Freethought News: Last updated: 14 June 2003

Navy chaplains have history of misconduct

Source Associated Press, 7/5/2003, by Matt Kelley

The Navy has punished more than 40 chaplains over the past decade for offenses ranging from sexual abuse to fraud -- a misconduct rate much higher than for other officers, according to documents that detail the Navy's alarm at the problem.

''Navy chaplains, in fact, create a disproportionate number of problem cases,'' Navy Chaplain Corps official Bradford E. Ableson wrote in a 1999 memo that is among several documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The previously undisclosed documents detail offenses that included adultery, spousal assault, and sexual harassment. The offenses were so pervasive that in 1999, then-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig ordered a new training and oversight program to ensure the Navy's nearly 870 chaplains met high moral standards. Ableson, the deputy executive assistant to the chief of Navy chaplains, wrote the memo to give his boss details on the extent of the problem.

The chaplain corps implemented that retraining program but hasn't tracked how many chaplains have been punished since then, said Lieutenant Jon Spiers, a chaplain corps spokesman.

Court records and news stories show that since 1999 at least one chaplain has been convicted of indecent acts and a recently retired chaplain was charged with murder.

Spiers said the current chief of Navy chaplains, Rear Admiral Barry Black, has made enforcing ethical standards his top priority. (Black has been nominated to become the US Senate chaplain.)

Spiers said the chaplain corps shouldn't be judged by its members' misconduct.

''To say the actions of a few speak for the service of the many thousands of men and women who serve and have served as Navy chaplains does an injustice to all the good work these officers give so willingly,'' Spiers said in a written reply to questions submitted by the Associated Press.

In interviews last year, Spiers acknowledged only one case mentioned in the 1999 memo -- that of Neal Destefano, sentenced to five years in prison in 1994 for drugging and molesting two Marines.

Ableson's 1999 memo stated that ''Chaplain Corps disciplinary cases are monitored by . . . the Chief of Chaplains Office.'' But Spiers said the chaplain corps no longer keeps statistics on punished chaplains.

Most of the punished chaplains -- 28 of the 42 -- were accused of sexual misconduct or harassment, according to documents.

For example, a Roman Catholic chaplain went to prison for molesting the young sons of sailors and Marines. A Seventh-day Adventist chaplain was court-martialed for an indecent assault during a counseling session. Three chaplains -- a Baptist, a Catholic, and a United Pentacostal Church International minister -- were punished for downloading pornography onto Navy computers.

Despite its relatively small size, the chaplain corps had at least 39 officers disciplined between 1994 and 1999 -- more than the number disciplined among the rest of the Navy's 32,000 regular officers, Ableson wrote.

The regular officers had a discipline rate of 2 per 1,000, while the rate for chaplains was 45 per 1,000, other Navy memos said.

The corps' troubles have continued. In 2001, Catholic chaplain Commander Robert Milewski was convicted of fondling a sailor during a massage the year before and fined $48,000.

Ableson's memo questioned whether the chaplain corps fostered a tolerance for misbehavior.

''Too many officers with integrity problems are nurtured by the [chaplain corps] culture and advanced'' by the system, he concluded.

Injudicious

Source The Washington Post, Friday, June 13, 2003; Page A28

"I'M PROBABLY the only one who wanted it 5-4," Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. said the day after the Supreme Court resolved the 2000 election controversy with a split decision. "I wanted Governor Bush to have a full appreciation of the judiciary and judicial selection so we can have no more appointments like Justice Souter."

Packed into this brief comment are several attitudes that should be anathema to any federal judge: contempt for judges with whom they disagree, a vision of the judiciary as essentially political in nature, and a desire to see matters of national controversy resolved in such a way as to highlight the political differences among jurists. Mr. Pryor, a protege of Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, is now a nominee to the bench himself, having been appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which is based in Atlanta and which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia. At his hearing this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said he could put aside his strongly conservative views on many subjects when he becomes a judge. His political comments about judging make this claim ring hollow.

