The problem was called to the attention of the chancellor in November by the Foundation. (See report in Freethought Today, December 1995, "Proselytizing Basketball Invades Public Campuses.")
At a basketball game at the University of Wisconsin Field House in November, the Christian-obsessed Athletes-In-Action played an exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin women's team. During the second half of the game religious tracts were distributed on behalf of the visiting team to the crowd featuring "testimonials to Jesus."
A religious service followed the game. The proselytizing team was paid $3,000 for their Wisconsin appearance and was entertained at a dinner with their hosts complete with religious songs and prayers.
The invitation to Athletes-In-Action to play exhibition ball at the University of Wisconsin apparently originated with women's basketball coach Jane Albright-Dieterle, who had come under earlier criticism for initiating team prayers and other proselytizing activity.
In response to Anne Nicol Gaylor, president of the Foundation, University of Wisconsin chancellor David Ward wrote:
"Thank you for your recent letter in which you expressed concern that the university and its employees avoid endorsement of religious practices. I share your concern. As a result, I am initiating measures that will help further familiarize our employees with appropriate standards of conduct and heighten their sensitivity to this issue as it might arise in the future.
"Among these measures, I have asked the Athletic Board to review the policies followed by the Department of Inter-collegiate Athletics in signing contracts for exhibition games. If these policies do not presently include consideration of the proper relationship between state action and religious practice, they will be modified accordingly. I have also asked that this relationship be reviewed with all coaches in the department . . . ."
The Foundation will continue to monitor the endorsement of religious practices by faculty at public schools and universities, Gaylor said.
"We are gratified that Chancellor Ward shares our concern and that he has chosen to say so publicly."
In December, 1995, Moore filed a lawsuit asking a judge to prohibit the ACLU from further legal action against him.
The ACLU had filed suit last summer to stop Moore from conducting courtroom prayers and displaying a monument of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Plaintiffs included the Alabama Freethought Association and three Etowah County residents, including Foundation member Jean Hersheiser.
In an unprecedented move, Alabama Gov. Fob James, although not a party to the suit, then intervened, authorizing the state attorney general's office to defend Moore, and filing a lawsuit asking that the case be moved from federal to state court. The federal case was dismissed, but the state case is still pending.
The ACLU called Moore's legal maneuver an abuse of the judicial process. Moore sued the ACLU in Montgomery County charging that it is establishing its own "religion of secular humanism" by bringing lawsuits to bar Christian symbols and references from public places.
He asked the court to enjoin the ACLU from "further legal action and any threats, actions or proceedings to intimidate, coerce or deny the public acknowledgment of God by Judge Roy S. Moore as a public official for the state of Alabama."
The state attorney general's office, which is paying Moore's defense in the original lawsuit, said no state money will be used for legal representation in Moore's cross-claim.
Showing that one person can make a big difference is Kentucky member Ray Peger, who successfully petitioned his governor to do the same.
Maryland member Kenneth A. Steven also successfully petitioned Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker to proclaim "Celebrate state/Church Separation Month in Howard County" in January.
The newsletter, "All in a Day," carried Keller's notice:
"Freethought Day - October 12 is 'Freethought Day,' which is celebrated by freethinkers in the U.S. On October 1, 1692, Governor William Phips of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared that 'spectral evidence' would no longer be admissible in court. Since there was no real evidence, this ended the Salem Witch Trials in which 20 people were killed as alleged 'witches;' and many more were imprisoned and terrorized. Freethought Day is a celebration of human enlightenment, the scientific methods, reason, freethought, rationalism, and state/church separation."
In a recent fundraising pitch spotted by Ed Susterich, a Wisconsin Foundation member, Boy Scouts of America is mailing a "Religious Opinion Survey" with a cover letter bragging: "The Boy Scouts hasn't changed its position in 86 years. We're not about to do it now!"
In an ironic twist, Boy Scouts of America, which refuses to respect the rights of nonreligious boys, maintained: ". . . for 86 years, one of the central aspects of the Scouting program has been to teach young boys to be reverent toward God . . . and to respect the beliefs of others . . ."
"Can we count on you to send a gift of $10, $15 or $25 to help the Boy Scouts teach young people a reverence for God, develop strong moral character and instill a respect for the beliefs of others?"
Pulling out all the stops, the fundraiser features a picture of two Boy Scouts from another era, standing next to a painting of a kneeling, praying George Washington at Valley Forge, a religious revision of history long debunked by ethical historians.
The Foundation has complained to the Department of Health and Human Services about a grant of $28,797 in taxpayer money for a New Mexico study about the efficacy of "intercessory prayer" for anonymous drug and alcohol addicts.
"If it's prayer today, what's next? Are we going to study the tooth fairy or Santa Claus," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, a Foundation staff member.
Also quoted was Foundation member Richard J. Goss, emeritus professor of biology at Brown University, who said: "If my doctor prayed for my recovery, I'd consider a malpractice lawsuit."
