Blog from the Capital

Via Kevin Drum's Political Animal, Here's an interesting follow-up to this morning's post on Reverend Gregory Boyd's questioning the identification of religious conviction with political ideology. In an interview with Christianity Today, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson believes the "religious right" has become too political:

It's probably a long-term mistake for evangelicals to be too closely associated with any ideology or political party. The Christian teaching on social justice stands in judgment of every party and every movement. It has to be an authentic and independent witness. It should have an influence in both parties.
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Where specifically do you think the Religious Right has gone off track?
Some of it is what I would call baptizing policy recommendations, as if there were a Christian view on tax policy or missile defense. These are questions of prudence and judgment on which reasonable people disagree.

Posted by Don Byrd at 03:42 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday's NYTimes featured the outlook of Pastor Gregory Boyd of Woodland Hills Church in Minnesota. Woodland Hills saw its membership decrease by 20% (from 5,000) after Boyd broke from his church's expectation of him as a conservative minister by questioning the politicization of today's religion. Having visited another church's July 4 service blending Christianity with militarization, and having heard numerous requests from his own congregation to promote the Republican agenda, Boyd decided to preach a series announcing and defending his belief in the separation of church and state.

In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others — by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have “power under” others — “winning people’s hearts” by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said.

“America wasn’t founded as a theocracy,” he said. “America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.”

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Several weeks ago, the plight of the Dobrich family in Delaware received lots of attention in the blogosphere. (Here. are. some. examples. And my post) Today, the NYTimes picks up on the story and places it in the context of a nationwide struggle to balance religious expression and public education.

I have to admit I remain shocked at how many--with such a simple formula of fairness and equality before them--still are willing to revert to arguments of majoritarianism ("but most of us are Christian! The rest of you should just deal with it!") and, well, habit ("Things should be the way they've always been!").

“We have a way of doing things here, and it’s not going to change to accommodate a very small minority,’’ said Kenneth R. Stevens, 41, a businessman sitting in the Georgetown Diner. “If they feel singled out, they should find another school or excuse themselves from those functions. It’s our way of life.”

The Dobrich and Doe legal complaint portrays a district in which children were given special privileges for being in Bible club, Bibles were distributed in 2003 at an elementary school, Christian prayer was routine at school functions and teachers evangelized.

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Earlier this month, the Southern Illinois University case was allowed to move forward with the Christian Legal Society operating as a fully sanctioned club in the interim, despite their discrimination in official membership. And yesterday, a case involving a high-school Bible club in Seattle, that wished to exclude non-Christians was heard by a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Their plan was to study the Bible, associate with other Christians and "express the love of Christ and his soul-saving grace through character, speech, conduct and behavior," according to court briefs.

But for official membership and voting rights in the club, students would have to swear allegiance to Jesus Christ by signing a statement affirming "the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God."

At that, Kentridge's Associated Student Body drew the line, and without a charter, Truth was denied certain fundraising, yearbook and advertising rights, though it could meet on campus.

"The district has no problem with religious clubs," said Chuck Lind, a lawyer for Kent, who attended the hearing and pointed out afterward that the district has two other Bible groups, open to all students.

The difficulty, he said, was Truth's exclusive, Christians-only criteria for membership.

And on another, completely irrelevant point to the legal discussion, I seem to remember high school as being pretty exclusive socially (no, I'm not bitter) all on its own, without having official limiting rules keeping people out of this club or that club. I would think a Bible club of all things, dedicated to Christian love and all, might be the best place to allow all comers to feel welcome and participate as full members? Could be these 2 young girls that started the club and insisted on the signing statement of allegiance were just following the lead of adults they've watched....just a thought.

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The San Diego Union Tribune has a report comparing the controversial cross case to another cross whose legal fate, some say, may have a bearing on the Mt. Soledad outcome:

About 275 miles away in the Mojave Desert stands a far less prominent but nonetheless controversial cross that, like the Mount Soledad cross, has been the subject of lawsuits and court-ordered removals. Unlike Mount Soledad, however, the battle surrounding the desert cross at a place called Sunrise Rock has focused on the U.S. Constitution's provisions guaranteeing separation of church and state.

Should the Mount Soledad cross end up in federal hands, as many in Congress would like, its future likely will rest on interpretations of the Constitution. And that, cross foes say, means the history of the Mojave cross may provide clues to the fate of the Mount Soledad cross.

