c. 2003 Religion News Service
Update: Judge to Reconsider Ruling on Church Land-Use Law
(RNS) A Los Angeles federal judge has agreed to reconsider his earlier ruling that declared parts of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson had alarmed some lawyers and religious leaders when he ruled in June that the federal law aimed at helping houses of worship overcome land-use disputes violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.
On Aug. 11 he put his decision on hold and, at the request of attorneys for the Elsinore Christian Center in Lake Elsinore, Calif., agreed to reconsider it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The church sued the city of Lake Elsinore in 2001 after it was denied a conditional-use permit to move into a former grocery store building.
Wilson said the church might be able to pursue its case under the commerce clause of the Constitution. If it did that, there would be no need for him to decide about the constitutionality of the religious land use act.
Robert H. Tyler, legal counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group representing the church with the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called Wilson’s latest decision “a major victory at this stage of the litigation.”
The judge has delayed a final ruling for four months to give opposing sides of the legal matter time to conduct discovery and depositions.
Wilson, who called the three-year-old law “a blunderbuss of a remedy” thought it unfairly prevented local authorities from making legitimate land-use decisions “simply because the aggrieved landowner is a religious actor.”
His original decision marked the first time that the law _ the basis for dozens of land-use suits currently in the courts across the nation _ had been struck down by a federal judge.
Enacted in 2000, the law was supported by an unusually wide range of religious groups, from evangelical Christians to Jews and Muslims.
India’s Hindu Ruling Party Delays Cow Slaughter Ban Bill
(RNS) India’s Hindu nationalist-led coalition delayed a bill to ban cow slaughter across the country on Thursday (Aug. 21) after the controversial move sparked protests in parliament.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long sought to make cow slaughter and beef exports illegal, but lawmakers in opposition parties blocked the bill in the lower house of parliament, saying there is no national consensus on the issue, Reuters reported.
Beef eating is a sensitive issue in India, where cows are sacred to the Hindu majority. More than 200 million head of cattle roam freely around the country and cow slaughter is already banned in most states except Kerala, West Bengal and seven northeastern states.
In Kerala, Christians, Muslims and even Hindus eat beef. Christians and non-Hindu tribespeople in the northeast also eat beef, which is cheaper than chicken or lamb.
Critics call Hindu nationalists’ efforts to outlaw cow slaughter a political gimmick designed to bolster support for their platform before key state elections take place in November.
“This has nothing to do with the concerns of the people,” political analyst N. Bhaskara Rao told Reuters. “This is aimed at elections; they are trying one more trick in the book.”
Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee, whose party has been accused of bias against India’s 120 million Muslims, said last year that he would rather die than eat beef, the BBC reported.
Other Hindu hardline groups aligned with the BJP on the issue say Hindus’ religious beliefs must be respected.
“We consider the cow as next to our mother, and no one can go against the national ethos,” said Veereshwar Dwivedi, a spokesman for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a group affiliated with the BJP, according to Reuters.
Even rumors of cow killing can incite violence.
Last year, five lower caste Dalits were killed by a mob after being accused of slaughtering a cow. An autopsy was performed on the cow, but not the men.
_ Alexandra Alter
Welsh Vicar Shed Pounds, Raises Money for Parish
LONDON (RNS) Not only did the vicar of a South Wales parish manage to lose four stone (56 pounds) in weight, she has also raised about $160 for her parish so far by selling leaflets giving people tips on how to do it.
When the Rev. Enid Morgan, vicar of Llangynwyd, near Maesteg, Glamorgan, reached 14 stone _ 196 pounds _ she decided she’d better do something about it.
“I was getting very heavy and had a loss of energy, so I went on a diet,” she said. That was last August. By Christmas she had lost two stone (28 pounds) and another one (14 pounds) by Easter.
She now weighs a trim and slim 10 stone, or 140 pounds.
The 63-year-old grandmother wrote her leaflet because so many parishioners were asking her how she’d done it.
They were making comments like, “Vicar, you’re vanishing.”
The leaflet sells for $1.60, and proceeds go to parish funds.
But if her weight goes back up to 147 pounds, she will have to give people their $1.60 back _ out of her own pocket.
The leaflet begins with “a serious talking-to,” including: “It’s me that made me this shape, not God,” and “Eating too much is what puts weight on,” along with, “Ask your knees and hips what they think about your weight.” It also includes a reminder that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.
There are also reminders that all alcohol is expensive in calories, so that dieting in Lent _ a traditional time to give up alcohol _ is doubly helpful, and that a very little fat goes a long way and there is an awful lot of fat in processed foods.
The list of “don’ts” includes warning dieters off counting calories (“it makes you obsessive, and it’s a disheartening bore”), weighing oneself more often than once a week, missing meals, or going hungry (“plan nice meals”).
“Do’s” include spotting one’s own weaknesses and working around them, as well as eating really slowly and savoring the taste of everything. A final hint is to practice leaving food on one’s plate: “You are not a naughty, ungrateful child for not eating it all up.”
_ Robert Nowell
Director of the National Pastoral Life Center Dead at 65
(RNS) Monsignor Philip J. Murnion, founder and director of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York, died Tuesday (Aug. 19) in a Bronx, N.Y., hospital.
Murnion, 65, a longtime priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, had suffered from colon cancer, the center said.
He founded the center in 1983 to serve the pastoral leadership of the Catholic Church, especially pastors, parish ministers, bishops and diocesan employees. In his role with the center, he served as editor in chief of its quarterly CHURCH magazine. He also directed the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, founded by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to foster dialogue in the church.
Murnion, who also was a sociologist, conducted two major studies of the use of lay people as parish ministers in U.S. Catholic churches.
He edited the book “Catholics and Nuclear War,” published in 1983, wrote numerous articles and lectured on parish and social ministry issues.
“His death leaves a major gap in the pastoral and public life of the church,’ said the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities USA, in a statement about Murnion. “But his creative priestly life has left us all better prepared to carry on the work which inspired his priesthood.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Mvumelwano Hamilton Dandala of the All Africa Conference of Churches
(RNS) “The teachings of the many denominations and sects do not add much to the sense of a unified, positive destiny for our continent, but often lead directly to, or contribute significantly to, the conflicts and poverty of Spirit that characterizes most of our communities.”
_ The Rev. Mvumelwano Hamilton Dandala, newly appointed general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, speaking at his induction ceremony about church division. He was quoted by the All Africa News Agency Bulletin.
DEA END RNS