Billbrook, Ohio Proclamations
Ohio Foundation member Herb McClelland reports that Nedral Brown, mayor of Billbrook, Ohio, signed both proclamations suggested by the Foundation, "Give Thanks for State/Church Separation Week" and "Celebrate State/Church Separation Month."
Herb has protested the presence of a Ten Commandments monument on his county courthouse lawn, and is awaiting a response from commissioners on his request to post "alternate commandments."
In May of 1995 another Michigan poll showed 75% approving the legalization of assisted suicide as a fundamental right of personal freedom.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian continues to be arrested and continues to assist terminally ill people to die.
Dr. Severino Antinori, who helped a 62-year-old woman have a baby in 1994, told media that the unnamed priest, "a handsome young man," would have sperm extracted directly from his testicles so his girlfriend could be artificially inseminated. Antinori said the priest told him that "the Old and New Testaments urge all men to go forth and multiply. They do not specify how." Source: Boston Globe, 11/1/95
The Dolphins last won the Super Bowl in 1973.
Sports reporters have clocked the longest invocation at 3 minutes and 20 seconds, which is probably why the conclusion of most prayers are greeted with "ovations." Participants are now asked to limit prayers to less than a minute and make them "nondenominational." The partisan prayers, which traditionally seek supernatural intervention so that the Dolphins can win, take place before players take the field. Doesn't seem too sporting, does it?
Associated Press reports that Rev. James Posey of Woodlawn Baptist Church, Charlotte, was lunching at the restaurant featuring scantily clad young women, when a reporter asked his opinion about an order from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that Hooters must hire male waiters.
Susan Cary, a Gainesville attorney, told AP: "That the prison system would put a nativity scene across from the place where they kill people is in bad taste. We also wonder about them putting the scene up on state land."
The Foundation had protested a cross on a water tower in Starke in the early 1980's but could find no plaintiff to take a lawsuit.
Quoting Rodney Stark, professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington, the Post reports that in 1776, only about 17% of colonists were church members, compared to claims of 65% today.
Using church records and census figures, Stark concludes: "It's safe to say that most people walking around had some nebulous notion of God even though they had never been in a church and were just vaguely Christian--nobody had ever instructed them."
The Churching of America by Stark and Purdue sociologist Roger Finke, contends that the few clergy in the colonies were largely scoundrels fleeing scandal, debts or unhappy marriages in the old world: "The clergy was pretty notorious."
Stark comments on the paradoxical fact that state/church separation in this country has kept competition keen and religion flourishing, while in church-states, monopoly religions stagnate, and clergy are bureaucrats held in low regard. Stark reports only 20% of the British are members of the Church of England and in Scandinavia, church membership is measured in the single digits.
A: Four. Arizona: Ditat Deus (God Enriches), Florida: In God We Trust (1868), Ohio: With God, all things are possible, South Dakota: Under God the people rule.
Stewart Marshall, 38, was convicted of misdemeanor spousal abuse for pushing his wife and throwing her to the ground last fall after learning their baby was the result of her affair with his brother.
"In the laws of Israel, if Mr. Marshall had come home and found his wife in this situation, the question would not be, 'Did you strike her?' It would have been, 'Well, are you ready to publicly be the first one to stone her?'"
"Today, we've lost the moral authority to prosecute the real crime. As a result of our crummy, no-fault divorce law, as a result of the abortion nonlaw, the questions are, 'Did he touch her? Did he put her against the wall? Did he wrinkle her clothing?' "
Associated Press reported that the assistant prosecutor objected to the sentence, wherein Gehrke told Marshall to roll up his sleeve, then "slapped" his wrist with three fingers and said "don't do that."
Rev. Wayne Robinson, a Unitarian-Universalist minister, was one of four plaintiffs who sued the city with ACLU help.
Since the ruling, Edmond residents have urged the city council to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some have even begun to advocate a national letter-writing campaign and have called for a constitutional amendment to protect the "overgrown artistical rendering of a plus sign."
If Edmond loses, some supporters have suggested that the city refuse to remove the cross stating, "How could they really enforce removal if we choose not to do so?" (Ever heard of being fined for contempt of court?)
A common version of the amendment reads: "The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children shall not be infringed."
Critics say the movement cloaks an agenda to give small groups of parents veto power over public school curricula, would hinder child-abuse investigations, safeguard the "freedom to spank," and promote suits against school boards and social service agencies.
"This could lead to a situation where children suffering physical abuse at home go unnoticed," said Thomas L. Birch, legislative counsel for the National Child Abuse Coalition.
The amendment is promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of Washington state legislators that emphasizes free-enterprise issues, and Of the People, an Arlington, Virginia, group that has worked full-time on the measure for two years. The Amendment has been introduced in 20 state legislatures and has sponsors in eight others. The Christian Coalition has lobbied for the measure.
