c. 2003 Religion News Service
Appeals Court Rejects Posting of Ten Commandments in 3 Kentucky Counties
(RNS) Three counties in Kentucky should not post the Ten Commandments in public buildings, even if they are accompanied by other historical documents, an appellate court ruled Thursday (Dec. 18).
Officials in McCreary and Pulaski counties hung framed copies of the biblical laws in their courthouses and later added documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta after the displays were challenged. Harlan County had similar postings in its schools, the Associated Press reported.
A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, upheld a district judge’s 2001 preliminary order to remove the displays until a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality was resolved.
Judge Eric Clay wrote in the majority opinion that both the courthouse and schoolhouse displays demonstrated a religious purpose by conveying a “bald assertion” that the Ten Commandments formed the foundation of the American tradition of laws.
In his dissent, Judge James Ryan said: “The influence of religion upon American law and government is a fact of American history and politics that has been widely recognized by scholars, jurists, legislators, presidents and, not least, the founders themselves.”
The decision thrilled the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which filed the suit seeking the removal of the displays.
“The court has rousingly endorsed the principles of religious freedom and rousingly endorsed the requirement that government remain neutral toward religion,” said David Friedman, general counsel for the ACLU’s Kentucky chapter.
Mat Staver, president and general counsel of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which represented the three counties, said he intends to ask the entire panel of judges of the Cincinnati-based appeals court to rehear the case.
Gallup: Protestants Ahead of Catholics in Church Attendance
(RNS) A higher percentage of Protestants now attend church on a weekly basis than Catholics do, the Gallup Organization announced.
“… Historical Gallup Poll data show that Protestants have now clearly overtaken Catholics in church attendance, for the first time in Gallup polling history,” wrote George H. Gallup Jr., in a commentary released Tuesday (Dec. 16).
Catholic weekly attendance reached an all-time low in the wake of sex abuse scandals, but seems to have rebounded somewhat.
Between March 2002, two months after news of the scandals broke, and February 2003, weekly Catholic church attendance fell 9 percentage points to 35 percent, the lowest measurement ever recorded by Gallup. By November 2003, attendance had climbed back to 45 percent.
But during that period, Protestant attendance remained fairly stable.
Catholic attendance was at 74 percent in 1955 when a question on the subject was first asked by Gallup.
Protestant attendance, on the other hand, was at 48 percent in November 2003, higher than the 42 percent reported in 1955.
The latest survey on attendance was based on telephone interviews with 1,004 adults nationwide from Nov. 10-12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Following information suitable for a graphic:
Church Attendance, 1955 to 2003
1955
Catholics who said they attended in last week: 74 percent
Protestants who said they attended in last week: 42 percent
2003
Catholics who said they attended in last week: 40 percent
Protestants who said they attended in last week: 47 percent
Source: The Gallup Organization, aggregated data from two polls each year
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Reportedly Approves of Mel Gibson’s `The Passion of the Christ’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II reportedly saw and gave his approval to Mel Gibson’s controversial film “The Passion of the Christ,” saying the graphic film presents the crucixion of Jesus “as it was.”
The Vatican has declined to confirm the reports from Vatican sources or to make any comment, which might be used as a commercial endorsement of the film. Some Vatican officials who have seen it gave it good reviews.
According to the widely circulated reports, the 83-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff viewed the film on DVD in his private apartments earlier this month with his secretary, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.
His verdict: “It is as it was.”
The DVD was said to have been supplied by Steve McEveety, co-producer of the film, which Gibson directed.
Jewish groups and some Catholic scholars have criticized the film on the grounds that it will fuel anti-Semitism by reviving the allegation that the Jews killed Christ, which was formally rejected by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
The council’s landmark document on interfaith relations, “Nostra Aetate,” said that what happened in Christ’s death “cannot be charged against all the Jews without distinction then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”
Gibson, a conservative Catholic who does not accept many of the teachings of Vatican II, said in an interview with the Fox news channel last January that the film is not meant to upset Jews but “to just tell the truth.”
The $30 million film, which has dialogue in Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic, is scheduled for release in the United States on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25.
Monsignor Augustine Di Noia, an American Dominican who is under-secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in a recent interview with the Zenit news agency that he saw “absolutely nothing anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish” about the film.
“The film neither exaggerates nor downplays the role of Jewish authorities and legal proceedings in the condemnation of Jesus. But precisely because it presents a comprehensive account of what might be called the `calculus of blame’ in the passion and death of Christ, the film would be more likely to quell anti-Semitism in its audiences than to excite,” the prelate said.
_ Peggy Polk
UK Religious Leaders Criticize Anti-terrorism, Asylum Laws
LONDON (RNS) Six Anglican bishops are among those who have vigorously protested the internment without trial of 14 foreigners detained under the anti-terrorism laws passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
By Friday (Dec. 19), six of the 14 will have been held for two years. The 2001 Act allows the indefinite detention of non-British citizens without charge or trial. “These people have been taken from their families and detained in high security institutions with neither charge nor knowledge of when (if ever) their detention might end,” said the signers of a letter published in The Guardian newspaper. The six bishops oversee churches in Worcester, Hereford, Portsmouth, St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Coventry and Salisbury. The letter was also signed by other religious leaders and human rights activists, including the director of Amnesty International UK. “This internment offends every notion of justice, equal treatment of people, and the rule of law,” the letter said. “It sets a terrible example for other states, and provides ammunition for those who seek to present our way of life as hypocritical and corrupt.” In a related story, the chairman of the British and Welsh Catholic bishops’ refugee policy office criticized the government’s proposed bill to regulate asylum and immigration. Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue of Lancaster took exception to a proposal to remove the right of appeal from immigration tribunals to higher courts. “The current success level of 20 percent of appeals shows that a two-tier appeals system is an important check on asylum decision-making,” O’Donoghue said. “The legal community has often spoken about the constitutional importance of access to the High Courts, particularly in asylum cases, where a wrong decision can be fatal.” The Board of Deputies of British Jews _ the representative body of the British Jewish community _ also criticized the proposal to limit appeals access in the higher courts. “Jews throughout the years have had to flee repressive regimes and persecution to seek asylum, thereby saving many thousands of lives,” said the board’s director, Neville Nagler. “The right of refuge and asylum is an important human right and a key principle in Jewish belief.” _ Robert Nowell Quote of the Day: Pop Star Madonna (RNS) “I think he has a good handle on foreign policy, I think he’s good with people, and I think he has a heart and a consciousness. He’s interested in spirituality _ I mean, those things mean a lot to me.” Pop singer Madonna, endorsing Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark. Her comments during an interview with CNN’s Denise Quan were quoted by CNN.com. KRE END RNS
