New laws that allow same-sex civil unions to be performed on religious premises took effect in England and Wales on Monday (Dec. 5), but the Church of England says it won’t permit them without approval from its top body.

Civil partnerships have been legal since 2005, but until Monday the ceremonies had to be held in secular venues. Civil partnerships, which cannot be called marriages, give same-sex couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples who are married in a church.

The church said in a letter to its governing body that “the position under the new arrangements is that no Church of England religious premises may become ‘approved premises’ for the registration of civil partnerships” unless its General Synod approves.

The Synod is the Church’s general assembly, and it is considered highly unlikely to permit same-sex marriage ceremonies on church property.

The British government itself has said it has no intention of forcing religious institutions to conduct gay union rites, regardless of the new laws.

The Church of England’s legal office said in a statement that it is not guilty of unlawful discrimination because standard marriages and civil partnerships are legally distinct.

“A gentlemen’s outfitter is not required to supply women’s clothes. A children’s bookshop is not required to stock books that are intended for adults,” the statement said. “And a church that provides a facility to marry is not required to provide a facility to same-sex couples for registering civil partnerships.”

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An open letter signed by 36 religious leaders in today’s New York Times has called on Village Voice Media to shut down a webpage reported to be used to traffic children for sex.

“As moral and religious leaders of many creeds and backgrounds,” said the letter to Jim Larkin, CEO and chair of Village Voice media, “we are united in calling on your publication to shut down the Adult section of Backpage.com.” Arrests of adults selling minors for sex via Backpage.com have been reported in 14 states.

The ad was placed in the Times by Groundswell, the social action initiative of Ney York’s Auburn Seminary.

Signers of the display ad in the Times include National Council of Churches President, the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, and NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon.

“We share the opinion of the nation’s 51 Attorneys General that the best way to eradicate your company’s connection with the sex trafficking of minors is to shut down the Adult section of your Web site, as Craigslist did,” the leaders said.

“We know there is much more to be done to end the sex trafficking of minors beyond what we ask of you,” the leaders said. “Ending this practice for good requires a groundswell of people in our business, media, and religious communities joining together in partnership.”

“But we can do something right now to help these girls and boys,” the religious leaders told Larkin and members of the board of directors of Village Voice Media. “Please shut down the Adult section of Backpage.com immediately so that no minor is exploited through advertisements on your Web site.”

The estimated annual revenue from the Backpage adult section exceeds $22 million. Village Voice Media said earlier it has increased efforts to screen for ads featuring minors, but the religious leaders said they believe the efforts have been inadequate.

Clergy wishing to add their name to a letter to Village Voice media can do so at Groundswell here. Other citizens may sign here.

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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in a letter addressed to Michael Donley, secretary of the Air Force, asked why the course, “Christian Just War Theory,” was suspended on Aug. 3 from the curriculum at a course at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The mandatory training module had been taught for 20 years by chaplains and focused on St. Augustine’s “Just War Theory”. The ethics course is taught to Air Force officers before they are given authorization to launch nuclear weapons.

The course also included references to both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and explained how in some situations, going to war can be a moral decision.

Cornyn, in his letter which was published by Fox News, said, “Suspending a course like this because of references to religious texts misrepresents the First Amendment.”

The Texas Senator’s letter stated, “Although our Founding Fathers rightly included language in the Constitution that precludes the Federal government from establishing an official religion, this language does not, as some have argued, protect them from exposure to religious references.”

Freedom of conscience

“The First Amendment is intended to guarantee an individual’s right to the free exercise of religion according to his or her conscience,” Cornyn wrote in his letter. “The Air Force personnel who have taken this course for the past 20 years have been free to determine, according to their own consciences, whether they accept or reject the premises of just war theory.”

The course was suspended after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation issued a complaint, saying that it violates the Constitutional clause on the separation of church and state.

The MRFF complaint was filed last month under the names of 31 officers, among them Catholic and Protestant students and instructors. It stressed that if the course was not suspended, a class-action lawsuit would be filed.

David Smith, of the Air Education Training Command of the Air Force told Fox News, “In an effort to serve all faiths we try to introduce none in our briefings and our lectures. Once we heard there were concerns we looked at the course and said we could do better. The use of Bible passage and other elements was just inappropriate.”

