Sri Lankan Court Gives French Tourists Suspended Sentence For Offensive Photo With Buddha

BBC News reported on Tuesday that in Sri Lanka, three French tourists were given suspended jail sentences after they were photographed posing with Buddha statues and pretending to kiss one of the statues. They were apparently charged under Sec. 290A of the country’s Penal Code which provides:

Whoever does any act, in or upon, or in the vicinity of, any place of worship or any object which is held sacred with intent to or in veneration by any class of persons, with the intention wounding the religious feelings of any class of persons or with the knowledge that any class of persons is likely to consider such act as an insult to their religion, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

Police in the town of Galle arrested the tourists after a photo lab where they had taken the pictures to be printed alerted authorities. 

Group Claims Missouri Baptist Convention Endorsed Political Candidates In Violation of Tax Code

Americans United on Thursday filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the Missouri Baptist Convention endorsed candidates in the Republican primary in violation of the Internal Revenue Code's ban on non-profit organizations intervening in political campaigns. (Press release.)  In its letter (full text) to the IRS, Americans United said:

In a May 2012 edition of The Pathway, the official publication of the Missouri Baptist Convention, MBC Director of Public Policy Don Hinkle endorsed two candidates for public office in the August Republican primary – U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin and state attorney general candidate Ed Martin. 

The letter also pointed to a July 2012 article in the same publication listing over 100 Missouri Baptist clergy who endorsed Aikin.

FFRF Protests Extensive Religious Involvement Of School's Football Program

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (press release) sent a letter this week (full text) to the superintendent of the Walker County, Georgia schools complaining about unusually extensive religious entanglement of local churches with the Ridgeland High School football program. It says that football coach Mark Mariakis takes the team to a different local church for dinner before each game. The minister or youth pastor blesses the food before dinner and sermonizes players about Christianity. The letter claims that at one point Mariakis took players to a Mormon church for dinner and afterward made fun of the Mormon religion within hearing distance of Mormon football players. FFRF says that the coach also prays with the team after each game, uses Bible verses on team gear, participates in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings, and pressures players to attend a Christian football camp over the summer.

Gay Former Employee of Library of Congress Sues For Discrimination

A former employee of the Library of Congress' inspector general's office has filed a Title VII lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. alleging that his supervisor harassed him with religious-based condemnation of homosexuality.  According to Wednesday's Washington Post, Peter TerVeer alleges that his supervisor John Mech continually quoted Biblical passages and lectured him condemning homosexuality after Mech found out that TerVeer is gay. Mech allegedly began creating a paper trail to downgrade TerVeer's performance ratings. When TerVeer complained to the Library of Congress' EEO office the situation deteriorated, and he took an extended medical leave for stress that led to his firing.  TerVeer filed suit after the EEO office ruled he had not been discriminated against.

Victim Rights Groups Sue Over MO House of Worship Protection Act

A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday by two groups that support victims of clergy sexual abuse challenging the constitutionality of Missouri's new House of Worship Protection Act. The law prohibits intentionally disrupting a church, synagogue or mosque. The complaint (full text) in Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests, Inc. v. Joyce, (ED MO, filed 8/22/2012), claims that the  law which goes into effect on Aug. 28 infringes plaintiffs' free speech rights and that the law is unconstitutionally vague. The plaintiffs, SNAP and Voice of the Faithful, regularly picket, distribute leaflets or stand with signs outside Catholic churches to support victims of clergy abuse and encourage reform in the Catholic Church. ACLU of Eastern Missouri announced the filing of the lawsuit.

B&B Settles Discrimination Suit By Agreeing To No Longer Host Wedding Receptions

The ACLU yesterday announced that it had reached a settlement with a Vermont bed and breakfast in Baker and Linsley v. Wildflower Inn.  The suit charged the B&B with discrimination after it refused to host a same-sex wedding reception for two women because of the owners' religious beliefs. In the settlement, Wildflower Inn agreed that the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodation Act bars unequal treatment of same-sex couples, including a failure to respond to inquiries or discouraging same-sex couples from using the facilities. The resort agreed to pay a $10,000 civil penalty to the Vermont Human Rights Commission-- which had intervened as a co-plaintiff-- and $20,000 to a charitable trust to be disbursed by the couple, Kate and Ming Linsley.  However, instead of agreeing to host same-sex wedding receptions, the Inn agreed that it will no longer host wedding receptions of any kind.