Mr. Pryor's expression of contempt for Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, a Republican appointee whose moderation has caused conservatives to feel bitterly betrayed, was not an isolated incident. Echoing what has become a conservative slogan in the judicial nomination wars, Mr. Pryor ended one speech with what he termed "my prayer for the next administration: Please, God, no more Souters." Former Arizona attorney general Grant Woods, a fellow Republican, told National Public Radio that he had "great question of whether Mr. Pryor has the ability to be nonpartisan. I would say he was probably the most doctrinaire and the most partisan of any attorney general I dealt with in eight years."

At his hearing, Mr. Pryor waved off his criticisms of Justice Souter, whose career has been a commendable example of a judge displaying independence of the politics surrounding his appointment. The prayer was a joke, Mr. Pryor said, and both comments merely reflected his disagreement with several of Justice Souter's opinions. But they did far more than that. Both comments specifically indicated that people like Justice Souter should not be nominated to the bench, and what's more, one of them indicated that riven court decisions are desirable to the extent they emphasize the political stakes in appointing judges. The court's apparently political split in the election dispute was no plus; it cast the resolution of the election in disrepute for many Americans. Nobody who revels in the political advantages to be gleaned from such failures of judicial consensus-building belongs on the bench.

In general, nominees should be taken at their word when they promise under oath that they will put their politics aside as judges, and we have urged the confirmation of controversial conservative nominees such as Michael McConnell, Priscilla R. Owen and Miguel Estrada partly on the strength of such affirmations. But a man who professes such a politicized view of the task of judging forfeits the benefit of the doubt. He already has effectively promised that he will be more loyal than Justice Souter -- and while loyalty to an ideological camp may be a virtue in politics, there are few greater vices in a judge.

Source: American Atheists, 8 April 2003

Reports that a US Army Chaplain is providing Army troops with bathing water only if they consent to Christian baptism and preaching should be investigated immediately by military authorities, an Atheist civil rights group said today.

Published news reports coming from the Knight Ridder agency identify the chaplain as Josh Ilano of Houston who sees the shortage of water on the front lines as "an opportunity." Ilano identifies himself as a "Southern Baptist evangelist." Soldiers "have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor tent," submit to Baptism and only then are given water. "It's simple," Llano is quoted in a KR story. "They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized."

"This is absolutely outrageous," said Kathleen Johnson, Military Director of American Atheists. "This is totally inappropriate and unconstitutional behavior by an officer in the military. He is exploiting the harsh conditions our troops in Iraq are encountering in order to further a sectarian religious agenda." Johnson said that military chaplains are "embedded" with troops to minister to those who might voluntarily seek out counseling or an opportunity to practice their faith. "This guy is trying to 'lure' potential converts, and he is preying on vulnerable, stressed-out military men and women who are risking their lives in combat. The military should investigate Llano's coercive and even possibly illegal activities. Pastor Llano should share water and other resources with ALL needy troops." "He's using government resources to advance his particular religious agenda, and doesn't seem to realize that there are plenty of soldiers who do not agree with his particular creed, or in any creed at all," said Ms. Johnson.

For more information contact Kathleen Johnson at kjohnson@atheists.org or (318) 623-3857.

In the Name of Religion: Family Suing Union County Schools Tells of Harassment Suffered Over Pagan Beliefs

Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel, 14 April 2003

The family of a 14-year-old girl embroiled in a lawsuit with the Union County school system over religious freedom said Sunday they endured years of harassment before taking legal action.

"We just finally had to say enough," Greg Tracy, the father of India Tracy, told a crowd of more than 120 people who gathered at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville to discuss religious freedom. India, her older siblings, Tyla and Garrett, and their mother, Sarajane, described how years of alleged verbal taunts, veiled threats and then finally physical abuse over their religious differences with other Union County residents prompted them to pull India from Horace Maynard Middle School in 2002. The last straw was when India was chased down the hallway by three boys who grabbed her by the back of the neck and told her she should change her religion or they'd change it for her," said Sarajane Tracy.

