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Between dealing with a bug that's going around our family and trying to meet several writing deadlines, I've not been able to do much blogging this week. At this point, I think it's best to take a break until Tuesday, September 4. Have a good holiday.
From a new report by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities:
The number of uninsured Americans rose for the sixth consecutive year in 2006, to 47.0 million, and the number of uninsured children rose for the second straight year, to 8.7 million, according to Census data released today. Between 1998, the year the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was implemented, and 2004, the number of uninsured children fell every year. But since 2004, as funding for SCHIP has grown scarcer among states and a restrictive Medicaid policy enacted in early 2006 took effect, progress in enrolling uninsured children in SCHIP and Medicaid has stalled and the number of uninsured children under 18 has climbed by 1 million — from 7.7 million in 2004 to 8.7 million in 2006.
“The number of uninsured children fell when the federal government and states worked together to increase coverage for children under SCHIP and Medicaid,” noted Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Now, progress has stalled and begun to reverse. Moreover, the Administration has announced a new policy that further weakens children’s coverage under SCHIP by placing coverage of as many as several hundred thousand children at risk. The new Census data underscore the need for Congress to complete work on — and the President to sign — a strong SCHIP reauthorization bill before the program expires on September 30.”
The House and Senate have both passed SCHIP reauthorization bills that would make substantial progress in this area. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the bills would allow 3.2 to 4.2 million uninsured children to gain coverage by 2012, and also prevent 800,000 now-insured children from losing coverage. The President, however, has threatened to veto both bills. “The disturbing Census data on the rising numbers of uninsured children should prompt President Bush to reconsider his hard-line stance,” Greenstein said.
The full report is here.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
For the past 20 years, Samuel Cordes has made his living representing clients alleging discrimination from their employers for reasons such as age, race or gender. But in the last few years, his mix of cases has changed: an increasing proportion is now coming from religious discrimination.
"It's coming up a lot more," said the Downtown-based employment lawyer. "Until 2001, I bet I didn't have more than one a year."
Right now, Mr. Cordes is working on five religious discrimination cases. Nationally, religious discrimination charges by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission rose from 1,939 in 2000 to 2,572 in 2002 and have remained roughly at that level ever since. In 2006, the EEOC reported 2,541 charges of religious discrimination.
"There are far more of them than you read about," said John Myers, chair of the labor and employment department at Downtown-based law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. "In 25 years, I never had a case involving an Islamic employee and in the last couple of years, I've observed more decisions and personally picked up a handful of cases."
The article also describes other types of religious discrimination claims that apparently are becoming more prevalent.
"The Rev. Brady Boyd, an associate senior pastor at Southlake's Gateway Church, was overwhelmingly approved Monday night as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., replacing the Rev. Ted Haggard." The story is here, and an earlier post on Boyd is here.
Meanwhile, the Denver Post reports that "Church officials supervising fallen evangelical leader Ted Haggard plan to meet with him because of an e-mail he sent soliciting donations for himself through an organization that has been linked to a registered sex offender in Hawaii." There's more from that story below the fold.
UPDATE (8/30): The church "overseers" have now spoken on this issue. Here's an excerpt from their statement:
“After their fact-finding was complete, they (overseers) informed Mr. Haggard that his plan and his communications about it were unacceptable. Mr. Haggard’s solicitation for personal support was inappropriate. It was never the intention of the Dream Center that Mr. Haggard would provide any counsel or other ministry. Mr. Haggard will not be moving in or working with the Dream Center. He will not be doing any ministry. He will be seeking secular employment to support himself and his family.”
Continue reading "More on New Life Church and Ted Haggard (Updated)" »
The Washington Daybook announces the following event, which will take place on September 14, 2007:
Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (F.R. Page 48308) holds a meeting to receive a briefing on the Shared Youth Vision initiative; discuss its application to federal agency work in the New Orleans area; update Council Partnership Projects; receive a panel presentation from representatives of three faith-based organizations using collaboration to advance the work of their urban ministries; and receive a legislative and program update.
There's more information about the time and location for this event below the fold.
Continue reading "Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice Holds September Event" »
Here's a brief description of the event from the organizer, Senator Mary Landrieu:
United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu will host a “Hope & Recovery Summit” on Monday, August 27, 2007, to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastating flooding that followed. The summit will feature recovery-related panel discussions followed by a question and answer session and remarks with Presidential candidates, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., former Governor Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. Every Democratic and Republican Presidential candidate was invited to participate, and others may join the Presidential Forum.
More information about the event, including a schedule and list of speakers, may be found here.
CT Liveblog is following the strange case of the Ted Haggard fundraising letter.
The Dallas Morning News reports:
The Schoolchildren's Religious Liberties Act was meant to clarify how Texas schoolchildren can publicly convey their religious stances on campus and at school events.
