Religion/ Spirituality

Jussie Smollett is taking Lent very seriously this year, choosing to give up food while behind bars ... and he's intending to stick to it for nearly 5 more weeks.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Jussie's fasting for spiritual reasons and hasn't eaten anything since Lent started on March 3, a full week before he started serving his sentence in Cook County Jail -- and he's continued the fast behind bars.

We're told all he's ingested is water, and while his plan is to keep that up until Lent ends on April 17, Easter Sunday ... he's taking things "one day at a time."

Our sources say Jussie remains in good spirits, noting this is not a hunger strike or protest to his imprisonment. Remember, Jussie made a point to repeatedly say, during his sentencing, he is not suicidal.

He's nearly 2 weeks into the fast, and we're told he's still physically okay and in "good spirits." Cook Co. Sheriff's Office says it can't comment on religious or spiritual practices of individuals, but did say jail staff monitors all inmates to "ensure their health and wellness."

On Wednesday, his brother, Jocqui said Jussie had been moved out of the psych ward thanks to fan support, with #FreeJussie circulating online.

While he claimed his brother was kept in a restrained bed during his time in the ward, a rep for the sheriff's office says that wasn't the case and denied Jussie's bed had any restraints.

We're also told he was moved out of the ward because health services needed space for another detained person, and the decision to move him was made by medical professionals.

Rockmond Dunbar is taking Disney and 20th Television to federal court over his ouster from "9-1-1" ... accusing the studios of discriminating against him based on his race and religion.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Rockmond claims he was the only Black male lead actor on the TV show and his dismissal severely damaged his career.

In the docs, Rockmond claims he submitted paperwork seeking both a religious and medical exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine, and says producers assured him they wanted him to remain on the show and his schedule would be adjusted to accommodate him being unvaccinated.

Instead, Rockmond claims he was barred from the set and assured his character's storyline would show him leaving temporarily, keeping open the possibility for him to return down the road.

But Rockmond claims that never happened either ... in his suit, he says Disney and 20th Television fired him in retaliation and refused to pay him the hundreds of thousands of dollars he says he's still owed.

What's more, Rockmond claims the studios not only refused to accommodate his vaccine exemption requests, but also deliberately made it sound like he was an anti-vaxxer ... and he says he essentially became persona non grata in Hollywood.

Rockmond's going after the studios for money, and he wants an injunction barring the studios from discriminating against anyone based on race or religion when it comes to vaccination policies.

We reached out to Disney and 20th Television ... so far, no word back.

Bill Maher went in hard Friday night, using Whoopi Goldberg as an example of how America has become a hateful, spiteful country that celebrates a misinformed view of karma.

The 'Real Time' host railed on the concept of karma, saying it's bulls*** to begin with -- no such thing -- but the lore of karma was actually a positive, zen-type thing, but we've made it a thing of revenge.

Bill's phone was filled with texts after Whoopi was suspended, with friends telling him how happy they were that karma hit her hard. Bill lashed out at his buds, saying yeah, Whoopi has gone after him for his views on COVID and other stuff, but that's called free speech.

He also says she's wrong on COVID and was wrong when she talked about race -- the thing that got her benched for 2 weeks -- but that's called disagreement. As he says, she has a right to speak, and the cure for misinformed speech is more speech. And, as he hilariously mused, Whoopi has a rock-solid defense -- "F*** it, it's 11 AM!"

As Bill puts it, "The View" suspending Whoopi for her views is like firing Pat Sajak for selling a vowel.

Julia Haart, the star of Netflix's "My Unorthodox Life," is getting dragged into court by her estranged hubby ... who claims she made off with $850k from a company account.

Silvio Scaglia and Freedom Holding Inc. are suing Julia ... claiming she misappropriated the funds after finding out she was going to be dismissed as the CEO at Elite World Group.

Silvio runs EWG, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding, and in a lawsuit, he says she made the huge withdrawal on Tuesday, the day after finding out she was getting the ax.

It's interesting ... the alleged withdrawal went down the day before Julia filed to divorce Silvio after 3 years of marriage.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Silvio claims he gave Julia a 50% stake in Freedom Holding back in 2019, and she became the CEO of EWG that same year ... a job that gave her access to the company bank account.

Julia's ex claims they met in January to discuss company finances and agreed to place limits on what she could withdraw ... no more than $250k to cover a mortgage, rent and living expenses, and he claims she took out $250k shortly after that agreement was made.

Silvio says EWG sent a letter to Julia outlining reasons for her dismissal, and it cites an alleged increase in costs and expenses beyond the budget. It also blames Haart for the company's failure to raise new money.

Silvio claims Julia swiped the money as retaliation for getting fired, and he's suing to get back the $850k, plus damages.

