Prayer doesn't affect heart patients NEW YORK -- In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. Researchers emphasized their work does not address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said. They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them. The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal. Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists teste...

NEW YORK — A Bronx special education teacher was arrested Tuesday for telling school officials he was being deployed to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts when he actually traveled to Brazil for personal reasons, investigators said. James Thomas, who is also the pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, was charged with forgery, false records and larceny. Thomas, a teacher at the Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology, received $828 in salary for four days in October during which he claimed that he had been on active military duty in New Orleans, according Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools. Thomas allegedly faked deployment documents from the Air National Guard, where he was a lieutenant colonel, so that he could attend a religious conference in Brazil. He was reassigned to administrative duty following the Dec. 12 release of the report by Condon's office. Thomas retired from the Air Nat...

A convicted sex offender who directed the youth choir and taught a Bible study group at a Waco Baptist church was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday. Curtis Jene Smith, 38, music director and Bible teacher at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 2919 McKenzie Ave., pleaded guilty Friday to indecency with a child and was sentenced in a plea agreement by 54th State District Judge George Allen. If Smith had gone to trial, he faced an automatic life prison term because of his convictions in 1991 for the sexual assault of two boys and in 2002 for failure to register as a sex offender, both in Burnet County. According to court records, Smith was registered as a sex offender in Waco and told authorities he was working as a night auditor at a local hotel. His association with the church, which church officials say began in 2000, went unreported, in violation of sex offender registration restrictions. Smith pleaded guilty to molesting a 12-year-old Waco boy in February 2005 after giving him...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology. From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry. Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and th...

WILMINGTON, Delaware — A 59-year-old pastor was sentenced today to three months of home confinement for groping a teenage boy and a young man who were parishioners at his church. In November, Talbert L. Gwynn, pastor of Wilmington Church of Christ in Penny Hill, pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree unlawful sexual contact. Superior Court Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. today also required Gwynn to register as a sex offender and put him on probation for a year. According to county police, a 16-year-old and a younger boy spent the night at Gwynn’s New Castle home in February 2005. While the younger boy was showering, police said, the 16-year-old was awakened by Gwynn, who began to hug him. Gwynn also grabbed the teen’s genitals as he was getting out of bed, police said. In a separate incident, the pastor groped g a 25-year-old during Bible study. In court, Gwynn’s attorney, Eugene Maurer, said his client is in the process of leaving the ministry when his successor is named at...

The search is on for a Chenango County teen that hasn't been seen since this past weekend. Authorities believe they know who she's with. A felony arrest warrant is out for a former pastor from Chenango County. The sheriff's department believes Lewis Lee, 54, disappeared with Elizabeth Thomsen, 15. She's been missing from the town of Sherburne since last Saturday. Lee and Thomsen do know each other. Lee was arrested earlier this year for allegedly stalking the teen. An order of protection was issued a few weeks ago directing Lee to stay away from the girl. Lee now lives in Maryland. Detectives say they've spoken to Lee's wife in Maryland and it appeared the man had given her false information. Authorities believe Lee and Thomsen may be traveling in a blue 2006 GMC Sierra with Maryland plates. If you have any information please call New York State Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse at 1-800-FIND-KID.

The wife of a popular preacher has confessed to shooting her husband in the bedroom of their parsonage in Selmer, Tenn. and will be brought back to the small city to face first-degree murder charges, officials said. At a televised news conference, Chief Roger Rickman of the Selmer Police Department said Mary Winkler confessed to authorities in Alabama. No motive was announced. Mary Winkler will be transported from Orange Beach, Ala., about 350 miles south of Selmer, from where she and the couple's three daughters fled after her husband was killed. She will be returned this weekend and will likely be arraigned on murder charges next week, Rickman said. Matthew Winkler, 31, the minister at Selmer's Fourth Street Church of Christ, was found shot to death Wednesday. After he missed the popular midweek evening service, shocked church members called authorities. Police said there was no evidence that the home had been broken into. Mary Winkler and the children - Breanna, 1; Mary Alic...

