Floyd Blackwell is accused of failing to report allegations that a man sexually abused three girls. A longtime Newport News (VA) pastor was arrested and held without bond Wednesday on charges that he failed to report allegations that a man he knew had sexually abused three young girls, and that he also discouraged another person from telling police. The Rev. Floyd Blackwell, pastor of Miracle Temple Baptist Church on 32nd Street, turned himself in during the early afternoon, Officer Harold Eley said. Warrants had been issued for his arrest Tuesday. He was booked on three felony counts of obstruction. He also was booked on three misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, "because he was aware of the situation and didn't report it. He allowed the situation to continue," Eley said. Child Protective Services received an anonymous call on Nov. 30, claiming that a 19-year-old man had been sexually assaulting three girls, ages 7, 8 and 9, for the past thr...

A prominent Culpeper VA minister charged last week with child endangerment has been arrested again. This time, Charles V. Shifflett, 54, faces one count of "intentionally proposing [that a child under 18] feel or fondle the accused's sexual or genital parts," according to Culpeper sheriff's Sgt. Vern Fox. Shifflett is being held without bond, Fox said. The charge alleges the incident occurred between Dec. 1, 1991, and June 1, 1993, Fox said. He added that the latest charges were brought by the unidentified victim and not as a result of a Sheriff's Office investigation. Last week's charges were brought as the result of the office's investigation into incidents alleged to have occurred in 1992 and 1993. Neither of those involved any sexual misconduct. Fox said yesterday that last week's two charges point to a single victim, not two different victims as the Sheriff's Office had initially reported. Chad Robison, 26, told The Free Lance-Star Thursday t...

A US inmate who strangled a convicted child molester priest behind bars said tonight that he decided to kill him after the clergyman brushed off criticism that he had “destroyed all kinds of lives.” Joseph Druce took the stand in Worcester, Massachusetts for a second day at his trial for killing John Geoghan, who was serving time for groping a 10-year-old boy and had been accused of molesting 150 other children. Druce, 40, said that in the weeks before the killing he twice confronted Geoghan about molesting children. Instead of denying the accusations, Geoghan was “arrogant” and said he was worth far more than the millions the Boston Archdiocese had paid to settle lawsuits against him, Druce testified. “I was just, like, ‘That’s it. That’s it. I’ve got to stop this,”’ Druce said. “I couldn’t get it out of my head.” After Geoghan was dead, Druce said, he felt relief: “It had been done. It was over … I had peace of mind.” Druce, who is already serving a life sentence for another killing,...

The Duplin County Sheriff's office charged 56 year old Thomas Lindell Robinson -- Pastor of New Life Christian Center -- with first degree rape of a child and taking indecent liberties with a child. The Sheriff tells Nine on Your Side the incidents happened at the Church Daycare Center where the girl spent a lot of time. The sheriff's office can't say exactly how long the relationship has gone on, but there could be other victims. Now Pastor Robinson is in jail under a 250,000 dollar bond, but the question is how could this have gone unnoticed. What was once a daycare full of life is now closed because of a Pastor. He's a well-known face in Duplin County. Sheriff Blake Wallace says he's a sexual predator. "We have a gentleman who is in a position of public trust, who should be a role model for the community and he has abused that position and assaulted a young girl," Sheriff Wallace says. The girl is 12 years old, pregnant, and due any day now. The daycar...

sent in by madamehel He was thrown in jail for just 6 months, and given 3 years probation. That's four and a half years less than the minimum time in jail for statutory rape. Last Friday, Pastor Alexie Kelly violated that probation, and now he may be joined by many others not returning to his church come Sunday. He could be considered a lucky man. Many of the people who listened to his sermons every Sunday are standing by him, even after his second arrest. Joia Suggs is one of the few who say they're disappointed. "I was enjoying his sermons, I was feeling the spirit, so I continued to go. But now I'm questioning whether I should return," said Joia Suggs, Little Rock Baptist Church parishoner. Arrested last March for allegedly having an affair with a 13-year-old girl, the 35-year-old pastor is behind bars again, this time, police say, for violating his parole for trying to contact the girl. Many Little Rock Baptist Church parishoners share the same street. Those ...

sent in by Nanabanana Ohio's Republican leader wants Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett to apologize for calling some conservative Republicans religious fanatics and comparing them to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Hackett was unapologetic Tuesday for the comments in a newspaper story, saying religious fanatics of any flavor should be ashamed. "I said it. I meant it. I stand behind it," he said. Hackett said in a Sunday column in The Columbus Dispatch: "The Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren't a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of the other religious nuts around the world." Hackett, an Iraq war veteran from the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain. They are vying to run against two-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine. Hackett also said the practice of denying homosexuals equal rights i...