More Suits By Businesses and Schools Challenging Affordable Care Act Mandate

Another lawsuit has been filed by Catholic private business owners objecting to the Affordable Care Act mandate that requires employee health insurance policies to cover contraceptive services. The complaint (full text) in Yep v. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, (ND IL, filed 8/22/2012) alleges that the federal Mandate, as well as a similar state law mandate, violate plaintiffs' rights under the 1st Amendment and RFRA and under parallel state statutory and constitutional provisions. Plaintiffs are Triune Health Group, Inc. and its co-owners Christpher and Mary Yep. The complaint alleges in part that the plaintiffs

believe that the procreative capacity of human beings represents a precious gift from God by which individuals are allowed to participate in God’s plan to share life and that, as a result, any acts of deliberate interference with that procreative capacity bound up with acts of unitive human love – including artificial contraception, abortion, and/or sterilization – are gravely wrong and sinful. They also believe that the use and promotion of reproductive technologies that involve the destruction of human embryos or which purport to divide and sunder the procreative core of human sexuality from its unitive elements are gravely wrong and sinful. That both the federal and state governments would coerce plaintiffs to flout such profound and fundamental beliefs seems totally at odds with repeated declarations of the Founding Fathers.

A press release from the Thomas More Society announced the filing of the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, two more Christian colleges filed suit in an Indiana federal district court challenging the federal mandate.  The complaint (full text) in Grace Schools v. Sebelius, (ND IN, filed 8/23/2012) asserts a variety of 1st Amendment claims, as well as 5th Amendment, RFRA and Administrative Procedure Act claims on behalf of Grace College and Seminary and Biola University.  Among the allegations:

The Mandate adopts a particular theological view of what is acceptable moral complicity in provision of abortifacient coverage and imposes it upon all religionists who must either conform their consciences or suffer penalty.

Alliance Defending Freedom issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

EEOC Sues For Failure To Accommodate Religious Belief As To Clothing Style

The EEOC announced Tuesday that it has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit in Texas federal district court against  Fries Restaurant Management, LLC, the operator of a Burger King in Grand Prairie, Texas.  Ashanti McShan, a high school senior and a member of the Pentecostal Church, was told during her job interview that she would be able to wear a skirt instead of the standard uniform pants, as required by her religious beliefs. However when she arrived at orientation for her position, she was told that wearing the skirt was unacceptable and was sent home and never called back to work.  The lawsuit seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief for the company's failure to accommodate McShan's religious beliefs.

Church Can Get RLUIPA Damages, But Not For Hypothetical Lost Contributions

In a suit challenging the refusal to rezone land for use by a church, after a remand from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (see prior posting), the city of San Leandro, California sought summary judgment on whether the church is entitled to damages on its "substantial burden" claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.  In International Church of the Foursquare Gospel v. City of San Leandro, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117347 (ND CA, Aug. 20, 2012), a California federal district, while finding that damages are recoverable for violations of RLUIPA's substantial burden provisions, dismissed as too speculative the church's claim for lost contributions from hypothetical new church members that would have attended if it had moved into a larger building. The court also rejected the argument that an award of damages would amount to unjust enrichment for the church, and that would amount to a preference for religion that would violate of the Establishment Clause.

