Claiming on their website that they are “a new testament church, based on the bible,” the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., tends to attract media attention by engaging in activities that rank high in shock effect.

On Monday, the group plans on holding a protest against Gainesville’s first gay mayor. In the past, they had held up signs saying, “No homo mayor,” The Huffington Post said.

On the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the church plans on celebrating the tragedy by burning the Quran.  Read more... (338 words, 1 image, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Israel denies it, Jordan ignores it, and a green group claims that the water of the Jordan River where Jesus is believed to have been baptized is unsafe.

The ecology group Friends of the Earth Middle East claims that the Jordan River is polluted on the sides of both Israel and Jordan. Both countries claim their side of the river is where Jesus was baptized.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East said water baptisms should be banned from the popular tourism sites, “For reasons of public health as well as religious integrity,” RNS said.  Read more... (508 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

A woman professor from Oxford University filed charges recently against the school, claiming she was discriminated against when she converted from Judaism to Christianity.

Dr. Tali Argov of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies told the Reading Employment Tribunal hearing that she was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against after she became an Anglican in 2008.

Argov said she was bypassed for promotion, lost her privileges and was treated coldly by her peers at social gatherings.

She said the staff wanted to check her lectures to ensure she does not criticize Israel. Eventually she was dismissed although she had offered to undertake new roles, the Telegraph said.  Read more... (619 words, 1 image, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

The double life of three Catholic homosexual priests was revealed recently in a magazine article in Italy.

The article featured in Panorama magazine, a conservative magazine owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, describes the activities of the priests, which included going to nightclubs and having casual sex.

Using a hidden camera during the interview with the priests, the Panorama reporter also got footage of the priests—a Frenchman and two Italians, having sex with strangers, once, inside a church. The Frenchman celebrated mass the morning after an encounter, then drove his two hired escorts to the airport, Telegraph India said.  Read more... (343 words, 2 images, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Recent studies reveal that house or organic churches are gaining popularity in the U.S.

A Barna Group study suggests some six million to 12 million Americans now go to house churches. Barna is a firm that specializes in collecting data about religion and society.

The findings parallel that of a Pew Forum survey last year which showed that nine percent of U.S. Protestants go to home churches, the AP said.

A house church usually consists of 12 to 15 people who meet every week to share what is happening in their lives, and who refer to the bible for guidance. Gatherings are conducted in a largely spontaneous way with reliance on the Holy Spirit for guidance, the AP said.  Read more... (578 words, 1 image, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

A new study shows that the ‘global south’ is gaining more power in Christianity and may redefine Christian culture in the 21^st century.

The study by Oxford Analytica says that church leaders from the global south, namely Africa, Latin America and Asia, are becoming more outspoken and have gained more influence in Protestant and Catholic churches globally, according to their website.

The study also notes that the global south is more traditional, and has been outspoken against liberals and progressives in both churches, their website says.  Read more... (416 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

A graduate student of Augusta State University has filed charges against her school because officials threatened to expel her from its counseling program due to her Christian beliefs on homosexuality.

Jennifer Keeton, 24, said in her plea that ASU violated her constitutional rights when they ordered her to attend diversity sensitivity workshops and to join Augusta’s Gay Pride Parade as part of a remediation plan.

The remediation plan also required Keeton to report to the faculty every month so they could decide if the activities affected her conviction. Failure to comply would result in her dismissal, The Augusta Chronicle said.  Read more... (555 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

One day after his election, the newly-elected World Lutheran president spoke on behalf of Christians in Palestine–at a time when focus has long been on Christians from Israel.

Bishop Munib A. Younan called on believers to “pray that Palestinian Christians may not lose faith and leave the country,” the Anglican Journal said.

Younan succeeds Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who had headed the LWF—the church’s highest legislative body–for seven years, the Christian Post said.  Read more... (455 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

More Christians are opening up to the idea that it is not a contradiction to believe in evolution and still be an evangelical Christian.

Rachel Held Evans, author of Evolving in Monkey Town, is one of them. In her book Evans shares her personal journey growing up in Dayton, Tenn., where the Scopes Monkey Trial was held in 1925 (when a biology teacher broke the law and taught evolution), ThinkChristian says.

Evans, in her book, reflects the struggle of many evangelical Christians who love their faith, but when it comes to evolution, is confronted with an “either-or” situation. Still, an underlying plea laces her book as she seeks inclusion in the community she challenges, ThinkChristian says.  Read more... (564 words, 1 image, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The newly revised in-house rules on sexual abuse that were issued by the Vatican recently have been viewed by some as falling short and by others as bizarre.

The rules were the Vatican’s response to a worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal that even knocked on the door of Pope Benedict XVI concerning an accusation of intervention in a cover up when he was a Vatican official in the 1990s, the Daily Mail said.

The revisions target, among others, priests who use child pornography materials, and those who molest children and mentally disabled adults, the AP said.  Read more... (480 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)