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Soon, the new couple talked their way into private group support sessions in the Stockbridge home of church member Ken King.

During the private talks, church members confessed abortions, sexual orientation issues, drug addictions and other dark secrets.

No one knew the couple wasn't actually interested in joining the church. Instead, they were private investigators hoping two church members, Bill and Leandra Pitts, would spill something they could use to discredit the pair in an ongoing lawsuit over a traffic accident.

The private eyes even tape-recorded the sessions.

The paper asks some good questions about expectations of privacy in group confessionals at a minister's home.

5. Christians and Muslims in Norway agree on the right to convert
The Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relation and the Islamic Council of Norway have issued a joint statement. It reads, in part: "We denounce, and are committed to counteracting all violence, discrimination and harassment inflicted in reaction to a person's conversion, or desire to convert, from one religion to another, be it in Norway or abroad." That's significant, since many Muslim countries prohibit conversion out of Islam.

As far as we know, this is the first time that a church and representative national Muslim organization have jointly acknowledged the right to convert," the Church of Norway's Olav Fykse Tveit told the Associated Press. "By issuing this declaration we hope to contribute to the international process on this important matter."

Quote of the day
"Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me — The silence and the emptiness is so great — that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

— Mother Teresa, to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet in 1979, quoted in the new book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, and reprinted in Time.

Televangelist assaulted by husband | Crime | Abuse | People | Elvira Arellano | Romney and Mormonism | Politics | Louisiana gubernatorial race | Exclusive Brethren | Church and state | Education | Canada religious schools | Life ethics | Armenian genocide | Right to conversion | Missions & ministry | Church life | African church life | Uganda | Zimbabwe | Kenya | Israel | Korean hostages | Tamil newspaper apologizes for Jesus picture | Media and books | Sports | Other

Televangelist assaulted by husband:

• Evangelist Juanita Bynum attacked by husband in parking lot | Bynum, whose ministry is based in Waycross, and her estranged husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, had met up at Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to try to reconcile, Atlanta police said (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  
  
• Televangelist Bynum assaulted in Atlanta | Police said Juanita Bynum, a televangelist who has won a national following with sermons about women's empowerment, was assaulted by her preacher husband in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel early Wednesday (Associated Press)
  
  

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Crime :

• Priest facing federal charges | Louisa priest indicted on federal money-laundering charges (The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.)
  
  
• Also: Catholic priest now faces federal charges (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
  
  
• Cleveland diocesan official led kickback scheme, accountant testifies | Ten years ago, the chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese made a proposition to the co-owners of an accounting firm working for the diocese (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
  
  

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August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51