Schools Increasingly Avoid Traditional Halloween Rites

Increasingly, public schools are eliminating traditional Halloween celebrations, according to today's Christian Science Monitor. Some Christians object to the celebration's pagan and satanic connections. Some Muslim parents have similar feelings. Church-state separationists object to the holiday's religious roots. Halloween dates back 2,000 years to Celtic traditions. The observance was appropriated in the 600's by the Roman Catholic Church as All Saints Day. Halloween came to America with the Irish, whose traditional harvest rituals involved dressing up and chasing restless "spirits" away as winter's dark nights approached. Replacing traditional school celebrations in some places are the type of activities held in Raleigh, NC's Washington Elementary School. Pumpkins are decorated and teachers dress up, but costumes are allowed only as part of a curriculum-driven literary parade. Teachers avoid using the word Halloween. The principal though wore a shirt with the word "boo!" on it.

Prince Charles Will Urge Bush To Appreciate Islam More

Tomorrow, Britain's Prince Charles leaves for an 8 day tour of the United States. Over the weekend, the London Telegraph reported that an important part of his trip will be his attempt to persuade President George W. Bush, and Americans in general, to end America's confrontational approach to Muslim countries and to be more appreciative of the strengths of Islam. The Prince of Wales, who is about to embark on his first official foreign tour since his marriage to the Duchess of Cornwall, wants Americans to share his fondness for Islam. He has agreed to attend a seminar on religions at Georgetown University on Thursday. The seminar will look at how faith groups can alleviate social problems in their community.

Native American Prisoner's Religious Claims Rejected

The opinion has become available in a case decided several months ago, Runningbird v. Weber,2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25234 (D. SD, June 8, 2005). The South Dakota federal district court rejected a number of claims by an inmate in the state penitentiary that his rights to free exercise of religion were violated. A member of the Native American Church, the prisoner objected to not receiving enough tobacco, which is a part of Native American prayer. He also objected to the confiscation of his ceremonial bag and prayer ties, the lack of a medicine man to help with religious rituals, denial of a Lowampi Ceremony, female guards observing sacred ceremonies, and time limits on performing sweats.

Washington State 10 Commandments Case Appealed

Oregon Live reports that on Oct. 12, an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was filed in Card v. City of Everett. A Washington state federal district court in the case held that a 10 commandments monument on public property in Everett, Washington may remain there without violating the constitution. (See prior posting.)

New Scholarly Publication

New from SSRN:

Susan Pace Hamill, An Evaluation of Federal Tax Policy Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics, to apear in the Winter 2006 Virginia Tax Review.

Football Coaches Push Prayer

Sunday's New York Times carries an interesting article titled Increasingly, Football's Playbooks Call for Prayer. It traces the increasing importance that coaches at state universities place on spiritual development of their players. For example, for 30 years in pre-season, Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden has taken his players to a church in a white community and a church in a black community in the Tallahassee area in an effort to build camaraderie. He writes to their parents in advance, explaining that the trips are voluntary, and that if they object, their sons can stay home without fear of retaliation. He remembers only one or two players ever in fact not going. On game days, Penn State players may choose between Catholic and Protestant services or not go at all. Coach Joe Paterno and the team say the Lord's Prayer in the locker room after games.

Churches Cooperate Extensively With States In Katrina Disaster Aid

The Associated Press today brings together information on a trend that has been noted already. As the Gulf Coast and surrounding states begin to focus on long-term recovery from Hurricane Katrina, a closer relationship between churches and state and local governments is developing. Churches have become more involved in disaster aid, and are tapping into state funds to reimburse them for those efforts. Counties are beginning to incorporate churches into their disaster relief plans.

Trial Challenging Indiana Legislative Invocations Begins

A trial began in federal district court in Indianapolis, Indiana today on a challenge brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union to opening sessions of the Indiana General Assembly with prayer. The South Bend Tribune says today that U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton has promised a ruling before Nov. 22, when lawmakers return for a one-day session. In the past, legislative sessions have opened with a prayer from an invited member of the clergy or an elected lawmaker. This suit attempts to prohibit these opening prayers or limit them to a nonsectarian form without reference to specific deities or religious beliefs. The plaintiffs say that legislative prayer is too often marked only by Christian references and beliefs.

