c. 2008 Religion News Service

Debate surfaces over who wrote `Serenity Prayer’

(RNS) As a federal judge tries to sort out who actually wrote the famous “Footprints in the Sand” poem, a similar debate is brewing over whether theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was the author of the “Serenity Prayer.”

The origins of the Serenity Prayer, which usually begins with the words, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change …, ” has been called into question by the alumni magazine at Yale University.

Niebuhr, one of the most prominent Protestant theologians of the 20th century and a Yale alumnus, has long been considered the author, though there has been speculation about other writers.

“It is entirely possible that Niebuhr composed the prayer much earlier than he himself later remembered,” writes Fred R. Shapiro, editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” in an article in the July/August issue of Yale Alumni Magazine.

“But it also appears possible, indeed plausible, that the great theologian was unconsciously inspired by an idea from elsewhere.”

The debate resembles a legal battle over a popular religious poem, “Footprints in the Sand.” In May, a New York man whose mother claimed to have written the poem sued two other people who also claimed authorship.

Shapiro said Niebuhr’s daughter believes her father wrote the poem in 1943 and his preferred version was “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”

The prayer was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous, whose version of it reads: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.”

Shapiro combed databases of historical newspapers and found references to versions of the prayer dating as far back as the 1930s by speakers such as a YWCA executive secretary and a children’s home superintendent, with no reference to Niebuhr.

In a response also published by the Yale Alumni Magazine, Elisabeth Sifton, Niebuhr’s daughter, said Shapiro’s research via “the power of search engines” is not sufficient for prayers, which are often first presented orally and are sometimes shared and recalled for years before being printed.

“To me, his new discoveries simply suggest that in the years before World War II, Reinhold Niebuhr’s voice reached many more American churches and organizations than we previously realized,” responded Sifton, author of “The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Court says Jews have no right to mezuzahs in condo building

(RNS) A federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled that fair-housing laws do not extend to permitting a Jewish resident to nail a mezuzah to a door frame, prompting an outcry from the Jewish community.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling on Thursday (July 10), decided the federal Fair Housing Act does not accommodate a resident’s religious requirement to affix the Jewish emblem to a doorway, if the ban on hallway displays applies to everyone regardless of religious beliefs.

The case stems from the condominium association at Shoreline Towers, a Chicago housing complex, enforcing a rule in 2004 banning doormats, shoes, signs and other materials in the hallways.

The Bloch family sued after the repeated removal of their mezuzah _ small encased biblical scrolls that are nailed to the entrances of Jewish homes _ although the association later adopted a religious exception to the rule.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America criticized the court’s decision, and may appeal to Congress to amend the federal law, said the OU’s Washington director, Nathan J. Diament.

“We believe that irrespective of the facial neutrality of the condo association’s rule, that to ban a Jewish tenant from affixing a mezuzah ought to be viewed as a constructive eviction from their home and thus illegal under the Fair Housing Act,” he said.

Congress may consider amending the law to accommodate mezuzahs and other religious necessities if lawmakers are convinced a ban results in Jews not being able to live in a residence, said Howard M. Friedman, a University of Toledo law professor whose Religion Clause blog follows church-state legal cases.

The Bloch family could also appeal to the Supreme Court, but it seems federal judges want to keep these cases in the hands of state and local authorities, he added.

“They probably didn’t want every dispute between a condo owner and condo boards going into federal court,” Friedman said. “This ruling didn’t say it was a good thing to have that kind of rule, but it just said that the federal Fair Housing Act doesn’t say anything about it, so it should be dealt with by state law.”

In the last three years, Chicago and Illinois lawmakers have adopted laws guaranteeing tenants’ rights to affix religious symbols to their doors, preventing Shoreline Towers from reverting back to the original ban.

“In this particular case, the issue is moot now,” Friedman said. “It may prompt other states to come up with their own laws, too.”

_ Nicole Neroulias

UpDATE: Clerk who refused gay ceremonies wins discrimination claim

LONDON (RNS) A city clerk who refused to conduct same-sex partnership ceremonies because they violated her Christian beliefs has won her legal action claiming discrimination against supervisors who threatened to fire her.

Lillian Ladele declared it a “victory for religious liberty” when an employment tribunal ruled Thursday (July 10) that the Islington Council in London was guilty of religious discrimination, degradation and hostility.

Ladele, who has held the job for nearly 16 years, testified that she “felt harassed and victimized” by the council when she insisted she could not and would not carry out gay ceremonies as a matter of religious conscience.

The tribunal said the government’s action had “the effect of violating Ms. Ladele’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”

Ladele’s supervisors, the panel added, “placed a greater value on the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community than it placed on the rights of Ms. Ladele as one holding an orthodox Christian belief.”

A further hearing is scheduled for September to determine how much compensation the town hall must pay Ladele.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Day: Vinson Synan of Regent University

(RNS) “I told my class he’s the most unlikely evangelist you can imagine, compared to the curly haired Billy Grahams and Oral Robertses, who were attractive people. This guy’s kind of short, fat and bald, with tattoos on his arms. He looks like a hippie. … In a way it’s a positive, because he’s very much of the common man.”

_ Vinson Synan, a professor of church history at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., commenting to the Associated Press about controversial revivals in Lakeland, Fla., led by Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley.

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