State/Church Bulletin

Bible Monument Must Go in Texas

A bible may not be part of a 50-year-old monument in front of the Harris County civil courthouse in Texas, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision on Aug. 16.

"Its recent history would force an objective observer to conclude that it is a religious symbol of a particular faith located on public grounds," wrote Judge E. Grady Jolly, joined by Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham.

First erected in 1956, the monument was recently refurbished by a former district judge and court reporter, who added a neon light to outline the open bible.

Kay Staley, an attorney and real estate broker who brought the case, praised the decision:

"We are not a Christian nation. We are a nation of many religions or no religion."

Prison Lawsuit Settled in Ohio

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction tentatively agreed not to allow prayers, religious music and proselytizing at secular events inside prisons, to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Norman Rose, deputy warden at Grafton Correctional Institution in northeast Ohio.

The department, in late June, also agreed that inmates will not be ordered to attend religious programs, nor will the department sponsor or endorse the message of any religious program allowed in the prison. The department will stop holding employee training sessions and other programs in churches.

The settlement order is by U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster of Cleveland.

"There's no reason why when I go to a Department of Corrections event I should have to hear about my boss' religious views or be led in prayer as part of the agenda," said Rose, 55, who identifies himself as an atheist.

Kansas: Evolution Returns

Evolutionists took control of the Kansas School Board in state school board primaries on Aug 1. Evolutionists are now guaranteed a 6-4 majority.

The Ohio Board of Education in February had reversed a 2002 mandate requiring 10th-grade biology classes to cover evolution. The new curriculum standards adopted by the board shockingly accepted supernatural explanations as bonafide answers in science class, by urging students to seek "more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."

The state school board has had acrimonious battles since 1998, with oscillating power shifts in almost every election.

Prison Ministry Case Proceeds

A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Aug. 10 that a lawsuit against government funding of a faith-based prison ministry may proceed. U.S. District Judge James M. Munley dismissed an attempt by Bradford County officials to scuttle the lawsuit challenging local, state and federal funding of an evangelical prison unit.

The lawsuit is brought by Americans United and the ACLU of Pennsylvania representing members of the Bradford County Alliance for Democracy. Since 2003, the ministry, operated by The Firm Foundation, has been the only vocational training program available to inmates.

Alaska Church Tax Break Sued

An Alaska bill benefiting only one church, the Anchorage Baptist Temple, was challenged in June by the ACLU of Alaska and two Anchorage residents.

The church owns 24 properties, six of which are for housing nonclergy religious teachers.

After city officials taxed the six properties where nonclergy members lived, worth about $23,000 in taxes, the church lobbied the legislature to fashion a new law just to exempt the property.

South Dakotans Oppose Ban

A statewide poll for the Argus Leader and KELO-TV in Sioux Falls found that 47% of South Dakota voters would vote to reject a ban on abortion, compared with 39% who approve it, and 14% who are undecided.

The fate of the ban on abortion in South Dakota, signed into law this year, which outlaws all abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman, will be left to a voter referendum in November.

School Board in Contempt

A federal judge in late June partially granted two civil contempt motions against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board, for violating an August 2004 order regulating prayer in the school system.

A three-year lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of a parent and two children has challenged religious invocations at school events. At two events last year, students led prayers in violation of the court order.

Christian Skating Rink?

A "Christian skate" program advertised by a roller rink in Hudson Valley, N.Y., was notified by the state in July that it may be violating antidiscrimination laws.

"Christian skating," complete with contemporary Christian music, was advertised for Sunday afternoons. Skate Time 209 changed the name to "spiritual skate" in response.

Brit Ordered to Remove Sign

A 32-year-old sign on a private garden gate, reading "Our Dogs Are Fed on Jehovah's Witnesses," was deemed "offensive" by police in the U.K. In July, Hampshire police ordered Jean Grove to remove the sign from her home in Bursleydon, near Southhampton.

Ms. Grove, bewildered, told the Times (London) that the sign was simply a lark, and she had never received complaints.

Disowning Politics Costs Pastor

After disowning conservative politics from the pulpit in June, Rev. Gregory A. Boyd of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., says he lost 1,000 of his church's 5,000 members.

Boyd had urged an end to sexual moralizing and military glorification, and said America should not be proclaimed a "Christian nation." Boyd told The New York Times he made the announcement after constant requests to introduce politicians from the pulpit, to rail against gay marriage and abortion during services, or to distribute GOP-skewed "voter guides."

Boyd, who is opposed to abortion and considers himself conservative, has just written The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church.