Religion News in Brief
Last updated Friday, January 2, 2009 5:50 PM CST in Religion
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Indiana Mom Sues School Over Religious Education Class
HUNTINGTON, Ind. -- School officials in a northeastern Indiana district deny that a religious education program offered during the school day illegally advances religion, as a federal lawsuit claims.
A complaint filed by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of an unnamed woman and her 8-year-old son asks a federal judge to shut down the program and bar the school district from providing it with utilities or any other support.
The boy, identified only as "J.S.," attends Horace Mann Elementary School, which offers third- and fourth-grade students a "release time" program for "By the Book Weekday Religious Instruction" through the Associated Churches of Huntington, the suit states.
The Huntington County Community School Corp. argued in a response to the lawsuit that the release time program neither advances nor inhibits religion.
Similar programs at elementary schools have been protected by a 1952 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed students to receive religious education during school hours but not on school property.
Huntington's program is voluntary. Classes meet once a week in mobile trailers near school buildings, and children who don't participate remain in their classrooms with school staff, according to a brochure for the program filed with the lawsuit.
In their response to the lawsuit, attorneys for the school district deny it violated any federal or state laws or deprived the plaintiffs of any rights "either Constitutional or otherwise."
Hurricanes And Economy Hurt Texas Churches
HOUSTON -- Some Texas religious centers are closing their doors while others are laying off staff as a result of the struggling economy coupled with the devastation of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.
The centers have responded by eliminating unfilled positions, recruiting volunteers to take on paid positions, reducing hours of operation to save energy costs and postponing building construction.
St. John's Methodist Church in Houston is reducing its staff of 40 people by 20 percent, the Rev. Rudy Rasmus said. Philanthropic gifts at St. John's are down 30 percent, Rasmus said. He's cutting services and budgets at the same time some are searching for spiritual anchors.
"It's hard to hear that kind of news and feel holiday cheer," Rasmus said.
The Rev. Ken Gurley of First Church in Pearland said his congregation has helped to pay mortgages for three other Pentecostal churches.
"The combined effects of Katrina, Rita and then Ike have really stretched church resources to the max," Gurley said. "In all of these crises, churches literally emptied their pockets."
Some religious leaders remained hopeful December will again be a good month for contributions.
Supreme Court Asked To Review Exorcism Case
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Lawyers for a former Colleyville woman who accused her fellow church members of abuse during a forced exorcism in 1996 when she was a teen have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.
Laura Schubert alleged that members of the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God held her down, bruising her wrists and leaving carpet burns on her back when she was 17 and then known as Laura Pearson.
This summer, the Texas Supreme Court threw out a jury award Schubert received for her injuries, reasoning that it unconstitutionally drew the court into religious matters.
But Schubert's attorneys argue that the Texas Supreme Court's decision improperly tried to expand the First Amendment's religious protections. Schubert contends that someone's religious beliefs do not protect them from state laws prohibiting crimes such as assault and false imprisonment.
Attorneys for the church, which has merged with another Colleyville congregation, write in legal briefs that the case has no business before the U.S. Supreme Court because it is a personal injury lawsuit for mental anguish damages and because it concerns protected religious conduct.
Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later suffered hallucinations after churchgoers pinned her to the floor for hours in an attempt to exorcise a demon.
A Tarrant County jury found the Colleyville church and its members liable for abusing and falsely imprisoning the girl. The jury awarded her $300,000, though an appeals court later reduced it to $188,000.
Utah Man Ordered To Pay $2.4 Million In Fraud Scheme Targeting Fellow Mormons
BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho will attempt to collect $2.4 million from a Utah man and his company as part of efforts to help investors who were defrauded in a scheme that allegedly targeted primarily Mormons from southwestern Idaho.
Fourth District Judge Patrick H. Owen in Boise ordered Gabriel Joseph of Cedar Hills, Utah, and his company, Annuit Coeptis LLC, to return more than $2.4 million obtained illegally from 45 Idaho investors.
Owen also ordered Michael Breinholt and his company, Streamline Financial LLC, to pay $5 million for their role in the fraud, but he'll pay just $12,000 annually for 10 years, or $120,000 in all, because he said he has no money.
Idaho Department of Finance investigators said it appears the case involves affinity fraud, in which a perpetrator takes advantage of people who share the same background or beliefs. James Burns, investigations chief of the department's Securities Bureau, said it appears most of the people bilked were, like Breinholt, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church.
Hong Kong Cardinal To Retire In 2009 To Focus On Monitoring Mainland Chinese Church
HONG KONG -- Cardinal Joseph Zen said the Vatican has approved his decision to step down as head of the Hong Kong diocese next year to spend more time monitoring Catholic churches in mainland China.
"I do not retire to rest," Zen told reporters. "The mainland Chinese church is huge and complicated. Sometimes the pope wants me to give him some advice, so I need more time to research it."
Zen said he would not interfere in relations between China and the Vatican, saying it was a diplomatic matter outside the scope of his duties.
Hong Kong and Macau are the only places in China where the Roman Catholic Church is allowed. Catholics on the mainland were forced to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheistic Communist Party took power.
Worship is allowed only in government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops. Millions of people, however, belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome.
The 76-year-old cardinal, a fierce critic of Beijing and an ardent supporter of democracy, said he will probably retire in the first half of 2009 but that the date will be announced later.
-- The Associated Press
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