1. Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige have been sued for false imprisonment, kidnapping, stalking, human trafficking and other shocking allegations in a bombshell lawsuit obtained by RadarOnline.com.
In court papers obtained from Superior Court of California, the Plaintiff, who is listed as an unnamed Jane Doe, filed the lawsuit on June 18, 2019. She claimed members are subject to “physical, verbal, psychological, emotions and/or sexual abuse and/or assault.” The Plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and damages.
2. Two months ago, when he was still a Southern Baptist pastor, Stephen Bratton testified in favor of a Texas bill that could have allowed women who get abortions to be charged with homicide, a crime punishable by death in the Lone Star State. The 43-year-old was charged with continuous sex abuse of a child. He stands accused of molesting a teenage relative for two years, including “sexual intercourse multiple times a day or several times a week,” a Harris County deputy said this weekend. He confessed to his wife and clergy members about the abuse last month.
3. Bussa Krishna, a farmer in Telangana who is often regarded as 'Trump bhakt’ in India has taken his devotion to the next level. He installed a six-foot statue of Trump on the latter's birthday on June 14. The Telangana farmer also performed a puja of the statue with milk. He came into the limelight as a ‘Trump fan’ when pictures of him offering prayers to the photo of Donald Trump went viral on social media. Dismissing all the allegations that he is praying Trump only for publicity, he said that he prayed to the US President in a bid to improve the US-India relations.
4. In 2016, police had filed a first information report against a man identified as Saleem under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code after he had uttered blasphemous remarks in a public place in the Lohari Gate area. According to Deputy Prosecutor General Muhammad Amjad,12 witnesses had recorded testimonies against Saleem. Six of the testimonies had been recorded in court, while the other half were recorded via video link due to security concerns. The court sentenced him to death in a three-year-old blasphemy case and fined him Rs200,000.
5. Speaking on Bakker’s show, Mary Colbert, a right wing activist, said climate change was Satan's way of distracting us from realizing the consequences of our sins. God is sending tornadoes and storms to punish us, but Satan wants you to think climate change is responsible. “The thing that man needs to do is repent,” Colbert declared.
6. Police arrested two persons, including the husband of a 32-year-old woman, who was allegedly killed for refusing to have sexual relations with a tantrik so that the family could become "rich". The woman was drowned in Ganga river. The accused have confessed to the crime.
7. More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime. They say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”.
8. Dave Daubenmire, a Christian Right activist, said on his "pass the Salt Live" webcast that masturbation was wrong in part because it was a form of homosexuality. He said, “Masturbation is a form of homo sex. You’re having sex with yourself. That’s homo sex, folks. It’s a male having sex with a male. That’s homo sex. If a woman masturbates, that’s a woman having sex with a woman. That is a form of lesbianism. I mean, what else would you call it?"
9. More than 100 farmers in Alabama gathered to pray for rain on Friday, as large tracts of land in the Midwest remain underwater amid record rainfall, according to ABC affiliated TV station WDHN. “He can let those clouds up there and let the rain shower those crops, but we must ask forgiveness and until we do that, forget it,” an attendant said.
10. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill ending vaccination exemptions based on religious beliefs, the latest attempt to address the growing measles outbreak, the worst the U.S. has experienced in decades.
Cuomo said plugging the loophole should help contain the spike in measles cases in New York, the state hardest hit by the uptick in the contagious virus due to low vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox communities. "The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe," Cuomo said after signing the bill.
