Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Rubashkin-- On Bail-- Can Leave Iowa For Trip To Mark Rebbe's Death
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
New Nixon Tapes Reveal Comments About Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is stronger than we think. You know, it’s unfortunate. But this has happened to the Jews. It happened in Spain, it happened in Germany, it’s happening — and now it’s going to happen in America if these people don't start behaving. ... It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.
ACLU Sues Federal Prison To Get More Group Prayer Times for Muslim Inmates
South Bend Bus System Bans Future Ads Promoting Churches
UPDATE: Thanks to Bob Ritter, here is the full text of Transpo's new advertising policy. The new policy bans 13 types of ads, including ads that contain "any reference to a religion, creed, denomination, tenet, deity, belief, cause or social issue." The Preamble to the policy sets out a long series of reasons for the exclusions, including Establishment Clause concerns and preventing drivers from being placed in the position of having to operate a bus carrying ads that violate their moral or religious beliefs.
Obama Urged To Raise Human Rights, Religious Freedom At Russian Summit
UPDATE: Human Rights First has made available online its 2008 Hate Crime Survey examining violent hate crime in OSCE countries.
Village and Church Settle Litigation Over Rental Fees For Municpal Building Room
En Banc Review Sought In 10 Commandments Case
New Indian Goverment Reportedly Will Move To Repeal Anti-Conversion Laws
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Germany's Interior Ministry Surveys Muslims
Group Complains About Use Policy of Navy Website
Ski Resort Settles Religious Discrimination Charges By EEOC
Library Room Use Policy Violates Establishment Clause
Monday, June 22, 2009
"Prayer Station" Inside City Hall Is Questioned
Australian Sikh Files Complaint Over Helmet Requirement To Take Motorcycle License Test
In Israel, Court Hears Suit By Messianic Congregation Against Beersheba's Chief Rabbi
Recent and Forthcoming University Press Books of Interest
U.S. Religious History and Politics:
- Winnifred F. Sullivan, Prison Religion: Faith-Based Reform and the Constitution , (Princeton Univ. Press, 2009).
- James M. O'Toole, The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America, (Belknap Press, Nov. 2009).
- Moshik Temkin, The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial, (Yale University Press, April 2009).
- Shayne Lee & Phillip Luke Sinitiere, Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace, (NYU Press, April 2009).
- Hasia R. Diner, We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962, (NYU Press, April 2009).
Europe, Asia and the Middle East:
- Alan E. Steinweis, Kristallnacht 1938, (Belknap Press, Nov. 2009).
- Rebecca Nedostup, Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity, (Harvard East Asian Monographs, Nov. 2009).
- Benjamin J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Belknap Press, Oct. 2009).
- Robert Garland, Introducing New Gods: The Politics of Athenian Religion, (Cornell University Press, 2009).
- Ali A. Allawi, The Crisis of Islamic Civilization, (March 2009, Yale University Press).
- Thomas Brudholm & Thomas Cushman (eds.), The Religious in Responses to Mass Atrocity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, (Cambridge University Press, Feb. 2009).
Mousavi Letter Includes Analysis of Relation of Islam To Democracy
If the very large magnitude of the cheating and vote-rigging, which has fueled popular discontent, is cited as proof of the absence of cheating, then the Republic is headed for the slaughterhouse, and the allegation that Islam and republicanism are contradictory will have been proven.... Such a fate will gladden two groups.
One group, from the beginning of the Revolution, had fortified itself against the Leader [Ayatollah Khomeini]. It insisted that an Islamic government must be run like the dictatorship of the righteous. Adherents of this group, in their defunct thinking, surmised that they could drag people to paradise by force. The second group were those who, under the guise of defending the people’s rights, declared religion and Islam contradictory to a republican form of government.
The Leader [Khomeini] maneuvered astutely to neutralize the sorceries of these two groups. Relying on the path of the Leader [Khomeini], I came to neutralize the sorcerers who have resurfaced since then.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
School District Incurs High Legal Fees In Unsuccessful Defense of Prayer Lawsuit
Paper Publishes Long Expose On Tactics Used By Church of Scientology
The article claims that "physical violence permeated Scientology's international management team. Miscavige set the tone, routinely attacking his lieutenants."
One of the most interesting parts of today's long article is the account of Scientology's efforts-- ultimately successful in 1993-- to regain its tax exempt status from the IRS. The IRS had revoked the Church's 501(c)(3) exemption in the 1960's, arguing that it was a commercial enterprise. Hubbard unsuccessfully attempted to regain it through infiltrating the IRS, copying documents and withholding tax payments. (Background.) Miscavige used a new strategy, described at length by the Times:
Miscavige says that the defectors who provided information for the series are liars and are attempting to stage a coup to seize control of the Church. Additional installments in the newspaper's series will appear tomorrow and Tuesday. Those installments, along with additional material already available, will be linked here.Overwhelm the IRS. Force mistakes. The church filed about 200 lawsuits against the IRS, seeking documents to prove IRS harassment and challenging the agency's refusal to grant tax exemptions to church entities. Some 2,300 individual Scientologists also sued the agency, demanding tax deductions for their contributions....
The church ratcheted up the pressure with a relentless campaign against the IRS.
Armed with IRS records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Scientology's magazine, Freedom, featured stories on alleged IRS abuses: lavish retreats on the taxpayers' dime; setting quotas on audits of individual Scientologists; targeting small businesses for audits while politically connected corporations were overlooked. Scientologists distributed the magazine on the front steps of the IRS building in Washington.
A group called the National Coalition of IRS Whistleblowers waged its own campaign. Unbeknownst to many, it was quietly created and financed by Scientology.... They also knew the other side was hurting. A memo obtained by the church said the Scientology lawsuits had tapped the IRS's litigation budget before the year was up....Another memo documented a conference of 20 IRS officials in the 1970s. They were trying to figure out how to respond to a judge's ruling that Scientology met the agency's definition of a religion. The IRS' solution? They talked about changing the definition. .... Rathbun says that contrary to rumor, no bribes were paid, no extortion used. It was round-the-clock preparation and persistence — plus thousands of lawsuits, hard-hitting magazine articles and full-page ads in USA Today criticizing the IRS. "That was enough," Rathbun said. "You didn't need blackmail."