Ohio Issues Draft School Voucher Program Rules

The Ohio Department of Education yesterday issued Revised Draft Administrative Rules for Ohio's Educational Choice Pilot Scholarship Program. This is how the program, which includes religiously affiliated schools, was described earlier this year by the Cato Institute: "Ohio's bellwether accomplishment is the new Educational Choice Scholarship Program. It offers vouchers to 14,000 children in schools on "academic watch" or in "academic emergency" for three years anywhere in the state. Ohio is not the first to pass a statewide choice program, but Florida's older Opportunity Scholarship Program serves only 753 students and is dogged by court challenges. The ECSP will be the largest program of its kind, and prior litigation should insulate it from legal challenge."

Parent Can Require School Board To Discuss Evolution Alternatives

On Tuesday, a California federal district court opened a new chapter in the evolution-intelligent design debate. In Caldwell v. Roseville Joint Union High School District, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24923 (ED Ca, Oct. 25, 2005), the court denied defendant's motion to dismiss a number of plaintiff's constitutional claims. The law suit filed by a parent, Larry Caldwell, challenged the Roseville School District's refusal of plaintiff's request to place on its agenda the discussion of his Quality Science Education Policy ("QSEP"). QSEP presents some of the scientific weaknesses of evolution along with the scientific strengths.

While dismissing some of plaintiff's claims on Eleventh Amendment grounds, the court denied defendants' motion to dismiss his free speech, establishment clause, due process and equal protection claims. The court found that plaintiff sufficiently alleged that defendants restricted his speech in a limited public forum on the basis of it content. Plaintiff's Establishment Clause claim asserted that defendants do not allow Christian citizens to participate in public debates and public policy-making to the same extent as non-Christians. In refusing to dismiss the claim, the court held that plaintiff sufficiently alleged that the primary purpose of the defendant's actions was to disapprove of his actual or perceived religious beliefs.

The full text of the complaint in the suit is available online, as is Caldwell's press release on his victory. Further discussion is in this post from the Center for Science & Culture.

Orthodox Patriarch Sues In Israel's High Court

Asia News reports today that the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilus III, has filed suit in Israel's High Court of Justice against the Executive, which according to him is denying him civil recognition. It refuses to issue him a decree (of Ottoman origin) called Berat, that the government claims is necessary for the Patriarch to be able to act on behalf of the Patriarchate in the secular sphere (buy, sell, give orders in respect of bank accounts etc.).

The suit alleges that the Government is making the grant of the Berat conditional upon acceptance by Patriarch Theophilus of certain real estate sales in East Jerusalem made by his deposed predecessor, Irineus I, to Israeli settlers. The sales are believed by the new Patriarch to be invalid, because they were not approved by the Synod and were made for very low prices. The Government has not yet responded to the suit.

Objection To Prayers In Peoria Council Chamber

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting a recent use of Peoria, Illinois City Council Chambers, according to today's Peoria Journal-Star. Peoria's mayor, Jim Ardis, invited a prayer group, the Community Builders Foundation, to use the chambers last month. During the event, dozens of Christians gathered in the council chambers to pray. One by one, they laid hands on the vacated chairs of each council member and asked God to offer guidance to them. Community Builders had previously held prayer services outside City Hall, and even in the building's rotunda. But this was the first time they were invited inside the legislative chamber.

Japan Constitution Draft Would Change Religion Provisions

Today's People's Daily reports that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has finalized its draft of a new constitution . This is the first amendment to it since it was adopted after World War II. The draft relaxes the ban on the state engaging in religious education or other religious activity. It would prohibit this only when the activity goes beyond the scope of socially accepted protocol or manners, Apparently this is an attempt to legitimize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent visits to the war- related Yasukuni Shrine, which have been challenged as unconstitutional. (See prior postings 1, 2 .)

Inmate's Challenge To AA/NA Not Ripe

In United States v. Robinson, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24986 (D.Kan., Oct. 25, 2005), a Kansas federal district court dismissed a prisoner's suit claiming that sentencing him to participate in drug/alcohol counseling that may include a twelve-step or an AA/NA program violates the Establishment Clause. He claims AA/NA programs are based on the religious concept of a "higher power". The court found that his claim was not ripe for adjudication since the prisoner has 19 months before his release and this requirement takes effect. At that time he may have non-religious alternatives.

