A federal judge ruled Wednesday (Jan. 11) in favor of a teenage atheist who sought the removal of a prayer banner from her Rhode Island high school.

Attorneys for Jessica Ahlquist, 16, argued that a banner on display in Providence’s Cranston High School West’s auditorium titled “School Prayer” and addressing “Our Heavenly Father” is a violation of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s 1962 decision banning state-mandated prayer in school.

Lawyers for the school district argued that the banner had hung in the school since the 1960s and was more secular than sacred.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux disagreed and ruled that the banner should be removed immediately. He also upbraided school officials for holding community meetings about the mural that “at times resembled a religious revival.” At one meeting, several school officials read from the Bible or declared their faith. Ahlquist needed a police escort to leave one meeting.

“I am hopeful that this case can be looked back on in the future and encourage others to stand up for their rights as well,” Ahlquist said from the Providence office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented her.

Ahlquist had to leave Cranston High School West due to threats, but said she is considering a return.

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State hailed the ruling as “a 40-page slam dunk.”

Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, praised Ahlquist. “She fought for the rights of nonbelievers and religious minorities and is an example for everyone.”

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (Jan. 11) unanimously threw its support behind a church school that fired a teacher, using a widely watched church-state case to bolster a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from some civil rights laws.

Religious groups heralded the ruling as a firm assertion of religious freedom that keeps personnel decisions about religious employees where they should be: within a church, synagogue, or mosque.

“The court hasn’t spoken this clearly on a church-state matter in almost 20 years,” said Rob Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who wrote an amicus brief on the case in support of the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School.

“This is bedrock,” Garnett continued. “All the justices came together to say if religious freedom means anything, it means governments can’t interfere with religious institutions’ decisions on who is going to be their minister or teacher.”

Those who advocate for the separation of church and state said the court has now set the bar far too high for employees of religious institutions who seek redress against discrimination.

“The really terrible thing about this decision is that if you fire someone and religion is just a pretext, it can’t be addressed by courts,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“It’s just a gigantic new exception, a new loophole to the civil rights law for religious groups that will not be shut in a very long time — if ever.”

The Hosanna-Tabor case revolved around Cheryl Perich, who had been elevated by the Lutheran church that ran the school to a “called teacher” position, one with some religious responsibilities. Though most of her duties were secular, Perich spent part of each day teaching religion and sometimes led chapel services.

Diagnosed with a sleep disorder, Perich took a leave of absence in 2004 and was replaced by another teacher. Cleared by her doctors to return to work, the church refused to reinstate her.

Perich filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that the school was hiding behind its religious protections to ignore the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The EEOC ruled for Perich, but she lost a lawsuit against the school in federal court in 2008. The school successfully argued that the doctrine of ministerial exception, which is well established in state courts, gave it broad hiring and firing powers over all religious employees, even if they engaged in nonreligious activities.

Lawyers for the school argued that the Lutheran tradition requires that disagreements within the church be settled within the church, and that Perich had flouted this requirement by going to court.

Perich appealed, and in 2010 the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor. The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, gave the final victory to the church, grounding the decision in the First Amendment’s guarantees of free exercise of religion, and a prohibition on government establishment of religion.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan filed concurring opinions.

“The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission,” Roberts wrote.

“The First Amendment has struck the balance for us,” Roberts continued. “The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way.”

Said the Rev. Paul Undlin of Hosanna-Tabor, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod church that ran the now-closed school: “It is amazing when a church from Redford, Mich., stands up for its rights and ends up going all the way to the Supreme Court. Praise God for giving the justices the wisdom to uphold the religious freedom enshrined in our Constitution.”

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Karnataka, India, October 29 (CDN) — Police arrested Pastor Muthyalan Paul on Oct. 26 in Nelamangala, Bangalore, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion, tore Bibles and damaged household items. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police, alerted by the Muslim extremists, charged the pastor with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of others.” A judge sent the pastor to Nelamangala Sub-Jail, but with area Christian leaders’ intervention he was released on bail the next morning.

Karnataka – Hindu nationalists on Oct. 20 burned down a house church in Bellakatte village, near Chitradurga. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Pastor Mallappa Hanumanthappa Andrew of Samadhana Prayer House and his brother were walking on a village road when six area extremists waylaid them and began slapping the pastor, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion. They also slapped and shoved his brother when he tried to come to Andrew’s aid. Cursing, the extremists then burned down the house used for worship. Baramasagara police arrested four extremists identified only as Manjunath, Parashuram, Ramanna and Devaraj, charged them with unlawful assembly and released them after two hours.

