N E W S - Spring, 2000

Raymond Wood, 36, whom reporters said "regularly attended church and seemed happy and pleasant," murdered his wife and four of their six children, leaving the remaining two in critical condition with gun shot wounds. The family lived in an isolated area of rural Missouri. Wood was arrested at the scene and is being held in the Johnson County jail.

Source: Reuters

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Greek Orthodox Bishop Chrysanthou Chrysostomou of Cypress has been charged with fraud. The church pressured the Bishop to quit a little more than a year ago charging him of "abusing his position and associating himself with suspect people for personal profit...and of damaging relations with the Russian Orthodox Church."

According to Reuters, the Bishop is accused of attempting "to swindle a British businessman out of $3.7 million in a get-rich-quick scheme."

Source: Reuters

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Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 75, will be returned to Rwanda to stand trial for war crimes. Ntakirutimana was a pastor of a Seventh-Day Adventist church and hospital that offered refuge to Tutsi men, women, and children fleeing Hutus in the 1994 genocide.

Witnesses claim that Ntakirutimana took part in a "day-long gun and machete attack on the Tutsis that left hundreds of people dead." Ntakirutimana currently lives in Laredo Texas with his son.

More than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed in Rwanda over the course of a few months time. Most had their feet and hands chopped off with machetes, and were left to die slowly.

Source: AP

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Marvin Lofi Leo, 18, an accomplice in a gang-related murder spree that left five people dead, has decided not to turn states evidence in return for reduced charges. After consulting with his pastor Leo decided to accept a life sentence without possibility of parole.

The states case was not based on Leo's testimony, so fear of retribution could not be Leo's sole motivation. Leo's decision has taken the defense and prosecution by surprise.

SOURCE: Yahoo!

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Lawrence Winford Kilbourn, 43, of Forest Hills United Methodist Church, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of receiving child pornography on his computer.

Kilbourn's seventeen-year-old daughter turned him in when she found a video of a man she believed might be her father fondling a young child. Police confiscated more than 200 videotapes and 15,000 computer files from Kilbourn's home.

Kilbourn also faces a state charge of sexual battery on a child under 16 for the videotaped molestation. His conduct with the youth of his church is also under investigation.

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Stanley Drew "Boss" Abraham Jr., 19, is a co-defendant in the murder of former Carolina Panthers receiver Rae Curruth's girlfriend. Curruth has been charged in the conspiracy to murder his girlfriend.

Abraham claims to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and has spent his time in jail reading the Bible and writing poems about his faith in God. Abraham is the only co-defendant who has not been in trouble with the law, and his pastor, Kevin Long of Temple Baptist Church in Charlotte believes he will be cleared of all charges.

SOURCE: AP

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Nancy Cheal, 60, a self-proclaimed pastor and faith healer has been halted by federal securities regulators who claim she has cheated hundreds of people in an internet investment scheme.

Cheal promised a 100 percent return on a fully protected investment. Her funds have been frozen.

SOURCE: APBnews.com

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The California-based Christian research organization Barna Research Group released statistices revealing that Christians are more likely to divorce than non-Christians, and that atheists are the least likely to divorce. Surveying nearly 4,000 adults BRG discovered that 27% of those that identify as born-again have been divorced, compared to 24% in the general population.

Non-denominational Christians had the highest divorce rate at 34%, Baptists weighed in at 29%, Mormons at 24%, Catholics at 21% - the same as atheists and agnostics.

SOURCE: charismanews

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Charles Groeschel, 67, a clergyman from Palm Desert, CA, defrauded around 2000 followers out of $1.4 million in a pyramid scheme. A federal judge has sentenced him to three years and ten months in prison.

Groeschel, aka Pastor Chuck, ran the Association of Individual Ministries. According to APBonline the white haired preacher "quoted Scripture promising profit in the name of God, quoting lines from the Bible that indicate profit is not a bad thing. One Biblical passage promised 'we will receive a hundred fold return in this life.'"

The money collected from lower-income individuals was tranferred to an overseas account in the Bahamas.

SOURCE: AP

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