The Nixons were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in April for the death of their second child due to faith-healing practices. The Nixons previously pleaded no contest and were given probation for the 1991 death of their son, Clayton, 8, who died of an untreated ear infection.
Mrs. Nixon, 44, was due to give birth to her eleventh child in July. Blair County Judge Norman Callan has ordered social workers to visit the Nixons' home monthly to protect the remaining children.
In other faith-healing cases:
Family Court Judge Thomas Dempsey issued a temporary order giving Patrick's maternal grandparents custody until he is able to have surgery to remove the tumor.
On May 16, police--acting under a court order--rushed 12-year-old Sharon Lucas, who suffers from an aggressive brain tumor, to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia against her parents wishes. She was returned home in late May. The Office of Children and Youth has legal custody over the girl to ensure that she continues to receive home-care services and pain medication.
An Associated Press article in early June reported that the coalition rented out a portion of its mailing list to the 1994 Senate campaign of Republican Oliver North.
According to North's campaign finance records, the list of 36,000 Virginia supporters was rented for $5,131. North's opponent, former Reagan administration budget director James Miller, said he was turned down when he sought the coalition's help. Two people reportedly familiar with the group's mailing practices said the rental was unusual because the lists normally are jealously guarded.
The Federal Election Commission filed a federal lawsuit in July 1996 charging that the coalition, which contends it doesn't take sides in elections, had improperly spent thousands of dollars to promote Republican congressional candidates.
The Internal Revenue Service has not ruled on the Coalition's application for tax-exempt status, making the case the longest-pending one of its kind in federal files.
Southern Baptists condemned the corporation's policy which extends health benefits to same-sex partners of employees, calling the benefits a "strategy to promote acceptance of the idea that homosexual relationships are morally equivalent" to heterosexual marriages. The group failed during last June's boycott to affect Disney's profits or change its policies.
During the group's three-day, high-profile convention, resolutions against gender-neutral Bible translations and a call for the ban on human cloning were also adopted.
Don Hodel, 62, who once served in Reagan's Cabinet as secretary of the interior and secretary of energy, will succeed Robertson in the coalition's day-to-day management and strategic direction. Robertson said he is moving from president to board chairman.
Randy Tate, 31, a former right-wing Republican representative from Washington, will be the new executive director of the eight-year-old organization. He will succeed the organization's first director, Reed, who announced in April that he was resigning to take a more active role in Republican campaigns by establishing a political consulting firm in Atlanta.
Two composite sketches of men seen outside the clinic, a photo of a hazy figure sitting on the Olympic Park bench where the bomb was placed, and a letter claiming responsibility on behalf of the Army of God for the Jan. 16 clinic blast and the Feb. 21 nightclub bombing were released. The letter denounced "sodomites" and those who commit "ungodly perversion."
Investigators hope the sketches and photo, along with the author's handwriting and key phrases such as "Death to the New World Order" and "the ungodly communist regime in New York"--referring to the United Nations--might produce a tip.
The note Patsy Ramsey allegedly found on Dec. 26 demanded $118,000 for the return of the tiny beauty queen, whose body was found about eight hours later in the family's basement. She had been strangled with a cord, and her right wrist was also tied.
Initially, investigators believed the amount was chosen because it was close to John Ramsey's 1995 bonus. The Rocky Mountain News reported on July 8 that police now believe the amount could refer to Psalm 118:27:"God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."
No arrests have been made, but devoutly religious John and Patsy Ramsey are currently the focus of the investigation. Both have publicly denóied killing their daughter.
Spong's Liberating the Gospels dismisses much of the Gospels--including the Last Supper and Judah's betrayal of Jesus--as myths and inventions. Spong, Bishop of Newark (NJ), claims to "free" Jesus from 2,000 years of misunderstandings. He accuses Christians of misreading Jesus and the Gospels for centuries by ignoring the "thoroughly Jewish content" beneath the surface of the New Testament.
The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division began an investigation in mid-June into reports that at least three times a week, 20 Amish children from the Indiana farm town of Berne travel 110 miles to work at the chicken farm.