Instead, it has created statewide confusion over how districts should comply with the law and added a new layer of divisiveness to an issue already well known for passionate discord – religion in schools.
An earlier post on this issue is here.
From The Charlotte Observer:
Southern Baptists are moving to open their own schools, offering an alternative to public schools that would educate a new generation about biblical principles.
As the traditional school year begins today, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest is sponsoring a two-day workshop designed to train church leaders to open private schools.
Here's more information about this workshop, called "Christian School 101." The materials indicate that future workshops are planned for Houston, Dallas, and Orlando. (Thanks, Dad, for the link to the Charlotte Observer piece.)
The New York Times reports on a new public charter school in Florida, the Ben Gamla Charter School. As the article notes, the school "is run by an Orthodox rabbi, serves kosher lunches and concentrates on teaching Hebrew." Here's more from the story:
About 400 students started classes at Ben Gamla this week amid caustic debate over whether a public school can teach Hebrew without touching Judaism and the unconstitutional side of the church-state divide. The conflict intensified Wednesday, when the Broward County School Board ordered Ben Gamla to suspend Hebrew lessons because its curriculum — the third proposed by the school — referred to a Web site that mentioned religion.
Opponents say that it is impossible to teach Hebrew — and aspects of Jewish culture — outside a religious context, and that Ben Gamla, billed as the nation’s first Hebrew-English charter school, violates one of its paramount legal and political boundaries.
But supporters say the school is no different from hundreds of others around the country with dual-language programs, whose popularity has soared in ethnically diverse states like Florida.
Via Don Byrd, here's some local press that provides more detail on the suspension of Hebrew lessons at the school. As the NYT article notes, one of the concerns is the kind of precedent the school sets. Here's some commentary from one rabbi on his misgivings in this area:
Howard Friedman highlights an interesting article from a Churches of Christ newspaper on baptisms in prisons. Here's how the article begins:
In Anchorage, Alaska, prison minister Dave Olson can name half a dozen state inmates who would love to be baptized.
But for these prisoners — and many other inmates across the nation — redemption must wait.
Citing security concerns and other reasons, government-paid chaplains often deny ministers’ requests to immerse inmates, The Christian Chronicle has learned.
“There are many, many chaplains that do not believe in baptism, and they’re not going to go out of their way to see that it’s done,” said William Crossman, an evangelist with the Church of Christ Prison Ministry in Leavenworth, Kan.
In New Mexico, one county jail recently started allowing baptisms twice a month, but only after a congregation enlisted the help of the Liberty Counsel, a religious liberties legal organization.
To be sure, many jails and prisons accommodate baptisms, be it in portable baptisteries or inflatable kiddie pools.
But even then, baptisms often require patience — and paperwork. . . .
Ron Goodman, who directs two Tennessee ministries that baptized 460 inmates last year, said he’s unaware of “widespread difficulties” in gaining permission to baptize inmates. “As always, there are isolated incidents where brethren are refused the right to baptize, or at least, it is made very difficult,” he said.
Beyond citing a shortage of deputies in some prisons to oversee the baptisms, the article does not describe the specific security concerns that are sometimes raised in these situations. I would imagine that providing a portable baptistry would be a bit of work, but I don't know what specific security concerns, beyond the usual prison-related ones, baptisms would present.
The other alleged problem is that some government chaplains frown on baptism for theological reasons and thus make it difficult for inmates to be baptized. If true, that is deeply troubling. Here's a relevant excerpt from the story:
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) has established a website featuring research on college students' attitudes toward and engagement with religion. Here's the introduction to the site:
Recent studies of college students' attitudes toward religion suggest that the academy is no longer the bastion of secularism it was once assumed to be. And these studies further reveal that the spiritual landscape on today's college campuses is virtually unrecognizable from what we've seen in the past. Evangelicalism--often in the form of extra-denominational or parachurch campus groups--has eclipsed mainstream Protestantism. Catholicism and Judaism, too, are thriving, as are other faiths.
To help make sense of these changes, the SSRC offers this online guide, which was derived from a series of essays it commissioned from leading authorities in the field of religion and higher education.
A preface for the project is here. (Thanks to dotcommonweal.)
The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy has an informative report on earmarks and religious organizations. As the report explains, earmarks are "grants requested by lawmakers for specific groups, which do not compete for the money." Here's a snippet from the piece:
In theory, the government should monitor the use of money granted through an earmark just as well as it does through a competitive bidding process, said representatives of the government watchdog groups OMB Watch and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. But they questioned whether oversight of such grants would be any better than it is for other government contracts, which have been increasing while the number of employees to evaluate them has remained static.
"The idea that they're able to do aggressive monitoring, oversight and evaluation is just wishful thinking," said Gary Kalman, democracy advocate for USPIRG.
