c. 2003 Religion News Service

Judge Orders Ten Commandments Monument Removed

(RNS) A federal judge on Tuesday (Aug. 5) ordered the chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court to remove a massive Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the state Judicial Building, calling the religious display a violation of the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ordered Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove the 5,3000-pound monument by Aug. 20, lifting a stay he had issued while Moore appealed a 2002 ruling. After an appeals court rejected his stand, Moore announced plans to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

Thompson’s order said the monument could remain in a private area, such as Moore’s chambers, but must be removed from the building’s lobby.

Thompson warned in his order that the court could “levy substantial fines against Chief Justice Moore in his official capacity and, thus, against the state of Alabama itself, until the monument is removed,” according to the Associated Press. Such fines could start at $5,000 per day the first week. Civil liberties groups have applauded the decision, calling Moore’s display of the monument a gross violation of the constitutional ban on government promotion of religion.

“Roy Moore has defied the Constitution long enough,” the Rev. Barry Lynn,executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based religious liberties watchdog group, said in a statement. “The monument is a blatant government endorsement of religion, and Moore should remove it promptly.”

Moore’s attorneys, meanwhile, have continued to assert that the federal court has no authority to order the removal of the monument.

The Alabama Christian Coalition and other Religious Rights groups have joined in the fight, threatening to engage in civil disobedience to keep the monument in place.

“The sand is quickly moving through the hourglass as the federal court makes preparation to strip the moral foundation of our law from the Alabama Judicial Building,” John Giles, the president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, said in a statement. “The encroachment of the federal court on this matter will be met with considerable peaceful intervention. A line has been drawn in the sand and there will most likely be a showdown in Montgomery when the hour glass empties on Aug. 20th.”

_ Alexandra Alter

Hindu Astrologers: Coming Months Not Good for Marriage

(RNS) Hindu astrologers are saying the next few months will be an inauspicious time for marriage.

“Jupiter and Venus are the main stars that give power at the time of marriage, and these stars are in a bad position,” Sabi Singh, an astrologer based in Orlando, Fla., said in an interview. Astrologers cite Jupiter’s entry into the sign of Leo and the nearness of Venus to the sun in their warnings that weddings should not take place until at least January and possibly not until next May.

Astrology wields heavy influence in the Hindu tradition. Based on ancient scriptures spoken by Lord Vishnu, the god that maintains all of creation, Vedic astrology posits that a person’s fate and character are largely determined by the position of the sun, moon and stars at birth.

Indian matchmakers rely heavily on astrology to ensure that a couple is blessed with children, good health and adequate finances. It is particularly important for arranged marriages, Singh said.

“The Indian system is perfect,” Singh said. “To make sure a marriage is good we have to do all these precautions and remedies. We need a lot of blessings to make the relationship happy.”

Singh, who evaluates couples for marriage based on the date, time and place of their birth, said the inauspicious position of the stars will not affect marriages if the bride and groom-to-be are already in a relationship. Only those seeking to start a new relationship run the risk of being star-crossed, Singh said. But in India, where arranged marriages are common, many couples have postponed their weddings, wreaking havoc with the country’s wedding entertainment industry, the BBC reported.

“If we want the help of the planets and if we want the marriage to last, then this is the time when one should avoid,” Pandit Ajai Bhambi, a Delhi astrologer, told the BBC.

This unfortunate planetary alignment happens every 12 years or so.

_ Alexandra Alter

Update: Danish Pastor, Suspended for Disbelief, is Reinstated

(RNS) A Danish priest who was suspended after he said he no longer believed in God has been reinstated, but his bishop has promised to monitor him more closely.

The Rev. Thorkild Grosboel, a Lutheran in the town of Taarbaek north of Copenhagen, was suspended on June 3 when he told a newspaper that there is “no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection.”

Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel of the Helsingoer Diocese told the Associated Press Grosboel “has apologized for his comments that caused doubts about the church’s confession of faith.”

The bishop met with Grosboel several times and asked him to apologize. It was not clear whether Grosboel had to recant his disbelief.

Though just 5 percent of Denmark’s 5.3 million people attend church regularly, 85 percent of its population belongs to the Lutheran Church.

Russia Seeks to Join Organization of the Islamic Conference

MOSCOW – Russian Muslim leaders welcomed Wednesday (Aug. 6) a proposal by President Vladimir Putin that Russia join the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a worldwide association of 56 mostly Muslim countries.

“Maybe then, ordinary Russians and bureaucrats would understand better that this is a Muslim country, too, and not just a Christian country,” said Mufti Visam Ali Bardvin, a co-chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis.

About 60 percent of Russia’s 145 million citizens are Christians. The country’s estimated 20 million Muslims, concentrated along the Volga River and in the southern Caucasus region, represent the largest religious minority.

“Unfortunately, in the area where I live, there are very few Muslims. We are looked upon as outsiders, even though we are citizens,” said Bardvin in a telephone interview from the city of Petrozavodsk near the Finnish border.

Putin made the proposal Tuesday while on a state visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In October, that city will host a summit of heads of OIC member states held once every three years.

Ambassador Babacar Ba, the OIC’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said Russia’s application for membership may be “difficult because at least one-fourth of the population has to be Muslim” according to the organization’s rules. However, Ba added from Geneva, exceptions have been made in the past for certain African countries, “like Gabon,” with significant Muslim minorities.

Ba noted that Russia’s 20 million Muslims are “a very significant number” and said Russian membership would give the OIC a chance to help resolve the bloody conflict surrounding Russia’s mostly Muslim breakaway republic of Chechnya.

In theory, OIC membership might give Russia some leverage over those Muslim countries it currently accuses of serving as bases of support for Chechnen rebels. One element of the OIC’s charter is a member pledge to observe “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of each State.”

Russian OIC membership would represent the first time the country has joined an international Muslim organization. The dominant Russian Orthodox Church has been a member of the World Council of Churches since Soviet times. Less trusted Soviet Muslims were forbidden from similar memberships.

The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, called Russian membership in the OIC “entirely logical” given the country’s Muslim tradition, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

_ Frank Brown

Judge Orders School Board to Permit After-Hours Religious Meetings

(RNS) A federal judge has ordered a Louisiana school board to drop its ban on religious groups meeting in school buildings during after-school hours, ruling in favor of that state’s chapter of the Christian Coalition.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan of New Orleans said the St. Tammany Parish School Board’s denial of a coalition prayer meeting “constitutes unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination,” the Associated Press reported.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which argued the coalition’s case, was pleased with the ruling, filed July 30.

“This ruling confirms what we have known from the very beginning: If a school district permits community organizations to use its facilities after hours, they cannot reject a request from an organization whose message is religious in nature,” said Stuart Roth, senior counsel for the Virginia-based law firm, in a statement.

Schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan said Friday that officials of the school system had not yet reviewed the opinion, so they declined comment.

The coalition filed suit in 1998. A district judge ruled in the group’s favor in 1999, but the school board won an appeal in 2000 and the lower court decision was overturned.

In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious groups cannot be denied access to public school buildings for after hours meetings based on their religious nature. Shortly thereafter, the high court overturned the appellate ruling in the St. Tammany case. An appeals court later sent the case back to federal district court, ordering it to reconsider it in light of the high court’s finding in the 2001 case.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Queen Rania of Jordan

(RNS) “Some of these things are being said by Muslim clerics, but you hear similar things being said by religious figures in the United States who are just as inflammatory, just as damaging. For me they’re in the same camp _ the camp of incitement, of hatred, of violence.”

_ Queen Rania of Jordan discussing extremism in an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, quoted by The Washington Post.

DEA END RNS