Free Republic

Palin’s Radical Pastor Calls on God to ‘Bless’ USA by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 2 Comments (2008-09-06) — In the days following Gov. Sarah Palin’s appointment as John McCain’s running mate, Americans have grown increasingly concerned about her brand of radical Christianity. A new recording released to the media today by Barack Obama’s campaign, gives definitive proof that Gov. Palin’s pastor, in an emotional tirade, once called on God to “bless” America. The recording captured at Wasilla Bible Church, the Palin’s home congregation, will doubtless cause discomfort among educated Americans, and raises new questions about Gov. Palin’s worldview. “It’s...

When comments from old sermons thrust the Rev. Jeremiah Wright unfavorably into the national spotlight during the Democratic primaries, the Chicago pastor maintained wide support among black churchgoers who have admired him for decades. And few black churches have stayed more loyal than Elmwood United Presbyterian in East Orange, where Wright next Sunday will begin a weeklong church revival, titled "Recapturing Our Prophetic Voice." He has led revivals there every September since 1989. Wright's ties to the church come from his 22-year friendship with the Rev. Robert Burkins, Elmwood Presbyterian's longtime pastor. The two met in the mid-1980s, when Wright,...

Very interesting, must see. Video is about 9 minutes 54 seconds

From a July 8, 2007 sermon: “Those that die without Christ have a horrible, horrible surprise.” From a July 28, 2007 sermon: “Do you believe we’re in the last days? After listening to Newt Gingrich and the prime minister of Israel and a number of others at our gathering, I became convinced, and I have been convinced for some time. We are living in the last days. These are incredible times to live in

O.K., sorry for the vanity but I have a concern. This Saturday night, McCain and Obama do a forum together at Saddleback Church, where Rick Warren is the Pastor. This can be crucial, relative to the religious vote in this presidential campaign. Many think the smooth-talking Obama is going to come off great and leave John McCain, who is not one to talk about regligion, looking like a dolt. Many believe this will be a huge opportunity and advantage for Obama. I wish to heck Rick Warren would have left well-enough alone. He's just got to have some "spotlight". This...

The pastor of the Set Free motorcycle ministry, out of jail on $50,000 bail, spoke about his arrest to more than 100 of his parishioners over the weekend. Pastor Phillip Aguilar, 60, founder of the Set Free church, told the congregation he was not angry about 150 police officers raiding his properties on Wednesday. Officers from police departments throughout Orange County got warrants to search and seize properties from several Set Free homes. He said he knows the image his organization portrays -- one of heavily tattooed motorcyclists who drive fancy bikes and cars -- played a role in how...

<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mary Winkler, the woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her minister husband, has taken custody of her three daughters, one of her lawyers said Monday.</p> <p>Rachael Putnam, a custody attorney, said the former minister's wife picked the girls up Friday from the slain man's parents, Dan and Diane Winkler.</p>

Michelle Jezebel Obama KK's baby sister http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If9KopxdA-I

California mega-church pastor Rick Warren says Christians should not be reticent to work with Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists to cure societal problems. In conjunction with the presidential forum he is hosting next month at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren will convene an interfaith meeting for 30 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders "to discuss cooperation for the common good of all Americans." Warren's global P.E.A.C.E. plan is an effort to mobilize churches around the world to combat what he calls the five "global giants" of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. But he says he has no...

Sen. Joe Lieberman praises pastor who said Holocaust was God's work One of John McCain's most prominent supporters on Tuesday praised an evangelical leader whom the Republican presidential candidate repudiated after a string of controversial remarks were made public. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent who frequently campaigns with McCain, said pastor John Hagee's support for Israel outweighed the remarks that led McCain to reject his endorsement. Lieberman said he had been urged not to speak to Hagee's group, Christians United for Israel. Advertisement "The bond that I feel with Pastor Hagee and each and every one of you is...

