Last week, the last of the three criminals confessed to conspiring to defraud churches as part of a scheme they cooked up back in 2013. The news was announced by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which charged the three men in 2019.
Read MoreThe humanitarian activist and religious freedom fighter Cardinal Zen, who had previously served as bishop of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2009, was detained, along with four others, in connection with his role as administrator of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which supported pro-democracy demonstrations by paying for the legal and medical fees of protesters.
Read MoreIn an interview with ReligionUnplugged.com, theoretical physicist and Templeton Prize winner Dr. Frank Wilczek said he was raised in New York City by parents with Italian and Polish backgrounds who wanted him educated in the Catholic tradition: “As a child, I took it very, very seriously and I think it had a residual influence in my later life in helping me to think big and look for the hidden meaning of things.”
Read MorePoliticians from both parties benefit from the abuse of the tax code, but they differ over who’s responsible, claiming that those on the other side are guilty of the greatest abuse. But they agree on one thing: Abuse has skyrocketed since 2010 and the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision.
Read MorePakistani wives of former militants who returned to Indian-administered Kashmir after the announcement of an amnesty policy in 2010 have been demanding that they must be either deported or given Indian citizenship.
Read MoreChurches throughout Romania are helping Ukrainian refugees by coordinating shipments of supplies, helping with resettlement, collecting funds to help in relief efforts, making quilts, offering shelter and food, and praying.
Read MoreA Washington, D.C.-area law firm has filed a complaint in a Virginia district court alleging Liberty University failed to properly investigate a student’s report that she was raped by another student and retaliated against her after she made the report.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Tuesday, a preliminary draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked to Politico, revealing that the court — as of February — intended to overturn Roe v. Wade. What does the leak mean for the court and America, and how have faith voices responded?
Read MoreSikh Americans are the most disproportionately targeted group in the country, at a rate four times the national average. Anti-Sikh hate crimes hit a record high of 89 documented incidents in 2020, reflecting an 82% increase over 2019, despite an overall decrease in the number of anti-religious hate crimes.
Read MoreBill Hwang was hailed as part of a new evangelical donor-class for donating nearly $80 million to dozens of evangelical ministries. But his fortune — which, it turned out, was based on lies, heavy borrowing and risky stock bets — blew up in March 2021, when he was unable to pay creditors. Hwang was arrested April 27, 2022.
Read MoreThe Satanic Temple has filed a civil lawsuit against a Pennsylvania elementary school after the school turned down a request to form an after-school Satan Club. The proposed club for Northern Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania, was voted down 8-1 at an April 19 school board meeting.
Read MoreLori Windham teaches children’s Bible classes the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia and argues cases in the nation’s highest courts for Becket, a law firm specializing in religious liberty cases for people of all faiths.
Read MoreOn tropical Ambergis Caye in Belize, Islam is a family affair. The island's largest town, San Pedro, has a population of just over 13,000, of whom some 200 are Muslims. This small yet vibrant Muslim community was launched by a single adventurous Lebanese family — the Harmouches.
Read MoreMegachurch head pastor Stovall Weems has resigned from Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, as he continues to pursue a lawsuit alleging he was illegally suspended from his position by the church’s governing board earlier this year.
Read MoreA Virginia church collaborated with a grassroots volunteer organization known as NoVa RAFT, which stands for Northern Virginia Resettling Afghan Families Together. That group has helped set up nearly 200 Afghan refugee homes with furniture, beds, kitchenware, linens and other household items.
Read MoreThe investigation of alleged mishandling of sexual abuse has cost the Southern Baptist Convention more than $1.7 million so far, a number that exceeds the original estimate made last fall. A 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle reported hundreds of abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches spanning decades.
Read MoreDozens of Muslim properties have been razed to ground by the government in India in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim violence. Critics of the Hindu-first government say the demolitions are a collective punishment for Muslims that is a warning bell for potential genocide.
Read MoreTV preacher Andrew Wommack’s ministry racked up $25.9 million in debt building the $99 million campus of Charis Bible College in Woodland Park, up in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. Wommack now wants to tear up an agreement he made with the city a decade ago to build campus student housing as a taxable private enterprise.
Read MoreEmbezzlement will cost churches $170 billion in the year 2050 if current trends continue, according to Center for the Study of Global Christianity co-Director Todd Johnson. But while 1 in 3 churches will be victims of embezzlement, 27% won’t report the crime because members often have a hard time believing they have been victimized.
Read MoreMissionaries throughout Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas look forward to the weekly arrivals of planes flown by Agape Flights, a Florida ministry that shuttles mail, medicines, cargo, relief supplies and other resources. But one of its planes was burned in Haiti by demonstrators protesting the country’s increasing violence and kidnappings.
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