprofit organizations to “participate in, or intervene in … any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
But in recent years the Internal Revenue Service has failed to aggressively enforce the law...

That soon may change. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which had sued the IRS seeking to require it to enforce the law, says it has reached an agreement with the IRS under which the agency has adopted procedures for “reviewing, evaluating and determining whether to initiate church investigations.”

IRS investigation of political activity by nonprofits has been complicated by allegations that the agency improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups that sought tax exemptions.

Read more:

http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/guest/los-angeles-times-keep-politics-out-of-the-pulpit/article_1208e44a-7570-5436-9dff-1b80519fcaa4.html#ixzz3AAyZK79n

Connellsville school district covers Ten Commandments monument

From The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review-

School bus driver Carol Burkholder thinks it would be a sin to lose the Ten Commandments monument that has stood near the entrance of Connellsville Area Junior High for more than 50 years.

A sheet of plywood now covers the stone since its removal was requested by a parent and a national group that advocates church-state separation.

“I think most Christians in the area are very upset,” Burkholder said on Friday. “I think people need to stand up for what God has given us.”

In August, the Connellsville Area School District got two requests to remove the monument — one from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the other from a parent through a Pittsburgh law firm, Superintendent Dan Lujetic said.

The district plans to comply — a move that is unpopular but necessary to avoid a costly lawsuit, he said.

“It’s been here since 1957, and now we have to remove it,” Lujetic said. “If we wanted to fight this, there’s no way we would win.”

The monument, donated by the Connellsville Fraternal Order of Eagles, may get a new home.

Pastor Nelson D. Confer of Connellsville Church of God said the church will decide on Sunday if it will accept a donation of the monument.

More here-

http://triblive.com/news/2560392-74/monument-connellsville-church-commandments-district-ten-law-parent-state-plywood#axzz25slpfp8r