Duane “Dog” Chapman rose to reality TV stardom on “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” His life includes it all—being in prison, working as a bounty hunter, riding with a motorcycle gang, and fathering 13 children. Chapman isn’t afraid of talking about his bad choices that helped develop his faith and shape the man he is today.

“I was completely evil,” admitted Chapman, speaking about before his transformation. “I wasn’t demon-possessed; I was demon-oppressed.”

Dog the Bounty Hunter ‘Wasn’t Completely Turning His Back on God’ When He Earned the Nickname ‘Dog’

Growing up in a church in Denver, Chapman spent his weekends playing the tambourine while his mom, a pastor, played the organ. His father, however, was an abusive alcoholic. Chapman, at just 13 years old, confronted his dad with a knife. His dad got angry and threw Chapman out of the house, he shared recently with Eric Metaxas.

At the age of 15, and with a “cheap” fake ID saying he was 19, Chapman became the Sergeant of Arms of the National Chapter of the Devil’s Disciples, a biker gang.

Chapman’s adulthood was sprinkled with spiritual acts from his Christian heritage alongside poor decisions paired with devastating consequences.

“I wasn’t completely turning my back on God, just three-quarters of the way,” he said.

As a first-time father at age 16, Chapman said he held up his newborn baby towards God and said, “I dedicate this baby to you.” Chapman went on to have 12 more children from multiple relationships.

Chapman told the New York Times that he had been convicted of robbery 18 times and has captured 10,000 fugitives as a bounty hunter.

Biker gang members gave him the nickname, “Dog,” because he was “always talking about God” and prayed before meals. The nickname was “God spelled backwards.”

His biker gang participated in armed robberies and drug dealing. “We were as dangerous as the mafia,” recalled Chapman, speaking of his time participating in “organized crime” in the Devil’s Disciples.

When a drug deal and robbery went bad, Chapman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. While Chapman was in jail, a preacher came in to spend time with him. The preacher said he would pray for God to lower Chapman’s sentence. Later, one of his friends admitted to the crime, but a jury found all of those in the group guilty.

“I still had God inside me,” said Chapman.

Some scholars argue that the first Christians did not see Jesus as God but that the view of Jesus being divine developed over time. Author and theologian Dr. Gavin Ortlund responded to what he termed an “evolutionary Christology” and argued instead for a “big bang” perspective based on Philippians 2.

“Basically, I want to argue that, while there’s certainly development in the understanding of Jesus’ identity among his early followers, the fundamental pillars are right there, right out of the gate, as soon as we can tell, as soon as we have clear evidence,” said Ortlund in a video posted March 3.

“Specifically the earliest Christians, including Jewish Christians, bestowed divine honors upon Jesus,” Ortlund said. “They worshiped him, and they regarded him as participating in the identity of God. In other words, Christology is more like a big bang or a volcano than a gradual evolution.”

Gavin Ortlund: ‘This Is Big Bang Christology’

“It’s often claimed that the worship of Jesus as God is something that slowly evolves after Jesus’ life,” said Ortlund, noting that this was the view of Jesus offered in the novel “The Da Vinci Code.” In that book, one character claims that it was the Council of Nicea that decided Jesus’ identity was divine, but that, prior to that, his followers did not view him that way. 

RELATED: Gavin Ortlund Explains How We Can Know Which Books Should Be Part of the New Testament

“Now most evolutionary Christologies don’t go to that extreme,” Ortlund said. “That’s pretty radical, but you’ll hear something like this a lot—that after Jesus’ life, his followers’ perception of him as divine is something that gradually evolves, sometimes through the influence of Gentile Christians influenced by the broader pagan worship of the Greco-Roman world, but it’s very slow and step-by-step.”

“Others think that the early Christian worship of Jesus as God was relatively immediate,” said Ortlund, citing New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado, who “spoke of a big bang, or rapid explosion of Christology.”

“The goal of this video is to look back at the earliest evidence we have and ask whether the emergence of worshiping Jesus as God looks more like a gradual evolution or more like a big bang,” Ortlund explained.

To make his case, Ortlund focused on Philippians 2:6-11, which he called “a really important passage” and which says:

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Calling it “a moment I’ll never forget,” Oklahoma Pastor Mike Todd is praising God for transforming the lives of 16 couples on March 2. The lead pastor reflected on Sunday’s mass wedding at Tulsa’s Transformation Church, which saved the newlyweds money and time.

