Turkmenistan Sentences Conscientious Objector To Jail

Forum18 reported this week that in Turkmenistan, a conscientious objector-- Suleiman Udaev-- who adheres to the Jehovah's Witness faith has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for evading military service. Last month, three other Jehovah's Witnesses received suspended sentences for refusing military service. Ten others have not at this point been prosecuted.

Cub Scout Working To Develop Native American Emblem

A Cub Scout who engages in special projects can be awarded a special emblem from his religious organization that he can wear on his scout uniform. Now a Clermont, Florida, Cub Scout is working to establish Scouting's first Native American religious emblem. Earlier this week, the AP reported that 9-year old Kinlichiinii John, along with his family and Navajo medicine men, are working on a design for the emblem and the guidelines for earning it. Religious emblems earned by scouts are issued by religious organizations, but must be approved by the Boy Scouts. At least 25 scouts must be members of the Native American church for the scouts to approve the emblem. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Louisiana College Plans To Open a "Biblical Worldview" Law School

TheAdvocate reports today that Louisiana College in Pineville, LA, has announced that it plans to open a "biblical worldview" law school in 2009. The newspaper reports that:

[College president, Joe] Aguillard said the law school will "unashamedly embrace" the nation’s "biblical roots" but still prepare graduates to pass the bar exam and practice law in Louisiana or nationwide. "We teach our students to have a passion to change the world in the name of Christ," he said.

Some anti-Christian courts have improperly interpreted the U.S. Constitution on issues involving religious liberties and family values, Aguillard said....

Louisiana College requires all of its faculty to "accept Jesus Christ" and was the scene of protests over an alleged lack of academic freedom as the college became more fundamentalist and conservative in recent years....

[Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]

Military Stops Group from Sending Apocalyptic Video Game To US Troops

ABC News yesterday reported that the Department of Defense has stopped plans by a Christian evangelical group to send soldiers in Iraq a video game in which Christian believers fight the Antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon. (See prior posting.) Operation Straight Up, an evangelical group that offers faith-based entertainment to military families, had been planning to include the games in care packages to troops. Troy Lyndon, producer of the game "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" says the game encourages players to recruit believers instead of killing the forces of the Antichrist.

Christian Groups Proposing Code of Conduct For Seeking Converts

The Associated Press reported yesterday that the World Evangelical Alliance has endorsed a move initiated last year by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican to create a common code of conduct to govern proselytizing. The move comes in response to increasing concern over Christian evangelization expressed by Muslim and Hindu adherents in various countries. The WCC said the code of conduct could be an "advocacy tool in discussions with governments considering anti-conversion laws".

Group Urges IRS To Investigate California Church For Political Endorsement

On Tuesday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the Internal Revenue Service (full text of letter) urging it to investigate a Buena Park, California church for possible violations of Internal Revenue Code provisions that prohibit non-profits from endorsing political candidates. (AU press release.) AU says that on August 11 Dr. Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church, issued a press release on church letterhead endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and urging other Southern Baptists to support him also. The endorsement was also broadcast on an August 13 Internet radio show.

Issues of Secularism Remain In Turkey's New Presidential Election

In Turkey, now that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that he will again nominate Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for President, secular parties are again questioning whether the nomination is consistent with Turkey's tradition as a secular state. (See prior posting.) In Gul's previous run for President, much attention was focused on the fact that his wife wears an Islamic headscarf. Gul says that the country's constitution guarantees his wife the right to wear her religious symbol, and that he does not expect that this will become an issue with the Turkish military this time. Last time Gul ultimately withdrew and new Parliamentary elections were held. Yesterday, both Reuters and the Associated Press ran long articles on the background of the upcoming presidential selection by Parliament and the religious-secular clash posed by Gul's candidacy.

Woman Arrested After Disturbing Neighbors With Wicca Ritual

Waukesha, Wisconsin resident Brenna Barney, a practicing witch, told police they were infringing her free exercise of religion when they arrested her for disturbing her neighbors just after midnight on Tuesday. WISN-TV reports that Barney, engaging in a Wicca ritual marking the new moon, chanted and threw a doll into a bonfire she had lit. Barney, now out on bail, was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Agreement Furthers Proper Burials For Jewish Military In Russia

In Russia, the Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC) recently signed a cooperation agreement with VMK, the Russian company that is in charge of military funerals in the country. The agreement is designed to assure that Jewish religious law is followed in burying Jewish soldiers. A news release issued yesterday by Chabad.org says that FJC and VMK will also develop a new gravestone appropriate for Jewish military members, and will work on other problems faced in burying Jews, especially those who are indigent.

