Church & State articles from June 2003

Church & State archives from June 2003

Supreme Court to hear religious education case. (In The Capital).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will hear an important case dealing with whether states have the right to refuse to pay for the education of aspiring ministers. The high court said May 19 that it would hear a dispute from...

Bush urges high court to overturn pledge decision. (In The Capital).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The Bush administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate a federal appeals court decision that found reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public school classrooms to be unconstitutional. Attorneys with Attorney General John...

House approves religious bias in jobs bill. (In The Capital).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The U.S. House of Representatives in early May passed a major job-training bill with a provision that would permit employment discrimination based on religious beliefs in federally funded programs. The House voted 220-204 to approve the...

National Day Of Prayer day event divides clergy in Indiana. (Around The States).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... An evangelical preacher who organized and presided over a National Day of Prayer gathering outside city hall in Muncie, Ind., divided the community when he publicly said only Christians could speak at the event. "This is a Christian event...

Pryor offenses: Bill Pryor has led a religious right crusade against church-state separation in Alabama. Now the Bush administration wants him on the federal appeals court.
June 1, 2003... Bill Pryor was preaching to the choir. It was April 12, 1997, and Pryor, Alabama's young attorney general, basked on the stage before a spirited gathering of thousands who had come to Montgomery to support a state judge being sued for...

When teachers preach: student's lawsuit challenges Missouri school district's religious bias.
June 1, 2003... It didn't take long for Evelyn Welk to suspect that something was amiss in her 16-year-old daughter's World History class. Two days into the class, Welk's daughter, Ashley Heckman, a sophomore at Truman High School in Independence, Mo.,...

Charter for controversy: often touted as a breakthrough in 'educational choice,' charter schools instead are raising church-state problems around the country.
June 1, 2003... Debra Snell thought she had found the perfect school to challenge and prepare her young son for the future. A Waldorf charter school promised an innovative approach to learning. Students, Snell was told, would paint, reenact plays and fairy...

Santorum's sin: transgressing the U.S. Constitution. (Editorials).
June 1, 2003... U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum got himself in hot water recently when he attacked gay people in a media interview, going so far as to compare homosexuality to incest and bestiality. Criticizing legal precedent barring government intrusion into...

Lack of judgment: Bill Pryor and the federal appeals court. (Editorials).
June 1, 2003... President George W. Bush's nomination of Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to a federal judgeship showcases why this administration alarms advocates of church-state separation. Pryor has defended Roy Moore, Alabama's infamous "Ten...

House rejects attempt to add vouchers to special ed. bill. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... The U.S. House of Representatives rejected two efforts to add private school vouchers to a special-education bill on April 30. During floor debate over the "Improving Education Results for Children With Disabilities Act of 2003" (H.R....

Vouchers failed to boost student performance in Ohio, says new study. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Cleveland's eight-year-old voucher program has failed to boost the academic performance of the students taking part in it, a new study indicates. The analysis, conducted by independent researcher Kim Metcalf of Indiana University, found...

U.S. law not based on Ten Commandments, law profs tell court. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... American law is not based on the Ten Commandments, and nothing in the Constitution gives an Alabama judge a legal right to display the Decalogue in a court building, a group of legal historians and other scholars has advised a federal appeals...

Bush administration reaffirms ties to far-right Council for National Policy. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Renewing Bush administration ties to the Religious Right, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in late April addressed the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive group of wealthy far-right activists. American news media did not bother...

Federal court foils Arkansas school's effort to restrict Harry Potter. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Students in Cedarville, Ark., will be able to continue reading about the adventures of wizard-in-training Harry Potter, thanks to a recent federal court ruling. U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren on April 22 ordered the Cedarville...

Va. Military Institute can't sponsor prayers, says Appellate Court. (people & Events).
June 1, 2003... A federal appeals court ruled April 28 that the Virginia Military Institute's practice of requiring prayers before supper is unconstitutional. VMI, a publicly supported institution in Lexington, Va., dropped mealtime prayers in 1990, but...

