"Religious Scandals" brings together real-life controversies involving men and women of faith, from the media frenzy over the 1811 New York blasphemy case of "People v. Ruggles" that shaped American law for well over 100 years to the 2008 government raid on the fundamentalist Mormon Yearning for Zion community in Texas.

"Religious Scandals" focuses on two types of subjects: religious figures whose lapses put them at the center of scandals involving sex, money, or crime; and those who scandalized their fellow citizens by acting out according to their own religious beliefs. Together,...