A Baptist pastor faces up to five years in prison for his role in a real estate scheme that bilked $1.5 million from lenders and home buyers, including some members of his congregation. The Rev. Paul J. Starnes, 40, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and money laundering charges. The leader of the Morning Star Church in Springfield is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9. His lawyer, Peter Ettenberg, said he will ask that Starnes be placed on probation. But Assistant U.S. Attorney William Welch indicated he would push for Starnes to serve 51 to 63 months behind bars. Welch said Starnes and two others were involved in a land-flip scheme that involved buying depressed properties, paying off appraisers to inflate their values, recruiting poor first-time buyers and drafting phony financial documents to obtain mortgages. Welch said at least two of the approximately 20 home buyers who wound up defaulting on their mortgages were members of Starnes' congregation. S...

A Kansas sheriff refused to let the BTK killer's pastor perform a jailhouse exorcism on Dennis Rader, the Rev. Michael Clark said after a speech. Clark, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, told listeners at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park that he believes Rader was driven by the devil to kill 10 people during a 13-year period, the Kansas City Star reported. Rader, who pleaded guilty, is serving 10 consecutive life sentences. "Dennis was influenced, I believe, by some kind of demonic force and that played a role in the choices and decisions he made," Clark said. Clark did not totally absolve Rader from responsibility for the killings, saying that he decided to respond to the demonic force. Rader was known at his church as a devout man who served as president of the congregation. In his neighborhood, he was known as a stickler for rules and regulations. Clark refused to answer a question about whether Rader had shown remorse. link

Arrest not the first for Baptist minister The pastor of a prominent Flint church was arrested Friday on suspicion of cocaine possession. Derrick A. Aldridge, pastor of Foss Avenue Baptist Church, was booked into the Genesee County Jail Friday afternoon on pending charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, carrying a concealed weapon and driving under the influence of drugs, jail officials said. Formal charges against Aldridge had not been issued as of late Friday afternoon, and it was unclear if he would be lodged in the jail or released pending further investigation. Aldridge was arrested Friday morning in the Ballenger Highway and Flushing Road area, although police hadn't released details. Acting Flint Police Chief Gary Hagler and the church could not be reached by The Journal on Friday. Police officials had made no formal comment about the arrest. Aldridge, 51, is the son of the late Avery Aldridge, a civil rights activist, former pastor at Foss Avenue and a leader i...

FRANKFORT, Ky. - The concept of "intelligent design" is not a question of religion and Kentucky's public school districts should consider teaching it along with other ideas of how the world began, Gov. Ernie Fletcher said Tuesday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Fletcher said he encouraged schools to teach the concept because it's "the foundational principal of our nation." "Our inalienable rights are based on the self-evident truth of those endowed inalienable rights. And all I was saying is that from my perspective that's not a matter of faith and it's not a matter of religion," Fletcher said. "It's a matter of something called self-evident truth." It was during the governor's State of the Commonwealth speech Monday night when Fletcher threw in a quick mention asking rhetorically, "What is wrong with teaching 'intelligent design' in our schools?" Fletcher said it was a matter of "self-ev...

Known as ‘ Darwin’s Rottweiler’, Professor Richard Dawkins relishes controversy. In his new TV series he explains how religion is a form of abuse – and why God is man’s most destructive invention ++ Why do you believe in your God? Because he talks to you inside your head? The Yorkshire Ripper claimed his murders were ordered by Jesus. Imagine, sang John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Kashmir dispute, no Indian partition, no Israel/Palestine war, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no Northern Ireland “troubles”. Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it. Imagine no persecutions of the Jews – no Jews to persecute indeed, for, without religious taboos against marrying out, the Diaspora would long ago have merged into Europe. Hitler invoked “My feelings as a Christian” to justify his anti-...