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When the Pledge of Allegiance cases sparked controversy a couple summers ago, many people were surprised to learn that "under God" was added to the national statement fairly recently, as was the case with "In God We Trust" on US currency, first introduced on some coins in the 1860s and not on paper currency until 1957. So, some eyebrows may be raised with a new opportunity to learn a little national history--that in fact "In God We Trust" as a national motto was not inherited from the Founding Fathers--now that on Sunday the 50th anniversary of that event is upon us. Today, President Bush commemorated the date with a proclamation:

Today, our country stands strong as a beacon of religious freedom. Our citizens, whatever their faith or background, worship freely and millions answer the universal call to love their neighbor and serve a cause greater than self.

As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of our national motto and remember with thanksgiving God's mercies throughout our history, we recognize a divine plan that stands above all human plans and continue to seek His will.

In this time of war, when many are convinced the apocalypse is not only upon us but believe that hastening it should be the goal of US policy, what about spending more time prioritizing "human plans", and let the divine ones take care of themselves? When public officials actively pursue God's will as a conscious part of public policy, aren't they implying they know what it is? Or would know it when they see it?

One of the great things about being a Baptist is the emphasis on soul freedom. My relationship with God is a personal one, an individual journey; and the search for God's will is not only equally personal, but also complex and multi-dimensional. My Baptist convictions, as well as my belief in the separation of church and state, tell me that the national commitment we need is the search for justice and equality and liberty. The search for God's will is the arena of the soul, and of the church.

Am I overreacting? Too much caffeine late in the day? It is just a Presidential proclamation after all...

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The House Judiciary Committee yesterday was expected to take action on the Public Expression of Religion Act. According to the New York Sun, no action was taken after an hour of debate.

Posted by Don Byrd at 12:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

District Court Judge Dennis Cavanaugh in New Jersey has ruled in favor of a high school football coach who was suing for the right to pray alongside his players after being banned from doing so, as a public employee, by his Board of Education. The NYTimes reports:

Cavanaugh ruled that Borden’s pregame actions were not the same as praying.
“Tradition plays a part, and the overall actions and responsibilities of a football coach should be considered,” Cavanaugh said, according to The Associated Press. “For the coach, who is looked at as the glue to hold all of this together and foster team spirit, to not be allowed to participate in these traditions — even in the passive way — just doesn’t seem right.”

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Austin, Texas was the most recent location of the White House's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives' traveling road show, designed to teach faith-based organizations how to procure these government grants. Via Religion Clause, the San Antonio Express-News has this report.

The conference is one of a series designed to help social-service groups get public grant money and, when they get the funds, to stay within the law regarding religious activities and to measure their programs' effectiveness.

Hint: If you are running Bible study and job training, keep them in different rooms and make sure you keep careful account of how you spend the federal dollars.

"You can't preach on Uncle Sam's dime," said Dominique Ludvigson, associate director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President Bush.

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Maine's school choice program pays for parents to send their kids to any school, public or private, if they live in towns too small to support a public education system. Since 1980 there has been an exception for religious schools. But now some groups are working to allow the public funds in Maine's school choice system to be used for private religious schools as well. A New York Sun editorial explains why this case could end up being important if the Court decides to hear it:

If the justices take this case, they can clear up any lingering confusion they created in two recent voucher rulings. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris in 2002, the court upheld Cleveland's voucher program even though most participants chose religious schools; Justices Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas voted in the majority. In Locke v. Davey in 2004, the justices ruled that Washington state could block a college student from using a state merit scholarship to study for the ministry. Justices Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer were in that majority. Assuming Justices Roberts and Alito might agree with Justices Thomas and Scalia in dissenting from Locke's restrictive judgment, it appears Justice Kennedy could be the swing vote deciding how expansively to read Zelman and how narrowly to apply Locke.

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I missed this last week, but Associated Baptist Press' Rob Marus has a report on the GAO's faith-based funding analysis here.

The Government Accountability Office study, released July 18, found that some federal agencies were unclear in their instructions to religious grantees under the program. The study also found that some grantees failed to adhere to the standards administration officials have said they would meet to ensure that federal funds are not used for "inherently religious" activities and that few of the federal and state agencies administering the grants provided sufficient guidance to their own regulators to ensure compliance with such standards for faith-based grantees.

