c. 2000 Religion News Service
Kentucky House Passes Ten Commandments Bill
(RNS) The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday (March 29) that would allow schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms and calls for teachers to teach about the influence of Christianity on the country, the Associated Press reported.
The bill, which has already cleared the state Senate, now heads to Democrat Gov. Paul Patton for his signature. A spokesman for the governor said it was premature to say if the governor would sign the bill.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 33-2. The governor’s spokesman said “when a strong majority approves such a measure, he (the governor) is inclined to accept it as public policy.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has already said it will contest the bill. The ACLU has already filed suit against two Kentucky counties who posted the commandments in classrooms as a sign of support for the bill.
As part of the legislation, a statehouse monument for the Ten Commandments would be taken out of storage and replaced in the Capitol. It was removed in the late 1980s to make room for construction. The ACLU said it would also protest the monument.
“Our belief is that the monument would represent government’s promotion of religion, which is forbidden by the First Amendment,” said Jeff Vessels, executive director of the ACLU in Kentucky.
Kentucky House Votes to Allow Guns in Churches
(RNS) The Kentucky House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 29) approved a bill that allows anyone with a permit to carry a concealed deadly weapon to church, expanding a 1998 law that allowed only pastors or church officials to do so, according to the Associated Press.
The proposal was approved 53-31. Sixteen members of the House did not vote.
The bill was originally designed to permit police departments to destroy confiscated weapons instead of auctioning them. Despite protests from the bill’s original sponsor, Rep. Eleanor Jordan, D-Louisville, another member, Rep. J.R. Gray, changed the proposal to mandate that confiscated guns be given to state police after 90 days for auction,
The state Senate then added its own provision to Gray’s bill _ Jordan had her name removed _ allowing concealed weapons inside churches.
House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark voted against the bill, contending it had been “hijacked in the Senate.”
But Gray denied any wrongdoing.
“There’s nothing been done behind anybody’s back,” he said. “I only followed the rules of the legislature.”
Rep. Kathy Stein criticized the proposal, and said she believed the gun lobby was “crowing about the successes they have had with this General Assembly.”
“It’s clear the NRA (National Rifle Association) has not only the Senate but this body in their pocket,” said Stein.
New Hampshire House Defeats Bill Banning Recognition of Gay Marriages
(RNS) The New Hampshire House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 29) defeated a bill that would have prohibited the state from legally recognizing same-sex unions recognized in other states, according to the Associated Press.
Opponents of the bill said it was unnecessary since same-sex marriages are not currently recognized in any state, and such marriages are banned under New Hampshire state law.
“There is no such thing as a same-sex marriage in New Hampshire or any place in the Union and maybe the world,” said Republican Rep. David Bickford, who voted against the bill. “Our public policy in New Hampshire is we don’t allow same-sex marriage.”
But supporters of the bill, introduced by Republican Rep. Gary Torressen, said that even though state law bars same-sex marriages, it doesn’t go far enough since the law does not specifically refuse to recognize same-sex marriages that are legal in other states.
“Defend the basic structure of society before this gets out of hand,” said one of the bill’s supporters, Rep. Richard Kennedy.
The bill was defeated in a 232-128 vote.
Supreme Court Upholds Bans on Nude Dancing
(RNS) In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday (March 29) that communities may ban nude dancing in bars without violating the First Amendment,and chose to reinstate a 1994 Pennsylvania law that criminalized nude performances in public places such as “taverns, restaurants, clubs and theaters,” according to the Associated Press.
“This ruling confirms that communities have a right to take action against the sex exploitation industry when it moves in and destroys neighborhoods,” said Len Munsil, who helped write the Erie., Pa., law upheld by the Court. “Families and neighborhoods have a right to be free from the negative effects of sex clubs. We’re thrilled that the Supreme Court believes a community’s right to decency outweighs the tenuous claim that exploiting your body is a free speech issue.”
While nude dancing is “expressive conduct,” it falls “only within the outer ambit” of First Amendment protection, wrote Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in a majority opinion that ruled communities did not violate First Amendment free speech protections in prohibiting nude dancing.
The Court also concluded that the Erie law _ reinstated by justices in a 6-3 vote _ does not violate the First Amendment because it promotes the city’s “interest in combatting the negative secondary effects associated with adult entertainment establishes,” such as crime.
The ruling overturned a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that invalidated the Erie ordinance, which was challenged in 1994 by the owners of Kandyland, a nude-dancing bar in Erie.
Citing the “traditional power of government to foster good morals,” Justice Antonin Scalia, supported by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote a separate opinion agreeing with O’Connor’s decision. Justice David H. Souter supported the ban on nude dancing as well, but added that he thought Erie needed to better prove its anti-nude dancing statute was designed to counter “real harms.”
