Church Members Bless Public School

In Columbus, Ohio last Sunday, 180 members of four local churches surrounded Woodward Park Middle School to bless the building and those who use it. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reported on the event. The ACLU of Ohio had sent a letter to the school principal and the district's superintendent, arguing that the event would be perceived as showing favoritism toward particular religious groups. However a school spokesman said that like anyone else, these individuals can walk onto school grounds during the week end. ACLU Litigation Coordinator Gary Daniels warned that "Allowing ministers to bless a public building will open a Pandora's box of other groups that will want to come in and perform similar ceremonies."

German Chancellor Wants Christian Roots In EU Constitution

After meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe needs a constitution that reflects its Christian roots, arguing that "Christianity has forged Europe in a decisive way". Merkel, the daughter of Protestant minister, will assume the European Union's rotating presidency next year. Her views are supported by Spain, Italy and Poland, but mention of Christianity in the document is opposed by France, Britain, Sweden and Denmark. Merkle's position also creates problems for largely-Muslim Turkey as a potential EU member. Merkel's remarks are reported by ANSA, the Guardian, and UK's Muslim News.

School Prayer Challenged In Missouri Law Suit

Last month, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a federal lawsuit against the Doniphan School District in southeast Missouri, alleging that during two honors assemblies at Doniphan Elementary School, teachers led the students in sectarian Christian prayer. The complaint alleges that sectarian prayer at these assemblies, where student attendance was mandatory, violated the Establishment Clause. The suit was filed after attempts to obtain informal resolution of the issue failed. The suit is discussed in an ACLU press release and in a story by Agape Press. The full text of the complaint in Doe v. Doniphan R-I School District is available online as is the ACLU's July 25 Memorandum in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

California Episcopal Diocese Lays Legal Foundation For Breaking Away

This week's Christian Century reports on legal moves by the Diocese of San Joaquin, California that could permit it to successfully break away from the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) over opposition to the ordination of women. The major hurdle that a breakaway diocese faces is the legal doctrine that requires civil courts to permit the internal machinery of hierarchical churches to resolve theological disputes within the denomination. San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield has has taken steps to make his diocese sufficiently independent of ECUSA that it can argue that it is not part of an hierarchical church. In October 2005, the San Joaquin diocese convention amended its constitution to provide that it takes precedence of national church policy. Then in March 2006, the diocese amended its bylaws to provide that ECUSA no longer has to approve San Joaquin's choice of bishop.

Fearing the impact of these moves on all California dioceses, four other bishops filed charges in an ecclesiastical tribunal against Bishop Schofield, seeking to remove him from the Church. A letter from one of those who filed the charges, San Francisco bishop William Swing, and a response from the Chancellor of the San Joaquin diocese, are available in full text from Virtue Online. Bishop Swing's letter argues that Schofield "has taken actions that put all Episcopal dioceses in the State of California in jeopardy" by undercutting the argument that ECUSA is an hierarchical church. In response, San Joaquin Chancellor Russell VanRozeboom argued that Canon IV.9. under which charges have been brought against Schofield only applies when there is an attempt to affiliate with a religious body that is not in communion with the Episcopal Church. He says that San Joaquin, if it breaks away, will remain in communion with the broader, more conservative world-wide Anglican Church.

VanRozeboom also argues that Bishop Schofield cannot be disciplined for action taken by the the Diocese Convention to amend its constitution, and that the October 2005 amendment only impacts the civil law issue of who is chief officer of the Diocese under California's Corporation Code, not the ecclesiastical issue of who should be Bishop.

Christian Century reports that meanwhile, the conservative Anglican Communion Network (ACN), that claims 900 parishes as members, has taken further steps toward its ultimate goal of becoming a separate Anglican province, with its own seminaries, churches and hierarchy. ACN was formed in 2004 after more conservative Episcopalians became upset with the ordination of a gay man as a bishop in New Hampshire.

Wife's Religious Spoofs Become Central In Custody Case

Newswire Today reports on a child custody case that has gained high profile in the blogosphere. Rachel Bevilacqua is active in the Church of the SubGenius, a "parody religion" that produces materials and engages in satire, performance art, and comedy that take aim particularly at Christian religious denominations. Attempting to gain sole custody of their son, Bevilacqua's former husband introduced photos of Rachel performing in an adult-oriented parody of Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ." Even though Bevilacqua's son has never attended any of the SubGenius events, the offensive photos led an Orleans County, New York judge to take away Rachel's joint custody and give sole custody of the Bevilacqua child to his father. This, in turn, has led to a flurry of online criticism by defenders of free expression. The case has now been reassigned to a different judge.

