church

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Church Staged Teen Kidnap to Teach Persecution

Authorities investigating after bruised girl, 14, files complaint

(Newser) - County prosecutors are investigating mock "abductions" orchestrated by a Pennsylvania church that left one 14-year-old girl bruised, battered, and terrified, according to authorities. The horrifying ordeal was intended to teach the unsuspecting teens at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown about persecution of Christian missionaries, reports the...

Netherlands' Angel Statue Will Take Your Call

Couple set up phone number for modern church sculpture

(Newser) - A Dutch town has a guardian angel—and her cell phone gets 30 calls a day. The Little Angel, a sculpture outside the ancient St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in 'S Hertogenbosch, was born out of a 1997 design contest to replace the church's worn-down figures. In addition...

In Ohio, a Drive-Thru Ash Wednesday

Get your Christianity in a Cincinnati church parking lot

(Newser) - No time for church, but still want to observe Ash Wednesday today? A Cincinnati church has the answer for its harried faithful: A drive-thru. The Mt. Healthy Methodist Church will today offer up ashes and a blessing in its parking lot between 5 and 6pm, reports the Enquirer , and you...

Igloo Church Opens in Bavaria
 Igloo Church Opens in Bavaria 

Igloo Church Opens in Bavaria

Holy house of snow boasts 60-foot tower

(Newser) - Bavarian villagers have built a church of snow and ice, a century after their forebears did the same to protest the town's lack of a place of worship. The 65-foot long church in the mountain village of Mitterfirmiansreut was built using 49,000 cubic feet of snow, as well...

Church Ad Shows Mary Taking Pregnancy Test

Billboard there to spark conversation, church says

(Newser) - A church in Auckland, New Zealand, has irked traditionalists with a billboard showing a shocked Virgin Mary looking at a pregnancy test. St. Matthew-in-the-City Church says the portrait was intended to “spark thought and conversation in the community." Christmas is "about a real pregnancy, a real mother...

Pastor Dumps Interracial Couple Ban

Brings issue to local church council

(Newser) - A Kentucky pastor has nullified a vote by his church to ban interracial couples , he says. “As far as I'm concerned and the church is concerned, this case will be closed as of tomorrow,” said Stacy Stepp on Saturday, after raising the issue with a council of...

Kentucky Church Bars Interracial Couples

They can attend services, but can't be members

(Newser) - Yes, it is the 21st century … but apparently not in Pike County, Kentucky, where a small Baptist church has barred interracial couples from becoming members or participating in certain church activities. It all started back in June, when Stella Harville, who is white, brought fiancé Ticha Chikuni, who is...

Man Tears Out Own Eyes In Church
Man Tears Out Own Eyes
In Church

Man Tears Out Own Eyes In Church

Italian man says voices told him to do it

(Newser) - Hundreds of parishioners looked on in horror as an Italian man ripped out both of his own eyes during Mass on Sunday. Witnesses said the 46-year-old, who told paramedics that he heard voices, calmly stood up and began tearing at his eyes soon after the priest began his sermon, the...

Architects Create See-Through Church

'Reading Between the Lines' is an art installation about transparency

(Newser) - Well, it's a church with a steeple, but you don't need to open the doors to see all the people. Two Belgian architects have created an amazing steel-framed church, built from 100 stacked layers and 2,000 columns of plates. From some angles, you can see it clearly,...

Political Pastors Pick Fight With IRS

Glenn Beck calls on 1,000 religious leaders to break law

(Newser) - Hundreds of pastors are trying to goad the IRS into a political battle over free speech from the pulpit, the New York Times reports. Organizers of tomorrow's Pulpit Freedom Sunday are urging pastors to flout a law that prohibits tax-exempt churches and other charities from political campaigning. Sponsored by...

Alabama Town Enacts 'Jesus or Jail' Plan

Misdemeanor offenders can choose between church and jail

(Newser) - Petty offenders can choose between Jesus and jail time in Bay Minette, Alabama. The town kicked off Operation Restore Our Community this week, giving misdemeanor lawbreakers the choice between a year of church-going or fines and jail, Raw Story reports. Pastors invented the program because crime is caused by "...

Arizona Cops Say 'Church' Really a Brothel

Even the 'mystic mother' herself faces prostitution charges in Arizona

(Newser) - They weren't called "johns." They were "seekers." It wasn't "sex." It was a "sacred union." And those "neo-Tantric healing therapies" offered in exchange for "donations"? Better left unsaid. That's pretty much all you need to know...

800-Year-Old Relic Stolen From California Church

Relic of St. Anthony, patron saint of missing objects, is missing

(Newser) - Calling Saint Anthony of Padua: A relic of the patron saint of missing objects and lost causes has gone missing from a Catholic church in California. The relic was stolen from a cabinet in the church in Long Beach, where it had been on display to mark the 780th anniversary...

China Detains 169 for Praying in Public

Protestant group latest target of government clampdown

(Newser) - China’s weeks-long campaign against dissenters continues: Some 169 congregants of an unofficial Protestant church were detained yesterday after they tried to pray in public in Beijing, the New York Times reports. The thousand-member Shouwang church, which has for years sought official recognition, had been evicted from its rented space...

Ex-Minister: Why I Decided to Support Homosexuality

Murray Richmond preached against it, until he talked to gay men

(Newser) - When Murray Richmond became a Presbyterian minister in 1989, "homosexuality was an invisible issue," he writes for Salon . But over the next five years, "it became The Issue," and Richmond found himself forced to choose a side—and chose the "incredibly obvious" one, he recalls....

Churchgoers More Likely to Be Obese

 Churchgoers 
 More Likely to 
 Be Obese 
study says

Churchgoers More Likely to Be Obese

Researchers suspect all those church functions are to blame

(Newser) - Achieving inner peace comes with a price, apparently. People who go to church regularly are more prone to pack on the pounds, reports Time . In one analysis, researchers at Northwestern University found that those who attended church or some kind of church function a minimum of once a week were...

Pastor Orders Penance for Mom's Gay Toddler Blog

And stop 'promoting gayness,' she's commanded

(Newser) - An angry pastor has threatened a libel suit and ordered penance from a young mom who has written a blog post about her 5-year-old son, who she suspects might be gay. The hugely popular My Son is Gay post by anonymous mom "Sarah" details her son's experiences in a...

Tomb of Old Testament Prophet Discovered?
 Tomb of Old Testament 
 Prophet Discovered? 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Tomb of Old Testament Prophet Discovered?

Archaeologists find spectacular church in Israel, plan to rebury it

(Newser) - Israeli archaeologists have hit on a stunning site in the Judean hills: a 1,500 year-old Byzantine basilica, which sits on top of an even older structure, which sits on top of a series of tunnels, which lead to a small cave that they believe might be the legendary burial...

Egypt Church Blast Kills 21
Egypt Church Blast Kills 21

Egypt Church Blast Kills 21

Bomb hits New Year's church service

(Newser) - Egyptian authorities believe a suicide bomber was behind a blast that killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more at a church in Alexandria. The blast hit as Coptic Christians left a New Year's church service, Bloomberg reports. Angry Christians clashed with police and local Muslims after the explosion....

Christmas Bombings Spark Unrest in Nigeria

Some fear escalating violence ahead of elections

(Newser) - State police are swarming into central Nigeria following a series of Christmas church bombings that killed 38, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Following Saturday's explosions, angry youths barricaded roads and attacked people passing by yesterday, and houses and a truck also were set ablaze. UN chief Ban Ki-moon blasted the...

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