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Today's Top Five

1. Religious violence in Nigeria continues
The cities that have already experienced riots have been locked down with curfews and military presence. But Nigeria is a large country, and the violence continues to spread. Reuters reports: "In the northern town of Kontagora, machete-wielding Muslim mobs killed nine people and torched four Christian churches, a Nigerian Red Cross official in Lagos told Reuters. They also looted shops owned by minority Christians, police said. In the city of Enugu in the southeast, Christian youths armed with machetes and clubs attacked Muslims, beating one motorcycle taxi driver to death and burning a mosque. … In northeastern Potiskum, Muslim youths burned shops, churches, and houses belonging to minority Christians early on Friday." For an annotated map of this week's violence, click here.

2. "Anglicans hold archbishop under hostage"
Late last year, liberal British priest Nicholas Henderson was elected as the new bishop of Lake Malawi, but the appointment was rejected by church leaders, reportedly because he supported gay rights. "He has actively demonstrated that he was not of sound faith—that's what the court of confirmation decided," Archbishop Bernard Malango told the BBC in December. The matter became complicated with false rumors that Henderson himself was gay. Now that he has rebutted those rumors, some Anglicans say he should be allowed to be bishop. On Wednesday, Henderson supporters attempted to take Malango hostage in protest. When Malango escaped, the protesters shut down the diocesan headquarters. Ah, church politics.

3. Administration agrees against further funding for Silver Ring Thing
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given more than $1 million over the past three years to the Silver Ring Thing, a sexual abstinence advocacy program launched by a Christian ministry. The ACLU sued over the program last year, saying it was distinctly evangelistic. HHS responded by suspending funds, and yesterday it announced that Silver Ring Thing won't get any more government funds unless it changes its program.

4. IRS issues report on political activity by nonprofits and churches
Lots of interesting figures in the report issued today by the IRS about its investigation into accusations of illegal political activity by tax-exempt groups during the 2004 election. "Three-quarters of 82 examinations completed to date have concluded that the tax-exempt organizations, including churches, engaged in some level of prohibited political activity," the report says. "Most of these exams concerned one-time, isolated occurrences of prohibited campaign activity, which the IRS addressed through written advisories to the organizations. In three cases—involving tax-exempt organizations that were not churches—the prohibited activity was egregious enough to warrant the IRS proposing the revocation of the organizations' tax-exempt status." Unfortunately, while the statistics are helpful (how many groups distributed illegal printed materials, etc.), they probably would have been even more so had they distinguished between charities and churches. In the one category that's purely religious, the IRS says it received 19 reports of candidate endorsements or oppositions from church pulpits. Of those reports, 12 were determined to be accurate.

5. Thomas Kinkade gallery owners win $860,000 arbitration ruling
Two former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners said the artist and his company committed fraud in getting them to invest in the "Painter of Light's" empire, then financially ruined them. An arbitration panel ruled 2-1 on Thursday that the company "failed to disclose material information" that would have raised red flags, and awarded the former owners $860,000. What's particularly notable is the panel's critique of the company's Christian language, which it said created "a certain religious environment designed to instill a special relationship of trust."

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50