Church & State articles from April 2009

Church & State archives from April 2009

Supreme Court accepts Mojave cross case.(IN THE CAPITAL)(Mojave National Preserve )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case centering on display of a cross in the Mojave National Preserve in California. In 1934, the Veterans of Foreign Wars erected the Christian religious symbol as a war memorial. No other...

NYC charter schools must obey constitution, says AU.(AROUND THE STATES)(New York City )(Americans United for Separation of Church and State)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... If Catholic schools in New York City are converted into public charter schools, they must drop their religious character, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Fourteen Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens are...

Scientists' convention skips creationist Louisiana.(AROUND THE STATES)(Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... A well-known scientific group that attracts nearly 2,000 scientists to its annual meetings has announced that it will boycott New Orleans for its 2011 conference. The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology sent a letter to Gov....

Grace College earmark should be revoked, says AU.(AROUND THE STATES)(Americans United for Separation of Church and State)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Americans United has asked the U.S. Department of Education to terminate a federal grant awarded to Grace College. Grace College, an evangelical Christian school in Winona Lake, Ind., requires students to attend Christian chapel services...

Touchdown at the Supreme Court! Handing a victory to Americans United, justices skip New Jersey legal contest over football coach's prayer promotion.
April 1, 2009... New Jersey football coach Marcus Borden was running out of options. A federal appeals court had rejected the East Brunswick High School official's argument that he had a right to engage in religious activity with students. Desperate,...

Fighting 'faith-based' bias: Alicia Pedreira and other Kentucky activists are challenging publicly funded discrimination and indoctrination by a Baptist child care agency.(Cover story)
April 1, 2009... With a new college degree in hand, Alicia Pedreira had set out to find the perfect job to put her career on the right track. As an optimistic woman fresh out of school, she never thought that the first position she accepted would end up...

High court commandment: Utah City may reject 'Seven Aphorisms' monument, justices say.
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Founded by Mormons as a frontier farming community in 1850, the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, makes the most of its colorful past. If you visit Pioneer Park in the heart of this town of 23,000 nestled in the...

Senate voucher victory! Extension of D.C.'s religious school voucher subsidy goes down to defeat, but battle continues.
April 1, 2009... Senator Jim DeMint clearly has little use for the public school system. In a speech to a conservative gathering in Washington, D.C., in late February, the South Carolina Republican called for privatization of education in the United...

Capitol conundrum: fights over tax aid to religion roil Congress.(EDITORIALS)
April 1, 2009... The question of tax funding of religion has been surprisingly prominent in Washington, D.C., lately. President Barack Obama unveiled a revamped "faith-based" initiative that failed to address key questions of proselytism and hiring bias in...

First amendment fumble: football coaches must obey school prayer law, too.(EDITORIALS)
April 1, 2009... Last month the Supreme Court announced that it will not hear a case from New Jersey involving a football coach at a public high school who wanted to engage in religious activity with players. The high court's action left in place an appellate...

Obama overturns Bush regulations on conscience and stem-cell research.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Barack Obama, George Bush)
April 1, 2009... President Barack Obama is moving to overturn regulations affecting health care issues that were put into place by President George W. Bush at the behest of the Religious Right. In late February, the administration took the first step toward...

Appeals court upholds church intervention in Montana ballot initiative.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church )
April 1, 2009... A federal appeals court has ruled that Montana officials acted unconstitutionally when they sought to apply an election law to a church that supported a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The dispute involved Canyon Ferry...

Pennsylvania legislators get free holy books during swearing-in ceremonies.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The Pennsylvania General Assembly in January spent $13,700 on Bibles and other holy books for legislators, a Philadelphia newspaper has reported. The scriptures were distributed as gifts to state lawmakers when they were sworn into office....

Va. committee derails bill fostering sectarian prayers for chaplains.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Virginia Senate committee )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... A Virginia Senate committee voted 8-7 March 2 to kill a bill that would have given State Police chaplains the right to use sectarian prayer at public events. The panel's action spelled the end of HB 2314, legislation introduced by Del....