Federal and state law prohibit children under 14 from working on corporate farms that log more than 500 worker-days per quarter. Violators can be fined up to $10,000 for each underage worker.
Crews at the 2.5-million hen-a-day operation spend up to 10 hours a day moving dollies of up to 200 caged birds, catch loose birds and gather up dead ones.
During the two years of operation, the farm has been cited by state officials for pollution and migrant worker violations.
Nine children and their parents sued the church more than four years ago for unspecified monetary and punitive damages.
Dozens of children were reportedly tricked with promises of "the world's largest water fight" and fun at a church "carnival" but were subjected to sermons, told to remove their clothes and don church-issued robes, lined up and baptized instead.
The suit states that some of the children have suffered physical and emotional problems ranging from bedwetting to nightmares because of the incident. Also, parents say the permission slips they signed did not explicitly state that baptisms were planned.
Two children testified that when they tried to leave the baptismal line they were forced back into it.
"They said if we didn't, they'd sting us with bees and we'd go to hell," said one of the youngsters.
Mayor Dorothy Smith said during an early June Town Council meeting that the town owes $51,000 in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service for 1992-96. If the town is unable to pay the IRS, then the mayor, council members and city clerks who were in office when the taxes were not paid are personally liable.
Area ministers and about 40 other people prayed for financial healing during the meeting.
An audit indicated the Queen of Peace Ministry had taken $1.5 million in bookings but only had $300 in its trust account for tour departures from May-July. Miller was discovered to have taken $200,000 from the company assets.
Regina tours, a Chandon, Ohio-based pilgrimage tour company offeróed bilked customers a measly 10 percent discount on its tours as a way of compensating them for lost deposits.
About 200 people associated with the conservative Baptist group "Save Our Schools" (SOS) turned out last month at a meeting of the First Coast Community AIDS Coalition to elect a conservative candidate as co-chair.
AIDS activist Dick Niemann said he believes the SOS members, most of whom are associated with area Baptist churches and the Christian Coalition, will push for the Coalition to spend its money on abstinence programs and "ex-gay" ministries.
NTV, an independent television station, originally tried to air the Martin Scorcese film on the eve of Russian Orthodox Easter in April, but pulled it under pressure from religious organizations and members of parliament.
The Interfax news agency reported that the Pamyat nationalist patriotic group announced earlier that it could not guarantee "the safe existence of the NTV staff" if it was broadcast.
Scorcese's 1988 film, which has been criticized for depicting Christ marrying and having children, has been banned in several countries.
The Assembly passed Amendment B, also known as the "fidelity and chastity" amendment, in the spring to affirm the church's nearly 10-year-old policy of forbidding the ordination of "self-affirming, practicing homosexuals."
The additional amendment compromise was reached after nearly 20 congregations voted to ignore the amendment.
The bible states the walls of Jericho tumbled down after Joshua's priests circled them, blowing trumpets, for seven days.
The University of Rome archaeologists found no layer of rubble and ash or other evidence that the city was sacked during the time of Joshua, around 1400 B.C.
Last July, medical workers were prohibited from performing the popular procedure after a campaign by human rights groups, who blame the dangerous procedure for numerous deaths.
Judge Abdul Aziz Hamade overturned the ban, which was imposed without parliamentary approval, saying it infringed on the legal rights of the medical profession. However, Hamade left in place a ban on people without medical training performing the procedure.
Avi Kostner, 52, was spared the death penalty by jurors after he pleaded guilty to killing Geri Beth, 12, and Ryan, 10, in June 1994.
Kostner said he was tormented and was forced to sacrifice his children because his ex-wife and her family were trying to raise them as Christians rather than Jews.
Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz promised in the outline of his program to parliament to also promote democratic reforms and improve human rights.
The country's human rights record has previously come under attack from Western countries for its reported torture and the government's military campaign against Kurdish guerrillas.
In mid-June television interviews, a friend of Melissa Drexler's told reporters the family was discussing biblical names for the baby, which "was an angel that unfortunately didn't get a chance."
Drexler is being charged with first degree murder for reportedly suffocating the male infant and dumping the body in a trash can in her panic to hide the pregnancy.