Religious Hatred Simmers In Terror Suspect's Homeland

(CNN) -- Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab wouldn't have to go to an al Qaeda training camp in Yemen to learn how to hate.

He had plenty of examples in his own country.

AbdulMutallab is the 23-year-old Nigerian being held for allegedly trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. While much attention has focused on his privileged background, less has been said about the religious conflict in his homeland.

Christians and Muslims have been killing each other in Nigeria for much of AbdulMutallab's lifetime. At least 10,000 Nigerians have died during Christian-Muslim riots and ethnic violence during the past decade.

The most populous country in Africa, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. It has become the focal point of Christian and Muslim groups -- in Nigeria and abroad, says Eliza Griswold, who has spent the last five years traveling to Nigeria to examine the causes of religious violence.

"Nigeria has become a battleground state for Christians and Muslims around the world who see themselves involved in a numbers game," says Griswold, author of "The Tenth Parallel," an upcoming book that explores the tension between Christians and Muslims just north of the equator in Africa and Asia.

"Any Christian or Muslim who has the point of view that numbers matter has a stake in Nigeria," she says.

The divisions between Christianity and Islam are more than symbolic in Nigeria. There's a geographic boundary: Nigerian Muslims tend to live in north, while Christians live in the south, Griswold says.

Many Nigerian Muslims see themselves as standing at the southern tip of the Islamic world, Griswold says. To the immediate south lie many African nations that tend to embrace Christianity.

"There is this attitude that Islam is under siege by the Christian West and, by proxy, Nigerian Christians," Griswold says. "There is this sense among some devoted Muslims in the north that we need to be part of the larger Islamic community, and we need to prove that we belong."

Nigeria's bloody religious history

That tension can cut both ways. Talk to some Nigerian Christians and one can hear the same concern as Nigerian Muslims: We are under attack; we have to preserve our autonomy.

Gbenga Akinbola, rector of the Mount Zion Anglican Church in Chicago, Illinois, has experienced religious tension in Nigeria. He led a congregation there only four years ago as a priest in the Nigerian Anglican Church.

He says Nigerian Muslims once tried to officially declare Nigeria a Muslim state and force some Christians in the north to adopt Islamic customs.

Both Christians and Muslims feel that they represent the one true God and are obligated to convert others, Akinbola says.

"They are doing what the leaders of both of these groups tell them to," he says. "Christians preach to Muslims, and Muslims try to do the same. For Christians, Jesus Christ has told us to go out and preach."

Sometimes, people don't want to be converted. And at a time when many young Nigerians are unemployed and looking for scapegoats, violence can easily follow, some Nigerians say.

In November 2008, at least 700 Nigerians died in Christian-Muslim riots that followed a disputed local election, Human Rights Watch reported. Two years earlier, the Nigerian army was mobilized to halt similar rioting after a Danish newspaper published a cartoon that depicted Mohammed, the founder of Islam, in a caricature, according to CNN reports.

The event that arguably attracted the most attention in the West took place in 2002 when the Miss World Pageant was relocated from Nigeria after Christian-Muslim riots killed 200 people.

Violence begets more violence, Akinbola says.

"When they kill Christians in the north, Christians in the south will retaliate against Muslims," he says.

He adds that the tensions between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria date back to British colonial rule. He says the British traditionally awarded political leadership positions to members of the Muslim majority in the north.

British colonial rule ended with Nigeria's independence in 1960. But some Nigerian Muslims still feel as if they are entitled to rule Nigeria, he says.

"If you see a license plate in one of the northern states, you'll often see an inscription that reads 'Born to rule,' '' Akinbola says.

Another side of Nigeria's religious story

The ferocity of religious disagreement is also fanned by unscrupulous political leaders, says Mohammed Ladan, a Nigerian Muslim who now works as a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Some of the politicians engineer this violence for their own political end," Ladan says. "If they can play Christians against Muslims, it can take attention away from the real problems of society."

Ladan says he never felt persecuted by Christians while growing up in northern Nigeria. Like several other Nigerians interviewed, he says it would be simplistic to say most Nigerian Christians and Muslims are engaged in a permanent civil war.

Several Nigerians told stories of having friends and even siblings of another faith.

"My wife is a Christian. Some of my best friends are Christians," he says. "I can sing Christian hymns because I've been to church with my wife and friends, and they come to my Muslim celebrations."

Other Muslims say the religious violence is a symptom of a deeper problem in Nigeria: widespread poverty and corruption.

Saratu Abiola is a Nigerian who shares some of the same background with AbdulMutallab, the suspected terrorist. She is also 23 and a Muslim who left Nigeria to attend an international boarding school.

Abiola, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says many Nigerians turn to religion because they don't think they can rely on the state. Though the country is rich with oil wealth, the cities are full of beggars and prostitutes -- it's common to see police officers brazenly demanding money at checkpoints, she says.

"People here get shocked by scandal," Abiola says of America. In Nigeria, "we just shrug our shoulders and drink our coffee. We expect the worst conduct from our high officials."

The corruption and poverty are so embedded that it even disturbs those few Nigerians who can avoid the problems, Abiola says.

"There's a real sense of despair, even among the ones who are better off," Abiola says. "They see what is going on, and they wonder: What on earth can you do to fix this?"

Faith becomes the fix for many Nigerians, she says.

"They feel wronged," says Abiola, who now lives in Washington. "They feel like the country has passed them by. When people don't have much, religion becomes more important."

Despite the country's history of religious violence, Abiola says she's still surprised that a young Nigerian Muslim would be accused of trying to commit mass murder against American citizens.

Many Nigerian youths love pop culture in America and adopt Western ways and watch Western movies, she says.

"We have MTV in Africa," she says. "Every year, we get at least five to 15 U.S. pop stars who come to Nigeria."

She says many young Nigerians learn to blend their Nigerian identity and their religious values with their love of pop culture in the West.

"For a lot of us, it doesn't present a burden -- we don't feel as if we have to choose between the West and the East," she says.

Griswold, the author who just spent five years in Nigeria, says events in Nigeria prove how small the world has become.

"When we, a thousand miles away, debate over whether we should be in Afghanistan or draw a cartoon, the people in Nigeria take up arms and fight it out," she says.

"They end up bearing the brunt of our religious debates in a very visceral way."

Death Toll Rises In Karachi Suicide Attack

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll from the suicide bombing in Pakistan's financial capital, Karachi, rose to 40, authorities said Tuesday.

The blast on Monday targeted a Shiite procession on M.A. Jinnah Road.

The victims were among thousands of devotees commemorating Ashura, a major religious observance for the Shiites, one of two main Muslim denominations.

Ashura marks the death anniversary of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed. Hussein, who was killed in battle in Karbala in 680 A.D., is regarded as a martyr -- and the battle is one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements.

Religious mourning during Ashura is characterized by people chanting, beating their breasts in penance, cutting themselves with daggers or swords and whipping themselves in synchronized moves.

Shias are a minority in Pakistan.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. But the government is in the midst of an intense army offensive to rout militants from their haven along the country's border with Afghanistan. In retaliations, the militants have launched a series of deadly attacks in Pakistan.

Priest: Thou Shalt Not Steal (Unless It's From Big Business)

London, England (CNN) -- A UK priest has defended his comments that it is acceptable to steal from large companies.

Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda, told his congregation in York, northern England: "My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift."

Jones, who according to the church Web site previously worked in Corinth, Mississippi, made his comments about what he regarded as acceptable behavior by those in need when they were desperate.

In a transcript of his sermon published in the local newspaper, "The Press," Jones said: "I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

"I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices."

Jones told CNN affiliate ITN Monday that his advice was directed at those with nothing and who had exhausted all other legal avenues to survive, such as state benefits.

While it was never right to shoplift, Jones said, it was the most acceptable alternative for those in desperate need compared with prostitution, burglary or other criminal offenses.

The Web site for St Hilda's states that Jones has served as a prison chaplain and that his interests include international justice and fair trade issues.

