In the small but cohesive Mormon community where he grew up, Hans Mattsson was a solid believer and a pillar of the church. He followed his father and grandfather into church leadership and finally became an “area authority” overseeing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Europe.

When fellow believers in Sweden first began coming to him with information from the Internet that contradicted the church’s history and teachings, he dismissed it as “anti-Mormon propaganda,” the whisperings of Lucifer. He asked his superiors for help in responding to the members’ doubts, and when they seemed to only sidestep the questions, Mr. Mattsson began his own investigation.

But when he discovered credible evidence that the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, was a polygamist and that the Book of Mormon and other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies, Mr. Mattsson said he felt that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble.

Around the world and in the United States, where the faith was founded, the Mormon Church is grappling with a wave of doubt and disillusionment among members who encountered information on the Internet that sabotaged what they were taught about their faith, according to interviews with dozens of Mormons and those who study the church.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/some-mormons-search-the-web-and-find-doubt.html?hp&_r=5&

One of my favorite stories about former Louisiana Gov. Huey Long involves one of his early political campaigns in the 1920s. While stumping in the northern part of the state, he would tell a story about waking at 6 o'clock every Sunday morning, hitching his family's old horse to a buggy, and bringing his Baptist grandparents to church. When addressing audiences in south Louisiana, he would tell the same story, only this time his grandparents were Catholic.

It was an effective speech that played well to Louisiana's geographic religious divide. Once, after a rally, a local politician remarked, "Why Huey, you've been holding out on us. I didn't know you had Catholic grandparents," to which Long replied, "Don't be a damn fool. We didn't even have a horse."

That story came to mind when I first learned about Ergun Caner, a Baptist minister and public speaker whose shtick is to describe his early life as a Muslim extremist, and then his discovering Jesus and becoming, well, a Christian extremist. This rhetoric played especially well after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and earned him a considerable following. Jerry Fallwell was one notable fan, and he hired Caner to teach at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

Caner's work is boilerplate stuff: Muslims are misguided and dangerous, but it's nothing a little Jesus can't fix. Over the years, he has given a lot of speeches, and as happens to a lot of public speakers, at some point he seems to have gotten carried away. People began to notice discrepancies in Caner's story. Was he from Turkey or Sweden? Did he and his family move to Ohio when he was a teenager or a 3-year-old? When, exactly, did he have time to visit "my madrassa in Istanbul, Turkey" and "my madrassa in Cairo, Egypt," where "there's no question of what the doctrine of jihad was."

http://theweek.com/article/index/247171/this-lawsuit-could-destroy-foia

Stacey Farrell was a wide-eyed incoming freshman at Oakland (Mich.) University in the summer of 2007.

An all-state guard from St. Clair (Mich.) High, Farrell couldn't hide her enthusiasm over the prospects of playing for Beckie Francis, a basketball coach whose players won on the court and excelled in the classroom.

But for Farrell, all that began to change the summer day the freshmen were summoned to Francis' office and handed a sheet of paper with team and personal goals and expectations.

Francis — fired last month under a cloud of mystery — began talking about her church and invited them to attend services with her. Then she returned to the subject of how her program operated.

http://www.wusa9.com/usatoday/sports/2573613/Shocking-claims-against-ex-NCAA-womens-coach?usatref=sportsmod

We all knew the American Atheists bench outside the Bradford County Courthouse in Florida was a prime target for vandals… but I wasn’t expecting this.

Someone named “Zach Hillbillyboy Osborne” spit tobacco juice on the bench — a stain I’m not sure will come out — and then had the audacity to (A) take a picture of it and (B) send that picture to American Atheists:

He made a completely intelligible comment while he was at it, and AA responded:

[center][/center]

AA is filing a police report. They also made this suggestion to other potential vandals:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/20/american-atheists-bench-in-florida-gets-vandalized-and-we-know-who-did-it/

A Jackson homeowner will face no criminal charges after firing five shots into a car burglary suspect last week because police said the state’s castle doctrine law allows use of deadly force in the face of imminent danger in one’s home, vehicle or business.

Almost five years earlier, Jackson police charged a Jackson store owner with murder when he killed a shoplifter he was trying to stop from taking off with a $15 case of beer and said he feared the suspect was reaching for a gun. They said the castle doctrine didn’t apply because he wasn’t in imminent danger.