A previous post on this issue is here. The piece briefly discusses the lawsuit recently filed by the ACLU against the state of Louisiana regarding earmarks for two churches. It also notes that "the ACLU is in the process of looking at proposed earmarks that are part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, currently under consideration by Congress, for signs that any of them appear inappropriate."
"The Tangipahoa Parish School Board approved a policy Tuesday night that would allow clergy in only 'established' religious congregations in the parish to lead prayers opening School Board meetings." Here's more from the story:
The six-page policy calls for the board secretary to establish a database of those congregations from annual yellow pages listings, the Internet and consultation with local chambers of commerce.
The policy is an attempt by the board to open up to a wide variety of clergy the opportunity to volunteer to deliver invocations on a rotating basis to the School Board.
The policy defines eligible congregations as having “an established presence in the local community of Tangipahoa Parish.”
The board adopted the policy following a recent 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that threw out a February 2005 lower court decision blocking board prayers. The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana had sued in October 2003, challenging that type of prayer.
In 2003, the board did not have a policy but has said in court filings it had invocations dating back to the 1970s.
The appeals court decision, however, did not rule on the underlying legal issues but threw out the case on standing, leaving the board open to suit.
There is some suggestion in the story that the board may have thought that the adoption of this policy might make the ACLU reluctant to continue this litigation. It won't. As the article notes, "[t]he parish School Board’s legal battle with ACLU was over whether a 1983 Supreme Court prayer exception for legislative bodies applies to school boards." Accordingly, an ACLU representative said: “It (the litigation) will be back, and this time the court will have to confront the issue of whether or not school boards can commence meetings with legislative prayer.”
Nonetheless, it is interesting to see how the board, with apparent assistance from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), crafted this policy and what they believe it achieves. While I don't have a copy of the policy yet, here are a few more details on it from the article. [UPDATE: An ADF press release that includes a link to the policy is here.]
Continue reading "Tangipahoa School Board Adopts Prayer Policy (Updated) " »
The New York Times reviews the CNN series entitled "God's Warriors", which debuts this evening. Here's an excerpt:
[T]oo often Ms. Amanpour relies on talking heads rather than on actual representatives of these groups, and when she does get a live specimen she rarely bores in with hard, blunt questions. Maybe that’s by design; the point seems to be to describe rather than challenge. Still, given the waves these movements are making, it would be nice to hear their leaders talk about what specifically they have to offer the world.
Tonight’s opening installment, “God’s Jewish Warriors,” seems particularly timid, spending more time than necessary on clips of the Six-Day War and other familiar historical episodes. . . . Ms. Amanpour’s most interesting contribution is a segment on the fund-raising in the United States that supports them.
“God’s Muslim Warriors,” tomorrow, is sharper, with Ms. Amanpour finally showing some aggressiveness, on the issue of women’s rights under radical Islam, brashly confronting leaders about things like stonings. But mostly she’s polite and lets her subjects stay in their comfort zones. . . .
In Part 3, “God’s Christian Warriors,” on Thursday, the focus shifts to the United States and its electoral politics. The issues on these Christian warriors’ minds seem positively quaint next to the agendas of the people in Parts 1 and 2. The episode includes the final interview with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died in May.
I don't have cable TV, so I'll rely on you to tell me about this series.
Jeremy Burton writes a nice tribute to Dr. Carolyn Goodman, who passed away recently at the age of 91. As Burton notes, "Dr. Goodman first came to national prominence in the summer of 1964 when her son Andrew (a [Queens College] student), along with James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, was famously killed during the Mississippi Freedom Summer." Burton fills out some of the details of Dr. Goodman's life, particularly her lifelong activism on social justice issues.
The New York Times obituary for Carolyn Goodman contains this passage:
In 1964, Andrew, then a student at Queens College, told his parents he planned to go to Mississippi.
“It wasn’t easy for us,” Dr. Goodman told The New York Times in 2005. “But we couldn’t talk out of both sides of our mouths. So I had to let him go.”
As Andrew was about to leave, Dr. Goodman slipped iodine and bandages into his duffel bag, in case he was roughed up in the South. Neither one of them, she said afterward, could conceive of anything much beyond that. . . .
“I still feel that I would let Andy go to Mississippi again,” Dr. Goodman told The Times in 1965, a year after his death. “Even after this terrible thing happened to Andy, I couldn’t make a turnabout of everything I believe in.”
As an article from today's New York Times Select notes, Ben Chaney, brother of James Chaney, attended Dr. Goodman's funeral.
I'd like to read more about the facts and arguments in this developing free exercise case before commenting on its merits, but I want to affirm the approach articulated by one of the lawyers for the free exercise claimant in this case:
What started as a late-night talk show joke topic — a New York woman originally from Liberia who was indicted for allegedly trying to smuggle steaks of monkey meat into America via John F. Kennedy International Airport — is shaping up into a potentially major religious freedom dispute.
