c. 2005 Religion News Service
Appeals Court Cites Supreme Court in Allowing Ten Commandments Display
(RNS) In a decision influenced by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Ten Commandments, a federal appeals court ruled Friday (Aug. 19) that a monument to the biblical laws can remain in a Nebraska park.
The Plattsmouth, Neb., monument was donated to the city in 1965 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which has given similar monuments to numerous municipalities.
The American Civil Liberties Union Nebraska Foundation argued on behalf of a city resident who claimed the display violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. A lower court agreed, as did a divided panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But the full appeals court reheard the case at the city’s request and reversed both previous decisions. Writing for the 10-2 majority, Circuit Judge Pasco M. Bowman cited the Supreme Court’s June decision in Van Orden V. Perry, which found a similar monument in Texas to be constitutional.
“Like the Ten Commandments monument at issue in Van Orden, the Plattsmouth monument makes passive _ and permissible _ use of the text of the Ten Commandments to acknowledge the role of religion in our nation’s heritage,” Bowman wrote. “Similar references to and representations of the Ten Commandments on government property are replete throughout our country.”
Just as the case split the high court, the appeals court judges were not in complete agreement.
“The monument does much more than acknowledge religion; it is a command from the Judeo-Christian God on how he requires his followers to live,” wrote Circuit Judge Kermit E. Bye in a dissent joined by one other judge.
“To say a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments and various religious and patriotic symbols is nothing more than an `acknowledgment of the role of religion’ diminishes their sanctity to believers and belies the words themselves.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Court Sides With Inmate Who Wanted to Start Religious Group for Atheists
(RNS) A case involving a Wisconsin inmate’s desire to hold a study group for atheists is headed back to court after an appeals court ruled Friday (Aug. 19) that a prison violated the First Amendment by refusing to allow the group.
James Kaufman was an inmate at Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution when he filed suit after prison officials denied him permission to form an inmate group focused on atheism and humanism.
Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that prison officials incorrectly treated Kaufman’s request as one that was not motivated by religion.
“The problem here was that the prison officials did not treat atheism as a `religion,’ perhaps in keeping with Kaufman’s own insistence that it is the antithesis of religion,” she said.
Wood cited U.S. Supreme Court recognition of atheism as equivalent to a “religion” in First Amendment cases.
“A religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being (or beings, for polytheistic faiths),” she said.
Prison officials considered the request using guidelines for forming new “activity groups” rather than policies used for religious groups. They denied the request because they were not allowing new activity groups.
But Wood said the Establishment Clause was violated because it “prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another without a legitimate secular reason.”
A senior trial lawyer for the Mississippi-based American Family Association Center for Law & Policy criticized the court’s decision as “a sort of Alice in Wonderland jurisprudence.”
Said Brian Fahling in a statement, “Up is down, and atheism, the antithesis of religion, is religion.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
N.J. Episcopal Diocese Settles Suit Involving Gay Priest
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The Episcopal Diocese of Newark has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a suit brought by two women who said they were sexually harassed by an openly gay priest. The church also agreed to update its policy against discrimination and harassment, and to redistribute it to employees.
The women, Maxine Gooden and Michelle Wilson, were administrative assistants at the diocese headquarters in Newark, and contended that when the Rev. Dana Rose would visit he would say or imply _ in the presence of others _ that he had sex with them and would grab or try to caress their breasts, waists or arms.
Among the comments Rose made to or about the women, according to the lawsuit, were: “You know I’m your baby’s daddy”; “This is my wife, and I’m going to impregnate her and have lots of babies”; and “If I could have you, I would change (from being gay),” according to court documents.
The women said the diocese did not take corrective action despite their objections and complaints, and claimed they suffered emotional distress.
Rose, 51, had been vicar of Trinity Episcopal Church in Irvington, which closed two months before the lawsuit was filed in March. He remains a diocesan priest but does not work at a church, said John Zinn, the diocese’s chief financial officer.
Zinn would not comment when asked if Rose has been disciplined. In the settlement, the diocese did not admit guilt, and in court documents it denied the women’s claims that they were harassed.
In a prepared statement, Zinn said: “It is in the diocese’s best interest to preserve funds for ministry and mission rather than in litigation costs. It is therefore our intention to put the matter behind us and move on with the business of the church.”
Wilson is now leaving her job, Zinn said. Gooden left the church in January 2004 after four months on the job. Rose could not be reached for comment.
_ Jeff Diamant
Levada Served With Second Subpoena Before Leaving for Rome
(RNS) For the second time in two weeks, the Vatican’s top-ranking American has been served a subpoena commanding him to testify in sexual-abuse cases involving the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.
On Saturday (Aug. 20), a process server dressed in a borrowed Armani suit sneaked past police into a celebrity-studded tribute dinner for Archbishop William J. Levada in San Francisco. His goal: to hand Levada legal papers calling for his deposition in January in a case alleging, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress by a Portland parish priest and a parish school principal.
Levada, who was archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995, will leave soon for Rome where he will take over as prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a job that Pope Benedict XVI himself held before his election in April.
The process server, Chris Williamson, said he bought a $150 dinner ticket and, after listening to three hours of accolades for Levada, quietly handed him the subpoena.
“He looked over the papers and gave me a little smile,” Williamson said. “I was quite surprised that it went so smoothly.”
In the new case, Paul and Deborah DuFresne allege they and their son, a former student at St. Thomas More School in Portland, suffered emotional distress because of “secret meetings” between their son and the Rev. Michael Johnston. They feared the potential for child sexual abuse, according to their lawsuit.
Archdiocese lawyers have said the boy was expelled from school for bullying other students.
The DuFresnes’ suit was frozen when the Portland archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2004. Earlier this month, a bankruptcy judge granted the DuFresnes’ request to depose Levada.
Levada was handed his first subpoena on Aug. 7, just before he celebrated a farewell Mass in his honor in San Francisco. Levada has agreed not to claim diplomatic immunity from the Vatican and to testify in January about how the Portland archdiocese handled child sex-abuse accusations.
_ Steve Woodward
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Gardner Taylor, past president, Progressive National Baptist Convention
(RNS) “God moves in a mysterious way and, if you’re not careful, you’ll miss that movement. It is our job as preachers and teachers to identify the footprints of God in human affairs.”
_ The Rev. Gardner Taylor, past president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, addressing the annual meeting of his denomination in Detroit on Aug. 10. He was quoted by the Detroit Free Press.
KRE/PH END RNS