The family filed a federal lawsuit in February alleging the school system violated India's civil rights by promoting and endorsing religious activities, denied her right to freely exercise her religion and failed to protect her from harassment and physical abuse. School officials have declined to talk about the lawsuit. According to one of the family's attorneys, Margaret Held, the Tracys describe their religion as paganism, while Union County is overwhelmingly Christian.

India said she tried to explain her beliefs once to her classmates while she was in elementary school but ultimately gave up because "nobody listened." "What we are isn't on TV; it's totally different," she told the crowd. "Nobody listened. They just said I was wrong, that we were wrong, and that we were going to go to hell."

India's older sister, Tyla, a student at Union County High School, said she was once punished for not attending a tent revival held during school hours by being forced to do extra classwork. "(My teacher) told me it would remind me to bring my permission slip," Tyla said. The tent revival, called the Area Wide Crusade, was started in 1998 by a Union County Baptist pastor and is slated to be held again later this month.

According to the Tracys, India was sent to the principal's office twice because of her religion. The first time was triggered by her mother's refusal of permission for her to attend the revival. The second visit took place when she declined to play Mary in a Christmas play.

India is currently being home-schooled, but her parents indicated they would like to place her in a private Knox County school next year. Held said the family initially only wanted to collect attorneys' fees and make the school system correct the problems. But now they say the stakes have been raised by the filing of the lawsuit. "We're going to send her to the absolute finest school that money can buy," Held said.

After the family told their story, they fielded questions from more than a dozen audience members who wanted to discuss the line between church and state. One of them, 15-year-old Sean Golden of Knoxville, said the behavior of India's classmates and the school system appeared contrary to Christian teachings. "They preach this Christian behavior, and then they don't practice it themselves," he said.

Sarajane Tracy replied that her family didn't want to trigger a religious confrontation. "We don't want India to treat Christianity the way it has treated us," she said. "I think these people are caught up in ignorance or intolerance."

Sunday's event was sponsored by the church, the Rationalists of East Tennessee, the National Conference of Community and Justice, the East Tennessee Interfaith Alliance and the Task Force Against Religious Coercion.

Source: Americans United For Separation of Church and State, 9 April 2003

"Sec. of Education Rod Paige should repudiate his recent remarks favoring Christianity in public schools and expressing hostility toward religious diversity, according to Americans United for Separation of
Church and State. In an April 8 letter to Paige, AU demanded that [Paige] apologize for his remarks about religion in the schools or step down from his public post. Paige.. said, "I would prefer to have a child
in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith. Where a child is taught that, there is a source of strength greater than themselves.' [He] also reportedly said that as a Christian, he is puzzled by the animosity to God in public school settings. 'The reason that Christian schools and Christian universities are growing is a result of a strong value system... That's not the case in a public school where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values.'"

Complete article: http://au.org/press/pr030409.htm

Source: Harpers Magazine, March 2003

Jeffrey Sharlet writes, "'The Family' is, in its own words, an 'invisible' association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as 'members,' as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities."

Complete article: http://www.harpers.org/online/jesus_plus_nothing/jesus_plus_nothing.php3

Source: MadCowMorningNews, 8 April 2003

Daniel Hopsicker writes, "The money man behind two Florida flight schools which trained an as-yet undisclosed number of terrorist pilots has ties with the Evangelical Christian Right, including having loaned televangelist Jerry Falwell a reputed $1 million to bailout his failing religious enterprises a decade ago, and serving as Director of an avowedly Christian aeronautics company planning to manufacture a new business jet in Israel, the MadCowMorningNews has learned. Rudi Dekkers - financier Wallace J. Hilliard, 70, has so far managed to avoid being caught in the glare of publicity surrounding former business partner Dekkers, currently facing a charge of felony fraud as well as an ongoing multi-agency federal investigation." Reverend Moon also helped bail out Falwell with millions funneled through Dan Reber and Jimmy Thomas' Christian Heritage Foundation (See 'The Hunting of the President').