"I would say to those people that are outraged: Compare how much you are spending on yourself this Christmas compared to how much you have given to people in desperate situations," Jones told ITN.

In his sermon Sunday Jones called on anyone planning to steal not to take more than they need for longer than they need, saying that he offered his advice with a heavy heart. He added that his advocacy of shoplifting was a "grim indictment" of society and a plea for help for the most vulnerable.

But Jones' church bosses failed to back his call. In a statement on the Web site for the Diocese of York Tuesday, Richard Seed, Archdeacon of York said: "The Church of England does not advise anyone to shoplift, or break the law in any way.

"Fr Tim Jones is raising important issues about the difficulties people face when benefits are not forthcoming, but shoplifting is not the way to overcome these difficulties.

"There are many organizations and charities working with people in need, and the Citizens' Advice Bureau is a good first place to call."

Evangelist Alamo Sentenced To 175 Years On Sex Charges

(CNN) -- Evangelist Tony Alamo is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after an Arkansas judge sentenced him to 175 years Friday on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex, according to prosecutors.

A jury convicted Alamo in July on 10 federal counts covering offenses that spanned 11 years and dated back to 1994, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Alamo, the 75-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, will serve the sentences on each count consecutively, for a total of 175 years in prison, prosecutors said.

In addition to his sentence, Alamo was fined $250,000, court documents showed.

His lawyer filed an appeal Friday.

Christopher Plumlee, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, welcomed the sentence.

"Given the number of victims and the difficult type of testimony they had to provide in order to get to trial, it's gratifying for them to see him get this sentence," he said. "Not only did they entrust their lives to him, he did it in the name of God. And he betrayed their trust."

Authorities in September 2008 arrested Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas.

An indictment released in November 2008 accused Alamo of transporting five girls across state lines for sex. The criminal complaint included accounts from three girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was released last year, and one who was 14.

All three said Alamo sexually abused them.

In a phone interview last year with CNN, Alamo called the accusations a hoax.

"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."

French Court Convicts Church of Scientology of Fraud

Paris, France (CNN) -- A French court's verdict against the Church of Scientology amounts to a "modern Inquisition" and threatens freedom of religion in France, a senior Scientologist said Tuesday.

Eric Roux, a spokesman for the group and an official representative of the organization's Celebrity Center, also said the church would appeal Tuesday's verdict.

A three-judge panel at the Correctional Court in Paris convicted the church and six of its members of organized fraud, but stopped short of banning the church, as prosecutors had asked.

The court also fined the members as much as 400,000 euros ($595,000) each and sentenced them to as much as two years in prison, though the sentences were suspended.

The decision follows a three-week trial in May and June, during which two plaintiffs said they were defrauded by the organization, which is classified as a sect in France.

Scientology has about 45,000 followers in France, and some of them were in court Tuesday.

"We think that this is really a modern Inquisition and that this is really dangerous for the freedom of religion in our country, and for sure we do not agree with that and we will go to appeal," Roux told CNN.

One of the judges on the panel said the church may continue its activities in France, but she said those activities must remain "on the correct side of the law."

As part of the penalties, the church was ordered to publish the results of the verdict in several national and international magazines to warn people, the judge said, about what Scientology offers and what was discovered at trial.

"It's an empty case," Roux said. "It's run like an Inquisition, (as) if some people did not wake up from the Inquisition time."

The plaintiffs focused their complaints on the use of a device that Scientologists say measures spiritual well-being. Members used the electropsychometer, or E-Meter, to "locate areas of spiritual duress or travail so they can be addressed and handled," according to Scientology's Web site.

The plaintiffs said that, after using the device, they were encouraged to pay for vitamins and books. They said that amounted to fraud.

Roux said Scientology is doing well in Europe, and he specifically mentioned Spain, Britain, and Sweden. He said a church opening in Rome, Italy, last weekend attracted 6,000 people.

"This is expansion, and people want to support the church," he said, when asked about members being asked to pay money. "We are 12 million in the world, and this 12 million want to support the church, and that's what they do."

He said France was a special case within Europe.

"You have in France a clique of anti-religious extremists that are making a lot of noise," he said.

Jordanian Accused In Dallas Bomb Plot Goes To Court

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- A terrorism suspect accused of plotting the bombing of a skyscraper made his first appearance in federal court Friday.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian, said little during a 20-minute hearing at the Dallas federal courthouse. His lawyer, however, said Smadi understood the gravity of the charge.

Judge Irma Ramirez set a probable cause hearing for October 5.

Smadi initially drew authorities' scrutiny because of his violent posts on an extremist chat site, court papers indicate. He was arrested Thursday in a sting operation, the FBI said.

Federal officials said Smadi, who entered the United States illegally and lived in Texas, tried to set off an explosive attached to a vehicle at the base of the 60-story Fountain Place office tower.

Long before authorities arrested Smadi, however, they were following his Internet discussions, according to a court affidavit.

"Smadi was discovered by the FBI within an online group of extremists," the affidavit says. "Among many others in the group who espoused and endorsed violence, Smadi stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States."

Undercover officers then contacted Smadi, posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell. After months of conversations, the agents considered Smadi a legitimate threat.

Smadi picked several targets to attack, including the Dallas-Forth Worth airport, before deciding on the skyscraper, which houses Wells Fargo Bank, the affidavit says. It details a conversation that Smadi is said to have had with authorities:

"I have decided to change the target," he said, according to the affidavit. "God willing, the strike will be certain and strong. It will shake the currently weak economy in the state and the American nation, because this bank is one of the largest banks in the city."

Smadi said many times that he wanted to commit violent jihad and he was a soldier of Osama bin Laden, the affidavit says.

Undercover agents tried to get Smadi to "re-evaluate his interpretation of jihad," saying there were nonviolent ways to commit the act. But "Smadi again communicated his continuing commitment for violent jihad," the affidavit says.

After casing the bank in July, Smadi told an undercover agent he would target it, according to authorities. Initially, Smadi told the agent he wanted to bomb the bank on September 11 but decided to wait until the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended on September 20, authorities said.

After receiving what he thought was an explosive from an undercover agent, Smadi drove a car with the fake bomb into a parking garage under the skyscraper, authorities said.

Smadi thought he could detonate the bomb by dialing his cell phone, they said.

When he dialed, the number rang a phone in authorities' possession, the affidavit says.

Counterterrorism officials arrested Smadi on Thursday before publicly disclosing a similar but unrelated terrorism sting arrest Wednesday in Springfield, Illinois. A federal law enforcement official familiar with the cases said authorities feared that word of the Illinois arrest could tip off the Texas suspect to the sting operation.

A charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction carries a potential sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In the Illinois case, undercover FBI agents foiled a plot to bomb Springfield's federal building, authorities said.

In neither case did authorities find ties to known terrorist groups.

Dad Admits Killings To Reporters, Blames Crime On 'Spirit'

(CNN) -- A Florida man admitted to reporters that he killed his wife and five "innocent" children, adding that he wants to be executed "right away" so he can be buried with them on Saturday.

Mesac Damas, 32, said he wanted to take his own life, but did not have the courage to go through with it, "because if you kill yourself, you're not going to heaven."

Damas made the statements to a Naples Daily News reporter as he was being led into a Haitian police vehicle in Port-au-Prince. Damas was returned to the United States late Tuesday following his capture in Haiti.

Damas faces six counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Guerline Damas, 32; and the couple's five children -- Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, police have said. The six bodies were found Saturday in the family's North Naples, Florida, home after relatives called police saying they had not been heard from.

Asked by the reporter in Haiti why he killed his family, Damas responded, "Only God knows." Questioned further, he blamed the crime on his mother-in-law. "Her mom pretty much made me do it -- the devil, her spirit, whatever she worships," he said.

Damas added, "When I did it, [my] eyes [were] closed but right now my eyes are open." He repeatedly asked the reporter, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ," and stated, "The devil exists."