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Karnataka, India, October 29 (CDN) — Police arrested Pastor Muthyalan Paul on Oct. 26 in Nelamangala, Bangalore, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion, tore Bibles and damaged household items. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police, alerted by the Muslim extremists, charged the pastor with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of others.” A judge sent the pastor to Nelamangala Sub-Jail, but with area Christian leaders’ intervention he was released on bail the next morning.

Karnataka – Hindu nationalists on Oct. 20 burned down a house church in Bellakatte village, near Chitradurga. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Pastor Mallappa Hanumanthappa Andrew of Samadhana Prayer House and his brother were walking on a village road when six area extremists waylaid them and began slapping the pastor, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion. They also slapped and shoved his brother when he tried to come to Andrew’s aid. Cursing, the extremists then burned down the house used for worship. Baramasagara police arrested four extremists identified only as Manjunath, Parashuram, Ramanna and Devaraj, charged them with unlawful assembly and released them after two hours.

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Karnataka, India, October 29 (CDN) — Police arrested Pastor Muthyalan Paul on Oct. 26 in Nelamangala, Bangalore, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion, tore Bibles and damaged household items. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police, alerted by the Muslim extremists, charged the pastor with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of others.” A judge sent the pastor to Nelamangala Sub-Jail, but with area Christian leaders’ intervention he was released on bail the next morning.

Karnataka – Hindu nationalists on Oct. 20 burned down a house church in Bellakatte village, near Chitradurga. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Pastor Mallappa Hanumanthappa Andrew of Samadhana Prayer House and his brother were walking on a village road when six area extremists waylaid them and began slapping the pastor, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion. They also slapped and shoved his brother when he tried to come to Andrew’s aid. Cursing, the extremists then burned down the house used for worship. Baramasagara police arrested four extremists identified only as Manjunath, Parashuram, Ramanna and Devaraj, charged them with unlawful assembly and released them after two hours.

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Muslim teachers at a public girls’ school in Punjab, Pakistan regularly discriminate against Christian students, beat them, and pressure them to convert to Islam according to Christians living in the area, Compass Direct News reported.

Muslim teachers at Government Higher Secondary School in village No. 79-NB (Northern Branch), Sargodha, Punjab were so abusive that two of dozens of Christian girls dropped out, CDN said.

A 16-year old student, Sana, told CDN they are teased and mocked all day and made to daily clean school toilets, the compound and classrooms even if there are staff to do the work.

The Christian students were told that such work was handed down to them from their parents and forefathers.

The abusive teachers mentioned were Muzammil, Sumaira (Islamic Education & Arabic Language teacher), Gullnaz (Math teacher and Ferhat Naz (principal).  Naz and Sumaira subject the girls to beatings regularly.

During recess the Christian girls were also made to polish the teachers’ shoes and wash their undergarments and clothes.

When they completed their studies they were denied certificates of completion rendering them inadmissible to other schools and universities.  For this reason many Pakistan Christians are undereducated and unemployed, according to CDN.

The Higher Secondary School in village No. 79-NB is the only government school of higher education for girls in the village and adjoining areas.  The education department officials of Sargodha Region have been asked to investigate, CDN said.

When CDN questioned Principal Naz about the abuses, she said some Christian girls left the school due to domestic problems.  Naz said she would hold an inquiry of the accused (although she is also among them).  Protesting residents gathered outside Naz’ office last week, asking for an independent body to conduct the investigation, CDN reported.

Meanwhile Dr. Nazir Bhatti, president of Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) decried the fact that Christian schools only admit 0.5 percent Christians, and 99.5 percent Muslims, according to the Pakistan Christian Post (PCP).

Bhatti noted that hundreds of Christian missionary schools and colleges all over Punjab and the rest of Pakistan admit Muslims in favor of Christians.  Reasons cited by Bhatti were:

• The secretary in charge of admissions in some of the schools is a Muslim.
• Missionary schools are run like businesses by the Catholic Church of Pakistan and the Church of Pakistan, hence they cater to wealthy Muslims.
• The clergy takes bribes in the shape of donations from wealthy Muslims in exchange for admission of their children.
• Christians are very poor and unable to make large donations for admission.

Bhatti said if these Christian convents and other English medium missionary schools had given priority to Pakistani Christians after the country was independent in 1947, Christians might today have a 100 percent literacy rate, the PCP reported.

