In a decision that likely will set the stage for a high-stakes showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California’s Proposition 8 ballot measure that banned gay marriage, saying there is no “legitimate” reason to keep same-sex couples from marrying.

Prop 8 supporters immediately announced plans to appeal Tuesday’s (Feb. 7) 2-1 ruling to a larger panel of the 9th Circuit and, ultimately, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” said Brian Raum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing an umbrella group of Prop 8 supporters known as ProtectMarriage.com.

The appeals court’s decision upheld a 2010 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, saying that “although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently.

“There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.”

The Prop 8 amendment to the state Constitution was approved by 52 percent of California voters in 2008, just five months after the state Supreme Court ruled that a state ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.  An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples tied the knot before Prop 8 was passed.

The court also found no evidence that Walker was biased in his initial ruling because he was gay and in a committed relationship. The court did, however, side with Walker in maintaining a stay on all same-sex marriage ceremonies until the case is decided.

Prop 8 supporters, led by the National Organization for Marriage, immediately tried to use the decision as a plea for fresh funding.

“This sets up an all-or-nothing showdown at the United States Supreme Court,” NOM said in an email blast just minutes after the decision was announced.

“But the costs of litigating a Supreme Court case will run into the millions of dollars over the next year. We must have the resources to put on the best possible defense.”

Prop 8 opponents, however, including the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said “no American’s right to marry should be subjected to a veto from aggressive and well-funded religious groups. Our nation is a democracy, not a theocracy.”

PARIS — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed.

But the clergy abuse scandals rocking Europe, coupled with Pope Benedict XVI’s conservative stances on contraception, hardened Lebouvier’s views. Last October, a court in Normandy ruled in favor of his lawsuit to have his name permanently deleted from church records — making the 71-year-old retiree the first Frenchman to be officially “de-baptized.”

“I took the judicial route to get myself de-baptized because of the church’s excesses,” said Lebouvier, speaking by telephone from his village of Fleury, near the D-Day beaches.

“It’s a sort of honesty toward the church because they have a guy on their register who doesn’t believe in God.”

Lebouvier’s case is among a growing wave of de-baptisms in Europe, one of the most visible manifestations of the continent’s secular drift. Websites offering informal de-baptism certificates have mushroomed. Other Christians are formally breaking from the church by opting out of state church taxes.

“The movement is happening across Europe,” said Anne Morelli, who heads a center studying religion and secularity at the Free University of Brussels. “It was very apparent during 2011 — in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Austria. It is obviously related to the scandals of pedophile priests, but it has been going on for some time.”

While there are no official statistics, experts and secular activists count the numbers of de-baptisms in the tens of thousands. It’s a phenomenon that has touched Protestant as well as Catholic communities.

In France, the de-baptism drive affects a relatively tiny proportion of Christians, experts say. Still, Lebouvier’s case may create a precedent.

The local bishop of Coutances, Stanislas Lalanne, has appealed the court ruling, a process that could take years.

“Baptism is a spiritual gift, it’s bigger than we are,” said Bernard Podvin, spokesman for the French Bishops Confederation, who would not comment on the specifics of the Normandy case. “It can’t be confined to a purely administrative framework.”

But if Lebouvier wins, de-baptism could become standard practice here, and trigger copycat lawsuits across Europe.

“The church is afraid the movement might amplify,” said Marc Blondel, president of the Paris-based National Federation of Freethinkers, who says he will launch another de-baptism drive if Lebouvier prevails.

Lebouvier’s split from the church took decades. Born in a deeply conservative and religious community, he went to Catholic school. But instead of becoming the priest his mother had wished, he became a baker, moving to Paris and joining a leftist trade union.

“I changed 180 degrees, “ he said. “It took time, but it happened.”

Change is afoot elsewhere. In neighboring Belgium, which has been hit hard by the church sex scandals, de-baptism requests in the French-speaking region alone soared to roughly 2,000 in 2010, compared to 66 two years earlier, according to the Brussels Federation of Friends of Secular Morality. The numbers of people reportedly leaving the Dutch church reportedly shot up 25 percent.