For 23 years, the Rev. Andre Allen has led DuPage County’s oldest predominantly black church and worked to improve race relations in the broader community. But the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Wheaton may be ousted Saturday if a majority of his congregation votes for his dismissal. The special meeting was called in light of Allen’s arrest on charges alleging he committed battery and disorderly conduct Nov. 2. Police said he passed himself off as a self-defense instructor to female clients exercising at Lifetime Fitness in Schaumburg. It’s his second such arrest in 10 years. Leaders of the 101-year-old...

A Baptist pastor is now in jail facing three charges for rape in Silay City, while an escapee from the Provincial Jail of Negros Occidental, was recaptured yesterday in Escalante City, police records show. In Kabankalan City, a 13-year-old elementary school student was also allegedly sexually-molested by a 16-year-old boy, Wednesday, police and radio reports said yesterday. The 46-year-old pastor whose identity is being withheld, gave himself up to a team of policemen led by SPO2 Mateo Requintina who served the arrest warrant on him at Tres Fuentes in Silay City, Wednesday. Police records show that the suspect was charged...

Mansfield police have arrested John Picard, 40, a former youth pastor who had inappropriate sexual relationships with young girls beginning in 1992 while serving at Grace Brethren Church in Mansfield. Detective Jeff Shook says the investigation involving multiple victims has been on-again, off-again. However, recent leads could result in additional charges against Picard, who now lives in Springboro, near Dayton. Mansfield Police Lt. Allen Vandayburg says Picard is being held in the Warren County Jail, pending an extradition hearing this week. Vandayburg is hoping more victims will now feel safe enough to come forward. He says the police will try...

The associate pastor of a Texarkana church has been arrested on child pornography charges. Jerry Sawrie, an associated pastor at Richmond Road Baptist Church, is accused of viewing and possessing child pornography on his work computer. He has been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. Police said they found photos of male juveniles on Sawrie's computer at a church publishing business. Sawrie, who is scheduled to go on trial in August, has been released from jail on bond

SPOKANE -- A local church is trying to get back on its feet after their pastor was arrested after police learned of his secret double life. Herman Lewis was arrested almost a year ago for trying to kidnap a woman, punching a Good Samaritan, and running over a police officer, and now this former Shepard's flock needs help. Lewis was trying to earn enough money to sell their old church and buy a new church across town, but since his arrest, half the members have left and, now both churches, the old and the new, are for sale. "We're struggling,...

Police have arrested the pastor of a defunct church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, his wife and six former congregants in a sexual abuse case involving as many as 24 children, authorities said. Authorities said they have interviewed five possible victims in the case. Victims may range in age from toddlers to teens, authorities said. CNN does not identify children involved in sex abuse cases and has chosen not to identify adult defendants because they may share family names with the alleged victims. Investigators believe the abuse took place between 1999 and 2002 and involved a "select few" congregants of the now-defunct...

North Charleston Police busted an elaborate auto theft ring, and a Lowcountry pastor is one of their main suspects. Hason "Tory" Fields, a pastor at Union Baptist Church downtown, has been arrested and charged with four counts of possession of a stolen vehicle. But Fields told Live 5 News Wednesday he's completely innocent. "I have never stolen a car in my life," Fields said. Fields is out of jail after he says he posted roughly $7,500 in bond. After a month-long investigation involving North Charleston Police and five other agencies Fields is one of five people arrested so far in...

The Brooklyn district attorney says a minister has been convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl. DA Charles Hynes on Thursday announced the conviction of Dieuvais Surin, a pastor in the Original Church of God of Prophesy. Surin could face up to 56 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 9. The child, who attended Surin's church, was abused in 1998 and 1999. Sometimes, he waited outside her school and then abused her in his van. Surin, who is 72, was convicted on 13 counts of criminal sex act and nine counts of sexual abuse.

