Category: News

Hate crime charges pending against man who smeared feces on California church building

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A California man police say has a history of yelling obscenities at church members has been arrested after U.S. police say he smeared feces and threw eggs at a church building.

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Danny Lee Terpin (Tulare County Sheriff’s Office , U.S.)

Tulare County sheriff’s deputies arrested Danny Lee Terpin, 48, after they say his actions were caught on video at the Iglesia Christiana Fuente de Vida on Friday. The Sheriff’s Office posted on its Facebook page that the video surveillance and a history of incidents led deputies to a nearby home where they made the arrest.

A sheriff’s office spokesperson on Sunday said Terpin faces felony hate crime vandalism charges.

Federal Court: Church of Atheism is not a church

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A federal court has ruled a group called the “Church of Atheism” is not a church; therefore, can not be treated as a church for tax purposes.

CTV reports the Federal court of Appeal upheld the minister of national revenue’s decision to refuse the Chruch of Atheism of Central Canada as a charity.

According to a report in The Toronto Star, Justice Marianne Rivoalen said the organization, “… did not demonstrate that its belief system is based on a particular and comprehensive system of doctrine and observances.”

The decision was unanimous and and the appeal was dismissed, with costs.

Church in Ottawa welcomes refugees

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A congregation in Ottawa puts love in action as it welcomes 28 people who fled growing violence in Congo.

Here’s the story from the CBC 

The Church’s web site says its Refugee Mission Program started in 2011 in consultation with the church council and the government of Canada. The church applied to the government and became a SAH (sponsorship agreement holder) in July 2012. That year, it worked with other SAH groups and shared the 5 allocated spaces with those groups.

Read more from from Grace Communion In

Historic California church heavily damaged by fire, cause unknown

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Fire heavily damaged a 140-year-old California church building in Forestville, California.

A spokesperson for Forestville No. 3 Fire District said the fire was prevented from spreading from the building owned by the Forestville Church of Christ.

The Press Democrat reports the church was built in 1879 with old-growth redwood and was a, “piece of local history as well as a religious gathering place.”

The cause of the fire remains unknown.  The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.

Man upset with Virginia church shelter staff sets building on fire

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A Virginia fire marshal says an arsonist who set a church building on fire this week claims he did it because he was prevented from staying in the church’s shelter with others seeking to escape the freezing conditions. Deputy Fire Marshal Matthew Gearhart said the suspect’s name will not be released until pending charges are filed.

The fire was reported Thursday at the Market Street United Methodist Church.

The church posted on social media that everyone was safe following the fire.

Authorities in Virignia say the man was denied entry because of a history of disrupting shelters.

Vandals paint messages of hate on Ohio church building

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A congregation in Deerfield, Ohio was targed this week by vandals who painted swastikas, racial slurs, and Satanic symbols on the church building.

Pastor Rodney Hedge of Kings Mills Baptist Church told Fox 19 in Ohio he got an early morning phone call about what was called an “all hands on deck” situation. He told the TV station it was the first time his congregation had to deal with this type of vandalism.

A church representative made a Facebook post showing damage left by the criminals.

The motive of the vandals has not yet been determined.