Michigan Court Upholds Zoning Denial; Defines "Church"

In Great Lakes Society v. Georgetown Charter Township, (MI Ct. App., Oct. 30, 2008), the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the Georgetown Zoning Board of Appeals' denial of an application for a special use permit and a variance that had been requested for a religious center. The court first concluded that the proposed building was a "church" for zoning purposes and that the trial court had applied an incorrect standard in holding otherwise. Great Lakes Society ministers to persons who have chemical sensitivities to common environmental pollutants. It also has a phone book listing under "Nutritionists". Its proposed building would contain space for a number of activities related to its ministry. The appellate court held that it is sufficient that the building is primarily used for public worship and reasonably closely related activities. The Court of Appeals went on to find that the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Township "properly decided not to grant a variance with respect to the proposed building location and that they did not violate the RLUIPA or any constitutional guarantees by making that decision."

Suit Challenging Illinois Grant To Rebuild Church Remanded To State Court

In Sherman v. Blagojevich, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89237 (CD IL, Nov. 4, 2008), an Illinois taxpayer sued the governor and other Illinois state officials challenging a state program that authorized the grant of $1,000,000 for the reconstruction of the Pilgrim Baptist Church and related buildings that were destroyed in a 2006 fire. The suit alleged violations of the Establishment Clause and of the Illinois constitution. The suit was originally filed in state court, but was removed to federal district court upon motion of the governor. In this decision, the federal court (upon motion of one of the other defendants) remanded the case to state court because plaintiff lacks taxpayer standing to pursue the claim in federal court. (See prior related posting.)

FLDS Asks Federal Court To Stop State Sale Of UEP Land

Yesterday's Deseret News reports that members of the FLDS Church have filed in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order to stop a fiduciary appointed by a Utah state judge from selling land belonging to the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. At issue is the proposed sale of a large tract of farm land known as Berry Knoll for $3 million. (See prior posting.) FLDS lawyers say that the free exercise rights of FLDS members were infringed when the state court took control of the trust holding FLDS lands and reformed it to eliminate its religious purpose. A supporting affidavit filed by FLDS member Willie Jessop said that the court had taken over a sacred trust and had appointed a "state ordained bishop" to administer it. Jessop argues that the court-appointed special fiduciary is requiring the church to depart from its own doctrines and follow only neutral principles dictated by the state.

In 2006 the Utah court took steps to reform the trust in a way that avoided inquiry into whether anyone living on UEP land was involved in a polygamous relationship. (See prior posting.) Jessop says: "Of course the trust was operated under religious principles, and of course the trust 'discriminated' on the basis of determinations made in accordance with Holy Scripture and divine revelation."

Cert. Filed In Eagle Protection Act Case

Yesterday's Great Falls (MT) Tribune reports on last month's filing of a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Friday, a case in which the 10th Circuit rejected a challenge under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the government's enforcement of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. (See prior posting). A petition for en banc rehearing was also rejected. The cert. petition was filed on Oct. 1, and the government was given an extension until Dec. 8 to reply. (Docket Entry.) The Northern Arapaho Tribe plans to file an amicus brief supporting the cert. petition of Winslow Friday who killed a bald eagle for use in a Northern Arapaho Sun Dance. A major issue in the case is the extent to which an appellate court can review de novo "constitutional facts" found by the trial court in a First Amendment case.

Advocacy Groups Have Varied Reactions To Tuesday's Election Results

The reactions to Tuesday's election results from advocacy groups have, not surprisingly, run the gamut. Americans United yesterday issued an election analysis titled "The Religious Right and Election 2008: Down But Not Out." It warned:

After eight years of unprecedented access to the White House and (until 2006) in the halls of Congress, Religious Right organizations are about to lose a lot of clout with much of official Washington and could see their influence at the national level diminished. But it’s unlikely any of these organizations will close down. Rather, they will organize to defeat individual-freedom initiatives put forward by President Barack Obama, and they will place more emphasis on state and local governments as a way to press their agenda forward.

Yesterday's Christian Post reported that Christian groups had varied reactions to Obama's win. The National Council of Churches USA issued a statement congratulating Obama and promising to work with him "to respond to the realities that a loving God places before us each day." Looking in a different direction, Focus on the Family took heart in the fact that Democrats failed to win the veto-proof 60 seats in the Senate. They were also encouraged by the passage of anti-gay marriage amendments in three states. The group said that these results "give values voters reason to stay tuned to development on Capitol Hill."

Yesterday's New York Times reports similarly that the approval of the bans on gay marriage, along with passage in Arkansas of a provision intended to bar gays and lesbians from adopting children, were "a stunning victory for religious conservatives, who had little else to celebrate on an Election Day." It points out that California will still be able to offer civil unions to same-sex couples.

Evangelist Sues Louisiana School Over Its Speech Permit Policy

Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it had filed a federal lawsuit against Southeastern Louisiana University officials challenging permit requirements that were invoked to prevent a traveling evangelist from evangelizing students on campus. The complaint (full text) alleges that the speech policy acts as an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.