The woman, who says she imported the monkey parts for religious ceremonies, has attracted pro bono legal assistance from a top law firm, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. And a professor of African religious traditions at Harvard Divinity School, Jacob Olupona, may testify on her behalf.
At a hearing earlier this month, Chief Judge Raymond Dearie of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ruled that Mamie Manneh, 39, of Staten Island, has legal standing to argue that her religious beliefs should exempt her from criminal prosecution for smuggling the contraband bushmeat.
As depositions and testimony emerge during the run-up to trial, court papers provide a glimpse into a world of religious rites that lawyers in the case are struggling to find ways to explain to those who are unfamiliar with them.
"Frankly, I sort of analogize it more just in my own personal experience with certain foods that you might have at something like a seder ... you know, bitter herbs and that might have some reference to the Exodus or something along those lines," Jan Rostal, an attorney for Manneh, told the judge earlier this month, according to a transcript.
Putting aside for the moment the issue of the correct resolution in this case, this is exactly the right way to approach free exercise claims. Not whether they seem weird to us, but what kinds of parallel we might find in more familiar belief systems that would help us understand and evaluate the claims.
That's Tim Stanley, the chief executive of Justia, a Palo Alto, Calif., provider of online legal information. Here's more from the article:
Justia is spending about $10,000 a month to send people to copy documents at the Supreme Court so the company can place it online for free access, he said.
The unifying vision of all of the challengers to the current system is a Wikipedia-like effort to make the nation’s laws freely searchable by Internet search engines. They believe this will lead to a public system of annotation of the laws by legal scholars as well as bloggers, giving the American public much richer access to the nation’s laws.
Sounds like a great idea to me. And speaking of expanding access to legal materials on the web, I see via SCOTUSblog that the new rules released by the U.S. Supreme Court say, "[b]riefs submitted electronically should be available on the Court's website the next business day." Excellent.
I'm not a fan of asking politicians questions that are better addressed to theologians and pastors. And that seemed to be the nature of a question about prayer that was part of the Democratic presidential debate yesterday. (The video of the exchange is here, and the relevant excerpt from the transcript is pasted in below the fold.)
Of course, there are some issues about which both pastors and politicians should have some expertise. Two prominent examples are the appropriate parameters of interaction between religion and government and the rights and wrongs of the interplay among religion, politics, and policy. Questions about subjects like those are fine areas for questioning in the debates. But, generally speaking, I'd save the strictly theological questions for the next "ask the pastor" session or an upcoming meeting of theologians.
For that reason, I liked Senator Obama's answer to the question, which turned the question around to areas about which government officials and bodies are (or should be) expert. Given that the question was asked, I also appreciated the honesty with which Senators Edwards and Biden gave their answers to what must have been for them a deeply painful question. For comic relief, check out the response by Representative Kucinich.
Continue reading "The Nature of Prayer and Candidate Debates" »
Presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Hucakbee speaks on the the Wiley Drake matter:
As for the Rev. Wiley S. Drake, the California preacher and Huckabee supporter who entreated his followers to pray for the death of those who filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that Drake used church resources to endorse Huckabee, the candidate said he disavowed that approach.
"The saving of souls rather than the damning of them would tend to be more my hope," he said.
I'm glad to hear that Huckabee himself has disavowed Drake's approach. I'm not sure of the context of Huckabee's remarks here, but I certainly wouldn't suggest that filing a complaint with the IRS about a tax-exempt group is a sign that one's soul is lost. Nevertheless, Huckabee strikes the right note in suggesting that Christians ought to affirm hope rather than spread fear. Instead of cursing others, we should strive always to be a blessing to them.
From the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference:
Ambassador Andrew Young and a national delegation of dignitaries will join the Greater New Orleans Clergy for Restorative Justice, New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis in collaboration with the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference, Inc., in honoring the young lives who were lost when the levees broke in the Crescent City, now nearly two years ago. Hundreds of children died as a result of the storm according to public officials. As the second anniversary of Katrina approaches, on Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19, New Orleans Louisiana Clergy and Willard-Lewis will pay homage to those children, to remember their lives and their legacies. "We have not finished burying our children," said Willard-Lewis. "The nation needs to know that misery, despair and dysfunction are still alive in NOLA. We are not yet healed or whole and our children still suffer."
There's more information from the press release below the fold.
Continue reading ""Honoring the Lost Children of Katrina"" »
Marc Ambinder reports: "Frustrated with the volume of interest group forums and non-party sponsored debates, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager has put his foot down: Obama won't attend any more debates that aren't sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, and he won't accept any more invitations to speak at candidate forums." Ambinder posts the relevant memo from the campaign here.