Instead, Christian children must enroll in Muslim dominated public schools and colleges where they are not allowed to drink water from the same glasses nor eat from the same plates as Muslim students because they are viewed as infidels, the PCP said.

Bhatti appealed to the Catholic Church of Pakistan and the Church of Pakistan to give Christian students priority in admissions.  “They deserve it in schools which are established in their name,”  Nazir Bhatti told the PCP.

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The owner of the Be With Me, The Children’s Playseum in Bethesda, Md. was told recently that no Montgomery public school would send children to her facility because her website mentioned the words “God,” “life,” and “family,” according to The Washington Post.

From her website:

“We Value

LIFE-Every child is God’s gift to this earth.

FAMILY-The most vital part of our community. We treasure the opportunity to offer you a place to create family moments and memories while using our proceeds to help a family far away.

GOD-Giver of breathe and we endeavor to honor Him in all of our affairs.”

Be With Me, The Children’s Playseum is an indoor space that mixes creative play and education.

Geina Seebachan, owner of the children’s activity center, was told however that if she edited her website, schools would send children to the playseum.

Sean Bulson, an acting community superintendent for the county system, said he was “not aware” of any countywide decision about the playseum.  He did say that many parents expressed discomfort with their children going to the facility, The Washington Post reported.

The issue came to Seebachan’s attention when Westbrook Elementary School canceled a scheduled trip to the center.

All four of Seebachan’s children had attended Westbrook Elementary School.

However, according to Seebachan, Jeff Ewald, principle, told her that parents expressed concern that the Playseum was overtly or covertly religious, The Washington Post said.

Seebachan, an evangelical Christian, has among her teaching staff one from Peru, one from Sri Lanka, one vegan, one kosher Jew, a fellow from Trinidad and a woman from Congo, according to The Washington Post.

According to the play calendar on their website, there will be activities to celebrate Jerusalem Day, Waisak Day in Indonesia, Corpus Christi in Chile, and Memorial Day in the United States.

Seebachan, who studied international relations in college, also has activities at Pthe activity center that celebrate Thai and Shinto holidays, the prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Chinese New Year and Jewish holidays.

But on her Web site, she also advertises a Christian youth group she runs, according to the Washington Post.

Seebachan had experience in leading after school clubs and daycamps, has taught in China, and lived and visited over 22 nations.  The playseum’s on-hands activities are diverse, sensitive in spirit and reflect what she has gained from her travels, according to their website.

However now the Be With Me Playseum is being sabotaged through a whisper campaign and Seebachan has been receiving threats.

Anonymous Web postings saying Seebachan handed out antiabortion literature at the Playseum, accepts support from right-wing Christian groups and plays Christian rock music at the play space, according to The Washington Post.

One anonymous post from someone who claimed to be Jewish said that Seebachan told her that unless she accepted Jesus as her personal savior, the client and her children would go to hell, The Washington Post reported.

Seebachan said she has no literature about abortion, her sponsors are all secular, including Safeway and Strosniders hardware store, and if she knew anyone of her staff who told a client that she and her family might go to hell, she would fire them on the spot, according to The Washington Post.

“I’m not marketing to Christians,” Seebachan says.  “I imagined this place like a big, refreshing swimming pool for anybody to come to and be together with their children in a different way, without computers, TVs or cellphones,”  Seebachan told The Washington Post.

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Progressive Catholic groups decried recently the decision of a Catholic school in Massachusetts to deny the readmission of an 8-year-old student because they learned that his parents are lesbians, according to CNN.

The child had been accepted to

Credit:svilen001/sxc.hu

, Massachusetts for the fall, but afterwards was told that he could not enroll because of his parents’ sexuality.

Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, issued a statement saying that the action of the school is “antithetical to notions of Christian charity and Catholic social justice,” CNN reported.

The Catholic Democrats was joined in by other liberal Catholic and gay groups with similar sentiments.  Boston’s moneyed and powerful Catholic laity joined in, causing Boston’s archdiocese to back down, according to the Boston Herald.

According to the Boston Herald, the Catholic Schools Foundation, Boston’s biggest scholarship provider, sent notice to other Catholic schools that scholarship money would be denied to schools that showed discrimination similar to that of Hingham.

Also, power broker Jack Connors, who had secured some $2 million more (from EMC and Liberty Mutual) for his $60 million Campaign for Catholic Schools, expressed dismay at Hingham’s move and said it was “embarrassing” the Boston Herald reported.

Progressive Catholic activists expressed hope that the Archdiocese of Boston, which includes the Hingham school, would set a precedent for how the American church treats students with gay parents, CNN reported.

