c. 2000 Religion News Service

Florida Judge Rules State’s Voucher Program Unconstitutional

(RNS) A Florida judge ruled Tuesday (March 14) that the state’s new school voucher program violates Florida’s constitution.

“Tax dollars may not be used to send the children of this state to private schools,” Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. of Tallahassee said in his ruling.

Smith allowed the 53 students who have moved from public elementary schools to private schools to remain where they are for the rest of the school year. The state plans to appeal the decision, according to news reports.

The Florida program had permitted students at schools considered to be failing to seek vouchers of up to $3,389 to help pay for schooling at parochial or other private schools.

Groups that have been critical of voucher programs welcomed the decision.

“Florida officials can’t get around their constitutional duty to Florida’s schoolchildren by passing the buck to private and religious schools,” said Ralph Neas, president of the Washington-based People for the American Way Foundation, which is a co-counsel in the case. “It’s time for Florida to put its money where the kids are _ in the public schools.”

An official of the American Jewish Congress called the decision a “welcome affirmation” that taxpayer funds belong in public, not private, schools.

“This ill-advised program sent out the message that the public schools have failed and nothing can fix them,” said Paul Breitner, chair of the Commission on Law and Social Action of the congress’s Southeast region, which is based in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

The American Civil Liberties Union hopes the decision will lead to different changes in educational programs.

“It is now time for the Legislature and the governor to go back to the drawing board to develop real education reforms, rather than relying on vouchers that are unconstitutional and damage the public school system on which most Florida families depend,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, in a statement.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush vowed to fight the decision.

“This is the first inning of a long, drawn-out legal battle,” he said, according to news reports.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, agreed that the decision “is not the last word on school vouchers.”

“This issue will eventually be settled in the U.S. Supreme Court, and a decision can’t come too soon,” he said in a statement.

Update: Putin Responds to Congress on Anti-Semitism

(RNS) Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin, responding to members of the U.S. Congress who expressed concern about anti-Semitism in his country, said the “protection of the rights and interests of all citizens irrespective of their nationality and religious beliefs is one of the main constitutional principles” in Russia.

“Any signs of anti-Semitism are considered an inadmissible display of aggressive nationalism incompatible with civilized society in Russia,” Putin said in his response, the Associated Press reported.

Putin’s Wednesday (March 15) remarks were a reply to a letter he received from members of Congress encouraging him to “make fighting anti-Semitism one of the priorities of your new administration.”

The letter, dated March 9 and signed by 98 senators and 92 members of the House of Representatives, was sent by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Gordon H. Smith, R-Ore., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs and a commissioner on the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets.

“Anti-Semitism in Russia must not become a weapon in the struggle for power by political parties,” the letter read. “Indecisive actions on the part of the Russian government only further feed the belief that hate is an allowable and integral component of political life. The hate-filled rhetoric of a number of Communist Party leaders, some of whom retain important parliamentary positions, must be condemned by your strong deed and word.”

Update: `Sweat Lodge’ Inmate Executed

(RNS) California has executed a convicted killer whose request to perform a religious last rite at a sweat lodge on prison grounds was rejected by a district court judge Monday (March 13).

Darrell Rich, 45, died early Wednesday (March 15). He had been convicted of murdering three women and killing an 11-year-old girl by hurling her more than 100 feet from a bridge in the late 1970s, the Associated Press reported.

Before his execution, Rich, who was part Cherokee, petitioned the court for permission to participate in a Native American sweat lodge ceremony to purify his spirit.

Rich told the court the ceremony _ in which fire-heated rocks are doused with water as participants pray _ was “critical for making amends and preparing to meet my Maker, my ancestors, and those person I have harmed during my time on Earth,” and without it “I will not be spiritually purified to enter the Spirit World, and my spirit will not successfully pass over to the Spirit World.”

State prosecutors opposing the request filed an affidavit citing a Cherokee Nation policy statement that said the sweat lodge ceremony is not a part of Cherokee tradition.

Prison officials said they were concerned about security risks during the ceremony, because Rich would have been inside the sweat lodge unrestrained with a rake and shovel.

Orthodox and Lutheran Theologians Urge Common Date for Easter

(RNS) An Orthodox-Lutheran group is urging Christians around the world to adopt a common date for the observance of Easter and Pascha, as the Orthodox Easter is known, and endorsed a 1997 statement calling for a study of the proposal before the observance arrives in the year 2001.

“We pledge to one another, and to our other ecumenical partners, that we will continue to seek reconciliation between all Christians in this matter,” said the U.S. Orthodox-Lutheran Dialogue in their endorsement of the Aleppo Statement, created in 1997 at a meeting organized by the Middle East Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches and endorsed also by the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation.

“Our dialogue therefore urges our churches to give the Aleppo Statement serious attention.”

The group said consideration should be given to the Orthodox view that Easter should come after Passover, which according to the New Testament falls the day after Jesus was crucified _ Friday _ and the day before he rose from the dead, Sunday.

Christian churches in the East and those in the West have long been divided about when to celebrate Easter.

Both Eastern and Western churches have followed the decree of the Council of Nicea since the fourth century, which said the observance should fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. But the date of the equinox is calculated differently in Western and Orthodox Christian churches because the two use different calendars. Western churches use the 16th century Gregorian calendar while Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar.

This year, Easter will be celebrated on April 30 among Orthodox churches, and on April 23 among Christians in the West. Both churches will mark the observance on April 15 in the year 2001 _ an ideal time for all Christians to start adopting a common date for Easter/Pascha, the Aleppo Statement said.

