News Briefs April 10, 2015
Adventist Today regularly provides a summary of stories that we have decided do not require in-depth reporting, but our readers may want to be aware of.
The Physician Assistant program has been accredited Adventist University of Health Sciences (ADU) in Orlando, Florida. The first class of 25 students will begin in May, selected from more than 350 applicants. It is a master’s degree program requiring full time study for 27 months.
The number of church buildings destroyed now totals 53 in Vanuatu, reports the Adventist Review. It had earlier reported that 18 local churches went down during Cyclone Pam on March 14 in the Pacific island nation. Six church schools were also destroyed and hundreds of church members have lost their homes, including 20 pastors and 100 teachers.
U.S. President Barack Obama heard a plea from Adventist lobbyist Dwayne O. Leslie during the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday (April 7). Leslie urged Obama “to keep religious freedom at the forefront of his administration’s foreign policy,” according to the Adventist Review. The Easter event is a smaller gathering than the National Prayer Breakfast which made headlines in 2013 when Dr. Ben Carson, an Adventist church member and potential presidential candidate, criticized Obama’s policies as he stood near the president in front of 3,500 people.
Appeals court in U.S. rules that Adventist cannot be denied unemployment benefits because she was fired for being absent from work on Sabbaths. Her disqualification was prohibited by the First Amendment and controlling Supreme Court precedent. The case Lester v Butler, Ga. Ct. of App., No. A14A2008 was reported in the Walter Kluwer Law & Business online news service.