Tag Archives: religion

KOMO News reports: An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to land Saturday evening after a male passenger threatened to kill all other passengers on the plane, airport officials say. Alaska Airlines Flight 422 left from Sea-Tac Airport at 11:10 p.m. en route to Chicago O’Hare, officials with the airline say. Alaska Airlines says the man became “extremely belligerent and physically …

The New York Daily News reports: A kinky Bronx priest with a reported taste for S&M turned up dead in the New Jersey home where he allegedly paid $1,000 an hour to cavort with a muscle-bound boyfriend, cops confirmed Friday. The body of Peter Miqueli, 57, was found Thursday inside his residence in Brick Township, N.J., according to local police. …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — …

The Christian Post reports: More than a week after at least 51 members of Calvary Chapel of San Antonio in Texas got infected with COVID-19 since the congregation started meeting in person, the church’s pastor says he takes full responsibility. “I accept full responsibility. I’m the leader of the church,” said Pastor Ron Arbaugh, according to News 4 San Antonio, …

The Indianapolis Star reports: Rev. Theodore Rothrock from St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel has been suspended from public ministry by Bishop Timothy Doherty Wednesday after calling Black Lives Matter organizers “maggots and parasites.” “The Bishop expresses pastoral concern for the affected communities,” the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana said in a statement Wednesday. “The suspension offers the Bishop an opportunity …

Released today by Pew Research: Amid rising coronavirus cases and widespread protests over racial injustice, President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped among a wide range of religious groups, including white evangelical Protestants – though they remain strongly supportive. Roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (72%) say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job, according to a Pew …

The Washington Post reports: The number of allegations of Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors more than quadrupled in 2019 compared to the average in the previous five years, U.S. church officials reported this week, in part the result of new church-run compensation programs for victims as well as survivors driven to come forward by several major clerical abuse scandals. …

The Christian Post reports: A former housekeeper is suing the operator of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, claiming the business engaged in religious discrimination by firing her because she refused to work on Sundays. Sonia Perez, 56, filed a lawsuit against Trump Ruffin Commercial Inc., the company that oversees the Trump hotels. She claims that the company required her …

Morning Consult reports: As President Donald Trump leans on religion to reconnect with his political base ahead of the November election, most Americans dismiss the notion that he himself is a man of faith. Only 27 percent of registered voters in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll said they somewhat or strongly agree that Trump himself is religious, while 55 percent …

The Christian Post reports: The percentage of Democrat and Democrat-leaning voters who identify as Christian has sharply declined since 2008, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center. A report by Pew published in its U.S. Politics & Policy section found that while 73% of Democrat voters were Christian in 2008, by 2019 the percentage had dropped to …

The Sacramento Bee reports: The Supreme Court late Friday rejected a California church’s challenge of the state’s new pandemic-related rules on worship services, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s liberals in the 5-to-4 vote. Roberts wrote that state officials such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) had leeway to impose restrictions to prevent the spread of …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Nine cases of COVID-19, the infection caused by the coronavirus, are now linked to the May 10 service held by the Assembly of God in the Mendocino County city of Redwood Valley. The service was livestreamed to congregants and included singing, county public health officials said today. Mendocino County health orders permit churches to produce …

Axios reports: 35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC. Why it matters: Places of worship continue to be a problem for controlling the widespread transmission of the coronavirus, especially as some churches and …

The Christian Post reports: A Georgia church that reopened after shutting down due to the coronavirus has axed in-person services again in what they describe as “an effort of extreme caution” as several of their families have become infected by the deadly disease. Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle, an independent Baptist church led by Pastor Justin Gazaway in Ringgold, Georgia, restarted in-person …

Reuters reports: Late last month, the Vatican announced the coronavirus pandemic had forced Pope Francis to postpone an annual fund raising campaign among Catholics worldwide to help him carry out his ministry. The delay of “Peter’s Pence” by more than three months to the first weekend in October has come at a particularly bad time, as other revenues, notably from …

The Bangkok Post reports: Forced exorcism is a common story for gay and transgender people in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, where a conservative shift has seen the community increasingly targeted in recent years. Homosexuality is legal everywhere in Indonesia except conservative Aceh province which adheres to strict Islamic laws. But it is still widely believed that being gay …

The Moscow Times reports: The walls of Russia’s new Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Armed Forces will be decorated with the faces of President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the MBKh News website reported Friday. The 95-meter Armed Forces cathedral, a symbol of close defense-church ties in Russia, is expected to open on May …

NBC News reports: Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing, to curb the spread of the coronavirus, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday. “Muslims shall avoid gatherings, because they are the main cause of the spread of infection and shall remember …

The New York Post reports: In his last known in-person service on March 22, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn got his congregation at Richmond’s New Deliverance Evangelistic Church to stand to prove how many were there despite warnings against gatherings of more than 10 people. “I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus. You can quote me on …

The Jesuit magazine America reports: In a remarkable Easter Sunday letter to members of social movements around the world, Pope Francis, noting that the widespread suffering caused by the global coronavirus pandemic does not fall evenly, suggested that the crisis warranted the establishment of a universal basic income. He described it also as an opportunity for affluent societies to “downshift” …