Pastor’s Wife and Accomplice Arrested For His Murder
An Oklahoma woman was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for urging her lover to fatally shoot her husband. Defendant Kristie Dawnell Evans, 49, testified at the hearing that the victim, her Baptist pastor husband David Evans, subjected her to abuse throughout their 30-year marriage. She estimated he forced her to have sex with 50 to 100 other men. “I was desperate,” she reportedly testified Tuesday. “I wanted to be free from that. I knew of no other way.” Evans is charged with conspiring with her lover, Kahlil Deamie Square, 27 to shoot and kill her husband. Read more about the case here,
18 Children Among Others Dead In Church Fire In Egypt
A fire at a Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday killed around 41 people, including 15 children. The Abu Sefein Church, in Giza’s working-class Imbaba district, was packed with people celebrating Mass that morning, including children and their parents. Many other children were attending classes or a nursery on the four-storey building’s first floor, where investigators believe the blaze started following an electrical short-circuit. The health ministry said most of the deaths were the result the smoke inhalation, and also a stampede when people rushed to flee the church through a blocked exit. Read more about the tragedy here.
Christian Schools Will Be Granted Automatic Title IX Exemption
In a major victory for religious liberty, the Biden administration on Friday agreed to automatically exempt religious schools from a new interpretation of Title IX that had threatened to halt funding for lunch programs if schools held to biblical standards on sexuality and marriage. At issue is the Biden administration’s interpterion of Title IX, a 1972 law that prohibits discrimination in education facilities on the basis of sex. The Biden administration interprets Title IX as also prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. the agreement stems from a lawsuit brought against the Biden administration saying the new rule violates federal law and school’s religious liberty rights under the U.S. Constitution. Read more about the victory here.
Eating Grapes May Add Years To Life Of Fast Food Eaters
New research suggests that snacking on grapes might combat the effects of consuming a junk food diet—flushing out the refined fats and sugars of processed food. Eating the grapes led to “unique gene expression patterns, reduced fatty liver, and extension of lifespan” for animals consuming the high-fat diet, said Dr. John Pezzuto who led the team at Western New England University. Pezzuto, who has authored over 600 studies, called it “truly remarkable.” “It adds an entirely new dimension to the old saying ‘you are what you eat.’” In a series of experiments, mice gorged on a high fat diet, similar to those consumed in western countries. They also received over a cup of daily powdered grape supplement. These lab rodents had less fatty liver—and lived longer than those who didn’t. Read more about the study here.