We reached out to Julia ... so far, no word back.

Al Sharpton says Joe Rogan needs to do more to prove he’s learned from this controversy over his use of the n-word — but what "more" looks like, exactly, is still a bit hazy.

We got the reverend Monday in NYC and asked if he was buying JR’s apology, and while Sharpton says the guy seems sincere, he’d like to see some actions behind the words to show true penance.

As he points out, Joe didn’t just drop the n-word a couple times ... he said it several times, and not just that -- the apology came after he was exposed by the resurfacing of old clips, instead of an upfront confession.

With that in mind -- and with a shout-out to India.Arie for bringing this to light in the first place -- Rev. Sharpton suggests Joe do something to right the ship. Interestingly, he says a meeting with community leaders, as is often done, probably won’t cut it.

He kinda leaves it in Joe’s court on how to proceed.

Now here's an idea ... filming "The View" at the Museum of Tolerance to show support for the Jewish community and educate viewers about the Holocaust.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the famed Simon Wiesenthal Center in L.A. tells TMZ ... he'd love to have the show air live at the Museum of Tolerance. He thinks a special week-long visit to the Museum -- which focuses on the Holocaust -- would be enlightening, and he thinks given what was said on the show, the network has to show some accountability.

Ok, let's back this up for a minute. Rabbi Cooper thinks it's absurd to even suggest Whoopi Goldberg is anti-Semitic. She's been a tried-and-true friend of the Jewish community for decades.

That said, the Rabbi thinks her comment that the Holocaust was not racially-based was way out of bounds, and since she said it on the show ... the show should take steps to educate the audience.

It's an interesting take ... especially since the Prez of ABC News came out and proclaimed her network was a big supporter of the Jewish community.

Rabbi Cooper also has an opinion about Whoopi's 2-week suspension -- an opinion that is at odds with many others in the Jewish community. He thinks the suspension is appropriate, because he thinks accountability is important.

The head of the Anti-Defamation League and many others beg to differ, saying Whoopi apologized, recognized the error in her ways, and that should be the end of it.

Fact is ... lots of people think this is ABC reacting out of fear -- since Sharon Osbourne was suspended for defending Piers Morgan's take on Meghan Markle, ABC felt it had to do the same with Whoopi.

There's another way of looking at it ... that both Whoopi and Sharon shouldn't be suspended for stating their opinions on live, opinion-based TV. If neither said what they said from a place of malice, then why the suspensions? In Whoopi's case, she actually gave a mea culpa, so it's unclear exactly what the ABC President expects her to reflect on.

Cooper says one of his colleagues has a relationship with Whoopi, and they've reached out to her for a meeting. Since Whoopi seems to already get what she did, it's unclear what the point of the meeting would be.

Anthony Anderson is sticking behind Whoopi Goldberg ... he says we all make mistakes and should be forgiven.

We caught up with the "Black-ish" star at The Dominick Hotel in NYC. Anthony says ... he only read Whoopi's comments, so he doesn't know the full context. But, he says he doesn't believe they came from a bad place.

Anthony added ... we all say things in the heat of the moment that we aren't fully informed about. He doubled down and said that as long a person can admit to being wrong and apologize, then he thinks that's fine ... something he says WG has done.

Anthony says these kinda things happen to us all ... for the most part, we come from a place of love and understanding.

As you know, Whoopi's been in the hot seat since she said that the Holocaust wasn't about race ... She has since apologized but ABC still decided to suspend her from "The View" for 2 weeks.

Pastor Michael Todd is the spitting image of a man who knows when he's done wrong -- which is why Montell Jordan's ready to forgive and forget his gnarly salivary moment.

We got the singer-turned-church leader at LAX and asked if Pastor Todd's viral spit sesh from a couple of weeks back will hurt his ministry in the long run ... and Montell tells us it won't, with some solid rationale.

For starters, he says Todd's made good with his congregation -- not to mention the public at large -- by owning up to what he did, and acknowledging it wasn't cool. The fact Pastor Todd did this so quickly with a sincere apology goes a long way for MJ, and he thinks Todd's parishioners will register it that way too.

Big picture ... Montell says Todd's humility flies in the face of what he says so many other people do these days ... namely, doubling down on bad takes/behavior.

The mere act of fessing up to his mistake shows goodwill that Montell says he appreciates. Furthermore, he also (rightly) points out ... the vast majority of the outrage from the face-wipe seen 'round the world was mostly spreading via social media ... and by extension, a bunch of randos who don't even know, follow or attend Todd's services on the regular.

A famous pastor out of Oklahoma got very literal in his sermon this weekend about seeing God's hazy vision for ourselves in 2022 -- needing to hawk one to make his point.

