Tag Archives: religion

Landlord Changes Locks After Church Defies Lockdown

Oakland’s Fox affiliate reports: Members of a central California church found themselves locked out of the bulding after the pastor originally kept his doors open, saying the shelter-in-place orders violated his freedom to assemble. But within the past week, the landlord of the Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, Calif. changed the locks, so congregants couldn’t enter the building for …

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TX Woman Dies Of COVID After Posting Facebook Rant: “You Don’t Need Sanitizer, You Need Faith And Guns”

From a GoFundMe plea posted on Friday: With deep sadness and Broken Hearts we share with you that Karen Kolb Sehlke, a loving wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend to all that knew her, went to be with our Lord when she passed away unexpectedly Thursday April 2,2020. Karen became very sick and was admitted to the hospital near her …

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Dozens In Congregation Ill At Small Chicago Church

Suburban Chicago’s Daily Herald reports: An estimated 43 people, more than half the people who attended a service March 15 at The Life Church of Glenview, are sick and at least 10 have tested positive for COVID-19, Pastor Anthony LoCascio [photo] confirmed Thursday evening. “A lot of people are sick,” said LoCascio, who says 11 days after starting to feel …

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Israeli Orthodox Leader Blames Virus On Pride Parades

The Times of Israel reports: An Orthodox Israeli rabbi has claimed the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Israel and around the world is divine retribution for gay pride parades. An influential Sephardic rabbi, Meir Mazuz is the former spiritual leader of the defunct ultra-nationalist and homophobic Yachad party, and is head of the Kiseh Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak. …

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DC Congregation Warned After Pastor Contracts Virus

The Washington Post reports: D.C. officials on Monday urged hundreds who attended Christ Church Georgetown on several recent days to self-quarantine because of their exposure to the Rev. Timothy Cole, the church rector who is the first known coronavirus patient in the District. Cole tested positive for coronavirus Saturday and is hospitalized at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in stable condition. …

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SOUTH KOREA: Secretive Christian Sect At Center Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Hundreds Of Thousands Tested

Reuters reports: An So-young had a gut feeling that the 31st person in South Korea to test positive for the coronavirus might be a member of the controversial religious sect she quit four years ago. What caught An’s attention was how health authorities were struggling to track the woman’s movements before she was tested. “That’s their culture, they have to …

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Indonesia Health Minister: Prayer Is Stopping The Virus

The Jakarta Post reports: Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has reiterated the importance of praying amid the country’s ongoing battle against China’s coronavirus (COVID-19), saying that the weary public should use religion as a guiding principle in turbulent times. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Terawan answered questions regarding his previous statements in which he suggested that prayers were among reasons …

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Catholic Priest Denies Communion To Pro-Choice State Lawmakers: At Least “Pedophilia Doesn’t Kill Anyone”

The Washington Post reports: A Rhode Island priest is doubling down on his recent call to deny Communion to lawmakers who voted in favor of an abortion rights bill. After the Rev. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick, R.I., drew a backlash with his initial announcement two weeks ago, the 72-year-old priest dug in, telling Rhode Island’s …

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German Bishops Declare Homosexuality Is “Normal”

The Catholic News Service reports: Following consultations in Berlin last week, the chairman of the Marriage and Family Commission of the German bishops’ conference declared that the bishops agreed that homosexuality is a “normal form” of human sexual identity. “The sexual preference of man expresses itself in puberty and assumes a hetero or homosexual orientation,” Berlin’s Archbishop Heiner Koch [photo] …

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Priest Jailed For Binding Teen Boy In Plastic Wrap And Locking Him In Closet, Must Register As Sex Offender

Grand Rapids’ NBC News affiliate reports: A priest who admitted to holding a teen captive in a church janitor’s closet is headed to jail. In an Allegan courtroom Monday morning, Brian Stanley was sentenced to 60 days in jail with credit for two days served. He will also serve five years probation and must register as a sex offender for …

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Graham: Hooray, The Church Of England Is Anti-Gay

“The Church of England has publicly reaffirmed that marriage is between a man and woman—and that sex belongs only within heterosexual marriage. I appreciate the church taking this strong stand with the Word of God, which is truth. “I’m going to the UK in late May and will be holding a series of evangelistic outreaches going from Scotland all the …

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Church Of England: Sex Is For Married Straights Only

The Guardian reports: The Church of England has stated that sex belongs only within heterosexual marriage, and that Christians in gay or straight civil partnerships should be sexually abstinent. Bishops have issued pastoral guidance in response to the recent introduction to mixed-sex civil partnerships, which says: “For Christians, marriage – that is, the lifelong union between a man and a …

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ISRAEL: Jerusalem Greenlights Homophobic Billboards

Haaretz reports: The Jerusalem municipality has announced that it is embracing the position of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and will now allow signs sporting homophobic messages, which it had previously removed. The municipality stated its position at a hearing in the Jerusalem District Court over a petition filed by a religious Zionist group called Hazon (“vision” in Hebrew), which is …

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Pastor Charged With Terror Threat Against Church

The San Jose Mercury News reports: A pastor at a Lutheran church in San Mateo was arrested after allegedly delivering letters full of shooting threats to a San Carlos church where he was formerly a congregation member, authorities said. In four separate instances between Jan. 7 and Jan. 16, Paul Michaelson, 79, dropped off letters to the Holy Trinity Church …

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PENNSYLVANIA: Two Injured After Woman Deliberately Drives Into Traffic Because God Will Take Care Of Her

Philadelphia’s CBS affiliate reports: A Luzerne County woman drove into the path of an oncoming vehicle as a way to test her faith, then exhibited no concern about the people who were injured in the crash, state police said. Bail was revoked this week for Nadejda Reilly, 31, of Drums, who is charged with aggravated assault and other offenses over …

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Catholic Church Upset Over HBO’s Dancing Nuns

Yahoo News reports: A scene in The New Pope, an HBO mini-series starring Jude Law and John Malkovich, in which sexy young nuns dance in their nighties beneath a giant fluorescent crucifix, has incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church. The provocative scene, which was filmed in a former monastery in Venice, was denounced as “offensive” by the archbishop of …

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Israeli Education Minister Thanks God His Children Are Straight: They Grew Up In A Natural And Healthy Way

The New York Times reports: Several Israeli school districts held impromptu tolerance classes on Sunday after the country’s education minister, an Orthodox rabbi, angered LGBT campaigners by implying homosexuality was unnatural. The furor over the remarks by Education Minister Rafael Peretz – who last year spoke favorably about gay “conversion therapy”, a widely discredited method – reached into the Israeli …

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BRAZIL: Judge Orders Netflix To Pull “Gay Jesus” Film

The BBC reports: A judge in Brazil has ruled that a film depicting Jesus as gay must be removed from the TV streaming service Netflix. The film, The First Temptation of Christ, infuriated fervent Christians in the country. Two million people signed a petition calling for it to be axed, and the production company was attacked with Molotov cocktails last …

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Wife Of Child Predator Sues LDS For Turning Him In

Oregon’s Statesman Journal reports: A Turner woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for $9.54 million after her husband’s confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges. The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of violating confidentiality and the “priest-penitent privilege,” contrasts sharply with other cases accusing the …

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Methodist Church To Split Over Same-Sex Marriage

The New York Times reports: Leaders of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant domination in the nation, announced on Friday a plan that would formally split the church after years of division over same-sex marriage. Under the plan, which would sunder a denomination with 13 million members worldwide, a new “traditionalist Methodist” denomination would be created, and would continue …

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