From an interesting interview with presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (via TPMCafe Election Central):
I have great respect for [the Clintons]. There are two things about Bill Clinton I tell Republicans –- it drives them nuts. ...
Number one, don't get it lost on you that a kid from a very small, southern rural state aspired to be President of the United States, this kid came from a dysfunctional family, alcoholic abusive father and yet, he didn't just aspire, he was elected president of the United States not just once, but twice. That is an affirmation of the system. It is a wonderful testament to give to every kid in America that no matter where you come from, you've got an opportunity to do something extraordinary.
This will really rankle some of my Republican colleagues: Bill Clinton and Hillary went through some horrible experiences in their marriage because of some of the reckless behavior that he has admitted he had. I am not defending him on that, it's indefensible.
Just let's not let it get lost on us that they kept their marriage together. They raised a magnificent daughter. Chelsea is truly a delightful human being. ... She's polite, thoughtful, intelligent and everything you would hope a daughter to be. But they kept their marriage together.
And a lot of the Republicans who have condemned them and talk about their platform of family values, interestingly, didn't keep their own families together. Give Bill and Hillary Clinton credit for doing something we say they should have done and that is hold their marriage together in spite of enormous trials.
That's refreshing, isn't it?
That's the title of the keynote address that Justice Antonin Scalia will deliver on October 16, 2007 at the second annual John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics, and Culture. The conference will be held at Villanova University. (Thanks to Mirror of Justice.)
From The Wichita Eagle:
A Wichita church being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for a possible violation of its tax-exempt status could soon be audited.
The IRS notified the church in a letter that it may need to examine the financial and accounting records of Spirit One Christian Center, the church's pastor said Thursday. The IRS is trying to determine whether the church violated rules against political campaign activity that tax-exempt organizations must follow.
In the letter, the IRS told Pastor Mark Holick that the church could meet with IRS officials to "try to resolve our concerns and alleviate the need for further action." The meeting also could "help define the issues and limit the scope of any examination," the letter said.
Holick said an attorney for the church will meet with the IRS; the date has not been set.
The IRS contacted Spirit One in May and questioned Holick about his involvement in distributing voter guides and messages on the church's marquee critical of some candidates and their stances on abortion.
From an article about Wiley Drake's call for prayers for the death of staff members of Americans United:
A California minister who used church stationery and an Internet radio program to endorse former Gov. Mike Huckabee for president is asking his followers to pray for the deaths of those who filed a complaint against him with the IRS. . . .
Huckabee was campaigning Thursday. Alice Stewart, a campaign spokesman, said the campaign did not coordinate with Drake on any of the material he’s distributed regarding the Americans United complaint.
“We certainly don’t condone the evil comments he’s made,” she said.
Good for the Huckabee campaign. I hope we will soon hear similar sentiments from Governor Huckabee himself.
During its recent annual convention, the American Constitution Society held a breakout session entitled The Establishment Clause Standing: Injury and Enforcement. The video of that discussion has now been posted on the ACS website. The session focuses largely on a discussion of the Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation case and its projected impact. I've pasted in the ACS description of the event in the space below the fold.
Continue reading ""The Establishment Clause and Standing: Injury and Enforcement"" »
"The highest-level case in American history involving the right to circumcision is slated to be heard this fall, when the Oregon Supreme Court rules on whether a father can have his 12-year-old son undergo the procedure." Here's more from The Forward's report on this case:
The case — which could affect the ability of parents to make religiously motivated decisions for their children — is bound up with a bitter custody dispute between a divorced Oregon couple. It pits James Boldt, the custodial parent and a recent convert to Judaism, against Lia Boldt, who argues that the boy is afraid to tell her ex-husband that he does not want to be circumcised. She says that the boy would be physically and psychologically harmed by the procedure.
The acceptance of the case by Oregon’s highest court is surprising, because judges generally grant a wide degree of latitude to custodial parents — so much so, in fact, that the state’s Court of Appeals rejected the mother’s case without issuing an opinion. If the Oregon Supreme Court decides to review the merits of the father’s plan for circumcision, it will almost inevitably weigh in on two related issues: the right of custodial parents to guide their children’s religious upbringings, and the weight that religious considerations should be given when considering the welfare of a child.
“Are parents only authorized to make decisions that a secular decision-maker would make?” asked Marc Stern, general counsel for the American Jewish Congress, which is filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of James Boldt. “We have to win this case, and win it big, in my view” Stern said.
“Our position is that the custodial parent can take into account religious interests in determining what’s in the interest of the child,” Stern added.
An Oregonian article covering the decision of the state supreme court to hear the case is here. And there's a bit more background on the matter here.
The Advocate reports that "Louisiana College in Pineville plans to announce today its desire to open a 'biblical worldview' law school with classes starting in 2009." Here's more from the story:
Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard said the school will fill a “niche” in Louisiana to train defenders of conservative Christian values in the courtroom and politics.
