Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Church and State Responses To Same-Sex Couples Continue To Evolve
Meanwhile, Toledo, Ohio yesterday became the largest city in the state to create a domestic partnership registry. Today's Toledo Blade reports that on its first day of operation, eight couples registered with the city as domestic partners. The city ordinance creates the registry for both same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners. Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner who signed the ordinance last month says that he is a "strong Christian believer" who does not advocate alternative lifestyles, but who does believe in minority rights and diversity. One of those who registered yesterday, Carol Bresnahan, vice provost at the University of Toledo, said that bigotry in the name of religious belief accounts for those who oppose the law. When the ordinance was passed last month, the Ohio's Gay People's Chronicle reported that there are 152 similar registries nationwide.
Nativity Displays Continue In The News As Christmas Approaches
Friday’s Manitowoc, Wisconsin News discusses the objections to the nativity scene on the local court house lawn raised by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. County Board Chairman Jim Brey’s reaction was: “It's unfortunate that just a few people can choose to be offended out of the blue and disrupt and insult the good people in our community who care very much about the holiday and the meaning for the holiday.” In response to arguments that the display is a town tradition, Rich Bouril, the resident who originally complained about the display, said: “Slavery was a tradition once.”
Finally, in Britain, 18-year old Christopher Geisler will spend both Christmas and New Years in jail after he stole the figures of Jesus and Mary from a nativity scene in front of Worcester’s Guildhall. Geisler, who was already on bail for two assault charges, apparently had been drinking and said he stole the statues “for a laugh”. This is the third year in a row that the nativity scene has been vandalized. According to today's Worcester News, Geisler’s father was upset that he would not be home for Christmas.
One RLUIPA Suit Filed; Another In the Offing
Meanwhile in Litchfield, Connecticut, a RLUIPA suit may be in the offing now that the Historic District Commission has denied an application by a Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish congregation to restore and add onto a Victorian house on the edge of the district for use as a synagogue and living quarters for the rabbi. The Commission says it would welcome a proposal to build a much smaller building, but Chabad says that there are already Episcopalian, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in the same neighborhood that are larger than the proposed new synagogue. The Hartford Courant reported on Friday that this proposal to build the town’s first synagogue has been controversial from its inception, with the Commission chairwoman, who is herself Jewish, called anti-Semitic by by Chabad after she objected to the proposed star of David and the use of Jerusalem stone in the renovated building.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Majority Upholds Witness' Religious Objection to Raising Hand To Be Sworn In
Malay Officials Say Christian Paper Must Change Its Translation of "God"
UPDATE: The AP reported on Dec. 27 that the Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has sued challenging the government's position after it seized children's educational material being brought into the country. Government officials said the Christian books' use of "Allah," could raise confusion and controversy among Muslims.
Denial of Visa To Muslim Scholar Upheld By Court
UN General Assembly Passes Resolution Against Defamation of Religions
8. Deplores the use of the print, audio-visual and electronic media, including the Internet, and any other means to incite acts of violence, xenophobia or related intolerance and discrimination against Islam or any other religion, as well as targeting of religious symbols;
9. Stresses the need to effectively combat defamation of all religions, Islam and Muslims in particular;
10. Emphasizes that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which should be exercised with responsibility and may therefore be subject to limitations as provided by law and necessary for ... respect for religions and beliefs....
Czech Government and Churches Reach Agreement On Nationalized Properties
White House Website Answers Questions On Presidential Holiday Decorations
EEOC Accuses Restaurant Chain of Religious Discrimination Against Muslim
Trinidad Court of Appeal Rejects Challenge To Trinity Cross Award
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Staff of Christian Groups Having Difficlty Extending Visas In Israel
Canadian Law School Ends Policy of Cancelling Class for Jewish Holidays
China's President Speaks About Religion In China
Suit Against California Teacher Continues To Draw Attention
Immigration Judge Releases Imam Pending Visa Appeal
Time's Interview of Russia's Putin Includes Q&A On Religion
TIME: One of the issues that is being discussed in our presidential election is the role of faith in government.... What role does faith play in your own leadership and what role should faith play in government and in the public sphere?
PUTIN: First and foremost we should be governed by common sense. But common sense should be based on moral principles first. And it is not possible today to have morality separated from religious values. I will not expand, as I don't want to impose my views on people who have different viewpoints.
TIME: Do you believe in a Supreme God?
PUTIN: Do you? ... There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody's consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease....TIME: Earlier you used the phrase, Thou shalt not steal. Have you read the Bible?
PUTIN: Yes, I have. And the Bible is on my plane. I fly frequently, you know. And on the plane I use, there is a Bible. I also have an icon there with some sewing on it. I fly long distances. We're a vast country. So I have time there to read the Bible.
TIME: I understand that you don't want to be public with your religion. But is there some way we can characterize your faith?
PUTIN: You could say that it is my deep conviction that the moral values without which humankind cannot survive cannot be other than religious values. Now, as regards a specific church or other establishment, that's a separate matter. As somebody said once, if God exists, he does know that people have different views regarding church.
TIME: Now the situation is emerging whereby the Russian Orthodox Church is apparently becoming a dominating force in Russia. It's the only church that has signed official relations on cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, law-enforcement agencies and the Foreign Office....
PUTIN: .... Our law recognizes four traditional religions in Russia. Our American partners criticized us for that, incidentally, but it has been defined by our lawmakers. These traditional Russian religions are the Orthodox Church, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism.
TIME: .... [I]t's still hardly proper in a secular country for the top military brass of the General Staff under the command of their Chairman to hold a service together with the top hierarchy, as occurred at the Orthodox Church at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet nuclear bomb.
PUTIN: Well, I would say that if those General Staff brass were Jews, Muslims or Buddhists and would have chosen to celebrate this wonderful event at other religious shrines, I would welcome that. So you cannot talk about the inequality of any of those religions. But still some 80% of the Russians consider themselves Orthodox Christians, which makes the Russian Orthodox Church the largest of them all.
Sudan Sentences Two Egyptian Booksellers On Blaspehmey Charge
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Huckabee Campaign Ad Has Unusual Christian Explicitness
Meanwhile, AFP today reports on the reactions of non-believers to the increasingly religious tone of political campaigns.