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The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia

All photos by Noah Friedman-Rudovsky. Noah Friedman-Rudovsky also contributed reporting to this article.

For a while, the residents of Manitoba Colony thought demons were raping the town’s women. There was no other explanation. No way of explaining how a woman could wake up with blood and semen stains smeared across her sheets and no memory of the previous night. No way of explaining how another went to sleep clothed, only to wake up naked and covered by dirty fingerprints all over her body.

MDS volunteers tackle mud in High River

This is a typical scene Dyck encountered in the MDS clean-up. --MDS photo

Gerald Dyck talks with Darcie Janzen (MDS meal organizer for volunteers) in the MDS trailer.

Editor's Note:  The response to the flood disaster in High River, Alta, has been overwhelming.  Here Gerald and Lee Dyck, who spent a week there directing clean-up efforts, give a first-hand account of the their time there.  Dyck is the MDS director for British Columbia.

Jewish ex-gay group faces suit for consumer fraud

A month after the nation’s leading Christian “ex-gay” group apologized and announced plans to close, a similar Jewish group is facing a first-of-its-kind lawsuit for consumer fraud.

On Friday (July 19) the New Jersey Superior Court will hear arguments in the lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center against the group Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing.

COMMENTARY: Preaching in the shadow of the Trayvon Martin verdict

Preaching on the Sunday morning after the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin verdict seemed daunting. It turned out not to be so.

The worship bulletin was already printed. Hymns had been chosen. So were the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary. It seemed perfectly served up for a guest preacher like me rewriting the sermon on the fly.

Ex-president Morsi

On the first anniversary of his inauguration as Egypt’s first ever elected president Mohamed Morsi found himself facing demonstrations, unprecedented in size, demanding his dismissal. At times it felt as if the entire population was on the streets, the vast majority asking Morsi to go.

ANALYSIS: A cultural wave on gay marriage reaches the US Supreme Court

Sometimes a court opinion is more than just a court opinion.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s 26-page decision Wednesday (June 26) striking down a federal ban on same-sex marriages offers a window into Americans’ rapidly shifting views of same-sex relationships — a shift that increasingly relies on matters of law and fairness, not moral or religious views.

Temporary Housing for Flood Victims

The house on the bottom right corner belongs to Erinne Wolfe, a member of Trinity Mennonite Church. She is scheduled to leave for Europe on Thursday but can’t get into her house to retrieve her passport. They tried to get through yesterday but weren’t successful, according to Rita Janzen.

Editor's Note:  With our Alberta correspondent, Donita Wiebe-Neufeld, on sabbatical, we asked Rita Janzen to give a first person account as an update to after-flood conditions in High River. This is her story.

Ex-gay group Exodus International shuts down, president apologizes

Exodus International, a group that bills itself as “the oldest and largest Christian ministry dealing with faith and homosexuality,” announced late Wednesday (June 19) that it’s shutting its doors.

Exodus’s board unanimously agreed to close the ministry and begin a separate one, though details about a new ministry focused on gender and sexuality are still being worked out.

Lutherans and Catholics bury the hatchet for Reformation’s 500th

Martin Luther, founder of Germany’s Protestant (Lutheran) Church, nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. Religion News Service file photo

Lutherans and Catholics have pledged to celebrate together the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017, with both sides agreeing to set aside centuries of hostility and prejudice.

Vancouver Peace Choir Builds Bridges

Cris Derksen and choir

Tim Corlis, back to viewer, Randy Wood on drum and James Meger on bass, with choir.

Russell Wallace and Hussein Janmohammed with choir

Kirsten Wood, singer, composer, program organizer with choir and Tim Corlis on right with hand drum.

East Vancouver is one of the city's most culturally diverse areas. Thus, it was entirely fitting that Tim Corlis brought his Vancouver Peace Choir there to give a very special concert.

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