christianityandme

Not so holy man

Filed under: News — admin @ 4:05 am

In America (California) a pastor was accused of selling the town’s oldest church… He pleaded guilty to embezzlement on Monday and agreed to 18 months in prison, court officials said. Randall Radic, 53, entered his plea as part of a deal in which prosecutors agreed to drop nine other charges.

Radic had preached at First Congregational Church in Ripon for nearly a decade before he sold the church last October for $525,000, allegedly using the money to buy a BMW. He also faked documents that gave him possession of his house, which was owned by the church, then used the property to take out loans, authorities said.

Before the plea deal, Radic had faced up to nine years in prison for 10 counts, including two counts of theft by embezzlement, two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, four counts of forgery of signature and two counts of presenting a fraudulent document.

Radic’s attorney Michael Babitzke declined to comment on the case Monday. Radic remains in San Joaquin County Jail on $750,000 bail. He was scheduled to appear for a formal sentencing and restitution hearing on March 16th.

Quickly bookmark "Not so holy man" via:                                                

Comments (0)

Priest might be tried for saying Jesus existed

Filed under: News — admin @ 9:53 am

Happy belated New Year everyone. Since my friend has been having modem problems, I’m throwing this really weird news item on the site to liven it up a little. I might actually start reporting related religious news as a daily addition to my friends postings in an effort to kick-start comment debates on this relatively new site. Here goes:

In Viterbo, Italy, an Italian judge is deciding if a priest should be tried on fraud charges for saying Jesus Christ existed.

An atheist accuser filed the complaint, saying the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2,000 years with a fable about Christ.

The priest and his accuser are old schoolmates. Lawyers made their arguments in a short hearing behind closed doors on Friday.

The accuser says he doesn’t expect to win in heavily Catholic Italy, but rather to advance his case to the European Court of Human Rights, where he’ll accuse the church of what he calls “religious racism.”

His lawyer says the priest just “said and wrote what he has the duty to say and write.”

Quickly bookmark "Priest might be tried for saying Jesus existed" via:                                                

Comments (1)