Michael Todd, who leads the Transformation Church in Tulsa, conjured up grossed-out reactions from his congregation Sunday during his service -- which was being streamed for the folks at home. The reason ... he wiped his own spit all over the face of a parishioner, who was up there volunteering for the yuck fest.

Even crazier ... the guy just stood there and took it!!! Check out this video of the moment it happened -- it's surreal to see, because Mike really builds up to it with a lot of theater.

The whole purpose of doing this, it seems, was to emphasize his analogy about how "receiving vision from God might get nasty." We'll let him do the explaining -- 'cause, frankly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us -- but he seems to be saying ... sometimes, you'll  have to go through some muck to fulfill God's will. Or ... something like that!

It's ironic ... as the audience gasps in horror at his weird stunt, MT fully leans into it ... arguing that's the exact sort of response one will get for answering God's call, no matter how counterintuitive it might feel ... like letting someone rub a bunch of loogies/saliva on your mug.

Of course, he's getting totally roasted online over this ... as is this poor guy who allowed himself to be the guinea pig. Y'know ... on account of the pandemic and all.

Just doesn't seem safe ... even if God cosigns. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Leah Remini says her enrollment at NYU stands in stark contrast to the education she says she was afforded growing up as a Scientologist -- or a staggering lack thereof, rather.

The actress peeled back even more layers to the religion -- one which she says she used to be deeply involved in, starting from a very young age -- in a long Twitter thread Sunday ... which ended with gratitude for being able to break free and obtain proper schooling.

Leah starts by describing an old headshot she submitted at 16, explaining how she had to start working very early to support herself and her family ... which she insists was necessary due to her fam's affiliation with the church of Scientology.

She claims the church drained them of their time, attention and, most importantly, their resources. And not just that, but she alleges she was starved from a formal, normal education for years throughout her youth ... something she says is the direct result of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

LR goes on to say her entire life revolved around Scientology ... down to her circle of friends, and even employers, including her first agent. As she's indicated many times over the years, she says she felt suffocated by the church ... and now says she had to get into showbiz merely to survive, which doesn't sound like it was easy.

Leah describes getting turned down time and again, until finally breaking through. Eventually, she says she was able to escape Scientology altogether, and now looks back as a current NYU undergrad in awe of what she's been able to accomplish without them on her back.

The 'King of Queens' star got accepted at the university last year at the ripe age of 50 ... and it would seem things are going well on that front.

A gunman has reportedly taken several people hostage at a synagogue in Texas, and his demands are simple ... free his sister, who was once suspected of terrorist activities.

According to ABC's Aaron Katersky, the armed man who wandered into the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville Saturday has allegedly been ID'd as Muhammad Siddiqui, whom he says is claiming to be the brother of convicted felon Aafia Siddiqui.

She was sent to prison in 2010 after being found guilty of attempted murder of a U.S. military officer in Afghanistan -- among a slew of other charges -- and is serving out an 86-year sentence in the Fort Worth area. She's alleged to have had ties with al-Qaeda over the years ... and has been placed on federal law enforcement terrorism watch lists in the past.

Per Katersky, the gunman is demanding her release. Other reports say the perp claims to be armed with bombs, among other weapons ... the full extent of which is still unknown. Local law enforcement has descended on the scene to negotiate, as has the FBI.

Even crazier ... there was apparently a bar-mitzvah going on when the guy busted in, which was being live-streamed to the synagogue's FB account ... a stream that has since been deactivated. Still, some of the snippets that were captured are now surfacing, and you can hear what is presumably the hostage-taker railing on America, and saying he's willing to die.

The fact this man crashed a synagogue for hostages is not lost on those who covered the Siddiqui case. She is reported to have had strong objections to Jewish people representing her in her defense. She also asked for Jews to be tossed from the jury pool at the time.

At the moment, the synagogue's rabbi and three others are believed to be among those being held captive. No word on injuries or deaths yet, but SWAT units have arrived.

When the Lord said, "Let there be inflation," that pretty much gave Christian landlords the green light to raise rents without guilt ... that seems to be Dave Ramsey's take, anyway.

The financial guru radio host -- who's also a devout evangelical -- took this stance earlier in the week ... and it's getting a lot of backlash now from people who think the very nature of booting a tenant because they can't afford the rent anymore is ... not very Christ-like.

Not so, according to DR ... who gave his thoughts on the subject after a fan wrote in talking about his inner turmoil regarding raising prices on his properties, and reconciling that with his faith.

It's an interesting premise (if you're religious) ... the viewer says he feels he's technically responsible for displacing someone if he chooses to evict -- and thinks that makes him a bad Christian. But, Ramsey takes the opposite view ... saying that's total nonsense.