Secretive religious group offers Congressmen cheap rent in D.C. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Finding a nice place to live in the desirable neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., can be tricky, but six members of Congress have stumbled upon a bargain: They reside in a $1.1-million townhouse on Capitol Hill and pay only $600 per month...

Defending separation is worth the risk, says Rep. Chet Edwards. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Defending church-state separation can be risky for a politician, but it's a risk worth taking, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) said recently. Edwards, an 11-term congressman who represents Waco and surrounding areas, was awarded the...

Religious Right silent on Bill Bennett's gambling addiction. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... The recent revelation that former education secretary and self-appointed "virtue czar" William Bennett has a gambling habit provoked an unusual response from the nation's Religious Right organizations: utter silence. Most Religious Right...

Tenn. county wants creationism taught alongside evolution. (People & Events).
June 1, 2003... Members of the Blount County, Tenn., Board of Education have rejected three biology textbooks that they say place too much emphasis on evolution while slighting creationism. At an April 4 meeting, the board voted 2-1 to reject the books,...

'Under God' doesn't belong in the pledge. (Viewpoint).
June 1, 2003... A Perfect storm is gathering over the U.S. Supreme Court. A confluence of major divisive disputes is converging on the nation's highest court, promising to put it in the headlines more often than any time in recent history. The latest...

School vouchers stall in Louisiana legislature. (Around The States).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Halfway through Louisiana's 2003 legislative session, lawmakers signaled that a statewide voucher law is unlikely to pass, reported the Associated Press in May. State Rep. Carl Crane, a Baton Rouge Republican, told the AP that passage of a...

'Accept Jesus,' Gov. Jeb Bush tells Fla. inmates. (Around The States).
June 1, 2003... Florida Gov. Jeb Bush went to a maximum-security prison for women on Easter and told them to embrace Christianity as a way to gain freedom from prison. "I believe in my heart that if you accept Jesus and stay the course great things will...

New Hampshire church-state agreement criticized. (Around The States).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Lawyers representing Tennessee Catholics are considering a legal challenge to void an agreement reached between New Hampshire Catholics and the state attorney general's office over the handling of sexual abuse allegations. The agreement...

U.S. says it won't allow Iran-style theocracy in Iraq. (Around The World).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The Defense Department announced in late April that it would prevent the set-up of an Iraqi government modeled after Iran's Islamic theocracy. "We will not allow the Iraqi people's democratic transition to be hijacked by those who might...

Roger Williams' providence: a haven for everyone. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... I enjoyed reading Rob Boston's article about Roger Williams ("The Forgotten Founder," April Church & State). It provided some insight for me as to why Providence, R.I., was one of the earliest sites for a Jewish synagogue in the American...

'No law' means 'no law'. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to condemn an appeals court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional. It seems that religious leaders in this country--and the media, too--are...

How about equal protection? (Letters).
June 1, 2003... We all know that there are a large number of individuals in this country who see Christianity as a norm and don't understand why government espousal of this "norm" is in conflict with the First Amendment. All kinds of politicians, including...

Bush and religion: 'impious presumption'. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... After reading Barry Lynn's "Perspective" (March Church & State) rightly criticizing President George W. Bush's ongoing use of religious language in his speeches, I could not help but think of the following line from Thomas Jefferson's Act for...

Keep religion and government separate. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... I think it is important for all people, for all Americans--those without and especially with religious affiliation--to make sure that the principle of separating religion from government is upheld. Now, with the extremist evangelical right-wing...

Sekulow's bad deal: their 'free exercise' at your expense. (Perspective).
June 1, 2003... As some of you know, I used to do a daily radio program with conservative icon Pat Buchanan for NBC. We had, as you might guess, plenty of arguments. Pat is now the co-host (along with Bill Press) of an MSNBC television talk show every...