Christian convert Rifqa Bary is refusing chemotherapy for cancer because she believes that she was cured at a faith-healing event, according to a motion in Franklin County Juvenile Court.

Rifqa ran away from home in July 2009, saying her Muslim father would kill her for converting to Christianity.

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A Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis who opposes homosexuals being allowed to lead congregations said Monday he is attracted to men, but that he's not a hypocrite because he never acted on his urges.

The Rev. Tom Brock told The Associated Press he has known for years he is sexually attracted to men, but doesn't consider himself gay because he never acted on it.

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Prison officials can ban employees from wearing religious headscarves out of concerns they pose a safety risk, a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia ruled Monday in a split 2-1 decision.

Prison officials have legitimate concerns the headscarves can hide drugs or other contraband, or be used by an inmate to strangle someone, the majority said.

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Two Christian women in Bangladesh's northern district of Jamalpur said village officials extorted relatively large sums of money from them – and severely beat the husband of one – for proclaiming Christ to Muslims.

Johura Begum, 42, of Pingna village said a member of the local union council, an area government representative and the father of a police officer threatened to harm her grown daughters if her family did not pay them 20,000 taka (US$283).

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An evangelical pastor delivered a fiery Sunday sermon under police guard as disgruntled churchgoers gathered outside and demanded he return $200,000 they say has gone missing on his watch.

More than a dozen estranged members of the Bethel Christian Community Church handed out flyers denouncing Mwinda Lezoka while two Montreal police officers, called to the scene by church officials, stood watch at a back entrance.

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An appellate court has upheld former Hosanna Church pastor Louis D. Lamonica's aggravated rape convictions and life sentence for his role in a sex-abuse scandal at the now-defunct Ponchatoula church.

The state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal rejected Lamonica's lone argument that his expert witness should have been allowed to testify at trial about false confessions and the influence of high-control groups or cults.

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Sacramento is the epicenter of the debate over whether the Waldorf system – whose educational philosophy goes back 100 years – is appropriate for a public school.

While enrollment climbs, the district faces a lawsuit this summer from a Northern California group that claims the Waldorf system cannot be separated from founder Rudolf Steiner's religious philosophy, making public Waldorf schools ineligible to receive taxpayer dollars.

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An Oregon City couple will face charges of second-degree manslaughter in the faith-healing death of their newborn son, the third such fatality involving the Followers of Christ church in the past two years.

The state medical examiner's office reported after a series of similar incidents in the 1990s that more than 20 children of church members had died in recent decades from preventable or curable illnesses.

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Two members of an Oregon City faith-healing church were charged Thursday with first-degree criminal mistreatment for failing to provide medical care for their infant daughter.

Child-protection authorities took custody of the couple's 7-month-old daughter, Alayna, after she developed a growth over her left eye that ballooned over several months to the size of a tennis ball and threatens her vision.

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A jury Thursday sentenced a Brownsville man to die for killing and beheading three young children he was raising with their mother.

Rubio and his wife told police they thought the children were possessed and butchered them in an attempt to rid the demons.

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