Religion

Michigan Live reports: A young woman has been relieved of her jury duty following concerns she might have been flirting with a man accused of aiding a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. As proceedings continued Friday morning in the jury trial of Joseph Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar, Judge Thomas Wilson announced that a young woman has been removed …

The Christian Post reports: Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber has condemned the idea that the church should be running government and warned advocates of Christian nationalism that pursuing such an agenda will result in the persecution of Christians. “It stands contrary to 400 years of Baptist history and everything I believe about religious liberty. I’m opposed to the idea …

Religion News Service reports: Three Jewish women in Kentucky have filed a lawsuit arguing that their religious rights are being violated by a set of state laws that ban most abortions. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville, is the third such suit brought by Jewish organizations or individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. …

“Well, I’m going to say something controversial that will absolutely delight atheists, ’cause they like to take – not all atheists, some internet atheists – like to take things out of context and use it to make me look bad. “I don’t care  You’ve already hated me anyways. It’s not like anything changed. If anything, I’m just glad people, like, …

From the Justice Department: Jonathan High, 30, of Steinhatchee, Florida, has been convicted of two counts of use of a child to produce child pornography. The guilty verdict, returned yesterday, at the conclusion of a one-day bench trial, was announced by Jason R. Coody, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Prior to the trial, High pleaded guilty …

Mobile’s Fox affiliate reports: A former Citronelle pastor was back behind bars Tuesday night after he was indicted on child sex abuse charges. Investigators said Gregory Adams, 64, lured young women in his churches and sexually abused them, dating back decades ago. Adams was indicted on three counts of sodomy, two counts of sexual abuse, and three counts of rape. …

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports: A former youth pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Shelby County has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault in the first and second-degrees by prosecutors in Benton County, Arkansas. The new charges come a month after he was arrested on a charge of sexual indecency with a child in August. The charges filed …

Decatur’s NBC affiliate reports: A former church pastor accepted a plea agreement in court on Friday, pleading guilty to Count II Grooming, a Class 4 felony. Joseph Krol, 38, is accused of sending sexually inappropriate Snapchat messages to a 15-year-old minor from Oreana. A sworn affidavit said Krol asked the child to take part in a “true online confessions game” …

Media Matters has the transcript: When people on the right use the phrase ‘Christian nationalism’, people on the left hear, ah, we’re talking about religious fascism. Well, no, when people say ‘Christian nationalism’ typically what they mean is not that the official church of the United States should be the Catholic Church, or that the church of the United States …

Houston’s Fox affiliate reports: Authorities in Fort Bend County said a former pastor will be spending the next 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child. The District Attorney’s announced in a press release that William Benjamin Woodward, 62, pled guilty to the charge of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child in June 2022. Woodward previously served as pastor …

The New York Times reports: Two men have been arrested in the July robbery of a Brooklyn pastor, who had what the police said was more than $1 million in jewelry taken from him at gunpoint during a sermon that was caught on a livestream video, prosecutors in Brooklyn said Wednesday. Juwan Anderson, 23, and Say-Quan Pollack, also 23, face …

The Roys Report reports: As The Christian Post first reported on Wednesday, the longtime music director at Grace College, Donald Ogden, had an estimated 100 to 200 male abuse victims during his decades-long tenure at the college, his daughters allege. The women, whose maiden names are Diane and Kathleen Ogden, reported the alleged abuse to Grace College in 2021. This …

Orlando’s NBC affiliate reports: A pastor and owner of a kung fu training academy from Palm Bay has been charged with multiple sex crimes involving children, according to the Palm Bay Police Department. Palm Bay police arrested 42-year-old Roberson Douge Wednesday after they said two victims reported the alleged sexual abuse. According to the arrest affidavit, police recorded a call …

The Paintsville Herald reports: A former Johnson Central High School girls’ basketball coach and pastor was arrested on Sept. 21 after an indictment was handed down against him alleging sexual abuse, rape and sodomy against a minor. Johnson Commmonwealth’s Attorney Tony Skeans said the alleged offenses were listed in an indictment against Darrin Rice, 54, of Wittensville. Skeans said the …

The Christian Post reports: To the outside world, Don Ogden, founder of the music department at Grace College & Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana, was a charismatic and beloved Christian leader, husband and father. When he died at age 88 on June 27, 2015, a publication of the private Christian college known as 289 described Ogden as a passionate family …

Politico reports: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an NYPD detective’s challenge to New York City’s vaccine requirement for municipal workers after all. Last month, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request by Det. Anthony Marciano to take up his legal challenge. But Marciano resubmitted the exact same request to conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, and the high court’s press office …

West Palm Beach’s ABC affiliate reports: Police said the investigation revealed that the church’s former parish administrator, Deborah True, and former pastor, Richard Murphy, opened a bank account in the name of “Holy Cross Catholic Church” in 2012. Police said bank records show that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners’ donations were fraudulently deposited into the account since 2015. From 2015 …

The Christian Post reports: Calling herself a “pioneer” in high-level prayer and pointing to her decades of experience as a minister of the Gospel, televangelist and self-proclaimed prophetess, Juanita Bynum, defended her $1,499.99 price tag for a four-week intensive prayer course, and dismissed criticism she has been facing online over it as an “insult.” “I’m not going to insult myself …

Mediaite reports: Four House Republicans voted against funding for the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Monday after the act passed in the Senate. The Senate passed the bill in July by unanimous consent after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the legislation to reauthorize the commission, which monitors the state of religious liberty across the globe. Republicans voted …

The New York Daily News reports: A Queens church deacon nabbed in an undercover sting pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday of trying to lure three teenage boys into meeting him for sex acts, law enforcement officials said. Rogelio Vega, 52, a former deacon at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside, pleaded guilty to three counts of …