Robert Morris, the controversial founder of Gateway Church, has asked a Dallas County court to dismiss a $1 million defamation lawsuit from Cindy Clemishire. Morris’s motion to dismiss comes just weeks after the embattled pastor pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Clemishire in the 1980s, starting when she was 12 years old.
Read More(ESSAY) Again and again, deadly incidents occur at Cuba’s largest garbage dump — sometimes from sudden eruptions of violence, sometimes from hunger or disease. But a group of about 50 locals, led by a pastor, have banded together to look out for one another. “Sometimes they kill each other over a piece of copper,” said one local woman.
Read MoreMany in ACNA say the latest turmoil has reopened old wounds and questions of accountability. On a popular Anglican podcast, co-host Kevin Kallsen said, “You have evolved from something glorious into something hideous.” As the Post story noted, the episode’s title captured the uncertainty facing the movement: “Is the ACNA Past Tense?”
Read More(ANALYSIS) The question of whether Christianity is under attack, especially in the United States, is a complex and deeply polarizing one. Is it discrimination? Is it part of an overall decline? Is it a cultural shift? It could very well be a combination of all three.
Read MoreRobert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Dallas, on Thursday pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire in the 1980s, beginning when she was just 12.
Read MoreMike Bickle, former leader of International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), has “disqualified himself permanently from holding any such high and honorable office anywhere in the Body of Christ in his lifetime,” according to a Pastoral Recommendation Team report. Bickle “failed to live in a manner commensurate with the Gospel message.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) In Washington, D.C., recent events have pushed some Christian leaders to become vocal against the Trump administration. As clergy argue that federal law enforcement agencies increasingly encroach upon church property and community spaces, the result has been a growing movement of men and women who argue that enough is enough.
Read MoreA 38-year-old man who called himself the “Angel of Death” allegedly threatened to carry out an attack on a Southern California monastery after driving there from Alabama, authorities said.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In what authorities called an “absolutely incomprehensible” act of violence, a gunman opened fire on a Catholic church during morning Mass on Wednesday — killing two children and injuring 17 others. The implications of this tragedy ripple far beyond Minneapolis. It is the latest — and among the most chilling — examples of how places once considered safe sanctuaries have become targets.
Read MoreDaniel Floyd took the reins last Sunday at scandal-scarred Gateway Church, the multicampus congregation whose founder, Robert Morris, faces a criminal child sexual abuse trial next month. Floyd pledged a “new chapter” for Gateway, which reportedly lost members and tithe dollars after details of Morris’s alleged crimes became public.
Read MoreA former California assistant pastor has been sentenced to two years in state prison for stealing funds from a church while its founding pastor lay dying, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Read MoreNondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for child sex abuse victims are no longer allowed in Missouri, thanks to a piece of new legislation known as Trey’s Law. It is in memory of Trey Carlock, a victim of abuse at Kanakuk Kamps in southwest Missouri, who took his own life in 2019 at the age of 28.
Read MoreTexas lawmakers banned nondisclosure clauses in sexual abuse settlement agreements May 26, following Missouri’s passage of similar legislation weeks earlier. The Texas legislature approved the final version of its bill on Memorial Day, first approving it in the House in April, before the Senate’s nod to a similar version of the bill May 15, with the House’s final approval.
Read MoreTwo Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside an event in Washington, D.C., around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to local and federal officials, by a suspect who appeared to target them in what many Jewish leaders are calling an antisemitic attack. The shooting took place following an American Jewish Committee event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Read MoreDisgraced televangelist Jim Bakker has pleaded for viewers to send him $1 million, saying his ministry will be shut down if he doesn’t get the funds. Bakker, who was at the heart of a notorious religious financial scandal in the 1980s, said he needs cash now to keep running Praise the Lord (PTL) Network, and his program, “The Jim Bakker Show.”
Read MorePublishing or distributing sexually explicit material of a person without their consent is now a federal crime, and social media platforms and other websites must remove such images within 48 hours of notification.
Read MoreMessianic apologist Michael Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct” with one young woman and an “inappropriate relationship” with a second married woman in the early 2000s, a third-party investigative report by Firefly has found.
Read MoreHoping to persuade Missouri lawmakers to end nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims, multiple survivors of abuse at two evangelical ministries testified powerfully in a hearing last week.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Justice informed Southern Baptist Convention lawyers on Wednesday that its investigation into the SBC and its entities was closed. No sexual abuse-related charges were filed.
Read MoreFormer Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary interim provost Matt Queen received today a judgement of time served with one year of supervised release, six months of home confinement and a $2,000 fine related to a federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention regarding sexual abuse.
Read More