Student Sent Home From School Because Jesus Costume Was Disruptive

At Paramus, New Jersey's West Brook Middle School, eighth grader Alex Woinski dressed up as Jesus for Halloween. According to Monday's Christian Post, school officials said his costume was disruptive and told him he needed to remove his beard and crown of thorns. The student refused and he was sent home. Principal Joan Broe said that he was sent home not because of the religious nature of the costume, but because other students' reactions meant that the education process was being interrupted. Woinski, who has developed an interest in religion, comes from a family where his mother is Catholic and his father is Jewish. The boy recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah.

Compilation of Obama's Statements on Faith and Church-State Relations

With Barack Obama's victory in yesterday's Presidential elections, I thought it would be useful to compile some of his major statements on the role of religious faith and church-state relationships. Here are five major statements:

• Barack Obama On Faith (from Obama '08 website).
• Saddleback Forum Interview (Aug. 16, 2008).
• Speech on Faith In America (July 1, 2008).
• Obama E-mail interview on CBN's Brody File (July 29, 2007).
• Call to Renewal Conference Keynote (June 28, 2006).

Court Rejects Religious Group's Challenges To Chicago's Zoning Permit Requirement

The decision from several months ago in World Outreach Conference Center v. City of Chicago, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88747 (ND IL, May 13, 2008) has recently become available on LEXIS. In the case, an Illinois federal district court rejected a series of challenges to the 2-year delay by the city of Chicago in granting World Outreach Conference Center a single room occupancy (SRO) license for a former YMCA building it purchased. WOCC wanted to create "a Christ-oriented community center ... and ... provid[e] shelter to the needy and homeless by renting out the SRO units." The court dismissed plaintiffs' nine-count complaint which had alleged violations of RLUIPA, the free exerrcise and establishment clauses, the equal protection clause, Chicago's zoning law and the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Ballot Measure Results: Issues on Gay Marriage, Abortion and Stem Cells [UPDATED]

In yesterday's election, six ballot measures were of particular interest to some religious groups. In 3 states, bans on gay marriage were approved. In two states, abortion restrictions were defeated. In Michigan final results show passage of a proposed expansion of permitted stem cell research. The Secretary of State's website this morning is reporting different results than are tne news media:

• California's Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage passed by nearly 52% with most votes counted.
• Florida Marriage Amendment banning same-sex marriage passed by 62%.
• Arizona Proposition 102 banning same-sex marriage passed by 56.5%.
• Michigan proposal 08-102 to permit human and embryonic stem cell research, subject to various restrictions, passed by a 53% vote (99% of precincts reporting) according to reports by CNN and the Detroit Free Press . Earlier returns from the Secretary of State's office showing different results are just now being updated by that office.
• South Dakota's Initiated Measure 11 to prohibit abortions except where there is risk to life or substantial and irreversible health risk, or reported rape or incest, defeated by a 55% vote.
• Colorado Amendment 48 defining "person" to include any human being from the moment of fertilization, defeated by 73% (with 87% of precincts reporting) (CNN report).

See prior posting for links to texts of the ballot measures.

UPDATE: Also of relevance is the passage by an almost 57% vote (89% of counties reporting) of a ballot measure in Arkansas prohibiting adoptions or foster parenting by unmarried couples. Its backers were primarily concerned with barring adoptions by same-sex couples, though the amendment also covers heterosexual couples.

Settlement Reached In EEOC Suit Against University of Phoenix Online

Today's Arizona Republic reports that a proposed settlement has been filed in a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC against Apollo Group Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the company's University of Phoenix Online discriminated against non-Mormon employees. The suit was brought on behalf of 52 enrollment counsellors who say Mormons were favored in sales, leads, promotions and tuition waivers. In the proposed settlement, University of Phoenix will pay damages of $1.89 million, the company will notify employees that it will not tolerate religious favoritism and will fire anyone who engages in it, the company will hire a diversity officer and the EEOC will monitor compliance for four years. The court must still approve the settlement which is believed to be the largest ever in an EEOC religious discrimination case.

Protective Appeal Filed In Green Bay Holiday Display Case

The Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette today reports that an appeal has been filed with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. City of Green Bay. Last month, without reaching the merits, a federal district court dismissed an Establishment Clause challenge to a nativity scene displayed last year at city hall because the city had enacted a moratorium on future displays. (See prior posting.) FFRF says it is filing the appeal in case City Council rejects a proposed resolution that would limit future displays to secular ones. (See prior posting.)

An Essay For Election Day

Today is, of course, an historically important election day in the United States. As we experience the day, this essay from Haaretz last week by Bradley Burston, titled "Voting As a Religious Experience" is worth a read. It is the reflections of the writer as he mails off his absentee ballot to California from a post office in Jerusalem. He says in part:

When you break it down, there is little in the act of voting that differs from the most pedestrian of bureaucratic errands. Yet there is something hugely humbling in this, something very close to the feeling of the Fear of God. There is majesty to it, and devotion and the palpable sense of affecting, if only in a small way - but directly - the world's course.

Ours is an age of congenital cynicism.... Still, there is something about voting that overpowers alienation and chronic disappointment and cosmopolitanism and cool.

