c. 1997 Religion News Service

Court says landlords can refuse renting to unmarried couples

(RNS) A federal court in Alaska has ruled that landlords who believe that sex outside of marriage is a sin may refuse to rent their properties to unmarried couples.

In a case involving three landlords who argued that renting to unmarried couples would violate their religious beliefs, U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland said city and state laws banning rental discrimination on the basis of marital status are unconstitutional.

Holland’s 30-page opinion, released on Saturday (Jan. 25), said that protecting religious beliefs under the First Amendment outweighed the government’s interests in preventing rental discrimination, the Associated Press reported.

The judge said that under the legal codes, religious landlords were being forced to choose between complying with the law or following their religious beliefs.”The burden here is more than merely economic; it directly forbids plaintiffs from conforming to their religious convictions,”Holland wrote.

The case was brought by three conservative Christian landlords who argued that the government should not force them to rent to people who engage in activities they consider sinful.

The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission and the Alaska Human Rights Commission were defendants in the case.

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by Congress in 1993, governments must demonstrate a strong or”compelling”reason for adopting general laws that may place burdens on some religious believers.

Attorneys for the Christian landlords argued that the Alaska laws did not meet this test, since the majority of landlords in Alaska rent to unmarried couples. Defendants argued that civil rights concerns should outweigh religious concerns because a ruling in favor of the landlords could prompt a flood of new rental discriminations.

In a similar case in 1994, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of unmarried tenants. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that ruling, but lawyers said they also expect this case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The issue has been a controversial one across the nation. A California Supreme Court decision forbidding landlords to discriminate on the basis of marital status is currently being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Courts in Massachusetts and other jurisdictions have ruled in favor of landlords in similar cases.

Pope plans to beatify first Gypsy

(RNS) Pope John Paul II plans to beatify a Gypsy killed for his faith during the Spanish Civil War, marking the first time a member of that ethnic group would be honored with the first step toward possible sainthood.

Ceferino Jimenez Malla is scheduled to be beatified as a martyr on May 4, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (Jan. 29).

He was shot by forces defending the Republican government in 1936, said Enrique Jimenez, a spokesman for Spain’s Bishop’s Conference.

Republican forces killed many priests because the Roman Catholic Church had an alliance with late fascist dictator Gen. Francisco Franco. Franco’s nationalist rebellion sparked the civil war, which began in 1936 and ended in 1939.

Jimenez Malla was born in Benavent de Segria, a northeastern Spanish village, in 1861. He led a nomadic life before settling in the northern town of Barbastro, where he was prominent for his assistance to the poor.

Republican forces imprisoned him for defending a priest who had been detained in Barbastro. Later, Jimenez Malla was executed because he refused to renounce his faith, said Gabriel Campo Villegas, a priest in the town who has urged the church consider Jimenez Malla for beatification.

Gypsies, who live in most European countries, have descended from wandering people believed to have come from India. There are about 1 million Gypsies in Spain and they are are among the country’s poorest people.

Parental rights amendment defeated in Virginia

(RNS) A proposed parental rights amendment to the Virginia Constitution has been narrowly defeated in the state’s Senate.

Christian conservatives had pushed for the amendment, which was defeated 21-19 on Tuesday (Jan. 28). The vote split along party lines, with one Republican siding with the Democrats to tip the scale against the measure.

Supporters vowed to introduce the amendment again next year and make it a gubernatorial election issue in November.”This is a war, not just a battle,”said Robert C. Heckman, a senior vice president at Of the People, an organization based in Arlington, Va., that is pushing such measures in states across the nation.

The defeated measure held that”the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.”It was heavily supported by the Christian Coalition, which is based in Virginia.

The coalition mailed 15,000 postcards to supporters urging them to attend a rally that preceded a hearing on the issue last week, according to The Washington Post. About 700 people attended the rally.

Parental rights measures have been introduced in about 28 states across the nation, but the legislation has yet to gain approval in any of them. Last November, Colorado voters defeated a parental rights ballot initiative.

In Washington, Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.) is directing the effort to get a national parental rights bill approved.

Supporters of the measures say passage would insure that parents and not government officials have the last word on a host of issues involving children.

They argue that the measures would guarantee them access to their childrens’ school, library or health records and would prevent state employees from administering any psychological or physical tests without parental permission.

Critics say the measures amount to a stealth campaign on the part of religious conservatives to influence school curriculums and textbooks, and end such controversial programs as the distribution of condoms in schools. They also maintain that parental rights amendments could prevent authorities from fully investigating child abuse cases or dealing with outbreaks of disease.

Russian Catholics receive first catechism in their own language

(RNS) Russian Catholics, long persecuted under the former Soviet Union, received the first catechism in their own language Tuesday (Jan. 28).

Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the Vatican’s apostolic administrator, said at a Vatican news conference that he hoped the volume, which codifies the Catholic faith, would aid in”the renewal of spiritual life”in Russia, the Reuter news agency reported.

The translation took almost four years to finish following the 1992 publication of the new”Catechism of the Catholic Church,”the first major summary of the sacraments and beliefs of the Catholic faith in more than 400 years.

The catechism has become an international best seller, with more than 7 million copies in print. It has been published in most major Western languages.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said he hopes the Russian-language catechism will help improve the sometimes difficult relations the Catholic Church has with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Catholic and Orthodox Churches in the former Soviet Union have been embroiled in disputes over the return of Catholic property confiscated under communism, some of which has gone to the Orthodox, and Orthodox Christians claim that Catholics are using the nation’s new religious freedoms to proselytize Orthodox believers.

Kondrusiewicz said there were now 91 parishes in European Russia to serve 300,000 Catholics but about half do not yet have churches or chapels.

New York legislators reject casino gambling measure

(RNS) The New York state Senate Tuesday (Jan. 28) voted down a measure that would have opened the way for casino gambling to be introduced in the Empire State.

If the state Senate had passed the bill, the issue would have been taken to voters statewide in a November referendum.

The measure proposed allowing casino gambling in four New York tourist areas, including Niagara Falls and at Catskill Mountains resorts. But after four hours of debate, state senators voted 41-19 against the plan.”The bill is dead for this year and will not be reconsidered,”a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno told the Associated Press.

Church groups were among those leading the opposition. Gambling supporters had claimed that New York could earn billions of dollars enticed from gambling industries in New Jersey and Connecticut. But opponents claimed that the potential revenue would not justify the social ills and crime that they said accompany gambling.

Quote of the Day: Christian singer-turned-heavy-metal rocker Pat Boone

(RNS) Pat Boone, the 62-year-old Christian singer, released a recording of heavy-metal music this week called”Pat Boone in a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy.”Although the project was sparked by a joke, Boone _ who appeared in biker gear during Monday’s American Music Awards _ said in USA Today that he was intrigued when he listened to heavy-metal groups such as Megadeth, Ratt, Metallica and Black Sabbath:”Like many people, I had written off heavy metal as angry, rebellious and discordant. But when I got into it, I found gems, real nuggets. I’ve found prophetic warnings in Megadeth that remind me of the prophet Jeremiah.”

MJP END RNS