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‘Work is not done,’ widow says Wife of Salvation Army pastor speaks of prayer for his killer EVIN DEMIREL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Leading a Sunday service in the building where her husband was shot and killed in a Christmas Eve robbery attempt, Salvation Army Major Cindy Wise said her mission to minister to the people in North Little Rock’s Baring Cross neighborhood has not changed. “I believe I have peace today because I know the work is not done here yet,” Wise told nearly 50 people on Sunday. Standing before the congregation in her navy blue uniform, she said she will...

Salvation Army major shot dead in front of 3 children By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette A Salvation Army major was fatally shot in front of his three children Thursday afternoon as he walked into the the organization's community center in North Little Rock, authorities said. Around 4 p.m., two black men dressed in black approached Philip Wise, 40, of Maumelle outside the community center at 1505 W. 18th St., Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper said. Wise’ children — ages 4, 6, and 8 — were walking with him when the men came up to them, police said. His wife, Cindy, also...

A Pastor, a Rabbi and an Imam - It May Sound Like a Joke Setup, but the "Interfaith Amigos" are Serious about their Mission (CBS) As more details of an attempted Christmas terror attack emerge, it's clear that achieving peace on earth remains elusive. But three clerics of different faiths have teamed up to chase it, by provoking laughter and thought, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

Why We Are Going to Hell – Part 5,291 The Abomination in the Temple bythelastcrusade.org A Canadian Roman Catholic bishop has been charged with the distribution and selling of child pornography after a random search of his laptop at the Ottawa airport, a police source confirmed to the press. His Eminence Raymond Lahey, 69, was returning to Canada from the United States when Canadian Border Services Agency officials found images on his computer. Bishop Lahey resigned from governing the diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia last weekend. In his letter to his flock, the Bishop said that he needed time...

Findings from a nationwide study reveal that clergy sexual misconduct is more prevalent than many people believe.According to research by Baylor University, 3.1 percent of adult women who attend religious services at least once a month have been victims of clergy sexual misconduct since turning 18. In other words, seven women in every congregation of 400 adults have been victimized.Ninety-two percent of the sexual advances were made in secret and 67 percent of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance."Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most...

Many members of the clergy must be using the Bible like the old Sears catalogue – for toilet paper – because they obviously don't read it. Last week, another once-great church succumbed to the relentless, media-savvy campaign of determined homosexuality. "Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted to lift the ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers," reported the Associated Press. In July, the Episcopal House of Bishops and laity approved liturgies for same-sex couples and endorsed the right to elect gay bishops. Lutherans and Episcopalians join other denominational giants, Unitarians and...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a controversial vote late Friday afternoon to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Despite strong opposition, the ELCA passed the vote 559 to 451, marking a historic change, and repealing a ban on gay clergy. At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy. "We are today part of a church denomination that is changing, and it will make possible...

The President's Schedule yesterday included calls with two different clergy groups trying to enlist them in selling Obamacare to their "flocks," the first to 1,000 Rabbis from across the country, ...The second call was to 14,000 clergy of all faiths The President's religious arguments were a bit disingenuous. While the POTUS was correct that revising the health care system in America is a moral issue, the argument, is not as he claims whether we should reform health care, its how we should reform health care. His opponents don't like Obama's plan

If undocumented immigrants are valuable enough to be counted in the Census, then they ought to be legalized. That’s the argument being made by a national group of Latino evangelical clergy, led by a Ridgefield Park pastor, that wants undocumented immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census unless immigration reform is passed this year. The group also plans to expand the call in December to Latinos who are U.S. citizens and legal residents if Congress does not pass reform legislation by then, said the Rev. Miguel Rivera of Ridgefield Park, president and founder of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and...

The United Methodist Church's top court recently ruled that clergy, both active and retired, cannot perform same-sex marriages or civil unions. Performing such services is "a chargeable offense," Bishop Beverly J. Shamana ruled last Friday. UMC's Judicial Council affirmed her decision. The council further ruled that an annual conference, or regional body within the UMC, "may not negate, ignore, or violate provisions of the Discipline with which they disagree, even when the disagreements are based on conscientious objections to the provisions." The council’s ruling was on a resolution passed by the California-Nevada Annual Conference last year, months after the California...

