The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th District has ruled that Eastern Michigan University (EMU) was out of line in expelling a graduate counseling student because of her unwillingness to validate homosexuality in her treatment of individuals struggling with same-sex attraction.

Homosexual activists are once again up in arms over a Christian university’s rejection of an “LGBT” [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender] club. In this case, Pepperdine University, a California liberal arts institution affiliated with the conservative Church of Christ denomination, announced in January that it would not allow the homosexual support group Reach OUT to meet on the college’s campus.

A break-off group from the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) launched a new conservative evangelical fellowship during a meeting in Florida in mid-January. The name of the new denomination is the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO), which came together in response to the severe liberalization of the PCUSA over the past several years, particularly its decision last year to allow the ordination of openly homosexual clergy (see The New American’s coverage).

A Wisconsin school superintendent may be rethinking how he dealt with a student who wrote a school newspaper article condemning homosexuality as sinful. As part of an assignment for his journalism class, which is responsible for producing the school newspaper, 15-year-old Shawano High School student Brandon Wegner contributed half of a pro-con editorial feature on adoption by homosexual couples, using Scripture to buttress his case against same-sex couples adopting children.

A Kentucky seminary professor and pastor has drawn the ire of a few state politicians for a prayer he offered before the Governor delivered his annual budget address to a joint session of the state legislature. According to Lexington, Kentucky’s local NBC news affiliate, the Rev. Hershael York (left), who is senior pastor at Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort and a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, called “gambling a terrible thing just minutes before Governor Steve Beshear proposed casino gambling in Kentucky during Tuesday’s session.”

As many Catholic dioceses across America step up their efforts to protect the unborn and defend traditional marriage and family, Pope Benedict XVI (left)  is warning Catholic Church leaders to prepare for a protracted conflict against forces committed to a “radical secularism” which threatens not only the Christian faith, but the world as a whole.

Maryland’s Baltimore County is considering an ordinance that critics warn would allow transvestites, cross-dressers, and men confused about their gender to access women’s bathrooms, showers, and dressing rooms. Tom Quirk, the county council member who is sponsoring what he calls the “Act Concerning Human Relations” (Human Relations Bill No. 3-12), insisted that the measure is designed to address discrimination by employers based on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity. “It’s my strong belief that the only thing that should matter is someone’s qualifications for a job,” Quirk told the Columbia Patch, a local newspaper.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a pair of cases involving the offering of prayers at county and school board meetings, continuing its decades-long tradition of steering clear of ruling on the supposed constitutionality of public prayers. According to BloombergNews.com, the High Court “hasn’t ruled on the constitutionality of prayer at government meetings since 1983, when the justices said lawmakers could begin sessions with nonsectarian prayers offered by a state-employed chaplain.”

New York City police arrested 43 pastors and church members who used the occasion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s January 12 State of the City speech to protest the city’s ban on the longtime practice of churches using public schools for worship services. The arrests occurred at the Bronx public school where Bloomberg was speaking.

As Minnesota voters gear up to vote on a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, the Catholic Church’s archbishop for Minneapolis and St. Paul has ordered priests in his diocese to show their support for the amendment effort — and the church’s stand on the institution of marriage, which they promised to defend when they were ordained — or remain silent.