The pastor of Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) sued Julie Anne Smith, her daughter, and three other former church members for $500,000 in damages, alleging that Smith’s blog, Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors, amounts to defamation.

Smith and her family left the church a few years ago and were subsequently shunned by their church friends, she told KATU News.

"If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way," she told KATU. "All we did was ask questions. We just raised concerns. There's no sin in that."

Smith posted critical reviews of the church on Google that were later removed. In February, she started her blog, which accuses BGBC of spiritual abuse and its pastor, Charles O’Neal, of “narcissism in the pulpit,” ABC News reported.

Within days of starting the blog, BGBC filed its lawsuit. The suit goes before a judge later this month, though Smith has filed a motion to dismiss it. Her attorney, Linda Williams, told KGW News that it’s rare for cases like this to go to court.

The church has not made a statement regarding the case. On her blog, Smith wrote she has no plans to back down.

“The story of spiritual abuse needs to be told,” she wrote. “People are being hurt emotionally and spiritually by pastors who use bully tactics and we need a place to learn, to talk freely, and to heal. I will not be silenced.”

In 2010, Christianity Today reported a similar legal tussle between a Baptist church in Florida and its online critics.

The plane was headed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for Teen Mania’s Acquire The Fire youth event when it crashed Friday afternoon. Three graduates from Oral Roberts University—Luke Sheets, Garrett Coble, and Stephen Luth—were killed at the scene.

The remaining passengers—Austin Anderson, also an Oral Roberts Graduate, and Hannah Luce, daughter of Teen Mania founders Ron and Katie Luce—managed to escape the wreck and get help, though both suffered serious injuries. Anderson died the following morning; Luce is recovering at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.

In a statement on their blog, the Luces credited Anderson, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, with saving their daughter’s life.

“We believe [Anderson] helped Hannah out of the plane and to the roadside,” the Luces wrote. “Not only is he a hero for serving our nation, we probably owe our daughter’s life to his courage and strength.”

Anderson and Luth had recently been hired to Teen Mania’s marketing team, the organization said in a statement, though all those involved in the crash “were friends of Teen Mania.” Coble was a professor at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, The Kansas City Star reported.

Philip Caminiti, pastor of Aleitheia Bible Church in Black Earth, Wisconsin, was convicted of eight counts of conspiracy to commit child abuse in March. He faces up to six years of prison time; his sentencing hearing is scheduled for later this month.

Caminiti argued the convictions violate his right to religious freedom. But Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi disagreed, stating that though Caminiti had “a sincerely held religious belief” to use a rod to discipline young children, he failed to prove Wisconsin’s child abuse statue “places a burden” on that belief.

“Scripture doesn't specify how and when the rod should be used,” Sumi ruled.

In January, Christianity Today examined arguments for and against corporal punishment, as the misuse of biblical teaching on discipline can have deadly consequences.

Haixhin Zhang applied for refugee protection in 2008 after coming to Canada from China the year before on a traveler’s visa. He claimed he was first introduced to Christianity in China in 2005; he first joined a church while he was in Canada.

At Zhang's hearing, IRB adjudicator Leonard Favreau ruled Zhang joined a church in Canada to support a fraudulent refugee claim because Zhang only knew the names of two of Jesus’ apostles, two of the gospels, and one prayer—the Lord’s Prayer, which he recited incorrectly.

Federal judge Douglas Campbell recently ruled the IRB should abandon its policy of testing the religious knowledge of applicants like Zhang. Campbell called the policy “fundamentally flawed” and sent Zhang’s case back to the IRB to be reviewed by another adjudicator.

“First, religious knowledge cannot be equated to faith,” Campbell said at the hearing. “And second, the quality and quantity of religious knowledge necessary to prove faith is unverifiable.”
Campbell also pointed out the IRB’s questioning allows adjudicators to be their own experts, making the practice “highly subjective” and open to abuse.

