Arkansas Buses Must Carry Non-Believers' Ads; But $15,000 Bond Required

An Arkansas federal district judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Central Arkansas Transit Authority to allow the United Coalition of Reason (UCR) to purchase ads on the outside of 18 public buses. However UCR will be required to post a $15,000 bond to cover damage that may result from vandalism to the buses. The ads read: "Are you good without God? Millions are." The advertising agency involved had demanded a higher bond, while UCR had offered to post a $10,000 bond. AP as well as the Daily Caller report on the decision. Meanwhile, according to the Christian Post, Christians in the community are creating their own series of ads to run on buses, and they say they will picket any bus carrying the non-believers' ads.  Bill Wheeler, a Christian leader in Little Rock, said: "We are planning to create a newsletter and start gathering our resources to fight ads that create chaos in our society. These ads have nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with corruption and pure evil." [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Court Invalidates Colorado County School Voucher Plan On State Constitutional Grounds

According to AP, yesterday a Colorado state court granted a permanent injunction against implementation of a Douglas County (CO) Board of Education school voucher plan that would have given 500 students scholarships to apply to tuition at participating private school partners. Most of the partner schools were sectarian and most were located outside the school district. (See prior posting.) The voucher plan enrolls scholarship recipients in a new Choice Scholarship Charter School for pupil counting purposes in order to continue to receive state funds.  In Larue v. Colorado Board of Education, (CO Dist. Ct., Aug. 13, 2011), the trial court, after finding that plaintiffs had standing, held that the voucher program violates a number of state constitutional provisions and the Public School Finance Act, as well as finding that the state contracting statute does not give school boards the power to contract with private schools to provide all a student's educational services.

The court concluded that the voucher program violates a state constitutional prohibition on state funds for sectarian schools, the state's free exercise clause, the ban on religious admissions criteria,ban  on requirements to attend religious services and ban on teaching of sectarian doctrines in public schools. The voucher program also was found to violate state constitutional provisions on the integrity of the public school fund.

Group Posts Critical Review of Gov. Perry's Prayer Rally

Jews On First yesterday posted an extensive and critical report on the content of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's The Response: A Call To Prayer for a Nation in Crisis held last Saturday. (See prior posting.) Their report says in part:

Blatant and repeated calls for Jews to accept Jesus punctuated Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Response revival meeting this past weekend. Indeed, last Saturday’s replay of the historic Christian preoccupation with the redemption of the world through Jewish conversion was in many respects a microcosm of what the event was about -- the coming together of different traditions to submit to Jesus, in an attempt to redeem not only the United States, but the world, through Jesus.... 

The day was split between four main prayer segments: personal repentance; corporate repentance; the First Commandment; and prayer for revival in America.

Throughout each of these four segments, speakers spoke only briefly (seven minutes each) while worship music and repetitive prayer (this was called "rapid fire prayer" where a microphone was passed down a line of usually four or five people who gave an emotional plea to Jesus for about thirty seconds each) filled in the rest of the seven-hour rally. Dominant themes included: repentance for abortion and an avowal to end it in America; the need to get America's finances in order; the need for leaders to submit to the authority of Jesus if they are to steer the country back on its right path; and the need for a third Great Awakening that would storm all levels of the public sphere....

Perry not only acknowledged Jesus' control over everything but also aligned himself with a submission to His will for the country and the world. This is something that evangelical voters see as essential for an elected official, in order to make sure that the government makes decisions based on divinely inspired principles -- unlike liberals in general who are construed as being guided by "manmade" principles and what is considered the erroneous belief that human principles can solve the nation's problems.

Croatia Blocks Vatican Decision To Transfer Monastery To Italian Benedictines

CNA reported yesterday that Croatia's Ministry for Justice has blocked a decision by the Vatican to return the monastery of Dajla, in northwest Croatia, to the Italian Benedictines.  The monastery is located in an area seized from Italy by Yugoslavia following World War II.  The Vatican ruled earlier this month that the monastery should be transferred along with 6 million Euros in compensation. Croatia has blocked the transfer and annulled the entire agreement. The Vatican says it is astonished by the decision. The Italian Benedictines already received $1.2 million (US) in compensation in 1975 under the Treaty of Osimo that dealt with the Italian- Yugoslav border. [Thanks to Pew Sitter for the lead.]

Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches Dispute Property Ownership Across Borders

Eurasia Review yesterday reports on the religious tensions between the countries of Armenia and Georgia over the ownership of various monasteries and churches.  The Georgian Orthodox Church claims ownership of five monasteries in Armenia that functioned as Georgian Orthodox monasteries in the 11th and 12th centuries.  However the Armenian Apostolic Church says that the monasteries were originally built as Armenian Orthodox churches, and that there are only 600 ethnic Georgians living in Armenia today.  Meanwhile, the Armenian Apostolic Church claims six churches in Georgia serving ethnic Armenians. (See prior related posting.)

Settlement Reached In Christian Legal Society's Suit Against Montana Law School

A settlement agreement (full text) was reached last week in Christian Legal Society v. Eck, a case challenging the University of Montana Law School's denial of recognition as a student group to Christian Legal Society because the group's membership policies violate the Student Bar Association's policy that recognized student groups must be open to all law students. CLS requires that students, in order to be voting members, sign a Statement of Faith. It also treats "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" as inconsistent with the required Statement. In 2009, a federal district court upheld the law school's policy as viewpoint neutral. (See prior posting.) That decision was on appeal to the 9th Circuit. (See  prior posting).

Under the settlement agreement, CLS will continue to be able to use law school facilities, including use of the law school's website and bulletin boards to communicate with students.  The Student Bar Association agrees to apply specified viewpoint neutral criteria in preparing its budgets for funding of student organizations. Pursuant to the agreement, appellants on Wednesday moved to voluntarily dismiss their 9th Circuit appeal. Yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the decision.

ROTC Values Training Includes Christian Examples

CNN reports that the Air Force's unit on core values taught to ROTC cadets includes Christian-themed examples.  The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule are used as examples of ethical values. This follows disclosures last month of the use of Christian "just war" theories in training of missile officers. (See prior posting.) According to CNN, a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command confirmed the content of the ROTC ethics training and said a comprehensive review was underway "of training materials that address morals, ethics, core values and related character development issues to ensure appropriate and balanced use of all religious and secular source material."

Obama Hosts White House Iftar Dinner

CNN reports that President Obama last night hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House, celebrating Ramadan. Among the invited guests were Muslim families who had relatives working in the Twin Towers on 9-11.  Obama spoke of Muslims who were innocent passengers killed on the planes that slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and of those who were 9-11 first responders. Earlier yesterday the White House released a list of some of the members of Congress and the diplomatic corps, as well as community members who were expected to attend the dinner.

Will Jeffs Control FLDS Church From Prison?

An AP article suggests that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs may be able to continue to lead his church from behind bars now that he has been sentenced to life in prison on sexual assault charges. Jeffs legal status as head of the church was reaffirmed last week by the Utah Department of Commerce. The Washington Post (Aug. 3) reported that in May the Department, by a split ruling, rejected filings by Jeffs' challenger, William E. Jessop, who claimed he was head of the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, the entity which holds the assets of the church (see prior posting). The Department gave Jessop until last week to provide a resolution or court order settling the dispute.  Nothing was filed and the Department of Commerce said it will recognize Jeffs as president of the Corporation.

Egyptian Government Proposes Anti-Discrimination Law

Voice of America reported yesterday that Egypt's government has proposed an amendment to its criminal code that would outlaw discrimination against people or a sect "due to gender, origin, language, religion or belief."  Violation would be punishable by a jail sentence of at least 3 months. The new law is aimed at  preventing attacks on the country's minority Coptic Christians. The military must approve the law before it goes into effect.

Suit Challenges Florida's New System For Review of Textbooks

The Florida Independent reports that a group known as Citizens for National Security announced that they were filing suit yesterday in Florida state court to enjoin the effectiveness of Florida S.B. 2120 which, among other things (Sec. 21), calls for two state or national experts to review instructional materials that are up for adoption each year. A third expert is to resolve disagreements between the two.  The complaint (full text) alleges that this provision conflicts with the mandate in the state constitution to provide for a high quality system of schools:

15. It is not possible for two people to review all the textbooks in Florida within a 4 month period of time and thus Senate Bill 2120 renders it impossible for the Defendants to provide high quality education to all children in Florida as required by law....