The statement proposes permitting churches to continue marking the date of Easter according to the Council of Nicea, but suggests Christians arrive at a common date each year by using “the most accurate astronomical scientific knowledge” available to determine the date of the vernal equinox.

Serb Bishops Say No Communion for Doctors Performing Abortions

(RNS) Concerned about a declining birthrate among Serbs, the highest body of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the former Yugoslavia has issued a letter asking priests to withhold Holy Communion from physicians, midwives and other medical professionals who perform abortions, which are legal in Serbia, the independent Beta news agency reported.

“Abortion is a grievous sin before God, condemned by the Scriptures,” said the March 15 letter from the Holy Synod. “As such, it threatens the entire Serbian nation with biological extermination.”

The Synod’s letter, issued as the Orthodox Lent _ a 40-day period of penitence preceding April 30 (the Orthodox Easter) _ arrived, maintained that Holy Communion should be withheld until the medical professionals perform penitence.

Indiana Governor Signs Ten Commandments Law

(RNS) Indiana Gov. Frank O’Bannon signed legislation Tuesday (March 14) that permits government entities, including schools, to post the Ten Commandments in their buildings along with other historical documents.

O’Bannon, a Democrat, said a new monument will be erected on the grounds of the Statehouse this summer that will feature the commandments, the Bill of Rights and the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union argues the law, which takes effect July 1, violates the constitutional separation of church and state. It is likely to sue shortly after the monument is in place, the Associated Press reported.

“Obviously we will have an obligation to get involved in litigation, and if the court rules we are right and the Legislature was wrong, it’s going to cost the taxpayer an awful lot of money,” said John Krull, executive director of the group.

He recommends that schools and governments hold off on displaying the commandments in their buildings.

But O’Bannon said in a statement that he believes the law is constitutional.

“For more than three decades, a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments stood on the Statehouse lawn as a reminder of some of our nation’s core values,” he said. “Soon those words will stand alongside the abiding principles of our form of government, especially its protections of individual rights.”

The old monument, erected in 1958, was removed in 1991 after it was the subject of vandalism.

Bishop Says Changed View of Bible Will Alter Church Stance on Gays

(RNS) Churches’ attitudes toward homosexuality will change only if such a change is seen as compatible with Scripture, Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford, England, told gay and lesbian Christians in London in the first of a series of five Lenten talks organized by Action for Gay and Lesbian Ordination.

“The most crucial issue in the Church of England and the other churches at the moment is the interpretation of Scripture,” said Harries, chairman of the Church of England’s Board for Social Responsibility and a member of the bishops’ working party on sexuality issues.

“There is no hope at all of any kind of change in the present attitude of the Church of England unless the strong evangelical community can be convinced that Scripture is pointing in that direction,” the bishop added. “It is no good simply arguing on the basis of human rights or one’s own experience or whatever. In the end, if a change is going to take place, it will have to be because evangelical Christians are convinced that that is in fact the way Scripture is to be interpreted, that the mind of Christ in Scripture points in that direction.”

Parallels the bishop adduced included the early church’s acceptance of Gentiles without their having to become Jews first, which could have been seen as against the plain sense of Scripture, and the realization that slavery and the subjugation of women were wrong.

“The Bible was misused, on the basis of certain texts, for centuries to justify slavery and to justify the subjugation of women,” he said.

Settlement Reached in Suit Charging That Counselor Aided Teen’s Abortion

(RNS) The parents who charged that a Pennsylvania public school guidance counselor helped their daughter get a secret abortion have settled their lawsuit with him and the school district.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Howard and Marie Carter of the Philadelphia suburb of Hatboro, announced the settlement on Wednesday (March 15).

Under the terms of the settlement, the Hatboro-Horsham School District will issue a directive declaring that school district employees cannot encourage students to get an abortion or help them to obtain an abortion.

In their lawsuit, the parents had charged that their daughter, then 17, was assisted by guidance counselor William Hickey in getting an abortion in New Jersey. Pennsylvania law required consent of a parent or a judicial exemption for a minor to undergo an abortion while New Jersey did not require parental consent.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of this case and are confident that this settlement agreement will prevent future occurrences of the outrageous conduct exhibited by school officials that was the basis of our lawsuit,” said John Stepanovich, senior regional counsel for the ACLJ, a public interest law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Stepanovich, who is based in Virginia Beach, Va., said he hopes the new policy will “protect other families from having a pro-abortion government wedge driven between parent and child at the time they need each other most.”

As part of the settlement agreement, Hickey and the school district agreed to pay the Carters $20,000. The settlement states that the payment “shall not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing by defendants.”

The school district referred calls regarding the matter to the district’s solicitor, who was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

The Carters, whose daughter graduated from high school in June 1999, said in a statement that they hope their now-settled lawsuit will help other families.

“If even one girl is encouraged to turn to her parents instead of a New Jersey abortion clinic _ and if even one baby lives because of this policy _ then it was worth the fight,” they said.

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Sharon Delgado, executive director of Earth Justice Ministries

(RNS) “Each time we install an energy-efficient light bulb, it can be an act of faithfulness. Each time we ride our bike or take a bus or walk, instead of driving, it is a spiritual victory.”

The Rev. Sharon Delgado, executive director of Earth Justice Ministries, an ecumenical organization based in Santa Cruz, Calif., writing in materials distributed by the United Methodist Church ahead of Earth Day, which will be celebrated April 22. She was quoted by United Methodist News Service.