This is far from the first time the IRB has been rebuked for its religious quizzes. Last September, the IRB was rebuked by the Federal Court of Canada after another adjudicator denied refugee status to a Catholic Chinese immigrant in part because the applicant did not know the name of Jesus’ grandmother and said the Communion elements were a representation of Jesus’ body (instead of the actual body). His case was also sent back for a hearing in front of another adjudicator.

Recently the Federal Court also twice chastised the IRB for its questioning of two separate refugee claimants who said their practice of Falun Gong would lead to persecution if they returned to China. Both cases were given new hearings.

Such cases have not been limited to Canada. Last year, Christianity Today reported a ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that stated an immigration judge cannot quiz asylum seekers on religious doctrine to test the credibility of their faith. The case in question was a Chinese Christian who was denied asylum because he said Thanksgiving was a Christian holiday and “knew little about the difference between the Old and New Testaments.”

The World War I memorial cross, erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), was at the center of a long legal conflict that eventually went to the Supreme Court.

The plan gives the acre of land where the cross has been located to two veterans’ groups in exchange for five acres of private property in the Mojave National Preserve. Congress had originally ordered the land swap in 2003, but opponents brought the case to the courts, arguing that the exchange amounted to preferential treatment.

However, in 2010 the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts, allowing the cross to remain because the transfer would resolve any constitutional concerns. The cross was stolen less than a month later; VFW has promised to replace it.

Meanwhile, another cross at the center of potential litigation will likely be moved. Last month, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Leo Fontaine, the mayor of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, arguing that a cross erected in 1921 as a World War I memorial violates the separation of church and state since it is located on city property.

John Ward, president of the city council, told the Associated Press that though he believes the cross is more of a historical symbol, the city can’t afford a lawsuit. Fontaine said the cross may be moved to a more prominent location on private property.

However, another Rhode Island atheist group says the cross ought to stay. Jason LaRose, a Woonsocket resident and the co-founder of Ocean State Atheists, told WJAR news the cross “only represents the soldiers who were killed, who were most likely Catholics.”

Christianity Today has spotlighted the Supreme Court’s tangled view of public crosses. CT also asked evangelical leaders whether the Supreme Court should consider memorial crosses as secular.

Currently based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, SGM cited the economy as the main factor in its decision. It also hopes to expand its Pastors College and collaborate with Louisville-based Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS).

“In short, our mission is to serve Sovereign Grace churches, and being located in the DC area was placing limitations on our ability to do so,” John Loftness, chairman of the SGM board, said in a statement.

SGM currently has no churches in Kentucky or Indiana, but Loftness said SGM president C. J. Mahaney will plant a church in Louisville. Albert Mohler Jr., president of SBTS, told The Courier-Journal he welcomed the church plant and SGM’s move.

“I think the Sovereign Grace churches are a demonstration of the revitalization of Christianity in the early 21st century,” Mohler said.

Last July, Christianity Today reported that Mahaney was taking a leave of absence after former SGM pastor Brent Detwiler raised concerns about “various expressions of pride, unentreatability, deceit, sinful judgment and hypocrisy" committed by Mahaney.

That month, SGM installed an interim board of directors and established three separate review panels to determine if Mahaney should remain as president. It reinstated Mahaney in January.

Though Loftness asserted in his statement that SGM had been planning the move to Louisville years before last summer’s conflicts, Detwiler told The Courier-Journal SGM was moving because of its “fractured relationships” with Covenant Life Church, SGM’s flagship congregation where its headquarters is currently located.

During its review of Mahaney, SGM enlisted the services of the Ambassadors of Reconciliation (AOR), a Lutheran conflict mediation group. Early last month, AOR released a report of its findings, citing SGM for, among other issues, overemphasizing sin.

“We recommend that Sovereign Grace Ministries intentionally develop a culture of proclaiming God’s forgiveness to those who express repentance or confess their sins,” AOR said in its report.

In response to the AOR’s recommendations, SGM’s Board of Directors released a statement pledging to “commit by God’s grace to correct the failures identified in this report and to do all in our power to shepherd the precious people of God with grace, patience, humility, and love.”