Confrontation Looming Between Mexican Authorities and Religious Cult

AP reported yesterday on an impending violent confrontation in Mexico between government authorities and a religious sect that is refusing to permit government schools to operate in their walled community.  The sect, founded in 1973 by a renegade Catholic priest who objected to the Church's ending of Latin masses and other modernizations, lives in its own walled compound called New Jerusalem-- located in the Mexican state of Michoacan.  The sect prohibits formal schooling, television, radio, telephones, modern music and modern dress. It has demanded the right to appoint its own teachers, set its own curriculum and require robes and headscarves for female pupils. Last month, sect followers destroyed three government school buildings in the community, burning desks and computers. On Monday, they engaged in fistfights with parents who wanted their children to attend school in makeshift classrooms that had been set up.  The sect members also drove off about a dozen government-paid teachers. The township where the New Jerusalem compound is located, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and the Roman Catholic Church all want the government to break the compound's blockade.

WCC Schedules Hearings On Misuse of Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws Against Religious Minorities

The World Council of Churches announced yesterday that it plans to hold a public hearing in Geneva, Switzerland on the deteriorating human rights problems of religious minorities in Pakistan, including misuse of Pakistan's blasphemy laws against them.  The hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17-19 in conjunction with the 21st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Reuters also reports on the planned hearings.

Legality of Ritual Circumcision In Germany Remains Problematic

In Germany, the questions surrounding religious circumcision of young boys by Jewish and Muslim families have become even more complex in recent days.  The New York Times reported yesterday that German officials have been meeting in Germany with Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi  Yona Metzger since Monday seeking a way to provide legal protection for religious circumcisions in the wake of a trial court ruling in June by a court in Cologne that held it illegal for parents to decide to circumcise boys who are too young to give their own legal consent. (See prior posting.) Rabbi Metzger said he is confident that a solution will be found, but rejected compromises such as requiring that the procedure be performed by a doctor (with a mohel merely in attendance) or requiring use of anesthesia. Meanwhile in the city of Hof in the state of Bavaria, a local doctor filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors against a local rabbi, David Goldberg, who performs ritual circumcisions.  The complaint cited the Cologne court ruling.  It is unclear whether prosecutors are moving ahead with the case.

UPDATE: The Forward (8/31) reports that a complaint against a second rabbi filed with the prosecutors office in Berlin was dropped on Aug. 15 as unfounded. The complaint was filed against Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg after he defended circumcision on a television talk show. The prosecutor's office said: "Even if a non-medical circumcision were to take place it would not meet the elements of severe bodily harm."

Massachusetts High Court: Polygamy Statute Applies To Marriage After Undissolved Civil Union

In Elia-Warnken v. Elia, (MA Sup. Jud. Ct., July 26, 2012), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that Massachusetts will recognize a Vermont same-sex civil union as equivalent to a marriage in Massachusetts. It went on to hold that the result of this is the application of Massachusetts' polygamy statute to a partner in a same-sex civil union who subsequently enters a same-sex marriage in Massachusetts without first obtaining dissolution of the civil union. The Massachusetts marriage would thus be void.  While the polygamy statute applies to a person entering a marriage while the person has a "husband" or "wife," the court held that these terms include any legal spousal relationship. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Report On Religious Hostility In U.S. Released By Groups To Coincide With Republican Platform Meetings

On Monday, the Family Research Council and Liberty Institute issued a press release announcing the release of an updated edition of The Survey of Religious Hostility In America.  The report-- released in Tampa, Florida to coincide with the Republican National Convention's platform committee meetings there --summarizes over 600 legal cases and threats of litigation.  They involve prayers and displays in the public arena; religious expression in public schools; and litigation of various sorts (zoning, equal access, church autonomy) involving churches and ministries.  A separate website devoted to the report and related material has been set up: www.religioushostility.org.  The Introduction to the report, captioned "An Open Letter To the American People," says that "attacks against people of faith ... are permeating our nation"  and takes the Obama administration to task for referring to "freedom of worship" instead of "freedom of religion."