Police said an arrest warrant was issued for Damas on Tuesday "based on information and evidence collected thus far in the investigation and statements made by Damas to a federal agent after his detention in Haiti."

Police have not said how the five were killed, but Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk described the scene as "horrific."

The Naples Daily News, citing the warrant, reported that the woman and children were stabbed and their throats were slashed.

Damas had used a one-way ticket to fly from Miami to Haiti. Later, he told reporters that he had gone to Haiti to say goodbye to his family. He claimed that he had planned to turn himself in.

Police had asked the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for help in locating Damas. The FBI's legal attaché in the Dominican Republic notified authorities in Collier County, Florida, that a man believed to be Damas was taken into custody Monday by the Haitian National Police.

"Information obtained by [the sheriff's office] shows Damas was found hiding near a hotel in the capital city of Port-au-Prince," a sheriff's statement said Tuesday.

Police earlier said the judge who signed the arrest warrant ordered that Damas be held without bond upon his return to Florida. If convicted of six counts of first-degree murder, Damas could face life in prison or the death penalty.

Mesac and Guerline Damas had a history of domestic violence, police said. Mesac Damas was arrested in January, and in June he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery charges against his wife. Police said they did not believe he served any jail time, and did not think a restraining order was currently in place regarding the couple.

However, an arrest warrant was issued Monday for Damas on charges of violating probation stemming from the January arrest.

Guerline Damas' family released a statement Tuesday through the sheriff's office, saying she was "the best mother, sister and daughter in the world. She was caring and loving, and we miss her very much."

"This is a family tragedy and we want the community to realize that domestic violence is a serious issue," said the statement from the family. "If you have friends or family who are in an abusive relationship, please try to get them help. And to those women who are being abused, please love yourself enough to get help."

The family said its main concern was getting Damas back into the country "to face what he has done and get justice for our sister and daughter and her children. ... We ask that you keep our family in your prayers."

The Damases had been married about 10 years, Rambosk said. He did not know how long they had lived in Naples.

The six bodies were found about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, a day after police had visited the home to check on the family, Collier County sheriff's Capt. Chris Roberts said.

A family member had asked police to conduct a welfare check on the home Friday, saying they had not heard from a resident there, Roberts said. Responding officers knocked on the door and got no answer, he said, but they saw nothing that aroused their suspicions.

The following morning, the family member became more concerned and filed a missing persons report, Rambosk said. Later, authorities requested a key to the house from property management, as well as authorization to enter.

The Incomplete Ramblings of a Curious Being

I feel like my home is ablaze. I'm watching the fire swallow everything that I care about. The heat consumes the goodness underneath as smoke covers our future with a blanket of darkness. Is it at all coincidental that as I write this, rain begins to spill over me?

We are told we have freedom. We are told we have liberty. We are told that life is special; that we are each unique and important in this world. We are also told that God is alive and well, and he watches all that we do. He created us, He loves us, He is all forgiving, He is all knowing, all powerful... We are told to make love, not war. We are told that the true enemy is within.

Too many questions. No answers. Why do we go on believing the words of others while never questioning them? Why doesn't God show himself? Why won't he show me that he exists? He knows I am open-minded. He knows I would believe, and would become his most loyal supporter. Why would he deny me the love of a Christian years ago, which no doubt would have cemented my future as a Christian myself? Why does he claim to love me, but threaten to send me - his own child - to Hell... a place of eternal suffering and torture? And what does that say about him as a father?

None of this makes any sense to me. If he knows whether or not I truly believe, what is the point of going to church? If he already knows my thoughts and intentions, why pray? Do I expect him to alter his Divine Plan for me anyway? How arrogant of me... Why would he make my friends want to kill themselves? Why put them through that? His own children? In fact, why create misery or suffering or death or torture or pain in the first place? This is truly the most benevolent being in our universe? I don't get it.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Sunday School Teacher To Face Death In Child's Killing

(CNN) -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a former California Sunday school teacher accused of killing an 8-year-old girl earlier this year.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was indicted last month in the death of Sandra Cantu, a playmate of Huckaby's daughter. Huckaby lived in the same mobile home park as Cantu and her family in Tracy, California.

Sandra's body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. She was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park.

Huckaby is charged with kidnapping and murdering Sandra, according to the indictment, along with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument. She pleaded not guilty in June, but entered another not guilty plea on Thursday at a hearing, minutes of which were provided to CNN by a court spokeswoman.

Prosecutors said at the hearing Thursday they plan to seek the death penalty.

Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police said.

The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death.

Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra's body, but said it had been stolen.

In addition to the charges in Sandra's death, Huckaby is charged with attempting to poison two people, including a 7-year-old girl. A complaint alleges she "did willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink" with the intent to harm the child.

The complaint identifies the child only as "Jane M. Doe." Huckaby is also charged with one count of child abuse endangerment regarding the girl, who the complaint says was in her "care and custody." The other alleged poisoning victim was identified as Daniel Plowman, but no other information was provided.

A gag order has been imposed on parties in the case. Superior Court Judge Linda L. Lofthus has also sealed documents in the case, including the autopsy and toxicology reports and documents relating to a defense motion to exhume Sandra's body.

Huckaby remains jailed without bail. A hearing was set for September 25.

Fanatic Hijacked Mexican Plane After 'Revelation'

MEXICO CITY — A Bolivian religious fanatic briefly hijacked a jetliner from the beach resort of Cancun as it landed in Mexico City on Wednesday, police said. All passengers and the crew were released unharmed.

The Bible-carrying hijacker used a juice can he said was a bomb to hold the 103 passengers and crew on the tarmac for more than an hour. Masked police stormed the aircraft with their guns drawn and escorted several handcuffed men away without firing a shot. Police later said there was only one hijacker.

Jose Flores, 44, told investigators he hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576 after a divine revelation, according to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. Flores said Wednesday's date — 9-9-09 — is the satanic number 666 turned upside down.

Flores, speaking to reporters after he was detained, said he took control of the aircraft with "a juice can with some little lights I attached."

"Christ is coming soon," he added, smiling.

As the plane was landing, Flores stood up and showed his contraption to a flight attendant, saying he and three others were hijacking the plane, Garcia Luna said. Flores later told police his three companions were "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

He ordered the pilot to circle over Mexico City seven times and asked to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, saying he wanted to warn him of an impending earthquake, Garcia Luna said.

Garcia Luna said Flores is a drug addict who was convicted of armed robbery in Bolivia, and has lived in Mexico for 17 years. Flores described himself as a pastor in southern Oaxaca state who had gone to Cancun to preach.

He is also a Christian music singer who in videos posted on YouTube sings of leaving drugs and finding God.

"I was in jail, I was a despicable drug addict, but Christ freed me a few years ago," Flores sings along with recorded norteno music to a crowded stadium.

In other videos, Flores, who goes by the stage name Josmar, is seen playing with nunchackus and shooting a coin he tosses in the air.

At the Uncionmusic Web site, a Christian music distributor based in Oakland, California, that sells Flores' music on the Internet, he is described as "an international evangelist with a shocking testimony on how God rescued him after his family sent him from Bolivia to Mexico City on a one-way ticket ... because of his addiction to cocaine and alcohol."

Saul Bueno, of Uncionmusic, said that he doesn't personally know Flores and that his music has sold poorly since they began offering his CDs two years ago.

"As a Christian I think about what was going through his mind, because that's not the way to get attention," Bueno said.

The attorney general's office said it was opening an investigation into terrorism and kidnapping.

U.S., French and Mexican citizens were among the passengers, according to a U.S. official in Washington who was briefed on the situation. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. Embassay spokesman said at least 14 U.S. citizens were on the plane and they were being interviewed by Mexican authorities at the airport.

Passenger Rocio Garcia told the Televisa network that the pilot made an announcement after landing in Mexico City that the airplane was being hijacked.

"These were scary moments," she said.

Passengers said the hijacker stayed in his seat throughout the incident and the pilot came back from the cockpit to negotiate with him.

