Stealing From Church Coffers
Rev. Kevin Gray, a former pastor in Connecticut, was charged with first-degree larceny on Tuesday. The man is said to have stolen $1.3 million from church coffers over more than seven years.
With the money, he paid hotel and restaurant bills. The 64-year-old also bought laptops, designer duds, and cell phones. The most bizarre detail which has been revealed is that he opened credit card accounts for two men which he met.
One of them is a male stripper and the other one works for a male escort service. Both spent several thousand dollars of the stolen money. A third man claims the reverend paid for his classes at Harvard. Rev. Kevin Gray will have to spend up to 20 years in prison.
Gender Protest
The Feminist Initiative Party in Sweden has torched 100,000 kronor ($15,000) to protest gender inequality in pay rates. They claim the amount burned is equal to how much women are short changed in one minute. An advertising agency provided the money to be burn.
Sweden performs quite well on gender equality compared to many other countries. Nonetheless, national statistics agency figures indicate women earned on average 19 percent less than men in 2008.
"It may seem desperate to burn 100,000 kronor, but the situation is desperate as well," said Feminist Initiative Party leader Gudrun Schyman.
Hitler's Pope
Documents uncovered in Vatican archives by historians from the 'Pave the Way Foundation' suggest that Pope Pius XII, aka "Hitler´s Pope," may have actually helped 200,000 Jews escape Germany as the Nazis began sending them to concentration camps.
Pope Pius XII was criticized for not speaking out at the time, but shortly after Kristallnacht he called on archbishops worldwide to use a 1933 agreement with the Nazis to obtain visas for "converted Jews" and "non-Aryan Catholics.”
“We believe that many Jews who were successful in leaving Europe may not have had any idea that their visas and travel documents were obtained through these Vatican efforts," said foundation chairperson Elliot Hershberg.
Church Attendance Up
A new Gallup Poll found that Americans' self-reported church attendance has increased slightly since 2008. When asked “How often do you attend church, synagogue, or mosque?”
43.1 percent of Americans in 2010 said they attended church “at least once a week” or “almost ever week.” That's up form 42.5 percent in 2009 and 42.1 in 2008. Researchers previously believed that church attendance rises when economic times are bad.