17. The present danger of fundamentalist religion is often obscured, the negative influence of fundamentalism is downplayed and the teaching of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all times, i.e. "evolution" is often ignored, questioned or denied due to the failure of this State to properly monitor its textbooks.

18. Rather than fix the problem, Senate Bill 2120 exacerbates the problem and renders it impossible for any meaningful review of textbooks to take place, and all but assures that the education of the students of Florida will be inaccurate, biased and substandard.

19. Prior to the enactment of SB 2120, Plaintiff CFNS had nominated close to 30 highly qualified lay citizens consisting of teachers, former teachers, education professionals and well educated citizens to serve on the State Instructional Materials Committee to review the textbooks to be used by the students of Florida. With the enactment of SB 2120, none of these nominees will have an opportunity to serve in this capacity and instead only 2 or 3 so-called experts who are hand-picked by Defendant FDOE will review all textbooks used in Florida.

Ministerial Exception Defense Rejected In Racial Discrimination Suit By Administrative Assistant

A North Carolina federal district court has rejected a religious organization's "ministerial exception" defense in a Title VII racial discrimination case brought by a former administrative assistant in the group's Global Ministries office.  In McCallum v. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86997 (WD NC, Aug. 5, 2011),  the court held that the former employee who was the only African American in the organization's executive offices could move ahead with a discrimination claim based on a downsizing that eliminated only her job and which came after she complained that African American congregations were not being invited to participate in a summer camp youth program.

At this stage of the proceedings, BGEA has not demonstrated that the Church Autonomy Doctrine bars Plaintiff's lawsuit or that McCallum's former job as an Administrative Assistant in Global Ministries falls within the ministerial exception. Here, McCallum's position did not entail traditional ministerial functions such as teaching, spreading the faith, church governance, supervision of a religious order, or supervision or participation in religious ritual and worship. Nothing in the record suggests that McCallum had decisionmaking authority or substantive input regarding the content of BGEA's religious message, the delivery or expression of the message, or its intended audience.... McCallum's primary function was to provide administrative or clerical support....

 Although the Court holds that Plaintiff was not in a ministerial role... McCallum's claim, is likely to pose the very type of entanglement issue that the Church Autonomy Doctrine and ministerial exception seek to avoid.... [It will] necessarily call into question BGEA's outreach decisions.... As a practical matter, the Court contemplates that as the case proceeds there will be certain doctrinal topics that will, in fact, remain "off-limits."

The court, however, dismissed plaintiff's second claim in the lawsuit-- Title VII retaliation.  The court held that the alleged retaliation was in response to plaintiff's questioning the organization's summer camp invitee list, not in response to her opposing an employment practice, as required by Title VII.

Enforcement of Zoning Code Does Not Amount To Conspiracy To Infringe Free Exercise Rights

In Salman v. City of Phoenix, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86984 (D AZ, Aug. 5, 2011), an Arizona federal district court dismissed a suit that had been brought by a couple who were born-again Christians who alleged that the city of Phoenix and certain city officials and employees had conspired to deprive them of their rights to the free exercise  of religion.  The claims grew out of the city's execution of a search warrant, other enforcement activities and prosecution of plaintiffs for various building and zoning code violations.  Plaintiffs were using their home and an adjacent building for religious services which 40 to 50 people attended, and displayed in their yard of a reader board containing Biblical verses. The court concluded that:

Plaintiffs' allegations describe only defendants' repeated efforts to enforce the law, in accordance with the responsibilities of their employment. Such actions alone cannot constitute an agreement to deprive plaintiffs of their legal rights. In the absence of any allegations of an actual agreement, plaintiffs' claim for civil conspiracy fails as a matter of law.

Fired Employee, Believer In Theosophy, Sues Over Retaliation, Complaints About Yarmulke

Yesterday's New York Post reports on a religious discrimination lawsuit filed in New York federal district court against the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. by a former employee who says he was fired after going to the police to complain about threats he received for going to the company's Human Resources department. In the lawsuit, Ciro Rosselli alleges that problems began when he wore a yarmulke to work as an expression of his practice of "theosophy", a movement that finds truth in all religions.  He was subjected to a stream of taunts by fellow-employees and his supervisors. For example, his boss sent him an e-mail comparing him to Kabbala admirer Madonna.

