c. 1997 Religion News Service
Georgia court says moment of silence constitutional
(RNS) A federal appeals court has ruled that a law allowing Georgia schools to open with a moment of silence is constitutional, rejecting claims by a teacher it was an illegal effort to return prayer to the public school classroom.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday (May 6) that the 1994 measure meets a three-pronged standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
The high court said laws concerning religion in public schools are constitutional if they have a secular purpose, do not promote or advance religion and do not excessively entangle government with religion.
Harlan Loeb of the Anti-Defamation League said the law is the first of its type to withstand the constitutional review of a federal appeals court, the Associated Press reported.
The measure was challenged by attorneys for a former teacher who was fired for refusing to hold a moment of silence in his suburban Atlanta classroom. Brian Bown, now of Illinois, objected because he believed he would have to police religious actions or words by students during the time of reflection.
Steven Leibel, Bown’s lawyer, argued that the law is unconstitutional because it entangles teachers, as government workers, with religious issues. Leibel said he will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leibel said Georgia lawmakers who signed the legislation clearly intended to support prayer in public schools.
The law does not mention prayer, but says that students will begin the day with one minute of”silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.”
Women’s ordination opponents to cost Church of England $25 million
(RNS) Church of England officials say it will cost more than $25 million to compensate clergy leaving the denomination because of their opposition to the ordination of women as priests.
In the annual report published Wednesday (May 7) by the Church Commissioners, the body that administers the church’s finances, commissioners said they estimate payments to clergy leaving over the ordination issue will be $25.73 million by 2006, when the agreement between the dissenting clergy and the church ends.
Total church assets were put at $4.82 billion.
Under legislation passed by the church shortly before the first women priests were ordained in 1994, clerics who resign their ministry because of their conscientious objection to women priests receive a three-year stipend.
The window of opportunity during which they can resign and claim compensation extends until the year 2004.
In 1994, $4.21 million was paid to resigning clergy, in 1995 $5.34 million, and in 1996 $4.69 million. The additional amount that will have to be paid between now and the year 2006, when these compensation payments will cease, is estimated at $11.49 million for a total of $25.73 million.
Two ex-Heaven’s Gate members attempt suicide; one dies
(RNS) One former Heaven’s Gate member was dead and another was hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday (May 7) following a double suicide attempt at a hotel just four miles from the site of the March suicides of 39 group members.
Sheriff’s deputies in Encinitas, Calif., said they found messages saying that Wayne Cooke, 54, and Chuck Humphrey, 56, hoped to join their dead colleagues aboard a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet, the Associated Press reported.
Cooke, of Las Vegas, died. He was married to Suzanne Sylvia Cooke, who was among those Heaven’s Gate members who committed suicide in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26.
Authorities said Humphrey, from Denver, had phenobarbital in his system. That suggested the pair took the same mix of barbiturates and alcohol the earlier suicides took, sheriff’s Sgt. Don Crist said. Both also put plastic bags over their heads in an attempt to hasten death.
Cooke and Humphrey had mailed videos to news organizations and friends explaining their actions.”I’d rather gamble on missing the bus this time than staying on this planet and risk losing my soul,”Cooke said on a video sent to CNN. Speaking with CBS'”60 Minutes”after the March suicides, Cooke said he wished he had stayed with the group.
Humphrey said in April he had left the group after growing disillusioned over the unfulfilled promises of Heaven’s Gate’s leaders.
China sentences senior Tibetan monk to six years in prison
(RNS) A senior Tibetan monk has been sentenced to six years in prison for giving information to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled top religious and political leader, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (May 7).
Chatrel Rinpoche had led the Beijing-approved search for a boy Tibetans believe is the latest reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second highest religious and political authority under Tibet’s traditional Buddhist theocracy.
However, when the Dalai Lama announced his selection of a new Panchen Lama first, Chatrel Rinpoche was arrested. He was charged with informing the Dalai Lama of China’s plans _ considered state secrets _ and trying to”split China.” Soon after, Beijing announced its selection of a 6-year-old boy as the new Panchen Lama. The 8-year-old boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the next Panchen Lama has not been seen in public since.
China invaded independent Tibet in 1950, claiming it was a region Beijing had historically controlled. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he now lives. Ever since, the Dalai Lama has sought to gain self-determination, a step short of full independence, for Tibet.
Chatrel Rinpoche, abbot of the Panchen Lama’s Tashilhunpo monastery, was tried in secret, along with two others, in April. China’s Xinhua News Agency said all three admitted to”criminal activity.”One of the others tried received a four-year sentence and the other a two-year term.
In Washington, Lodi Gyari, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, called the sentencing of Chatrel Rinpoche”a direct attack on the core religious belief of the Tibetan people, and will further alienate the Tibetan people from the Chinese rulers. Chatrel Rinpoche only followed customary Tibetan religious tradition in his efforts to find the true reincarnation of the … Panchen Lama.”
Reformed churches look to mount a campaign against lotteries
(RNS) The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), the Geneva-based umbrella organization of 208 Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational and United churches in 102 nations, is being asked to undertake a worldwide campaign against lotteries, especially government-run lotteries.
The recommendation, which came out of a late April meeting of Reformed church leaders who met in Pusan, South Korea, will be presented at WARC’s general council meeting in August in Debrecen, Hungary.”All the evidence worldwide showed that invariably the poor are exploited and their plight deepened by the culture of false hope,”the church leaders said in a statement released in Geneva.”In some instances there is only one chance in 14 million of winning the jackpot,”the statement said.”In other instances, corruption ensures that there is no jackpot.” The Rev. Seong-Won Park, WARC’s executive secretary for cooperation and witness, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that the main problem with lotteries is”who is participating.””Most will be poor people who don’t have any reasonable possibility of getting rich,”he said.”Rich people generally don’t take part in lotteries.”But for poor people, the lottery gives them the illusion they will be rich,”he added.”This is false hope, a hope that I can get money by chance. This is contrary to Christian ethics, it creates a kind of mammonism.”
Quote of the day: James M. Wall, editor, The Christian Century
(RNS) In an editorial in the current issue of The Christian Century magazine, editor James M. Wall comments on President Clinton’s critical reaction to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s violation of sanctions, imposed after the Persian Gulf War, in order to transport Iraqi citizens making the hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Wall notes Clinton wants to be remembered as a humane president of a superpower that used its power for good, and adds:”One way to prepare himself to reach that goal is to read, along with the Bible, the Koran, where he will find language not unlike that of the biblical tradition.”
DEA END RNS