Complete article: http://www.madcowprod.com

Source: NewHouseNews.com, 9 April 2003

"Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population. The Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, and the Rev. Franklin (W's minister) Graham's Samaritan's Purse said workers are near the Iraq border in Jordan and are ready to go in as soon as it is safe. The relief and missionary work is certain to be closely watched because both Graham and the Southern Baptist Convention have been at the heart of controversial evangelical denunciations of Islam, the world's second largest religion. Both organizations said their priority will be to provide food, shelter and other needs to Iraqis ravaged by recent war and years of neglect. But if the situation presents itself, they will also share their Christian faith in a country that's estimated to be 98% Muslim and about 1% Christian."

Complete article: http://newhousenews.com/archive/okeefe032603.html

Gotta Have Faith

Source: NYTimes.com, 17 December 2002, by Paul Krugman

Last week the Bush administration made an important announcement. I'm not referring to the selection of a new economic team, which will make absolutely no difference to policy. I'm talking about the executive order removing long-standing barriers between church and state.

The announcement didn't attract much attention amid the furor over Trent Lott. Yet it contains the seeds of a similar future uproar. The media were shocked, shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for segregation - something that was obvious long before Mr.Lott inserted his foot in his mouth. One of these years they'll be equally shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for theocracy.

Of course, the administration insists that the new policy isn't intended to allow government-funded proselytizing. And it would surely deny that by explicitly permitting religious discrimination in hiring - organizations that receive federal contracts can "take faith into account in making employment decisions" - it is opening up a new source of patronage for its friends on the Christian right.

Why am I not reassured?

For one thing, we are well advised not to trust anything the administration says about the goals of its domestic policy. John J. DiIulio, who initially headed the Bush administration's faith-based initiative, told a reporter, Ron Suskind, that this White House had no interest in the substance of policy, caring only about political payoffs: "What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political arm."

Mr. DiIulio repudiated his own carefully drafted, 3,000-word letter to Mr. Suskind after Karl Rove put a horse's head in his bed. (O.K., I'm not sure about that last part.) But the best guess about any domestic policy from this administration is that its real purpose is to cater to a part of its base. And which part of the base wants to blur the line between church and state?

George W. Bush is always careful to speak in favor of faith in general, not any faith in particular. Congressional leaders are less careful. Last spring Tom DeLay, soon to be House majority leader, told a church group that: "Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world - only Christianity." He also said he was on a mission from God to promote a "biblical worldview" in American politics.

By the way, one piece of that biblical worldview involves scientific education. After the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay suggested that the tragedy had occurred "because our school systems teach our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial mud." Guns don't kill people; Charles Darwin kills people.

Mr. DeLay isn't an obscure crank; he's the most powerful man in Congress. Still, is he an outlier? No. Don Nickles, now challenging the wounded Mr. Lott for Senate leadership, is less given to colorful statements, but is as closely aligned with the religious right as Mr. DeLay.

And the influence of the religious right spreads much further. The Internet commentator Atrios, who played a key role in bringing Mr. Lott's past to light, now urges us to
look into the secretive Council for National Policy. This blandly named organization was founded by Tim LaHaye, co-author of the apocalyptic "Left Behind" novels, and is in effect a fundamentalist pressure group. As of 1998 the organization's membership contained many leading Congressional figures in the Republican Party, though none of the party's neoconservative intellectuals.

George W. Bush gave a closed-door speech to the council in 1999, after which the religious right in effect endorsed his candidacy. Accounts vary about what he promised, and the organization has refused to release the tape. But it's notable that he appointed John Ashcroft as attorney general; Mr. Ashcroft gives every appearance of placing his biblical worldview above secular concerns about due
process.

I'd like to think that the furor over Trent Lott's nostalgia for Jim Crow, hidden in plain sight for years, would serve as a signal to ask about other uncomfortable truths hidden in plain sight. But I suspect that it won't, that we'll soon go back to worrying about politicians' haircuts.

