Methodist church to begin sermon series
The First United Methodist Church of Durango will start a new, three-week sermon series this weekend exploring the topic of why people gather in places all over the world to worship God.
The series will look at the act of worship and what it means to us and to God. Worship services are held at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays and 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays.
For more information, call 247-4213 or visit www.fumcdurango.org.
Hobby Lobby files Supreme Court brief
WASHINGTON – An attorney for Hobby Lobby says the owners of the arts and crafts chain should be exempt from the health-care law’s birth-control mandate because providing contraceptives destroying life in the womb would violate its religious beliefs.
Kyle Duncan of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty says Hobby Lobby’s brief has now been filed at the Supreme Court. The justices will hear arguments March 25 involving challenges to the mandate b the store and Mennonite-owned Conestoga Wood Specialties.
The Obama administration has argued for-profit businesses don’t have religious rights. But Duncan says federal law protects the free exercise of religion “wherever it occurs – in the home, in a church, in a charity or in a family business.”
He noted CVS won praise last week for its decision to stop selling tobacco products, suggesting that businesses can and should act on their principles.
Religious groups join, fight gay marriage in court
SALT LAKE CITY – A coalition of religious organizations has come together to urge a federal appeals court to uphold bans on same-sex marriage in Utah and Oklahoma, saying unions between a man and woman are best for children, families and society.
The argument is being made in a 42-page brief filed Monday to a Denver-based court reviewing cases that could reverse gay marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma.
Lawyers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote the brief, which was signed by the National Association of Evangelicals and Southern Baptist and Lutheran organizations.
The religious groups say the marriage of a man and a woman as established by God is the best setting for raising children.
They say accusations their opposition to gay marriage represents bigotry are “false and offensive.”
Herald Staff & Associated Press
