Meshell Little, former Scientologist and grieving mother.

​Tony Ortega, editor-in-chief at our sister paper the Village Voice, has written extensively about Scientology for sixteen years. His latest look at the group's inner workings takes place here in St. Louis, and involves a long-time Scientologist leaving the fold, driving a wedge between her and her youngest son.

Meshell Little, the woman at the center of the story, runs this heart-breaking blog dedicated to her son. This is her only way to communicate with him and it's a tough read, regardless of your personal religious beliefs.

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These folks were "slain in the spirit." Let's hope nobody got hurt...

​A year ago, Cheryl Jones was attending a service at Disciple Fellowship Christian Church in East St. Louis when she and other congregants rushed to form a line and "receive the spirit" from the pastor.

According the complaint Jones filed two weeks ago in Madison County, Illinois, the pastor was laying hands on the faithful. The faithful would then "receive the spirit," and start to collapse. Ushers would catch them.

Except when they didn't.
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The gift of life and the gift of winning.

​October 28-30, 2011, may just go down as the greatest weekend for Missouri sports ever.

On Friday the Cardinals won their 11th World Series title in one of the greatest come-from-behind stories ever in sports. On Saturday the struggling Missouri Tigers traveled to College Station as 11-point underdogs and beat Texas A&M in overtime to mark Mizzou's first road victory over a Top 25 team in 14 years. Then, perhaps the greatest miracle of all, came Sunday when the previously winless St. Louis Rams knocked off the New Orleans Saints at the Edward Jones Dome by a score of 31-21. That's the same New Orleans' team, mind you, that hung 62 points on the Indianapolis Colts the week before.

So, how to explain these Missouri miracles? Not surprisingly, perhaps, some believe divine intervention was at work.
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bishopaccountability.org

Joseph Ross left St. Cronan's in 2002.

​Updated 4:15 p.m. with comment from the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

A lawsuit filed today paints a disturbing picture of abuse within a St. Louis Catholic Church.

According to the complaint filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, Father Joseph Ross of St. Cronan's Church sexually molested a female parishioner over the span of four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Moreover, the archdiocese should have known he was a threat to churchgoers.

The suit suggests that the molestation began when the female victim was just five to six years old. The plaintiff, "Jane Doe 92," is now 19 years old.

According to the lawsuit, Ross told the girl he was disciplining her on behalf of God and that she was helping him overcome his sexuality because he "liked boys more than girls."  Some of the sexual abuse -- which allegedly included hand-to-genital, genital-to-genital and object-to-genital contact -- occurred while the victim was in Ross' care as her mother attended choir practice. The suit alleges the abuse occurred in various rooms inside the church in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood.
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A member of Rev. Fred Phelps family, which filed the suit against Manchester.

​Whatever your thoughts are about the "God Hates Fags" mantra of the Westboro Baptist Church, it cannot be said that the organization does not know its rights and how to defend them in court.

Once again the controversial, Kansas-based church has won a legal decision in Missouri. The latest came yesterday when the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed last summer's decision striking down the City of Manchester's funeral protest ordinance. In so doing, the court reaffirmed that peaceful pickets on public sidewalks near funerals are entitled to the protection of the First Amendment.

In recent years Westboro Baptist Church has taken to protesting outside military funerals under their belief that God is punishing U.S. soldiers for their country's tolerance of homosexuality. Manchester modeled its ordinance after an Ohio funeral protest statute that was found to be constitutional by a court in 2008. Yesterday's decision disagreed with that conclusion.
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​On July 17, 1926, J. Frank Norris, the most famous preacher in America and de facto leader of the burgeoning fundamentalist movement, shot and killed an unarmed man in his private office in his megachurch in Fort Worth, Texas. The subsequent trial captivated the nation, especially after it exposed Norris's ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

In the end, Norris was acquitted of first-degree murder and avoided the electric chair. He returned to his church, and although he never became as famous as his hero, William Jennings Bryan, the story of his sensational murder trial faded from history...until now.

David R. Stokes, himself a minister, has just published The Shooting Salvationist, a history of the Norris trial. It's a fascinating read, as you can find out for yourself tomorrow evening when Stokes comes to St. Louis to give a reading at Left Bank Books. This morning, Daily RFT caught up with Stokes via phone as the author was attempting to find a parking spot in Kansas City, today's stop on his reading tour.

Daily RFT: So how the hell has no one ever heard this story? [Editor's note: It occurred to us only belatedly that we probably shouldn't have said "hell" to a minister.]

David R. Stokes: At the time, people did. It was in all the papers. But then, like a lot of stories, people didn't want to perpetuate it. Texans didn't want to talk about it. It embarrassed a lot of folks in Fort Worth, especially because of the Klan thing. Stories get lost. A lot of stories get covered up.

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Daily RFT reader Thomas Crone forwarded us the following pic snapped yesterday in Brooklyn, Illinois. Crone tells us he pulled his car over to text someone when -- like Moses confronted by the burning bush -- he couldn't help but notice this Godly message staring him in the face.

flickr/akita*314

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We were unable to reach the First Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church or the good Rev. R.W. Thomas by phone to discuss the sign. It seems the church (a stone's throw away from strip clubs Roxy's, PT's, The Pink Slip and Bottoms Up) has been out of business for some time, which seems to make sense.

If you're stoned to the bejesus, who can really make it to church?

Brent Roam, founder of U-City Family Church

​On Sunday, September 18, for the first time ever, the Tivoli Theatre in the Loop will begin renting out its space to a religious congregation: the U-City Family Church.

Other cinemas across the country have been doing this for years, including the local Wehrenberg chain (its Des Peres 14 Cine has hosted a start-up church since August).

But the venue isn't the most interesting part about the church in the Tivoli. It's the pastor: He's a former Rhodes scholar and B-horror flick actor who now practices law at Bryan Cave. His name is Brent Roam.

The 40-year-old Roam comes from preacher lineage. He says his granddad, a boxer and bus mechanic, launched a "hard-core, super-strict" Pentecostal church in Wellston back in 1948. 
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Don't drink the Kool-Aid, warn plaintiffs.

​In November 2012, Missouri voters will be asked to approve an amendment to the state constitution, titled Religious Freedom in Public Places.

According to the sponsor of the resolution, Republican Mike McGhee of the western Missouri town of Odessa, the amendment would make it "okay to read a Bible in study hall" and "pray briefly before a City Council meeting." The amendment also requires public schools to prominently display a copy of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.

But that's not all the amendment would do.
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It looked sorta like this at Akin's St. Louis office yesterday.

​It ain't over yet, even after Tuesday's half-ass apology.

Several local religious leaders are still incensed with Congressman Todd Akin's remarks last week equating "liberalism" to "a hatred of God."

On Wednesday they stopped by the Republican lawmaker's St. Louis office to voice their dissatisfaction. Akin, however, was nowhere to be found. So the clergy left a letter to the congressman with his press secretary, Steve Taylor. 

The note -- viewable below -- pulls no punches in calling out Akin for what the local pastors see as his manipulation and misinterpretation of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.
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