Religion

“There are many countries in which religious freedom is not available. And we believe that by gathering citizens from around the world – we’ll have over 80 delegations from different countries, 40 plus of my counterparts at the foreign minister level will be in attendance, and religious leaders like yourself – all brought together to highlight the central nature of …

Agence France-Presse reports: A gay couple was publicly whipped in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Friday (July 13), despite an earlier pledge by officials to stop the punishment after it drew international criticism. The two men were flogged more than 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law, as a jeering crowd hurled abuse …

The South China Post reports: Philippine Catholic bishops on Monday called for fasting and prayers after President Rodrigo Duterte called God “stupid” and questioned God’s existence in profane remarks that set him on a collision course with Asia’s largest Catholic Church. Archbishop Romulo Valles and the association of bishops that he heads called for a day of prayers on July …

Reuters reports: A federal jury in Brooklyn, New York today convicted two men for their roles in an international scheme to make millions of dollars by illegally trading on corporate press releases that were stolen by computer hackers before they became public. Vitaly Korchevsky, a Pennsylvania pastor and former Morgan Stanley (MS.N) vice president, and co-defendant Vladislav Khalupsky were each …

The Hill reports: Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Sunday he believes “Jesus would approve of gay marriage.” “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else,” Carter, who describes himself as a born-again Christian, told HuffPost …

The Philippine Star reports: President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday vowed to immediately resign if Christians can prove that their God exists. “If there is anyone of you there, the noisy ones, who would say that you have been to heaven, talked to God, saw him personally, and that He exists, the God that is yours, and if He does is …

The Christian Post reports: Brad Waller, a married father and senior pastor of the Grace Church of the Islands, PCA, in Savannah, Georgia, has left his church and several others in his congregation in shock after confessing to abusing multiple men and boys under his spiritual care with sexual foot massages, which prompted his swift removal from ministry by the …

CNN reports: Embattled Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Scott Pruitt directly appealed to President Donald Trump this spring to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and let him run the Department of Justice instead, according to three people familiar with the proposal. In an Oval Office conversation with Trump, Pruitt offered to temporarily replace Sessions for 210 days under the Vacancies Reform …

The BBC reports: A Catholic archbishop in Australia has been given a maximum sentence of 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s. Philip Wilson, now archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior Catholic globally to be convicted of the crime. He was found guilty by a court last month of covering up abuse by a …

The Guardian reports: The government will appoint a national LGBT health adviser and take measures to end so-called conversion therapy as part of a plan to deliver what Theresa May has promised will be “real and lasting change”. The proposals form part of an action plan published by the Equalities Office on Tuesday. It follows a UK-wide survey of LGBT …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Thursday accepted the resignations of two more Chilean bishops, the latest fallout from a sex abuse scandal whose scope and gravity were initially underestimated by the pontiff. Last month all 31 of Chile’s active bishops offered to quit for collectively failing to protect children from pedophile priests. The Vatican announced that Francis allowed …

Politico reports: Republicans have quietly imposed a new tax on churches, synagogues and other nonprofits, a little-noticed and surprising change that could cost some groups tens of thousands of dollars. Their recent tax-code rewrite requires churches, hospitals, colleges, orchestras and other historically tax-exempt organizations to begin paying a 21 percent tax on some types of fringe benefits they provide their …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican tribunal has convicted a former Holy See diplomat and sentenced him to 5 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first such trial of its kind inside the Vatican. Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted to viewing the images during what he called a period of “fragility” and interior crisis sparked by …

The Independent reports: The Vatican has recognized the term “LGBT” by using it in one of its official documents for the first time. A paper examining the Catholic Church’s relationship with young people, published on Tuesday, said “some LGBT youth” were looking to “benefit from greater closeness and experience greater care by the church.” The use of the term appears …

CBS News reports: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington DC, has been removed from public ministry after an accusation he abused a teen nearly 50 years ago while serving as a priest in New York archdiocese. McCarrick, now at age 87, previously served as archbishop of Newark in New Jersey. The cardinal maintains his innocence but has accepted the …

Reuters reports: Only heterosexual families can form a family, Pope Francis said on Saturday, when he also condemned abortion and hailed the “sanctity” of women who forgive cheating husbands. “It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family,” but “the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the …

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Chilean bishop he robustly defended earlier this year despite claims of a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, a move that later forced the pontiff into making a public apology. In his continuing efforts to show he has grasped the extent of the Catholic church’s sexual abuse scandal, and intends …

The New York Daily News reports: A Brooklyn city lawmaker is sponsoring sex-segregated beach days to give his Jewish and Muslim constituents an opportunity to enjoy the seaside. City Councilman Chaim Deutsch announced the first ever “Southern Brooklyn Beach Day,” with separate dates for men and women by the sandy spot behind Kingsborough Community College. Deutsch, who is an observant …

The Associated Press reports: A federal court has ruled that printing “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency doesn’t amount to a religious endorsement and therefore doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago made the ruling Thursday in a lawsuit brought by a self-declared Satanist, Kenneth Mayle. He argued that the motto propagates …

The Associated Press reports: The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has agreed to a $210 million settlement with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its plan for bankruptcy reorganization, an attorney said Thursday, making it the second-largest U.S. payout in the priest abuse scandal. Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the settlement was reached with the survivors …