Student Sues After Suspension From M.S. Program Over Refusal To Counsel Gay Couples

A suit was filed last week in federal district court in Missouri by a former student in the Masters in Counseling program at Missouri State University alleging that he was removed from the program because of his religious views on counseling same-sex couples on their relationships.  The complaint (full text) in Cash v. Governors of Missouri State University, (WD MO, filed 4/19/2016), alleges in part:

Plaintiff’s experience at MSU has been devastating, crushing, and tormenting, culminating in his termination from the program -- all because he interned with a Christian organization and expressed his religious beliefs on a hypothetical question about counseling a gay couple on relationship issues.

... Plaintiff was targeted and punished for expressing his Christian worldview ... regarding a hypothetical situation.... Since he did not give the “correct” answer required by his counseling instructors, he was considered unsuitable for counseling and terminated from the program.

Thomas More Society announced the filing of the lawsuit. AP reports on the case.

Court OK's Distribution of Gospel Tracts At Motorcycle Rally

In McMahon v. City of Panama City Beach, Florida, (ND FL, April 12, 2016), a Florida federal district court issued a preliminary injunction to allow plaintiff to hand out Christian Gospel tracts at the Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally event held at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach. The court concluded that the city cannot rid the park of its "public forum" status by issuing a private party a permit to for exclusive use of the Festival Site in the park for an event, explaining:

If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck..... Thunder Beach, a large gathering of people interested in motorcycles, though organized by a private corporation, is free and open to the public and has no barriers limiting or restricting ingress and egress.... Thunder Beach looks like a public forum, and so is a public forum, and McMahon retains the rights to free speech that he would possess in any public forum. 

British Employment Appeal Tribunal Upholds Warning To Proselytizing Supervisor

In Wasteney v. East London NHS Foundation Trust, (UK EAT, April 7, 2016), the British Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) rejected a religious discrimination claim brought by the Head of Forensic Occupational Therapy at a public sector mental health clinic who described herself as a born again Christian.  She was issued a written warning for proselytizing a young Pakistani Muslim occupational therapist whom she supervised.  She gave the Muslim woman a book about another Muslim Pakistani woman who had converted to Christianity; during a one-on-one meeting prayed for the Muslim woman by laying hands on her; and invited the Muslim woman to various Christian church events. In upholding the finding of the Employment Tribunal (ET), the EAT said in part:

The ET did not find that the Respondent had pursued disciplinary action against the Claimant and imposed a warning on her because of or for reasons related to her sharing of her faith with a consenting colleague.  It expressly found that the Respondent took the actions it did because the colleague in question had made serious complaints about acts which blurred professional boundaries and placed improper pressure on that colleague.

Christian Post reporting on the decision quotes this reaction from the supervisor who lost her appeal:

I believe the NHS singled me out for discipline because Christianity is so disrespected. Previously a Christian worship service that I set up for patients was closed down, but accommodation for Muslims to practice their faith wholly facilitated and encouraged.

China Charges Human Rights Lawyer Criminally

Radio Free Asia reported yesterday that Chinese authorities have now arrested a Chinese human rights lawyer on criminal charges after he assisted Protestant churches in resisting an urban "improvement" campaign that required removal of their roof-top crosses:

Zhang Kai's initial period of detention in an unknown location under "residential surveillance" reached the end of its six-month limit last week, and the lawyer was immediately held instead under criminal detention on suspicion of "disturbing public order" and "endangering state secrets," a fellow lawyer told RFA....

Chinese media aired footage of Zhang last Friday "confessing" to the charges, and accused U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid of supporting him.

The confession appears to have been coerced.

Former Atheist Employee Can Move Ahead With Title VII Suit Against Christian Business

Mathis v. Christian Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., (ED PA, Jan. 25, 2016) is a discrimination lawsuit brought under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights and and under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act by an installation mechanic who was fired  or constructively discharged for covering the back of his identification badge with tape to hide his employer company's religious mission statement.  The company's owner is a born-again Christian, while plaintiff is an atheist.  The statement which plaintiff taped over read:

This company is not only a business, it is a ministry. It is set on standards that are higher than man’s own. Our goal is to run this company in a way most pleasing to the Lord.

Treating employees and customers as we would want to be treated along with running a business as if we are all part of one big family is our plan.

The court rejected defendant's RFRA defense, holding that RFRA applies only to suits in which the government is a party.  The court went on to hold that plaintiff had established a prima facie case of failure to accommodate his atheistic beliefs, saying:

Under Title VII, atheists are entitled to the exact same protection as members of other religions.... A reasonable trier of fact could infer from this evidence that Peppelman terminated plaintiff’s employment “with the motive of avoiding accommodation,” in violation of Title VII.

The court also held that plaintiff can move ahead with his retaliation claim.

