A pastor from a snake-handling Pentecostal church in the USA has died of a snake-bite. Jamie Coots, one of two pastors who starred in a National Geographic TV show about such churches, had been bitten before and credited God’s power for his survival. He refused medical treatment for the latest bite and died about two hours later.
The Church of England has issued “pastoral guidance” on same sex marriage. It recommends that married gay couples “should be welcomed into the life of the worshipping community and not be subjected to questioning about their lifestyle.” Nor should they be denied access to the sacraments. However, it also recommends that those in holy orders should not enter into a same-sex marriage, nor should any married gay people be ordained, “given the need for the clergy to model the Church’s teaching in their lives.”
The state of Virginia in the USA is expected to legalise gay marriage after a federal judge decided that the State’s ban on such weddings, which was added to the State constitution in 2006 after a vote, conflicted with the US constitution. The order has been held in abeyance until time for an appeal has been allowed. If the order takes effect, Virginia will be the first “Southern” state to recognise gay marriage.
In (perhaps deliberate) contrast to the above, the lower house of the State parliament of Kansas has passed a bill that allows businesses and State employees to refuse service to gay couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” The bill is expected to pass the upper house and to be signed into law by the Governor. Critics are calling this a “gay segregation” law, and claim it has loopholes that allow discrimination against gay individuals if the requested service is “linked to a gay union.”
A brain-dead pregnant Canadian woman, who was kept on life support at her husband’s request until she could give birth, has been delivered of a son who is 12 weeks premature, frail, but healthy. Her life support was then switched off.
A blogger has started collecting examples of false accusations of homophobia. For example, a radio station reported that a gay couple had sent out party invitations for their daughter’s party, and that one mother declined but also expressed outrage that the girl had to grow up with gay parents; the entire story turned out to be a fabrication because the radio station wanted to “start a conversation.” The story has, however, been re-blogged or “shared” with no disclaimer several times. He also notes that one of the most famous stories of a young man being tortured and murdered for being gay is largely false; Matthew Shepard was indeed gay, but the attackers were drug-takers fuelled by metamphetamine, not homophobes. His most recent blog lists nine examples of fabricated homophobic “hate crimes.”
In sport, Britain’s Zoe Gillings was eliminated from the semi-final of the snowboard cross (essentially a six-woman race down a track shaped like a giant skateboard park) by less than twelve inches. The final of the event, won by Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic, was notable for being one of the few races in the whole event where nobody crashed. Two women were stretchered off the mountain after crashes in qualification.
And finally, the BAFTA awards, which are usually seen as an indication of likely Oscar winners, have thrown up several surprises this year. The biggest surprise was the award of Best Supporting Actor to Barkhad Abdi, a former New York taxi driver who won the prize for his first ever film role, as a Somali pirate in the film Captain Phillips.
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