Mexican officials negotiated the release of women and children through the pilot before sending in the police. The plane was isolated at the end of a runway in an area designed for emergencies and the airport remained open.

The most recent hijacking attempt in the Americas occurred April 19, when a man with a handgun tried to commandeer a Canadian jetliner in Jamaica. The standoff ended before takeoff at Montego Bay's airport when military commandos burst onto the plane and disarmed the man, who was described as "mentally challenged."

Pastor's Obama Rants 'Incomprehensible'

TEMPE, Ariz. - The sermons at this east valley church are stirring controversy and for some, causing alarm. Pastor Steven Anderson says he's a man of God, but some are horrified at what he's preaching.

Anderson is standing by his controversial sermon, entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama." Video of the sermon has hit YouTube, and he's taped explaining why he hates the President and praying for his death.

Sunday at church, Anderson told FOX 10, "I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today."

Anderson is continuing to encourage his parishioners to pray for the president's death, but says he doesn't condone killing.

"I will not take the law into my own hands. I will not take up any arms. It's a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare."

Sunday, about 30 parishioners of the Faithful Word Baptist Church were met by a handful of protesters.

"A pastor, a man of the cloth, doesn't condone assassinating people. He's not a pastor, he's a pas-turd," said protester Bill Demski. Some of the protesters tried to go into the church, but were denied.

"I find it incomprehensible that someone can say they believe in the message of Jesus and preach hate," added protester James Jones.

Tempe Police patrolled the area to make sure tempers didn't get out of hand, while many parishioners walked into the church carrying guns on their hips.

One of them was Christopher Broughton, who got national attention when he brought an AR-15 assault rifle to an Aug. 17 rally outside the Phoenix Convention Center where President Obama was addressing veterans.

We asked him if he wanted to clarify what the impact of Pastor Anderson's sermon was on his decision to bring a gun to the rally, but he had no response.

Anderson says his sermon about wanting Obama to die was not meant to rile people up. "If anything, I was talking him down," he said, "Not riling him up."

Pastor Anderson says his hatred of Obama and former president Bush stems from his views on abortion and the Iraq War.

"Look up the word hate. Look up the word abhor, the word loathe. You'll see there are a lot of people that God hates, and so we should hate. But see, I didn't write that, that's in the Bible."

The pastor says that since his sermon on Obama was posted on YouTube, he and his family have received death threats.

"If people want to wish deaths on me I don't have a problem with that. But when people say, 'I'm coming to kill you and your family within the next 36 hours,' that's different than them hoping or wishing something in their mind," said Anderson.

The White House had no comment.

Suspected Kidnapper's Blog Reveals Religious Fanaticism

People who knew kidnapping and rape suspect Phillip Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box.

"In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him," said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburg, Calif., who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido's printing business for the last decade.

Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen's showroom with two "cute little blond girls" in tow, he said.

In April 2008, Garrido registered a corporation called God's Desire at his home address, according to the California Secretary of State. During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said.

"He rambled. It made no sense," he said.

In a blog titled "Voices Revealed" that appears to have been maintained by Garrido, he wrote that he had hired a private investigator to verify his ability to speak to people using only his mind. In an "affadavit" posted there, he said he had the ability to "control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena."

Using the alias THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND, the first post, titled Disclaimer, says, in all caps: "This all began by God removing a problem from my shoulders that behavioral scientist believe is not possible to remove. since then my life has seen major improvements allowing me to stand here today a free man."

Since his arrest, the blog had been overrun with negative comments from readers. By Friday morning, there were more than 300 comments, many of them with religious references.

"When the voices tell you to kidnap and rape children, it's not God. It's your own crminal self, Mr. Garrido! I hope you rot in jail and burn in Hell." - dejablues

"The Man Upstairs is going to have something to say about you making all these claims of being connected to Him while you were perpetrating such horrendous crimes against a child. Human judgment and divine judgment are both going to be swift and harsh." - silverladder

Baby-killing Mom Otty Sanchez of San Antonio Claims 'Devil Made Me' Do It

DALLAS - Police said they found a 3 1/2-week-old infant stabbed and decapitated in a Texas home on Sunday and his mother "screaming that she killed her baby" after the devil told her to do it.

The mother, Otty Sanchez, 33, of San Antonio, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest and stomach, said San Antonio police spokesman Joe Rios.

Investigators took a sword, a machete and a kitchen knife from the home.

Officers also found two children unharmed at the home, though it wasn't immediately clear where they were taken.

Sanchez will be charged with capital murder, Rios said. A spokeswoman at University Hospital in San Antonio said she couldn't release information on Sanchez's condition, but Sgt. Wes McCourt said her wounds didn't appear to be life threatening.

Rios said that when police arrived, Sanchez was sitting on the couch "screaming that she killed her baby." Police said the baby was Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez.

"She mentioned that someone or something told her to do it, she was hearing voices. So that leads us to believe that she was experiencing some type of mental crisis," Rios said. "The baby had obviously been decapitated."

McCourt said she told investigators that the devil told her to kill her son.

Church Bus Crash Kills 1 In Miss., Leaves 27 Hurt

MERIDIAN, Miss. — A coroner says a bus carrying a church youth group from Louisiana to Georgia flipped Sunday in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 27 others.

The bus overturned three times around 10:20 a.m. on Interstate 20 near Meridian, Miss., and trapped some people underneath, Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler III said. Teenagers and adults were on the bus from First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La. A group of National Guard soldiers was on the highway at the time and helped rescue the injured.

The wreck was first reported by television station WTOK in Meridian.

One person died at the scene, Cobler said. One person was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, while the other 26 injured were taken to three hospitals in Meridian, the coroner said.

Heaven's Door

One more reason I don't believe most people are consistant in their religious beliefs:

In death, their loved ones would be welcomed to Heaven. This is the ultimate goal. Therefore, death would be celebrated. It would be a happy time for all who truly care about the one they lost. Yet, funerals are full of mourning and sadness. Tears flow regularly.

If people truly believed in Heaven, and that their loved ones end up there, they would not see death as such a sad event.

But they do.

And that is because they don't truly believe what they claim to believe.

8-year-old Kentucky Boy Found Dead In Church Elevator

STURGIS, Ky. — The body of an 8-year-old boy was found with his head pinned in a church elevator as his family was cleaning up after his grandmother's wedding reception, authorities said Monday.

No foul play is suspected in the death Saturday of Zachary Waddell at First Christian Church in Sturgis, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. The church's pastor, the Rev. Nate Harper, found the boy's body in the doorway at the lower level of the shaft connecting the church's first and second floors, authorities said.

Union County Coroner Stephen Shouse said the boy died as a result of compression asphyxia, meaning he couldn't breathe after the elevator came down on him. He said the elevator was purchased in 1963 and is similar to a freight elevator. The Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press reported that Shouse is a distant cousin of the boy's mother.

State Police said the boy was pronounced dead at the church. State Police gave few details and did not return telephone messages to The Associated Press about the circumstances.

The boy was found with his head pinned between the walls of the elevator and the shaft and his body was outside the elevator car, Shouse said.

Harper told the newspaper that the discovery was the "worst thing" he's ever experienced.

"It was really hard for us, but more than anything else our hearts go out to that family," he told the newspaper. He also said he did not know a lot about the elevator, "but to our knowledge, we believe it was up to standards."

"There's a family that needs prayer," Harper told the AP on Monday afternoon. "They've suffered a great tragedy."

Suspect In Custody In Abortion Doc Slaying

WICHITA, Kan. — Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller was shot and killed Sunday in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher, his attorney said. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.

The city official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official did not provide additional details.

Long a focus of national anti-abortion groups, including a summer-long protest in 1991, Tiller was shot during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church while his wife was in the choir, his attorney Dan Monnat said. Police said the gunman had fled in a car registered in Merriam, a Kansas City suburb nearly 200 miles away.

Tiller's Women's Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.

