https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to sexual abuse en https://religiondispatches.org/2026/02/25/allegations-sexual-abuse-emerge-influential-bethel-church Heartbreaking allegations of sexual abuse at Bethel Church , a charismatic megachurch in Redding, California, has recently come to light. Bob Hartley, previously one of the core “prophets” at the International House of Prayer at Kansas City (IHOP-KC), used his… Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:13:13 EST Keri Ladner ea881194-cee7-4dc7-af1d-f7c76b6d6876 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/07/02/lord-told-me-its-flat-none-your-business-jimmy-swaggarts-scandalous-legacy Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart died yesterday. He’ll be remembered in many ways—as a charismatic preacher and talented singer (Swaggart was Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin). But perhaps his most lasting legacy is as a creative pioneer in the art of managing a… Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:54:38 EDT Suzanna Krivulskaya 6609eb90-6a7b-49ac-baf4-e33a2076ef21 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/08/new-wa-mandatory-reporter-law-only-anti-catholic-if-catholic-means-protecting-sexual In our latest installment of “somehow this is actually happening,” Trump’s DOJ announced this week—with no apparent sense of irony or shame—that it will investigate whether a new Washington state law requiring clergy to report child sex abuse allegations is… Thu, 08 May 2025 01:57:01 EDT Megan Goodwin 00dae046-22de-4344-a55f-03a3153ea996 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/06/01/exactly-30-years-illinois-ags-devastating-sexual-abuse-report-plan-prevention-was “Way too damned little and way too damned late.” That’s what one life-long Illinois Catholic woman I’ll call “Margaret” told me last week when the state’s attorney general released a nearly 700-page report, based on a five-year investigation, that concluded… Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:47:48 EDT David Clohessy 2ed3f45b-c7d2-4d92-afa0-1ed90f539747 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/05/31/dalai-lamas-suck-my-tongue-controversy-reveals-centuries-old-christian-distortion In February 2023, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14 th Dalai Lama, appeared in Dharamshala, India at an event sponsored by the M3M Foundation , a philanthropic initiative established by the M3M Group—real-estate developers committed to “magnificence in the trinity of men… Wed, 31 May 2023 03:11:52 EDT Geoffrey Goble 2eb4f98d-e807-40ed-ad2d-403b9aedfea0 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/02/20/lila-rose-and-right-resurrect-malicious-child-predator-myth-putting-lgbtq-people-even In January the far-right website Townhall began publishing a four-part series on a so-called “Suburban LGBTQ Pedophile Ring.” The series, written by Townhall fact-checker Mia Cathell , claims to reveal “disturbing new details” about adoptive parents William and Zachary Zulock… Mon, 20 Feb 2023 01:12:47 EST R.L. Stollar 81bc25c1-b131-4628-9654-089169e17167 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/01/episcopal-church-assault-data-reveals-dark-side-inclusive-christianity When representatives of The Episcopal Church gather in Baltimore for the denomination’s General Convention taking place from July 8-11, they’ll be asked to consider a proposed overhaul to the church’s sexual violence prevention policy. Currently, Episcopal canon law requires those… Fri, 01 Jul 2022 05:09:46 EDT Charlotte Dalwood 9c8cb811-72f1-44a6-82d8-4c6753e276ea https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/14/weeks-meeting-will-sbc-vote-voddie-baucham-homeschooling-star-who-embraces-right-wing On March 4, news broke that African Christian University dean Voddie Baucham was asked to accept a nomination to be President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Baptist denomination in the world—a denomination also in the spotlight at… Tue, 14 Jun 2022 05:39:36 EDT R.L. Stollar 800c87ca-2f16-4abe-9c8a-4da811f6a616 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/03/sbc-sexual-abuse-scandal-success-story-theological-vision-and-social-structure I don’t recall the specific date in late summer 1985—but I remember exactly where I was standing. In the sunshine, near the windows in the library of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. I was pulling Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor from the shelves… Fri, 03 Jun 2022 12:12:58 EDT Diana Butler Bass 13516692-6b47-41b1-b495-92caeb55da62 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/31/sexual-abuse-inevitable-christian-patriarchy-just-take-look-doug-wilsons-christ-church On Sunday, May 22, a third-party investigation of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention released a nearly 300-page report detailing the cover-up of hundreds of abuse accusations and an overall failure of leaders in the SBC to make any… Tue, 31 May 2022 04:13:32 EDT Cait West 7c478a52-bf76-46ee-9218-c0cba6a2095d https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/24/its-theology-stupid-why-shocking-sbc-report-anything-surprising On Sunday, an investigation firm called Guidepost Solutions released a 300-page report recounting a disturbingly familiar pattern of abuse and cover-up in the Southern Baptist Convention, the mostly white, evangelical Protestant denomination that accounts for over 5% of the adult… Tue, 24 May 2022 05:22:59 EDT Chrissy Stroop, Jessica Johnson 2c4cfa52-e3ce-47fa-aafd-0aeba8705786 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/02/16/liberals-need-not-choose-between-sexual-abuse-survivors-and-religious-minority Given that Western liberalism is defined by a desire for social and political equality, the tendency among liberals to