Church & State articles from July 2006

Church & State archives from July 2006

Veterans Department must respect diversity, says AU.(Americans United for Separation of Church and State )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Americans United for Separation of Church and State has urged the Department of Veterans Affairs to respect religious diversity and allow a Wiccan symbol on a memorial marker for a solider who died in Afghanistan. Americans United took...

Wyoming 'faith-based' funds draw questions.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Wyoming state government has come under scrutiny for doling out public dollars to religious organizations. The Wyoming Constitution has a provision that states, "No money of the state shall ever be given or appropriated to any sectarian or...

Evolution sticker case starts over in Georgia.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... A federal appeals court has refused to decide whether a Georgia school board's evolution disclaimer violates the separation of church and state. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in late May that it could...

Ky. students circumvent court's graduation prayer order.(Russell County High School, Kentucky)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Students at a Kentucky high school found a way to include prayer in their graduation ceremonies despite a federal judge's order barring a school-sponsored invocation. To circumvent U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley's May 19 injunction...

Victory in Iowa: Americans United wins sweeping federal court ruling against 'faith-based' funding for InnerChange prison ministry.(Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Prison Fellowship Ministries )(Cover story)
July 1, 2006... The day after a federal court struck down a taxpayer-supported evangelical Christian program in an Iowa prison, Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, issued a press statement. He was not pleased. "The courts took God out of America's...

Indecent proposal: religious right, White House give election-year push to federal marriage amendment, but Senate says no.
July 1, 2006... The Rev. Robert Hardies of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., sensed that something more sinister than a desire to protect family values was fueling the drive for a federal marriage amendment. "Let's be honest with ourselves,"...

Warped worldview: Christian reconstructionists believe democracy is heresy, public schools are satanic and stoning isn't just for the Taliban anymore--and they've got more influence than you think.
July 1, 2006... "The devil went down to Georgia He was lookin 'for a soul to steal...." --Charlie Daniels Band Two really devilish guys materialized in Toccoa, Ga., last month to harangue 600 true believers on the gospel of a thoroughly theocratic...

Of flags and folly: real patriots defend the U.S. constitution.
July 1, 2006... Real patriotism consists not of merely waving flags or decking homes, businesses and public buildings with yards of red, white and blue bunting. Real patriotism is the courage to stick your neck out and even risk community disdain for the...

Memo to Louisiana: thou shalt not rewrite the Ten Commandments.(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... Legislators in Louisiana wanted to pass a bill allowing for the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings but weren't sure which version of the Decalogue to endorse. After some deliberation, however, they came upon a creative...

Korean evangelist Moon funnels millions to Bush family coffers.(Sun Myung Moon, George H.W. Bush)
July 1, 2006... Controversial Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon continues his financial outreach to former President George H.W. Bush and his family. Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey reported last month that the Moon-owned Washington Times Foundation...

AU blocks public funding for Baptist 'Bags of Love' evangelism in Baltimore.(Americans United for Separation of Church and State, National Baptist Convention )
July 1, 2006... A religious group dropped plans to use tax funds to distribute bags of food containing Bibles and evangelistic tracts in Baltimore after Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed suit last month. The litigation was filed...

Pressing beefy untruths: Pat Robertson claims weight-lifting record.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)
July 1, 2006... TV preacher Pat Robertson has either become the strongest man in the world, or he's been caught telling another whopper. Robertson, a fitness fanatic who markets his own high-energy health drink, was accused of stretching the truth by...

'Commandments judge' Moore soundly defeated in Alabama primary.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Roy Moore)
July 1, 2006... Alabama voters may be finally tiring of Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the state supreme court who gained fame in Religious Right circles after he defied a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a state judicial...

Federal court upholds 'In God We Trust' on American money.
July 1, 2006... A federal court has ruled that putting the phrase "In God We Trust" on American coins and paper money does not violate the separation of church and state. On June 12, U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. rejected a lawsuit brought by...

Evangelical leaders split over U.S. funding to combat AIDS.
July 1, 2006... The evangelical Christian community faces a growing split between hardliners and moderates over the best way to fight the spread of AIDS overseas. The year 2006 marks the 25th year of the first appearance of AIDS in humans, leading medical...

New report details religious right influence in Texas politics.(PEOPLE & EVENTS)(Texas Freedom Network's "The Anatomy of Power: Texas and the Religious Right in 2006")
July 1, 2006... The Texas Freedom Network (TFN), a statewide group that supports church-state separation, has just issued a new report detailing the Religious Right's rise to political power in the Lone Star State. "The Anatomy of Power: Texas and the...

New Hampshire House rejects voucher plan in favor of charters.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The New Hampshire House of Representatives has rejected a bill that would have established a voucher system funded by backdoor channels. The legislation called for the state to create a non-profit foundation that would award vouchers,...

Southern Baptists plan to exert 'godly influence' over public schools.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Southern Baptists are gearing up to exert "godly influence" over the public schools. At the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in mid June, the denomination's leaders rejected a proposal that church members pull their children...

Priests are not meant to be politicians, pope says during Poland visit.(Pope Benedict XVI)
July 1, 2006... During a recent address in Warsaw, Pope Benedict XVI warned Catholic Church leaders in Poland to avoid getting too close to government officials. Kicking off a four-day visit to Poland in late May, Benedict, speaking at St. John's...

Oregon public school cancels noon-time clergy visits.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... An Oregon school district has suspended a practice of allowing clergy to visit students at lunch, following concerns raised by parents. In early June, officials of Bend-La Pine School District, one of the state's largest school districts,...

Church of Freethought gets Texas tax exemption.(AROUND THE STATES)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Texas officials have agreed to extend tax-exempt status to a non-theistic church. In mid May, the Texas Office of the Comptroller sent a letter to Americans United for Separation of Church and State announcing it had granted tax-exempt...

Nepal ends official rule of Hinduism.(AROUND THE WORLD)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Nepal, which until recently proclaimed itself the world's only official Hindu kingdom, has proclaimed itself a "secular state" with equal rights for all its citizens. According to the Religion News Service, the decision was announced May...

Opus Dei and women.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... How interesting that Opus Dei does not encourage women to take leadership roles, does task them with cooking and cleaning and runs a women's college that offers degrees in the culinary arts, event planning and hotel hospitality ("Breaking The...

Scalia's rude gesture--c'mon!(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... I am an Americans United supporter and share your distaste for many of the policies and beliefs exhibited by Justice Antonin Scalia. But I take exception to the piece in your May issue about his "obscene gesture" ("Supreme Court Justice...

More great books.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... In his "Perspective" column ("Of Piety & Politics: Throwing The Book At Robertson & Co.," June Church & State), Barry Lynn mentions his own new book, Piety and Politics, to be published this fall. Sounds great! However, I am puzzled by the...

Separating marriage and state.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... When the First Amendment's Establishment Clause came into being, all was not instantly perfect regarding separation of church and state, but at least it established a clear formula for a pluralistic society to enjoy freedom of conscience and...

Late-breaking decision: getting the word out about the InnerChange ruling.(government funding for religious conversions in prisons blocked)
July 1, 2006... Friday afternoon at 5:45 may not be the best time to get word that a judge has just released a major ruling in a case you have been working on for 38 months. To be fair to the judge, I should note it was 4:45 in Iowa where he was working....