Kinkade's April 6 death was ruled accidental by the Santa Clara County Coroner's office, which found high levels of alcohol and the anti-anxiety medication Diazepam in his body, according to Reuters.

The artist had struggled with alcoholism, according to his family. Kinkade, 54 when he died, was one of the most commercially successful artists in history, selling millions of light-infused scenes of cozy cottages nestled in fairytale-like valleys.

Raised in the Church of the Nazarene, he called himself the "Painter of Light," and spent much of his career depicting churches and biblical themes. Critics panned his work as treacly kitsch. But Kinkade's artistic empire, which included a chain of national galleries and an association with the Disney, made him a beloved figure in conservative Christian circles.

His brother Patrick Kinkade, a professor at Texas Christian University, told the San Jose Mercury News that the artist had been troubled in recent years by a separation from his wife, business problems, and critics' low opinions of his work.

In 2010, the year he filed for bankruptcy, Thomas Kinkade was arrested for drunk driving. In 2006, Kinkade was accused of fraud by art gallery owners, and in 2002, Kinkade faced slumping sales amidst growing criticism of his work.

Christianity Today previously reported on Kinkade's death. CT also profiled Kinkade in 2000.

Derek Coulter was a youth minister at Big Springs Assembly of God in 2009 when he let Jamie Mitchell, 13, drive after a camping trip that included 10 youth group members. Mitchell lost control of the vehicle and was killed in the crash.

Coulter initially lied to police and said he had been driving; a passenger later came forward and said Mitchell had been driving. Coulter was later convicted of reckless homicide and sentenced to five years in prison.

Mitchell’s parents, Rebecca Coleman and James Mitchell, sued Coulter and the church, arguing the church was responsible for Coulter’s misconduct. Their lawyers argued that a church has a “sacred duty” to protect children and that Big Springs failed in that duty.

The church (which left the Assemblies of God and is now known as Open Door Christian Center) argued that it was not liable because the trip was not an official church trip, and it could not have predicted Coulter would let Mitchell drive.

The church will consider an appeal, a lawyer for the church told the Louisville-based Courier-Journal. J. Dale Golden said there were “inconsistencies” in the verdict, adding that the jury ruled Coulter wasn’t acting in his role of employment but the church was still negligent in supervising him.

Last year, Christianity Today reported on a “chilling verdict” in a similar case. A Florida jury awarded a $4.75 million judgment against Tampa-based Idlewild Baptist Church after a 14-year-old-boy was severely injured on a church-sponsored ski trip in 2003. The case prompted churches to reassess their risk management policies. The jury's decision was later overturned.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sued the Giles County School Board on behalf of a student over a Ten Commandments display at Narrows High School, arguing that it violated the First Amendment’s protection against endorsement of religion. The school board said the Commandments were part of a larger display of historical documents and therefore not religious.

The Commandments were already removed once from the school, but the school board voted 3-2 last summer to reinstall them after pressure from the community—a move that the ACLU argued was religion-based.

U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski sent the case into mediation this week. “If indeed this issue is not about God, why wouldn’t it make sense for Giles County to say, ‘Let’s go back and just post the bottom six [commandments]?’” Urbanski said during the hearing.

Giles County hopes to resolve the issue without a trial, as it could face huge legal costs if the ACLU wins. Both sides will meet with Magistrate Judge Robert Ballou for mediation sessions in the coming weeks, The Roanoke Times reported.

Christianity Today has covered many Ten Commandments cases in the past, including extended coverage of the landmark case in Alabama. A 2005 editorial also highlighted the Supreme Court's inconsistent stance on the display of the Ten Commandments.

If passed, Amendment 8 would remove the state’s “Blaine Amendment,” a ban of state money for religious or sectarian groups that critics say is a legal remnant of anti-Catholic bias. Currently, 37 states have Blaine Amendments; both the Florida and Georgia legislatures failed in their attempts to repeal their states’ amendments in 2010.

Later that year, Christianity Today reported on the ongoing battle over Blaine Amendments—specifically, a Florida court battle where two state-contracted Christian nonprofits were sued for using state funds to proselytize to residents at their halfway homes for substance abusers. (The state Supreme Court denied a review of the case in 2010; the case was on a circuit court’s docket as of March 2011.)

