Religion

Spartanburg’s CBS affiliate reports: A now-former Upstate youth pastor is accused of videoing a woman while she was showering in Greenwood County. Once deputies arrived on the scene, they spoke with the victim who said while she was taking a shower at her mother’s house, she saw a light outside the bathroom window. She said she got out of the …

Reuters reports: The Vatican urged bishops and high-profile lay Catholic leaders on Monday to tone down their comments on social media, saying some were causing division and stoking polemics that harmed the entire Church. The appeal was part of a 20-page document by the Vatican’s communications department titled, “Towards Full Presence. A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media.” “The …

Religion News Service reports: Southern Baptists have been dogged by leadership scandals for years. Now they have a different kind of abuse scandal on their hands. James David “Jim” Goldston III, 71, and his wife, Agnes, 73, are accused of poisoning their neighbor’s three dogs. Two of the dogs, Labrador retrievers, died. A veterinarian confirmed that all three dogs were …

Deadline reports: The Los Angeles Dodgers have announced what’s termed a “relaunch” of the team’s “Christian Faith and Family Day” event. News of the resurrected faith event comes shortly after the team enmeshed itself in a controversy over its Pride Night celebration. The team invited – then disinvited – then reinvited the controversial Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence group to take …

Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate reports: The Norman Police Department says a caregiver has been arrested after a report of a child under the age of 12 being molested around Christmas time. Officials say they responded to a home in Norman on December 28, 2022, where the original report was made. That caregiver was 45-year-old Christopher Fourcade, who was arrested Thursday …

The Roys Report reports: The longtime campus pastor of a Christian college ministry at Baylor University has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of two boys. The crimes allegedly involved convicted sex offender Daniel Savala, who’s at the center of a widening sex scandal involving Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. On Tuesday, authorities in Waco, Texas, arrested Christopher “Chris” Hundl, …

The Fresno Bee reports: A Tulare man was sentenced on Friday to 300 years in prison for molesting a group of children in the late 1990s. Steven Brian Arey was convicted in April on 20 counts of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14, according to the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Each count carried the special …

The Catholic news site Crux reports: A new sexual abuse scandal in Italy, featuring a prominent former official of the country’s largest Catholic organization, has raised questions both about responsibility when the alleged offender is a lay person rather than a cleric, and also about when suspicions should be publicly disclosed in an effort to prevent further abuse. Mirko Campoli, …

From the Justice Department: Elie Floradin, 59, the self-described head pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Miami, Florida, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for participating in a fraudulent scheme seeking more than $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Floradin caused an intermediary to …

The New York Times reports: More than 450 credibly accused child sex abusers have ministered in the Catholic Church in Illinois over almost seven decades, the office of the state’s attorney general, Kwame Raoul, said Tuesday in an investigative report. That is more than four times the number that the church had publicly disclosed before 2018, when the state began …

The Hill reports: Only half of Americans now say they are sure God exists. That finding, from the closely watched General Social Survey, stands out among several nuggets of new data about religion in America. Not quite 50 percent of Americans say they have no doubt about the existence of God, according to the 2022 survey, released Wednesday by NORC, …

Manchester’s ABC affiliate reports: A former New Hampshire minister is accused of strangulation and sexual assault and is being investigated for similar charges in Florida. Ossipee police said at the time of the allegations, Kevin Straughan, 67, was the head minister of Agape Ministries Church in Ossipee and Moultonborough. Straughan has been indicted on several charges, including four counts of …

Oregon Live reports: A Multnomah County jury on Friday found a pastor of a religious group guilty of sexually abusing a former member when she was a child – the third time a jury has reached a verdict against Michael Sperou. Though he was found guilty of sexually abusing one victim, six other women came forward years ago with their …

Religion News Service reports: The National Religious Broadcasters, an association of Christian media outlets, has joined a lawsuit seeking to block a California law that requires social media companies to publish their policies on removing hate speech from their platforms. “In an environment where much religious viewpoint expression is considered ‘controversial’ speech, NRB is acting to stop the weaponization of …

The Roys Report reports: The Holy Land Experience, one of America’s largest biblical theme parks, lies in ruins, after Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) spent more than $130 million on the project. AdventHealth purchased the Orlando, Fla., property from TBN in 2021 for $32 million. According to Orlando TV station WESH, AdventHealth submitted plans to build a hospital on the site. …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: A New Orleans man arrested on charges that he repeatedly damaged a 100-year-old statue of the Virgin Mary on the campus of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Metairie is now accused of illegally entering the church’s locked sanctuary and defiling the altar, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said. Paul Laborde Jr., 56, a …

France 24 reports: Old sins cast long shadows. After centuries of secrecy, the French Bishop’s Conference (CEF) has decided it will be more transparent by equipping priests, bishops and deacons with digital, scannable identification cards. No bigger than a bankcard, the IDs will certify whether or not its holder is fit to perform a sermon or has the right to …

Click2Houston reports: A former employee of a Magnolia church is now the center of an investigation after he reportedly turned himself in and confessed to ‘inappropriate behavior with adolescents’ during his time at the ministry. Court documents state that Michael Anthony Romero was charged with indecency of a child involving sexual contact.  He also said that he had previously touched …

The Mansfield News Journal reports: Guilty on all five counts was the verdict Friday in the federal sex-trafficking trial of the Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias, a Roman Catholic priest who has led parishes in Mansfield and Fremont. The jury’s decision was announced a little before 5 p.m. Friday. Zacharias, 56, was found guilty of all five counts of sex trafficking, …

The Christian Post reports: There has been an interesting shift in English idiom over recent years from the language of “making love” to that of “having sex.” The former — which today may even sound a little quaint — speaks of an act that can only take place between two people who know and love each other and which has …