The new law school would fall in line with other Christian conservative law schools, such as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University School of Law and televangelist Pat Robertson’s Regent University School of Law, both in Virginia. . . .
Aguillard said Louisiana College actually used [the dean of conservative Catholic Ave Maria School of Law in Michigan] as a consultant. . . .
The law school is being named the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law after the Baptist fundamentalist Houston judge.
"Evangelical groups have joined efforts spearheaded by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and mainstream Protestant churches to create a common code of conduct for religious conversions that would preserve the right of Christians to spread their religion while avoiding conflict among different faiths." Here's more from the story:
The code aims to ease tensions with Muslims, Hindus and other religious groups that fear losing adherents and resort to punishments as extreme as imprisonment and even death for converts from their faith and foreign missionaries. . . .
WCC said the code of conduct should serve as an "advocacy tool in discussions with governments considering anti-conversion laws (and) help to advance the cause of religious freedom." . . . .
Major evangelical groups were absent last year from a meeting of the Vatican and the WCC near Rome, where the idea for the code was initiated. But at the five-day meeting that ended Aug. 12 in Toulouse, Geoff Tunnicliffe, head of the evangelical alliance of 233 conservative Protestant church groups and ministries in 121 nations, gave his "full approval" to the process, the WCC said.
"The code of conduct is not about 'whether' Christians evangelize, but 'how' they do it," said the Rev. Tony Richie of the Church of God, a Pentecostal U.S.-based denomination, according to a WCC review of the meeting.
Read about it here.
Via Howard Friedman, I see that the Austin-American Statesman has a report on the struggle of Texas public schools to develop appropriate policies in the wake of the passage of a new state law on religious expression in public schools. Here's how the report begins:
A new law designed to protect students' religious expression at school events has sparked controversy and led to debate between the lawmakers who wrote it and the school districts that must put it into practice.
Two key points of contention are whether schools would be able to sidestep the law by pre-approving student speeches at school events, and whether school districts should make it easier for students to express their religious views at football games and during morning announcements.
"This law will create litigation," said Dennis Eichelbaum, a Frisco lawyer whose firm represents hundreds of school districts. "A school district will be sued for not complying with the law or for complying with the law, but someone will complain it was an endorsement of religion."
One of the points of controversy involves two different model policies for implementing the law, the one the legislature recommends and the one developed and recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards. Here's a description of that controversy:
From an interesting story regarding Colorado Christian University:
What would Jesus teach about capitalism, and what would be on His assigned reading list?
That's the issue dividing Colorado Christian University, where the dismissal of a professor has sparked lively student and alumni chatter on the Internet.
The dispute at the usually tranquil Lakewood campus pits Andrew Paquin, head of a religious charity that aids poor people in Africa, against former U.S. Sen. William Armstrong, R-Colo., president of Colorado Christian and a pillar of the religious right.
Armstrong fired Paquin from a position teaching global studies at the end of the spring semester amid concerns that his lessons were too radical and undermined the school's commitment to the free enterprise system.
Paquin assigned works by Jim Wallis, who writes from the Christian left, and Peter Singer, an atheist and animal rights activist.
Armstrong won't discuss Paquin's case specifically, but he says free enterprise is fundamental to the school's philosophy.
Ted Olsen has written a helpful post on this issue. By the way, this is the same Colorado Christian University that is appealing a recent federal judge's order upholding a state education commission's decision to deny tuition assistance to its students because it deems the university to be "pervasively sectarian."
Hillary Clinton joined a Las Vegas nurse for her shift as part of the "Walk a Day in my Shoes" campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Some coverage of the event is here. Senators Edwards, Obama, Dodd have already participated in the campaign, as has Governor Bill Richardson. According to SEIU, Senator Biden and Governor Mike Huckabee also have committed to participate.
For anyone interested in following the dustup over Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's new homemaking program (please do NOT make me explain it), check out this round-up of news and views from SBC Outpost.
Speaking of Karl Rove's legacies, here's more from Marc Ambinder on Rove:
The Agnostic
I could be wrong here, but I distinctly recall conversations with Rove friends who've told me that his struggles with faith did not lead him to Jesus Christ. Yet he knew and understood how to interact with (and manipulate, at times) the standard-bearers of the evangelical right and the Catholic conservative intellectual elite; he studied them like a sociologist; he knew their language, totems and insecurities, and in the White House, he used the powers of government to give them their voice and to fill their ego-needs.
Do you share my sense of depression when hearing about the ability of governmental officials to manipulate religious leaders based on those leaders' "ego-needs"? It makes me feel sick. From what I've seen, Rove took this technique to new heights, but other White Houses and governmental officials from both sides of the aisle have certainly plied the same trade.