No state has passed the amendment, and the surge has mainly been in religious circles and home-schooling.
Buchanan said, "What ought to be taught as fact is what is known as fact. I don't believe it is demonstrably true that we descended from apes."
Judge Patrick McGann ruled in November that the Monmouth Council of the Boy Scouts did not violate state discrimination laws when it expelled assistant scoutmaster James Dale in 1990 after learning that he is gay.
"Sodomy is derived from the name of the biblical city, Sodom, which, with the nearby city of Gomorrah, was destroyed by fire and brimstone rained down by the Lord because of the sexual depravity (active homosexuality) of their male inhabitants."
The American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico is threatening county commissioners with a lawsuit if they do not retreat on their $7,500 purchase.
The county's legal staff reportedly advised commissioners not to buy the cross because it could violate constitutional provisions requiring state/church separation. Because commissioners were warned, the county legal staff has a conflict that would prevent them from representing the commission if the ACLU sues.
The County Commission has petitioned help from the American Center for Law and Justice, a group founded by television evangelist Pat Robertson.
The new policy is an attempt to minimize the legal risk to the school while honoring a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the university to fund Wide Awake, an evangelical Christian student magazine.
The court's mandate to fund all campus organizations caused uproar and objections from students who didn't want to subsidize the religious groups.
Rachel Bauchman, a West High School student and choir member in Salt Lake City, and her parents sought to bar two religious songs from the 1995 graduation program.
The injunction was granted and the religious songs were replaced with secular ones on the revised program. But a graduating senior led students and the audience in a renegade singing of the Christian "Friends" during the June commencement ceremony. Rachel ran from the stage in tears while some in the audience jeered.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Thomas Greene said school officials took firm steps to try and stop the singing, so they did not violate the appellate court injunction and that the injunction did not apply to the audience, former or present students or individual members of the choir.
Brittney Kaye Settle sued teacher Dana Ramsey in 1991 for damages and to have the failing grade removed from her academic record.
The suit was thrown out by a federal judge because there was no support of the girl's claims. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal last May.
Ramsey refused the paper because Settle's strong belief in Christianity disqualified her from writing a dispassionate research paper on an unfamiliar topic, as required.
The appeals court relied on a 1988 Supreme Court decision giving officials broad control over student speech in school assignments.
Churches in Florida battled newly assessed fees for flood usage, contending the assessments are taxes from which they are exempt.
The 4-3 decision overturned two lower court rulings in favor of churches that filed a class-action lawsuit against the county in 1989. The county argued that although churches have tax-exempt status, they are subject to special assessments for specific purposes.
Earlier decisions ordered the county to refund $350,000 - $500,000 in assessments the churches paid.
Last spring, officials in Allen County, Indiana approved assessing churches a similar users' fee for sewage lines. The change would make 350 churches pay an additional $1 million in fees for sewage line usage.
It required public schools to permit student-initiated prayers at all school events, both voluntary and compulsory. However, the appeals court agreed with a lower court that student-initiated, nonsectarian and "nonproselytizing" prayers are permissible at commencement exercises.
The Mississippi chapter of the ACLU joined with People for the American Way to challenge the law.
The group is seeking an injunction to stop Ohio's $5.5 million Pilot Project Scholarship Program, scheduled to go into effect in September.
"The constitutions of Ohio and the United States clearly prohibit such entanglements of the state with religious organizations and sects," said Donald J. Mooney, attorney for the coalition.
The plan would allow parents of 1,500 Cleveland children in grades K-3 to use vouchers, valid for up to $2,500, for tuition at private schools.
Both nonsectarian public and private religious schools receive government aid, but the funds are regulated for specific needs such as transportation and counseling. However, voucher money is not regulated and schools can spend it any way they want.
Wilson said this differs from usual voucher plans because students from the bottom 5% of public schools in national standardized tests would be eligible for vouchers that Wilson calls "opportunity scholarships."
Funds would be transferred between schools if the student stays in the public education system. Aid for children in private schools would be given to parents. The "opportunity scholarships" would be good for up to $4,500.
Steps to denationalize the country's Lutheran Evangelical Church will take place over the next four years.
Beginning Jan. 1, children of at least one Lutheran parent will no longer automatically become members of the state church.
The king and civil affairs minister, dubbed "church minister," are no longer required to be Lutheran.
By 2,000 state and local parishes must appraise and divide vast amounts of property and the church's $1.68 billion annual budget, which is collected largely through taxes, must be cut.
The law stating all Swedes had to belong to Lutheran churches began in 1593. Until 1951 citizens could not legally quit the church and discontinue paying 1.1% of their annual income in taxes to their parish.
For many the changes will go unnoticed because they are nonLutheran immigrants, unreligious or church-avoiding.
The country began its break from Roman Catholic traditions with a 50.3% vote. In 1986, two out of three voters were against reversing the constitutional prohibition of divorce.