A former minister at Houston’s First Baptist Church received his sentence as part of a plea deal in which he admitted to stealing more than $800,000 from the church. A judge sentenced Jerrell Altic to 10 years in prison.

Church leaders noticed financial discrepancies in 2017 and confronted Altic. Altic resigned and eventually admitted to defrauding the church through a series of hard to detect transactions over the course of six years. Authorities say he used the funds to live above his means, obtain a doctorate from Lancaster Bible College, and take his family on international vacations.

The church issued a statement after Altic’s indictment, explaining to the church’s members what had taken place and outlining how the church would move forward in the future. They described to the church the circumstances and outcome of their initial investigation, saying, “In November 2017, we discovered a limited set of suspicious financial activity related to Jerrell Altic. When we approached him about the matter, he immediately tendered his resignation. We reported our initial findings to law enforcement and our insurance provider, in keeping with our legal and fiduciary responsibilities, and began a thorough investigation conducted by staff leadership, relevant church committees and deacons as well as independent forensic accounting and legal experts.”

The church also told…

Guam Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero has run into a serious obstacle in her desire to see abortion rights thrive on the island–doctors who refuse to perform the procedure. The U.S. territory, located in Micronesia in the western Pacific, is over 80% Catholic and no doctors have agreed to offer abortions since the island’s last abortion provider retired last year.

Abortion is legal in Guam up to 13 weeks, but doctors can deny the service unless there is a medical emergency. However, no abortions have been reported to Guam’s Office of Vital Statistics since last June. Women who terminate a pregnancy without a doctor’s aid could be charged with a felony.

Guerrero, Guam’s first female governor, advocated for expanding abortion rights during the campaign and continues to push for them in office. She told the Associated Press during a phone interview that, “I truly believe that women should have control over their own bodies,” adding, “I’m very sad and very nervous about what’s happening across the nation.”

Guerrero called Guam’s current abortion law “very restrictive” and is concerned that women who do not want to carry a pregnancy to term will seek out potentially life-threatening alternatives. She said, “I’m concerned about it going underground because then we can’t really control it, we can’t really monitor, we can’t really make sure that the women are doing it…

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is facing yet, another lawsuit. 

According to Fox News, transgender lawyer Autumn Scardina is suing Phillips for the second time, again claiming that he discriminated against her because of her sexual identity. 

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Phillips first came into the spotlight in 2012 after he refused to make a wedding cake for two men. Phillips claimed it was against his religious beliefs and he, therefore, could not make the cake for the couple. The pair decided to sue the Colorado baker but later lost when the Supreme Court ruled on the side of Phillips. 

Then, in 2017, Scardina – a Colorado lawyer – called the cake shop to order a coming out anniversary cake. Again, Phillips refused the order, citing his religious beliefs as to why he could not make the cake. Ultimately, the court again ruled in favor of Phillips and it was decided that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was hostile towards his religious beliefs, allowing him to sue the state of Colorado for religious discrimination.

This would not the end of legal action against Phillips by Scardina, however. 

According to CBN News, this week, Scardina filed a new suit against the cake artist for refusing to make her a birthday cake. 

Scardina, Fox News reports, is calling Phillips refusal “textbook LGBT discrimination.” Phillips, however, said…

Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand compared opposition to abortion to racism in a new interview and said justices who hold either view should never be nominated to the courts. 

Gillibrand, a U.S. senator from New York, was answering a question from the Des Moines Register about her pledge to nominate only judges who consider the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision “settled precedent.” The newspaper asked if such a promise encroached on a judge’s judicial independence.  

“I think there’s some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society decided that the other side is not acceptable,” Gillibrand said. “Imagine saying that it’s okay to appoint a judge who’s racist or anti-semitic or homophobic. I don’t think those are political issues anymore.” 

Gillibrand said she believes in the “separation of church and state” and respects “the rights of every American to hold their religious beliefs, true to themselves.”

“But our country and our Constitution has always demanded that we have a separation of church in state, and all these efforts by President Trump and other ultra-radical conservative judges and justices to impose their faith on Americans is contrary to our Constitution and that that’s what this is,” Gillibrand said. “And so I believe that for all of these issues, they are not issues…

The U.S. Supreme Court has once again rebuffed an atheist attorney, who previously – and unsuccessfully – sought to have references to God removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, the Presidential Oath and in other public venues.

On Monday, the High Court declined to hear the latest case brought by Michael Newdow, this one an effort to remove the motto “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency. The justices turned down the appeal petition for New Doe Child #1 v. The Congress of the United States without comment. Newdow filed the current case on behalf of 43 plaintiffs, including nine children, as he made his second attempt to strip the word God from coins and bills by challenging the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. As with his previous cases, Newdow alleged the government was violating the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

“When [the child] is confronted with ‘In God We Trust’ on every coin and currency bill she handles or learns about in school, the power and prestige of the federal government is brought to bear upon her with the message that her father’s (and her own) atheism is false,” the complaint read in part.

District Judge Benita Pearson disagreed in a December 2016 decision, saying that no “reasonable viewer would think a person handling money does so to spread its religious message.”

“A person does…

(RNS) — A new Southern Baptist Convention report on sex abuse, filled with the voices of survivors, acknowledges numerous ways the denomination has failed to protect members of its churches.

The “Caring Well” report also summarizes a range of next steps to address the issue, including educating congregations about abuse, preparing them to help survivors and fostering abuse prevention.

“We lament the fact that it took a national movement of reckoning for abuse to force us to take this issue seriously in our own convention,” reads the 52-page report, which followed an investigation published May 31 in the Houston Chronicle detailing accusations involving dozens of Southern Baptists.

“It should now be obvious that the problem has been and still is more widespread than anyone has realized,” the SBC report said, “affecting our congregations all over the country, from the smallest church pastored by a bivocational minister to the megachurch with hundreds on staff.”

The issue has also affected seminaries, agencies and missions boards, the report said, adding, “all too often, it has not been handled justly.”

The report, to be presented during the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting this week, is the result of almost a year’s work by a sexual abuse advisory group commissioned by SBC President J.D. Greear. It is based on an inquiry…