- Bott Radio Network pulled the plug mid-broadcast on the May 18 FamilyLife Today program. The guest was Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll. Dick Bott, founder of the network that reaches 40 million listeners, said he will not allow his stations to feature Driscoll, citing a 2007 sermon in which Driscoll used explicit sexual language to talk about the Song of Solomon.
- South Carolina removed the tax-exempt status of the City of Light, the controversial headquarters of Inspiration Network. The Christian television network nets millions of dollars in profit annually and received generous state assistance for construction of its headquarters. Taxing will begin in October.
- In Egypt, Maher El-Gohary, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was denied permission to change the religious status on his identification card by a Cairo judge. The attempt was only the second in the country’s history and advanced the farthest after El-Gohary produced the required documentation of his conversion.
- The PBS board voted in June to enforce a longstanding ban on “sectarian” programming on its 350-plus television affiliates. Current faith-based shows at six stations are allowed to continue.
- Embattled nonprofit Angel Food Ministries settled a lawsuit with two dissident board members in June over corporate behavior. The ministry agreed to undergo a forensic audit and restrict access by founder Joe Wingo and family to company assets, as well as pay David Prather and Craig Atnip, former Angel Food executives, for lost salaries and legal fees.
- A Christian couple, Ong Kian Cheng and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, were sentenced by a Singapore court to eight weeks in prison in May for giving out Christian tracts to Muslims. It was Singapore’s first full trial under the Sedition Act, which is used to discourage racial and social hostility within the country.
- In a unanimous vote by college trustees, Criswell College decided it will separate from First Baptist Church of Dallas. The decision follows years of disagreements, particularly over the sale of radio station kcbi.
- Oral Roberts University announced in June that its Renewing the Vision campaign has successfully reduced the school’s $55 million debt to $720,000 after receiving contributions from 16,000 donors this spring. The school also reported that all lawsuits related to former president Richard Roberts’s use of school funds have been settled or dropped.
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