A youth chaplain at a Gastonia church who mentored Boy Scouts in south Charlotte was arrested Monday. Charles Franklin Knight, 62, faces six counts of third-degree exploitation of a minor. He is in the Mecklenburg County Jail. No bond was available. On July 2, a woman told Charlotte-Mecklenburg police that Knight had material depicting sex acts with youths under 18, according to a police report. Investigators questioned Knight, who turned over some child pornography, which included “inappropriate Internet images,” the report said. Detectives also seized a laptop computer from his home on Harrowfield Drive in Charlotte. Knight told police he...

It has been ten months after a Kanawha County pastor was arrested and charged with sexually abusing teenage boys in the early 1990s. The case against Sandy Cook still has yet to go to trial. One man who claims he's a victim says a slow-moving court system is victimizing him all over again. David Mullins says he's not afraid or ashamed anymore to share his past of sexual abuse. He says it was at the hands of Pastor Sandy Cook eighteen years ago. "There's nothing he can do to me. I am not that 13 or 14 year old kid,"...

The youth pastor once charged with sex abuse is sharing his story. It’s the first time he’s said anything publically since the charge was dismissed in court. Clayton Pruett says he’s been fighting to get his name and reputation back. He says he knows it won’t be the same, but he is out to prove that he did nothing wrong. His family is behind him and he wants people to know how serious it is when allegations of sex abuse are brought to police. Pruett says he believes the teen and her mother brought the charge against him to get...

Officials of the zone 5 police command Benin Edo State have arrested the head of a Christian gospel church in the state over an alleged involvement in human trafficking . The suspect Bishop Nosayaba Agbonavbare of the Messiah Gospel Church of Cherubim and Seraphim was arrested by the police weekend for alleged role in human tarfficking and prostitution of young girls in Italy and other European countries. But the suspect while speaking with journalists in Benin denied his involvement in the crime and attributed his fate to what he called a frame up by some aggrieved members of the church...

A former Gladewater pastor pleaded guilty in court Tuesday morning to two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Larry Jackson, 55, of Kilgore was arrested on the charges in October. Jackson could face between 5 years and life in prison for each charge. Testimony continued Tuesday in the sentencing phase of his trial. In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Jenny Huckle said Jackson molested two sisters under the age of 14 in the late 1990s. The oldest girl is now a sophomore in college, and the youngest girl will soon be a college freshman. Jackson was the...

Christian Methodist Episcopal Bishop Kenneth Wayne Carter has been suspended by the church until his criminal case is resolved. Carter, 51, was indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury last month on sexual assault charges involving a 46-year-old Dallas County man. The man was applying for a job as the bishop’s driver and says he was assaulted at Carter’s home in Arlington. Carter was released on $10,000 bail last week. The CME’s College of Bishops made the decision to suspend Carter with pay during a special meeting last week. Under the suspension, Carter is barred from performing sacramental duties. Although...

BARRON - A former Rice Lake pastor pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a boy more than 20 years. Angel R. Toro, 57, now of St. Petersburg, Fla., pleaded guilty in Barron County Court to four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Toro will be on three years of probation after he is released, according to Washburn County Judge Eugene Harrington's sentence. The victim, now 38, told police that Toro sexually assaulted him in the summer or fall of 1987 when the victim was helping Toro repair a fence at First United Methodist...

AMITE — Former Hosanna pastor Louis D. Lamonica will not face charges that he sexually abused a 2-year-old girl at his upcoming aggravated rape trial, Assistant District Attorney Don Wall said in court Monday. That case will be severed from the rape charges involving Lamonica’s two sons, ages 11 and younger at the time of the alleged abuse, on which Lamonica will be tried next month in 21st Judicial District Court. Lamonica, 49, of Holden, is among the seven members of the former Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula indicted in 2005 in the abuse of the three children. His trial is...

OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma City church called off plans to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle at a weekend gathering of teenagers, the church's pastor said. Plans called for Windsor Hills Baptist to give away the weapon as a way of encouraging attendance at the gathering but plans changed when one the event's organizers was unable to attend, KOCO 5, Oklahoma City, reported Sunday. The church's pastor, Bob Ross, said officials anticipated hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada would attend. "We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week," Ross told KOCO 5. The...

