On Saturday, November 13, Burnett Robinson, a senior pastor at the Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, told husbands in his sermon that “the best person to rape is your wife.” Less than two weeks after Robinson’s insensitive and disrespectful approval on marital rape, his resignation was announced.
A November 10, 2021 press release of the US Department of Justice announced that two top leaders of Lev Tahor were convicted of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation. 39-year old Nachman Helbrans and 45-year old Mayer Rosner, the US leaders of the ultra-orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor, are both facing life sentences.
On Friday evening, November 12, San Francisco Police Department responded to a call from the Islamic Center of San Francisco. According to the police report, members of the mosque were inside when they heard sounds of glasses being shattered.
A lawsuit against a Hindu organization based in New Jersey has been amended with more plaintiffs and more respondents spanning five states. The case against Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu organization based in New Jersey, now includes temples in California, Illinois, Texas, and Georgia.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) began tracking vandalism and other forms of attacks on Catholic sites across the country. Aaron Weldon of the Office of Religious Liberty of the USCCB said the attacks on the historic Catholic sites were “the impetus for us to start monitoring these sorts of events.”
On October 31, US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that businesses that hold religious beliefs are exempt from LGBTQ discrimination liability. O’Connor held that Braidwood Management Inc. is exempted from the LGBTQ anti-bias protections under the first amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A 2021 survey published on November 1, by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) revealed the extreme opposition that the majority of Evangelicals have towards religious diversity. The 2021 American Values Survey conducted by the PRRI from September 16 to 29, 2021, included 2,508 American respondents. The survey's result showed a growing number of Americans, both religious and non-religious, support religious diversity.
On Tuesday, November 2, The Guardian published an article detailing their investigation into an ultra-conservative evangelical church in Moscow, Idaho. Christ Church of Moscow is known for its ultra-conservative ideologies. The Guardian reported that Christ Church’s leadership has openly announced their desire to establish a theocracy.
On October 13, Wednesday, the Diocese of Brooklyn fired Matthew LaBanca, the music director of the Corpus Christi Church parish in Queens, New York. A statement released by the diocese said that LaBanca did not comply with church teachings as a requirement for being a minister.
A March 2021 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that most adult US Americans support the separation of church and state. With 69% of the respondents agreeing that the federal government should never declare any state religion. At the same time, 67% agree that the US Constitution was written by humans and reflects their vision, not necessarily God’s vision.