Group Releases List of Countries With Worst Persecution of Christians

This week the organization Open Doors issued its 2016 World Watch List Report detailing the 50 countries where persecution of Christians is greatest.  North Korea, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia top the list. On Wednesday, Religion News Service covered the press conference at which the Report was released.

From the White House For Christmas: Playlists and Concern For Persecuted Christians

On Wednesday, in anticipation of Christmas, the White House posted The Obamas' and Bidens' Holiday Playlists on the White House Spotify channel.  The Obamas' number one pick is "O Tannenbaum, Vince Guaraldi Trio (A Charlie Brown Christmas)," while "Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Bruce Springsteen" tops the Bidens' playlist.

The President also posted a more serious statement on Persecuted Christians at Christmas, saying in part:

At this time, those of us fortunate enough to live in countries that honor the birthright of all people to practice their faith freely give thanks for that blessing.  Michelle and I are also ever-mindful that many of our fellow Christians do not enjoy that right, and hold especially close to our hearts and minds those who have been driven from their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence and persecution.

In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these communities by ISIL.

Wheaton College Suspends Prof Over Statement In Solidarity With Muslims

Religion News Service yesterday reported on the controversy at Christian-affiliated Wheaton College which has placed political science professor Larycia Hawkins on administrative leave for a statement she made expressing solidarity with Muslims.  Hawkins, an Episcopalian, decided to wear a hijab during the Advent season leading up to Christmas as a statement of solidarity.  But the statement that potentially placed her job in jeopardy was a Facebook post reading:

I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.

In a press release Tuesday, the Wheaton College administration said:

In response to significant questions regarding the theological implications of statements that Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins has made about the relationship of Christianity to Islam, Wheaton College has placed her on administrative leave, pending the full review to which she is entitled as a tenured faculty member.

Wheaton College faculty and staff make a commitment to accept and model our institution's faith foundations with integrity, compassion and theological clarity. As they participate in various causes, it is essential that faculty and staff engage in and speak about public issues in ways that faithfully represent the College's evangelical Statement of Faith.

Historically Wheaton College, located in Illinois, while evangelical has not been fundamentalist in its outlook.  However the school has been one of the religious institutions at the center of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate controversy. (See prior posting.)

Group Encourages Conservative Christian Pastors To Run For Public Office

Reuters on Friday reported on new efforts to motivate conservative Christian pastors to run for local public office in the U.S.  The article focuses on "a tactical shift" in the "Christian far right":

Aiming to motivate conservative Christians, they are focusing on smaller political races, local ballot initiatives and community voter registration drives.

At the center of the effort is the American Renewal Project, an umbrella group that says it has a network of 100,000 pastors. It is headed by evangelical Republican political operative David Lane, who wants to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for elected office in 2016.

So far, roughly 500 have committed to running, Lane told Reuters.

Suit Questions Whether Released Time Church Buses Must Meet School Bus Standards

Public Opinion News reported yesterday on a suit filed in a Franklin County, Pennsylvania trial court challenging the contention by Pennsylvania State Police that yellow buses used by a Christian camp to transport students to and from school for a once-a-week "released time" program must meet the standards for vehicles owned or under contract with a school district.  Among other things, the buses used by Camp Joy El do not have swinging stop signs attached to the side, are not marked as school buses and are not painted with the specifically required yellow paint. A state trooper stopped one of the buses for inspection in a church parking lot, cited it for 9 violations and refused to allow students to board the bus to return to school. The suit asks for a preliminary injunction and a declaratory judgment permitting the Joy El to resume using its buses. Since the citation,it has been renting other buses at a cost of over $5000 per week.

6th Circuit En Banc: 1st Amendment Protects Christian Proselytizers At Dearborn's Arab International Festival

In a case that generated six separate opinions spanning some 65 pages, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, yesterday upheld the right of Bible Believers, a Christian group, to engage in provocative and offensive proselytizing of Muslims at the annual Dearborn, Michigan Arab International Festival. In Bible Believers v. Wayne County, Michigan, (6th Cir., Oct. 28, 2015), the majority described the Christian group's messages displayed on banners and T-shirts to a predominately Muslim crowd, many of who were adolescents. Among the slogans were: “Islam Is A Religion of Blood and Murder”; “Only Jesus Christ Can Save You From Sin and Hell”; and “Turn or Burn”. One member of the group also carried a severed pig's head on a spike, believing that Muslims are "petrified of that animal." After several encounters with hostile crowds, Bible Believers were escorted out of the Festival by police and ticketed.

Judge Clay's opinion of the court, joined in full by 7 other judges, concluded:

Ultimately, we find that Defendants violated the Bible Believers’ First  Amendment rights because there can be no legitimate dispute based on this record that the [Wayne County Sheriff's Office] effectuated a heckler’s veto by cutting off the Bible Believers’ protected speech in response to a hostile crowd’s reaction.

