c. 2008 Religion News Service

N.J. church searches for answers after fatal shootings

CLIFTON, N.J. (RNS) Dennis John Malloosseril didn’t know the man shouting in the church vestibule had a gun, friends said, but he knew the disturbance was disrupting services at St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church on Sunday (Nov. 23).

Then, according to witnesses, he saw a woman being manhandled.

“Dennis is not a person to shy away. He’s not a big guy, but his heart and mind are big enough. If a girl is in trouble, Dennis is going to help, no question about it,” said his longtime friend Sajan Idicula. “But nobody knew the guy had a gun. It’s unheard of in a church. You’re thinking the worst-case scenario is a fistfight.”

But Joseph “Sanish” Pallipurath, 27, of Sacramento, Calif., was “bound and determined” to bring home the wife who left him three months ago _ or leave her dead, authorities said.

As Pallipurath grabbed his estranged wife, 24-year-old Reshma James, Malloosseril tried to pull the husband’s hand away. Pallipurath then pulled out a silver revolver, put it to his wife’s head and pulled the trigger, killing her, according to witnesses and police.

As people scattered, two more shots echoed, and Malloosseril and James’ cousin, 47-year-old Silvy Perincheril, fell to the ground _ both also shot in the head at point-blank range, police said.

Malloosseril, who would have turned 26 on Tuesday, died hours later. Perincheril, who had taken her cousin in when she fled an abusive marriage, is clinging to life in a hospital.

Authorities in Georgia apprehended Pallipurath late Monday in Monroe, Ga., east of Atlanta, according to the Associated Press. Pallipurath has family in the area and law enforcement officials were looking for him.

Although Pallipurath’s behavior had become increasingly violent and threatening over the past several months, authorities said they see no way the tragic crime could have been prevented.

“He drove all the way here from California with a gun. She had a restraining order, but it’s only paper. You can’t stop someone who is bound and determined to kill somebody,” said Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano. “When he went into the church, he said words to the effect of, `I’m here to take my wife.”’

His alleged actions followed a year of threats and physical abuse, not simply against James, but also his parents. Authorities said two restraining orders were filed in May in California by his father, who said his son physically abused and threatened him, his mother, younger brother, and new bride.

Pallipurath and James wed a year ago, authorities said, apparently in an arranged marriage. But things quickly soured. The couple had gone to India in September, but she separated from him there and did not return with him _ instead flying back alone and seeking refuge with her cousin in New Jersey.

_ Brian T. Murray, Guy Sterling and Jeff Diamant

Study suggests worship services reduces risk of death

JERUSALEM (RNS) Regularly attending religious services may significantly reduce the risk of death, according to a comprehensive study by researchers at Yeshiva University and its medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Findings of the study were published in Psychology and Health, the official journal of the European Health Psychology Society.

In the study, researchers evaluated the religious practices of 92,395 post-menopausal women from a wide variety of faiths participating in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national long-term study on women’s health issues.

The study subjects who said they attend religious services at least once a week showed a 20 percent decrease in the overall risk of mortality compared with those not attending services at all.

The participants, aged 50 to 79, were asked how often they attend services, about their religious affiliation and whether they derive comfort from religious practices.

The YU/Einstein study adjusted for the social support many derive from participation in communal organizations and group activities linked to a church, a synagogue, temple or mosque.

“What was fascinating was that even after controlling for those sorts of factors that lead to well-being, there was a significant reduction in mortality,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Eliezer Schnall, clinical assistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva University. It would be “worthwhile,” Schnall said, to study men and younger people to determine their risk of mortality.

Schnall’s partner in the study, Dr. Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, professor of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, said the natural next step “is to figure out how the effect of religiosity is translated into biological mechanisms that affect rates of survival. However, we do not infer causation even from a prospective study, as that can only be done through a clinical trial,” she said.

_ Michele Chabin

School allows American Indian boy to keep hair braided

SLIDELL, La. (RNS) An American Indian boy who wears his hair in a braid as part of a religious custom will be allowed to remain at his school after school officials reversed an earlier decision that the child would have to cut his hair or wear his braid in a bun.

Schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan has agreed to let Curtis Harjo keep his braid, even though the practice goes against the school board’s policy regarding hair length.

“All religions are equally deserving of respect and protection,” said Katie Schwartzmann, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Louisiana chapter, which represented the boy’s family.

“Curtis should be allowed to wear his hair in keeping with his religious and cultural identity, just as a Christian student should be allowed to wear a crucifix to school.”

The ACLU and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) joined the 5-year-old boy and his mother, Joni Harjo, in their fight against the boy’s principal who said the boy could be expelled from school if he did not cut his hair.

Many American Indian children in the Harjos’ native Oklahoma wear their hair long as part of a long-standing tradition, Harjo said. As members of the Seminole tribe, the Harjos believe that hair should not be cut except when in mourning for a loved one.

Harjo appealed the principal’s decision to the superintendent, who said Curtis would have to pin his hair in a bun to continue at the school. The bun would be uncomfortable and distracting for a boy, and require constant monitoring and maintenance by his teacher, according to a Nov. 4 letter the ACLU and NARF sent to Sloan.

Further, the bun would not accommodate her son’s religious customs, Harjo said. Forcing Curtis to alter his hairstyle would violate his rights and his mother’s “firmly established right to direct his religious upbringing,” according to the letter.

The complaint suggested that officials were discriminating against Curtis based on his religion and ethnicity, saying the two organizations had obtained pictures of other students at the school clearly in violation of the policy in question.

“We just wanted Curtis to be able to go to school without prejudice,” Joni Harjo said in a statement. “It might seem to some people that Native Americans are gone, but we are not. We are still here, and I think we just had to open the school’s eyes to that.”

_ Christine Harvey

Quote of the Day: Megachurch pastor Ed Young of Grapevine, Texas

(RNS) “ I don’t know, try eating chocolate cake.”

_ Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, on what he told single people during his church’s weeklong campaign to encourage married couples to have sex seven nights in a row. He was quoted by The New York Times.

KRE/AMB END RNS