A CHURCH pastor accused of having a sexual affair with his daughter in the Northern Division was granted bailed yesterday by the Labasa Magistrates Court. The Assemblies of God Church pastor appeared before Magistrate Anare Tuilevuka but no plea was taken. His Legal Aid rep Malcolm Maitava asked for bail and assured the court his client would not interfere with the witnesses. In granting bail, Mr Tuilevuka told the pastor to report to the Dreketi Police Station. Divisional Police Prosecutor Joji Cakau objected to bail, saying the pastor could interfere with witnesses. But after the investigating officer informed the court...

A Peoria, Illinois, pastor is challenging United Way's funding of Planned Parenthood. Pastor James McDonald of Providence Church says Planned Parenthood operates large abortion mills in Chicago and in Champaign, Illinois. "...[A]nd that troubled us greatly in the Christian community, and we wanted to encourage United Way to do what was right -- which is to stop funding completely," he explains. But abortion is not the only issue troubling McDonald. He objects to the supposed "comprehensive" sex education strategy Planned Parenthood promotes. "I am...very concerned about what [Planned Parenthood is] doing -- not only to the American family, but to...

A former youth pastor accused of secretly taping Bible study students changing clothes in his Ellenton home has pleaded no contest to nine counts of voyeurism. Matthew C. Porter, 31, of Ellenton, is scheduled be sentenced on the misdemeanor charges at the Manatee County Judicial Center on Aug. 21. He faces up to nine years in prison if sentenced consecutively on the charges, Assistant State Attorney Erica Arend said Friday. The maximum sentence for misdemeanor voyeurism is one year in jail. Porter resigned from Bethel Baptist Church after admitting he secretly videotaped his students ages 12-16, according to the Manatee...

A lawsuit filed this week alleges that the head pastor at a local church knew about child molestation taking place and did nothing, a mistake that could end up costing millions. Roy Long was a deacon at the First Baptist Church of Hesperia when he first began to molest two six-year-old sisters in 1996. The girls, scared and embarrassed, did not tell their mother about the abuse until they were 17 and living in New Mexico. Now 88, the former deacon pleaded guilty in January to sexual intercourse with a minor and molesting children under 18. The charges are in...

A Stafford County minister went to jail yesterday after admitting that he molested a teenage boy more than 20 years ago. The Rev. George O. Lowe, 71, pleaded guilty in Stafford Circuit Court to two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. Seven other charges were dropped. His bond was revoked and Lowe is expected to remain in jail at least until he is sentenced in August. Lowe was the pastor at Mount Hope Baptist Church in Stafford for 43 years until he was removed after being indicted earlier this year. According to prosecutor Eric Olsen, the molestation took...

A former youth minister at a Kingston church is accused of molesting at least two teenage girls who belonged to his congregation. Pastor Brian A. Neiswender repeatedly fondled the girls while playing hide and seek in the dark and teaching one-on-one music lessons, according to arrest papers. The 26-year-old Baptist minister surrendered to authorities Wednesday to face charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors in connection with the alleged sex crimes at Christ Community Church, 100 W. Dorrance St. The two girls, now 17 and 18 years old, came forward in February. They said the abuse dates back to...

A Riverside church pastor accused of sexual assault made a guilty plea in court Thursday. Dennis Bowling was the head pastor of Kingdom Harvest Church and back in 2006 a church member made a phone call to police and said the pastor was having sex with young female members in the church, police said. Police said originally Bowling faced 11 charges, but more and more victims came forward with testimony of their own assaults. After nearly two years of sitting in jail, awaiting trial, Bowling admitted to his crimes, police said. Prosecutors said Bowling had sexual contact with at least...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Former First Baptist Church deacon Stephen Edmonds was back in court on Thursday asking a judge to change his sentence.  In 2003, Edmonds pleaded guilty to molesting three boys. In return for his guilty plea to three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, 10 other charges were dropped and Edmonds was sentenced to one year in jail and five years probation. He also must register as a sexual offender.  The plea deal did not sit well with families of the victims, which wanted the judge to sentence Edmonds to the maximum of six years...