Amendment 8 will be on the November 6 ballot.

“We hypothesize that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free—it’s not good for repeat business,” Symantec stated in its report.

Viruses are downloaded in “drive-by attacks” when users visit a site that has been infected with malware. Symantec reported that it blocked more than 5.5 billion malware attacks last year, up 81 percent from 2010, adding that users are more likely to be infected by malware placed on legitimate sites than by sites created by hackers.

With an overwhelming vote on April 30 at the UMC General Conference, the leaders of the denominations agreed to recognize each other’s churches, share sacraments, and affirm their clergy and ministries.

The move comes a dozen years after the UMC held a repentance ceremony and apologized to African-Americans for racist policies that led to the creation of separate African-American churches. Some historic black denominations date to the 1700s, started by founders who no longer wanted to be relegated to the balconies of Methodist congregations.

Two “agree to disagree” proposals were soundly defeated during separate votes by the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered for the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Tampa, Fla.

One proposal would have replaced the "incompatible" phrase in the Book of Discipline, which contains the denomination's laws and doctrines. Both proposals sought to soften the disputed doctrine by adding more ambiguous statements about homosexuality.

Advocates for gay clergy and same-sex marriage in the UMC viewed the compromise proposals as the best chance to advance their cause at this year’s General Conference, which convenes every four years. On Friday, delegates are expected to debate the church’s bans on noncelibate gay clergy and same-sex marriage.

This change of heart comes after Chen spoke with his own attorney by phone and also his wife. The Daily Beast's Melinda Liu last night posted this account of their phone conversation:

Chen ... was weeping as he talked to me over the phone from his hospital bed. Chen says he now wants to leave China as soon as possible: “My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton’s plane.” When U.S. officials escorted him out of the U.S. embassy shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Chen thought he’d extracted a promise that at least one of them would stay with him at the hospital, he said. “But when I was brought to the hospital room, they all left. I don’t know where they went.” The ordeal was all the more bewildering because Chen is blind and was hurt during his escape; he needs crutches or a wheelchair to move around. The hours ticked by, and Chen became more and more agitated. Even though he’d originally told friends and embassy officials that he wished to remain in China, now he wanted to leave. “I hope to seek medical treatment in the U.S. with my family, and then I want to rest,” he said. “As for the future, we’ll deal with that in the future.” At the hospital, Chen’s fears mounted as his wife told him she’d been tied to a chair, beaten, and interrogated by Chinese guardsafter they learned he had entered the U.S. embassy in Beijing last Friday

In the meantime, House Rep. Chris Smith and Sen. Sherrod Brown have called an emergency hearing on Chen's case before the panel that Smith and Brown chair: The Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Scheduled to provide testimony by statement or in person are:

Bob Fu, China Aid
Chai Ling, All Girls Allowed
Reggie Littlejohn, Women's Rights Without Frontiers
Wang Xuezhen, human rights advocate

The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Bob Fu and Chai Ling are both leaders of faith-based organizations in the US that advocate for human rights inside China.

Christianity Today will update this account as further information becomes available.

We Chang, a Belmont, Mass., pastor, argued unsuccessfully for the UMC reconsider the issue, United Methodist News Service reported.

"We have just done away with the security of appointment," he said, "that allowed us to have much gender and racial justice in terms of our appointments."

But Ken Carter, a district superintendent from North Carolina, thought the vote should stand and the focus should not be on providing guaranteed appointments.

"We want to place the emphasis on the mission -- making disciples of Jesus of Christ for the transformation of the world," he said.

The Study of Mission Commission recommended the change in policy, as the UMC searches for ways to stanch a decades-long decline in U.S. membership.

"We acknowledge the difficulties associated with this vision such as uncertainty, loss of security, caring for those in employment transitions, concern about episcopal authority, and loss of historic protections," the commission wrote in its report to the General Conference. "We feel strongly, however, that this vision is critical for the fulfillment of the church's mission."