Faith Digest : Film ‘casts out’ Satan

Producers get the devil out of movie about Jesus. Producers of the Son of God film cut Satan from their movie after controversy swirled around the actor who portrayed the devil in their earlier production for the History Channel, The Bible. Roma Downey, former star of Touched by an Angel, and her husband, Mark, felt blindsided when “the media went nuts” over the resemblance between the actor in the TV miniseries and President Barack Obama. “I knew it was just like Satan the narcissist to make it all about him and create division. I am sure he loved being the center of attention for even one day,” she wrote in a recent commentary for USA Today. “But for our movie, Son of God, I wanted all of the focus to be on Jesus. I want his name to be on the lips of everyone who sees this movie, so we cast Satan out. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting room floor. This is now a movie about Jesus, the Son of God, and the devil gets no more screen time, no more distractions.”

Snake-handling pastor dies of snakebite. Jamie Coots, Jamie Coots, a serpent-handling pastor and co-star of the “Snake Salvation” reality television show, died Feb. 15 from a snakebite.a serpent-handling pastor and co-star of the Snake Salvation reality television show, died Feb. 15 after suffering a snakebite during a church service. He was 42. Coots, pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Ky., was found dead at his house around 10 p.m. Coots had been bitten at the church and passed out there, Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe said. Emergency workers went to the church and to Coots’ home, but his family members refused medical care, Sharpe added. The police chief said there were no plans to press any charges in relation to Coots’ death.

Nun, age 84, sentenced to prison for nuclear plant break-in. An 84-year-old nun was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Feb. 18 for breaking into a Tennessee nuclear facility in July 2012. Sister Megan Rice and two other anti-nuclear activists were convicted last May of breaking into a federal complex that stores enriched uranium. Sister Megan Rice (RNS Photo by Michael Patrick, courtesy of Knoxville News Sentinel)U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar in Knoxville said he wanted the sentence to send a signal that others need to work for change within the bounds of the law. The three activists have been in custody since May, when a federal jury convicted them of damaging the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, and could have received up to 20 years for the crime. Rice, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, broke into the Tennessee facility with Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, and Michael Walli, 64. The three used wire cutters to slice through multiple security fences. Once inside the fence, the three spray-painted messages, including “the fruit of justice is peace,” and splattered blood on one of the buildings. Boerjte-Obed and Walli were each sentenced to 62 months. In addition to their sentences, the three will receive three years of supervised probation after their release.