However, Cornyn disagreed with Smith saying in his letter, “Our military services, like our nation, are comprised of people representing all faiths. However, that fact does not preclude military chaplains from teaching a course on just war theory – a theory that has been part of moral philosophy and the law of war for centuries – merely because it has historically been predicated on religious texts.”

Satisfied with military decision

MRFF president Mikey Weinstein told The Christian Post that he is satisfied with what the military did. “We’re very pleased that the Air Force did it. Had they not done that, we would have filed an immediate class action lawsuit in federal court to force their hand.”

The MRFF particularly was upset by a Bible verse in the course from the New Testament book of Revelations, chapter 19, verse 11 which says, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.”

David French, of  The American Center for Law and Justice told The Christian Post the course did not violate the Constitution, and the MRFF complaint is “another attempt to cleanse American history of its religious realities.”

French told The Christian Post, “It’s about cleansing religion from the public square and building a completely secular society and military.”

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Eleven leaders of different faith groups were arrested recently in the Capitol Rotunda, where they staged a prayer sit-in protesting congressional budget cuts.

The 11 leaders of Jewish and Christian faiths joined hands and knelt down on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda, prayed and sang spiritual hymns recently.

The group prayed that the Obama administration, the Senate and the House make certain that they do not “balance the budget on the backs of the poor,” The Hill reported.

Others surrounded the group in support and said “Amen,” a witness told The Hill. Capitol Police warned the group to stop praying, but they were ignored.

The Capitol Police then cleared the area of tourists and media, and arrested the faith group for demonstrating inside the building. The room was open to the public again at about 1:30 p.m.

Those arrested included Rev. Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith in Public Life, Jim Winkler, general secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church; and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Shalom Center, Philadelphia, who was in a wheelchair but was lifted out of it when he was arrested.

In a statement, the interfaith group said it is “frustrated that their pleas to the administration and Congress to protect funding for the nation’s most vulnerable are being ignored.”

Congress is paralyzed

“Congress is paralyzed,” Rev. Michael Livingston, former president of the National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA) said in a statement, blaming this on “toxic partisan politics.”

Livingston said in the statement, “Our elected officials are protecting corporations and wealthy individuals while shredding the safety net for millions of the most vulnerable people in our nation and abroad. Our faith won’t allow us to passively watch this travesty unfold.”

Last July 26, two bishops, namely Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y. and Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., in a statement said, “A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly,” NCR reported.

A letter was also sent last July 27 addressed to House Speaker John Boehner, from a group of Catholic priests, religious and lay people. The letter said, “You can heed the consistent moral calls from Catholic leaders who have urged lawmakers to decrease our debt fairly and protect the most vulnerable, or you can yield to growing political pressure from Tea Party Republicans willing to accept catastrophic default for the first time in our nation’s history,” NCR reported.

The letter continued, “This is a stark choice between responsible leadership that serves the common good and narrow ideology that makes tax cuts for the wealthy our most sacred national priority. … Now is the time to seek a compromise that reflects the Catholic values of solidarity with the most vulnerable and prudential judgment,” NCR reported.

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Both Muslim and Christian elderly residents in a housing complex in the UK are upset at a ban that was issued recently against religious artifacts from being displayed on the premises.

The ban was announced in a letter that was sent to residents of all 40 flats in St. Paul’s Court in Preston, Lancashire, which also requested that they take down any religious icons and signs that may disturb the community.

Not allowed

Both Christians and Muslims criticized the ban that was imposed on St. Paul’s Court, which is run by Places for People.

One resident told The Mirror, “Some people are very old and their faith is important to them. What harm can there be in having a small statue of Jesus or Our Lady on view?”

The resident also told The Mirror, “Last Christmas we were told to not display a crib, and decorations were discouraged.”

The letter announcing the ruling said, “The reason being that St. Paul’s Court is a sheltered housing scheme which promotes diversity amongst its residents and visitors.”

As a result, it encouraged the elderly residents to take it upon themselves to become champions of “equality and diversity,” according to The Daily Mail.

The staff members of Places for People are taxpayer funded, and their salaries are taken from housing benefits that are given to residents. A spokesman for the group could not specify to The Daily Mail what exactly was meant by “offending” items.

Residents were however asked to remove a number of religious signs and statues, even though the home is named after St. Paul, the apostle who has authored almost half of the books of the New Testament.

Dignity, respect

“I would describe this as removing people’s dignity and respect in their own age. I would ask them to put themselves in the position of their own residents,” Father Andrew Teather, minister of Preston Minster told The Daily Mail.