And then, years from now, when it becomes clear that much public policy has been driven by a hard-line fundamentalist agenda, people will say "But nobody told us."

Complete article (registration required): http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/opinion/17KRUG.html?ex=1041140096&ei=1&en=919ee29e8a42c167

Planned Parenthood Attacked for Xmas Greeting Card

Source: CNN.com, 3 December 2002

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A holiday card by the nation's largest abortion-rights group is under fire from some groups that say it is offensive and reflects an anti-religious bigotry.

The card, offered by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, features the words "Choice on Earth" against a blue backdrop with white snowflakes. Inside it reads, "Warmest wishes for a peaceful holiday season."

It's the phrase on the card's cover - a twist on the biblical "Peace on Earth" - that has angered some groups that oppose abortion.

Complete article: http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/03/abortion.christmas/index.html

==============

A computer search actually found very little "Peace on Earth" in The Bible. Here is the rather exclusionary "Peace" found in the New Living Translation:

Luke 2:14 - Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.

Here is the "Peace on Earth" found in the King James Version, (Matthew and Luke are likely borrowing from a common source identified by scholars as "Q"):

Matthew 10:34 - Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Luke 12:51 - Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division...

So, while "Peace on Earth" is a beautiful sentiment, it's not Biblical.

Religious Warfare Stirring in Politics

Source: Arizona Republic, 29 November 2002, by Richard de Uriarte

They simply appeared, like manna from heaven. On the Sunday before the November elections, church parking lots across Arizona were bombarded with political leaflets. But not just any campaign handbills. These were targeted to the faithful churchgoers. And they were promoting a specific set of candidates, practically all of them Republicans, endorsed by pro-life groups. It was pretty savvy election strategy, I'd say, but one anchored in a deepening and troubling divide among American voters. And it represents a historic shift in the pattern of American politics. Religion has always factored in the makeup of both political parties. But for decades, even centuries, religious denomination was the key determinant. Mainline Protestants - Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists - especially in New England and the Middle West, found agreeable attitudes and support within the Republican Party. Likewise, their perennial religious rivals - Catholics, southern White Baptists and Jews - naturally and instinctively aligned themselves with Democrats. That is changing now. The historic denominational boundary line is eroding. When it comes to political allegiance, no longer does it matter so much which particular faith you belong to, it's how intensely you feel it. The demarcation line now separates those who read the Bible religiously and those who rarely even think about it. Pollsters are paying increased attention to these differences. Whenever the consultants sample political attitudes, they now include several questions about religious belief and church attendance. Why? Because, according to Arizona State University political scientist Bruce Merrill, church attendance has emerged as one of the surest indicators of voting behavior. How? The more "orthodox" you are in your religious beliefs, the more churchgoing you are, the more likely you are to vote for Republican candidates. Conversely, if you do not attend church regularly, you will probably support Democratic candidates. So far, media pundits have let us in on only half the story, exhaustively chronicling the rise of the religious right as a force within the Republican Party over the past quarter century. But in the meantime, they have largely ignored the steady exodus of religiously oriented people from the leadership ranks of the Democratic Party. The "secularists" have taken control of the Democratic Party, according to two political scientists writing in the current edition of the Public Interest. Consider: Most insiders know of the anguish and struggles the pro-choice Republicans have nowadays within their own party. Democrats don't seem to have that problem. Ever wonder why? Because pro-life candidates need not apply to the Democratic party. Outside a few Catholic Hispanic precincts, antiabortion candidates are extinct in Democratic circles. Who was the last successful pro-life Democrat candidate for Congress in Arizona? It wasn't always this way. As recently as a few decades ago, the civil rights and antiwar movements found comfort and moral courage from clerics of numerous congregations. They had influence within both political parties. What does it all mean? I'm not sure. Certainly the Democrats don't want to be labeled as America's atheist and agnostic political party. It's as bad as the 1972 "acid, amnesty and abortion" label. It's not a formula for success in a nation where most people say they believe in God. Yet demographers tell us that religious attendance has been declining with each successive generation. And if all the Americans who say they attend church regularly actually did, we'd probably need to build twice as many churches. Both parties will probably survive. But they grow farther apart. And campaigns might take on the trappings of crusades. Or religious wars. (Reach de Uriarte at richard.deuriarte@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8912.)

