By ANDREW TILGHMAN Houston Chronicle Some followers collapse and wail after their pastor found guilty in '94 sex abuse of teen Several members of a small Pentecostal church in Aldine collapsed on a Harris County courthouse floor and wailed unintelligible prayers Thursday after their longtime pastor was convicted of sexually abusing a teenage girl more than 10 years ago. The Rev. Curtis Bass of the International Pentecostal Church was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two charges of indecency with a child. A woman, now 26, testified that he touched her breasts and vagina on two occasions when she was 16 years old in 1994. "God is still in control," Bass, 53, said to dozens of church members seated in the courtroom after his sentencing. He took off his silver wristwatch before court bailiffs took him away. Defense witnesses said the former construction worker who went to theology school in Jackson, Miss., was a longtime youth minister known for encouraging teens to partici...

By LORNA THACKERAY Of The Gazette Staff Church group to picket its own summer camp after unwittingly renting it out to coven of witches There's not much Gail Beauchamp can do about a circle of Montana pagans who rented a nearby church camp for a summer festival next month, but the Red Lodge woman says Bible-believing Christians won't let it pass unnoticed. "I believe in the right to freedom of religion,'' she said. "But I also believe in my right to protest.'' Beauchamp, who has Bible verses at her fingertips and considers spreading Christianity a moral responsibility, said she and other like-minded people will try to organize pickets at the entrance to the Westminster Spires Camp during the Mountain Moon Circle festival Aug. 11-14. Nytewind, a retired schoolteacher living in Billings and priestess of the Circle, said she doesn't understand the animosity and fear that people harbor for what she describes as a "very beautiful, very positive re...

By HARVEY RICE Houston Chronicle Edgar Lopez Bertrand, a televangelist regarded as one of the most influential ministers in El Salvador pleaded guilty Thursday to faking a passport for a girl he falsely claimed as his daughter. Bertrand, 65, pleaded guilty in a Houston federal court after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of time served if a background check finds no criminal convictions, Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Davis said. U.S. District Judge David Hittner scheduled Lopez Bertrand's sentencing for Aug. 11. He will have served about three months in the federal detention center by then. Hittner questioned the leniency of the plea agreement, considering Lopez Bertrand's admission of guilt to a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Assistant Public Defender Peter Bray told the judge that Lopez Bertrand had tried to adopt the girl, and a Salvadoran lawyer ...

Article from " The Religious Beliefs Of Our Presidents " by Franklin Steiner - [ 1878 - 1968 ] Washington: Born, February 22, 1732. Died, December 14, 1799, President, April 30, 1779 -- March 4, 1797. Forward That much myth and legend is to be found in most of the past biographies of George Washington is admitted by practically all conscientious and discriminating writer's of today. That the "Father of His Country" has been delineated more in the character of a god or a superman than as a real human being is a fact now known to all who think as well as read. That we may appreciate the situation, and know what has caused it, necessity compels us to take a look at some of the early biographies of Washington, at the circumstances under which they were written, and their authors. The,first 'Life of Washington,' and the one that has had the largest circulation, was written by the Rev. Mason L. Weems, and first published in 1800. This book sold well because of...