Enfield's Decision To Stop Using Cathedral For Graduations Appeases ACLU

ENFIELD -- The American Civil Liberties Union said a lawsuit against the school district is no longer necessary since the board of education has decided to move graduations back to the individual high schools.

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TN Tells High Schools How To Teach The Bible

Starting next fall, Tennessee high schools that want to teach students about Noah, Moses and the Prodigal Son will have a state-approved road map to do so.

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When the Bible goes to school, the tug-of-war begins

Tax Exemptions Favoring Clergy Defy Constitution

Due to the fact that only ministers are allowed to apply for the housing tax exemption, while other non-profit organization employees such as teachers and day care workers are barred, there is an unwarranted favoritism toward religious workers in the law.

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Sussex County Mother Is Convicted Of Starving Her Kids, Believing God Would Provide

A woman who made no effort to feed her four starving children, telling them God would provide for them as they grew weaker and hungrier by the day, was found guilty of child endangerment charges today in a Sussex County courtroom.

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Marci Beagley Defends Choice To 'Wait It Out' In Oregon City Faith-Healing Case

OREGON CITY -- Marci Beagley acknowledged Thursday that her son took a serious downturn about 12 hours before he died and defended under intense questioning her and her husband's decision to "wait it out" rather than get medical treatment.

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'Slain In Spirit' Case Might Impact Church Leaders

Judith Dadd sued her pastor after she was injured while "slain in the Spirit" - falling backward after being "overcome by the Spirit of the Lord" - during a rally at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township in 2002.

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Abortion Doctor's Killer Found Guilty Of Murder

WICHITA, Kan. - A man who said he killed prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in order to save the lives of unborn children was convicted Friday of murder.

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Conviction angers anti-abortion militants

Former Pastor Plans To Appeal Murder Conviction

WACO, Texas (ABP) -- A former Baptist preacher sentenced to 65 years for murdering his wife plans to appeal his conviction.

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Why Would The Pentagon Ignore Ft. Hood Shooter's Ties To Islam?

The Pentagon report into the massacre at Fort Hood that left 13 dead is a joke. There is no mention of the suspect's views of Islam. None.

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EHarmony Settles Class-Action Suit Brought By Gays And Lesbians

The website, founded by clinical psychologist Neil Clark Warren, who is an evangelical Christian, did not provide same-sex matching services from its founding in 2000 until last year, contending that the company's closely guarded compatibility models were based on studies of married heterosexual couples.

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Hate Church To Protest High Schools, "RENT" Performance Friday In Sacramento

SACRAMENTO - A group notorious for picketing various political events tied with the gay community as well as the funerals of deceased American soldiers will be making a pit stop in Sacramento and Davis this week.

The Westboro Baptist Church, which runs the websites GodHatesFags.com, will protest at two Sacramento high schools -- Rosemont High and McClatchy High -- as well as several Jewish places of worship and the Sacramento Community Theatre's showing of the Broadway musical "Rent" on February 5th.

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Movement Behind Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill Organizing In Newark

PrayforNewark was founded by Newark suburb resident Lloyd Turner, who in October 2008 spoke at an Argentina conference of the International Transformation Network (ITN), whose CEO Ed Silvoso wrote, in his 2007 book, Transformation: Change the Marketplace and You Change the World, that homosexuality is caused by demon possession and that HIV and AIDS can be cured through faith healing and prayer. According to Silvoso, the entire national police force of the Philippines is being indoctrinated in this ideology.

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Disgraced Pastor Is Freed Of Gay Urges, Wife Says

It has been more than three years since charismatic pastor Ted Haggard left his megachurch in disgrace, mired in a scandal involving drug use and a male prostitute. But the woman who stood by him says now that the experience has brought them closer together than ever.

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The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion

Baptist Camp Hires Interim To Replace Director Charged With Pedophilia

HERTFORD, N.C. (ABP) -- A Baptist association in North Carolina has hired an interim replacement for a camp director arrested last summer on molestation charges.

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New Series Of Clergy Sex Abuse Cases Opens In Spokane

A new chapter is opening in Spokane's ongoing saga of sexual abuse cases involving Catholic priests. A Spokane judge is presiding over the first of what could be a series of trials against a Catholic group home for boys. Many former residents now claim they were molested there as children. For Spokane's Catholics, the trial reopens old wounds. A warning: some details in this story might not be appropriate for children.

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Man testifies he was paid hush money

Diocese Seeks To Pay Accused

When he was a Catholic priest in Delaware, Francis DeLuca molested boys after bingo games, on a trip to Italy and in the den of his living quarters, he said in an April 2009 deposition.

He admitted abusing so many boys in Delaware from 1962 to 1993 he couldn't remember all of them, according to court records.

--snip--

Now, the diocese, which was forced to file for bankruptcy in October under the weight of civil lawsuits alleging clergy sexual abuse by DeLuca and others, wants to pay about $10,000 a month in combined benefits to him and five others accused of abuse. The money would come from the diocese's bankruptcy estate or pool of assets.

Bankruptcy lawyers say it is the first time a diocese in bankruptcy has asked permission from a federal court to provide benefits to priests accused of sexual abuse.

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Archdiocese: Abusive Priests With Ireland Ties Worked In Boston

BOSTON -- For the first time, the Boston Archdiocese has confirmed that some abusive priests with ties to Ireland worked in Boston. An Irish government report last year outlined rampant clergy sex abuse in Ireland, but the Boston Archdiocese has never before acknowledged that any of those priests worked here.

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Armfield Requests Prostitution Charge Be Dismissed

A local reverend and former Greenwood County Council member who recently was accused of soliciting a prostitute has filed a petition to have the charge against him dismissed.

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Catholic Priest Charged With Embezzling $200,000

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. -- A priest at St. Mary Catholic Church in Gays Mills and St. Phillip Catholic Church in Soldiers Grove has been arrested on a charge of embezzling up to $200,000 from those parishes.

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Crystal Cathedral Makes Deep Cuts As Revenues Drop

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- Blaming a struggling U.S. economy, the megachurch founded by Robert H. Schuller Sr. is pulling its signature TV program "Hour of Power" and taking other measures to offset a nearly $8 million drop in revenue.

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