Tag Archives: religion

The Buffalo News reports: For more than 30 years, Timothy J. Clark lived with the emotional scars of being sexually abused by a parish priest. The name of the man who allegedly assaulted Clark remained a closely guarded secret. Clark didn’t want to talk much about it. Bishops for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo refused to acknowledge anything about priests …

Via press release: Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, gave their strong support for the First Amendment Defense Act, which was recently introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in …

The Reading Eagle reports: After a roughly six-hour process, attorneys selected a jury to hear the case of an Upper Tulpehocken Township couple who did not seek medical attention for their 2-year-old daughter before she died of pneumonia. Jonathan Foster, 35, and Grace Foster, 33, are being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child …

The Chicago Tribune reports: The Rev. C. Frank Phillips, founder of a religious order of men and pastor at the storied St. John Cantius Catholic Parish, was removed last week by the Archdiocese of Chicago amid an investigation into allegations of improper conduct with adult men, according to church officials. In a statement to parishioners, Cardinal Blase Cupich explained that …

Oklahoma Wesleyan president Everett Piper is getting a lot of attention for an op-ed he wrote for the far-right Washington Times. An excerpt: I recommend this simple exercise: Go to any article in any magazine or website that argues for “conversations” about sexual morality and simply replace the acronym of the day with another set of letters. For example, every …

It’s been another stellar week for the Catholic Church. Here’s a roundup of just five of the separate crimes that hit my inbox in the last few days. From the National Catholic Reporter: A Saginaw, Michigan, diocesan priest, previously cleared of accusations of sexual abuse of a minor, has been caught in a police sting operation and charged with criminal …

The Christian News reports: A Louisiana pastor has asked his congregation for forgiveness after he was arrested Wednesday night for possession of methamphetamine, a drug that he said he wrongfully turned to in attempting to find relief from the pressures and pains of life. “A few months ago, in a time of weakness, I attempted to ease the pain in …

The Shreveport Times reports: A Bossier Parish pastor has been arrested after admitting to police he had meth at his Bossier City home. Andy C. Harris, 56, of 2406 Benton Road in Bossier City, was charged with possession of a Schedule II controlled dangerous substance (methamphetamine) and possession of drug paraphernalia. Harris was the senior pastor at The Church of …

The Christian Post reports: After allegedly threatening to take his life last month over allegations that he raped two underage boys, Ronnie Gorton, a married father and lead pastor of The Awakening Church in Atoka, Tennessee, was indicted on 47 counts of illegal relations with three underage boys. Among the charges, according to The Leader, are five counts of aggravated …

The Waco Herald-Tribune reports: A pastor resigned from a local church that has taken a vocal role in preventing human trafficking. The resignation came amid a prostitution investigation in December, and the pastor turned himself in to law enforcement on a prostitution charge today. Edward Ignacio Espinosa, 41, was arrested on a Class B misdemeanor prostitution charge after he paid …

NBC News Dallas reports: A father and son, both on the staff of a North Texas Baptist Church, have each been accused of sexual assault of a child, Mesquite police say. Steven Aaron Winn, 33, of Crandall, and his father, Larry Allen Winn, 65, of Dallas, are both employed at the Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite. The elder Winn …

The Associated Press reports: The archdiocese of Naples says it has sent the Vatican a 1,200-page dossier compiled by a male escort identifying 40 actively gay priests and seminarians in Italy. In a statement on the diocesan website, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe said none of the identified priests worked in Naples. But he said he decided to forward the file to …

Portland’s ABC affiliate reports: An appeal has been filed with the Oregon Supreme Court in hopes of overturning a $135,000 penalty given to the owners of a Gresham bakery who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to penalize owners of Sweet …

People Magazine reports: There’s only one thing that could make Oprah Winfrey run for president in 2020. Amid calls for her to consider a run for the White House — from fans as well as her closest friends — “I went into prayer,” she tells PEOPLE in the magazine’s new cover story. “ ‘God, if you think I’m supposed to …

The Associated Press reports: A Pennsylvania school district will cancel classes at an elementary school on Wednesday because a church down the street is hosting a ceremony featuring AR-15 rifles.  World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland believes the AR-15 symbolizes the “rod of iron” in the biblical book of Revelation, and it is encouraging couples to bring the weapons …

The Starkville Daily News reports: The Starkville Board of Aldermen voted to deny the request to hold an LGBT pride parade after hearing 16 people speak in favor of the event during its meeting Tuesday night. The board approved the motion to deny the request with a 4-3 vote. Alderman Ben Carver, Alderman David Little, Vice Mayor Roy Perkins and …

The Huffington Post reports: Billy Graham, the famed televangelist who became known as “America’s Pastor,” has died at the age of 99, MSNBC and CBS reported.  Born in 1918 in Charlotte, North Carolina, William Franklin Graham Jr. was the oldest of the four children of William and Morrow Graham. He was raised on a dairy farm, and little in his …

Miranda Blue reports at Right Wing Watch: Focus on the Family, the behemoth Religious Right organization founded by James Dobson, has declared itself to be a church, thereby avoiding a requirement that it file public tax documents, according to IRS records and a document available on the organization’s website. Focus on the Family filed as a non-church 501(c)(3) nonprofit as …

“We have been praying, God, that you will expose those things that are being done in secret, to be brought out to light. God, we are seeing you expose the shenanigans of Satan that are trying to hold this country down, that are trying to get in the way of us moving forward as a country, as an administration, under …

Hawaii News Now reports: The head of a mega-church in the Philippines was detained at Honolulu’s airport after federal agents found $350,000 in cash on the private jet he was on. Apollo Quiboloy was among six people on the Cessna Citation Sovereign, which was to leave for the Philippines. But before it departed, Customs and Border Enforcement agents boarded it. …