Tiller's killing is "an unspeakable tragedy," his widow, four children and 10 grandchildren said in statement issued by Monnat. "This is particularly heart-wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace."

The family said its loss "is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence."

A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985. More recently, Monnat said Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller's safety was in jeopardy.

In early May, Tiller had asked the FBI to investigate vandalism at his clinic, including cut wires to surveillance cameras and damage to the roof that sent rainwater pouring into the building.

Anti-abortion groups denounced the shooting and stressed that they support only nonviolent protest. The movement's leaders fear the killing could create a backlash just as they are scrutinizing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose views on abortion rights are not publicly known.

"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down," Troy Newman, Operation Rescue's president, said in a statement. "Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning."

In 1991, the Summer of Mercy protests organized by Operation Rescue drew thousands of anti-abortion activists to this city for demonstrations marked by civil disobedience and mass arrests.

Tiller began providing abortion services in 1973. He acknowledged abortion was as socially divisive as slavery or prohibition but said the issue was about giving women a choice when dealing with technology that can diagnose severe fetal abnormalities before a baby is born.

After the 1991 protests, Tiller kept mostly to his heavily guarded clinic, although in 1997 he opened it to three tours by state lawmakers and the media.

Tiller remained prominent in the news, in part because of an investigation started begun by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, an abortion opponent.

Prosecutors had alleged that Tiller had gotten second opinions from a doctor who was essentially an employee of his, not independent as state law requires. A jury in March acquitted Tiller of all 19 misdemeanor counts.

"I am stunned by this lawless and violent act, which must be condemned and should be met with the full force of law," Kline said in a written statement. "We join in lifting prayer that God's grace and presence rest with Dr. Tiller's family and friends."

Abortion opponents also questioned then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' ties to Tiller before the Senate confirmed her this year as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. Tiller donated thousands of dollars to Sebelius over the years.

Irish Priests Beat, Raped Children: Report

DUBLIN — Priests beat and raped children during decades of abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland, an official report said on Wednesday, but it stopped short of naming the perpetrators.
Orphanages and industrial schools in 20th century Ireland were places of fear, neglect and endemic sexual abuse, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse said in a harrowing five-volume report that took nine years to compile.

The Commission, chaired by a High Court judge, blasted successive generations of priests, nuns and Christian Brothers -- a Catholic religious order -- for beating, starving and, in some cases raping, children in Ireland's now defunct network of industrial and reformatory schools from the 1930s onwards.

"When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse, the response of the religious authorities was to transfer the offender to another location where, in many instances, he was free to abuse again," the report said.

"Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from."

The report slammed the Department of Education for its failure to stop the crimes. In rare cases when it was informed of sexual abuse, "it colluded in the silence," the report said.

Successful legal action by the Christian Brothers, the largest provider of residential care for boys in the country, led the Commission to drop its original intention to name the people against whom the allegations were made.

No abusers will be prosecuted as a result of the inquiry.

John Kelly, coordinator of the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) group, said there could be no closure without accountability.

"I have been getting phone calls all day from former residents, they feel their wounds have been reopened for nothing," he told Reuters. "They were promised justice by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1999 and they feel cheated. They expected that the abusers would face prosecution."

UNDERWEAR INSPECTIONS

The Christian Brothers said they were appalled at the revelations but denied that their lawsuit had obstructed the report. "We are deeply sorry, deeply regretful for what has been put before us today," Brother Edmund Garvey said.

Many of the children were sent into church care because of school truancy, petty crime or because they were unmarried mothers or their offspring. Some were used as laborers, churning out rosary beads or set to work on farms.

Sexual abuse was endemic in boys' institutions and girls were preyed on by sexual predators who were able to operate unhindered.

The Commission interviewed 1,090 men and women who were housed in 216 institutions including children's homes, hospitals and schools. They told of scavenging for food from waste bins and animal feed, of floggings, scaldings and being held under water. There were underwear inspections and in one case, a boy was forced to lick excrement from a priest's shoe.

Absconders were flogged and some had their heads shaved.

Tom Sweeney, who spent five years at industrial schools including two years at the notorious Artane Industrial School, said it still haunted its former residents.

"Unfortunately there are a lot of people that have committed suicide, there are a lot of people that have ended up in hospitals and they have been forgotten about," he said.

Revelations of abuse, including a string of scandals involving priests molesting young boys, have eroded the Catholic Church's moral authority in Ireland, once one of the most religiously devout countries in the world.

The inquiry, conducted at a reported cost of 70 million euros ($95.16 million), was announced in 1999 by then Prime Minister Bertie Ahern after he apologized to victims following revelations made in a series of television documentaries.

The government has paid out around 825 million euros in compensation to former residents of the institutions and the final bill is likely to top 1 billion euros.

Former Fundamentalist 'Debunks' Bible

(Bart Ehrman)
CNN -- Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he's not the anti-Christ.

He says he's not trying to destroy your faith. He's not trying to bash the Bible. And, though his mother no longer talks to him about religion, Ehrman says some of his best friends are Christian.
Ehrman, a best-selling author and a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a biblical sleuth whose investigations make some people very angry. Like the fictional Robert Langdon character played by actor Tom Hanks in the movie "Angels & Demons," he delves into the past to challenge some of Christianity's central claims.

In Ehrman's latest book, "Jesus, Interrupted," he concludes:

Doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus and heaven and hell are not based on anything Jesus or his earlier followers said.

At least 19 of the 27 books in the New Testament are forgeries.

Believing the Bible is infallible is not a condition for being a Christian.

"Christianity has never been about the Bible being the inerrant word of God," Ehrman says. "Christianity is about the belief in Christ."

Critic: 'There's a touch of arrogance' about him

Ehrman's claims have found an audience, and controversy. He's a fixture on History Channel and Discovery Channel documentaries on Christianity. He's appeared on National Public Radio, CNN and the BBC and talked about scribes misquoting Jesus on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Yet Ehrman's popularity also may be due to a larger trend. The books of people like Elaine Pagels, author of "The Gnostic Gospels," and Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons," resonate with people who believe there are parts of the Bible that the church left on history's editing floor.

Some scholarly critics say Ehrman is saying nothing new.

Bishop William H. Willimon, an author and United Methodist Church bishop based in Alabama, says he doesn't like the "breathless tone" of Ehrman's work.

"He keeps presenting this stuff as if this is wonderful new knowledge that has been kept from you backward lay people and this is the stuff your preachers don't have the guts to tell, and I have," Willimon says. "There's a touch of arrogance in it."

Yet even many of Ehrman's critics say he has a knack for making arcane New Testament scholarship accessible to the public.

"He has a gift for clear thinking and an ability to present some complicated things in simple, direct ways," Willimon says.

Some pastors also say that Ehrman forces them to confront tough questions about the Bible in front of their congregations.

"His take on the scriptures is a gift to the church because of his ability to articulate questions and challenges," says Rev. Guy Williams, a blogger who also happens to be a Methodist minister in Houston, Texas. "It gives us an opportunity to wrestle with the [Bible's] claims and questions."

Ehrman: There was no resurrection

Ehrman says that no one accepts everything in the Bible. Everyone picks and chooses . He cites some New Testament's references to the role of women in church as an example.

In the first book of Corinthians, Ehrman says, the Apostle Paul insists that women should remain silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:35-36).

In the 16th chapter of the book of Romans, Paul's attitude is that women could and should be church leaders -- and he cites women who were serving as deacons and apostles in the early church, Ehrman says.

Ehrman backs his arguments with a deep knowledge of the culture and history of the New Testament world. He's written 20 books on early Christianity and is an authority on ancient manuscripts used to translate the Bible.

His claims, though, take on some of Christianity's most sacred tenets, like the resurrection of Jesus. Ehrman says he doesn't think the resurrection took place. There's no proof Jesus physically rose from the dead, and the resurrection stories contradict one another, he says.

He says he doesn't believe the followers of Jesus saw their master bodily rise from the dead, but something else.

