God moments of the World Cup

Christianity Today offers a list of moments when players acknowledged God's role in their lives at World Cup in a post here.

Benny Hinn's Son Arrested

The son of evangelist Benny Hinn is back in the U.S. after allegedly "beating up" a deaf man in Brazil during "one of his father's events" over the weekend. According to local newspapers, the elder Hinn was on stage when Joshua Hinn grabbed a man who he thought was going to throw water on his father. The man, Hestephenson Araujo, wasn't able to speak and explain his actions--he brought a bottle of water with him so that Hinn could use it to "bless" him. The deaf man had to go to the hospital after Hinn and two American bodyguards took him to a trailer park and beat him up in the northern Brazilian town of Manaus. Araujo's father says Hinn's representatives talked him into not press charges--by offering a "large sum of money".

Evangelicals on the march

From The Week magazine: In a sign of the exploding popularity of evangelical Christianity, at least 1 million evangelicals turned out for this year’s “March for Jesus” in Brazil. Over the past decade, Catholics have dropped from 74 percent of the country’s population to 65 percent, while Protestants have jumped from 15 percent to 22 percent, mostly evangelicals and Pentecostals. These sects are spreading rapidly through megachurches, the Internet, and an army of pastors. The Assemblies of God alone has 50,000 ordained pastors in Brazil, compared with some 25,000 Catholic priests.

Bishop Removed from Leadership Position

The Catholic Bishop who’s created an international controversy for his denial of the Holocaust no longer leads a seminary in Argentina. Richard Williamson no longer the director of the La Reja seminary on the outskirts of the Argentina capital. The Pope had rescinded William’s excommunication last month but the Vatican recently called on him to recant his views.

Report: CIA at Fault for Missionary Deaths

The CIA was negligent when it helped Peru’s air force shoot down a small plane carrying missionaries in 2001. That’s the finding of the agency's inspector general. A new report says a CIA surveillance plane was confused over whether or not the missionary aircraft was running drugs. But procedures were ignored and the plane was shot down – killing Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter. The report says the program to intercept drug-runners was poorly run Congressman Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, criticized the CIA, saying the agency caused "needless" deaths. Three years ago, while the report was still classified, the Justice Department decided not to bring charges against those at fault.