Early American Textbooks Filled With Christian References

Today's Wall Street Journal Online carries an article on the religious content of textbooks used in schools in the United States in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Christian references were embedded in all sorts of subject matter. In spelling, "A was for Adam, B was for the Bible and C was for Christ." In arithmetic, books asked, "How many days is it since the birth of Our Savior?" Science books said, "All parts of the solar system are framed and adjusted to answer exactly the purpose intended by the Creator." As the country became more diverse in the 19th century, explicit Christian references were dropped, but textbook material still attempted to teach values like virtue and obedience to the law.

Political Scientist on Islam and Christianity In Europe Today

Zenit yesterday carried an interesting interview with political scientist Hans Maier. The interview was conducted in July by the Italian daily Awenire. Maier, who was minister of Education and Culture in Bavaria from 1970 to 1986 and president of the Central Committee of German Catholics from 1976 to 1988, spoke about Europe's relations with Islam and the role of Christians in Europe's public life. Here are some excerpts:

To import in Europe the same Islam that has been structured in Arab countries would mean the suppression of present-day Europe to create another, radically different continent. This does not mean that we cannot have a Euro-Islam, an Islam adapted to Europe. But it presupposes on the part of Muslims respect for religious freedom, pluralism of thought and the distinction between religion and politics. It requires that the mullahs accept to live their faith along with the Jewish synagogues and Christian cathedrals. It is a process of transformation and maturation to which we must call Muslims, if they wish to be part of this Europe of ours.

Political and social participation ... becomes a responsibility that weighs on all Christians, especially in times such as our own, in which all withdraw in the first person from direct commitment. ... Christians are called to unite, to seek ties with others. It must never be forgotten that one of the factors that led to the affirmation of Nazism in Germany was the division between Catholics and Protestants, who were unable to form a common front.

The "secular" state is also in need of values expressed by citizens. It lives from the impulses and binding forces that religious faith itself transmits to its citizens. Hence the reason why it is good for the state to recognize the role of religion. And in Europe this means to be aware of the importance exercised by the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Alabama Dems Tell Holocaust Denier To Leave Party

The executive committee of the Alabama Democratic Party passed a resolution on Saturday telling Holocaust-denier Larry Darby that he is not welcome in the Party. According to the Associated Press, the resolution calls the Holocaust "a vile example of anti-Semitism." Darby, former director of the Atheist Law Center, said that the resolution demonstrates that party leadership is "intellectually and morally bankrupt." Earlier this year, Darby ran and lost in the Alabama Democratic primary for state attorney general. (See related prior posting.)

India's Supreme Court Orders State TV To Show Controversial Film

A panel of India's Supreme Court has ordered the state-owned television channel, known as DD, to televise an award-winning documentary film "Father, Son and Holy War," according to Ohmy News today. The film, produced by Anand Patwardhan, deals with religious zealotry and violence. The television station refused to show the film because of the classification it received from the Indian Censor Board. However the court said that every national award-winning film must be broadcast on DD. It concluded: "DD being funded publicly, could not have denied access to viewers to screen the respondent's documentary except on specified valid grounds."

Plaintiff In Landmark Church-State Case Dies

United Press International reports that Vashti McCollum, plaintiff in a landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCollum v. Board of Education, died yesterday at the age of 93. In the 1948 case, the Court by a vote of 8-1 struck down Illinois' plan that permitted the teaching of religion in school classrooms during school hours by outside religious teachers. Students whose parents did not consent to their attending one of the religious classes left their regular classroom and pursued secular studies elsewhere in the school. Justice Frankfurter's concurring opinion is particularly interesting to reread. It traces the development of the notion of "separation of church and state" in the setting of public school instruction.

New Poll On Religion and Public Life

Last Thursday, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life issued a new poll on Religion and Politics. The poll, which surveyed a national random sample of 2,003 adults last month, covers religion and public life, religion and politics, religion and science, and religious beliefs. The report's summary says:

While the public remains more supportive of religion's role in public life than in the 1960s, Americans are uneasy with the approaches offered by both liberals and conservatives. Fully 69% of Americans say that liberals have gone too far in keeping religion out of schools and government. But the proportion who express reservations about attempts by Christian conservatives to impose their religious values has edged up in the past year, with about half the public (49%) now expressing wariness about this.