Check out the full clip for the entire context -- in which Ramsey and his cohost say there are circumstances where you don't have to be a cold, hard capitalist -- but for the most part ... they seem to agree that there's nothing un-Christian about adapting to the marketplace.

Of course, not everyone agrees with DR and co., including some prominent Christians ... who feel like, yeah, being a landlord that's willing to put someone out on the street DOES make one a crappy steward of Christianity.

One pastor writes, "We are absolutely responsible when our actions displace others from their homes. The Son of Man had no place to rest His head, and it sounds like Dave wouldn't give him one for even a penny under what he thinks 'market value' is."

Big Daddy Weave's Jason "Jay" Weaver is dead after suffering complications from COVID-19.

In a heartfelt message on Instagram his brother and fellow band member, Mike, shared the tragic news ... "I'm sorry to bring this news, but I am excited to celebrate where he is right now. My brother Jay went to be with Jesus just a couple hours ago."

Jay was a bass player and vocalist for the Christian band and had a history of health complications. Back in 2016, he was rushed to the hospital and had to get both feet amputated to fight an infection in his body.

In his message, Mike thanked everyone for their prayers and support for his late brother throughout his battles with his health ... "you've seen him walk the uphill battle and you guys helped carry him through so much."

"Even though COVID took his last breath, Jesus was right there to catch him," he said.

Big Daddy Weave started in 1998, dropping their first album in 2001 and touring with big hits in the Christian music scene ever since.

Mike talked about his brother's impact -- "The Lord used him in such a mighty way out on the road for many years."

He says their family will deal with the heartache "as it comes" but for now, they are turning to their faith to celebrate Jay ... "The prayers of healing can now turn into prayers of thanksgiving now that Jay is in God's presence."

Jay was 42.

Britney Spears gave a giant "f you" to her family Monday ... literally saying "f you" to them.

Spears was clearly angry when she posted, “Not doing music anymore is my way of saying ‘F–k You’ in a sense when it only actually benefits my family by ignoring my real work." She went on ... “It’s like I’ve subconsciously let them win.”

She tried explaining why she pulled the plug on doing music ... "So much wasted time to only embarrass me and humiliate me and I guess it seems odd to most now why I don't even do my music anymore ... People have no idea the awful things that were done to me personally and after what I've been through, I'm scared of people and the business!!! They really hurt me!!!!!" She said recently more music is coming.

She continued to unload ... "I had an experience three years ago where i stopped believing in God!!!! From every angle i was being hurt for no reason and my family was hurting me ... I went into a state of shock and the way I coped was being fake denial ... I screamed alone a lot and I kept all that pain to myself!!!!"

Britney is angry over her sister, Jamie Lynn, performing a remix of her song "Till the World Ends" at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. She said, “It didn’t make sense how network television shows are showcasing my music with remixes of all of my music … yet the person who owns the music is told no!!!!” Britney wrote. “They even gave remixes to my sister but I was always told no?”

Britney was self-reflective, saying, “I obviously have serious insecurities. Otherwise I wouldn’t have acted like an obnoxious 8 year old last week defending myself with my accomplishments!!!!” She went on to say, "Honestly my family embarrassed me and hurt me deeply ... so tooting my own horn and seeing my past accomplishments reflecting back at me actually helped!!!!"

Neil deGrasse Tyson says the new NASA telescope observing the origins of the early universe isn't a shot across the bow at religion ... but being flexible is the key.

The famed astrophysicist joined us on "TMZ Live" and we asked if the research being done using the $10 billion Webb space telescope could challenge the foundations of religion.

Neil says the telescope, which launched into space on Christmas, will be used to fill in some gaps with the big bang theory ... but he's not buying the argument that such research will clash with generations of folks who believe God created the universe in 6 days.

The way Neil sees it ... religious folks are becoming more flexible and looking at things in a more spiritual sense ... so new discoveries won't cut to the core of belief systems.

Christmas is about peace on earth, but not necessarily peace in Church, because 2 dudes showed a pastor mid-sermon their hands were up to date.

It went down at the Olivet Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee Sunday, when suddenly one guy comes up to another sitting in the front row and starts swinging. The guy who was sitting instantly fully engages, and the 2 go off-screen as they continue punching each other.

Bishop Kevin Adams tries in vain to stop the fight, saying, "Stop it, Marcus. Marcus, come on."  It's unclear how long the fight went on, because someone pulled the plug on the Church's live stream.

The Bishop said afterward the man in the white t-shirt had just gotten out of rehab and beelined it for the youth pastor, who was sitting in the front row. The Bishop insinuates the man in the t may have relapsed, because he says the guy didn't know where he was.