Indiana State Agency Ends Controversial Chaplaincy Program

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) has decided to end its new program of creating a network of volunteer clergy to work with its employees. Rev. Michael Latham, the Baptist minister who had been hired by the agency to implement the program, has been ill and recently went on disability leave. His job performance had become the subject of criticism. Also in May, the Freedom From Religion Foundation had filed suit challenging the constitutionality of using state funds to pay Latham's salary. (See prior posting.) The FSSA said that its decision to end the program was not a result of the pending litigation.

Canadian Company Settles Complaint On Muslim Cabbies and Guide Dogs

In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a taxi company has settled a complaint that had been filed with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal by Bruce Gilmour, a blind man who was refused service in West Vancouver by a Muslim cab driver. Driver Behzad Saidy considered Gilmour's guide dog "unclean" under Muslim law. According to yesterday's Toronto Star, the taxi company agreed to pay $2500 in damages, and to adopt a policy that would require Muslim drivers refusing passengers for religious reasons to call for another cab and stay with the blind person and guide dog until that cab arrives.

Texas State School Board Offers Narrow Policy On Student Religious Speech

Earlier this year, the Texas legislature passed and the governor signed the Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act that requires schools to establish "a limited public forum for student speakers at all school events at which a student is to publicly speak". The law goes on to set out a model policy that schools may adopt to meet the requirements of the law. (See prior posting.) However, today's Austin (TX) American-Statesman reports that the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) has furnished its members with a different-- and narrower-- model policy that they could use to meet the requirements of the statute. Unlike the statutory model, the TASB policy does not require schools to have student speakers introduce football games and school announcements. More importantly, perhaps, the TASB policy says that public speech to which the new law applies is only speech in the student's own words-- and not speech that is first approved by school officials. Proponents of the law are concerned that schools adopting the TASB model could avoid the law's thrust by requiring all student remarks to first be approved by school officials.

Vermont Policy On Religious Vanity Plates Upheld Again

A Vermont federal Magistrate Judge has concluded that a challenge to the state Department of Motor Vehicles policy on vanity licence plates should be rejected. The policy prohibits the issuance of plates displaying religious references. Today's Rutland (VT) Herald says that the magistrate's report concluded that "The DMV has the right to prohibit religious messages on license plates provided it does not discriminate based on the particular message or viewpoint." Shawn Byrne, who applied for plates with the number "JN36TN" (referring to the biblical verse John 3:16), already lost his attempt to obtain a preliminary injunction when he first filed the case in 2005. (See prior posting.) Attorneys have until Aug. 27 to file objections to the recent Magistrate's report. Lawyer Jeremy Tedesco said Byrne will continue to press his claim that the state's policy amounts to unconstitutional discrimination against religious viewpoints.

Report On White House Faith-Based Conference In Minneapolis

The Minnesota Monitor this week carried a two-part series (part 1, part 2) on the White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives held last week in Minneapolis. Monitor reporter Andy Birkey reported that over 1000 people were in attendance. He summarized the atmosphere as follows:

Inside the conference, the official message was that government partnering with faith-based services can make America a better place. Unofficially, the message was apologetic and sometimes persecutive. Faith-based groups have been discriminated against in receiving grant money, many argued. The initiative is a way to "level the playing field."

Many presenters pointed to 'Minnesota Nice' as the ideal of the initiative, and the recent bridge collapse became a narrative for how faith-based groups and government can work together, particularly in Minnesota....

Perhaps the most important part of the conference was teaching the attendees, as well as state officials, the legal responsibilities that faith-based groups face in accepting government funds.

Despite those concerns, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty began his remarks by reading from the Bible.

Canadian University To Install Footbaths Without Controversy

In Canada, the University of British Columbia is planning to install foot baths in the men's and women's washrooms in the University's Brock Hall where a prayer room used by Muslim students is located. The decision seems to have been made without the controversies that similar decisions have generated in the United States. Vancouver's The Province yesterday quoted a university spokesperson who said: "It's no different from upgrading washrooms to accommodate transgender students or students with disabilities."