California County Will Accommodate Muslim Women On Headscarves In Arrests

AP reported yesterday that San Bernardino County, California has settled a lawsuit brought by a Muslim woman who claimed her religious freedom was violated after her arrest when deputies required her to remove her hijab (headscarf). Under the settlement announced Monday, Muslim women who are arrested must be provided a private area to remove their headscarves and be provided with county-issued ones for use when they are in the presence of men. The suit was filed last December by the ACLU on behalf of Muslim Ph.D. student Jameelah Medina who was arrested-- but never charged-- when she was discovered to be riding a Los Angeles commuter train without a valid ticket. (See prior posting.) [Thanks to Blog from the Capital for the lead.]

Apartment Manager- Tenant Battle Over Statue of Jesus

In Muncie, Indiana, owners of an apartment complex are in a dispute with one of their tenants, Daniel Long. Long has put up a 4-foot tall statue of Jesus outside his apartment patio door, including a spotlight that casts a shadow of the statue on the building. The statue is in a prominent place on the Colonial Crest apartment complex, and overlooks the location where voters will be voting in today's election. According to yesterday's Muncie Star-Press, apartment manager Mike Desloover has asked Long to remove the statute, and tried to physically remove it when Long failed to do so. Citing the Federal Fair Housing Act, Desloover is concerned that the prominent statute might be seen as indicating the complex is not welcoming to non-Christians. Long says the statue is his personal statement. He thinks of Jesus 24 hours a day and wants to have Jesus with him all the time.

Iraqi Minority Religions Voted Some Representation On Provincial Councils

Yesterday, Iraq's Parliament cleared the way for Provincial Council elections in January by passing a bill guaranteeing a small number of seats to religious minorities. AFP and the Christian Post report that Christians protested when in September Parliament mandated new elections, but eliminated previously guaranteed seats for minorities. Parliament cited lack of census information since many Christians have fled the country. Yesterday's vote partially reverses the September decision. It gives one seat to Christians on the councils in Baghdad, Ninevah and Basra provinces; one seat for Yazidis and one for the Shabak in Ninevah; and one seat for Sabeans in Baghdad province. The United Nations last month proposed 12 seats for religious minorities, instead of the six that Parliament approved. Christians remain dissatisfied with the smaller number of seats.

Army Discharges Trainee Who Assaulted Target of Anti-Semitism

AP reported yesterday that the Army has now disclosed the non-judicial punishment it has imposed on an Army trainee who physically attacked a Jewish soldier who was also in basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The victim, Pvt. Michael Handman, had complained about anti-Semitic harassment by two drill sergeants a few days before the assault on him. (See prior posting.) An Army spokesman said: "The soldier that was punished for the assault on Pvt. Handman has been processed for discharge from the Army."

Religious Issues Will Be Important In Upcoming Israeli Elections

Israel will be holding elections in February, and the Jerusalem Post reported last week that religious issues will be important in the election battle. One key issue is civil marriages. Currently only marriages performed by Jewish, Christian or Muslim religious authorities are permitted in Israel. Some 300,000 Israelis-- many Russian immigrants or their children-- have Jewish ancestry, but are not Jewish according to rabbinic law (because their mother was not Jewish and they did not convert according to Orthodox religious law). They are unable to marry inside the country. Also mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews are not performed in Israel. In all of these cases, individuals have to travel outside the country to marry. Another item that may find its way into the campaign is a proposed reform of the way that rabbinic courts handle divorces. Some want to separate determination of financial issues from the giving of a get (a Jewish divorce document) by the husband. This may give courts more leverage to force husbands to sign a get. The resolution of these and other religious issues will depend on which religious parties are part of a majority coalition after elections. [Thanks to Religion and State in Israel for the lead.]

Morocco Bars French Magazine Issue On Relationship of Christianity and Islam

Moroccan Information Minister Khalid Naciri says the Moroccan government has banned the current issue of the French magazine L'Express International. According to an AP report yesterday, the step was taken under the press code (Code de la Presse, Art. 29) that allows the government to ban any publication offensive to Islam or the king. The offending issue contained articles exploring the relationship between Islam and Christianity. The cover was titled "The Jesus-Muhammad Shock." Editors of the magazine said they had gone to lengths to try to abide by Islamic norms in the Moroccan edition, cloaking the face of Muhammad with a white veil in a cover picture that also featured Jesus. In the edition on sale in France, Muhammad's face was not covered. A report on the L'Express website shows photos of both versions of the cover.

Ballot Measures In 6 States Watched By Religious Groups

At least six states on Tuesday have ballot measures that are being watched by religious groups. Here they are, along with links to the official ballot language for each proposal:

• Florida- Proposal 2- Marriage Protection Amendment.
• California- Proposition 8- Initiative to Eliminate Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.
• Arizona- Proposition 102- Constitutional Amendment Relating to Marriage.
• Michigan- Proposal 08-12- Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Human Embryo and Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
• South Dakota- Initiated Measure 11- To Prohibit Abortions Except in Cases Where the Mother's Life or Health Is At a Substantial and Irreversible Risk, and In Cases of Reported Rape and Incest.
• Colorado- Amendment 48- Definition of Person.

Saturday's American Chronicle has a report on ballot measures around the country.