Statement

A declaration issued at the end of the recent Amsterdam 2000 international meeting of evangelists calls for renewed dedication to worldwide evangelism and continued proclamation in a pluralistic world that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

Mayor Sandra L. Genis has declared this week Abstinence Week in Costa Mesa, an official reminder that the only foolproof way to avoid getting AIDS through sex is not to have sex. Health educators generally welcomed the declaration, but said sexual abstinence cannot be encouraged as the only defense against pregnancy and disease. They also berated as inflammatory a statement that was issued by Abstinence Week organizers. "The red 'AIDS' ribbon is a lie," read a statement distributed by the group.

A 13-year veteran of the Southern Baptists' Home Mission Board said he was fired because he publicly voiced a belief that Jews go to heaven. The Rev. George Sheridan of Union, N.J., said he was relieved from his duties then dismissed because of a 1987 meeting with board officials in which he was closely questioned about his belief that God promised Jews salvation in the Old Testament.

The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon worshiped at the Islamic Society of Boston's mosque in Cambridge, with the older brother disrupting services and challenging the congregation's moderate theology, the society confirmed on Monday. The members of the mosque did not have “any hint that they could perpetrate this horrific attack. What we do know, as the details related below will show, was that one suspect disagreed with the moderate American-Islamic theology of the ISB Cambridge mosque,” the society said in a statement.

President Reagan teamed up with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher today to prod reluctant allies into rewriting a weak draft declaration on terrorism, producing what they hoped would be seen as a concerted challenge to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi. But coaxing five other leaders to agree to the final, five-paragraph statement required Thatcher to "hammer away" at French President Francois Mitterrand and Reagan to hint at further U.S. military action, aides said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday issued what appeared to be its most specific statement against same-sex marriage. The statement, two weeks before Utah voters decide a proposed amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, says that only men and women should be married. It says "any other sexual relations, including between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of family."

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The family of South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius denied Friday that the Olympic athlete had murdered his girlfriend, releasing a statement shortly after he broke down and wept during his first court appearance. Pistorius, revered for overcoming his disability to compete in the London Olympics last year, is facing a murder charge in the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, a tragedy that shocked and divided South Africans.

Griffen Kramer, a backup quarterback at Thousand Oaks High, was found dead Sunday at a friend's house in Agoura Hills, school officials said Monday. Kramer was 18. Kramer is the son of former NFL quarterback Erik Kramer, who played at Burbank Burroughs High and Pierce College, and started for the Chicago Bears from 1994-96. In a statement, the school, with information it said was provided by the family, announced that "initial indications suggest his passing was due to alcohol poisoning.

We've been waiting three weeks for the Lakers to make a statement, a real postseason statement, not some meaningless opening-game banter or desperate deciding-game scream. We've been waiting for the NBA's best regular-season team to put on the sort of consistent display that would remind the rest of the league--and, OK, us--exactly where they are headed. Well, that statement has been made. It was Sunday in Phoenix. It was loud enough to be heard from Los Angeles to Portland.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office on Wednesday spurned the confession of a woman who claimed that she and several friends were responsible for the 1988 slaying of Carol Montecalvo, whose husband was convicted last year of the murder. The prosecutor in the case said that Suzan Brown, 45, was lying when she suddenly stepped forward last month and confessed her role in the fatal shooting of Montecalvo in her Burbank home. "After an extensive investigation of Ms.