(My beautiful daughter had died in a tragic garage fire only days before, but I asked the paper to please publish this as planned. A previous OP-ED piece by a local councilwoman cited Martin Luther King as well as she reveled in the impending inauguration of Barack Obama. It made it that much more imperative that my pro-life piece be published.) _______ On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, I’ve been reminded of and contemplating the glaring cultural polarity which jumps out at us when abortion is discussed. On one side we have an ever-growing...

We refuse to be deceived again by lies and fear tactics. Those who supported Barack Obama are not anti-American, communists, leftists or whatever limited label is used to scare others away. We do not agree that the conservative right is the sole possessor of values and morality. Killing, torturing and lying are immoral to anyone.

Vatican implements new guidelines for seminarians By FRANCES D'EMILIO VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians Thursday — the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of pedophile scandals. The church said it issued the new guidelines to help church leaders weed out candidates with "psychopathic disturbances." Sex abuse scandals by pedophile priests have rocked the church in recent years, triggering lawsuits that have cost hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. "(The guidelines) became ever more urgent because of the sexual scandals," Monsignor...

The average senior pastor in U.S. churches today makes more than $80,000 a year, a recent national survey shows. Compensation packages, including benefits such as retirement, life insurance, health insurance and continuing education allowances, have increased to $81,113 per year for the average senior pastor. And pastors who hold a higher academic degree are paid up to $30,000 more per year than pastors without any post-secondary education. The statistics come from the 2009 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, an annual analysis of compensation packages at churches across the country, and at a time when churches begin planning their budget for...

In recent years, our society has begun to better understand the widespread problem of child sexual abuse. Conservative studies indicate that one out of three girls and one out of seven boys will be sexually abused before reaching 18 years of age, regardless of religious or socio-economic demographic. Law enforcement sources estimate nearly 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse are living in America today. Sexual abuse is not limited to any racial, ethnic, or socio-economic class. It is no respecter of any religious denomination or creed. Sexual abuse can happen anywhere. Parents allow their children to participate in ministry...

Hynes’ office dissuaded families ready to let their children testify about alleged abuse. Questions about Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ willingness to press cases in the Orthodox community are now being reignited. by Hella Winston and Larry Cohler-Esses In a surprise move, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, the Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with having sexually molested his students, pleaded guilty Monday to two lesser counts of child endangerment and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Under the plea agreement, Rabbi Kolko, 62, made no admission of sexual wrongdoing. He will not have to register as a sex offender, and pleaded guilty only to...

PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church and will work to make sure pedophiles don't become priests. Benedict was answering questions submitted in advance by reporters aboard a special Alitalia airliner as he was flying from Rome to Washington to begin his first papal pilgrimage to the United States. "It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand...

What most needed reforming was left in place, the clergy and the laity as two distinct classes.

The evangelical Australian based church Hillsong has been linked to claims of abuse against women, including allegations of emotional manipulation. Fairfax Media reports that both the Hillsong Church and Gloria Jeans Coffee are linked to the organisation Mercy Ministries, which has been accused of emotional manipulation when treating women. Three women have now blown the whistle on a program operated by the Ministry, including allegations they entered as "independent" people, however came out of the program as "broken" and "suicidal". The women say as part of the program they were taught to believe that they were possessed by the devil,...

When the Catholic Church's sexual-misconduct scandal became nationwide front-page news six years ago, the Rev. Philip Lee Erickson of the Archdiocese of Louisville was just 34. The young priest had just obtained the canon-law license that would let him function as a lawyer within the church's internal legal system when the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in Boston and elsewhere, mostly against boys and young men, became widely reported in early 2002. "Newly ordained, as the saying goes, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Father Erickson told The Washington Times in a telephone interview.