In Britain, a de-baptism certificate offered as a joke by the National Secular Society has since turned serious after tens of thousands of people downloaded it.

“Some people actually do feel actively hostile toward churches,” said society president Terry Sanderson. “And they want to express that by saying, ‘I’m not one of your members.’”

In Germany, a record 181,000 Catholics formally split from the Catholic Church in 2011 — the first time that Catholic defections outpaced Protestants leaving. Rather than requesting de-baptisms, Germans fill out government paperwork saying they no longer want to pay church taxes.

“I don’t think they want to get rid of their belief, their connection to Jesus and the baptism, but they don’t want to be connected with the church hierarchy,” said Christian Weisner, German spokesman for the international lay reform movement We are Church.

At stake for many cash-strapped European churches is not just faith, but euros.

“It’s not by chance that in Germany, Austria and Belgium that the movement is strongest,” says Belgian researcher Morelli, noting countries that levy church taxes, which France does not. “It’s also a struggle about subsidies the population must pay for a church that doesn’t represent them.”

The bigger worry, experts say, are plummeting rates of new baptisms. Half a century ago, for example, 90 percent of French children were baptized, said Sorbonne University religion professor Philippe Portier. Today, roughly one in three are.

“The church considers de-baptisms a very marginal phenomena and its strategy right now is to resist it,” Portier said. “It is much more active when it comes to reversing the drop in (new) baptisms — there it’s put in place a new evangelizing strategy.”

The parish at Paris’ historic Saint-Germain-des-Pres, for example, is offering a myriad of activities, from ski retreats to support networks for young professionals. At a recent evening youth Mass, the church was overflowing.

The parish priest, the Rev. Benoist de Sinety, is counting on faith, not numbers.

“What is striking today is that those who want to be Christian really want to be Christian,” he said. “I rejoice in the fact that people are free to choose.”

A pastor in Iran sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith may have to wait another year for a ruling on whether the sentence will be upheld, according to sources.

Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, sentenced to death after a court of appeals in Rasht, Iran, found him guilty of leaving Islam in September 2010, has been in prison since October 2009, yet his lawyers said they were told to not expect any movement on his case for another year.

“The news we have about Yousef is not official, but that’s what the lawyers are saying,” a member of the Church of Iran who requested anonymity told Compass. “The lawyers speak to the judges’ secretaries and hear things. Rasht is not a big city, so it is easy to know what is happening.

The head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, has reportedly ordered the presiding judge over the trial in Rasht to do nothing for one year.

The court in Rasht, 243 kilometers (151 miles) northwest of Tehran, was expected to pronounce a verdict on Nadarkhani’s appeal in October, and sources said the court’s long silence bodes ill. Instead of pronouncing a verdict, the court sent the Christian’s case to the nation’s Islamic authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, to make a ruling.

Authorities have also continued to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith while in prison. In September they gave him Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible, according to sources, and instructed him to read it. The court reportedly has been told to use whatever means necessary to compel Nadarkhani to recant his faith.

The anonymous Christian who spoke to Compass said he didn’t believe that Nadarkhani would be executed soon, but he said authorities were tense about his case, indicating that nothing was certain.

Some Iranian Christians have said that, in the face of international outrage over the case, the government would announce a verdict near the Christmas holidays so that it would receive less notice.

Many Christians in Iran believe Church of Iran doctrine is less than Trinitarian, although the statement of faith on the church’s website (http://www.eglisediran.org/?page_id=8) indicates belief in a triune God-head of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Christian leaders in Iran have called for prayer for their leaders and congregations over the Christmas and New Year period, as there are fears that pressures on churches may intensify in the coming days, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).

“These fears stem partly from the waves of arrests last Christmas and New Year, and also the previous year, in which several dozen believers were detained,” MEC reported in a press statement. “Two of those arrested in late December 2010, Farshid and Noorallah, remain in prison.

Farshid Fathi, 32, has been in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since Dec. 26, 2010. He is married and has two young children. Noorollah Qabitizade, a Christian convert and a house church leader held in Ahwaz in southwestern Iran, has been in prison since Christmas Eve of last year.

