Bible College president arrested on labor charges

The president of Cathedral Bible College in Marion, South Carolina was arrested this week. Reginald Wayne Miller is accused of making international students perform forced labor on threats of deportation. WSPA-TV has this video report.

WSPA.com

School Cancels Christmas Toy Drive Under Legal Pressure

A South Carolina school has stopped its annual Christmas toy drive threats of a lawsuit. WLTX-TV has a video report, which is posted below.

Sentenced to read the Bible

A South Carolina women was ordered to read the Bible as part of her DUI sentence for driving the wrong way down a road and causing an accident that severely injured two men. Her blood alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit. Judge Michael Nettles gave Cassandra Belle Tolley eight years. When she gets out, Tolley has five years probation, counseling - and an order to read and write a summary of the book of Job.

Dead Bunny

A South Carolina church sends out post cards showing a dead Easter Bunny. WVLA-TV has a video report here.

Churchgoers subdue gunman

Evangelical Leaders Throw Support to Santorum

Some 150 influential Evangelical leaders meeting in Texas have endorsed the presidential bit of Rick Santorum shortly ahead of the South Carolina primary. The group met at a ranch outside of Houston in an effort to consolidate their support behind one candidate rather than splinter the conservative vote. Evangelicals and social conservatives make up more than half of the Republican electorate in South Carolina. Those attending include Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, American Family Association founder Don Wildmon, and American Values president Gary Bauer.

Lawsuit over School Event

The ACLU is suing the Chesterfield County, South Carolina school board over a school assembly held in September at New Heights Middle School. It featured a Christian rapper and a youth evangelist. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jonathan Anderson who is an atheist and his son, who attends the school. They say the rally was an unconstitutionally promotion of Christianity. The school district says it hasn't seen the lawsuit yet.

BJU Questions 'Fundamentalist' Label

A look at Bob Jones University here.

Pastor Never Attended Liberty

Liberty University says a South Carolina pastor who faces rape charges never attended the school founded by Jerry Falwell. Dale Richardson is the pastor at Freedom Free Will Baptist Church in Ladson, South Carolina. Prosecutors say he kidnapped three women at gunpoint, assaulting one of the women behind the church sanctuary.

Pastor Accused of Raping Women at Church

A Baptist preacher is facing charges he raped three women, at least one of them behind his church. WCIV-TV has a video report.

Preacher's Son Shot to Death

The son of the president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention was found shot to death in Charleston, South Carolina. Brian Eliot Holmes died from a single gunshot wound after crashing the car he was driving. His father, Sonny Holmes, is pastor of North Charleston's Northwood Baptist Church and serves as president of the state's Baptist Convention, which includes some 1800 congregations.

Getting to Know... Bob Jones University

1927 - Founded as Bob Jones College by Bob Jones Sr. in College Point, Florida
1933 - The school moved to Cleveland, Tennessee
1947 - Reopened as Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina
2000 - Bob Jones III is quoted in a campus paper as saying Catholicism is a cult George W. Bush speaks at the school during his presidential campaign. The school drops its ban on interracial dating
2005 - 5,000 students, more than 100 undergraduate majors and 55 graduate degrees

Dog Killed for Chewing on Bible

A South Carolina woman is facing charges she abused her nephew's dog for chewing on her Bible. Prosecutors say Miriam Smith of Spartanburg used an electrical cord to hang the dog and burn its body. Police say she called it a "devil dog." She had apparently left the Bible on her porch. Smith could get as much as five years in prison.

Con Man Posing As Pastor

South Carolina's WCBD-TV has a video report on a man who claims to be a pastor to get money.

Homegrown Jihad

The Christian Action Network is putting up billboards near Islamic communities around the country to promote a documentary called Homegrown Jihad. It warns about the dangers of radical Islam. One in South Carolina is known as Islamville which has been identified in a report from the Nashville-based Regional Organized Crime Information Center as a paramilitary training compounds. The leader of the community was once listed as an international terrorist. An elder denies those claims and the local sheriff says there's no indication of criminal activity. Neighbors close to a villiage in upstate New York called Holy Islamville say they regularly hear gunfire.

College Firings on Hold

A judge has issued a temporary injunction stopping the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church from removing 14 Erskine College board members. Three of the trustees filed suit against the church. Students at the South Carolina school have complained that professors are promoting nonChristian views in the classrooms.

$10 Million to College

A Columbia, South Carolina pastor is giving $10 million to a college from his Power Ball winnings. Solomon Jackson Jr. who pastors New Shiloh Baptist Church, won a $260 million lottery jackpot this past summer. He attended Morris College some 30 years ago where he studied theology. Now he's giving the school the gift to pay for a new administration building, a new dormitory and various scholarships to the private, historically African-American college.

Nativity Display Returns

After being told to take down a nativity scene, a fire station in South Carolina has put it back up - along with other holiday decorations.The Charleston Fire Department had the station add Santa, a menorah, Kwanzaa Kinara, elves and reindeer. The Freedom From Religion Foundation had threatened to sue if the nativity scene remained by itself.

Priest Wins at Poker

A South Carolina priest picked up $100,000 for his church in a poker tournament. Andrew Trapp of St. Michael Catholic Church won the money in the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge which will be televised this weekend. He says the winning will go toward building a new facility about 10 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach. Aiken started learing Texas Hold'Em while attending seminary. A retired New York Police detective won the tourney's top price of a million dollars.

TV Show Pays Big Salaries

Freda Crews' Bible Study Time television and radio programs are paying her family nearly a million dollars a year. She gets a salary of $370,000 from the South Carolina nonprofit. Her husband received $416,000 a year until he died after a fall at the age of 75. Both a son and grandson are on the payroll. Freda Crews is seen on the TV show Time for Hope and William Crews appeared on The Awakening Hour before his death.