Philippine Cultural Center Closes Exhibit Offensive To Christians

In the Philippine capital of Manila, the board of the government-run Cultural Centre of the Philippines has closed down an exhibit that included works by local artist Mideo Cruz which Christians found highly offensive.  AFP reports that the exhibit, which opened June 7, included a Cruz poster of Jesus with a wooden penis glued to his face, a cross made of discarded wood with a penis attached, and Jesus with a red clown nose and Mickey Mouse ears.  The closure comes after a group of Christian lawyers said it was filing charges with the government ombudsman accusing the Centre's management with violating the law against "immoral doctrines that violate religion." It also wants those responsible for the exhibit suspended or fired. Philippine president Benigno Aquino says he called the Centre and told the staff he was opposed to the exhibit.  The Centre board said it had received an increasing number of threats to person and property over the exhibit.

New Study Shows Increasing World Restrictions On Religion

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life yesterday released a new report on the rising restrictions on religion around the world. The report (full text) uses both a government restrictions index and a social hostilities index in examining restrictions on religious beliefs and practices. The report concludes:

Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%)....

Because several countries with increasing restrictions on religion are very populous, however, the increases affected a much larger share of people than of states. More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion – live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially over the three-year period studied. Only about 1% of the world’s population lives in countries where government restrictions or social hostilities declined.

Christian Century summarizes the report.

Jeffs Receives Life In Prison

[Updated] CBS and CNN report that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life imprisonment today in his sexual assault trial. The jury imposed the life sentence on one count of aggravated sexual assault and an additional 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on a charge of sexual assault. These were the maximum sentences available on each count. The victims were underage girls that Jeffs took as his "spiritual wives."  The Texas jury deliberated for less than half an hour in the penalty phase of the trial. (See prior related posting.)

Free Exercise Claim In Tax Exemption Dispute Moves Forward

Michael v. Letchinger, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86685 (ND IL, Aug. 5, 2011), involves zoning and tax disputes between George and Susan Michael and the village of Lake Bluff, Illinois.  The Michael's converted a portion of their expensive lake front home into what they claimed was an Armenian Orthodox Church, because Susan's health made it difficult for her to travel to an existing church in Chicago. They transferred ownership to a new religious corporation they created.  They then initially convinced the state of Illinois to grant a religious property tax exemption for their home. (See prior posting.)  The complaint alleges that village officials then began a campaign to drive the Church out of existence and reverse the tax exemption. The exemption was reversed, and the exemption denial was upheld by the Illinois courts.  This federal court lawsuit seeks $10.5 million damages for the actions of village and state officials. The court dismissed most of plaintiffs' claims, but permitted them to proceed on their claim that their free exercise rights were violated by the discriminatory enforcement of zoning and building codes against them. They claim that the enforcement was motivated by animus against the Armenian Orthodox Church.

Summum Discussing Offering Released Time Program In Utah

In Utah, according to yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune, it is common for high school students to take advantage of the state's released time program to enroll in LDS seminary classes that are offered in LDS Church-owned buildings near public high schools. Last year over half of Utah's high school students were enrolled in LDS seminary classes. The Canyons (UT) school district is building a new $55 million high school, and an adjacent parcel of land has long been designated as "seminary" on architectural plans with school board officials assuming it would be used by a religious organization of a released-time program. The LDS Church has expressed some interest in buying the land. Now, however, the Summum movement has inquired about purchasing the land to build its first seminary.  It wants to use the seminary for a released time program that teaches "the principles of the universe."

UPDATE: The Salt Lake Tribune (Aug. 17) reports that the Canyons school board has decided not to sell the land to anyone for a seminary.

In Nigeria, Christians Planning Non-Interest Banking To Parallel Islamic Finance

Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria created controversy when it issued guidelines for Shariah-compliant financial institutions. (See prior posting.) Now, according to The Moment yesterday, Christian groups in Nigeria that have unsuccessfully attempted to get the Central Bank to withdraw its guidelines are taking a new approach. They are planning to apply for a license to operate a non-interest bearing bank that would operate according to Christian principles. This is seen as a test of the Central Bank's pledge that other groups seeking to create non-interest institutions would be given the same attention as Islamic banks, and that the Central Bank would issue guidelines for those institutions as well.