In addition, GAO researchers said the offices of faith-based and community initiatives that Bush has set up in the White House and in several cabinet-level agencies do not have effective ways to study whether the program is effective -- one of the main points supporters of the faith-based initiative have asserted in pushing it.

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The city of Philadelphia has offered rent-free meeting space to the Boy Scouts for 78 years. But the practice of banning openly gay Scouts has now run up against the city's non-discrimination policies. And while the Scouts are free to discriminate, the city has decided that can't be done on the public's dime:

Late last week, Mayor Street called for the local Cradle of Liberty Council to denounce the national policy, pay fair-market-value rent, or vacate the stately building it occupies at 22d and Winter Streets, near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Yesterday, the Fairmount Park Commission - which owns the property - voted to back the city's decision.

While the national organization indicated it would challenge the decision, the local council said it was still weighing its legal options.

Bork said Philadelphia rents space to more than 75 community organizations with $1 leases, including 14 other youth organizations and several religious groups. Bork said the city does not try to tell those organizations to change their policies.

Street spokesman Joe Grace said last night that he was unable to confirm the figures.

The city is in jeopardy of losing federal funding if it evicts the Boy Scouts, Bork said.

The federal Support Our Scouts Act of 2005 allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development to deny funds to any state or local government that discriminates against or denies Boy Scouts access to facilities equal to those provided to other groups. The city received more than $62 million in HUD funds last year.

"The city has put these funds at risk," Bork said, "as a result of its discriminatory action against Boy Scouts."

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Yesterday's Boston Globe reported on recent changes in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. In both hiring and in the choosing of cases, the aim of the division is diminishing the focus on traditional civil rights law and discrimination against minorities, including in its address of religious discrimination.

in the fall of 2002, then-attorney general John Ashcroft changed the procedures. The Civil Rights Division disbanded the hiring committees made up of veteran career lawyers.

For decades, such committees had screened thousands of resumes, interviewed candidates, and made recommendations that were only rarely rejected.

Now, hiring is closely overseen by Bush administration political appointees to Justice, effectively turning hundreds of career jobs into politically appointed positions.
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At the same time, the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians.

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What do kids like more than school-less weekends? Weekday holidays that get them out of school! At least that's the way it was when I was a kid, when snow was one of the first things I learned to pray for fervently. Assuming things haven't changed that much, today's AP story by Cara Anna may have the answer to teaching children to love and respect religious diversity: religious holidays!

Seriously though, this is a balancing act that all school disctricts are having to address; and the more pluralistic society becomes, the more of an issue it will be.

Consider the University at Albany, which canceled classes on major Muslim holidays. Faculty wanted the move out of concern for Muslim students after the September 11 attacks. But then came the questions: What about Hindus? Buddhists? President Kermit Hall last fall decided to return to the original calendar.

"Can you operate a university and give each religious group an accommodation? I think the answer is, 'No,'" he said.

Make that "maybe." School administrators across the country are rethinking their calendars as their student bodies become more diverse.

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Religion News Service's Adelle Banks reports on the GAO faith-based funding evaluation, indicating the lack of communication of the principles that should be separating religious activities from the service-providing for funding recipients.

[T]he congressmen who sought the review said the results show management of the fund is in question.

"The Bush administration has failed to develop standards to verify that faith-based organizations aren't using federal funds to pay for inherently religious activity or to provide services on the basis of religion," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who requested the report with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.

George Washington University Law School professor Ira Lupu, said the overall report showed no widespread abuse of federal funds but pointed out the need for more monitoring on church-state matters.

"People don't understand that you couldn't do a prayer service in a government-funded program, that you had to do it separately," he said.

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Link

The Bush administration has decided to extend a waiver that frees it from imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia for religious persecution, although religious freedom advocates say the kingdom has done little to improve the situation.

The U.S. decision to give its Mideast ally another reprieve flies in the face of the recommendations made by a body of experts set up under U.S. law to advise the government on religious freedom issues.
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[T]he State Department said Wednesday the Saudi government was pursuing policies "promoting greater freedom for religious practice and increased tolerance for religious groups."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the U.S. State Department’s announcement Wednesday that bilateral discussions with Saudi Arabia have enabled the United States to confirm a variety of Saudi policies to improve “religious practice and tolerance”—many of which were first recommended in Commission reports.