Bush To Push Faith-based Initiative

Source: United Press International via COMTEX, 29 November 2002

With a Republican-controlled Congress at his back, President George W. Bush plans to push his faith-based initiatives again next year, but the thorny questions of whether they violate civil rights laws and constitutional separation of church and state are unsolved, critics claim. Perhaps no initiative is more important to conservative Republicans than to give evangelical religious organizations access to the billions of dollars in federal social programs, which they say they have been denied for decades.

Jim Towey, the director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is quoted in the conservative magazine World as saying that "faith-based communities have been stiff armed by the federal government for years. They've been excluded, discriminated against." For the president, too, the faith-based initiative took a personal dimension, and when campaigning for it, he often mentioned that it was religion that helped him stop drinking and refocus his life when he was in his 40s. Bush made the proposals a first order of business when he took office nearly two years ago.

But when the administration had to agree to limit federal funds to religious groups for their secular services alone, the draft law ended up being criticized by conservatives as well as liberals. The outcry by Bush's core Republican constituency was so great in the summer of 2001, it was said to have caused the sudden departure from the White House of John DiIulio, director of the faith-based office. DiIulio was a widely respected conservative social scientist. Marvin Olasky writing in the Nov. 23 edition of World said under DiIulio, "the attempt to solicit liberal allies appeared to drive the whole process" and as a result "conservative Christian groups did not fight to keep it alive." He had lambasted DiIulio in an earlier article for having been an adviser to former Vice President Al Gore. Now comes Bush with a new head of the faith-based office: Towey, a Catholic, also with bipartisan credentials (he once worked for the Democratic Governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles) and people often note that he was tutored by the late Mother Teresa -- one of the most renowned religious workers for the poor.

Bush won an extraordinary increase in House seats for a sitting president in a mid-term election and recaptured the Senate. Earlier this week, Sen. Rick Santorum, Pa., who is the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, said the president's key conservative issues will be pushed next year with the faith-based initiative first among many. Senate Majority leader Trent Lott said ideas like giving money to churches to help families are "considered bad on the two coasts... but where the meat is in the sandwich, the rest of America, these are pretty mainstream ideas." Last year, Santorum and Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman won committee approval for what they called a compromise bill, the Charity, Aid, Recovery and Empowerment (C.A.R.E.) Act. But opponents like Rep. Bobby Scott, the Newport Virginia Democrat who led the fight against the president's plans in the House, claims that the neither the president nor the White House will give the public "a straight answer" to what he calls fundamental questions: "Can you directly fund a church, write a government check to the First Baptist Church of Jefferson Park?" "Can you use government funds to proselytize and press your faith or beliefs on others?" "Can you discriminate in hiring?" Scott argues that the bills presented in both the House and the Senate are "stealth" measures, where the administration has gone to great lengths to hide its real intentions. He and others suggest that the ultimate goal of Bush is to allow religious organizations to apply and directly receive government grants -- which they say would violate the "establishment clause" of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free practice thereof." They argue giving the money directly to a church or religious group would effectively be supporting their establishment over others.

Under present law, religious groups who perform social services usually create a tax-free foundation, a "501C3" program named after the section of the tax code which requires moneys be used solely for the social service. Scott and others believe that unless controlled, funds will be given to religious groups that are most favorable to the administration, not the most qualified. "If the Black Muslims had the best prison release program," government cash would still go to a white, accepted group like former Nixon aide Chuck Colson's prison charity, Scott charges. At present, religious groups cannot use the funds they get to provide social services to exhort people to join their religion. They must offer their services to any person of any faith, and the person needing the services must not be made to listen to any religious message in order to receive it.

