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I respect what Ron Lawson accomplished as a sociologist. He had a career that some might call illustrious. He is the one most often credited[?] with Kinship's founding; however, a Spectrum or Kinship article, some time back, rightly acknowledged the roll Ben Pickell played in Kinship's founding. Ben was not an SDA when he placed an ad in a gay magazine inviting gay SDA to contact him. Since his connection to Adventism is somewhat sordid, likely a slick PR move for Kinship to upplay Ron Lawson. He had deep SDA ties.

ASHLAND COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) - A Canton pastor will spend three years in prison for a crime involving a 13-year-old girl. Jesse Santos was sentenced by Ashland County Court of Common Pleas Judge David Stimpert Thursday afternoon. Santos, pastor of Canton Seventh-Day Adventist Church, was arrested in February 2025 and charged with kidnapping, two counts of gross sexual imposition, and endangering children. In January, Santos entered a guilty plea to the amended charge of abduction. According to the police report, the crime happened at a campsite in the 3000 block of Ashland County Rd. at River Run Campground in Loudonville in September 2025. https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/03/06/canton-pastor-going-prison-crime-involving-13-year-old-girl/

Desna boarding house caught fire after drone attack, no injuries reported. https://adventist.news/news/desna-boarding-house-damaged-by-drone-attack

Ronald L. Lawson, an Australian sociologist; scholar of global Adventism, sectarian religions, and urban conflicts; and co-founder of Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International—the Adventist LGBTQ+ advocacy organization—died on August 3, 2026 at his home in Loma Linda, California. Lawson, who had been beset with various health issues in recent years, was 86..... Lawson was born on January 6, 1940, in Sydney, Australia. After graduating from Toowoomba Grammar School in 1958, he matriculated at University of Queensland, Brisbane, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in history in 1963, and a PhD in history and sociology in 1970. The following year, he won a Fulbright Travel Grant to New York City, where he became a post-doctoral visiting scholar at Columbia University and studied urban conflicts. After teaching at both Columbia and Hunter College, City University of New York, in 1984, he became a professor in the urban studies department at Queens College, CUNY, where he taught until his retirement in 2009. It was during his nearly forty years living in New York that he helped found the organization that would eventually become SDA Kinship, after he placed advertisements in the gay magazine The Advocate, seeking to connect with other gay and queer Adventists. Eventually, with these contacts, he organized the first meeting of queer Adventists in the summer of 1980. The gathering led to the formation of SDA Kinship, which continues to hold annual conventions called “Kampmeetings.” ---------- That explains so MANY things.

🕯️ Sydney Towle, a social media content creator who projected enduring optimism as she chronicled her life with a rare form of cancer, has died at 26. Keep reading.