Between December of last year and February, authorities arrested scores of Christians. All have been released, except for Qabitizade and Fathi.

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 on charges that he questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. After finding him guilty of apostasy, the court of appeals in Rasht in November 2010 issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence.

At an appeal hearing in June, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The court declared that Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, but that he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry.

The Supreme Court had also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith. The Rasht court gave Nadarkhani three chances to recant Christianity in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), but Nadarkhani refused to do so. His final appeal hearings ended on Sept. 28, and the court was expected to make its final decision two weeks from the final hearing.

Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, also faces charges for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” due to his human rights activities.

In addition, this month Iranian authorities sentenced Alireza Seyedian to six years imprisonment for being baptized in Turkey and uploading a video of his baptism to the Internet, according to Mohabat News. Seyedian is another member of the Church of Iran, and Dadkhah is also representing him.

As Christians in Iran are held hostage to the government’s political whims, some Iranian Christians say the key to their freedom is continued pressure from the international community.

A teaching hospital will hire additional staff to help perform abortions after a group of nurses claimed they were forced to participate in the procedures despite religious objections.

“No nurse is compelled to have direct involvement in a procedure to which she or he objects based on his/her cultural values, ethics and/or religious beliefs,” Jeffrey Tolvin, a spokesman for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey said in a statement on Friday (Dec. 2).

“At the same time, we needed to find a solution that is in the best interest of the patients we serve. We are therefore hiring additional staff who will provide care to our full complement of patients.”

In November, 12 nurses at UMDNJ filed suit, saying the hospital was forcing them to assist in the operations despite declared religious objections.

Aside from aiding doctors in the procedures, the nurses argued that post-operative patient care and administrative duties surrounding the procedures constituted involvement.

If upheld in court, the nurses’ claims could mean UMDNJ violated federal law, which bars institutions receiving federal dollars from forcing their staff members to assist in abortions.

“The university is in full compliance with all applicable state and federal laws,” the school said when the nurses brought suit. “Its position will be vindicated when the court gives this matter a full hearing.”

A hearing in federal district court was scheduled for Monday (Dec. 5). The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the nurses, said only a court-approved agreement would mean the school “might finally be interested in following the law.”

The mistreatment of a pastor in Iran awaiting a decision on his death sentence for refusing to recant his faith amounts to physical and psychological torture, a source close to the pastor’s family said.

Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, sentenced to death a year ago after a court of appeals in Rasht, Iran, found him guilty of leaving Islam in September 2010, is in deteriorating health, according to a member of Nadarkhani’s denomination, the Church of Iran, who requested anonymity.

He said that communication with Nadarkhani is limited, but that sources close to the imprisoned Christian indicated that he has undergone physical and psychological torture.

“Certainly he was hit, but his [telephone] conversations are heard [by authorities],” the source said. “We know that he has been in extreme situations, and we consider that torture. When you have spent time in a solitary cell unable to talk to others for a long time, or you are told you will be killed, this is also torture.”

The court in Rasht, 243 kilometers (151 miles) northwest of Tehran, was expected to pronounce a verdict on Nadarkhani’s appeal last month, and sources said the court’s long silence bodes ill. Instead of pronouncing a verdict, the court sent the Christian’s case to the nation’s Islamic authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, to make a ruling.

Authorities have also continued to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith while in prison. Last month they gave him Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible, according to sources, and instructed him to read it.

Some sources indicate a ruling could come the second half of December. One said some Iranian Christians believe that, in the face of international outrage over the case, the government would announce a verdict near the Christmas holidays so that it would receive less notice.

On Nov. 10, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) reported that a verdict on Nadarkhani’s case was expected in mid-December, regardless of whether there is a ruling by Khamenei.

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 on charges that he questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. After finding him guilty of apostasy, the court of appeals in Rasht in November 2010 issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence.

At an appeal hearing in June, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The court declared that Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, but that he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry.