This would contrast a move last March by the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, which supported a Catholic school’s decision in Boulder to block two students with gay parents from re-enrolling, according to CNN.

When asked to comment on the matter, Conservative Catholic activist Deal Hudson said, “I don’t really have a strong opinion on this one.  It’s a matter of the individual bishop’s discretion,” CNN reported.

O’Malley has not publicly commented, but Mary Grassa O’ Neill, secretary of the Boston Archdiocese for education said, “The archdiocese does not prohibit children of same-sex parents from attending Catholic schools.  We will work in the coming weeks to develop a policy to eliminate any misunderstandings in the future,”  according to CNN

O’Neill said the Boston Archdiocese met with one of the child’s parents on Thursday and offered to help enroll the child in another Catholic school within the archdiocese.  The parents have insisted on anonymity for them and their son, the CNN said.

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A Supreme Court decision slated for June may be the last chance for the Christian Legal Society chapter at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco to run their organization in adherence to their core spiritual beliefs and still retain their school benefits.

At issue is the university’s non-discriminatory policy which bars student groups from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sex, or sexual orientation.  The CLS believes that the non-discriminatory law is inherently discriminatory against student faith groups.

The issue arose in 2004 when the CLS asked members to pledge to core religious beliefs, including that they will not engage in a “sexually immoral lifestyle,” or “all acts of sexual conduct outside God’s design for marriage between one man and one woman.”  Failure to live by this standard would disqualify an individual from becoming a voting CLS member.

School officials viewed the pledge as discrimination.  They said the group’s faith-based by-laws reflected intent to discriminate against gay and lesbian students and others.  Under the school policy, student groups must agree to accept any student as a voting member.

The society was ordered to abide by school policy, or they would lose school recognition including school benefits such as funding, use of school facilities, and use of school communication systems to publicize meetings.

When the CLS balked, the school withheld their benefits.  The CLS sued, claiming the First Amendment rights of free speech, free association and free exercise of religion.  They said the school policy is unconstitutional.

The CLS said gay and lesbian students and others of different beliefs could attend CLS meetings and events, but if they do not sign a pledge acknowledging that they share the precise Christian beliefs of the group they would be excluded from voting, holding leadership positions, and leading Bible study discussions.

CLS’ lawyer Michael McConnell wrote in their defense brief, “To forbid groups to form on the basis of shared beliefs is to forbid freedom of association at its most fundamental level.”

McConnell added, “The policy targets solely those groups whose beliefs are based on ‘religion’ or that disapprove of a particular kind of sexual behavior.”  He said

the non-discrimination policy is “explicitly viewpoint discriminatory”  and only applies to religious beliefs–not political, social, or cultural ideals or beliefs.

So far the Hastings policy has been upheld by a federal judge.  The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judge’s ruling.  The Supreme Court decision in June will be the CLS last chance to run their organization according to their core beliefs and still keep their status and benefits.

Some 60 student organizations are currently registered at Hastings, all of which can receive school benefits.  If the Supreme Court supports the school’s policy, the CLS will be the only student group that was ever denied those benefits.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/opinion/19mon2.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100417/ts_csm/295149

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Including public prayers to God on Thanksgiving is becoming as “politically incorrect” as mentioning Christ on Christmas.

In 2005, the Maryland Board of Education began teaching their students that the Pilgrims landed on the American continent by luck. In the new public school curriculum, in effect re-naming Thanksgiving “Lucky Thursday” per some sources, students are not taught that God had any part in the thank you for what the Pilgrims had. The Board of Education felt they were facing a constitutional dilemma.

By contrast, we have discovered documented statements like this one by Edward Winslow at the first recorded Thanksgiving, 1621 (bolding mine):
“…many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.”

And here is George Washington’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation on November 26, 1789:
“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”

We aren’t sure that the First Thanksgiving took place on the last Thursday in November, and God didn’t declare Thanksgiving a holiday. Of course, the Bible makes no mention of it (nor of Christmas). The New Testament sets only two covenants before us: The Lord’s Supper and the Ordinance of Baptism.

Thanksgiving wasn’t even declared a National Holiday until President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the decision in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941); and not every President between Washington and Roosevelt prayed thanks to God on that day.

But isn’t it still OK to thank God? “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4: 6-7, NIV). Our American Thanksgiving holiday is just as good a day as any to do so.

Heaven forbid, one day in our American households on Thanksgiving, a knock will come at the door and a U.S. Government official will demand a place at the table to be sure we don’t issue thanks to God for what we have.

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