Top Russian government official Alexander Torshin is a longtime attendee of the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., with close ties to the breakfast’s associated organization, the Fellowship. The breakfast is a gathering of thousands of political and ministry leaders from the United States and all over the world, and the U.S. president has attended every year since 1953.

In some ways it’s no surprise the international community rejected Ken Isaacs, the Samaritan’s Purse vice president and Trump nominee to lead the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Washington Post and others ran a steady campaign against Isaacs after digging up several of his tweets deemed anti-Muslim. 

An Australian judge ruled Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s head budget officer, must stand trial for sexual abuse charges. After four weeks of closed preliminary hearings, Magistrate Belinda Wallington dismissed about half of the charges against Pell but said the remainder had sufficient evidence to present to a jury. Pell’s high-profile career spanned decades in Australia, culminating in a 13-year stint as archbishop of Sydney before his promotion to the Vatican in 2014. Pope Francis allowed Pell a leave of absence last year to return to Australia to defend himself.

The elders of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago said in a letter Saturday they could have done a better job holding former Senior Pastor Bill Hybels accountable for inappropriate behavior toward women. “Bill acknowledged that he placed himself in situations that would have been far wiser to avoid,” the elders wrote.

When Blake Farenthold, a conservative Republican, became on April 6 the latest member of Congress to resign following a sex scandal, some asked why he had changed his mind and left so abruptly. The harder question was, “How did he ever get elected?”

Pastor Bill Hybels announced Tuesday night his early retirement from Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago following accusations of sexual misconduct made by women several times during his years in ministry. Hybels was scheduled to retire as senior pastor in October after more than 40 years of leading the megachurch but said at a Tuesday night meeting with church members he would step down immediately because the controversy was a distraction to the church’s ministry.

I remember when I was a 9-year-old pastor/missionary’s kid growing up in Singapore, there was a man who always loitered around our church after Sunday service. My father’s church shared the same building with another church, and that man was a regular attender of that church’s morning service.