Australian Group Recommends Law Reform On Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision

In the Australian state of Tasmania, the Tasmania Law Reform Institute has recently released a 101-page report on Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision. The report was prepared in response to a request from Tasmania's former Commissioner for Children (who opposed performing non-therapeutic procedures on minors) for clarification of the law on circumcision of male children and recommendations for law reform.  The Institute has come forward with 14 recommendations including:

• A general ban on circumcision of incapable minors, but with exceptions for "well-established religious or ethnicity motivated circumcision."
• A requirement of joint parental authorization for a minor to be circumcised, with judicial determination in cases of parental disagreement.
• Minimum standards and required disclosures for circumcisers.
• Enactment of a new Circumcision Act that allows suits by individuals harmed by circumcision to be brought after a person reaches the age of majority.

ABC News reports on developments.

Obama, Romney Interviewed On Religious Faith In America

Washington D.C.'s National Cathedral yesterday released the August issue of its magazine Cathedral Age which contains an interview with President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney on religious faith in America.  The full interviews may be downloaded after registering at the Cathedral's website.  Among the more interesting exchanges was the following:

Some people have questioned the sincerity of your faith and your Christianity. How do you respond to those questions?

President Obama: I spoke about this a bit at the National Prayer Breakfast last year. You know, there’s not much I can do about it. I have a job to do as president, and that does not involve convincing folks that my faith in Jesus is legitimate and real. I do my best to live out my faith, and to stay in the Word, and to make my life look more like His. I’m not perfect. What I can do is just keep on following Him, and serve others—trying to make folks’ lives a little better using this humbling position that I hold.

Governor Romney: I am often asked about my faith and my beliefs about Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Every religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These should not be bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.

In response to another question, Gov. Romney said: "In recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. The Founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square...."

NYPD Testimony Says Spying On Muslims Generated No Terrorism Leads

AP reports that a deposition of a New York assistant police chief unsealed yesterday reveals that the surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods carried out for over 6 years by the NYPD's secret Demographics Unit (now known as the Zone Assessment Unit) has never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation. According to AP:

The Demographics Unit is at the heart of a police spying program, built with help from the CIA, which assembled databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed. Police infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons and catalogued every Muslim in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames.

The deposition was given last June in litigation raising the question of whether the New York Police Department's current surveillance program violates a long-standing consent decree that led to the so-called Handschu Guidelines for investigations involving political activity. Those Guidelines were last modified in 2003. (Background). (See prior related posting.)

Scattering of Bacon Before Muslim Ceremony Being Investigated As Hate Crime

SI Live reported yesterday that police in Staten Island, New York are investigating as a hate crime the scattering of pieces of bacon at a park Sunday prior to 1,500 Muslims attending a ceremony there to mark the end of Ramadan. A number of elected Staten Island officials spoke out against the bias displayed by the incident.

No Vatican Respondeat Superior Liability For Abusive Priest

The Oregonian and  AP report that an Oregon federal district court yesterday, in a ruling from the bench, dismissed respondeat superior claims against the Vatican in a sexual abuse case brought against a priest who allegedly was moved to Portland despite knowledge of a history of sexual abuse.  In Doe v. Holy See, which was on remand from the 9th Circuit (see prior posting), district judge Michael Mosman concluded that plaintiff had not shown that there was an "employment relationship" between now-deceased priest, Rev. Andrew Ronan and the Vatican.  An employment relationship is a necessary prerequisite to respondeat superior liability. The abuse victim's suit however continues against Ronan's religious order, and his attorneys say they will appeal yesterday's ruling regarding the Vatican.

Conservative Christian Scholar Says Seminaries Discriminated Against Him Because of His Beliefs

Religion News Service reported yesterday on an EEOC complaint that was filed last month by Rev. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, an African-American expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, who says that he was fired by an Atlanta consortium of Black seminaries because of his conservative Christian views. Hopkins charges that Interdenominational Theological Center administrators intimidated him, gave him poor evaluations and changed student grades he had assigned before they ultimately refused to renew his contract.  Hopkins says his problems began after he organized a meeting of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship where attendees were offered a book that declared homosexuality a sin. ITC's president has said that the Center's actions had nothing to do with academic freedom.