NEW YORK CITY: Churches Win Temporary Stay On Public School Evictions

The 160 churches that operate virtually free in New York City's public schools have been granted a temporary reprieve from the eviction ordered by a federal court of appeals.

Alliance Defense Fund says the temporary restraining order is in effect for 10 days while the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York more fully considers constitutional arguments about the city’s unique-in-the-nation prohibition on worship services in vacant public school buildings on weekends. As ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence puts it, “Churches help communities; evicting churches hurts communities. Empty buildings offer nothing to communities that need hope.”

Andy Humm reports at Gay City News that anti-gay Christian groups are operating a "church planting" network intended to indoctrinate children attending public schools.

The congregation’s legal argument relied on the Supreme Court’s Good News v. Milford Central School ruling that allowed religious meetings in schools. In “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children,” published last month, Katherine Stewart argues that the “real mission” of Good News Clubs in schools is to “convert children to fundamentalist Christianity and encourage them to proselytize to their ‘unchurched’ peers, all the while promoting the false but unavoidable impression among the children that its activities are endorsed by the school.” She also documents how leaders “of the church-planting movement have declared their ambition to turn all 1,200 of New York City’s schools into churches.”

As an example of the type of churches granted the above-cited reprieve, here's what the Village Church, which operates out of PS 3 on Hudson Street, has on its website.You read that right. An "ex-gay" ministry affiliated with Exodus is operating in New York City public schools. And YOU are paying for it. Why not just charge us for the rope used to hang us?

Christian Network Accused Of $50M Ripoff

The world's largest Christian television network, Trinity Broadcasting, has been accused of funneling $50 million in viewer donations to the company's directors. Freak show televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch (above) are the global faces of the network.

The charges are leveled in a federal lawsuit filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper last week against her former lawyers, who also do legal work for TBN. "Observers have often wondered how the Crouches can afford multiple mansions on both coasts, a $50 million jet and chauffeurs,” said Tymothy MacLeod, Koper's attorney. “And finally, with the CFO coming forward, we have answers to those questions.” Koper had served as chief financial officer, director of finance, corporate treasurer and director of human resources for Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, which does business as Trinity Broadcasting Network, according to the suit. Koper's complaint is not directed against her grandparents or TBN – but against the two attorneys who handle some TBN legal work, and who once worked for Koper herself. She accuses them of professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and other transgressions in the suit.

RELATED: In 2010 Paul Crouch Jr., the son of the network's founder, was forced to settle a sexual harassment suit filed by a gay male employee who claimed that Crouch had taunted him with female pornography and had told co-workers that he has a "mangina." The details of that settlement were not made public. In 1994 the network paid a settlement of $425,000 to a man who claimed that he was forced have sex with Paul Crouch, Sr. in order to keep his job.

NEW YORK CITY: Pepper-Sprayed Occupy Wall Street Protesters Sue The NYPD

Two women who were pepper-sprayed by the NYPD as they were held inside a protesters pen have filed a lawsuit. The incident was caught live by local news cameras and the video instantly went globally viral, fueling other Occupy protests around the nation.

Chelsea Elliott and Jeanne Mansfield are suing Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna in Manhattan Federal Court for blasting them in the face with pepper-spray during a protest last Sept. 24 near Union Square. Bologna was docked 10 days of vacation for violating NYPD regulations. In an interview Monday, Mansfield, 24, a Boston writer, said she was suing because she wanted to put the NYPD on notice that what Bologna did was wrong. "I was attending a peaceful demonstration when I was met with what I feel was an undue amount of force," she said. Mansfield said she is sympathetic to police in general but said she didn't deserve to be pepper-sprayed. "

The suit claims that the women's right to free assembly and free speech were violated by the attack.

BRITAIN: Christian Hotel Loses Appeal To Refuse Service To Same-Sex Couples

In a case watched closely in the United States, today a British hotelier lost his court battle to have the right to refuse accommodations to same-sex couples.

The Court of Appeal has today upheld a landmark court ruling in favour of a gay couple refused a room by the religious owners of Cornwall hotel. Martin Hall and Steven Preddy, civil partners, had successfully sued devout Christians Peter and Hazelmary Bull for sexual orientation discrimination. They had been turned away from the Chymorvah Hotel near Penzance in 2008 under the Bulls’ policy of not allowing unmarried couples to share rooms. In January 2011 a judge at Bristol County Court ruled that the Bulls’ behaviour amounted to direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and awarded a total of £3,600 damages to Mr Hall and Mr Preddy.

Ever since the first ruling in this case, American hate groups have cited it as an example of the coming avalanche of "religious oppression" in the United States. Today's decision will surely make it into the stump speeches of anti-gay candidates.

SPLC Sues To Overturn DOMA

The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the federal government on behalf of a disabled lesbian veteran and her partner.

Tracey Cooper-Harris served her country for 12 years in the U.S. Army. She received more than two dozen medals and commendations. She was honorably discharged in 2003. In 2010, Cooper-Harris was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a disabling disease that attacks the brain and central nervous system. The Department of Veterans Affairs denied Cooper-Harris’ request for benefits for her partner, even though their same-sex marriage was recognized by California. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cooper-Harris and her partner, charging that the Department of Veterans Affairs discriminated against them by denying these benefits but granting them to spouses in heterosexual marriages. It also charges the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional because it bans federal agencies from recognizing such same-sex marriages, denying these couples benefits available to couples in heterosexual marriages

Newt Sued Over Campaign Song

He's been using Eye Of The Tiger as his entrance music for years, but Survivor has finally gotten around to suing Newt Gingrich.

Rude Music Inc. -- owned by a member of the band Survivor -- filed the suit today in federal court in Illinois ... claiming Newt has jacked the song made famous in "Rocky III" to push his political agenda. According to the lawsuit, Newt has been using the song at various political events since 2009. In the suit, Rude Music claims Gingrich used the song at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2009, 2010 and 2011 ... as well as the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in 2010.