An 11-year-old boy who hopes to become a Navy SEAL was suspended from a Maryland school after he used the word 'gun' in a conversation on board a school bus.

The sixth-grader at Northern Middle School in Owings was talking with a group of friends about the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre when the bus driver overheard the conversation.

"He said, 'I wish I had a gun to protect everyone from the bad guys,'' said Bruce Henkelman, the boy's father. "He wanted to be the hero." more >>

"This is a very complex verdict. We will have to study it before we make a determination on whether to appeal," Dan Andriacco, Communications director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

The Associated Press had previously reported that legal experts expect the archdiocese to launch an appeal following Monday's decision by a federal jury which awarded $171,000 to Christa Dias, the technology teacher who was fired in October 2010 after revealing that she had become pregnant by artificial insemination.

Dias, who worked at Holy Family and St. Lawrence schools in East Price Hill, Cincinnati, received $51,000 for back pay, $20,000 for compensatory damages, and $100,000 in punitive damages. Although the Catholic Church has argued that the teacher signed a contract that clearly states she must follow Catholic teachings, which prohibit artificial insemination, Dias' lawyer positioned that she worked as a non-ministerial employee and was not bound by such requirements. more >>

The trial of Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old private accused of leaking mass amounts of sensitive and classified information to Wikileaks, heard testimony today from Adrian Lamo, Manning's accuser.

In the greatest leak of sensitive information the U.S. has ever experienced, Manning is accused of 21 counts of leaking classified documents, as well as nine charges of misusing military computers and security systems, according to Al Jazeera.

Back in May 2010, when Manning was stationed in Iraq, he and hacker Adrian Lamo of WikiLeaks were communicating via instant messenger, The Washington Post reported. Shortly there after, Lamo alerted authorities of Manning's transgressions. more >>

A diocese that recently voted to break away from The Episcopal Church has alleged that the denomination is "holding hostage" the retirement accounts of over 80 lay employees.

The Diocese of South Carolina alleged that The Episcopal Church's insurance entity, the Church Pension Group, is refusing to allow lay employees to roll over their 403B plans. The Rev. Canon Jim Lewis, spokesman for the Diocese, explained to The Christian Post, "Similar to a 401K, a 403B is a tax-advantaged retirement account available for employees of non-profits or educational institutions.

"There are currently over 80 lay employees of the diocese and our parishes whose retirement savings are held in a 403B account controlled by the Church Pension Group. The Episcopal Church is not allowing these employees to roll their funds over to another qualified plan of their choosing." more >>

A legal effort by the faith-based organization Alliance Defending Freedom launched last year has resulted in 30 of the nation's public universities and colleges changing their policies to ensure that students' First-Amendment freedoms are protected, including Christian students' right to free speech and choice of leadership.  

"Public universities should encourage, not censor, the free exchange of ideas," said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. "This effort has given public universities and colleges the opportunity to respect the constitutionally protected freedoms of their students without any costly litigation. The objective has been to inform officials of how their policies conflict with the Constitution, as reinforced by numerous federal court rulings, so that the schools can make changes."

Among the problematic policies are various speech codes and zones that place unconstitutional restrictions on student speech, policies that force student clubs to accept voting members and officers that don't agree with the clubs' beliefs, and policies that allow non-religious student groups to use student activity fees but exclude religious student groups even though the students in those groups have contributed to the fees, according to ADF. more >>

An atheist group recently filed a lawsuit against a city in California for approving what it describes to be a "government-endorsed religious message" in the form of a veterans memorial.

The American Humanist Association is filing the suit through its legal arm, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, over the "Cross Monument," located at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

The monument – a large, polished black granite monument depicting a soldier kneeling in front of a Christian cross – was reportedly created as a special homage to fallen World War II soldiers, as the image of the kneeling soldier kneeling is an accurate representation of how veteran soldiers honored their fallen brothers. more >>