About a month ago, leaders at Transformation “felt really strongly that the burden of the wedding and the planning and all that stuff sometimes gets in the way of people actually doing what they’re wanting to do,” Todd told Fox23. “And because of the generosity of Transformation Church, I said, ‘Hey, anybody who wants to get married, in two weeks we’re having a wedding!’”

RELATED: Carl Lentz, Mike Todd Discuss Brokenness, Restoration and Transformation

Hundreds of people from across America responded, according to the pastor, and 16 couples “went all the way through with the process.” The church provided some marriage counseling to make sure everyone was prepared for the big step.

“All of these couples got to walk into marriage without the financial burden of a wedding,” Todd said. “The average wedding is like $20,000-plus, and all these couples get to go into their marriage thinking about each other and not a huge debt or a bill that’s happening.”

16 Couples Wed at Transformation Church

Sunday’s ceremony was an “awesome opportunity” to bless people, Todd said, as well as a “really fun event.” Afterward, the pastor posted that it would take him “ALL WEEK” to share the highlights. “BUT as I lay down tonight,” he wrote, “I am grateful that God continues to reveal new ways for the [church’s] vision of REPRESENTING to come to life.”

Although the couples participated in a mass wedding, they also experienced some personal moments. “We made it special and intimate for each [couple], as well as something that could be celebrated by the masses,” Todd said about the ceremony. “So each one of the brides got to walk down the aisle, meet their husband walked down by their father or brother, and they each had a moment.”

Couples expressed themselves through personal touches such as wardrobe choices too. “We told people God blesses who you really are not who you pretend to be,” said Todd. “So if people wanted to come in sweatsuits—there were people in sweatsuits—there were people in red and black and then there were people in traditional, because it’s really not about the outward. It’s about what’s in the heart in the commitment they made.”

Mass Wedding Transforms Lives

Todd invited the community to attend the celebration at SpiritBank Event Center, where Transformation Church meets. He posted a video of himself signing the 16 marriage licenses, plus 16 copies of his “Relationship Goals” book.

An Ohio pastor has been charged with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. Jesse Santos, pastor of Canton Seventh-day Adventist Church, is accused of threatening the life of the teen to keep her from reporting the incident. 

Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse, which some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing.

The incident occurred in September at a campground in Loudonville, Ohio. Police were called to the scene at the time. 

According to police, the child traveled with Santos to a campsite. She alleges that while there, Santos touched her inappropriately and bit her. The report said Santos also made the 13-year-old touch him sexually.

RELATED: Despite Numerous Abuse Accusations, Former Missouri Pastor and School Board President Faces No Charges

Santos, 59, was arraigned on Tuesday, Feb. 25. He has been charged with one count of kidnapping, two counts of gross sexual imposition, and one count of endangering children.

According to CantonRep, the Ashland County district attorney’s office said that DNA evidence was found to support the accusations against Santos.

“There was DNA testing done and the defendant’s DNA was found on the victim’s lips, confirming a lot of her story,” said Matt Metcalf, a prosecutor for the case. 

The Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists said in a statement that it was “informed on Feb. 15, 2025, that law enforcement took one of its employees into custody.” 

“We take this matter extremely seriously and are working closely with the local police to address the situation. Our highest priority is the well-being of our members, our employees, and the public,” the statement said.

RELATED: Elevation Church Youth Pastor Fired After Sexual Misconduct Allegations at Previous Youth Ministry Come to Light

“Upon learning of the detention, the Ohio Conference immediately placed the employee on administrative leave,” the statement continued. “We will remain in close communication with authorities in the coming hours and days and will provide additional information when we are able to verify the facts.”

WASHINGTON (RNS) — President Donald Trump‘s administration is making moves to shutter a decades-old partnership between the government and a group of mostly religious organizations to resettle refugees, with the State Department abruptly canceling grant agreements with all the agencies despite ongoing legal battles.

On Wednesday (Feb. 26), refugee resettlement organizations, such as Church World Service, HIAS and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say they received “termination notification” letters from the State Department.

“This award is being terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with Agency priorities and national interest,” read one of the letters, addressed to Church World Service, according to a legal filing from Thursday. “The decision to terminate this individual award is a policy determination vested in the Secretary of State.”