Teather told The Daily Mail, “I have never found any religious tension between people of different faiths, although one often finds antagonism from people who are not themselves religious towards people who are.

“Rather than having to appoint equality and diversity officers, why don’t they encourage people to speak to their next door neighbors?”

Teather’s sentiments were echoed by a Muslim leader, Salim Desai, who is a local councilor of Preston City.

Desai told The Daily Mail, “Yes, I think they should look at it again. I don’t know why they came to this decision, or what the underlying complaints are. I think they should think again.”

“We get a lot of our morals from religion and I would prefer people to follow religion, Christian or Muslim, and have morals, rather than no morals at all,” Desai told The Daily Mail, adding, “They are causing more problems than they are solving.”

Father Timothy Lipscomb told Mirror that the ruling is “ridiculous,” noting, “Political correctness is getting silly.”

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Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer who was imprisoned on trumped up charges after exposing China’s inhumane forced abortions as a result of its one-child policy, is badly in need of medical treatment.

China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers have joined forces to call for the immediate release of Chen and his family so that he can get badly needed medical treatment immediately.

Chen and his wife have been harshly beaten relentlessly, and Chen’s elderly mother and five-year-old daughter have been treated cruelly (see  http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/06/letter-from-wife-of-chinese-blind-activist-reveals-graphic-details-of-torture-16345/).

Chen Guangcheng and his wife

A petition by Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was sent to China’s president Hu Jintao and its prime minister Wen Jiaobao requesting Chen’s release from house arrest and asking that he receives appropriate medical care as a free man.

The letter says, “On February 9, 2011 Chen released a video describing the deplorable conditions of his house arrest. The next morning, Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were “beaten senseless.”

“We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned for the suffering and brutal treatment of Chen and his family. We call upon the Chinese government to free Chen from house arrest immediately and to get him the medical care he so urgently needs,” the letter said on its website.

“Chen’s wife sounded the alarm in a letter recently smuggled out of China. She said that Chen’s health is very fragile and worsening every day because of beatings, malnutrition and an intestinal illness,” Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated.

“She is worried about his survival. Chen sacrificed everything to tell the world the brutal truth about forced abortion in China. He is a warrior for women’s rights. Now it’s our turn to sacrifice on behalf of Chen by fighting for his freedom.”

China Aid also slammed China’s treatment of Chen. Bob Fu, president, said, “The abuse of Chen Guangcheng is unconscionable and contrary to the rule of law. His mistreatment under house arrest is deplorable, including beatings, constant surveillance, as well as confiscation of his computer, cell phone, books, his blind cane and the toys of his young daughter.”

Both China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers are lobbying for help from the international diplomatic community to intervene with the Chinese government on behalf of Chen.

They are also calling on concerned citizens to write to the embassies and consulates in their countries anywhere in the world on behalf of Chen.

Chen was cited by Time Magazine in 2006 as among the Top 100 People Who Shape Our World. The following year, he was awarded the 2007 Magsaysay award, which is considered to be the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, for exposing the ills that are offshoots of China’s one-child policy.

Chen revealed that 130,000 abortions and sterilizations were enforced in Linyi County alone in 2005, against the wishes of the mothers. He was then imprisoned for four years and three months.

Although he was released in September 2010, the act seemed to be mere window dressing as house arrest has been no better than jail, and a video released by Women’s Rights equated the entire village, this time, as his prison.

Under house arrest Chen and his wife have been “beaten senseless,” are kept away from all contact with the outside world, are not permitted to have enough food, are constantly under watch even in their own home, and all their possessions have been taken away, including personal photographs and the toys of their children.

Those who wish to sign the petition may go to http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng#petition.

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Reverend Ken Autry is the former pastor at First United Methodist Church on the lake yard in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. I say, “former” pastor only because he has now moved on to another appointment. Those Methodists won’t let their preachers sit still for long.

He once shared a letter with his congregation that I have yet to get out of my mind. The letter, while not written to Rev. Autry, had been written by a parishioner who had become quite disgruntled with her pastor. This is not uncommon. Sometimes there is the perception that those of the cloth should be absolutely faultless. When failures occur, and they certainly will, the fallout can be crushing.

This is too bad. Sure, there are some bad apples in the barrel, but most pastors, priests, and rabbis are doing the best they can to honor their calling and to help others. They make mistakes, but don’t we all. This particular church member gave no quarter for such ministerial blunders.