"My best guess is that what happened is what commonly happens today when someone has a loved one die -- they sometimes think they see them in a vision," Ehrman says. "I think some of the disciples had visions."

Ehrman says he immerses himself in the Bible, though he doesn't believe in its infallibility, because it's the most important book in Western civilization.

"I have friends who teach medieval English," he says. "They don't believe in Chaucer, but they think Chaucer is important," he writes in the conclusion of "Jesus, Interrupted."

The fundamentalist turns agnostic

Ehrman once had a different attitude toward the Bible.

He was raised in the Episcopal Church in Lawrence, Kansas, and became a fundamentalist Christian at age 15 when he met a charismatic Christian youth group leader who reached out to him. Ehrman says he later persuaded his parents to embrace a more conservative brand of Christianity.

He says he became so devoted to the Bible that he memorized entire sections. He was convinced the Bible was "God's words."

But Ehrman says he began to develop doubts about the infallibility of the Bible after attending Princeton Theological Seminary to become a college Bible professor.

He even began to change his opinion of the Christian youth group leader who helped convert him. The youth leader visited Ehrman's father when he was dying of cancer in a hospital.

The youth leader used a bottle of hotel shampoo to "anoint" his father, and tried to persuade his father to confess specific sins, Ehrman says. Ehrman says he was angry at the minister for acting "self-righteous" and "hypocritical."

"For a vulnerable high-schooler who is trying to figure out the world, a personality like that is very attractive," Ehrman says. "They're like cult leaders. They have all the answers."

Ehrman says he later became an agnostic because he couldn't find the answer to another question: How could there be a God when there is so much suffering in the world? An agnostic is one who disclaims any knowledge of God, but does not deny the possibility of God's existence.

Today, Ehrman describes himself as a "happy agnostic."

But some people can't believe an agnostic can be happy, he says. They tell him that they're praying for him. Others say worse. They say he's being fooled by Satan and he's headed to hell. Some say he's the anti-Christ.

"I'm not that powerful," he says, laughing.

His family, however, feels no obligation to talk to Ehrman about his ideas on the Bible, Ehrman says. His mother, brother and sister remain conservative Christians.

He once tried to talk to his mother about his new beliefs, but the discussion proved fruitless.

"My mom is a strong evangelical," Ehrman says. "We talk basketball. We don't talk religion."

Still, Ehrman says he still sends his mother and siblings copies of his latest books. They've never responded, he says.

"I imagine they're hidden in a back room," he says.

Whether it's his family, critics or students, Ehrman says he has a better handle on why he is so threatening to so many people -- some Christians worry they will make the same decision he has.

"I changed my mind," he says. "My students find me more dangerous that way. I really do know what they're talking about when they stake out an evangelical position."

Priest In Compromising Photos Admits 2-year Affair

(The Rev. Alberto Cutie was removed from his duties after pictures showed him bare-chested with a woman.)
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An internationally known Catholic priest who was shown in photographs last week embracing a bathing-suit-clad woman on a Florida beach has admitted they had a two-year affair.

The Rev. Alberto Cutie -- sometimes called "Father Oprah" because of the advice he gave on Spanish-language media -- said Monday on CBS' "Early Show" that he is in love with the woman and is considering his options: Whether to break up with her or leave the priesthood and marry her. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, wants to get married, Cutie said.

The priest was removed from his duties last week at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida, and on the Radio Paz and Radio Peace networks.

"I take full responsibility for what I did, and I know it's wrong," he said Monday.

The photos of the Cuban-American priest, also known as "Padre Alberto," appeared on the cover of last week's TV Notas magazine and on eight inside pages. The cover says in Spanish: "Good God! Padre Alberto. First photos of a priest 'in flagrante' with his lover."

Other media outlets throughout Latin America, including the official Notimex news agency in Mexico, picked up the story, and it became an Internet sensation. Cutie has millions of followers in the Spanish-speaking world.

In a message posted on the Miami, Florida, archdiocese Web page last week, Archbishop John C. Favalora apologized to parishioners and radio listeners for what he called a "scandal."

"Father Cutie made a promise of celibacy and all priests are expected to fulfill that promise with the help of God," Favalora said. "Father Cutie's actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest."

Cutie expressed his regret in an online statement last week and again Monday on the CBS program.

"I deeply apologize to the Catholic community and especially to my bishop and to my brother priests who are faithful and who are committed to celibacy," Cutie said.

The priest said he believes in celibacy but thinks it should be optional. He said he had never had a sexual relationship with anyone other than the woman since leaving the seminary 15 years ago.

"I don't support the breaking of the celibacy promise," Cutie said. "I understand fully that this is wrong.

"I don't want to be the anti-celibacy priest. I think that's unfortunate," he said. "I think it's a debate that's going on in our society, and now I've become kind of a poster boy for it. But I don't want to be that. I believe that celibacy is good, and that it's a good commitment to God. This is something I've struggled with. And something that I never expected to become a public debate."
He also talked about the woman, saying they have been friends for a long time and the attraction was there from early on, but it was not acted on until a couple of years ago. They have "both struggled" with the relationship, he said.

"She's also a woman of faith," Cutie said. "She's also somebody who cares about the priesthood, who cares about these things. So it hasn't been easy. And those who have helped me through this process know it hasn't been easy. Obviously, you know, through the photos, it looked like a frivolous thing on the beach, you know, and that's not what it is. It's something deeper than that."

Cutie was the first Catholic priest to host a daily talk show on a major secular television network, his information on the LinkedIn online professional network says.

In addition to his TV and radio appearances, he has written newspaper advice columns and a self-help book, "Real Life, Real Love."

Before being removed, he was president and general director of Pax Catholic Communications, home of Radio Paz and Radio Peace in Miami.

Survey: Support For Terror Suspect Torture Differs Among The Faithful

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

Tearful Suspect In California Girl's Slaying Appears In Court

(Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was a friend of her own daughter.)
(CNN) -- A California woman accused in the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu fought tears Tuesday as a judge read the charges against her in a brief court appearance.

Wearing red jail scrubs over a white T-shirt, Melissa Huckaby, 28, flinched at the mention of Sandra's name. She is charged with killing Sandra, who was a friend of her own daughter.

The Sunday school teacher's lip quivered and a single tear rolled down her cheek as the judge read special circumstances alleged against her -- that the murder was committed in conjunction with a kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act upon a child, and rape by instrument.

Huckaby did not enter a plea or speak during the appearance. Public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg, who appeared in court with Huckaby, said she would not enter a plea at that time, adding she had spoken with Huckaby "very briefly."

The matter was continued for arraignment on April 24.

Schwarzenberg requested a gag order be imposed in the case, but the judge put off that matter until April 24 as well. Huckaby will remain in the San Joaquin County Jail without bond.

Huckaby is undergoing a medical evaluation as part of another case, an alleged petty theft being handled in a mental health court, Willett said.

Asked whether that would affect the murder case, he said, "Obviously, any mental health issues would have an effect on this case."

Schwarzenberg said she hopes people will not rush to judgment in the case until all the facts are known.

If convicted as charged, Huckaby faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett told reporters after the hearing. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made later, he said.

Sandra's body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested Friday night after questioning by police.

Sandra was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family -- the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her own 5-year-old daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, police said.

Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death.

Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra's body. But Huckaby said the suitcase had been stolen.

Willett declined to comment on any of the evidence or allegations in the case, saying evidence would be presented in court.

40 NH Christian Center Homes Burn On Easter Sunday

(A fire rages through the Christian Conference Center Sunday April 12, 2009 in Alton Bay, N.H., 30 miles northeast of Concord. The massive Easter fire damaged dozens of buildings. The buildings are cottage-type seasonal homes.)
ALTON BAY, New Hampshire — A massive fire damaged or destroyed dozens of wood-frame buildings, mostly unoccupied summer homes, at a 146-year-old Christian center on Easter.