Hiring too was a major issue in last year's debate. Many evangelical religious groups want the right to refuse employment even in non-religious jobs to homosexuals, and others have tried to limit employment to their own co-religionists. A recent lawsuit in Georgia may the put the issue of discrimination in hiring to the test. According to an account in the New York Times, Alan M. Yorker, who said he was qualified to be a psychologist therapist with degrees from Columbia University, Georgia State and Emory was refused a job at Methodist children's home because he was Jewish. The home, The Times reported, receives about 40 percent of its income from the federal government. Under Georgia law, it is illegal to discriminate in this employment and Yorker is suing. Among the original faith-based proposals was one in both houses that would protect faith-based organizations from these lawsuits.

At a Rockefeller Foundation panel several weeks ago, Towey seemed to dismiss these issues as a "hysterical response" and complained as others have that the Senate bill was stopped by a parliamentary trick of two senators who put a hold on it. One of those senators, Richard Durbin, D-Ill., echoed Scott's criticism -- the bill and these issues had never been heard in open hearing. Scott believes that when Americans find out what these bills say, the support for them will melt away. He claims they are the "ugliest" pieces of legislation he recalls in public life. - NICHOLAS M. HORROCK, UPI Chief White House Correspondent United Press International Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

Complete article: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021129-051337-4212r

Source: Associated Press, 27 November 2002

ATHENS, Ala. (AP) -- The Limestone County Board of Education is trying to develop a policy that would allow Bibles to be distributed legally on school grounds. But a lawyer warned board members Tuesday night the new policy would have to allow distribution of literature from religions other than Christianity.

"You need to remember if you do that, it is difficult for you to pick and choose," said J.R. Brooks, a lawyer from Huntsville. Brooks said he would work with school officials to review policies in other school systems and come up with ideas. There are two ways Bibles might be legally distributed in schools, Brooks said: by students during non-classroom activities or by letting groups put materials on tables, Brooks said. A policy could prohibit certain things such as hate or pornographic literature, commercial advertising, or material that might be defamatory, Brooks said.

The school board is faced with having to develop a policy after a parent threatened a lawsuit earlier in the school year following the annual Bible distribution to fifth-graders by The Gideons International. Bibles were brought to a central location in the schools and school officials made an announcement for the students who wanted them to pick them up under teacher supervision. That was the only non-school material distributed that way. That practice was stopped after Brooks warned that it was unconstitutional.

Board member Earl Glaze suggested letting the Bible distribution be handled through Parent Teacher Organization events when parents are present. But board member John Wayne King said the people active in PTOs probably already have given their children Bibles. "I think the idea of the Gideons is to get them in the hands of those who don't have them," he said.

Lawsuit Says Vulcan Statue Endorses Religion

Source: Associated Press, 26 November 2002

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- A Trussville man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that government spending to restore the Vulcan statue in Birmingham is illegal endorsement of religion or of a religious symbol. The suit, filed by Carl Dykes, seeks to block government officials from placing Vulcan on public land. Dykes contends the statue represents Vulcan, the Roman god of metal workers, also known as the Greek god Hephaestus. Dykes is seeking $1 each in punitive damages from the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, the state of Alabama and the U.S. Department of Interior's National Park Service.

The suit said Dykes is a Christian who believes there is only the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible and is offended by the placement of the deity in a public park. The statue for years looked over Birmingham from Vulcan Park on Red Mountain, but was taken down to be restored. The statute, one of the world's largest iron figures, was created for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis and was cast as a tribute to Birmingham's iron industry.

Mark Kelly, spokesman for Mayor Bernard Kincaid, said the city is supportive of the foundation's efforts to restore the statue and the park, which is a popular tourist attraction. "It's our Statue of Liberty," Kelly said. "We don't view it as a religious symbol any more than the city of New York views the Statue of Liberty as a religious symbol."