According to the Commission, a bipartisan, independent federal oversight body, the newly-reported Saudi policies—if actually implemented in full—could advance much-needed efforts to dismantle some of the institutionalized policies that have promoted severe violations of freedom of religion or belief in Saudi Arabia and worldwide.

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In his speech to the NAACP convention this morning, President Bush pressed the issue of school vouchers, on the heels of his Education Secretary supporting the national voucher program proposed in Congress.

I strongly believe that parental involvement is important for our school systems. (Applause.) And I believe -- and I strongly believe a parent knows what's best for his or her child. That's what I believe. And therefore, when we find schools that are not teaching and will not change, our parents should have a different option. If you want quality education you've got to trust the parents.

You know, an amazing thing about our society today is wealthier white families have got the capacity to defeat mediocrity by moving. That is not the case for lower-income families. And so, therefore, I strongly believe in charter schools, and public school choice. I believe in opportunity scholarships to be able to enable parents to move their child out of a school that's not teaching, for the benefit of the United States of America.

You can read the entire speech here. You can read the text of the voucher bill here, If you're a glutton for that kind of nerdy punishment like I am.

The President also spoke up for faith-based funding intitiatives and argued against court challenges. Quotes and a thought or two on that portion of the speech in the extended entry.

Link

Government can hand out money -- and we do -- but it cannot put hope in a person's heart, or a sense of purpose in a person's life. That's why I strongly support institutions of faith and community service all around our country. I believe in the neighborhood helpers and healers.

And I put this policy in place. We've provided more than $5 billion to faith-based groups that are running the soup kitchens and sheltering the homeless, and healing the addicted, and helping people reenter our society -- people who are providing compassionate care and love. Organizations of faith exist to love a neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves. And I believe it's important for government to not only welcome, but to encourage faith-based programs to help solve the intractable problems of our society.

And this faith-based initiative is being challenged in the courts. They claim that -- they fight the initiative in the name of civil liberties, yet they do not seem to realize that the organizations they are trying to prevent from accessing federal money are the same ones that helped win the struggle of civil rights. I believe if an organization gets good results, that helps people turn their lives around, it deserves support of government. We should not discriminate based upon religion. We ought to welcome religious institutions into helping solve and save America, one soul and one heart at a time.

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As I posted yesterday, the House passed a bill that would approve the purchase of the Mt. Soledad land that holds the cross. The San Diego Union Tribune reports today on the reaction from both sides:

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who lobbied the Bush administration to save the cross, characterized the House vote as “great news.”

But others, including Council President Scott Peters and City Attorney Mike Aguirre, said the House vote simply complicates a problem that will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court.

“I think it makes things worse, not better,” Peters said. “It doesn't change the legal landscape because the law doesn't care whether it's a city government or a federal government that owns a cross on public land. The legal issues are still the same.”

Peters added, “We'd be better off waiting to hear what the Supreme Court said about the city ownership before we tried this new gambit.”

Aguirre agreed, saying there is no basis for the federal government to seize city property.

“Although I have high regard for Congressman Duncan Hunter, this really is not helpful to us because what it basically says is that we're not going to allow the court process to work its way through,” Aguirre said.

I have to wonder, though, whether the force of a "national memorial" declaration will be blunted by the perception that Congress' purpose is to parry with a judicial decision. Had there been any previous interest in estabilishing the site as a national war memorial?

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Yesterday's LATimes reported that the IRS has issued gentle reminders to churches and other non-profit organizations about not engaging in political activity as election season approaches.

[T]he IRS will no longer wait for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before investigating allegations of wrongful campaigning. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

"While the vast majority of charities and churches do not engage in politicking, an increasing number did take part in prohibited activities in the 2004 election cycle," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "The rule against political campaign intervention by charities and churches is long established. We are stepping up our efforts to enforce it."

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The House today is considering HR 2389, the "Pledge Protection Act" which would strip federal courts (or try to) of jurisdiction over lawsuits involving the Pledge of Allegiance. [UPDATE: The bill passed 260-167]

And HR 5683, which would have the federal government acquire the Mt. Soledad land holding the controversial publicly owned memorial cross in San Diego, which has been ordered removed by a District Judge, a move temporarily stayed by Justice Kennedy. [UPDATE: The bill passed 349-74]

Both bills have been debated on the floor. When a roll call vote is available I'll post here. And, look, how cool is this? If you can't watch C-Span where you are (or if, like me, everyone would just look at you funny), there is a House website that updates all current activity, kind of a House blog. Scroll through and see what the House of Representatives has been up to all day.

