Religion

Reuters reports: Indonesia is poised to pass a new penal code that criminalizes consensual sex outside marriage and introduces stiff penalties for insulting the president’s dignity – a move rights groups criticized as an intrusive assault on basic freedoms. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim majority country and has substantial Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, but has seen a …

The Guardian reports: The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on 436 residents of North Carolina, the state most affected by Hurricane Florence last year. The participants were given $5 “in support of their hardship” and asked how much, if any, they were willing to exchange to receive thoughts and prayers from strangers, …

The Washington Post reports: It was billed as a holy journey, a pilgrimage with West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield to “pray, sing and worship” at the National Shrine in Washington. Catholics from remote areas of one of the nation’s poorest states paid up to $190 for hotel rooms and overnight bus rides to the nation’s capital. Unknown to the …

The Hill reports: A Baptist church in Birmingham, Ala., is capturing national attention for a sign saying that a black person voting for President Trump “is mental illness.” The controversial sign put on display outside the New Era Baptist Church reads on one side, “A black vote for Trump is mental illness.” The other side of the sign displays another …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis said Sunday that the Amazon forest is vital for our Earth and is urging prayers that fires there are quickly controlled. Francis added his voice to the chorus of international concern that the blazes in Brazil will have grave repercussions on the world’s environmental health. The pontiff, who is from the neighboring South American …

NBC Philadelphia reports: A Chester County priest who took the place of a disgraced Archdiocese official is now in trouble with the law as well after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his own church. Father Joseph McLoone, 56, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, was arrested Wednesday and charged with felony theft and other related offenses after allegedly …

The Associated Press reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by “competent” doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not …

ABC News reports: Hundreds of lawsuits are expected to be filed in New York today as the state’s window allowing alleged child sexual abuse survivors to seek civil recourse opens. Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act, which allows civil claims of child sexual abuse from any time period to be brought forth, in spite of existing …

The New York Daily News reports: The handwritten missives, many signed simply “Uncle T.,” were sent to aspiring young priests as part of defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s perverse wooing of his victims, according to a pair of abuse prevention experts. Several postcards and letters sent by McCarrick to his sexual targets were made public by The Associated Press, with experts …

The Christian Post reports: Former pastor and evangelical author Joshua Harris demonstrated his support for the LGBT community by marching in Vancouver’s annual Pride Parade less than a month after announcing he no longer considers himself a Christian. On August 4, Harris, former pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, shared several Instagram photos of himself participating in the …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis on Sunday condemned attacks on “defenseless people” in a spate of gun violence in three American states, including one that killed 20 people in a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. Speaking to thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday message and blessing, Francis said he was spiritually close to the …

Reuters reports: Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide. In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the …

The New York Daily News reports: A Bronx pastor took money meant to help HIV-positive drug addicts and used it to jet off to the Caribbean and lavish himself with gifts, prosecutors said Wednesday. In his role as president and CEO of Addicts Rehabilitation Center Fund and the Addicts Rehabilitation Center Foundation, Rev. Reginald Williams, 67, scammed the nonprofits out …

Britain’s The Metro reports: A religious leader who said mums to be who enjoy anal sex are the reason why gay people exist has defended his comments. The Bishop of Morhpou Neophytos make the comments at a primary school in Akaki, Cyprus, saying the mother’s enjoyment transfers to the foetus, making the child gay. He faced an international backlash and …

The Associated Press reports: The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night. Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the …

Britain’s Metro reports: Church of Cyprus bishop Neophytos Masouras has claimed women enjoying anal sex while pregnant is the reason that gay people exist. Speaking at a primary school in Akaki, Cyprus, he claimed that the enjoyment the mother experiences transfers to the foetus, making the child gay. In a video translated by Metro.co.uk translators, he said: “It happens during …

Just in from Gallup Polls: Forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created them in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years. However, more Americans continue to think that humans evolved over millions of years — either with God’s guidance (33%) or, increasingly, without God’s involvement at all …

The Christian Post reports: The famed Crystal Cathedral in California, which was touted as the largest all-glass structure in the world when it was officially opened in 1980, was rededicated Wednesday by the Diocese of Orange after a $77 million makeover and the blessing of Bishop Kevin Vann and Pope Francis. Originally commissioned by late televangelist Rev. Robert H. Schuller, …

The Washington Post reports: The Vatican on Friday announced sanctions against retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield, but stopped short of defrocking him, after investigating accusations of sexual harassment and financial misconduct. The sanctions, ordered by Pope Francis and detailed in a letter posted to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston’s website, prohibits Bransfield from public ministry and from residing in his …

The Christian Post reports: Leader of the 5 million-member Light of the World church Naason Joaquin Garcia was denied bail on child sex crime charges after a visibly angered Los Angeles Superior Court judge heard a witness describe video evidence that allegedly shows the pastor in a sexual threesome involving a minor. “ This is a man who preyed on …