c. 2007 Religion News Service
Texas Court Strikes Down State Rules on Seminaries
(RNS) A Texas court has struck down a state requirement that religious higher education institutions must meet specific standards before they can call themselves a “seminary” or use certain terminology to describe their degrees.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Aug. 31 in favor of HEB Ministries, which runs Tyndale Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. The state had fined the school $173,000 because it had not been authorized by a state educational board to grant degrees.
“The state may not deny a religious program of study clearly denominated as such the use of all words capable of describing educational achievement,” wrote Justice Nathan L. Hecht in a unanimous opinion by the court.
The case also affects two religious institutions that train Hispanic and African-American pastors, San Antonio-based Hispanic Bible Institute and Dallas-based Southern Bible Institute, which joined the case as additional plaintiffs.
In an effort to ban so-called “diploma mills,” the state had enacted a law that restricts the terminology a school can use about educational attainment unless a school has received a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
“We think it beyond serious dispute that the statue clearly and excessively entangles the government in matters of religious instruction,” Hecht wrote. “The board’s standards, and those of recognized accrediting agencies, cannot be applied without a thorough, detailed, and repeated examination of an institution’s operations and curriculum.”
Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of the Liberty Legal Institute, a Texas organization that argued the case for HEB Ministries, hailed the decision.
“This decision is a huge victory for all seminaries not only in Texas but nationwide,” he said. “The state has no authority or competence to control the training of pastors and ministers.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Legion of Christ Sues to Retrieve Internal Documents
(RNS) The Legion of Christ, a controversial Roman Catholic religious order, is suing a former member to regain documents and to stop him from spreading “malicious disinformation” about the order.
John Paul Lennon, of Alexandria, Va., a former priest and member of the Legion of Christ for 23 years, has been ordered by Alexandria Circuit Court to turn over documents, computer disks and other property related to the order by Sept. 14.
Lennon, 63, is distributing stolen property by posting letters and documents belonging to the order on Web sites, according to the legion’s court filing.
The order is also suing Regain Inc., owner of http://www.regainnetwork.org, a Web site that frequently criticizes Legion of Christ. It also asked the court to force the site to disclose the identities of individuals writing on the site. Lennon is the president of Regain Inc.
Lennon, who left the order more than 20 years ago, said in a video on the Web site, “We have the greatest desire to comply with the law and to have the Legion take itself elsewhere and leave us in peace.” He also said the documents in question are “obscure” and of doubtful interest to the public.
The Legion has been dogged by widespread allegations of cultish activity and sexual abuse by its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Last year, Pope Benedict XVI banned Maciel, 87, from public ministry.
The order counts some 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians worldwide, as well as 70,000 members of Regnum Christi, an affiliated lay movement.
_ Daniel Burke
Eisen Installed as Head of Jewish Theological Seminary
NEW YORK (RNS) The new chancellor of the flagship seminary of Conservative Judaism on Wednesday (Sept. 5) called for change at a time when the movement is at a crossroads.
“I utterly reject talk of decline when it comes to the state of the movement and its prospects,” Arnold Eisen said during his installation ceremony at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Conservative Judaism occupies the middle ground between the more traditional Orthodox and the more liberal Reform movement. Once the largest Jewish movement, it now faces an aging membership and shrinking numbers. There have also been internal disagreements between those who advocate strict adherence to Jewish law and those who support more liberal interpretation.
“We do not see full participation in the society and culture surrounding us and total immersion in our tradition as irreconcilable, but rather as mutually reinforcing,” Eisen said in his speech.
Eisen is the seventh chancellor in the school’s 121-year history, and is expected to use his position to take a major role in the movement. He called for expanded interfaith dialogue, including greater cooperation with Christian institutions and more dialogue with Muslims.
In addition, he announced a pilot program in nine synagogues around the country to encourage grass-roots conversations that he hoped would bring the movement closer and encourage personal and communal observance. He also expects to promote a sense of connection to Israel among American Jews.
The first major task for the faculty, he said, was a curriculum review in the rabbinical and cantorial schools.
Eisen succeeds Ismar Schorsch, who is retiring after 20 years. As Schorsch presented Eisen with the chancellor’s medal during the ceremony, he said he hoped Eisen would “raise this great voice for sanity in the Jewish world to even greater heights.”
Eisen welcomed leaders from other faiths as well as other Jewish movements. The presidents of the Orthodox Yeshiva University and the Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion attended the ceremony.
“I hope the strengthening of our several movements never blinds us to the fact that far more unites us than divides us,” he said.
_ Ansley Roan
Quote of the Day: Anglican Bishop Isaac Orama of Nigeria
(RNS) “Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God’s purpose for man.”
_ Anglican Bishop Issac Orama of Uyo, Nigeria, as quoted by United Press International.
KRE/LF END RNS
