Episode 146
Respect for Marriage Act, IMB Goes Against Mission Trends, Flooding in Buchanan County, VA
The U.S. Senate is weighing a potential vote on a bill that would place into federal law the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized gay marriage. The International Mission Board stands in stark contrast to current trends in global missions. And, Southern Baptists in Virginia are providing immediate relief to the community of Buchanan County, after severe flooding last week affected around 450 homes in the area.
Transcript
The U.S. Senate is weighing a potential vote on a bill that would place into federal law the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized gay marriage.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted July 19 to codify same-sex marriage into law with the help of one-fifth of its Republican members.
With all the Democrats and 47 Republicans voting in favor, the House approved the Respect for Marriage Act in a 267-157 roll call. The proposal would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and require federal and state recognition of same-sex marriages considered legal in the jurisdiction where they took place.
The Democratic-controlled Senate needs a 60-vote requirement to gain action on the floor.
Democrats promoted the Respect for Marriage Act in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 24 overruling of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 opinion that legalized abortion nationwide. Supporters of same-sex marriage expressed concerns a future high court might also reverse the Obergefell ruling and called for a legislative remedy for that possibility.
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The International Mission Board stands in stark contrast to current trends in global missions. A recent Christian Post article cited only 3 percent of mission work goes to reach the unreached, while in 2021, the IMB sought to focus 81.2 percent of missionary team efforts among unreached people groups (UPG). Additionally, 90.8 percent of all IMB teams were focused on at least one UPG, said Wilson Geisler the IMB’s director of global research.
The IMB defines a people group as unreached when less than 2 percent of its population is evangelical Christian (UPG). A people group is unengaged when no evangelical church-planting strategy is being implemented among its members (UUPG). People groups are ethnolinguistic groups who share a common language and cultural identity. For strategic purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.
The IMB has identified 3,150 people groups that remain unreached and unengaged. Of those, fewer than 400 have populations exceeding 100,000.
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Good News for Today is made possible through our friends at The Voice of the Martyrs, a nonprofit organization that serves persecuted Christians around the world. Founded in 1967 by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, VOM is dedicated to inspiring believers to deepen their commitment to Christ and to fulfill His Great Commission — no matter the cost. Find out more and sign up for their free monthly magazine at vom.org/goodnews.
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Southern Baptists in Virginia are providing immediate relief to the community of Buchanan County, after severe flooding last week affected around 450 homes in the area.
Torrential rain in mid-July resulted in flooding which caused mudslides, the loss of power throughout the county and buildings to be moved off their foundations.
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