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This week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the campaign of genocide in Rwanda. No Images? Click here The Weekly is a highlight of the work the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is doing to strengthen you and our churches for God’s glory. 5 Facts about the Rwandan GenocideThis week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the campaign of genocide in Rwanda. Here are five facts you should know about one of the most horrific atrocities in modern times: The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority. During the approximate 100-day period from April 7, 1994 to mid-July an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed, constituting as much as 20 percent of the country’s total population and 70 percent of the Tutsi then living in Rwanda. The inciting event appears to have occurred on April 6, 1994 when an airplane carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down on its descent into the Rwandan capital. Genocidal killings began the following day as soldiers, police, and militia executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders, then erected checkpoints and barricades and used Rwandans’ national identity cards to systematically verify their ethnicity and kill Tutsi. Read MoreThis Week at the ERLCDan Darling hosted a conversation at #TGC2019 with Russell Moore, Trillia Newbell, Sam Allberry, and Jasmine L. Holmes on what it means to be human and how a consistent whole life ethic causes us to see all our neighbors as those bearing dignity and worth. Watch the Facebook Live replay here. On the Crossway Podcast, Russell Moore shares about his own family’s adoption journey—and how it impacted his view of the gospel. Listen here. On April 11, the ERLC will host a convening in Washington, D.C. to unveil an Evangelical Statement of Principles on Artificial Intelligence. The statement is designed to equip the church with an ethical framework for thinking about artificial intelligence and has been signed by more than 30 leaders and experts in various fields. Learn more about this major event here. What You Need to KnowChurch plants are playing a powerful role in reaching the broken and changing communities all across the country. Ericka Andersen shares more on the new church planting movement. Read her piece here. A powerful movement is gaining momentum in America, sparking light in the darkness for those suffering from the diseases of addiction, depression or perhaps, just plain loneliness or general sadness. It’s not a new or fancy concept, but church planting has received an updated model. Adoption is beautiful, but it is also often messy and filled with brokenness. Laura DeClercq shares "5 ways you can pray for adoptive families."Many of us bring to mind pictures of a family in the airport surrounded by balloons when we hear about adoption. Or, we picture a family smiling with a judge finalizing their adoption in court. Both are beautiful and true pictures of adoption. but they are not the full picture. The support an adoptive family needs does not end at the airport or in a courtroom. Indeed, their hardest days are still ahead. When Lauren Chandler's husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she struggled with talking to her children about death. But the uncertainty and fear of that season lead her to write a new book called Goodbye to Goodbyes. In a special interview, she shares more about her book and how she hopes God uses it to bless others.Sickness and death are hard subjects for adults. I find that we often don't think much about these subjects until they come crashing into our world. That's why it's important to develop a theology of suffering sooner rather than later. News From Capitol HillOn Tuesday, April 2 the ERLC staff joined around 150 others and several media outlets at a press conference held by Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La). Minority Whip Scalise announced he was filing the Born Alive Discharge Petition later that afternoon. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was a force led by Representative Ann Wagner (R-Mo) who also spoke during the event. By filing a discharge petition, the minority party is attempting to bring the issue of infanticide to the floor.Melissa Ohden, who we recently hosted on our Capitol Conversations podcast ahead of the previous Senate vote on the Born-Alive Act, also shared her story at the press conference. Melissa, in the above photo, is an abortion survivor with a powerful story of reconciliation with her birth mother. She is a true voice for the voiceless and continues to fight for the children whose lives depend on the protections provided through this bill. The discharge petition was filed at 11:30am on Tuesday and by the end of the day had already received 191 signatures. As of now, the bill has 198 signatures, only 20 short of the 218 required to bring the bill to the floor. While a similar 2002 bill, signed into law by President Bush, defined “born-alive infants” there is yet to be federal law prescribing medical standards of treatment for such vulnerable infants. The ERLC mobilized the Stand for Life Movement by inviting the community to call their Members of Congress and asking them to sign the petition and vote for the bill. You can join the effort by calling your Representatives to ask them to sign the petition to bring this bill to the House floor for a vote. Here is the list of Representatives who already signed onto the petition. The ERLC will continue to advocate for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act because Americans deserve to know where their elected officials stand on infanticide. Featured PodcastsLate last year, H.R. 390 — the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018 — became law. David Trimble and Nathaniel Hurd, two people who played a significant role in passing this bill, join Travis Wussow to discuss the almost two year battle to provide emergency aid to persecuted minorities in Iraq and Syria. Check out their discussion here. The new ERLC Podcast series Better Together with Trillia Newbell continues this week with business owner and entrepreneur Katie Wussow. Katie joins the podcast to explore complementarianism and a woman's place in life, church, and work. Listen to this episode here. From The Public SquareIraqi Christians in the US Face Deportation Again Some Chaldean detainees lost their chance to fight to stay. But it’s still unclear if their home country will let them back. When Reason Does Not Suffice: Why Our Culture Still Accepts Abortion There is no way to guarantee a world safe for the unborn child that is also a world of total sexual and economic autonomy. Study: People raised by lesbian parents are less likely to be straight They're "significantly more likely to report same-sex attraction, sexual minority identity, and same-sex experience" than the general population. How 12 court cases could challenge abortion access under Roe vs. Wade Numerous lawsuits over restrictive laws in nine states are in the pipeline to the Supreme Court. The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commissionof the Southern Baptist Convention 901 Commerce Street, Suite 550 Nashville, TN 37203 Like Tweet Forward Preferences | Unsubscribe |
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