Justice John Paul Stevens, joined in a dissent by Souter and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, disagreed with the majority decision, writing that the ruling justified “the total suppression of protected speech” in the name of deterring effects such as crime.
The law, said Stevens, should be held “patently invalid” because it was “aimed directly at the dancers in establishments such as Kandyland.”
“Indeed, the plurality opinion concludes that admittedly trivial advancements of a state’s interests may provide the basis for censorship,” he wrote.
John H. Weston, an attorney who represented Kandyland, said he thought the court’s decision would spark similar crackdowns on nude dancing elsewhere, but doubted whether such bans would be effective.
“Sexually-oriented businesses will always thrive,” said Weston, adding that the court’s ruling may make it necessary for communities to “defend their assumptions” that crime is a secondary effect of public nude dancing.
Chicago Church Pays to Witness to Prostitutes
(RNS) A Catholic church in Chicago has adopted a unique mission: it plans to pay prostitutes and drug dealers to listen to the Gospel, the Associated Press reported.
“We have to be willing to try radically new ways to reach people,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, whose parishioners are expected to hit the streets in teams of two this week.
Pfleger said he made the suggestion to his congregation Sunday (March 26). “Instead of wasting money going to banquets, let’s take that $20 banquet ticket, let’s go out and find the prostitutes and drug dealers,” he said he remembered telling the congregation. “Let’s say `We’re going to buy your time. But for this half hour, we want to sit down and talk about God’s love for you.”’
Gayle McCoy, executive director of an organization that helps rehabilitate prostitutes, said she thought Pfleger should turn his attention to long-term solutions to problems prostitutes face such as drug and sexual abuse, but said he had good intentions.
“It’s surprising how an act of faith does affect the women, said McCoy. “You never know how an act of kindness … might turn their lives around.”
New VeggieTales Video Hits Silver Screen for One Day
(RNS) Singing vegetables may be coming to a theater near you this weekend when the latest of the VeggieTales Christian animated series premieres with one-day showings in mainstream movie theaters across the country.
“King George and the Ducky” also will be showing Saturday (April 1) at local churches and Christian stores in the biggest promotion thus far by Big Idea Productions.
“It’s the highest level … to date,” said Ben Howard, vice president of core markets for the company based in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Ill. “They will be in the most theaters that we’ve ever had and probably the most events that we have ever had.”
About 200 movie theaters will carry showings of the 30-minute video, along with a preview of songs and information about VeggieTales. About 150 theaters participated in last July’s premiere of “Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed.”
“At least 700 events of some kind will be happening nationwide on Saturday,” Howard told Religion News Service.
The cost of tickets for the premiere ranges from free to $2.50.
“King George and the Ducky,” the 13th VeggieTales title, addresses selfishness.
The promotion is timed to the delivery of more than 400,000 of the new videos to stores, the company’s largest release thus far, he said.
The videos will be available exclusively in Christian bookstores until August, when they also will be sold in the secular market.
Church Leaders Seek Help for British Farmers
LONDON _ British church leaders have written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him to take urgent action to help rescue Britain’s farming industry. Blair met with farming leaders at 10 Downing Street Thursday (March 30) to discuss the crisis, which the Church of England’s general synod was told a month ago was the worst in living memory.
The letter by British church leaders comes at the same time as U.S. church officials are urging Congress to take steps to protect American farmers from low prices and the growing influence of agribusiness giants who are forcing family farms out of business.
“We urge the government to deal, as a matter of urgency, not simply with palliative measures for the immediate crisis, but also with the underlying issues about the place of farms, farmers, and the countryside in the lives of everyone, and not just those who live in rural areas,” the letter said.
It was signed by the bishops of Exeter and Truro, the Right Rev. Michael Langrish and the Right Rev. Bill Ind; Roman Catholic Bishop Christopher Budd of Plymouth; Lt-Col David Lambert-Gorwyn, southwest divisional commander of the Salvation Army; the Rev. Stephen Dawes, representing the Methodist Church in Cornwall, and the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a Baptist minister.
The letter said that for tenant farmers the current crisis was “desperate.” Farmers and those working on the land were leaving at an alarming rate, with 18,000 farmers leaving their farms last year.
Quote of the Day: Dianne Knippers, an Episcopal lay leader and member of the Executive Committee of the American Anglican Council.
(RNS) “Some of the primates are struggling with poverty, oppression and conflicts that are daily killing their people. I am ashamed that our church is adding to their burdens with our sexual license and lack of discipline. We all must be ashamed.”
_ Knippers, criticizing U.S. Episcopalians for rejecting the Lambeth resolutions of the Worldwide Anglican Communion which prohibit same-sex marriages and openly gay clergy. The Primates of the Anglican Communion met this week in Portugal.
