Religion

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 …

The Bristol Herald Courier reports: Detectives arrested Michael Canter, 38, of Abingdon, Virginia, without incident Thursday, Sept. 8 on multiple sexual assault charges against a juvenile female, according to a press release from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. At the time of his arrest, Canter, a resident of Washington County, Virginia, was serving as the pastor at Valley View Baptist …

CNN reports: The Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote declined on Wednesday a request from Yeshiva University to block a lower court order that requires the New York university to recognize a “Pride Alliance” LGBTQ student club. In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court noted that the New York state courts had yet to issue a final order in the …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed an Orthodox Jewish university in New York to deny official recognition to an LGBTQ student group, the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious rights. Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a brief order granted an emergency request made by Yeshiva University, which claims that recognizing the group would …

The Associated Press reports: A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago. Carl Matthew Johnson, 77, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Davis County jail in northern Utah on suspicion of seven counts of sex abuse of …

Courthouse News reports: The ACLU of Indiana filed a class action lawsuit Thursday that challenges Indiana’s new abortion law by claiming the restrictions violate religious freedoms. The lawsuit was filed in Marion County and argues that the law known as SEA 1 violates Hoosiers’ rights under the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act by denying them access to abortions that would …

The Kennewick Tri-Cities Herald reports: A Tri-Cities priest has been arrested on suspicion of rape. Rev. Tomás Vázquez Téllez, 49, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of third-degree rape with an aggravating factor of being a person of trust. Vázquez Téllez has been serving at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Pasco since Sept. 2021. Vázquez Téllez was booked into the Benton …

The Insider reports: A North Carolina school baptized more than 100 students without asking permission from their parents, The Fayetteville Observer reported on Friday. When parents learned that their children had been baptized at the Northwood Temple Academy, they were upset. “My daughter calls me from the school and says, ‘Mama, can you bring me some dry clothes? I got …

The Maryland Bay reports: Reverend Jaroslaw “Jerry” Gamrot, 58, who serves at Holy Face Catholic Church and Little Flower School in Great Mills, has been charged for an incident that reportedly happened in July on a highway. Charging documents for the incident indicate that on July 25, Gamrot was traveling west on Route 70 in Frederick with no pants on …