Schools Get Into Disputes In Choosing Textbooks About Religion

Conventional wisdom is that there are no constitutional problems in teaching "about" various religions in the public school curriculum. However, as an article in today's Los Angeles Jewish Journal demonstrates, choosing appropriate textbooks to teach about religion can embroil schools in disputes with religious groups. California is in the final stages of the once-each-7-year adoption process for history and social studies materials for grades K through 8. The process decides which books local school districts can purchase with state funds. One seventh grade book, History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, published by the Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, was withdrawn from its trial in Arizona earlier this year after a series of protests from parents who objected to what they saw as distortions of Christianity and Judaism, with an overarching positive spin on Islam. Another book, The Modern Middle East, was analyzed by a team from the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council. The report concluded that the materials are studded with “misinformation, manipulation, omissions of key facts, oversimplification of complex issues, historical inaccuracy and lack of context.”

Danforth Decries Influence of Evangelicals In Republican Party

Former U.S. Senator from Missouri, John Danforth, a Republican who is also an Episcopal priest, yesterday strongly criticized the influence of evangelical Christians in the Republican Party, according to the Associated Press. Danforth, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said "I think that the Republican Party fairly recently has been taken over by the Christian conservatives, by the Christian right. I don't think that this is a permanent condition but I think this has happened, and that it's divisive for the country." He said that while people of faith have an obligation to be in politics., "I think the question arises when a political party becomes identified with one particular sectarian position and when religious people believe that they have the one answer, that they understand God's truth and they embody it politically. Nothing is more dangerous than religion in politics and government when it becomes divisive."

Prisoner Loses Claim Over Verbal Harassment and Koran Damage

The opinion of a magistrate judge from earlier this year in Singleton v. Morales, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24776 (ED Cal., Aug. 25, 2005) has just become available. The federal district court for the Eastern District of California rejected a prisoner's free exercise claim, finding that verbal harassment of an inmate about his religion and damaging (but not destroying) of his Koran did not place a substantial burden on the prisoner's religious practice.

Church's Free Exercise and RLUIPA Claims Rejected by 10th Circuit

In Grace United Methodist Church v. City of Cheyenne, decided by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on October 25, the court rejected a church's appeal of a ruling that prevented it from constructing a day care center on property it owned. The church had claimed that the refusal to grant it a zoning variance violated its free exercise rights and RLUIPA, as well as its free expression, due process and equal protection rights. The court held that the City's zoning code does not amount to a system of individualized exemptions triggering strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise clause of the 1st Amendment. In determining the church's RLUIPA claim, the jury verdict which the court affirmed had found that Grace United's operation of the proposed daycare center was not a sincerely held religious belief.

Judge To Protect Free Exercise Rights As Part of Sentence

In Auburn, New York, Cayuga County Surrogate Judge Mark Fandrich agreed to take action to make certain that the religious rights a defendant he has sentenced for selling cocaine will be respected. The Auburn Citizen today reported that Judge Fandrich will order that Jimmie Clark, a Rastafarian, be allowed to keep his dreadlocks in state prison if state law in fact guarantees him that right as a matter of freedom of religion.

Dispute Over Religious Images Found In Hawaii

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported yesterday three West Hawaii cultural and community groups are angry that they were not consulted when a residential and golf development at Kohanaiki, North Kona, found old Hawaiian wooden images in a lava tube cave last month. The three groups are the Kohanaiki Ohana, Pono I Ke Kanawai and Na Keiki Hee Nalu O Hawaii. They are threatening legal action.

More than 20 images, believed to be kii, or carved images of gods, were found. Probably dating from the first half of the 19th century, the objects might be religious images hidden when the old Hawaiian religion was overthrown. Or they might be commercial objects created for sale to foreign sailors, said Hawaiian historian Herb Kane. No human bones were found in the lava tube, said the development's archaeological consultant, Paul Rosendahl. He said, since this is not a burial site and the objects were accidentally discovered, the landowner has legal right to determine how to dispose of the artifacts. The three groups responded, "Gods do not belong to individuals; they belong to the community whose values and practices they represent. They are the cultural and intellectual property of a social group." Rosendahl said the developers are not obliged to turn the images over to any particular group that makes a claim. The developers are working with "those with the strongest genealogical and residential ties."