c. 2004 Religion News Service
Supreme Court to Consider Ten Commandments Cases
(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two cases relating to ongoing questions about the constitutionality of displays of the Ten Commandments in public places.
Legal groups who have long hoped the high court would address this issue _ for the first time since 1980 _ welcomed the announcement by the court Tuesday (Oct. 12).
“The decision to review a case involving the display of the Ten Commandments is long overdue,” said Mat Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based law organization representing McCreary and Pulaski counties in Kentucky.
“The lower courts are hopelessly in confusion over the constitutionality of governmental displays of the Ten Commandments.”
Staver has argued that courthouses in McCreary and Pulaski counties have the right to display the Ten Commandments along with other historical documents.
The other case involves an Austin, Texas, man named Thomas Van Orden who has argued that the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state Capitol in that city represents a government endorsement of Judeo-Christian beliefs above other faiths.
“This is a critical opportunity for the high court to clarify one of the most confusing areas of church/state law,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, who believes the displays are constitutional.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, also hoped for clarification, but with a different outcome.
“Religious symbols belong in houses of worship, not courthouses, city halls and public schools,” said Lynn in a statement.
The high court also has decided to consider a case involving Ohio prisoners who believe correctional officials violated a federal law by not accommodating their religious practices and beliefs. An appeals court ruled that a portion of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that applied to inmates was unconstitutional.
Lynn, whose Washington-based watchdog group also has followed this case, hopes the court will uphold the law.
“This is a reasonable law that requires prisons to meet the religious needs of inmates while still respecting the security concerns of correctional institutions,” he said in a statement.
The dates for oral arguments for the cases have not yet been set, but the high court will consider them by June 2005.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Graham, Recovered From Surgeries, Preaches at Kansas City Crusade
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham, recovered from two surgeries, preached four nights at a crusade in Kansas City, Mo., that concluded Sunday (Oct. 10).
The 85-year-old preacher spoke each evening at Arrowhead Stadium to an audience that totaled almost 155,000 over the four days, crusade officials said.
Both Graham and his eldest son, fellow evangelist Franklin Graham, linked their religious messages to contemporary issues.
“There is a great move on in this country to take prayer out of the schools, take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and take down the Ten Commandments,” Billy Graham said from the platform. “As a nation it seems we are turning away from God. But Jesus Christ is coming back, and that is the future of this world.”
On Friday, Franklin Graham compared the crusade’s efforts to the presidential debate the same evening between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry in St. Louis.
“But in Kansas City it is not a debate, it is a battle for your soul,” the younger Graham said.
Billy Graham had surgeries earlier this year following two serious falls. He preached from a specially constructed pulpit where he was allowed to stand and then sit for portions of his sermon, said A. Larry Ross, the evangelist’s spokesman.
Conspicuously absent from the crusade was soloist George Beverly Shea, who, for the last six decades of domestic crusades, has sung before the elder Graham spoke. Shea, who suffered a mild heart attack in May, followed doctor’s orders and stayed home.
Billy Graham is scheduled to hold his next crusade Nov. 18-21 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and has announced plans for a New York area crusade at Madison Square Garden next June.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Conservatives Fear Reeve’s Death Will Politicize Stem Cells
(RNS) Conservative Christian groups said they fear the issue of embryonic stem-cell research will be further politicized after the death of actor Christopher Reeve, an outspoken advocate of the research.
Reeve, 52, died of heart failure Sunday (Oct. 10) from an infection. The actor who played “Superman” became a vocal supporter of stem-cell research after he was paralyzed in a 1995 horse-riding accident.
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, said Reeve embraced research that “not only destroys human life but has yet to provide any medical benefit.”
“We owe it to the millions of others who suffer serious illnesses to pursue cures where they can be found, not what benefits an ideology that destroys human life for political gain,” said Perkins, who opposes the research.
Supporters say stem cells from human embryos that would otherwise be destroyed could hold cures for a host of illnesses, including paralysis and Parkinson’s disease. Opponents say the procedure is immoral because the embryos must be destroyed in order to harvest the stem cells.
In 2001, President Bush banned federal money from being spent on expanding the research, while his opponent, Sen. John Kerry, said he will lift those restrictions. Kerry called Reeve a friend and “an inspiration to us all.”
The death of former President Ronald Reagan, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, also spurred a surge in support for embryonic stem-cell research when his widow, Nancy, voiced support.
“Embryo-destructive research was nowhere close to helping Mr. Reeve walk again,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation. “To suggest otherwise does a disservice to those who suffer by raising profoundly false expectations that will not be realized.”
But June Walker, president of Hadassah, a national Jewish women’s organization, said Reeve’s death is reason No. 1 to ramp up efforts to expand stem-cell research.
“There is no more fitting tribute to his memory than for Hadassah’s 300,000 members to redouble their efforts to advocate for unfettered research on stem cells, both at the federal and state level,” she said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Congress Approves $25 Million for Security of Nonprofits
WASHINGTON (RNS) Congress has approved $25 million to help improve security efforts at nonprofit institutions that could be “soft targets” for terrorism, including some churches and synagogues.
The $25 million will be available to nonprofit groups _ including schools, universities, theaters, hospitals and houses of worship _ that are deemed to be at risk by the Department of Homeland Security.
The House approved the money Saturday (Oct. 9) as part of a $32 billion Homeland Security funding bill, and the Senate passed the measure on Monday.
Supporters of the provision had originally asked for $100 million, with half of the money going to local police departments to beef up security in areas with large concentrations of high-risk targets.
House and Senate committees both passed versions of the bill, including a provision to address concerns about the separation of church and state, but those bills languished. The $25 million was a last-minute “line item” addition to a larger spending bill.
Jewish groups, concerned about security at local community centers after Jewish sites had been targeted for attack around the world, rallied around the bill.
Nathan Diament, the chief Washington lobbyist for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, said he was pleased with the $25 million, even though it fell far short of the $100 million originally sought.
“In one year, to get this new concept accepted by the Congress and to start off at $25 million is a good start,” he said. “Certainly it’s not enough to address all the needs that are out there in this arena, but it’s a good start.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson
(RNS) “Gay and lesbian people know what it’s like to be slaves in Egypt. We know what it’s like to hear of the promise of freedom in the promised land; we know how scary it is to step out and leave Egypt (by) leaving the closet; and we know what it’s like to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and wonder why it’s taking so long.”
New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, speaking to a supportive crowd during a visit to the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C.
MO/PH END RNS