sent in by Shannon Thankfully my parents were not and are not Christians. (The same cannot be said for the rest of my family.) In a misguided attempt to provide me with a better education than public schools purportedly provide, I was sent to private Christian (Episcopal, and later, Assembly of God) schools from grades 1-9. At these fine instutions of learning, I was taught to quote Bible verses, sing hymns, and all about how God created the earth and so on and so forth. By the time I reached the 9th grade, I had witnessed a string of hypocrasies which "tested my faith". The devout English and Science teacher ran away together during the summer between 8th and 9th grade; the Science teacher leaving her husband and 3 children behind. How do you explain that? I was also confused by my best friend's father, a pillar of the community and fine Christian church leader, who commited countless adulteries against his faithful wife. Our new, young pastor "shacked up...

Julie LeMoyne and Russell Fike of Sunny View NC had been living as a married couple for almost two years before they learned their marriage was not legal in the eyes of the state. When the couple discovered their pastor had not officially married them, Fike says he “about hit the floor.” Rev. Larry Devon Blanton has since been charged with a misdemeanor and the couple has had to arrange a second marriage ceremony, which will take place tomorrow. “If something would have happened to either of us (the past two years), we couldn’t have proved (we were married),” LeMoyne said. The marriage ceremony for LeMoyne and Fike was performed on April 17, 2004 by Rev. Blanton of Morgan Chapel Baptist Church . Approximately 200 witnesses were in attendance. Fike and LeMoyne said after they asked Blanton what paperwork they needed to fill out to be married, such as an application for marriage, Blanton told the couple he would take care of everything. Blanton gave the couple a marriage certificate. The...

GUAM—39-year-old Pastor Andrew was arrested by Juvenile Investigation Division agents today accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female known to him. JIS agents arrested Andrew on charges of criminal sexual conduct, child abuse, jurisdiction over an adult, and terrorizing. According to police Andrew is accused of sexually assaulting the female minor then forcing her to have sexual relations with a neighbor. The victim told police the man abused her when she refused and threatened to kill her if she went to police. link

HOMESTEAD, Pa. - The founder and pastor of a suburban Pittsburgh church molested a 15-year-old boy he counseled four years ago, police charged Thursday. The Rev. Duane Youngblood of the Higher Call World Outreach Church in Homestead, told reporters he was innocent and asked for prayer as he surrendered to Allegheny County police. The teen was molested after his mother sent him to Youngblood for counseling, police said. County police Lt. Robert Downey said police only learned of the boy's allegations last fall. It wasn't immediately clear whether the boy had reported the alleged abuse to other agencies before that. Youngblood was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, sexual assault and corruption of minors. Youngblood is a married father of five, according to the Web site of his church, which he founded in 1990. --- Church website: http://www.netministries.org/see/churches/ch22941?frameN link

MOBILE Al -- A judge sentenced an Irvington preacher to 23 years in prison for a sexual abuse conviction that involved a father and son, who described similar cases of abuse 20 years apart. The Rev. Dennis Lamar Fields, 52, pastor at Bethel Holiness Church in south Mobile County, was sentenced Thursday by Mobile County Circuit Judge Charles Graddick. A large group of Fields' friends, family members and church members attended. In trial testimony, Fields' victim, now an adult, told jurors Fields took lewd photos of him as a 9-year-old child and later burned them in a backyard trash can, promising never to molest him again. He called police 20 years later, he said, when his own 9-year-old son revealed that Fields had begun molesting him as well. Two other adult men -- one of them a defense witness -- also provided testimony indicating Fields also had sexually exploited them when they were boys. At sentencing, defense attorney Dennis Knizley called witnesses on Fields' behalf....

