In the News

Jacksonville Settles Faith Day Case

A settlement reached in January requires the city of Jacksonville, Fla., to pay $5,000 in attorney's fees and write American Atheists a letter saying it did not intend to violate the First Amendment by promoting a faith day. The city must warn departments against financing programs that "foster excessive entanglement with religion."

The August rally cost taxpayers $101,000. The event was officially called a "Day of Faith: Arming our Prayer Warriors."

Bible Display Legal Twist in Houston

Officials in Houston removed a monument that had displayed an open bible for 51 years, days before a hearing was scheduled before the appeals court in January.

Attorneys for Harris County, Texas, then pleaded before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the case is moot, and asked to throw out a Houston federal judge's ruling that the courthouse bible display is illegal.

Their plan is to restore the biblical display at another location and force plaintiffs to restart litigation. Houston officials claim they removed the monument because it interfered with restoration of a staircase to the historic Civil Courts Building. The bible monument was installed by Star of Hope Mission in 1956 and includes an open bible, to honor a devout Christian benefactor.

Plaintiff Kay Staley won an order to remove the bible in 2004.

Church Attacks Bachelet

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, a doctor, feminist and agnostic, recently made the morning-after pill available for free at state-run hospitals. The Roman Catholic Church has condemned distribution of the pill as a "form of abortion that encourages promiscuity." The national conference of bishops said Bachelet's actions are reminiscent of public policies "established in totalitarian regimes."

In Name of Religion

Thousands of people who sought to sponsor religious workers for entry into the U.S. were approved to do so without receiving proper background checks since 2001, according to a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service memo obtained by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Calif., Dec. 8, 2006).

Fraud by foreign religious worker applications was another problem. Immigration benefits were granted to religious workers within a 15-day period if the applicant was sponsored by a religious leader. The immigration service suspended that policy on November 28.

Chaplain Cancels Christ Convo

Barry Black, chaplain for the U.S. Senate, backed out as speaker at the March 2-3 "Reclaiming America for Christ Conference" following criticism. Black was to join such rightwing radicals as Ann Coulter, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, and Phyllis Schlafly.

Co-Workers Prayed Against Demons

Two women fired from the University of Texas-Arlington admitted to supervisors they prayed and rubbed religious oils on a coworker's cubicle because they believed she was "demonically possessed."

They chanted loudly, shouting: "You vicious evil dogs. Get the hell out of here in the name of Jesus. . . . I command you to leave."

They have filed a lawsuit alleging religious, age and gender discrimination. The Liberty Legal Institute is representing the two women.

Keep Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries

A women's group in Rhode Island College filed a federal lawsuit late last year after campus police took down signs reading "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries." They had received permission to hang the signs at the college entrance for two weeks, but the college president ordered them removed after his priest complained.

Exorcist Exercises No Restraint

An Oregon man recently pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges after invading the Malibu backyard of "Days of Our Lives" star Drake Hogestyn. Hogestyn said he was on a ladder on New Year's Eve when Carl Raymond Cheney ran at his daughter, screaming: "Where is he? I will cast him out." The man was clutching a bible and wanted to "exorcise the devil" from the actor, who had once appeared in an episode dealing with demonic possession.

Back of Bus for Women in Jerusalem

An American-Israeli woman reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus late last year, according to Haaretz newspaper. Miriam Shear was attacked on Nov. 24 by ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men for refusing to move to the back of the bus. She reported being slapped, kicked, punched and pushed.

About 30 mostly inner-city buses are "mehadrin," or sex-segregated. Women must enter and exit through the rear door and a child is usually sent forward to pay the driver.

Satan Attacks Episcopals?

Two of Virginia's most prominent and largest Episcopal parishes voted overwhelmingly late last year to leave the Episcopal Church over the gay rights issue and join a rival denomination.

Truro Church in Fairfax and Falls Church intend to join Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who calls the growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" upon the church.

Pols Hire "Faith Gurus"

Burns Strider, who currently does "religious outreach" for the House Democratic Caucus and is lead staffer for the Democrats' Faith Working Group, will join Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign as "faith guru."

The Faith Working Group was created in 2005 by now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., also has an aide, John Duboi, heading his religious outreach.

Pakistan Eases Rape Law

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf recently signed into law the Protection of Women Bill, amending the 30-year-old Islamic religious law known as the "Hudood Ordinance."

Under that law, women who reported rape often were prosecuted for adultery, since a woman had to produce four male witnesses to prove her rape claim. The legislation gives judges discretion to try rape cases in a criminal rather than Islamic court and permits forensic and circumstantial evidence. It also introduces the concept of statutory rape. But the Hudood Ordinance was not completely repealed.

At the start of the year, about 80% of the 6,500 women in jail were being held under discriminatory laws.

Jordanian Murders Daughter

A Jordanian man fatally shot his daughter, 17, for not being a virgin, despite a medical exam proving her chastity. According to Associated Press, the girl had returned home from a family protection clinic after doctors vouched for her virginity and her father signed a pledge not to harm her. But he shot her four times in the head on Jan. 23, in the first reported "honor killing" of the year. The autopsy confirmed her virginity.

Iraq Temp Marriages Back under Shiites

A side effect of America's war on Iraq is the return of so-called temporary marriages, or mutaa, a Shiite practice which had been banned by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led government.

Since the invasion, which restored Shiites to power, the practice has returned. Women's rights activists call it a "cover for prostitution," while Shiite clerics say it protects widowed or divorced women from having "unwed sex" and provides income. Men can have an unlimited number of mutaa wives. The mutaa relationships can last a few minutes or several years.