The fact that politicians and government leaders have done these things is no big surprise. The big surprise, and the great disappointment, is when religious leaders are willing participants in the system. When religious leaders aren't somehow different from the crowd, at least a little less susceptible to ego-stroking and political manipulation, it's a serious problem.
UPDATE: The point of this post was never to comment one way or the other on Karl Rove's personal faith commitments or lack thereof -- that's between Rove and God. But since I quoted Marc Ambinder's remark on that score, I want to pass on the following report from a reader who is a minister and a longtime resident of Austin, Texas. The reader writes: When he lived in Texas, Karl Rove "was an active member of St. Michael’s Episcopal church, one of the more progressive churches in Austin."
Continue reading "The First Shall Be Last, and Other Notions Foreign to Washington (Updated)" »
I disagree with a number of things in David Frum's piece on Karl Rove, but this part about the faith-based initiative rings true to me:
Instead of seeking solutions to national problems, “compassionate conservatism” started with slogans and went searching for problems to justify them. To what problem, exactly, was the faith-based initiative a solution?
Postscript: The point I was trying to make here (and, on reflection, I don't think my one-word answer plus a link was the best way to attempt to make it) is that, when the faith-based initiative was rolled out, some of the slogans associated with it did not come with evidence to support them. I discuss one of those slogans at the link.
Of course, the problem of poverty is quite real and must be tackled. And I should note that the proponents of the faith-based initiative that I have personally met are sincere in their belief that the initiative is a key way to solve that problem. However much I disagree with them over parts of the initiative, I want to recognize that fact.
Continue reading "Frum: Starting with Slogans and Searching for Problems to Justify Them" »
Here's an interesting comment from Brady Boyd, the minister who has been recommended as the new senior pastor of New Life Church. As you will recall, Ted Haggard, former head of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), led that church until recently.
Nine months after influential US evangelist Ted Haggard was disgraced in a gay sex scandal, the man poised to take his place in the pulpit says he plans to steer clear of overt politics and focus on the Bible instead.
"I believe Christians need to be good citizens. . . . But I will not take near the active political role that Ted did," Brady Boyd, recommended by a search committee to be the new senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said in an interview. . . .
"I will encourage people to be involved in the political process but I will not touch on hot-button political issues because I do not think that is the role of the pulpit," said Boyd, a 40-year-old preacher now based at Gateway Church in Southlake, an affluent town near Dallas.
Of course, Boyd will not be the head of NAE, as Ted Haggard was. (Leith Anderson currently serves as president of NAE.) And it should be noted that Boyd's comments seem to reflect concern about what is appropriate commentary from the pulpit in particular.
Nevertheless, the statement does underscore the fact that, while there is a drive to broaden the call to action on policy issues (i.e., broaden the number of issues that merit policy engagement) within some parts of the reform-minded evangelical community, other reform-minded evangelicals appear to want to take a large step back from policy activism as a whole. Over time, it will be interesting to see how these two differing impulses shape the ranks of reformer evangelicals.
The Hudson Institute hosted a discussion on this topic last week. The two speakers were Robert Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen, and Pablo Eisenberg, a Georgetown University scholar. Each wrote essays for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that helped kick off the discussion. A transcript of the discussion is here; the audio is here. Hudson's description of the event appears below the fold.
Continue reading ""Should Nonprofit Organizations Play an Active Role In Election Campaigns?"" »
Here's an excerpt from a story about this matter in today's Times Picayune:
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court here Monday to stop Louisiana from making taxpayer-financed donations to two churches.
The gifts targeted in the case -- $100,000 to the Stonewall Baptist Church in Bossier City and $20,000 to Shreveport Christian Church -- are among 14 appropriations that individual state lawmakers requested for churches in the new state operating budget signed into law last month by Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
Charging that earmarking church-related grants in the state budget is unconstitutional and that the purposes of the grants are only vaguely described, the ACLU in late June asked Blanco to veto them all, warning the dispute could end up in court otherwise.
According to the ACLU, the state in certain circumstances can give money to religious organizations for some programs that provide nonreligious social services, but the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars the government from making direct, unrestricted cash payments to churches.
Continue reading "ACLU Lawsuit Over Louisiana Earmarks to Churches" »
Today's Washington Post editorializes on the Inspector General's report (pdf) regarding the Department of Defense's interaction with the Christian Embassy. Here's how the editorial begins:
The Pentagon's inspector general has concluded that seven current or former military officers, including two major generals and the Pentagon chaplain, violated ethics rules when they appeared in uniform in a promotional and fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy. The report on Christian Embassy, an offshoot of Campus Crusade for Christ that recruits diplomats, government leaders and military officers, underscores the need for Pentagon officials, both uniformed and civilian, to be more careful about mixing religious activities with government duties.