With teeth on edge she poured out a venomous letter to her pastor. She recounted his failures. She demeaned his family. She compared him to other great pastors that had gone before him (always good for your self-esteem), and pretty much read him the riot act.

It was the conclusion of the letter that rings in my ears. She wrote, “I pray that you will come to know Jesus as I do, rather than just knowing Jesus like you do.” When we need ammunition against our enemies, any bullet will do. Even Jesus.

Since his incarnation, Christ has taken on the form we require of him. The zealots of his time wanted him to be a revolutionary with sword in hand. The legalists tried so very hard to make him a traditionalist. The anxious masses, and those closest to him, attempted to make him their king. In fact, Jesus’ eventual crucifixion was due largely to the fact that he would not play by the rules. He would not be the kind of Messiah people thought he should be. He would not conform.

We continue the tradition. If needed, we will wrap Christ in the red, white, and blue and send him out before our armies waving the flag. We will use his words to strengthen capitalism (or some other “ism”) and justify our greed. We will explain away his hardest sayings in order to get cozy with him or we will drop his name in the right circles if it will garner a few more votes in November.

Yes, it seems we’ve got Jesus right where we want him: Shrink wrapped, canned, freeze dried. In an emergency just add water. The Jesus who walked the Palestinian hills of the first century was a far cry from these things. Certainly he would have shocked us.

The calloused hands of a carpenter; the olive skin of the Middle East; the dirty feet, shaggy hair, and tattered clothes of an impoverished wanderer: He is nothing like the white, middle-class, blue-eyed Jesus that appeared on my Sunday school flannel graph board.

I admit I don’t always recognize Jesus. Just when I think I have him figured out, he does something crazy: Like command me to love my enemies; or tell me to do good to those who don’t deserve it; or challenge me to give away my possessions; or instruct me to turn the other cheek; or allow himself to be crucified.

In his unconventional, eccentric manner he runs roughshod over my preconceptions. He overturns the established order of my life. He surprises me with his fierce grace. He calls me to himself demanding my soul, my life, my all.

Jesus asked his disciples on his last night on earth, “Do you not yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?” I am afraid the answer is still an embarrassing, no. But thankfully, we’ll have all of eternity to get to know this wild-eyed Jewish rabbi a little better. Maybe, just maybe, that will be time enough.

Ronnie McBrayer is the author of “Leaving Religion, Following Jesus.” He writes and speaks about life, faith, and Christ-centered spirituality. Visit his website at www.ronniemcbrayer.net.

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An umbrella group of Christians and other faiths in the Philippines squared off recently against the powerful Catholic Church over a bill that is pending in congress which will allow government hospitals to distribute contraceptives such as birth control pill and condoms, but does not allow abortion nor abortifacients.

Bishop Rodrigo Tano, chairman of the Interfaith Partnership for Promotion of Responsible Parenthood, said in a press conference that debates in congress over the pending Reproductive Health bill are divisive and only delay its passage, ABS-CBN News said.

Tano said, “I think there is too much bad faith, too much condemnation. Hasty generalization. We are tired of that. We are tired of dilatory tactics in Congress,” ABS-CBN News reported.

Tano also assailed the Catholic Church, accusing it of spreading lies and “demonizing” advocates of the R.H. bill, by saying from the pulpit that advocates of the bill are evil, The Manila Standard said.

Tano said, “There has been too much disinformation and advocates of the reproductive health bill have been demonized and called evil from the pulpit,” The Manila Standard reported.

The Catholic Church has asked churchgoers nationwide to double their usual Sunday offerings to help fund the struggle against the passage of the R.H. bill, according to The Manila Standard.

Tano, who is also president of the Philippine Association of Bible and Theological Schools, said the IPPRP supports the R.H. bill because it will help to address the burgeoning population problem in the Philippines, according to ABS-CBN News.

Tano said the Catholic bishops have failed to state the empirical merits of the R.H. bill and have not adequately confronted the issue of overpopulation, according to The Manila Standard.

Tano said, “[A]n average of 11 mothers die due to complications in pregnancy…62 infants out of 100,000 die out of live births and the poor have more kids…there is a relationship between population size and poverty… These should not be a matter of ecclesiastical declarations but a matter of research and science,” ABS-CBN News reported.

The IPPRP is an umbrella organization for religious groups including the locally-grown Iglesia ni Kristo, Muslim groups, indigenous tribes, dissenting Catholics and Protestant churches, The Manila Standard said.

