Florida

A former Home Depot worker plans to sue the American retailer after he was fired for wearing a religious button.

Trevor Keezer, who wore a "One nation under God ... indivisible" button for over a year, was let go last week for violating the company's dress code.

"It feels kind of like a punishment, like I was punished for just loving my country," Keezer of Okeechobee, Fla., said, according to The Associated Press. more >>

We’ve heard of the phrase separation of church and state, but separation of church and sports?

That’s what a Florida sports columnist is calling for.

Sam Cook of the Fort Myers News-Press says he can’t stand Tim Tebow – superstar quarterback of the University of Florida Gators – faithfully praising the Lord and displaying “John 3:16” on his black under-eye markings. more >>

Runaway teen convert Rifqa Bary will be returned to her home state of Ohio, Florida and Ohio judges decided Tuesday.

Bary, 17, will be turned over to foster care once she arrives in Ohio, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Both state judges agreed after weeks of discussion that the teen, who ran away to Florida for fear of being physically harmed by her Muslim parents for converting to Christianity, is under the jurisdiction of Ohio.

But before Florida state relinquishes custody of Bary, Florida circuit Judge Daniel Dawson required the teen's parents to provide documents that prove they are legal residents in the United States. Bary’s temporary guardian raised concern that if the teen is staying illegally in the United States then she could be sent back to Sri Lanka where her family is originally from. more >>

More than 400 people from the late D. James Kennedy’s famed Florida megachurch have left to form their own congregation following an unsuccessful effort to ouster their new pastor.

Organizers of the new congregation said its first service this past Sunday drew more than 450 people – nearly all of which came from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale. That’s around how many church members had voted last month against keeping the Rev. Tullian Tchividijan as the megachurch’s second senior minister in five decades.

That’s also around how many the Coral Ridge transition team was told the church would probably lose even before a seemingly smooth leadership transition came across some turbulence. more >>

The father of the runaway teen convert filed a criminal complaint Monday against the Orlando pastors who sheltered his daughter for more than two weeks before she was taken into Florida state custody.

Mohamed Bary sent a letter to the Orlando Police Department claiming his daughter, Rifqa, was “indoctrinated and coerced” by leaders of the Global Revolution Church in Orlando and “hidden” by the church’s pastors, Blake and Beverly Lorenz.

In response to the complaint, the judge overseeing the current custody battle between Rifqa and her parents said no member of the Lorenz family can visit the 17-year-old runaway, who is in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Though the two pastors were already banned from meet Rifqa, prior to the order, their adult children were allowed to visit her. more >>