Leaders of the faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, which constitute seven of the 10 groups that partner with the government to perform the task, condemned the decision.

“Our status as a resettlement agency based on this termination notice is over,” Danilo Zak, director of policy for Church World Service, told RNS in an interview. He added that CWS is “still trying to figure out the legality” of the action and whether the administration intended to bring the partnership to such an abrupt end, but said, “I think we have to assume it did.”

He also noted the termination did not include a thorough review, which is the typical protocol for canceling a grant.

“We understand this is the result of an exceedingly cursory review of these programs,” Zak said.

He was echoed by Myal Greene, the president of World Relief, an evangelical Christian group.

“With the cancellation of World Relief and other Resettlement Agency agreements, this is effectively ending a 45 year, bi-partisan, refugee resettlement program with the stroke of a pen,” Greene said in a statement.

“As followers of Jesus, we are called to serve ‘the least of these,’ and cutting off life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities is an abdication of that responsibility,” Greene continued. “The Church has long played a role in alleviating suffering, but we cannot do it alone. Our government must uphold its commitment to protecting human dignity and aiding those in greatest need.”

Timothy Young, spokesperson for Global Refuge, a Lutheran organization that assists with refugee resettlement, told RNS all 10 resettlement orgs received the notices.

“Prior to this, we had received a stop work order from State and were hopeful it might be lifted after the administration’s 90-day review — but before that review could even be completed, our grants were terminated,” Young said in an email.

A new documentary is shedding light on a group of people who are part of the evangelical Christian tradition in a way, said Wheaton College theology professor Vincent Bacote, “that’s not just white and being a Republican.”

Black evangelicals, said Bacote, are too often unseen — the “orphan in our home faith community.” Over the last decade and a half, he has sought to remedy that by turning the history of Black evangelicals into a 90-minute documentary, “Black + Evangelical.” The film, produced in conjunction with his evangelical college and Christianity Today, premiered at a Feb. 21 screening on the school’s Chicago suburban campus.

Bacote, 59, said he hopes the documentary will answer a question he’s asked frequently since white evangelicals have become a force in American conservative politics. “Did you know that the word evangelical can mean something else than what you think it means if you read most of what’s in the media today?”

RELATED: Wheaton College Clash Over Russell Vought Escalates, Exposing Evangelical Fault Lines

Through two dozen interviews, historic photos and archived recordings, the documentary traces the experiences of Black evangelicals and the challenges of maintaining a dual identity, one often misunderstood by people who share either their religion or their race.

“A Black evangelical is not a white evangelical in Black face,” declares the Rev. Walter McCray, president of the National Black Evangelical Association, in the film. “There’s something very authentic and deeper. The most prominent Black evangelical in the Bible was Jesus.”

The documentary notes that there are 900 million evangelicals across the globe and an estimated 90 million in the United States, spanning faith traditions, denominations and races.

Statistics vary about how many of these groups are Black, especially as some members have distanced themselves from the term in recent years. But a Pew Research Center report released Feb. 26 found that 7% of U.S. evangelicals identified themselves as Black, up one percentage point from findings in 2014 and 2007. Public Religion Research Institute found in a 2023 study that 41% of Black Christians identify as evangelical or born again and 59% do not.

The documentary traces the early influence of Black evangelicals to Berlin M. Nottage, who came to the U.S. from the Bahamas with his two brothers in the early part of the 20th century and headed to northern cities to evangelize Black populations that had migrated there from the South.

“I had never been a part of a man’s life and ministry that was so saturated with Scripture as that man,” William “Bill” Pannell, an emeritus professor at Fuller Theological Seminary who died in the fall, said in the film. “And the Scriptures that he was particularly captivated by was that part of the word of God, that Pauline tradition that Nottage used to tell Black people who they really were, that they were really somebody.”

Some Black evangelicals grew up in traditional African American denominations and came into the evangelical movement through parachurch organizations such as The Navigators, Young Life and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Stan Long, an executive vice president of Tom Skinner Associates, the Black-run evangelism and leadership training group, talked in an interview in the documentary about the sense of isolation felt by many Black evangelicals, some of whom met while working as the sole Black employees at predominantly white evangelical organizations.

