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