c. 2008 Religion News Service

Calif. supreme court weighs gay marriage case

LOS ANGELES (RNS) As the California Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday (March 4) on a historic gay marriage case, the founder of the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church watched and prayed.

The Rev. Troy Perry and his partner of 23 years, Phillip De Blieck, are one of two lead plaintiff couples in the group of four lawsuits filed by 23 gay and lesbian couples who are seeking the right to civil marriage.

“There was a spiritual feeling for me. I prayed throughout it,” Perry said after the more than three-hour hearing in San Francisco. But he added, “My arguments are not religious when I’m in front of the (state) Supreme Court.”

Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay and lesbian couples to wed, though Perry performed his first MCC marriage ceremony for a gay couple in 1969. Perry and De Blieck were legally wed in Canada in 2003.

The state court will rule in the next 90 days whether the state constitution’s guarantee of equality and equal rights trumps a 1977 law and 2000 ballot initiative that defined marriage between a man and a woman.

The court will also wade through 44 amicus briefs filed by evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Hispanic and Catholic groups against gay marriage, and from supporters including Unitarian, Reform Jewish, humanist groups and the American Psychological Association.

Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who headed the investigation of President Clinton that led to his impeachment, filed a brief on behalf of Mormons, California’s Catholic bishops, Orthodox Jews and the National Association of Evangelicals.

“Nowhere is judicial deference to democratic self-government more appropriate than in California,” Starr wrote. “Here, the people have zealously retained their right to set public policy … California’s marriage debate should not be decided by the judiciary merely because, like nearly all social issues, plaintiffs can couch their policy position in terms of constitutional rights.”

_ David Finnigan

Quaker fired for altering Calif. oath of allegiance form

(RNS) A math professor has been fired from California State University East Bay after she added the word “nonviolently” in a state-mandated oath of allegiance.

Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker, lost her job after only six weeks by modifying the state’s Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution, which is required of all elected officials and public employees, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“I honor the Constitution, and I support the Constitution,” Kearney-Brown told the newspaper. “But I want it on record that I defend it nonviolently.”

Kearney-Brown, as a veteran public school math teacher, had modified the oath in order to conform with her antiwar beliefs as a Quaker in past years without a problem.

The oath asked her to “swear (or affirm)” that she would “support and defend the U.S. and state Constitutions against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

In her revisions, she included “nonviolently” in front of the word “support,” and crossed out “swear” and circled “affirm.” Modifying oaths is open to different legal interpretations, but Cal State East Bay would not accept any additions or removals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

School officials gave Kearney-Brown the option to sign the oath as it was and include a note expressing her views in her personnel file, but she declined.

“To me it just wasn’t the same,” Kearney-Brown told the newspaper. “I take the oath seriously, and if I’m going to sign it, I’m going to do it nonviolently.”

_ Brittani Hamm

Christian foster parents rejected over gay dispute

LONDON (RNS) A British couple who have been foster parents for 18 children have been barred from future service because they refuse to tell children as young as 10 that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.

Eunice Johns, a Sunday school teacher, and husband John say that to affirm homosexuality would go against their Christian beliefs, which they would not compromise.

Fostering children is tightly controlled in Britain, and the couple’s local government council, in Derby, England, insists that the couple must abide by the rules.

City officials cited a British law that took effect in April 2007 making it illegal for those providing a public service to discriminate against anyone because of their sexuality.

Eunice Johns says she advised the council that “as I am a Christian, I don’t believe in homosexuality.” Her husband said he couldn’t “understand why sexuality is an issue when we are talking about boys and girls under the age of 10.”

Derby council member Sara Bolton described the couple’s situation as “an unfortunate one,” but she insisted: “These laws are in place for the good of the children in our care.”

The couple, who have four adult children of their own, have been fostering children for 12 years.

_ Al Webb

Christian publishing pioneer Robert Walker dead at 95

(RNS) Robert Walker, who founded and edited prominent Christian magazines, died Saturday (March 1) at the age of 95 in Carol Stream, Ill.

Walker, who had suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, was editor emeritus of Charisma & Christian Life magazine, a Strang Communications publication. He started Sunday magazine in 1941 and renamed it Christian Life in 1948. Christian Life merged with Charisma in 1986 and now has more than 230,000 subscribers.

In the mid-1950s, he began Christian Bookseller, which was renamed Christian Retailing when it was acquired by Strang.

“Beyond all his accomplishments, Bob Walker was a deeply spiritual man who lived a life of utmost integrity,” said Stephen Strang, publisher of Strang Communications, in an announcement of Walker’s death.

“He impacted the lives of millions and will continue to do so through the publications he founded.”

Walker published the first national cover story about evangelist Billy Graham in 1948 and was honored with the first Magazine Publishers Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 1994.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Thai Culture Ministry official Ladda Thangsupachai

(RNS) “Cyberspace can be very useful for monks. But it’s wrong to use it to pick up girls.”

_ Ladda Thangsupachai, a senior official in Thailand’s Culture Ministry, reacting to reports that some Buddhist monks were using a U.S.-based social networking site to flirt with women. Ladda was quoted by the Associated Press.

KRE/RB END RNS