WASHINGTON (RNS) — After recent public sparring with Pope Francis and U.S. bishops, Vice President JD Vance struck a more conciliatory tone at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Friday (Feb. 28), seeking to alleviate tensions with the Catholic hierarchy while stopping short of abandoning views or policy positions that sparked the back and forth.

Speaking to a sprawling crowd of Catholics gathered at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the typically strident Vance described himself as a “baby Catholic” — a reference to his being a more recent convert to Catholicism — and framed himself as an “imperfect” Christian.

“I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith in public, because, of course, I’m not always going to get it right, and I don’t want my inadequacies in describing our faith to fall back on the faith itself,” said Vance, who converted to Catholicism and was baptized in 2019.

“So if you ever hear me pontificating about the Catholic faith, please recognize it comes from a place of deep belief, but it also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time.”

The remarks were a stark departure for Vance, who often engages publicly in controversial issues and is known to swap insults online and on TV — including in his recent debates with Catholic prelates. Within a week of his inauguration, Vance chided the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, accusing them, without citing evidence, of resettling “illegal immigrants” and being too reliant on government funds. “Are they actually worried about their bottom line?” the vice president asked.

Bishops have since repeatedly rejected Vance’s assertion. In February, Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, who oversees USCCB’s committee on migration, called Vance’s comments “a tremendous mischaracterization.

More recently, Vance ended up in a back-and-forth with the pope himself. After the vice president insisted during an interview that the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies — which include allowing arrests of immigrants at churches and promises of mass deportations — were in line with a “Christian concept” of loving citizens of your own country before “the rest of the world,” he doubled down on the argument online, telling a critic on the social media platform X to Google the theological idea known as “ordo amoris” before adding the commentator has “an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130.”

A few days later, Pope Francis rejected the vice president’s interpretation in a letter to U.S. bishops, though he did not name Vance.

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” Francis wrote in his letter.

Vance addressed the controversies directly in his speech, saying, “You know, sometimes the bishops don’t like what I say,” before adding, “sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.”

But Vance also appeared to suggest that while Catholics should not “ignore” clergy on matters of public policy, the vice president and other Catholics shouldn’t “obsess” over what they say.

“What I try to remind myself of is that we are not called as Christians to obsess over every social media controversy that implicates the Catholic Church, whether it involves a clergy or a bishop or the Holy Father himself,” he said. “I think that we should frankly take a page out of the books of our grandparents who respected our clergy, who looked to them for guidance, but didn’t obsess and fight over every single word that came out of their mouth and in our social media.”

Rhett and Link, popular YouTubers who left Christianity five years ago, gave an update last week about what life is like without faith. On their “Ear Biscuits” podcast and YouTube channel, which has 575,000 subscribers, the pair offered an annual recap with thoughts on spirituality, church life, morality, heaven and hell, and more.

Rhett McLaughlin, 47, and Link Neal, 46, met in first grade in 1984. Later they were roommates at North Carolina State University, where they attended Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). Both men worked briefly in engineering before joining the Cru staff, serving as missionaries, leading worship, and creating evangelism sketches.

In 2020, Rhett and Link both revealed they had deconstructed from their evangelical beliefs and were no longer Christians. The social media influencers were among several well-known leaders who walked away from Christianity around the same time.

RELATED: Rhett and Link Controversy: Lessons From the YouTubers’ Deconstruction

Rhett and Link Discuss Prayer

In what’s become an annual tradition, Rhett and Link addressed their deconstruction during a two-hour Feb. 17 podcast titled, “Link Actually Prayed.” The episode title came from Link’s admission that he talked to God for the first time in a while—something he mentioned on actor Rainn Wilson‘s “Soul Boom” podcast.

Link explained he was “super sad” about a situation, and prayer was “a bit of a whim, but my heart was in it.” Months later, he saw some “positive trajectory” occurring but didn’t necessarily credit prayer as the cause. “I do think it helped immediately in terms of being an exercise in empathy,” Link said about praying.

Link admitted he had always struggled with the concept of prayer, saying it’s “a lot of pressure” and “a little too much honor” because “God’s going to do what God’s going to do.” Rhett told Link it was “beautiful” he had prayed, saying it’s a powerful way of “connecting…with the recipient of the need.” Praying for someone is “a great way to focus and to love” someone, especially when you feel helpless, Rhett said.