The Supreme Court had also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith. The Rasht court gave Nadarkhani three chances to recant Christianity in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), but Nadarkhani refused to do so. His final appeal hearings ended on Sept. 28, and the court was expected to make its final decision two weeks from the final hearing.

“For the moment, we are waiting,” said the Church of Iran source. “We have no response for now. The only thing his lawyer told me is that the file went to the Supreme Court, but normally we should have had a response by now.”

There are two more Christians from the Church of Iran, a denomination that Iranian Christians accuse of being “non-Trinitarian,” who are also serving prison sentences.

Behnam Irani has been in prison since he was arrested on April 14 in Karaj, charged with “propaganda against the system.”

Authorities were due to release him on Oct. 20, but instead they handed him a letter just days before informing him that a five-year prison sentence from 2008 for “action against national security,” which had been suspended, was effective immediately due to the second conviction on a similar charge, according to Mohabat News.

The other incarcerated Christian, Mehdi Foroutan (also known as Petros), has been in prison in Shiraz for two months, serving a one-year sentence for propaganda against the state and “action against national security,” according to sources.

As Christians in Iran are held hostage to the government’s political whims, the source said, the key to their freedom is continued pressure from the international community.

“The pressure is the most important thing,” he said. “When the Iranian state sees pressure, they will understand the world hasn’t forgotten Yousef, Behnam and Petros.”

Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, also faces charges for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” due to his human rights activities.

In the past week U.S. State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Suzan Johnson Cook called for the release of Pastor Nadarkhani, according to CBN.

“I want to echo President Obama’s and Secretary Clinton’s – and repeat my own – condemnation of his conviction and our calls on Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani immediately,” Cook said, according to CBN. “I urge all of you to do the same.”

Arrests of Christians

Another wave of arrests is expected this December and January, a favorite time for Iranian authorities to make the rounds at Christian house group meetings, according to the Church of Iran source. He said the best Christmas gift for Iranian Christians this year would be for Western powers and Christians to continue to lobby for their freedoms.

Historically, the Iranian government has cracked down on Christians during the Christmas season, when house group members gather in larger numbers. Last year in a two-month period over the holidays, authorities arrested more than 120 Christians belonging to Iran’s underground church.

All have been released, with a few known exceptions. One of those arrested, Farshid Fathi, 32, has been in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since Dec. 26, 2010. He has spent much of that time in solitary confinement and has been mistreated, according to Mohabat News. He is married and has two young children.

Noorollah Ghabitizadeh (also spelled Qabitizade) has been in prison since Dec. 24, 2010. Authorities originally held him in Dezful and later transferred him to Ahwaz as punishment for starting a Bible study at the Dezful prison, Mohabat News reported.

Authorities have reportedly put Ghabitizadeh under intense pressure to renounce Christianity and return to Islam. In his first trial hearing two months ago, a judge pressured him by telling him his death penalty for apostasy would be decided in that court hearing, according to Mohabat News.

On Oct. 17 authorities arrested another Christian convert, Fariborz Arazm, 44, in Robat Karim, according to Mohabat News. His whereabouts and condition are unknown.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International issued a statement denouncing the continual degradation of human rights in Iran and the unwillingness of the government to espouse international human rights practices.

The official religion of Iran is Shiite Muslim, and the country’s laws and regulations are based on sharia.

An investment broker dubbed the “Amish Bernie Madoff” has decided not to fight federal charges that he defrauded thousands of investors out of nearly $17 million.

Monroe Beachy, 77, intends to reject his lawyer’s legal advice and plead no contest at an arraignment in Youngstown on Thursday (Oct. 27), defense attorney Gerald Ingram said in court documents.

“The defendant’s proffered plea of no contest is the result of religious/church doctrine and not the product of legal analysis,” Ingram wrote. “In the opinion of defense counsel, such a plea is premature and not in the defendant’s best interest.”

Ingram has asked U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson to instead enter a plea of not guilty on Beachy’s behalf. He said he anticipates federal prosecutors also would oppose a no-contest plea, although a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said prosecutors continue to research the issue and are not convinced such a plea would be inappropriate.