The Democratic Party continues to face a serious "God problem," with just 26% saying the party is friendly to religion. However, the proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion, while much larger, has fallen from 55% to 47% in the past year, with a particularly sharp decline coming among white evangelical Protestants (14 percentage points).

The survey found that white evangelical Christians make up 24% of the population. While 32% identify themselves as liberal or progressive Christians, this group is split among themselves on many issues. The Associated Press and Blog from the Capital have discussed the poll's findings.

Recent Articles and Books Of Interest

From SmartCILP:

• Thomas B. Colby, A Constitutional Hierarchy of Religions? Justice Scalia, the Ten Commandments, and the Future of the Establishment Clause, 100 Northwestern University Law Review 1097-1139 (2006).
  
• Frederick Mark Gedicks, Spirituality, Fundamentalism, Liberty: Religion At the End of Modernity, 54 DePaul Law Review 1197-1235 (2005).
  
• Judge William H. Pryor, Jr., The Religious Faith and Judicial Duty of an American Catholic Judge, 24 Yale Law & Policy Review 347-362 (2006).
  
• Christopher L. Eisgruber, Justice Stevens, Religious Freedom, and the Value of Equal Membership, 74 Fordham Law Review 2177-2185 (2006).
  
• Eduardo Moises Penalver, Treating Religion as Speech: Justice Stevens's Religion Clause Jurisprudence, 74 Fordham Law Review 2241-2257 (2006).

_________________________________
Recent Books:

• Ann Coulter, Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum, June 6, 2006).
  
• John Danforth, Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together (Viking Adult, September 19, 2006).
  
• Mel White, Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right (Tarcher, September 7, 2006).

School Board Successfully Defends Against Claim It Promoted Baptist Doctrines

In Marsh v. School Board of Marion Community Unit School, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59552 (SD IL, Aug. 23, 2006), an elementary school student and her father sued a school board in Marion, Illinois and its superintendent alleging that the superintendent, who was also a church deacon, was using the public schools to indoctrinate students with teachings of the Baptist faith. Apparently plaintiff had at one time belonged to a Baptist church but had been "kicked out" of it. The court rejected on various grounds Establishment Clause challenges based on distribution of flyers about Baptist youth programs, alleged discriminatory hiring practices, school assemblies featuring a minister as a speaker on secular topics, distribution during school time of tickets for a pizza party with religious content, alleged religious content in the school's curriculum, and religious content in a summer theater program and in a teaching institute. Among the grounds for dismissal were mootness, lack of standing, and lack of evidence to support some of the constitutional claims. Documents presented in support of plaintiff’s unsuccessful motion for summary judgment included a letter that plaintiff had fished from defendant's trash dumpster.

Cleric Urges Vatican-Israel Mutual Recognition

Asia News today published an interview with Fr. David-Maria A. Jaeger, an Israeli citizen who is the new head of “The Church and Israel Public Education Initiatives”. In 1992, the Vatican and the state of Israel signed the "Fundamental Agreement" that was supposed to lead to mutual recognition. Jaeger’s goal is to obtain full implementation of this and a follow-up agreement on the Legal Personality of the Church entered in 1997. Jaeger says this is necessary for meaningful survival of the Catholic community in Israel.

Bangladeshi Madrassa Grads Can Now Sit For Civil Service Exams

An op-ed in Bangladesh’s Financial Express today strongly criticizes a decision taken last week by the government of Bangladesh to recognize degrees from Islamic madrashas as equal to degrees from mainstream educational institutions. This will for the first time permit madrasha graduates to sit for the Bangladesh Civil Service Exams. Columnist Enayet Rasul asserts: "after becoming civil servants they will not help the end of good governance any because of their sheer knowledge deficiency and, on the other, many of them can be expected to work behind the wings for the Islamic extremists to wage Islamic revolution or to Islamise the administration."

Katherine Harris On Church-State, Religion and Politics

In a controversial interview published Thursday by the Florida Baptist Witness, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) gave her views of the role that religion should play in politics and government:

[W]e have to have the faithful in government and over time, that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized, thinking that they needed to avoid politics and that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers. And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women and if people aren't involved in helping godly men in getting elected than we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That’s not what our founding fathers intended and that’s certainly isn't what God intended. So it’s really important that members of the church know people’s stands. It’s really important that they get involved in campaigns…. It’s time that the churches get involved. Pastors, from the pulpit, can invite people to speak, not on politics, but of their faith. But they can discern, they can ask those people running for election, in the pulpit, what is your position on gay marriage? What is your position on abortion? That is totally permissible in 5013C organizations. They simply cannot endorse from the pulpit. And that’s why I’ve gone to churches and I’ve spoken in four churches, five churches a day on Sunday and people line up afterwards because it’s so important that they know. And if we don’t get involved as Christians then how could we possibly take this back?