support minority groups is both natural and in fact laudable. In practice, however, this can occasionally translate into blanket support for… Wed, 16 Feb 2022 05:04:07 EST Afzal Upal 41aa4f53-1754-42f2-ac4c-d11555cb94b2 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/08/25/why-confession-redemption-path-unlikely-help-falwell-recover-sex-scandal Yesterday, August 24, 2020, was the first day of classes at right-wing evangelical school Liberty University. It also turned out to be the final day of the scandal-prone Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s professional implosion, much to the delight of liberals and… Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:32:50 EDT Chrissy Stroop e718656f-ae9d-4da3-ae46-847040f8e22c https://religiondispatches.org/2018/06/06/earth-planet-catholic-francis-papacy-no-picnic At a recent Jesuit-sponsored conference in Brazil focusing on the first five years of Pope Francis’ papacy, scholars waxed poetic about papal documents, quoting chapter and verse, claiming that this papacy is different from every other. Some speakers seemed far… Wed, 06 Jun 2018 12:15:28 EDT Mary Hunt 6b85180e-6cb5-4e2d-a337-0e2426a570d5 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/11/10/jesus-mary-and-joseph-disgusting-religious-defense-roy-moore The practice of commenting on religion and politics frequently takes one to strange places. Say, for example, having to parse a statement like this defense of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice and current Republican candidate for the US Senate Roy… Fri, 10 Nov 2017 11:44:37 EST Daniel Schultz b9104fe8-f499-4cb4-8aa5-2c47d6c89299 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/09/12/more-big-hair-and-money-jim-tammy-faye-and-media-holy-wars-80s What inspired you to write PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire? I was fascinated by how fast PTL grew and how quickly it fell apart. What I really wanted to know was how… Tue, 12 Sep 2017 05:02:36 EDT John Wigger 0bea274a-6135-490a-8e2c-8510c2c4a83a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/10/14/trump-sexual-assault-speech-michelle-obama-articulates-new-political-morality Michelle Obama is overshadowed by the rhetorical gifts of her husband, but she is a powerful speaker in her own right. Fri, 14 Oct 2016 01:34:41 EDT Daniel Schultz 7f6ab45f-19a6-4a9f-944c-6faf1a73b4ae https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/05/sex-scandal-following-whole-foods-guru Over the holidays, the New York Times ran a punishing profile of Marc Gafni, an ex-rabbi who reinvented himself as a New Age spiritual leader. A founder of the Center for Integral Wisdom and organizer of the Success 3.0 Summit… Tue, 05 Jan 2016 04:18:39 EST Michael Schulson 27471ab6-bb68-43ea-87cd-4a877483f8a1 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/11/25/masturbation-porn-bigger-priority-planet-poverty-us-bishops In another sign of just how far the agendas of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis have diverged, it’s worth noting that at their recently concluded fall plenary, the bishops signaled strongly about what’s on their radar… Wed, 25 Nov 2015 06:31:00 EST Patricia Miller 9107f63c-f2d5-40ef-be10-c0c4968fb84b https://religiondispatches.org/2015/09/27/pope-meets-sexual-abuse-survivors After meeting with Sexual abuse survivors, Pope Francis led off his remarks to the Bishops at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary with a commitment to change the climate surrounding sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Meeting with three men and two… Sun, 27 Sep 2015 02:05:48 EDT Anthea Butler 7ff90fed-0f0c-46ce-9d73-85dd5d3874a8 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/09/21/how-make-nones-and-lose-money-study-shows-cost-catholic-sex-abuse-scandals It doesn’t take more than a glance at the recent Reuters report to see that the American Catholic church doesn’t just have a crisis in the rising number of former Catholics. Unsurprisingly, those same Catholics took their money when they… Mon, 21 Sep 2015 03:51:57 EDT Kaya Oakes d13d0f12-71a7-4893-a76f-6deadd514bda https://religiondispatches.org/2015/05/21/josh-duggar-and-purity-lie Josh Duggar, the oldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of “reality” TV and the real life conservative movement, has resigned his position as executive director of FRC Action, the political action arm of the Family Research Council… Thu, 21 May 2015 10:51:10 EDT Sarah Posner b35a7d84-9171-44dc-82f3-53873200aa7a https://religiondispatches.org/2014/09/30/new-accusations-force-question-will-bishops-be-held-accountable-sexual-abuse-francis It’s been just two months since Pope Francis declared, to the skepticism of victims’ rights groups, that “Catholic bishops ‘will be held accountable’ for failing to protect children from sexual abuse,” as CNN put it. But can we expect former… Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:41:15 EDT Patricia Miller 7481bf21-c205-403b-9397-3be5d1e94c0b https://religiondispatches.org/2014/08/26/wesolowski-sexual-abuse-case-new-approach-or-same-old-same-old Former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, ambassador of the Vatican to the Dominican Republic, is now a layperson awaiting criminal trial in the Vatican for sexual abuse of young people. After intensive negative press, the Vatican announced on August 25 that since… Tue, 26 Aug 2014 11:24:42 EDT Mary Hunt 8bb0cbac-75ee-488f-a0a2-75568edea6b1 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/08/19/calvary-bleak-can-it-kick Calvary posits that faith is mostly a fear of death, but in reality, like Gleeson’s performance, faith is a living, changing, malleable thing. His Father James helps us understand why people still need religion. Tue, 19 Aug 2014 03:01:25 EDT Kaya Oakes b9c458c3-452d-40d8-b39c-4a2c640d3c16