No-contest pleas are common in state and local courts but are rare in federal courts. By pleading no contest, a defendant neither admits nor disputes a criminal charge. While technically not a guilty plea, it results in a finding of guilty and usually does not affect sentencing.

The Beachy case has brought consternation and embarrassment to members of Sugarcreek’s Amish community, who prefer to settle issues among themselves and without the involvement of the U.S. court system.

Beachy has only a 10th-grade education, but federal prosecutors contend he was able over 20 years to raise an estimated $33 million from 2,600 investors — many of them fellow members of the Amish community.

According to fraud charges filed last February by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Beachy convinced investors that he had discovered a magic formula for earning themhigher returns on U.S. government securities than traditional banks could deliver.

In reality, prosecutors say, Beachy had set up a Ponzi scheme, seeking new investors tomake up for $16.8 million that he lost in speculative investments such as risky stocks, mutual funds and junk bonds.

The infamous Bernard Madoff used such a scheme to cheat investors out of an estimated $18 billion by the time he was caught in 2008. It was the largest investment swindle in U.S. history and earned Madoff a sentence of 150 years in prison.

Beachy faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of fraud.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco dismissed recently a lawsuit filed by a student who claimed that his high school history teacher made statements in class that ridiculed religion and promoted hostility towards Christians.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed last Friday a lawsuit filed by student Chad Farnan against his former instructor, James Corbett, saying that teachers should be able to discuss controversial subjects freely.

In its decision, the court said there is no need to determine whether Corbett’s remarks violate the constitutional requirement for government neutrality, and said there is no clear indication that anyone’s constitutional rights were violated.

The court decision stated, “We must be careful not to curb intellectual freedom by imposing dogmatic restrictions that chill teachers from adopting the [instructive] methods they believe are most effective.”

Farnan filed the lawsuit in 2007 when he was a  sophomore at Capistrano Valley High School. The 15-year-old student taped several statements that Corbett made in class that Farnan felt were offensive.

In his lawsuit, Farnan charged Corbett of “repeatedly promoting hostility toward Christians in class and advocating ‘irreligion over religion’ in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.”

Some 22 statements that Corbett made were presented as evidence by Farnan to the lower court. However, the court ruled that only one statement could be considered, where Corbett referred to a former teacher’s belief in creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense.”

When the lower court ruled on behalf of Corbett, Farnan appealed the case and requested that all 22 statements that he had recorded be given consideration.

However, the Appeals Court dismissed the case in a 3-0 decision and upheld the decision of the lower court.

Farnan is presently a college student at Pepperdine University. His attorney, Robert Tyler, told The San Francisco Chronicle, “This case is about establishing legal precedent concerning the rights of children to be able to sit in a public school classroom without having their religion attacked.”

Tyler added, “This ruling was a disservice to millions of public school children, parents and teachers,” The Orange County Register reported. “It’s quite ironic that while the Ninth Circuit complains in the decision that the law is unclear as to whether a public school teacher showed hostility in the classroom, it failed to bring clarity when it had the opportunity to do so. Instead of addressing the constitutionality of the case, the court abandoned it.”

Corbett, 38, is still teaching at Capistrano Valley. He told the Orange County Register that he was pleased with the ruling, saying, “The court’s opinion was more than gratifying, it was a victory for free thought and academic freedom. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that in America, no religion has a right to demand that teachers defer to their beliefs. If that were true, teaching would become a constitutional minefield.”

Among the statements Corbett made in the course of teaching lessons in his class was, “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth.” Corbett also said in another instance, (referring to the 16^th century conflict between religion and science), that evidence of creationism is as plentiful as proof that “there is a giant spaghetti monster living behind the moon who did it.”

In its decision, the Appeals Court said, “In broaching controversial issues like religion, teachers must be sensitive to students’ personal beliefs and take care not to abuse their positions of authority. … But teachers must also be given leeway to challenge students to foster critical thinking skills and develop their analytical abilities.”

A Russian court determined recently that a painting that depicted the Sermon on the Mount, but with Mickey Mouse in place of Jesus Christ, is unacceptable.

