The Child Rapist Turned Minister & "Bruno"

Child Rapist Ordained as Minister
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A tiny Louisville church's newest minister is a gifted music leader and popular among its three dozen members. Mark Hourigan (l.) is also a sex offender. Almost a decade ago, long before he joined the flock at the City of Refuge Worship Center, he was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in central Kentucky. Hourigan served a five-year sentence and the 41-year-old was placed on Kentucky's sex offender registry for the rest of his life. A former leader at the church along with an abuse victims advocacy group say Hourigan is a risk to hurt another child and he should not have been placed in a position of authority. "He's still a threat" to children, said Cal Pfeiffer, who was abused by a Catholic priest as a young student in Louisville in the late 1950s and early 60s. Pfeiffer and experts on religion and sexual abuse believe it could be the first time a convicted sex offender has been knowingly ordained as a minister in a Christian church. (Source: Associated Press)


New Islamist Tactic: "Love Jihad"
Kerala has a new concern: “love jihad”. The state High Court on Wednesday directed the Kerala Police and Union Home Ministry to probe the alleged movement, under which young Muslim boys reportedly target college girls for conversion by feigning love. The court also asked the state and Centre to look into the sources that “fund” the love jihad, the number of girls who have got “trapped in the racket” in the past three years and its extremist links, if any. Justice K T Sankaran was hearing anticipatory bail applications of two Muslim youths, accused of “luring” two MBA students into marriage for reportedly the purpose of religious conversion. The court rejected their bail pleas. The two youths were allegedly associated with Campus Front, a student outfit of the right-wing Muslim organisation Popular Front of India (PFI). (Source: Indian Express)


Muslim Clerics Condemn New Coed University
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A prominent Muslim cleric has criticized a new Saudi university launched by King Abdullah for allowing men and women to take classes together. Sheik Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri, who is a member of the powerful government-sanctioned Supreme Committee of (Islamic) Scholars, was quoted Wednesday in the Al-Watan daily as demanding an end to coed classes at the newly opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University. "Mixing is a great sin and a great evil," al-Shethri was quoted as saying. "When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal (which is) ... education." Al-Shethri's comments indicate there may be significant opposition to the country's first fully integrated coed university among the kingdom's powerful religious establishment. (Source: Associated Press)



Nun Witnessed Reverend Grab Boy's Crotch and Did Nothing
A Roman Catholic nun told a Burlington jury Wednesday that she saw then-Rev. Edward Paquette briefly grab a boy in the genital area at a Catholic school in Montpelier in the mid-1970s. "He was going up the stairs behind another young student, and he grabbed him in the crotch," Sister Mary Crosby told the jurors. Crosby said she was in the hallway of the school when the incident occurred. She said no one else saw what happened and that she did not confront Paquette about it. Her testimony came during the second day of the trial involving claims Paquette molested an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington between 20 and 25 times in the late 1970s. (Source: Burlington Free Press)



Bishop Facing Kiddie Porn Charges, Archbishop "Stunned"
The Archbishop of Halifax says he was stunned to hear that Bishop Raymond Lahey is facing child pornography charges, and it’s the bishop’s duty to surrender. "It’s one (feeling) of sadness and shock, and you know, quite devastating to be faced with this kind of revelation," Archbishop Anthony Mancini (l.) said Wednesday evening, hours after learning that the former bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant on charges of possessing and importing child pornography. "This wasn’t an expected (situation) . . . it’s just become an added level of difficulty with great impact." Ottawa police laid the charges last Friday, 10 days after Bishop Lahey’s laptop computer was checked at the Ottawa airport as he was returning from the U.S. That’s when police found "images of concern." Bishop Lahey was originally released but an arrest warrant is now out for him. (Source: The Chronicle Herald)


God Told Me To: Father Circumcises Two Sons Without Anesthetic
MORGANTON, NC (WBTV) - A father accused of abusing two of his sons by performing circumcisions when they were infants took the stand in his own defense Wednesday. John Marlowe is representing himself in the case which is being held at the Caldwell County courthouse. In court on Wednesday, Marlowe admitted he circumcised the two children without any anesthetic. He says God told him to perform the circumcisions. "The main reason I did it was, the Holy Spirit pressed me to do it," he said. Marlowe said he learned how to do it from reading books and the internet. He used his shirt to demonstrate to the courtroom his surgical method. "[I] pulled the skin over the tip and cut it off," he said. (Source: WIS10)


And finally..."Bruno" Too Gay For Malays
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia has banned U.S. box office hit "Bruno" by Sacha Baron Cohen because it highlights gay life and has gay sex scenes, an official said Tuesday. "Bruno" — following Baron Cohen's hit "Borat" — is centered around the adventures of a flamboyant gay fashion journalist from Austria. An official from Malaysia's Film Censorship Board said the movie was considered unacceptable because of its story line, offensive language, jokes and racy nature. She declined to be named, citing protocol. "It's banned because the story is based on gay life ... There are a lot of sex scenes," she said. "It's contrary to our culture." Gay sex, or "carnal intercourse against the order of nature," is punishable by up to 20 years in jail and whipping in Malaysia. Sex toys, politically incorrect comments and jokes about religion also irked the censors, she said. (Source: Associated Press)