Free exercise of religion doesn't stop at the entrance to the Pentagon or other government buildings; it's appropriate for Christian Embassy to hold prayer breakfasts and fellowship meetings at the Pentagon as long as other religious groups have similar opportunities. But especially in the military, with its emphasis on rank and discipline, those at senior levels need to ensure that their actions are not seen as a government endorsement of a particular religion.
Some of my earlier posts on the Christian Embassy video are here, here, and here.
That's former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, describing his second-place finish in the Iowa straw poll. Here's more on the story from Marc Ambinder:
The second flight out of Ames belongs to Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who manifestly did not spend nearly as much as third-place finisher Sam Brownback and who has been dogged by questions about his ability to harness his support.
“We had two fish and five loaves and it fed 5,000,” Huckabee said of his victory.
Whether Huckabee leverages his finish to raise money and enhance his profile remains to be seen. Huckabee has been allergic to high dollar fundraising and has virtually no presence on the Internet.
Michael Farris, a Huckabee adviser who runs the Home School Legal Defense Fund, said Huckabee’s campaign has existed on a “shoe-string budget” so far. “But it just goes to show that he is the best communicator in this race.”
And Salon reports:
An ordained Baptist minister, [Huckabee] is vocal about his religious beliefs, unassailably pro-life, a skeptic of evolution and an opponent of gay marriage. He was helped at the straw poll by supporters of Christian home-schooling, and the poll results may mean that Huckabee, at least on Saturday, won the duel with Brownback for evangelical voters, who will loom large in the upcoming caucus.
UPDATE: Two more items of interest on this score. There's a video on Huckabee's website regarding his record on homeschooling issues. It includes testimonials from homeschoolers and closes with a plea for Iowans to support Huckabee in the straw poll. And, in the space below, I've pasted in the text of an open letter signed by Mike Farris explaining his endorsement of Huckabee and urging Iowans to support Huckabee's candidacy by participating in the straw poll.
ANOTHER UPDATE (8/14): More from Marc Ambinder on this issue:
Here's another source of Huckabee's strength [in Iowa]: home schoolers. It's true -- a campaign tells me that national home school advocate Michael Farris helped to organize a train of car poolers for Iowa homeschools and points out that Huckabee had two breakfast meetings on Saturday morning with some of his more ardent home-school-parent supporters.
I'm on vacation in beautiful Colorado this week. I had intended to do some blogging, but now that I'm here I've decided against it. Have a good week. I'll be back on Monday, August 13.
I'll be on the road today and tomorrow with little, if any, time to write. The following are some links to stories or essays of interest:
Court Permits Pharmacist to Sue Employer for Religious Discrimination
Scholarship Litigant Gets Offer of Aid (West Virginia University student who is suing to get back Promise Scholarship)
ABC News on Jesus Painting in Slidell Court House (via Ed Brayton)
Obama Calls for Military Shift in U.S. Focus on Terrorism (the speech is here)
Faith-based Initiative Backfires by Christopher Ringwald (op-ed)
Michael Gerson on Mitt Romney, Mormonism, and the Presidency (op-ed)
Obama Readies "Faith Forums" in South Carolina
Concerned Roman Catholics of American to Demonstrate at Knights of Columbus Meeting
Dems Go to School to Reach Young Evangelicals
Baptists Today Launches a Blog (The blog is here)
United Methodist News Reports on Website for Female Clergy (The website is Rev GalBlogPals)
"A pastor from a suburban Dallas megachurch will try out for the senior pastor post at New Life Church, which has seen its attendance drop by 25 percent after the firing of disgraced church founder Ted Haggard." Here's more fromt the story: "Brady Boyd, 40, an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, will preach at the Colorado Springs church on Aug. 12, 19, and 26. Two-thirds of the congregation must approve his appointment when it votes Aug. 27."
From the Associated Press:
Republican presidential hopeful Sam Brownback said rival Mike Huckabee should apologize for a supporter's ''prejudiced whisper campaign'' against him for being Catholic.
Huckabee issued a statement Tuesday night that didn't apologize for the remarks but said they were neither approved nor condoned by his campaign. He said he was glad that the supporter had issued his own apology and clarification.
The supporter, a pastor in Windsor Heights, Iowa, had sent an e-mail to Brownback supporters pointing out that Huckabee is an evangelical Protestant and Brownback is not. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, is an ordained Baptist minister.
''I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002,'' Rev. Tim Rude, pastor of Walnut Creek Community Church, wrote in the e-mail. ''Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the governor's.''
In the e-mail, Rude calls Huckabee ''one of us.''
The Huckabee supporter apologized and said the comments were made in what he thought was a private e-mail. The story is here. Via Jesus Politics, I see that Marc Ambinder has posted the text of the e-mail.
UPDATE: I'm still not finding time to write about this e-mail. Perhaps I'll have the opportunity to do so later. In any case, be sure to read it.