Several of the judges writing separate opinions concluded, contrary to the majority, that defendants at least enjoyed qualified immunity from damages.  Detroit News reports on the decision.

National Evangelical Group Takes More Flexible Stance On Capital Punishment

The National Association of Evangelicals this week released a new Resolution on Capital Punishment (full text) adopted at its semi-annual meeting.  The Resolution recognizes that instead of the previous widespread support for capital punishment, now Evangelical Christians differ in their beliefs as to whether capital punishment should be a part of American law.  The Resolution offers arguments both for and against the death penalty, saying in part:

As evangelicals, we believe that moral revulsion or distaste for the death penalty is not a sufficient reason to oppose it. But leaders from various parts of the evangelical family have made a biblical and theological case either against the death penalty or against its continued use in a society where biblical standards of justice are difficult to reach. In Mosaic Law, standards of evidence were stringent, requiring a minimum of two eyewitnesses who were willing to stake their own lives on the truthfulness of their testimony and who would initiate the execution by “casting the first stone.” Circumstantial evidence was not permitted. The contemporary American system is unlikely to reach such standards of evidence, and given the utter seriousness of capital crimes, the alarming frequency of post-conviction exonerations leads to calls for radical reform....

Other evangelicals continue to support the death penalty in limited circumstances as a legitimate exercise of the state’s responsibility to administer justice, and as a deterrent to crime. They point to heinous crimes, such as mass murder, terrorism, and the abduction, rape and murder of a young child, in which the perpetrator is caught on camera or is seen by multiple witnesses, where the evidence is overwhelming and there are no issues of mental incompetency. In such cases, some evangelicals argue for swift prosecution, with necessary safeguards, and if appropriate application of the death penalty as the best way to render justice, deter future crimes and allow the victim’s family and community to heal.

Article Traces Church Where Teen Killed By Parents and Others In Counseling Session

An AP report yesterday reviews developments this week in upstate New York in the beatings of two teens by their parents and other members of the Word of Life Christian Church:

Six church leaders and parishioners now face charges including manslaughter and assault for a brutal beating in the sanctuary last Sunday that left 19-year-old Lucas Leonard dead and his 17-year-old brother Christopher hospitalized. Church members Bruce and Deborah Leonard, parents of the victims, face the most serious charge, manslaughter. Deborah Leonard's daughter, Sarah Ferguson, and Joseph Irwin, both face assault charges.

Police say the beatings arose out of a "counseling session" that may have been related to Lucas Leonard wanting to leave the church.

Apparently over the years the Church, which now has only some 20 members, has changed, and the AP article traces this history.

European Court Says Christian Proselytizer's Rights Infringed By Broadcast Documentary

The European Court of Human Rights today in a Chamber Judgment in Bremner v. Turkey (ECHR, Oct. 13, 2015) (full text of decision in French) held that Dion Bremner, an Australian newspaper correspondent and Christian bookstore employee, had his rights violated by a Turkish television station which broadcast a documentary about his Christian proselytizing.  The producers of the broadcast alerted police and criminal charges of insulting God and Islam were brought against Bremner,  He was ultimately acquitted, Bremner then sued the television producer and presenter, and on appeal the European Court found he was entitled to damages.  As summarized by the European Court's press release on the decision, the Court:

held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the broadcasting of a television documentary in which the applicant, Mr, Bremner, who was shown promoting his evangelical Christian beliefs, was described as a “foreign pedlar of religion” engaged in covert activities in Turkey. The Court found in particular that the broadcasting of Mr Bremner’s image without blurring it could not be regarded as a contribution to any debate of general interest for society, regardless of the degree of public interest in the question of religious proselytising.

[Thanks to Paul de Mello for the lead.]

Obama Reflects On Christianity

The New York Review of Books (Nov. 5 issue) published a conversation between President Obama and prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson which included this exchange on religion:

The President: ... [O]ne of the points that you’ve made in one of your most recent essays is that there was a time in which at least reformed Christianity in Europe was very much “the other.” And part of our system of government was based on us rejecting an exclusive, inclusive—or an exclusive and tightly controlled sense of who is part of the community and who is not, in favor of a more expansive one.

Tell me a little bit about how your interest in Christianity converges with your concerns about democracy.

Robinson: Well, I believe that people are images of God. There’s no alternative that is theologically respectable to treating people in terms of that understanding.... 

The President: But you’ve struggled with the fact that here in the United States, sometimes Christian interpretation seems to posit an “us versus them,” and those are sometimes the loudest voices. But sometimes I think you also get frustrated with kind of the wishy-washy, more liberal versions where anything goes.

Robinson: Yes.