I do have one question, for you legislative process experts out there. I thought the Pledge Protection Act was bottled up in committee because Rep. Inglis split with his Republican colleagues? How did it get out? Did the Rules Committee refer the bill without recommendation? I'm too far away to get the answer right now, and news stories don't explain--maybe it's an uninteresting detail. But if I figure it out, I'll update here. [UPDATE: It looks like the bill was referred by the "Committee of the Whole House", essentially a committee made up of every House member, bypassing the Judiciary Committee which had stalled the bill, 15-15.]

Also, be sure and scroll down to other posts from earlier today. Lots going on this morning--including a national school voucher proposal, and a GAO report on the effectiveness (or lack) of the faith-based funding program. And, also, keep those questions coming for me to pass on to BJC counsel Hollman!

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Today's NYTimes reports on a government evaluation of faith-based funding. There is lots to chew on here: the threat of religious discrimination is not being adequately addressed, and the religious activity is not being separated from the service providing in all of the cases investigated. But after reading about the plan for a national school voucher program, I'm struck by one other element of this report: the lack of accountability. As the Times article says:

Part of the administration’s argument for broadening the participation of religious groups in social services has been that they perform as well as or better than their secular counterparts, experts on the initiatives said. But the accountability office report found that only one of 15 pilot programs examined had completed an evaluation of its outcomes.

“Congress didn’t put enough emphasis’’ on measuring results, said Representative Mark E. Souder, Republican of Indiana, who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, which oversees the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. “The administration has been lax on this, but it is improving.”

The full report is here. Religion Clause has more.

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School voucher programs, which would send public money to support private schools, including religious schools, are regularly defeated in ballot initiatives around the country, and they have been declared unconstitutional in many state courts. Nonetheless, Republicans in the Senate and House, with the support of the Secretary of Education, have proposed a national voucher program. The "America’s Opportunity Scholarship for Kids Act" (you've got to love these legislation titles...) would, according to the NYTImes, re-route $100 million toward private schools through low-income kids attending schools that have been designated "failing." The Washington Post reports that Secratary Spellings was non-responsive to questions of whether private religious schools, benefiting from the influx of public money, would be required under her plan to demonstrate the same levels of accountability as public schools.

In earlier posts (here and here) I've pointed to reports and studies questioning the effectiveness of school voucher programs. Like many recent investigations, they seem to confirm the fears of voucher opponents, including the church-state separation concerns. Through the mutual embrace of religious institutions and government, vouchers take the solution that is publicly-funded education and divide it into 2 new problems: threatening the religious freedom of the church with government strings, while diminishing the level of education afforded students.

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NPR's Talk of the Nation did an extensive segment yesterday following up on Rob Stein's Washington Post article Monday about medical personnel refusing some service on religious grounds. A link to the audio of the show is available. My post on the article is here.

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In the next few days I will be interviewing Baptist Joint Committee counsel K. Hollyn Hollman on issues of church-state separation and the role of the BJC. So, what should I ask her? What do you want to know?

E-mail your questions and if I can work them in I will!

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In Henderson, Nevada, valedictorian Brittany McComb -- like is typical for student commencement speakers -- had her speech pre-approved by school officials. Asked to edit her remarks to remove prosyletizing, she nonetheless reinserted them on the spot, prompting officials to cut her microphone mid-speech for straying from prepared remarks. The case has become a lightning rod for a more general growing controversy, raising free exercise and free speech concerns while schools strain to avoid promoting religion and religious preference.

McComb has filed suit against the school officials.

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Sunday's Washington Post had this fascinating story about Mikey Weinstein and his efforts to expose and end what he says is the routine practice of proseltyizing and religious preference in the miltary. His new organization, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which I've posted about before, is just one element in his determined attack,

Weinstein...has talked with hundreds of present and former cadets and staff at the academy, and has become convinced that the conflict is not between Christians and Jews, but between aggressively evangelical Christians and everybody else.

Weinstein's passion already has shaken the Pentagon. His complaints about the Air Force Academy led last year to congressional hearings, an internal Air Force investigation and new Air Force guidelines on religious tolerance.