But Rhett agreed about feeling conflicted on prayer. “It doesn’t make sense that God is waiting for me to get to this part of my checklist, so he’ll then be like, ‘Alright, now I can do this,’” he said. “It didn’t seem consistent…with what I understood about God.”

YouTubers Rhett and Link Deconstructed from Different Angles

The road to deconstruction varied for Rhett and Link, with Rhett taking a more intellectual approach and Link being more experiential. Rhett admitted he loves the academic angle of the debate because he’s always been “driven by the why” and by asking, “But is it true?”

During the podcast, the longtime friends took questions from callers who were also in the process of leaving their faith. When asked if he gets tired of talking about deconstruction, Rhett said he feels motivated to continue because “I truly do believe that it can be helpful for people.” But the influencer emphasized he doesn’t like being “fodder for content,” saying, “I feel like every time we talk about [deconstruction], we give people ammunition.”

Charles Brinson, bishop of Brinson Memorial Church in Trenton, New Jersey, has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old while the teen was unconscious. The teen told authorities that the pastor had “administered an unknown substance” before assaulting the teen in January and February of last year. 

“Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey announced today the arrest of a Trenton pastor for multiple counts of sexual assault against a 16-year-old victim,” said a Feb. 27 press release from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s office that was sent to ChurchLeaders in response to a request for comment.

The arrest was “the result of a joint investigation between the Special Victims Units of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the Trenton Police Department.”

RELATED: ‘Bling Bishop’ Lamor Whitehead Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison for Fraud, Extortion, Lying to Federal Agents

“Charles B. Brinson, 64, of Trenton, New Jersey, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, February 19, 2025,” said the press release. “He is charged with two counts first-degree aggravated sexual assault of an incapacitated victim, and two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The prosecutor’s office has filed a motion to detain Brinson pending trial.”

Charles Brinson Denied 2008 Sexual Assault Allegation

The alleged assaults of the teen took place at Charles Brinson’s home. WPVI News reports that after the second alleged assault, the victim was evaluated at a hospital. The pastor is reportedly detained in Mercer County pending trial. 

This controversy is not the first of its kind that Brinson has faced. In 2008, he was arrested based on allegations that he drove a church van to meet, pick up, and sexually assault a 15-year-old. The pastor denied having any sexual contact or even meeting the teen in person, although he admitted to befriending the teen in an online chatroom. 

NBC10 Philadelphia reports that Brinson was able to negotiate a guilty plea to a lesser corruption of minors charge. He had to register as a sex offender and serve four years probation. 

The church leader has additionally drawn controversy for his opulent lifestyle, including driving luxury cars and wearing fur coats, as well as for a previous involvement in a “money-for-marriage citizenship scam.”

As social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday (Feb. 27), controversy broke out among conservatives about whether the brothers ought to be welcome in the United States. 

Andrew Tate, ‘King of Toxic Masculinity,’ Returns to the United States

Andrew Tate, 38, is a former professional kickboxer and a lifestyle influencer who has been referred to as the “king of toxic masculinity.” 

A self-described misogynist, Tate has appeared in numerous online videos bragging about choking, beating, and sexually assaulting women. He also recently advocated for conservatives to embrace using the Nazi salute as an act of defiance against political correctness. 

Tate also sells online courses in which he advises young men about how to gain wealth and attract women.

The Tate brothers have dual U.S.-British citizenship. They traveled to the United States from Romania, where they face charges of human trafficking. They were initially arrested in Bucharest in June 2022. 

While the Tate brothers have not been brought to trial, the case remains open, and the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) alleges that the Tates and two others conspired to traffic women in Romania, the U.S., and Britain.

DIICOT has launched a second case against the Tate brothers, investigating allegations of human trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor, and money laundering.

Until recently, the brothers were barred from leaving the country. That changed after an official in the Trump administration expressed interest in the case. Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu insists that this interest did not “amount to pressure,” according to Associated Press. 

Andrew Tate, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, has said that he is “very close to the Trump family.” 

“I know them well,” Tate said sometime after an attempt on Trump’s life in July. “I look forward to, once I am free, being with Donald Trump in person and reminding him that he’s a bulletproof badass.” 

RELATED: Conservative Christian Media Leaders Disagree Over Trump’s Treatment of AP

When asked, President Trump denied being aware that the Tate brothers had returned to the U.S., saying, “I just know nothing about it. We’ll check it out. We’ll let you know.”