Today’s Orlando Sentinel published strong criticisms of Harris' statements by a wide variety of political and religious leaders, many of whom focused on another statement in her interview: "if you’re not electing Christians then in essence you are going to legislate sin".

UPDATE: The Orlando Sentinel reported on Sunday that Katherine Harris spoke while campaigning, attempting to explain away her remarks in her Baptist Witness interview about religion and politics.

A New Group Of Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Jackson v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59119 (D DC, Aug. 22, 2006), the D.C. federal district court dismissed RLUIPA claims against the federal Bureau of Prisons and its director by a Muslim prisoner who claims he was denied a pork-free diet as required by his religious beliefs. The court held that RLUIPA applies only to state and local governments, and not to the federal government.

In Scott v. California Supreme Court, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59573 (ED Cal., Aug. 22, 2006), a California federal district court rejected claims by a Hebrew-Israelite prisoner that his First Amendment rights and his rights under RLUIPA were violated when the prison warden refused to permit him to legally change his name to a religious name.

Jackson v. Department of Corrections, 2006 Mass. Super. LEXIS 363 (Middlesex County, July 27, 2006), involved challenges by male Muslim prison inmates in Massachusetts to pat-searches by female guards and to provision of religious services only once every two weeks. A Massachusetts trial judge denied the state's motions for summary judgments on state statutory and RLUIPA claims, finding that facts remained in dispute. The court granted the state's motion to dismiss claims of cruel and unusual punishment and discriminatory treatment of Muslims.

In Carrio v. Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice, (5th Cir., Aug. 23, 2006), the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a prisoner's claim that a prison's property-storage rules violated his free exercise rights under the First Amendment and RLUIPA. It rejected various other claims because they had not been raised in the trial court.

Anti-Jewish Cartoon Exhibit In Iran

In a front page story today, the New York Times reports on an anti-Semitic art show in Iran. The display of 200 drawings in Tehran's Palestinian Contemporary Art Museum that opened this month is called "Holocaust International Cartoon Contest". The offensive display is variously justified as a response to cartoons of Muhammad published in the West last year and as a protest against the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. The exhibit, which is not technically sponsored by the government, has attracted little attention from Iranians. The show's curator argues that the exhibit is not anti-Jewish, but merely opposed to Israeli "repression".

New Lawsuit Filed Over Mt. Soledad Cross

Yesterday, a new lawsuit over the Mt. Soledad cross was announced by the ACLU which filed a complaint on behalf of the Jewish War Veterans and several San Diego residents challenging the constitutionality of the continued display of the cross now that the federal government has taken ownership of the land on which the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial stands. The full text of the complaint in Jewish War Veterans v. Rumsfeld, filed in federal district court for the Southern District of California, chronicles the long history of the dispute over the Mt. Soledad Cross. The complaint asks for a declaratory judgment that the continued display of the cross violates the Establishment Clause. It seeks an injunction against its display and asks the court to encourage and permit the cross to be moved, at the expense of individual citizens, to an appropriate non-governmental site.

The ACLU has posted background material about the dispute here and here.

Clergy Group Will Endorse Blackwell For Ohio's Governor

Continuing the high profile of religious leaders in Ohio's gubernatorial race, the Associated Press reports that an inter-racial group of ministers from around the country, Clergy for Blackwell, will hold news conferences on Monday in Columbus and Cincinnati. Acting in their individual capacities, the clergymen will endorse conservative Republican candidate Blackwell. Clergy in the group include the director of the Memphis-based Coalition of African-American Pastors, Bishop George McKinney of St. Stephen's Cathedral Church of God in Christ San Diego and Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman and CEO of the Maryland-based High Impact Leadership Coalition.

Blackwell's opponent, Democrat Ted Strickland-- who is a Methodist minister-- says that clergy have the right to endorse candidates in their personal capacity. However, he says, "certain clergy have allowed Mr. Blackwell to become so identified with their church and their religious work in the minds of the public they are indistinguishable."