Around the states

Church & State, Apr 2003

Alabama Governor Seeks Christian Nation

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has asked his Religious Right political allies to enlist in a crusade to restore the Christian character of America.

Speaking to the Alabama Christian Coalition's "Friends of the Family" Celebration March 8, Riley said, "If we are going to save this country, if we are going to reestablish that belief in God, it's up to us. If we don't do it, who will?"

Noting that the country is facing a war in Iraq, Riley observed, "There is another war going on in this country. This one is far more insidious. It's one that you just can't go and attack. It's a war for the absolute soul of this country."

According to the Mobile Register, Riley claimed the United States has Christian origins.

"God looked down on this country because this country was founded on the rock - and that rock was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," Riley said. "And when the storms came and the rains came, the rock, it did not move. But over the last 15 or 20 years, something began to erode."

Riley's appeal had a distinguished audience. Among those at the head table were U.S. Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions and U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt, Spencer Bachus, Jo Bonner and Mike Rogers. Chief Justice Roy Moore was also present.

AU Challenges Crosses On City Logo In New Mexico

Attorneys with Americans United have asked government officials in Las Cruces, N.M., to remove three crosses from the city seal.

In a Feb. 27 letter to Las Cruces Mayor Ruben Smith, City Manager Jim Ericson and City Attorney Fermin Rubio, AU attorneys note that federal courts have ruled that religious symbols on city seals and logos violate the First Amendment.

"Courts have been highly skeptical about the use of crosses as governmental symbols," wrote AU Legal Director Ayesha Khan and Attorney Fellow Kerry Kornblatt Jowers. "Indeed, courts have rejected virtually every argument that could be made in defense of Las Cruces' logo."

Crosses have not always appeared on the city's seal. The original city logo consisted of a cluster of grapes. The three crosses were adopted in the 1940s and the current logo - three crosses outlined by the sun - was adopted in 1975.

The recently formed Americans United chapter in Las Cruces has also protested the city's use of the religious seal.

Catholic Church Can't Use First Amendment Defense

Officials with the Roman Catholic Church cannot use the First Amendment's religious freedom guarantees to dismiss cases of sexual abuse filed against priests in Massachusetts, a state court has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney on Feb. 19 rejected a motion by church attorneys to dismiss more than 400 sexabuse cases. Church officials had claimed that the First Amendment prohibits civil courts from intervening in internal church affairs.

Sweeney said no interpretation of the First Amendment grants houses of worship "unqualified immunity from secular legal redress, regardless of how negligent for] reckless" they might have been.

Sweeney did dismiss claims that church officials were negligent for ordaining priests who later turned out to be abusers or for not removing them from their posts. Decisions about who to ordain and who to remove from religious positions are "purely ecclesiastical matters" and none of the state's concern, she wrote.

Roderick MacLeish, an attorney who represents more than half of the 400 victims, told the Associated Press that the ruling proves that the Catholic Church "as a religious institution is not above and beyond the law."

Church officials said they made the argument in court mainly to satisfy demands of insurance companies, which said they would not pay claims stemming from the abuse until the church exhausted all legal defense options.

Tenn. Pagan Parents Sue Over School Promotion Of Religion

A Tennessee family that practices a Pagan religion is suing public education officials in Union County, claiming that the school illegally promotes Christianity.

Greg and Sarajane Tracy of Maynardville assert in a lawsuit that school officials denigrated their daughter India's faith and pressured her to take part in Christian religious activities. They also say the school failed to protect her from harassment and physical assault from other students.

India, who is 14 and a straight-A student, said she was sent to the principal's office after she refused to portray the Virgin Mary in a school play. On another occasion, the child says school officials harassed her after she refused to go to a religious crusade offsite during school hours, reported the Associated Press.

"The principal had called me into the office because mine was the only [permission] slip that said no," Tracy said. "He asked me why I didn't want to go. He asked my religion. I told him I didn't want to talk about it and for him to call my parents."

Tracy was the only fourth-grade student in the school in April of 1999 when the other students left to attend the Area Wide Crusade, a revival meeting sponsored by a local Baptist pastor. The suit alleges that other students subsequently assaulted Tracy and called her a "Satan worshipper." She has since enrolled in a private school.