Poor Mojo's Newswire

The boy, whose name was not released, was kidnapped on March 18 after his mother took him to a group home operated by the church to seek guidance because she was having some kind of disciplinary issues with him, police Sgt. Frank Barron said. Remmers instructed two men who lived at the home to scare the boy, and they drove him about 100 miles to the Barstow desert, police said. "They had him dig a hole, threatened that they would kill him, as well as hit him with a shovel and partially threw dirt on him while he was in the hole," Barron said. The boy was returned to the group home, where he was bound with a plastic tie and sprayed in the face with Mace, Barron said. Later, he was taken to the pastor's home for Bible study during which Remmers pinched him with pliers although none of his injuries required hospitalization, police said. The boy's 30-year-old mother has not been arrested, but the boy and his 7-year-old sister were taken into protective custody while the investigation continues, police said. The mother's name has not been released. Investigators are trying to determine if there were other possible victims, Barron said. The church's website says its mission is "to raise the church body to be true disciples of Christ, meaning that if Christ would not think it, say it, or do it, neither will we."

A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah's Ark. The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories. Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it." . . .

In the day's most startling testimony, a detective read internal church memos about a priest who allegedly "joked about how hard it was to have sex with three boys in one week." His accuser also stated that the priest had a "rotation process" of boys spending time sleeping with him. Defense lawyers argue that Lynn tried to address the problem as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, but was blocked by the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and others in the Philadelphia archdiocese. The testimony Monday also included a 1992 complaint about a different priest who allegedly molested boys at a church-owned camp three decades earlier. Several junior counselors complained in the early 1960s that the priest was on the prowl at night, molesting them in their tents. They said it was a well-known secret among teen counselors for several years.