c. 1997 Religion News Service
High Court strikes tax breaks for in-state charities
(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday (May 19) that states cannot discriminate in levying property taxes between charities, including religious groups, primarily serving out-of-state clients and those serving state residents.
In a 5-4 decision, the court overturned a Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling against a summer camp operated by the Christian Science Church, in which 95 percent of the attendees were from out of state. A $30,000 property tax had been levied on the camp that was not imposed on charities whose clients were primarily from within the state.
A coalition of religious groups _ led by the Christian Legal Society (CLC) and including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, World Relief, and the International Union of Gospel Missions _ had filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that religious liberty would be”seriously at stake”if the High Court ruled against the Christian Science camp.”By striking Maine’s law, the court slammed the door against state assaults on the skimpy coffers of charities nationwide,”said Steven McFarland, director of the CLC’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom.”Otherwise, we could have expected revenue-hungry states and cities to tax all but the smallest of charities.” The Supreme Court’s opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who argued such discriminatory practice would never be permitted in profit-making corporations.
The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, argued the Maine law was merely a way of supporting charitable activities designed to improve that state.
Report:”Pseudo-asylum”brings global flow of refugees to seven-year low
(RNS) Shrinking expectations of safe haven contributed in part to a declining global flow of refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced people, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) said Tuesday (May 20) in its annual survey on the status of the world’s displaced people.
The 1997 World Refugee Survey reported there were 34 million refugees around the world in 1996, a seven-year low.
In addition to shrinking expectations, the report said repatriations _ both voluntary and involuntary _ of nearly 2 million to Rwanda, other African countries and Afghanistan was another contributing factor in lowering the flow of refugees.
The United States and Germany, along with more than a dozen other countries, were reported to have”damaged asylum principles in 1996″through measures restricting asylum seekers, according to the report.”This pseudo-asylum not only endangers the lives and well-being of refugees, but threatens to kill the principle of asylum itself,”said Roger Winter, director of the USCR, in a statement released with the report.
The United States ranked ninth on a list of 1996 donors to international refugee agencies on a per capita basis, the report said. However, it led the list of donor countries, giving $389 million.
Two former Citadel cadets allege use of Nazi symbols, phrases
(RNS) The company to which three of the four women admitted to The Citadel last year were assigned regularly used Nazi symbols as”badges of honor,”two former male cadets said Monday (May 19).
The two males, who graduated last spring after being disciplined for failing to disclose the hazing of two of the female cadets, filed federal court documents alleging that Echo Company displayed swastikas and other Nazi symbols on T-shirts and in lockers, the Associated Press reported.
Craig Belsole and Dan Eggars, the two graduates, were both members of Echo Company while at The Citadel. They claim the company referred to itself as”Stalag”_ German for prison _ and that members regularly used the phrase”Echo Uber Alles”_”Echo (Company) Above All”_ which is a variation of a Nazi German slogan.
Belsole and Eggars also said a metal file locker displayed a picture depicting a young man giving a Nazi salute.
The two women from Echo Company who left the Charleston, S.C., military college never publicly mentioned Nazi emblems, and Citadel spokesman Terry Leedom said,”I believe I have been in every company in the place and I have never seen a swastika.”
Two Jesuit human rights workers murdered in Colombia
(RNS) Two human rights workers _ one a former Jesuit priest _ were murdered by gunmen who posed as federal investigators in Bogota, Colombia.
The Associated Press reported that at least five men stormed the apartment of Elsa Constanza Alvarado, 36, and her common-law husband, Mario Calderon, 50, on Monday (May 19).
The couple worked for a Jesuit-funded social research group, the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP), that specializes in investigating human rights abuses in the country. Calderon, the former priest, had been with the group for more than 15 years, and Alvarado was a spokeswoman for human rights projects before she resigned last October.
CINEP blamed right-wing paramilitary groups for the murders, basing its charge on the style of the crime _ the victims were forced to their knees and then shot with submachine guns.
Conservative dean named chair of gambling commission
(RNS) Kay Coles James, an administrator at Regent University, the school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, was appointed chairwoman Tuesday (May 20) of the nine-member federal commission that will study the impact of legalized gambling on U.S. communities.
James, a prominent conservative activist and currently dean of the school of government at the Virginia Beach, Va., university, was named chair by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., the Associated Press reported. She was one of Gingrich’s choices for the commission.
The commission will conduct a two-year study.
The American Gaming Association objected to James’ appointment, claiming she would bias the panel against legalized gambling. “Certainly, it would have been fairer to Kay Coles James and other members of the commission to have selected as chairman someone neutral on gaming, rather than someone who is morally opposed to it,”said association president Frank Fahrenkopf.
One hundred British Catholic women consecrated as virgins
(RNS) One hundred Roman Catholic women, ranging in age from 21 to 65, held a special Mass in Plymouth, England, on Monday (May 19) to celebrate their consecration as virgins in the church.
The ancient practice, which involves taking vows and pledges to devote themselves to good works and a life of prayer but without becoming nuns, had only returned to Britain in the 1970s, after remaining unused for centuries, the Associated Press reported.
The Mass was organized by Elizabeth Bailey, who in 1972 reportedly became the first British consecrated virgin in modern times.
Quote of the day: U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Edward Elson
(RNS) Earlier this month, a couple in New York, one of whom was from Denmark, was arrested by police after leaving their child in a stroller unattended outside a restaurant, a common practice in Denmark. The publicity surrounding the case led to an exchange between Charles Gibson of ABC’s”Good Morning America”and Edward Elson, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, in which Elson explained why Danes do not fear crime the way Americans do:”Well, you see, the Danes have a deep sense of religion. Although it is 98 percent Lutheran and 2 percent church attendance, nevertheless, it’s 100 percent religious.”
MJP END RNS