An employee of a Baker County home for troubled youths has been arrested on a child abuse charge by deputies documenting evidence of sexual activity between teenage residents. Deputies also arrested an 18-year-old resident of Camp Tracey on a charge of fondling a younger resident, but said sexual acts between the younger teens weren't criminal because they were consensual. The children's home, located on farmland north of Glen St. Mary, is run by Harvest Baptist Church of Jacksonville. Since 2003, the church has settled a half-dozen lawsuits filed by former residents citing physical and sexual abuse by camp workers and...

A pastor was arrested in Kelso in late June and charged with a series of rapes going back to 1998. Portland investigators arrested 31-year-old Maximo Ake-Be, who is now a senior pastor at Iglesia de Dios in Kelso, Wash., and he was later charged with a series of rapes that occurred nearly 10 years prior, police said. Portland police said they received reports from two girls that they had been sexually assaulted by a leader of their private in-home church, The Peach House, between 1998 and 2000. The alleged victims were about 8 and 12 years old at the time,...

Two men, including a former Ravena minister who is now a prison chaplain, face criminal charges after they were allegedly caught in a sex act Saturday at a Northway rest stop near Exit 24. State Police said Joseph A. Loux Jr., 62, of Hannacroix in Greene County, and Eugene F. Barnaby, 34, of Thurman in Warren County, admitted to investigators that they engaged in oral sex along a path behind the rest stop, about 15 feet from an outdoor picnic area. Loux, a chaplain assigned to the Washington County prison, was suspended without pay Tuesday, said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman...

Two years after a woman filed a damage suit alleging Bolivar Baptist Church pastor Dale “Dickie” Amyx molested her as a 14-year-old and impregnated her when she was 18, the suit has been settled out of court. Debbie Vasquez, now 47, sued Amyx and the church in June 2006, alleging that he began having sex with her when he was 28 years old, married and the youth pastor of a now-defunct Lewisville church, Calvary Baptist. According to the court documents, he continued having sex with her after he was pastor of the Bolivar church by threatening her with guns and...

Jerry Darian Sawrie, 39, has pleaded not guilty to viewing and possessing child pornography. He allegedly told an employer about his conduct earlier. Sawrie was working as the youth curriculum editor for Disciple Guide, a publisher of church and Bible literature, when he contacted his supervisor about images of young males he'd been viewing with his work computer last February. He was also the associate pastor of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Texarkana.

Royden Wood leaves the courthouse with his wife Linda yesterday after being charged with six new counts of sexual assault. (Mike Hensen, Sun Media) Already awaiting sentencing on 12 charges, a former London pastor was back in court yesterday -- charged with six counts of sexual assault.   Royden Wood, former pastor of London's Ambassador Baptist Church, was released after a bail hearing with conditions, a $10,000 deposit and his employer acting as a surety.  Wood declined comment as he left the court, holding his wife's hand and accompanied by his employer, Earl Dunn, owner of a Muskoka-area marina where...

A Watertown pastor suspected tonight of having sexual contact with a child. KSFY obtained these court documents which lays out the case against Dennis Hayes. In documents released by Watertown Police, we're told the suspected contact happened last Friday when Hayes took a juvenile boy he had been mentoring from the "Southwest Youth Services Center" in Magnolia, Minnesota to a library in Luverne, Minnesota. The boy claims during the drive to Luverne, Hayes held his hand and told him he loved him. While at the Luverne library, he claims Hayes rubbed his back outside his shirt. During the drive back...