Since the castle doctrine law went into effect July 1, 2006, there has been very little consistency in how law enforcement and the courts have applied it.

In Mississippi, Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary successfully used the law to get a simple assault charge against him dismissed for placing a machette at the throat of a tax assessor employee. Edna Mae Sanders of Hancock County, who scalded her husband to death with hot cooking oil, used it to get her murder conviction overturned and gain a new trial, arguing the lower court didn’t allow her to say her husband had violently attacked her and she feared for her life. She ultimately pleaded guilty in April to manslaughter.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130716/NEWS01/307160024/Castle-doctrine-Miss-Legal-ramifications-deadly-outcomes-hard-predict

Columbia, SC (story by Robert Kittle) The George Zimmerman case brought the "Stand Your Ground" defense to the forefront.

It gives you the right to use deadly force to protect your home, your car, yourself and others on your property.

But now, one murder case is on hold while the South Carolina Supreme Court makes big decisions about the law.

In a Columbia murder case, a man accused of breaking into a home and killing the man who lived there is trying to use the "Stand Your Ground" defense. The attorney for Gregg Isaac says Isaac was defending himself because the man whose home he broke into was about to pull a gun.

http://www.wltx.com/news/article/242385/2/Home-Invasion-Suspect-Uses-Stand-Your-Ground-in-Murder-Trial-

A series of articles about one woman's month-long experience owning a gun that was spiked by Ms. magazine after it sparked criticism from pro-gun activists will now be posted by the Daily Beast.

Daily Beast Senior Editor Harry Siegel would not say exactly when the series by freelance writer and gun violence prevention advocate Heidi Yewman would be posted, but confirmed it would run "presumably some time pretty soon," adding, "I think it's a good thing to run."

Ms. posted the first article in the series on June 12, which detailed Yewman's experience easily getting a concealed weapons permit and buying a gun without knowing how to use it. Three subsequent articles were set to run each following week detailing her experiences carrying and then disposing of the gun, but were canceled by the online outlet of the famed feminist magazine after the first due to outrage from pro-gun activists, Yewman said in an interview Monday.

"They ran the first one and they got a huge response, over 70,000 hits and over 2,000 comments immediately," recalled Yewman, who serves on the board of The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and is author of the 2009 book, Beyond the Bullet. "So it was overwhelming to them. They moderate their comments so it became an overwhelming situation for them and a lot of the comments were real negative, how I'm an idiot, how I'm stupid."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/07/08/daily-beast-to-publish-series-spiked-due-to-pro/194773

Rome (CNN) -- Pope Francis has laid down a law making it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds, the Holy See announced Thursday.

The acts were already crimes under church law, but are now specifically outlawed within the Vatican city-state, which is home to hundreds of people.

The legislation also covers child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/11/world/europe/vatican-child-abuse/index.html?sr=reddit

One of the state’s largest churches is seeking a restraining order to keep a conservative national Christian group from protesting near the church parking lot.

The Rev. Rich Nathan, senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, said he and his congregation are tired of “baffling hate speech” and inappropriate behavior that members of Minutemen United have directed at church members.

Minutemen has been protesting the church’s “passive resistance” to abortion and gay marriage each Sunday for five months, said James Harrison, its local leader.

Harrison said the church does not speak out against homosexuality and abortion, helps women recover from abortions and accepts gay members. Harrison’s group is targeting Vineyard because it has about 8,500 members.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/07/08/church-seeks-injunction-against-protesters.html

A new reality show set to air this fall on the Oxygen Network will put on display the lives of six Los Angeles area megachurch ministers, many of whom live large as prosperity preachers.

Preachers of L.A. was recently announced by the network, which also released a trailer that provides a sneak peak into the broadcast.

“Known for their fiery sermons, community outreach and passionate followings, pastors have become iconic, beloved, and sometimes polarizing figures in modern culture,” Oxygen stated. “Yet, few people have access to these larger-than-life men away from the pulpit. Until now.”

The network advised that the reality show will provide a look at the “human side” of the men, one of whom admits to having a baby with his girlfriend following his divorce from his wife.

http://christiannews.net/2013/07/03/new-preachers-of-l-a-reality-show-to-feature-lavish-lives-of-megachurch-prosperity-preachers/