The fire erupted at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, when Christians were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the season hadn't begun yet at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center on Lake Winnipesaukee, and state Fire Marshal William Degnan said no injuries to civilians had been reported.

"Fortunately, it was at this time of year," he said. "During the summer, it's full."

The fire was under control by about 8:30 p.m. It was cold and windy Sunday, and Degnan said the strong winds off the lake, the state's biggest, helped spread the flames through the many cottage-style homes at the center, about 30 miles northeast of Concord.

One firefighter was hurt when a propane tank exploded. Others were treated for smoke inhalation or exhaustion.

The center's Web site says its purpose is to change lives in part by "encouraging commitment to Jesus." It says it tries to accomplish this through evangelism, encouragement of believers and equipping Christians to be effective leaders.

The center, founded in 1863, is on the southeastern corner of the lake.

The chairman of the center's safety organization, Russell Sample, was with Degnan as crews from numerous surrounding towns worked on the fire.

"A tremendous amount of history has been destroyed," Sample said.

Khmer Rouge Prison Chief Duch Goes On Trial In Cambodia

(from CNN)

TUOL SLENG, Cambodia -- Kaing Guek Eav is an elderly former math teacher and a born-again Christian.

He is also -- prosecutors contend -- a former prison chief with Cambodia's Khmer Rouge movement who oversaw the torture and killing of more than 15,000 men, women and children three decades ago.

The trial of the 66-year-old man, better known as Duch, began Monday in front of a U.N.-backed tribunal just outside the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Duch faces charges that include crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder.

Spectators, many of them survivors of the abuse, watched the start of the trial from an auditorium separated from the courtroom by a large glass window.

While he has admitted his role in the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign, Duch won't be spared weeks of evidence, much expected to be shocking.

The prison he headed was a converted school, Tuol Sleng, that the regime renamed S-21.

Here, men, women and children were shackled to iron beds and tortured -- before they were electrocuted, beaten and whipped to death, prosecutors said.

Prisoners were meticulously photographed before they were killed.

"It all seems so fresh," said Norng Champhal, who was a starving little boy when invading Vietnamese forces entered the prison. He had been separated from his mother after one night in the prison and never saw her again.

"It's hard to control my feelings when I see this," he said, as he watched footage of the prison taken 30 years ago. "I wonder whether my parents were tortured like these people," he said.

The Khmer Rouge swept to power in 1975. Three years, eight months and 20 days later, at least 1.7 million people -- nearly one-quarter of Cambodia's population -- were dead from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

The organization has been at the forefront of recording the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. Pol Pot and his followers envisioned a return to a nation of noble peasant farmers and sought to purge city dwellers, the rich, the religious, the educated, anyone from a different ethnic group.

Tuol Sleng was one of 189 similar institutions across Cambodia. Duch is the first former Khmer Rouge leader to stand trial.

The tribunal, which is made up of Cambodian and international judges, does not have the power to impose the death penalty. If convicted, Duch faces from five years to life in prison.

The trial is expected to last three or four months.

"Probably the most important thing about this court is: even after 35 years, you are still not going to get away with it. That is the message," said Chief Prosecutor Robert Petit.

When proceedings began last month, more than 500 people -- including three survivors from the prison Duch ran -- filled the tribunal. About 50 people came from Kampong Thom province, the birthplace of now-dead Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

"I couldn't sleep last night. I was dreaming about my time at S-21," Vann Nath, one of the few survivors of the prison run by Duch, told The Phnom Penh Post last month.

Even though Duch was not a senior leader with the movement, many Cambodians were relieved that one of the regime's former leaders was facing justice, said Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

"I think there is a feeling of, well you know, finally -- now it's finally happening after all these years of waiting -- hearing, fighting, negotiating," he told CNN last month. "People have that kind of sense of relief that it's now moving. When I ask people around the center today, people say, 'Oh, it's about time.'"

Four of the regime's former leaders, also accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, await trial before the tribunal. Pol Pot died in 1998.

Cult Mom Pleads Guilty In Son's Starvation Death

(from wbaltv.com)

BALTIMORE -- A Baltimore mother accused of being part of a cult pleaded guilty Monday to starving her baby to death.

Prosecutors claimed during the trial of Ria Ramkissoon that her 16-month-old son, Javon Thompson, was denied food and water because he stopped saying amen at meal times and had a rebellious spirit. He later died.

Ramkissoon, 22, admitted her guilt in one of the strangest plea agreements reached in a Maryland court, 11 News reporter Barry Simms said.

Under the plea agreement, Ramkissoon would get 20 years behind bars with a judge suspending all but time served. She must also undergo treatment, including the process of deprogramming and five years of probation.

But the plea agreement also included that the murder charges against her be dropped if her son was resurrected.

"This is something she absolutely insisted upon, and it's indicative of the fact that she is still brainwashed and still a victim of this cult, and until she's deprogrammed, she's not going to think any differently," said Ramkissoon's attorney, Steven Silverman.

Ramkissoon was part of One Mind Ministries. Court charging documents showed members of the religious group and their leader, 40-year-old Queen Antoinette -- also known as Toni Sloan -- prayed for the child to rise again.

After about a week, the body was wrapped in a blanket and put in a wheeled suitcase with mothballs, and group members moved from Baltimore to Philadelphia, taking the suitcase with them.

The child's body was found in April 2008.

"Ria is as much a victim as Javon, though certainly under tragic circumstances. No one is more regretful about the death of the child as I am, but not withstanding the fact that she was victimized by a cult," Silverman said.

The child did not rise from the dead, so Ramkissoon pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in testifying against the other four members of the organization, all of whom have been charged with murder.

"This would not be considered a cult except for one fact -- it ended in a tragic, violent way," Silverman said.

"I mentioned to her that when she gets out, I want her to come home, and we can start building back together. She said she's not going backward. She's moving forward, meaning this family is not her family anymore -- she has a new family that she's going to move forward with … that's the cult," said Seta Khadan-Newton, Ramkissoon's mother.

"She had no business being around my son. She already admitted that she had killed Javon. She admitted that to my son. Then she admitted another story -- he's alive. You tell one story, then you tell another story. How can you be insane? You're not insane. She didn't look insane to me today," said Geraldine Ridgely, Javon's grandmother.

The other members of the cult were also in court Monday. Antoinette had no attorney present. She claimed God was her lawyer, Simms reported.

Ex-megachurch Head Paulk Dies In Atlanta Hospital

(from AP)

ATLANTA — An evangelical pastor whose leadership of an Atlanta-area megachurch ended in a sex scandal has died.

Atlanta Medical Center said Archbishop Earl Paulk, who was in his 80s, died early Sunday. The hospital could not release a cause of death. Paulk had been in bad health for the past couple of years after a battle with cancer.

A phone listing for Paulk's family could not immediately be found.

Paulk co-founded the Cathedral at Chapel Hill in Decatur and helped grow it to a peak membership of about 10,000 in the early 1990s.

A lawsuit by a female employee sparked a chain of events that ended in Paulk pleading guilty in January 2008 to lying under oath by denying affairs with other women.

A paternity test revealed Paulk was the father of his nephew, who is now leader of the church.

Catholic Faithful Face Church Closures

By Jessica Ravitz - CNN

(CNN) -- Along the Rust Belt and in cities dotting the Northeast and Upper Midwest, Catholic communities are mourning the loss of parishes. It's a five-year trend of sweeping church closures that most recently hit Cleveland, Ohio.

Wally Martens, a Cleveland native, can look out his kitchen window and see the spiritual home that has served his family for five generations. St. Ignatius of Antioch has been with him and his loved ones through life and death.

"It's the place where most of us were baptized, most of us got married, most of us graduated from grade school and some of us were buried," Martens, 68, said of the west side urban parish that serves 1,200 households. To find out that the building is set to be shuttered is "like losing somebody in your family."

Earlier this month, Bishop Richard G. Lennon of the Diocese of Cleveland, which serves more than 750,000 Catholics, announced that 29 parishes will close and 41 others will merge. The reconfiguration plan, which will effectively cut 52 parishes in the current tally of 224, is scheduled to go into effect by June 30, 2010.