Role of Non-Profits In Election Campaigns Debated

Last week, the Hudson Institute sponsored a discussion between author Robert Egger and Georgetown University fellow Pablo Eisenberg titled Should Nonprofit Organizations Play an Active Role in Election Campaigns? A transcript of the discussion, an audio recording of it and opinion pieces from the participants that appeared in the Chronicle of Philanthropy are all available from a page on the Hudson Institute's website. Melissa Rogers has a long posting about the exchange on her blog, and BNA's Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] covered the discussion last Friday.

Here is Egger's provocative challenge:

If most people have a choice between feeding a poor kid and fighting the reason the kids are poor, they’re going to opt, right now, historically, for the organization that feeds the kid. It's like the old line – and I forget which activist said it: When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why they were poor, they called me a communist. That's to a certain extent what’s going on here. And I think that we have to challenge this. And I do want to be able to say, vote for Joe, or vote for Jane, openly.

Eisenberg however thinks that there is plenty for non-profits to do without endorsing political candidates:

There are so many issues on which nonprofits ought to be speaking out and putting their muscle into that they're not doing. For example, how many nonprofits have had the guts to challenge foundations, corporate donors, and United Ways throughout the country on the pattern of their giving, which has in fact neglected poor people, has refused to find advocacy, and has supported primarily established organizations. You can almost count the number of nonprofits on the fingers of both hands.... How many nonprofits have attacked the excesses of corporate America? .... They should focus on those issues and not try to get involved in politics, which at the same time would endanger their tax status.

Czech Official Suggests State Funding of Catholic Church End

In the Czech Republic, Government Legislative Council head Cyril Svoboda has suggested that the Catholic Church become independent of the government by all Catholics sending 1% of their monthly income to the Church. The Prague Daily Monitor yesterday said that the proposal does not reflect the official position of the Christian Democrat party leadership.

Tax Fraud Indictment Against Evangelist Dismissed For Prosecutorial Misconduct

In United States v. Cerullo, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58142 (SD CA, Aug. 8, 2007), a San Diego, California federal district judge dismissed a tax evasion indictment against evangelist Morris Cerullo on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct that misled the grand jury. The court found: "During the prosecutor's presentation, the grand jury asked at least three times about how to differentiate between earned income and gifts. Each time the prosecutor answered without mentioning the most critical factor: the donor's intent. And each time he told the grand jury to listen to the testimony of the Internal Revenue Service Agent." The testimony of the IRS agents however was incorrect and misleading. The court went on to say:

this case illustrates the specter of a federal tax prosecution that faces every clergyman, minister, rabbi, and cleric who receives money after delivering a sermon. Such tax cases must be considered by government prosecutors with great care lest the Government trench on rights afforded by the Free Exercise Clause and convert that which is a guaranteed liberty into a federal crime. In this case, the prosecutor did not exercise that necessary care before the grand jury. Consequently, the grand jury was misled on the law, was unable to correctly adjudge the evidence, and no longer operated as an independent body and buffer between the Government and the Defendant.

Today's San Diego Union-Tribune reports on the decision.

Buddhists Illegally Release Reptiles Into New Jersey River

Officials of the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife are working with New York authorities to track down members from a New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists who released hundreds of live reptiles into the Passaic River on Sunday. The Buddhists are devout vegetarians who purchased the animals in New York's Chinatown in order to allow them to complete their natural life cycles and realize "their full karmic potential". NorthJersey.com reports that stocking fish or other species into the river without a permit can lead to a civil fine of up to $1000.

Kinghts of Columbus Will Shun Politicians Who Do Not Support Pro-Life Stance

LifeSite News reports that at its annual convention last week, the Knights of Columbus passed a resolution broadly reaffirming its pro-life stance, including its "long-standing policy of not inviting to any Knights of Columbus event, persons, especially public officials or candidates for public office, who do not support the legal protection of unborn children, or who advocate for the legalization of assisted suicide or euthanasia." The Resolution on Building a Culture of Life (full text) also said that candidates or public officials who do not have a pro-life agenda cannot use KofC facilities and will not be invited to serve as honorary chairpersons of KofC events or committees. The resolution also supported the Catholic Church's traditional teaching in opposition to the death penalty.