c. 2008 Religion News Service
Danish court rejects suit over Mohammed cartoons
(RNS) An appeals court in Denmark has voided a lawsuit against the newspaper that was the first to print controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
The Western High Court in Aarhus said Thursday (June 19) that critics did not prove that the Jyllands-Posten newspaper was trying to depict Muslims as terrorists or criminals when it printed the cartoons, the Associated Press reported.
One of the drawings that most fueled controversy showed the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. Islamic law prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.
The court, 125 miles northwest of Copenhagen, upheld a lower court ruling from last year that rejected claims by Danish Muslims that the caricatures were intended to mock Islam and insult the prophet.
The daily newspaper has apologized and said it did not intend to offend Muslims, but stands by its decision to print the cartoons.
Mohammed Nehme, a spokesman for Islamic Faith Community, which was one of several groups that appealed the lower court ruling, said his organization had not decided whether to appeal the new court decision, the AP reported.
“We are very disappointed and sad about the outcome,” he said. “We had hoped it would be in our favor but now we have the court’s word that what they did was in order.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Report says Judaism faces gender imbalance `crisis’
NEW YORK (RNS) Non-Orthodox Jewish men are becoming alienated from their faith, a “crisis” that foreshadows a rise in interfaith marriages and secular generations, according to a new study from Brandeis University.
The findings, based on 300 interviews, report the rise of female leadership and participation in Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative Judaism has prompted men to opt out of religious activities, in contrast to Orthodox Judaism, which still requires men for traditional worship and family life.
“The past four decades have contradicted thousands of years where men were the primary (leaders) in terms of religious roles,” said Lindsey Fieldman, spokeswoman for the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, which released the study this week.
With women currently outnumbering men in weekly non-Orthodox worship services, adult education classes, volunteer leadership positions and cultural events, the study concludes that non-Orthodox groups should create programs aimed specifically at engaging boys. The earlier the better, the study reports, because alienated Jewish men are more likely to marry non-Jewish women, taking them and their children farther away from the synagogue.
“The Jewish community must intervene well before the marriage years if it hopes to have an impact,” the study reports. “Not only does the presence of a Jewish mother in the home dramatically increases the likelihood that the children will be raised as Jews, her absence increases the likelihood that they will not.”
The Reform movement has struggled with its growing gender gap for years, stunned by a two-to-one ratio of women to men entering the rabbinical class in its Hebrew Union College in 2005. Last year, the movement launched a three-year campaign to address the problem, called “Where Have all the Young Men Gone?”
Some of the imbalance can be blamed on American culture, which places higher values on women’s participation in religious and educational activities, and has caused similar struggles in churches across the country, said Jonathan Sarna, American Jewish history professor at Brandeis University.
“I don’t think we need a fancy Jewish explanation for what’s going on,” he said. “Non-Orthodox Judaism is becoming more like American religion as a whole, which has been largely female.”
As a result, Sarna believes, Americans will begin seeing a marked increase in all-male activities sponsored by churches and synagogues, pausing or reversing efforts to raise the status of women in congregations.
“We’re going to see stronger efforts to bring back groups for men _ clubs for men, services for men, sports teams and so on,” he said. “It may not be fair … but that’s the way it is.”
_ Nicole Neroulias
Lawmakers to re-examine faith-healing law after teen’s death
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) As authorities start sorting out whether two parents committed a crime by allowing their gravely ill son to choose faith-healing over medical treatment, lawmakers vowed to revisit the issues raised by his death.
“We’re going to have to look at it again,” said state Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, who helped write the 1997 and 1999 state laws that address religious defenses in faith-healing death cases.
“I know that devotion to parents and devotion to religion can be a powerful influence on a child,” Courtney said. “And in these cases, you have religious freedom, parental rights, the health of a child and medical science. Mix all of that together and you have a tough, tough issue.”
Neil Jeffrey Beagley, 16, died Tuesday (June 17) from complications from a urinary-tract blockage at his grandmother’s home in Gladstone, Ore. He was surrounded by his family and other members of the Followers of Christ Church, a nondenominational congregation that shuns medical treatment in favor of spiritual healing.
Those in attendance told police that despite his painful and prolonged suffering, Beagley chose to be treated solely with prayer.
Prosecutors said that it will take time to research how current Oregon laws on religious defense, parental responsibility and medical consent apply to this case.
“We’re doing a complete analysis,” said Gregory D. Horner, the chief deputy district attorney for Clackamas County. “We probably won’t have all of that worked out until next week.”
The case is complicated by a 1971 law that gave children 15 and older the right to seek medical care independent of their parents. The law was intended, in part, to give girls access to birth-control information, contraceptives and abortions.
Legal and ethical questions raised by the boy’s death and the 1971 law are prompting a spirited debate. Some believe the right to seek medical care also grants the right to refuse medical care.
“The question boils down to: At what point is a person competent enough to exercise a treatment choice?” said Michael E. Rose, a Portland attorney who specializes in criminal defense. “If, under the law, you are competent enough to seek out needed treatment, then certainly you are competent enough to decline medical treatment.”
Beagley’s blockage easily could have been treated by inserting a catheter tube past the obstruction, a deputy state medical examiner said after conducting an autopsy.
Instead, after complaining of stomach pains and shortness of breath for a week, Beagley was taken to the home of his grandmother, Norma Louise Beagley, where more than 60 church members held a faith-healing session.
Beagley’s death came less than four months after his 15-month-old niece, Ava Worthington, died in similar circumstances. Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, are facing charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.
_ Rick Bella
Second judge dismisses religious pot claims
BAY MINETTE, Ala. (RNS) For years, Brenda Williams Shoop struggled to get closer to God, she told a judge Thursday (June 19).
And then she found a textbook that discussed a marijuana side effect, and later discovered a church that classifies the illegal drug as a key ingredient to a sacrament essential to becoming a Christian, she said.
“It opens up someone’s mind and helps apply (Christian) missions,” Shoop said of marijuana’s effects.
The description was a key part of the argument by Shoop, 44, and her husband, Bruce, who contend that their drug-related charges should be dismissed because marijuana is part of their religion.
After more than three hours of testimony, Judge Robert Wilters denied the request, sending the couple back to jail. Last month, a Pennsylvania judge also dismissed similar claims by a man who said smoking marijuana was not unlike the use of wine at Communion.
Brenda Shoop said she had struggled to find spiritual fulfillment until she read about religious use of marijuana, which she said helped her get closer to God and “rise above the mundane and see that you are part of a bigger picture.”
The Shoops argued that since their arrest they have started a ministry in their home and serve as missionaries for the Atlanta-based Universal Orthodox Church, which believes marijuana has biblical origins.
The Shoops’ attorneys also argued that they were protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment because their religion mandates the cultivation and consumption of cannabis.
The couple was initially charged with drug trafficking in December 2006 after authorities found about 28 marijuana plants growing in their backyard.
Last April, Wilters found that the couple had violated their probation when they failed drug tests, and he sent them back to the county’s jail without bail. A trial is expected this fall.
_ Virginia Bridges
Quote of the Day: Susan Pace Hamill of the University of Alabama
(RNS) “Unless you are also willing to bring your faith-based moral principles into the high-sacrifice realm of tax policy, your opposition to abortion is just another low-sacrifice proposition being driven by something other than genuine faith-based principle and has no credibility as a moral position.”
_ Susan Pace Hamill, professor at University of Alabama School of Law, speaking Thursday (June 19) at a Baptist Center for Ethics luncheon in Memphis, Tenn. The Methodist advocate for Bible-based tax reform was quoted by EthicsDaily.com.
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