For the second time in one week and a third time overall an Austin, TX pastor was accused of indecency with a child. A warrant was issued Wednesday morning for Rodolfo Sosa, 48, after the allegations were made. He was charged with fondling a 12 year-old-boy who lived in the apartment complex where Sosa worked as a maintenance man in March 2005. The boy was afraid to talk to investigators so the case was suspended. In February Sosa was charged with indecency against two other boys. After investigating those incidents, police re-opened the 2005 case, re-interviewed the first victim, and filed the new charge. Police say Sosa is a pastor at the nondenominational Ciudad del Refugio church in South Austin. Sosa was free on bond when he was arrested on the latest charge. Bond in this case was set at $100,000. If convicted, Sosa could spend up to 20 years in prison. If you have any information that can help the police, call the APD Child Abuse Unit at (512) 974-6880. link

Despite being charged this week in U.S. District Court with falsifying paperwork to obtain $824,000 in loans to open a nondenominational church in Greensburg, PA, the Rev. Roy E. Smith, founder and pastor of the Church of Dominion , will be in the pulpit tonight. "Oh yes, that's correct. The minute I was made aware of this, I made the board aware of what was happening, and they support me," Smith, 32, said Tuesday. "I had a lapse in judgment and I'm attempting to rectify it," said Smith, who declined further comment. According to documents made public this week in federal court in Pittsburgh, Smith is accused of one count of bank fraud last year for falsifying paperwork at five area banks to obtain more than $824,000 in loans. Court records said Smith, who used to operate the now-closed Bread of Life Church of Dominion along Fifth Avenue in McKeesport, Allegheny County, opened the nonprofit Church of Dominion Inc. in Greensburg in February 2005. Smith, who i...

Last Thursday, Ron Jeremy, the world’s biggest porn star, came to Northeastern to debate pornography with a pastor named Craig Gross. Gross founded an anti-porn website, xxxchurch.com, and claims God avenges masturbation by killing kittens; he also ministers to porn addicts and former adult film stars. Jeremy and Gross met at last year’s Erotica LA convention. We’re not making this shit up. Hordes of porn-crazed students milled about the Blackman Auditorium, anticipating the titanic clash. Allison Romano came looking for “a good debate.” She also predicted a victory for Jeremy, in no small part because the Hedgehog “can suck his own dick.” Inside the auditorium, the debate began dubiously. The moderator demanded a substantive discussion, with “fluff questions” kept to a minimum; the instructions set the room all a-titter. Boos and laughs peppered Gross’s introduction, but the audience did seem impressed by the 60 million hits xxxchurch.com has logged. More impressive, though, was Jerem...

Fort Washington Church Suspends Member Over Charges in Fairfax City A ministry leader at one of Prince George's County's largest churches has been charged in Fairfax City with raping and beating a woman in a hotel parking lot in January, and this week he was suspended from his church duties. The Rev. Eugene A. Marriott Jr., 41, of Clinton was the "minister of men" at the 10,000-member Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, one of the largest AME churches in the country. Marriott was arrested Jan. 14 and spent four days in the Fairfax County jail before a $20,000 bond was set. The church placed him on administrative leave with pay. But after learning details of the attack on the woman from a reporter, the church on Monday suspended all of Marriott's rights and privileges within the church. It would not discuss whether he was still being paid. Marriott said he could not comment, on the advice of his attorney, Bobby Stafford of Alexandria. St...

Victim's brother found images on defendant's camera phone. Were it not for the suspicions of a protective brother, former pastor Donald Domelle might still be molesting a teenage girl, rather than making his way to prison. Domelle, former pastor of the Baptist Temple of Salinas, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Thursday for molesting two girls, one of whom left the area to escape him. Domelle, 65, was arrested after the brother of the second victim, a developmentally delayed teenager, followed the pastor and his sister and observed Domelle taking photographs of her. The boy later checked Domelle's camera phone and found what prosecutor Gary Thelander described as pornographic digital images of his sister. Like many in the congregation, the boy's mother was at first reluctant to believe the news, and Domelle at first denied knowledge of the photos. He later admitted that he had carried on a sexual relationship with the girl when she was 14 and 15 years old,...