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES on CNN TAMPA, Fla. -- A youth minister was charged with strangling his 13-year-old neighbor, about a month after the teen's body was discovered in a park, authorities said. Joshua Rosa, 19, was arrested Friday at his job at a Sports Authority after DNA evidence linked him to the slaying of Stephen Tomlinson, the Hillsborough County's sheriff's office said. Rosa was being held without bail on a murder charge. He made his initial court appearance Saturday, but it was not known if he had an attorney, a jail official said. Stephen Tomlinson Rosa lived across the street from Tomlinson for four years, and both teens attended the same church in Citrus Park. Detectives said witnesses saw him leaving a neighborhood park on Dec. 8, the night of Tomlinson's death. Detectives said Tomlinson's blood was found on Rosa's hands and on a pair of white gloves and fingernail clippers which Rosa was carrying. Hillsborough County Sheriff David Ge...

link provided by madamehel Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed. "He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,'" Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, "The 700 Club." "God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" he said. Robertson's show airs on the ABC Family cable network and claims about 1 million viewers daily. Sharon, 77, clung to life in a Jerusalem hospital Thursday after surgery to treat a severe stroke, his doctors said. The prime minister, who withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Liku...

link An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said. Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon. Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said. Calls to Latham at his church were not immediately returned Wednesday. When he left jail, he said: "I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police." The arrest took place in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, which is in an area where the public has complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars, Becker said. The plainclothes officers was...

By JEFF SMITH If you believe in evolution you have to say, "Thank God for Darwin." And you also have to say, "Thank Darwin for God." Or at least thank the Darwinian evolution. It's our biology that gives us a long childhood. And our long childhood gives us time to learn all the things we need to know to survive in this world. If we didn't learn them, we wouldn't survive. We learn what to eat and what not to eat, to play in the yard and not in the street, things like that. We learn by experience and by trusting the experiences of others. We learn to learn. We learn to look for meaning and evidence, to ask questions. We learn that our parents know the answers to our questions -- all the questions we know how to ask when we are young. In fact, we learn that there is always an answer. All we have to do is to find out who knows it. But when we get past the toddler stage, we learn that there are questions that even our parents don't have the answers to. An...

by Sarah Hall Did Comedy Central grant the Catholic League its Christmas wish? Following the Dec. 7 season finale of South Park, titled "Bloody Mary," the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights slammed the network for its irreverent portrayal of church icons and sought to block the episode from being rebroadcast. It appears the group may have met with success. A repeat of the finale was scheduled to air Wednesday night, but was seemingly pulled from the Comedy Central lineup without explanation. In the episode, a statue of the Virgin Mary is believed to be bleeding from its rear end, inspiring faithful parishioners to flock from miles around to be healed by the miraculous blood. Eventually, Pope Benedict XVI is called in to investigate, whereupon he determines that the statue is actually menstruating and thus is nothing special. "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle," the pope declares in the episode. "Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the tim...

link A Christian evangelical group is suing Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) for allegedly infringing on its trademark. Jews for Jesus, which publishes several evangelistic Web sites in its mission to reach Jews, is claiming that a Web log hosted through the search giant's Blogspot service is harming its reputation. Google's Blogspot and Blogger are free services that allow people to set up blogs with any available URL. Jews for Jesus filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York on Wednesday, seeking to force Google to give the organization control of the URL, along with unspecified monetary damages. Susan Pearlman, associate executive director with Jews for Jesus, told TechNewsWorld that the organization asked the site holder, who goes by the anonymous moniker of "Whistle Blower" to relinquish the name and he, or she, refused. "We also sent Google several letters making them aware that our trademark was being used on their Blogspot and they did not respond," she sa...

link Two 16-year-olds who were expelled from a Lutheran high school because they were suspected of being lesbians have sued the school for invasion of privacy and discrimination. The lawsuit, filed in Riverside County Superior Court, seeks the girls' re-enrollment at the small California Lutheran High School, unspecified damages and an injunction barring the school from excluding gays and lesbians. Kirk D. Hanson, an attorney for the girls, said the expulsion traumatized and humiliated them. "Their entire support network was pulled out from under them because of suspicions about their sexual orientation," said Hanson, who declined to say whether his clients are lesbians. The school is on Christmas break until next week, and messages left for school officials Thursday were not immediately returned. The lawsuit alleges that the school's principal, Gregory Bork, called the girls into his office, grilled them on their sexual orientation and "coerced" one girl in...