SAN FRANCISCO —The California atheist who took a challenge to the pledge of allegiance all the way to the Supreme Court won a legal victory yesterday in a related libel suit he brought against a Christian critic. A California appeals court ruled that the litigious atheist, Michael Newdow , may proceed with his lawsuit against a self-described interdenominational minister, the Reverend Austin Miles . Dr. Newdow said Rev. Miles defamed him in a 2002 Web column that alleged that the atheist committed perjury when he told a federal court that his daughter sustained "emotional damage" by being forced to recite the pledge in school. Dr. Newdow denied ever making such a statement in or out of court. Rev. Miles acknowledged mistakes in his reporting but asked that the libel suit be thrown out under a California law that provides for early dismissal of lawsuits about matters of public controversy. However, the appeals court held that Dr. Newdow showed the required li...

HERNANDO, Miss. - A former Mississippi pastor who is now serving at a church in Tennessee has been charged with molestation of a boy over a four-year period in DeSoto County, authorities say. Maj. Don Gammage, chief of detectives for the Olive Branch Police Department, said the Rev. Jack Price was arrested earlier this week in Fayette County, Tenn. Price, 53, is the former pastor at Fairhaven Baptist Church in Olive Branch. He is presently pastor at Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mason, Tenn ., authorities said. Price was returned to Mississippi on Tuesday. "We had been investigating the allegations for about a month," Gammage said Wednesday. Price is charged with touching a child for lustful purpose, a crime under Mississippi's molestation law. District Attorney John Champion said conviction carries a maximum punishment of 15 years for each count, plus a fine of up to $10,000. Champion said the normal procedure is to only charge a single count when dealing w...

Across the world, religion is at the root of violent confrontations. Here at home, religious dogma threatens vital stem-cell research and the teaching of evolution in schools. A new wave of atheists --- including biologist Richard Dawkins and philosopher Daniel Dennett --- has emerged to champion rationalism. Leading the charge, in books and lectures, is Sam Harris. Harris, who is pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience ("when," he says, "I can step away from my day job as an infidel") is putting a fresh, positive face on atheism. His first book, " The End of Faith ," has reclaimed a spot on the New York Times' paperback best-seller list, while his new book, " Letter to a Christian Nation, " is on the hardcover Top 10. In contrast to screaming television antagonists, Harris is disarmingly polite as he lays out his case. He's so reasonable that on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly ends an interview with him by instructing viewers: "Buy the b...

Bay County, Florida, Sheriff's investigators have arrested a local youth pastor and charged him with molesting a child under the age of 16. David Griffith, 36, of 1961 Sunny Hills Drive in Chipley, was working as a youth pastor at the Cornerstone Family Fellowship at 122 Airport Road, at the time of the incident. The victim claims that Griffith fondled her and rubbed her while on an outing with the youth group. The victim recently came to family members and told them about the incident, which allegedly occurred this past summer. Family members then made a report to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office who began the investigation. Griffith was arrested at his home and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation. Griffith was no longer working at the church at the time of his arrest. link

By Joel Stein I HAD NEVER BEEN to church before. I mean I'd been inside them for weddings, architectural curiosity and once, in college, to hear some guy play organ so I could hook up with Jenny Hodge. I'm pretty sure God will be cool with that because, as an omnipotent being, he knows how hot she was. But I'd never sat through a service until I went to Austin, Texas, two weeks ago. This mostly has to do with the fact that I'm Jewish and don't believe in God, and sermons don't have nudity or anything to gamble on. But my college friend, Mike Langford, just got ordained as a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, so I felt like I needed to see his gig. The first thing I noticed about church was how much like PBS it was. The lighting was dim, the speakers talked slowly, the songs were dated, there were a lot of references to reading material and every so often my eye line was interrupted by envelopes asking me to donate money. Also, I kept falling asleep. I was ...

A letter to the editor of the Toronto Star : Liberated from Western shackles I happen to be a practising Muslim woman who feels totally liberated from the shackles placed on Western women by the expectations of their societies or the "freedom" that their so-called democratic governments bestow on them. I feel no subservience to any man or his rules for I can only (as commanded by Islam) submit to my Creator — God the Almighty. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an atheist, who in her distorted Islamic practices of the past still believes that "Muslims are locked in this mindset of submission, with women subordinate to man." What a fallacy! Mimi Khan, Toronto link Sounds like a Christian, no?

Investors Lost Millions in Church Fraud — Executives Sentenced PHOENIX -- In 1999, Richard Kimsey and his wife, Susan, deposited $100,000 with a Phoenix-based Southern Baptist agency that promised to do the Lord's work. A few days later, the Kimseys' money had all but vanished. And when Richard Kimsey, a Southern Baptist pastor, spoke out against the foundation that had defrauded him, he received death threats, the words "white trash" were painted on his house, and half his congregation abandoned him. "Money is not the issue," Susan Kimsey said. "This has been a black mark on Christianity as a whole." The Kimseys were among the approximately 75 fraud victims who testified at the sentencing hearing last week of two Baptist Foundation of Arizona executives accused of fraudulently conducting a mammoth real estate Ponzi scheme while claiming to do God's work. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Fields sentenced William P. Crotts, 61, th...

LAWRENCE, Kansas - A judge who struck down a Dover, Pennsyvania, school board's decision to teach intelligent design in public schools said he was stunned by the reaction, which included death threats and a week of protection from federal marshals. Pennsylvania U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III told an audience in Lawrence Tuesday that the case illustrated why judges must issue rulings free of political whims or hopes of receiving a favor. In a 139-page decision last year, Jones ruled that the Dover school board intended to promote religion when it instituted a policy requiring students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. He ruled that it is unconstitutional to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. "And if you would have told me when I got on the bench four years ago that I would have death threats in a case like this as opposed to, for example, a crack cocaine case where I mete out a heavy sente...