The minister of Brentford Free Church has said the "thoughts and prayers" of the church community are with those involved in the case of pastor Andrew Gilroy, who was jailed for child sex offences last Friday. Rev David Beazley said the paedophile pastor of the Syon Mission had been a "colleague and friend". He said: "We share the sadness of the whole situation, and our hope is that there will now be opportunity for all those directly and indirectly affected to move on." Gilroy abused his position to befriend teenage boys and invite them to his home for photographic sessions....

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - District Heights Mayor James L. Walls, also an associate minister at a local church, will keep his jobs, for now, after being charged with soliciting a male prostitute in the District of Columbia early Thursday morning, his colleagues said. The 30-year-old fast-rising black political star — he holds positions with nationwide civic groups and the local NAACP chapter, among others — has been charged with solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes after he allegedly attempted to pick up an undercover District officer who was posing as a male prostitute around 12:30 a.m. at Sixth and F...

Sheriff's detectives conducted a proper search of the home of a youth pastor even without a warrant, a Manatee County judge ruled Thursday. The ruling shot down a defense challenge and now means prosecutors can use videotapes and hidden cameras seized in the voyeurism investigation last year. Authorities did not need a warrant to search the home of Bethel Baptist Church youth pastor Matthew C. Porter because a friend who had been house-sitting agreed to let detectives inspect Porter's home in Ellenton, Manatee County Judge George K. Brown Jr. determined. The detectives, the judge said, acted reasonably. Investigators say Porter,...

An Indiantown man was arrested by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday evening on charges of false imprisonment and domestic battery. Pastor Wilfredo Arnaz-Rodriguez, 50, attacked his girlfriend two nights earlier seemingly unprovoked, according to the arrest report. According to the report, she asked Rodriguez why there was no food in their home just before he jumped her. Rodriguez restrained her by sitting on top of her arms, slapping her across the face and choking her. Rodriguez also kept her in their home against her will by blocking the bedroom door and taking away her cell phone, according to...

A trial was scheduled Wednesday for an Elgin pastor accused of spanking a 12-year-old girl he thought had lied to him about being molested by a relative. The Rev. Daryl Bujak is set to face a jury starting Sept. 29, in what is expected to be up to a three-day trial in Kane County Judge Allen Anderson's courtroom. Bujak, 32, is accused of battery and failure to report a suspected sexual assault. He is free on bail and maintains he is not guilty of the allegations. The McHenry County girl first came to Bujak, a pastor at the First Missionary...

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have condemned sexual predators and are urging churches to flush out molesters using federal background checks. But a simple search on the convention's Web site shows they have yet to purge their own house of predators. SBC's MinisterSearch, a Web database for finding clergy members, contains the names of pastors both indicted and convicted of sexual abuse. Among them is a former Cordova pastor charged in October with rape and sexual battery. "It's a double standard," said David Brown, an abuse victim and coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in...

A pastor was arrested in Kelso in late June and charged with a series of rapes going back to 1998. Portland investigators arrested 31-year-old Maximo Ake-Be, who is now a senior pastor at Iglesia de Dios in Kelso, Wash., and he was later charged with a series of rapes that occurred nearly 10 years prior, police said. Portland police said they received reports from two girls that they had been sexually assaulted by a leader of their private in-home church, The Peach House, between 1998 and 2000. The alleged victims were about 8 and 12 years old at the time,...

Army deserters told fellow soldier they committed the crime, court papers say. Two U.S. Army deserters were arrested Friday and charged with killing the Rev. Mark McCalla, a former Franklin pastor. First-degree murder charges were filed against Stephen C. Wilson, 19, of Cincinnati, and Daniel R. Smith, 22, of Newport News, Va. The men were captured after 9 p.m. Friday in downtown Columbus, according to Sgt. Dana Norman of the Columbus Police Dept. homicide bureau. The men told a fellow soldier they had shot and killed McCalla, according to criminal complaints filed in Wayne County, W.Va., magistrate court. Wilson and...