Tano also presented a letter dated Oct. 12, 2010 which was signed by INK head Eduardo Manalo in support of the R.H. bill, The Manila Standard said.

The INK is considered to be a cult which does not recognize the trinity. However, it holds great political sway because of its unified vote during elections which can usually guarantee victory for selected political candidates.

In the letter addressed to Biliran Rep. Robelio Espino, Manalo said, “We are all well aware of the dire situation of our country caused by overpopulation. Many of society’s worsening ills—from homeless families starving in miserable conditions and children not in school but instead begging all day and night in nearly every major street, to the rapidly spreading problems with drug abuse and rising crime rate—can be traced to families growing so large that an increasing number of parents cannot provide the most basic human needs to their families,” The Manila Standard reported.

The INK letter expressed support for contraception except for abortion stating, “We support their use as long as these methods are empirically not abortifacient. Abortion and the use of abortifacients involve the taking of life, which God explicitly forbids,” according to The Manila Standard.

Some of the faith-based organizations in the IPPRP are the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventist, Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines, Iglesia Filipino Independiente, Philippines for Jesus Movement, United Methodist Church, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, the United Church of Christ of the Philippines, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Catholics for Reproductive Health, and Episcopal Church of the Philippines, among others, GMA News said.

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Two years ago a 15-year-old Christian Egyptian girl wrote a letter to President Barack Obama about the treatment of Christians in her country.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, now 17, wrote in her letter to Obama that Muslims in the U.S. are given much better treatment than Coptic Christians are given in Egypt (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/05/egyptian-father-daughter-on-the-run-for-two-years-because-of-faith-12293#comments).

Things seemed bleak and hopeless for Dina then. She and her father, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, had been on the run since August 2008, switching from one safe house to the next every month, Catholic Online said.

A miracle

Today, father and daughter consider it a miracle that they are now in France seeking asylum. They are also applying for asylum in the U.S., which is where they really hope to stay. They fear that Muslim extremists may seek them out in France and kill them in response to Fatwas that have been called on them, Compass Direct News said.

They had been on the run for two and a half years in Egypt before the uprising against Mubarak enabled them to flee to Syria on Feb. 22, then France. The revolution that deposed Mubarak also undermined the Ministry of the Interior, which had long hounded El-Gohary, CDN reported.

The uprising set government offices into confusion and when El-Gohary had permission to leave, and they went to nearby Syria. They were still a religious minority and Syria’s unrest impelled them to seek refuge in France, where they moved to on Mar. 30, CDN said.

National ID

El Gohary’s troubles began when he filed a case for his religion on his national identification card to be changed from Muslim to Christian. He did this to spare Dina from undergoing persecution he experienced in his 20s, Catholic Online said.

Dina was set to receive identity papers when she turned 16. If El-Gohary’s ID said he was Muslim, that would automatically go on her ID, too. He wanted her to be free to practice her faith, Catholic Online said.

A recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that 84 percent of Egyptian Muslims consider leaving the Islamic faith as a crime that should be punished with death, CDN reported. This explains why the lawsuit caused pandemonium. Egypt, then under President Hosni Mubarak, was a secular government but not tolerant of apostasy.

A national ID is required in Egypt to rent a dwelling, receive medical treatment, and open a bank account, CDN said. Abdul Aziz Zakareya, a Muslim cleric told Catholic Online that El-Gohary “should be killed by authorities.”

Zakareya told Catholic Online, “Public conversions can lead to very dangerous consequences. The spreading of a phenomenon like this in a Muslim society can cause many unwanted results and tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Dina and El-Gohary were subject to Fatwas by Islamic clerics who wanted their blood to be spilled. People said that they were insane and demon possessed, according to Catholic Online.

Father and daughter, for fear of their safety, went to different churches all the time to receive Holy Communion, Catholic Online reported. They were scorned for their faith. Someone threw acid that landed on Dina’s denim jacket (El-Gohary immediately tore the jacket off his daughter). El-Gohary has been attacked by a man with a knife.

El-Gohary told Catholic Online, “Islam is the only thing Egyptians are 150% sure of. If you reject Islam, you shake their belief and you are an apostate, an infidel…I can see in the eyes of Muslims how much my conversion has really hurt them.”

At the same time, El-Gohary refuses to let go of his faith. He told Catholic Online, “In Islam, if you steal your hands are cut off, but in Christianity you can be forgiven. This compassion is what attracted me.”