Nevada city's grant to Twain-linked church draws protest from AU.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Mark Twain)(Americans United for Separation of Church and State)
April 1, 2009... Americans United has written to officials in Carson City, Nev., warning them not to award tax money to a church that has a tenuous connection to famous writer Mark Twain. The Carson City supervisors voted recently to give $78,800 in tax...

Political preacher spars with federal tax agency over no-politicking rule.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)
April 1, 2009... Evangelist Bill Keller of St. Petersburg, Fla., says he wants the Internal Revenue Service to make a decision about the legality of his partisan political activities. Keller, who broadcasts on the radio and runs a Web site called...

Obama prayer policy sparks complaints from across political spectrum.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Barack Obama)
April 1, 2009... President Barack Obama's practice of opening rallies and public meetings with non-sectarian prayer is drawing fire from advocates of church-state separation and the Religious Right. Dan Gilgoff, who writes the "God & Country" blog for U.S....

AU urges court to rule against Detroit church funding.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Americans United for Separation of Church and State)
April 1, 2009... Municipal governments should not be in the business of steering tax money to houses of worship, an Americans United attorney told a federal appeals court recently. Richard B. Katskee, AU's assistant legal director, argued before the 6th...

Church group engages in 'high tech' evangelism in Wash. public schools.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(628, youth group from Turning Point Church)
April 1, 2009... Fundamentalist Christian groups bent on evangelizing public school students are turning to some new tools: increasingly popular social networking Web sites. A woman in Marysville, Wash., said she was shocked to learn that her 11-year-old...

Dobson 'retirement' won't change much, says Americans United.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(James C. Dobson)(Americans United for Separation of Church and State)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... James C. Dobson announced last month that he will no longer serve as chairman of Focus on the Family (FOF), but the change isn't likely to amount to much, says Americans United. Although Dobson is giving up the administrative position, the...

The Board of Trustees at Liberty University.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... * The Board of Trustees at Liberty University has turned down a request from a student group to allow concealed weapons on campus. A university student group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus asked that the school change its...

Ca. officials investigate tutoring firm's links to scientology church.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)
April 1, 2009... Officials in Georgia are investigating a tutoring firm in Cobb County after receiving complaints that the company is tied to the Church of Scientology. The firm, Applied Scholastics, says it offers secular tutoring, but four complaints...

Federal court dismisses case challenging prayers at presidential inauguration.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)
April 1, 2009... A federal court has dismissed a challenge to the prayers that took place during the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Atheist activist Michael Newdow initiated the lawsuit in late December, seeking to block prayers during the Jan. 20...

Nebraska court dismisses lawsuit against God.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Former Nebraska State Sen. Ernie Chambers' lawsuit against God has been dismissed by the Nebraska Court of Appeals. Chambers, an atheist, brought the lawsuit in 2007, asking for a permanent injunction to stop "fearsome floods, egregious...

N.M. school officials drop religious curriculum.(AROUND THE STATES)(New Mexico)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... A home school program run by a public school district must stop using a fundamentalist Christian curriculum for instruction, New Mexico's state education secretary has ruled. For 11 years, Kathy Harper used instructional materials purchased...

Guns-in-church measure fails in Arkansas.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Proposed legislation that would have allowed worshipers to carry concealed weapons in Arkansas houses of worship died in the state Senate Feb. 25. The bill would have removed language from the state's concealed-weapons law that prohibits...

Saudi 75-year-old woman gets 40 lashes for 'mingling'.(AROUND THE WORLD)(Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... A 75-year-old woman must receive 40 lashes, four months in prison and deportation for violating a Muslim law against mingling, according to a Saudi Arabian court. Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi was caught by religious police with two unrelated...

My season in the sun: giving theocrats the devil in Florida and Louisiana.(PERSPECTIVE)
April 1, 2009... Americans United members in Florida frequently see me in their neck of the woods in January or February. This is not completely random, but neither is it just an excuse to escape from some of Washington, D.C.'s frequently miserable winter...