The President: How do you reconcile the idea of faith being really important to you and you caring a lot about taking faith seriously with the fact that, at least in our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?

Paper Profiles Mat Staver and His Organzation Liberty Counsel

The Orlando Sentinel this weekend carries a lengthy profile of Mat Staver and his and his Christian conservative legal organization, Liberty Counsel.  Staver has recently been in the news because of his high profile representation or Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

The maelstrom that formed earlier this month around Davis — an Apostolic Christian who said she was acting on her faith — involves factions Staver knows well. Liberty Counsel, a Maitland-based legal organization he founded, has spent decades representing the conservative vanguard in debates over abortion, gay marriage and religion's place in the public sphere.

In the process, the nonprofit has ballooned from a tiny venture collecting less than $200,000 in yearly donations to a multipronged organization that hauled in more than $4 million in the 2013 tax year, employs 10 staff attorneys, runs an outreach to Israel and even released its own feature film last year.

Suit Challenges Prof's Firing For Becoming Pregnant Out of Wedlock

A former Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon filed a discrimination suit this week after she was fired for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.  The complaint (full text) in Richardson v. Northwest Christian University, (OR Cir. Ct., filed 8/4/2015), contends that when plaintiff Coty Richardson became pregnant by her partner with whom she has had a 12 year relationship. the University gave her an ultimatum:

she had to either (1) proclaim the pregnancy a mistake and dissociate with the father of her child or (2) marry him immediately and provide proof of their union. Dr. Lindsay [Vice President for Academic Affairs] told Ms. Richardson that having a child out of wedlock while still continuing a relationship with the father was inconsistent with the University’s core values and mission and set a “bad example” for the students. When Ms. Richardson refused the University’s demands and requested privacy in her personal life, she was locked out of the University and her employment was terminated.

Among other things, the suit claims violations of Oregon's ban on employment discrimination on the basis of  pregnancy, gender and marital status. It also claims discrimination on the basis of religion, i.e. her belief that it is appropriate for her, as a Christian, to wait until she and her partner are financially, practically, and emotionally ready for marriage. Wall Street Journal reports on the lawsuit.

Suit Threatened Over Kentucky Juvenile Prison Rule Limiting Counselors' Statements About Homosexuality

Liberty Counsel is threatening a lawsuit against the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) over its policy that provides:

DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors, in the course of their work, shall not refer to juveniles by using derogatory language in a manner that conveys bias towards or hatred of the LGBTQI community. DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In its press release last Friday, Liberty Counsel indicated that it has sent a demand letter (full text) to DJJ insisting on the reinstatement of a counselor and mentor, Christian pastor David Wells, who apparently had his volunteer prison minister status revoked when he refused to sign a form promising to refrain from telling any juvenile inmates that homosexuality was sinful. The demand letter argues in part:

DJJ 912 violates the First Amendment by prescribing an official state religious “orthodoxy:” now, only a religious belief that homosexuality is not “sinful” may be expressed in DJJ facilities, 

NYT Magazine Chronicles Plight of Christians In the Middle East

Today's New York Times Magazine carries a long article, captioned in its online version: Is This the End of Christianity in the Middle East?,with the subtitle: "ISIS and other extremist movements across the region are enslaving, killing and uprooting Christians, with no aid in sight." The article comments:

It has been nearly impossible for two U.S. presidents — Bush, a conservative evangelical; and Obama, a progressive liberal — to address the plight of Christians explicitly for fear of appearing to play into the crusader and ‘‘clash of civilizations’’ narratives the West is accused of embracing. In 2007, when Al Qaeda was kidnapping and killing priests in Mosul, Nina Shea, who was then a U.S. commissioner for religious freedom, says she approached the secretary of state at the time, Condoleezza Rice, who told her the United States didn’t intervene in ‘‘sectarian’’ issues. Rice now says that protecting religious freedom in Iraq was a priority both for her and for the Bush administration. But the targeted violence and mass Christian exodus remained unaddressed. 

Fired Employee Claims HIs Religious Objections To Direct Pay Deposit Should Have Been Accommodated

According to Northwest Ohio Media Group, an employment discrimination lawsuit was filed last week in an Ohio federal district court by a man who has a history of filing religious discrimination lawsuits against large companies.  Plaintiff Lee Yeager says that his Christian fundamentalist beliefs prohibit him from having a bank account because he believes banks engage in Biblically prohibited usury. Yeager was terminated from the internship program at FirstEnergy Generation Corp. after he refused to agree to have his pay directly deposited into a bank account.  The complaint (full text) in Yeager v. FirstEnergy Generation Corp., (ND OH, filed 3/3/2015) contends that the company could have reasonably accommodated plaintiff's religious beliefs without undue hardship. In January the Ohio Civil Rights Commission ruled in Yeager's favor on the direct deposit claim, but the company is appealing the ruling.