Dina said, “I’ve always felt Christian, but my mom has taken me to sheiks to convince me of Islam. She made me wear the hijab and go to the mosque against my will. A man with a beard once grabbed me and told me that ‘if you and your dad don’t stop, I’ll kill you both,’” Catholic Online reported.

El-Gohary is seeking asylum in the U.S. as well as in France. Until France resolves his application, he is permitted an automatic three-month extension on his visa, CDN said.

Chris Mitchell of CBN News wrote, “Perhaps it’s fitting that this story of an escape from Egypt came out during the week of Passover. Thousands of years ago, the Israelites fled Egypt to escape Pharoah’s bondage on their way to the Promised Land.

“Thousands of years later, Maher Ahmad El-Gohary, 58, who converted to Christianity from Islam, and his 17-year-old daughter, Dina, escaped from Egypt. It’s a reminder — especially this Easter weekend — of the persecution Christians are subjected to in Egypt and throughout the Middle East — especially Muslims who convert to Christianity.”

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A teacher in California who was convicted in a suit filed by a former student for disparaging Christianity in class said recently that the tapes that the student used as evidence were edited.

James Corbett, a European history teacher at Capistrano High School in Orange County, stated in a letter to The Orange County Register that the tapes presented as evidence by his former student, Chad Farnan, were edited and out of context.

Corbett lost the case in the lower court, and it has been appealed by both sides. He also blamed his previous lawyer for advising him poorly, he wrote in his letter which was also reprinted in the blog, Scholars & Rogues.

Farnan sued Corbett in 2007 when he was a student in Corbett’s Advanced Placement European History class. According to the website Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which is representing Farnan, the student taped several of Corbett’s lectures for study purposes.

In one of the tapes Corbett said, “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth.” Farnan felt that this was a
violation of his First Amendment right, and considered it an expression of hostility toward his faith, the Advocates for Faith & Freedom website said.

The Advocates for Faith & Freedom website considered the lower court ruling that was made in May 2009, “one of a kind,” when a federal District Court judge determined that Corbett was in violation of the Establishment Clause because he called creationism “superstitious nonsense.”

The Advocates for Faith & Freedom website said, “[T]his is the first case in the country to address this issue directly, it should help to place boundaries on teachers who feel free to improperly express hostility toward religion in public schools.”

The decision was rendered by U.S. District Judge James Selna of Santa Ana. However Corbett felt that he lost the case because he was not well advised by his lawyer, Dan Spradlin, who was assigned to him by the Capistrano Unified School District, The OC Register said.

Corbett wrote in his letter that Spradlin had advised him to ask for a summary judgment. He now regrets following that advice. He wrote in his letter to The OC Register, “Had I gone to court, I could easily have demonstrated that the recordings were edited and that Chad’s claim of ‘damages’ was false.”

In his letter Corbett wrote, “My attorney believed a fair application of Lemon Test would turn in my favor, but the test fails in a case such as mine both as a matter of law and of logic,” according to his letter as reprinted in Scholars & Rogues.

He also said in his letter that of all the statements he made that were raised by Farnan in the case, the one that was found to be hostile was a reference to creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense,” according to The OC Register.

Because he had gone for a summary judgment, Corbett could not cross-examine Farnan under oath about editing the tapes. He wrote, “It was Selna who backed me into a corner with a ruling that, on the one hand made it appear as if Chad had a case, and on the other hand, prevented me from having a day in court,” The OC Register reported.

Not edited

Jennifer Monk of the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, and counsel for Farnan rejected the claim that the tapes were either out of context or edited. She said the outcome would, she believes, have been the same if Corbett did not go for a summary judgment, The OC Register said.

Monk told The OC Register, “It’s very easy and convenient for Dr. Corbett to say that without any proof. I can’t imagine how we could have spliced it to make it sound more or less than what it is.”

Monk said in the Advocates for Faith & Freedom website, “Just as public school teachers are not allowed to promote one religion in the classroom, they should not be able to use their classrooms as a platform to attack religion because the pendulum swings both ways.”

The case has been appealed by both parties and is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Monk is requesting that the Ninth Circuit broaden the ruling of the lower court and declare Corbett’s comments unconstitutional. Corbett has found new legal advisers in the person of Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine’s law school, who is working pro bono, the website of Advocates for Faith & Freedom said.

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