According to the Religion News Service, the Sept. 29 ruling reaffirmed a temporary order from 2008 that requires the school to allow the student time to engage in prayer at least once a day--but not during class time.

Richland County Judge James DeWeese displayed a self-designed poster that includes "humanist principles" alongside the Commandments. Below this text is a statement that says he believes in moral absolutes such as the Commandments rather than moral relativism such as the Humanist...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Wisconsin+church+denied+tax+break+for+custodian.-a0213602404A church cannot receive a tax exemption for the home of its custodian, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has ruled.

A United Methodist congregation in Wauwatosa, Wisc., provided its custodian a residence so he would be available on short notice, 24 hours a day, for maintenance, security and opening and closing the church. Up until 1994, the property was occupied by the church's associate...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dobson+receives+award+from+secretive+group+of+right-wing+leaders.-a0213602403Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson received a top award from the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP) during a closed-door meeting in early October.

The CNP, a coalition of top far-right leaders drawn from both the religious and secular spheres, honored Dobson with its "Ronald Reagan Lifetime Achievement Award" during a meeting in Austin. The confab was closed to the...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Religious+right+gets+early+start+to+complaints+about+'War+on...-a0213602402One day after summer officially ended, a prominent Religious Right group began complaining about the alleged "War on Christmas."

The American Family Association (AFA) issued an e-mail to supporters Sept. 22 reporting approvingly that Sears is now offering a "Christmas club" on its Web site. But, the group claimed, clothing retailer Gap has said it will not use the terra "Christmas" in...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/'Faith-based'+group's+hire+of+former+Obama+staffer+raises+funding...-a0213602401A former Barack Obama campaign staff member abruptly stepped down from his new job with the National Association of Evangelicals' (NAE) relief agency after questions were raised about the appointment.

Andrew Mwavua was hired to be national campaign director for World Relief, the charity arm of the NAE. His appointment was announced in August, but he resigned less than a month later after...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Korean+Evangelist+Moon+says+he+is+stepping+down+as+church+leader.-a0213602400


The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and a longtime funder of Religious Right causes, has announced that he is turning control of the church over to his four children.

Three Moon sons--30-year-old Hyung Jin Moon, Kook Jin Moon, 39, and Hyun Jin Moon, 40--will oversee the church's theological and business arms in the United States, South Korea and...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Scalia+says+government+is+free+to+prefer+religion+over+non-religion.-a0213602399
Justice Antonin Scalia told an Orthodox Jewish newspaper that the Supreme Court has been off base with many of its church-state opinions bur is slowly getting back on track.

Government, Scalia insisted, should be permitted to prefer religion over non-religion.

In what was billed as an "historic exclusive interview," Hamodia, a Brooklyn publication that calls itself "the...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/'In+God+We+Trust'+motto+added+to+U.S.+Capitol+Visitor+Center.-a0213602398Months of carping by the Religious Right and its allies paid off in September when the words "In God We Trust" were chiseled into the main hall of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).

The Center has been a target of Religious Right wrath since it opened in Washington, D.C., last year. The state-of-the-art, $620-million facility is designed to acquaint visitors to the U.S. Capitol with the...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/California+town+votes+to+continue+sectarian+prayers+before+public...-a0213602397Members of the Lodi, Calif., City Council voted unanimously last month to continue their practice of opening meetings with prayer, even though the invocations often reflect sectarian perspectives.

The issue has roiled the community for months. The council opens its meetings with religious invocations, and many pastors prayed "in Jesus' name," despite a council policy that called for...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Religious+right+legal+group+urges+pastors+to+push+candidates+in...-a0213602396A Religious Right legal organization once again urged pastors to endorse political candidates from the pulpit in September, bur it's unclear if any did.

The Alliance Defense Fund sponsored the second "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" Sept. 27. During the event, evangelical Christian pastors were asked to endorse or oppose candidates for public office in violation of federal tax...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Justice+Department+defends+'faith-based'+funding+of+religious...-a0213602395The U.S. Department of Justice has defended a series of Bush-era "faith-based" grants to sectarian organizations, but referred complaints from Americans United about the funding to the federal agency's monitoring and investigative units.

AU wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder June 24, asking him to terminate or investigate nine federal "earmark" grants awarded to faith-based...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Texas+Archbishop+urges+Supreme+Court+Justices+to+curb+abortion.-a0213602394A high-ranking Roman Catholic cleric from Texas criticized legal abortion before six members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Vice President Joe Biden and several cabinet members at a special religious service in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4.

Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, speaking at the annual "Red Mass," urged members of the legal profession to protect the "literally...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Wandering+in+the+desert%3a+justice+Scalia's+dangerous+plan+to...-a0213602393The cross is the central symbol of the Christian faith. This fact would seem to be indisputable.

After the Roman Empire was Christianized, emperors put crosses on the reverse of their coins. Byzantine rulers did the same thing, and during the Middle Ages, Crusader armies carried the cross aloft in their wars against Islamic battalions.

No, we aren't talking about Santa Claus. We're talking about Mat Staver, a less-than-jolly elf in Lynchburg, Va.

Staver, president of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University Law School, unveiled in October "Adopt a Liberal," a project intended to move...]]>Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/God+and+the+classroom%3a+new+book+on+religion+and+schools+offers+road...-a0213602391Public school teachers, administrators, parents and students who are confused about what the law says about religion in the classroom should take note: Help is on the way.

Americans United has just published a new book Religion in the Public Schools: A Road Map for Avoiding Lawsuits anal Respecting Parents' Legal Rights.