"Closing a parish is very emotional," Bishop Lennon said in a written statement. "I have personally experienced the closing of my own childhood parish in Boston, which members of my family helped establish in 1914. ... I pray that my decisions will serve the needs of this Diocese and its people."

Other cities that have had waves of closures have included places as various as Camden, New Jersey; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and New York City. All of this comes at a time when the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that Catholicism in America has lost more affiliated members than any other faith tradition.

There are reportedly 67.1 million Catholics in the U.S., according to The Official Catholic Directory 2008. Compared to the 2007 number of 67.5, that's about a 400,000 decrease in one year. And the Pew Forum found that approximately a third of its survey respondents who were raised in the Roman Catholic Church no longer attend the church.

What drove the decision to close parishes in Cleveland were population shifts to outlying areas, financial strains that have 42 percent of parishes "operating in the red" and priest shortages, diocese spokesman Robert Tayek explained.

The bishop, he said, is trying to find "an equitable solution."

But the announcement has raised many questions. Among them: What happens to the struggling neighborhoods that have come to rely on outreach and programs offered by some of these inner-city parishes?

"Too many bishops are treating parishes as if they were Starbucks franchises," said Sister Christine Schenk, a Cleveland-area nun who's been fighting for nearly two decades to institute change in the church through her organization FutureChurch.

"It's about more than money. It's about mission to the people," she said. "This isn't what Jesus would do."

The Rev. Bob Begin of Saint Colman couldn't agree more.

"The founder of our church started his mission by saying, 'I came to bring good news to the poor,'" said Begin, who described his parish as serving about 1,300 people in a community where the average income is below $20,000.

Saint Colman, which is slated to merge with another parish elsewhere, gets daily knocks on its doors from nearby residents, many of them immigrants from 25 different countries, who are in need of all kinds of assistance, he said.

"If this parish weren't involved in bringing good news to the poor, I would not spend a lick of energy trying to keep it open," the pastor said. "But because it is bringing good news to the poor, then I have a responsibility to guard and defend this mission against anyone who threatens it."

His parish and others affected by the recent announcement had until 5 p.m. Friday to file an appeal with the diocese. According to The Plain Dealer, which conducted a survey of the parishes, at least 11 had filed as of Friday morning. The diocese itself refused to comment on numbers.

For those who didn't file, the bishop's decision is final. But if what happened in Boston, Massachusetts, is any indication, no parish should count on the appeal working.

Bishop Lennon came to Cleveland from the Archdiocese of Boston, where he oversaw the reorganization and closure of parishes and came under harsh criticism from many. One such critic was Peter Borré, chairman of the Council of Parishes, a Boston-based advocacy group for imperiled parishes.

In 2004, within months of the Archdiocese of Boston announcing it would pay a settlement of $85 million to more than 500 alleged sex abuse victims, 83 parishes were put on the chopping block, "which was a head spinner," Borré said.

In the end, because of his organization's relentless efforts, Borré said, only 60 parishes were cut.

His group coordinated around-the-clock vigils or sit-ins that are ongoing, four and a half years later, in five Boston-area parishes. He also has led the charge to navigate the appeal process for nine parishioner groups that have now taken their battle all the way up to the Apostolic Signatura, or, as Borré called it, the "Vatican Supreme Court."

The assumption is that the highest level of the Vatican will deny the appeals this spring, but Borré said it is important to him and the others to fight as far as they can go.

"Other than vigils, this is the only step still open to us," he said. "Secondly, we are the lead dog on this sled. We are the first that has experienced this phenomenon, and we have made it a self-appointed task to let the rest of America know what to expect."

As of Friday morning, eight Cleveland parishes had reached out to Borré for language to help in their appeals. Others likely drafted letters of their own.

But some affected parishes had no intention of fighting.

Ray Daull, 68, a deacon at Christ the King in Cleveland Heights says a merger, which will combine his parish with three others, is a good thing. It'll be sad to see his church of 52 years go, but given its deficit and shrinking attendance, with a merger, "We will have more resources ... and the money can go into doing our work," he said.

But for parishes such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, the one Wally Martens can see from his window, accepting the end is not yet possible.

"There was a general gasp, and then sadness turned to madness," the Rev. James McGonegdal, Marten's pastor of 20 years, said of the announcement he made at Mass on March 15. "Some of the parishes knew they'd be closing, whereas for St. Ignatius and a couple other parishes, it was almost like a sudden death. You grieve in a different way."

A standing-room only crowd poured into the parish last Sunday to show growing support. Martens said in a week's time, $900,000 had been pledged to finance the church and send a message to the diocese.

For Martens' 92-year-old mother, Pauline, pondering life without her parish is unthinkable. For most of her life, it's the only one she's known.

"I just thought the church would go on forever," she said. "I expected to be buried from there. But I guess the way things are going, I just don't know what'll happen to me."

Commentary: Pope Wrong On Condoms

By Roland S. Martin - CNN Contributor

(CNN) -- The African-American religious community deserves considerable praise for taking leadership of the civil rights movement during the first half of the 20th century.

But there is no doubt that toward the end of the 20th century, the black church, primarily because of its opposition to homosexuality, has abdicated its responsibility and totally disregarded the human toll that HIV/AIDS has had on the members it largely serves. It only has been recently that pastors have opted not to turn a blind eye to what is clearly a state of emergency.

Unfortunately, we are seeing the same kind of ignorance of reality from the Catholic Church and its leader, Pope Benedict XVI.

The church has long been opposed to the use of condoms and other forms of birth control because it strongly believes that sex is for procreation and enriching the union of a married couple. But for the church to continue to ignore the definitive research that condoms play a huge role in decreasing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is mind-boggling.

Pope Benedict is in Africa this week on a six-day tour, his first since his ascension to the papacy, and he made some remarks that have sparked outrage in the motherland, where Catholicism is spreading like wildfire.

In response to written questions from reporters, the pope said this about HIV/AIDS: "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem."

He is absolutely correct that condoms are not the solution to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS. He is also 100 percent correct that the only surefire way of stopping HIV/AIDS, when it comes to sex, is to practice abstinence. That is clearly within the teachings of the Bible and the Catholic Church, and he will find no disagreement from me.

Now the reality.

People are having sex. Catholics are having sex. Heck, some Catholic priests have abandoned their oath and have had sex.

As a layman and the husband of a pastor, I know the difference between utopia and reality, and it is the responsibility of the faith community to deal with the real world.

And frankly, Pope Benedict clearly shows he doesn't get it.

What we need today are our church leaders preaching, teaching and imploring their members not to go to bed with anyone and everyone. We also need church leaders who are willing to stand up and tell folks that if they do choose to sin -- that's what the church and other faith leaders consider sex outside of marriage -- then you had better take the necessary precautions to protect yourself.

Folks, there is nothing in the Bible about wearing a seat belt. But it would be foolish of any pastor not to tell his or her members to use the safety device when driving. Churches all across the country trust and love their fellow members, but you can bet that an accountant is employed by many churches to ensure that no one is stealing the tithes and offerings.

Pope Benedict surely loves God and sees him as his protector and provider, but he goes nowhere without armed bodyguards. The pope has to know that murder is against God's will. He has to believe that every person has the choice to be a moral and upstanding person. Yet not everyone abides by those religious views, and his security is there to prevent him from being harmed.

So how are condoms any different?

While Catholicism expands on the continent of Africa, we are seeing the expansion of HIV/AIDS as well. Sub-Saharan Africa has 22 million people infected with HIV.

The refusal of the Catholic Church and other religious denominations to accept the reality of the situation on the ground is doing nothing for the issue. If the church used its powerful voice -- while continuing to speak out against sex outside of marriage -- to also implore people to practice safe sex, it could have a major impact on slowing the spread of the disease.

This is one time where silence is not golden.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland S. Martin.