The painting, which was shown in Aidan Gallery in Moscow, is the work of artist Alexander Savko. The Exhibition series was entitled, Mickey Mouse’s Travels Through Art History.

A lawsuit was filed upon a local complaint that was made to authorities. The Kaluga Region court decided to ban the painting from being shown in exhibitions, magazines, newspapers and television.

The Kaluga Region court determined that the painting is extremist. However, the court ruling can still be appealed.

On the website of the prosecutor in the case, a statement said, “During the court hearing, it was established that Savko’s technique of uniting the image of Jesus Christ, which is sacred for Christians, and the comical image of Mickey Mouse, which in this situation is vulgar, has turned the graphic work into a caricature of Jesus Christ,” Ria Novosti reported.

“The Gospel story is therefore presented by the artist in the form of a comic,” the statement said on the website adding that it is “an extremely cynical and mocking insult to the religious beliefs and feelings of Orthodox Christian believers,” according to Ria Novosti.

Forbidden Art

The painting was initially shown in 2007 in a controversial exhibition called Forbidden Art. That exhibition was held at the Sakharov Museum and had two controversial paintings—the Mickey Mouse Sermon on the Mount painting, and another showing a crucifix but with a medal from the Order of Lenin covering the face of Christ.

The Order of Lenin was the highest award of the former Soviet Union. The curators of that controversial show, namely Sakharov Museum and Andrei Yerofeyev were convicted last year by a Moscow court, on charges of inciting ethnic and religious hatred, and were fined for the exhibition.

The ruling comes within days after another exhibit defacing a crucifix was closed down in the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The display also included another painting showing the image of Jesus Christ with Mickey Mouse ears.

The exhibit was closed down early after government leaders echoed the sentiments of the people in this majority Catholic nation. President Benigno S. Aquino Jr. told The New York Times, “I was in contact with several board members yesterday and I told them I am a Christian, and our country is composed of at least 85 percent Christians. Depicting Christ in an unflattering manner by anyone is wrong,” The Christian Post reported.

Aquino noted to The New York Times that the center, which is supported by public funds, “should be in the service of the people. When you insult the beliefs of most of the people, I don’t see where that is of service,” according to The Christian Post.

The leading bidders for the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County appear to be a University and a Roman Catholic diocese, but a new buyer (unnamed in court documents) appears to be coming into the picture, among other bidders.

Meanwhile, Crystal Cathedral Ministry is still hoping to keep the cathedral and is trying to raise the funds through pledges and donations. It also announced that the campus is not for sale, putting it directly against its creditors committee.

The creditors committee allowed the cathedral to choose a buyer at a minimum purchase price of $50 million. However, failure of the church to cooperate may mean losing out on buyback options, and perhaps, having to leave the cathedral sooner that it was expecting to.

Front-runner bidders

Chapman University and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange are in stiff competition for the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral. Court documents that were filed last Tuesday also state that a third, unnamed buyer has emerged.

Bids have also been lodged by Hobby Lobby, a nationwide retailer of arts and crafts which is controlled by David Green, an evangelical Christian; and My Father’s House Church International, which is Norco-based. The documents did not mention who the new potential bidder is.

Crystal Cathedral, a 31-year-old church with 10,000 panels of glass, became known internationally through its Hour of Power television program. In October last year the ministry filed for bankruptcy after accumulating a $50 million debt.

The church, which lies in Garden Grove city, 30 miles from Los Angeles, was founded in 1955 by Rev. Robert Schuller and wife Arvella. They started out by renting a drive-in theater for services, and continued to grow and prosper until Robert Schuller retired in 2006. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/07/crystal-cathedral-mulls-50-million-offer-from-roman-catholic-church-16749/ and http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/05/crystal-cathedral-sold-to-pay-off-creditors-16086/).

Diocese of Orange

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange upped its original bid of $50 million to $53.6 million. Crystal Cathedral’s ministry may also rent space temporarily, but would have to vacate after three years.