The internal inquiry substantiated virtually all of his specific allegations.

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The Anchorage Daily News offers this editorial on the Alaska tax break law being challenged by the ACLU.

The Baptist Temple would be the only church in Anchorage to immediately gain from the legislation. The tax exemption would save the church about $25,000 a year.

The Baptist Temple is an east-side mega-church that regularly hosts Republican officials who want to cultivate its conservative voters. Baptist Temple leaders and members lobbied the Republican-dominated Legislature for the tax measure, inserted as an amendment to an unrelated bill.

No one has contested that church buildings, church offices and church schools all are covered by the property tax exemption. The law also exempts church-owned housing for ordained ministers. That's a defensible exemption, since ministers devote their lives to religion, and it's fairly common for churches to provide ministers with housing to compensate them for working long hours at relatively low pay.

But extending the tax break to lodging for teachers who don't have formal religious credentials is stretching too far.

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Today, the Washington offers a trio of articles to highlight an important, growing issue in religious expression: refusal of service, especially among medical care providers.

Proponents of a "right of conscience" for health workers argue that there is nothing more American than protecting citizens from being forced to violate their moral and religious values. Patient advocates and others point to a deep tradition in medicine of healers having an ethical and professional responsibility to put patients first.

The issue is driven by the rise in religious expression and its political prominence in the United States, and by medicine's push into controversial new areas. And it is likely to intensify as doctors start using embryonic stem cells to treat disease, as more states legalize physician-assisted suicide and as other wrenching issues emerge.
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Others say that professional responsibility trumps personal belief.

"As soon as you become a licensed professional, you take on certain obligations to act like a professional, which means your patients come first," said R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist and lawyer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "You are not supposed to use your professional status as a vehicle for cultural conquest."

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In an editorial over the weekend, the LATimes weighs in on the Mt Soledad cross issue.

Whether viewed as a war memorial, an icon or a place of worship, the cross is an extremely visible symbol of one religion. It occupies arguably the most prominent piece of public real estate in the city, which is in a state where the Constitution is even more exacting than the U.S. Bill of Rights about the separation of church and state. California's "no preference" clause explicitly prohibits the government from giving any preferential treatment to a particular religion, which is mainly why federal courts have ruled repeatedly that the cross must go. Even seen as a public war memorial, it is lopsided, honoring only those members of the armed forces who belonged to a particular faith.

Posted by Don Byrd at 09:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Alliance of Baptists (one of the Baptist Joint Committee's Supporting Bodies) and the National Council of Churches say yes.

The change comes wrapped in new report from the Committee for Assistance to a Free Cuba, laying out recommendations which have been approved by the President. Included is language which would direct the Department of Commerce to:

Tighten regulations for the export of humanitarian items, other than agricultural or medical commodities, to ensure that exports are consigned to entities that support independent civil society and are not regime administered or controlled organizations, such as the Cuban Council of Churches.

Associate Baptist Press has an essential story on this issue, with important quotes from the NCC reponse and from the Alliance of Baptists' Stan Hastey.

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In Arizona, Dan and Mary Quaintance founded The Church of Cognizance on the belief that cannabis is a holy plant. Next month a hearing will be held in New Mexico where they were arrested with 172 pounds of marijuana, according to the East Arizona Courier. The motion to dismiss brought by the accused relies heavily on the recent Supreme Court decision allowing a hallucinogenic herbal tea, an otherwise illegal drug from Brazil, to be used as a sacrament by a small religious group in Mexico.

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Among the other pressing concerns we have about North Korea, members of the US Commission on international Religious Freedom Thursday asked for remembrance that the government there remains among the worst in the world for religious persecution and intolerance.

"The world doesn't know what is going on, they know about the missiles but that's all," said Roman Catholic Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, New Mexico, who heads the commission.
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"What is going on in North Korea is executions, what is going on is extreme repression of people," Ramirez told a press conference. Pyongyang insists that it respects human rights.

The commission's delegation met with Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo and attended a Rome conference on religious freedom in North Korea sponsored by Italy's Radical Party and the Washington-based Freedom House democracy research institute.

