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Among the items in this issue of Religion News Briefs: Criticizing the Mormon Church can get you excommunicated. Leaving the destructive Scientology cult is scary (and wise). 
A judge has ruled that religious beliefs and practices can be used as evidence in the manslaughter trial of a couple charged with manslaughter in the faith-healing death of their 12-year old daughter. 
The Nebraska Board of Pardons on Tuesday commuted the sentence of former cult member Timothy Haverkamp, who has been on parole since 2009. 
Bloggers have been picking apart the claims of a man who says he is a Muslim-turned-Christian. Ergun Caner has sued some of them for posting a video they say shows him lying. Thus far, the bloggers are winning. 
Narconon facilities are billed as a ‘drug rehab’ centers. But the organization’s approach is built on the quackery of fantasist L. Ron Hubbard, the dishonest man who saddled us with the Scientology cult. Small wonder then that Narconon is facing heaps of legal problems. 
Authorities in Texas have today taken physical possession of the 1,700-acre Yearning For Zion Ranch that until recently belonged to the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).