The LA  Times reports the arrest of a Baptist minister on charges of stealing more than $800,000 from the Southern California church he leads. The LA County Sherriff’s Department says Rev. E. Joshua Sims, pastor of Double Rock Baptist Church in Compton, was taken into custody after a months-long investigation.
Between March 2000 and September 2008, investigators believe, Sims diverted [...]

The Archdiocese of Miami announced Sunday that it will close 13 churches in Miami-Dade and Broward counties over the next six weeks. The Miami Herald reports  this is an effort “to slash costs in a recession that has caused the institution to lose tens of millions in investments while subsidizing operations at struggling parishes.”
Seven Catholic [...]

Following up on our earlier posting on USA Today misleading on mainstream church support for a minimum wage hike — apparently USA Today has a history of obscuring minimum wage activists. And the paper is not alone in its lack of transparency.
Three years ago, a full-page story and photo essay told how hard it was to [...]

USA Today is not exactly being transparent when it reports churches are pushing for a hike to the federal minimum wage. Though its headline blares “Churches push for $10 minimum wage by 2010,” a simple check of the website of the group advocating a $10 federal minimum wage — the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign [...]

In advance of their weekend sold-out appearance at Yankee Stadium, Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen talk to CBS about their message of hope during tough economic times.
“We just feel very blessed to be here, very humbled and just rewarded,” Joel observed. “The Yankees have been good to us, and it seems like it’s a time [...]

Apparently, the recession is leaving many families unable to pay for elaborate funerals and burials, and they’re now opting for cremation, ”even when their culture or religion calls for such customs.”
Many are turning to cremation as a more budget-friendly alternative.  The cost of a cremation, with the ashes either returned to the family in a container [...]

One more rite of passage the economy is impacting: Latinos are downsizing their daughters’
15th birthday bashes, also known as quinceañeras.

Facing the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls on religious leaders to help develop a “shared moral sense” to govern markets and the economy.  He spoke of the need to conquer fear with faith.
In a speech at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Prime Minister drew on religious doctrine in a highly-personal address which warned [...]

New survey shows Americans turning to churches big and small for financial in addition to spiritual support.
The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey [...]

Jay Michaelson surveys the Bible’s prohibitions against usury and call’s today’s financial regulation “nothing more than an update of the ancient prohibitions on usury, or the unfair charging of interest.”
Today’s derivatives market, for example, is precisely about “making money from money” — but taken to new and ludicrous extremes. The credit default swaps which were largely [...]