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Early this year, the Ohio Board of Education dropped plans to add intelligent design to the 10th grade science curriculum. Yesterday, the Canton Repository reported that new proposed changes threaten to re-open that debate:

The board’s Achievement Committee this week discussed whether there should be a template that would show teachers how to deal with controversial issues.
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One section of the proposal suggests students discuss “the value of rival theories” as they apply to global warming, evolutionary theory, cloning and stem-cell research. There’s no mention of controversial issues in other subjects.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, according to the Lawrence Journal-World, the State Board's Tuesday meeting included claims that intelligent design supporters were "smearing" all who believed in evolution as "atheists" in advance of upcoming Education Board elections.

Posted by Don Byrd at 02:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I missed this over last weekend but Saturday Baptist pastor Bill Self published an editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that's worth a read. The topic? The danger to the church--even as expressed in the Bible--of overturning the separation of Church and State, a danger that has been warned through historical lessons that should be heeded:

The clear lesson here is that the church lost its prophetic voice as it became responsible for the Establishment, and the state lost its conscience as the church and state became one. The church became powerful, wealthy and totally secularized, formally and morally bound to the state whose secular aspirations it fully shared. The church becomes, in an arrangement like this, old and drab, dismal and discredited, as well as depressing and oppressive. History is replete with illustrations of this.

This happened in France in the 18th century, England and Germany in the 16th, Italy in the 19th, and Russia and Mexico in the 20th.

And now those who have benefited the most from religious freedom are trying to stampede the American voter and turn back the clock on the issue of separation of church and state in the 21st century. History teaches us that in every situation where there has been a loss of religious liberty, the clerics oppressed the people and a strong anti-clerical reaction resulted.

It's a stampede, and we must either head it off at the pass or we will have to clean up after it when it has gone by.

At this season of the year, if enough people speak, if religious liberty can be highlighted effectively, the weight of public opinion will rise up and stop the stampede. History thunders loud to our day. Separation of church and state is best both for church and state.

Posted by Don Byrd at 10:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As election season approaches, so too does the issue of church involvement in campaigning. Has there ever been a time when the intersection of ministrry and campaigning, religion and politics, faith and public policy were more front and center? Several new stories around the country confirm that this will be an issue to watch in 2006 election coverage.

In New York, the Daily News reports that the Catholic Church is planning to distribute "voter guides" to parishes across the state.

"We can't explicitly endorse a candidate, but we can make candidates' views known and let Catholics in the pews decide for themselves," said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the Catholic Conference, which represents Edward Cardinal Egan and New York's other bishops in Albany.

Ballot Question Number 2 would strike one sentence from the state constitution:

"The General Assembly shall not grant a charter of incorporation to any church or religious denomination, but may secure the title to church property to an extent to be limited by law."

“Dragging churches into partisan politics endangers the integrity of our houses of worship and is disrespectful of the faith and beliefs of all congregants,” said Father Samuel Hose, pastor of St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Round Rock.
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The campaign calls on clergy and laypeople to pledge to promote civic engagement in congregations while still protecting sacred spaces from partisan politics. These pledge signers will also work to educate congregants about the campaign.

A new report by a taxpayer watchdog group says an IRS crackdown on political activity by religious organizations and other charitable groups may hinder them from playing a role in public policy debates. As a result, OMB Watch is calling for a review of the agency's Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI).

And for instruction, check out the Baptist Joint Committee's guidelines on church electioneering.

Posted by Don Byrd at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Baptist Joint Committee Director Brent Walker offers a sermon on "American Pluralism and Lunchbox Evangelism." After praising James Madison's foresight and commitment to "religious rights", he adds:

[I]t should come to no surprise to any of us more than two centuries later—given the disestablishment of religion, the explicit constitutional protection for religious freedom and the endorsement by Madison of a robust pluralism—that we have developed the dizzying diversity of religion that we have. Ed Gaustad was right. If you say, "y'all come," and claim to protect religious diversity, then that's exactly what's going to happen, and it did.

Whether you like it or not, pluralism abounds today—to an extent that I'm sure even Madison did not fathom. Estimates reveal more than 900 Christian denominations and sects, and 650 non-Christian groups. We have as many Jews as Presbyterians and as many Muslims as Episcopalians. The dominant faith in Hawaii is Buddhism, and in Utah it is Mormonism. And in most towns of any size in America, you can see mosques, temples and synagogues, as well as steepled churches.

I want to join Madison in proclaiming that pluralism is positive. Not only was it expected, not only did we see it coming, but pluralism is positive.

Posted by Don Byrd at 11:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)