Stephen Bohannon, diocese spokesman, said the original plan of the diocese was to build a new cathedral which would have cost $100 million. However, they realized that they could cut expenses in half by simply purchasing the Crystal Cathedral.

Bohannon told Reuters that the slash in costs is part of the reason why Bishop Tod Brown and diocese officials made the offer. Also, “[Bishop Brown] feels very strongly that Crystal Cathedral should remain a place of worship.”

Chapman University

Chapman University, a rival bidder, upped its original bid of $46 million to $50 million, the minimum bid required by the creditors’ committee. The University is an affiliate of Disciples of Christ, a Protestant denomination.

The University is also offering the services of two individuals with “extensive experience in business, financial and operational strategy,” at no charge, a service valued at $500,000 annually.

Chapman also said it may lower the repurchase price from $23.5 million to $21 million if Crystal Cathedral is able to repurchase the property, and may consider a longer lease term to Crystal Cathedral than its original proposal of 15 years, but this would be subject to approval.

Church ministry wants to stay put

Crystal Cathedral ministry said less recently that they will try to raise $50 million so that they will not have to sell the cathedral. Sheila Coleman, director of the ministry and daughter of Robert Schuller made this announcement during service less than two weeks before.

Coleman said, “I believe with every fiber of my being that God turned the eyes of the world on Crystal Cathedral because God wants to make a big bold statement,” Reuters reported. “He wants the world to know that he is a God who still does miracles.”

The creditors committee, however, issued a warning that it would proceed with a sale even if the ministry is against it, court documents said. It is also possible that the final deal might not include provisions for repurchase or lease-back.

A federal appeals court ruled recently that it is not appropriate to say the words “Jesus Christ” during public prayer.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., decided in a 2-1 vote to uphold a lower court ruling, that said North Carolina’s Forsyth County Board of Commissioners should not say any opening prayers that mention Jesus Christ.

The Appeals Court ruling favors Constance Blackmon and Janet Joyner, who filed their suit after an opening prayer was said before a meeting that closed with the words, “in Jesus’ name.” Blackmon and Joyner said they were offended by the words being said in public.

The Alliance Defense Fund said the ruling conflicts with past decisions of other federal courts, most recently last July 11, in a ruling that upheld the policy for opening prayer in Lancaster, Calif. Since 2009, four other federal courts supported similar invocation policies, deeming it constitutional.

“The legal team will confer with the county about the process of appealing [Friday’s] decision,” Johnson told Charisma News.

The Appeals Court upheld a lower court ruling by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III who wrote in his decision, “Legislative prayer must strive to be nondenominational so long as that is reasonably possible—it should send a signal of welcome rather than exclusion. It should not reject the tenets of other faiths in favor of just one.”

Dissenting opinion

However, Judge Paul Niemeyer pointed out in his dissenting opinion that believers of all religious faiths are allowed to give the opening prayer in Forsyth county.

Niemeyer wrote, “I respectfully submit that we must maintain a sacred respect of each religion, and when a group of citizens comes together, as does the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, and manifests that sacred respect—allowing the prayers of each to be spoken in the religion’s own voice—we must be glad to let it be.”

Niemeyer also wrote in his dissenting opinion, “[The] majority has dared to step in and regulate the language of prayer—the sacred dialogue between humankind and God. Such a decision treats prayer agnostically; reduces it to civil nicety; hardly accommodates the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in Marsh v. Chambers … and creates a circuit split [with the 11^th Circuit] … Most frightfully, it will require secular legislative and judicial bodies to evaluate and parse particular religious prayers under an array of criteria.”

No prohibition that excludes Jesus Christ

The suit of Joyner, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in its complaint that there is no “policy which discourages or prohibits those whom [the board] has invited to deliver prayers from including references to Jesus Christ, or any other sectarian deity, as part of their prayers.”

“Finding the county’s policy unconstitutional is odd not only in light of current cases, but also in light of the many prayers at public meetings throughout American history that have been uttered consistent with the prayer-giver’s conscience and without judicial ‘tests’ and government rules.” ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey told Charisma News. “In other words, the ACLU and AU are advocating censorship.”