c. 2003 Religion News Service
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Moore’s Ten Commandments Case
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court Monday (Nov. 3) refused to hear suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s case concerning his legal fight to display a Ten Commandments monument in his state’s judicial building.
The closely watched case has been punctuated by protesters staging vigils outside the court building in Montgomery and workers wheeling the 5,300-pound granite monument into a storage room.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which was among the organizations that sued to remove the monument, said Moore has lost his final appeal.
“This is the end of the legal line for Roy More,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog group, in a statement.
“It is time for Moore to face facts: He’s on the wrong side of the Constitution. Religious symbols belong in our homes and houses of worship, not our courthouses.”
Americans for Religious Liberty President Edd Doerr agreed, calling the decision not to review the case “a victory for religious freedom.”
The Christian Coalition of Alabama, which has been among Moore’s supporters, said the overall issue of the placement of the Ten Commandments in public is far from over.
“While we are extremely disappointed that the majority of the court did not see the wisdom to accept this case, the Ten Commandments battle has just begun,” said John Giles, president of the Montgomery-based group.
“There are many cases we are tracking across the country that argue the same basic point, that the American judicial system is based on the moral foundation of our law, the Ten Commandments.”
Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., also expressed disappointment.
“The Supreme Court has once again demonstrated its hostility towards religion and missed an opportunity to clear up confusing lower court decisions dealing with the public display of the Ten Commandments,” he said in a statement.
The high court had previously refused Moore’s request to delay the removal of the monument, ordered by a district court judge who declared it unconstitutional.
Moore had placed it in the building’s rotunda in 2001. It was removed two years later on Aug. 27. He was suspended for his actions and faces a trial on ethics charges on Nov. 12.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Abortion Rights Proponents File Suits in Hopes of Blocking New Law
(RNS) Leaders of the abortion rights movement have filed suits in an effort to block a ban on a late-term abortion procedure President Bush is expected to sign into law.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit Friday (Oct. 31) in a New York federal court on behalf of the National Abortion Federation. On the same day, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a separate suit in a Nebraska federal court on behalf of four physicians including Dr. Leroy Carhart, who won a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2000 that struck down a similar ban.
Bush is scheduled to sign the “Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003” on Wednesday.
“I am challenging this new federal ban for the same reasons I challenged the Nebraska abortion ban: It is an attack on women’s right to obtain safe abortions,” Carhart said in a statement.
His suit argues that the ban is unconstitutional because it does not include an exception regarding the health of the mother. That issue was a factor in the high court’s 2000 decision.
“Outlawing safe medical procedures would force doctors to choose between providing their patients with the best and most appropriate care, or going to jail,” said Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, in a statement.
During the procedure, which critics call “partial-birth abortion,” a fetus is partially extracted through the birth canal and its skull is collapsed by suctioning out the brain.
The Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, reacted to the suits by saying they were no surprise and their efforts should be defeated.
“Attorney General (John) Ashcroft must be ready and willing to put forth whatever resources are necessary to defend this constitutional law,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based council, in a statement. “The Bush administration must fight to ensure that this gruesome blight on America’s conscience is removed once and for all.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Religious Orders Press Bush, Blair on Iraq Reconstruction
WASHINGTON (RNS) Three prominent umbrella groups for Catholic religious orders told President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that their two countries, not Iraqi citizens, should pay to rebuild war-torn Iraq.
The three groups _ the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Conference of Religious of England and Wales _ said those countries “responsible for the destruction” should pick up the tab in rebuilding.
“The Iraqi people, already suffering after years of economic sanctions and a crushing debt, must not be further burdened with the financial responsibility for reconstruction of the nation that they did not destroy,” the joint letter said.
All three groups strongly opposed the American- and British-led invasion of Iraq. The letter called on the two governments to secure food, health care and education for Iraqi citizens, especially women.
The nuns and priests also opposed sending more troops to Iraq, despite ongoing attacks on coalition forces.
“We urge you to seek a quick reduction in the number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq and to make serious efforts to return the country to control by Iraqis committed to the protection of human rights and the development of a nation integrated into the international community,” they said.
In a separate letter to Bush, the U.S. women’s group said the U.S. embargo against Cuba must be relaxed, not stepped up, as recently proposed by the president.
“Dissidents in Cuba would welcome increased contact with people from the U.S. … But without the ability to contact them freely, or to physically support them with our presence, they are left to the whims of the Castro regime,” the sisters said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
U.S. Naval Academy Breaks Ground for Jewish Chapel
(RNS) The U.S. Naval Academy broke ground for a Jewish chapel _ the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel _ on Sunday (Nov. 2).
The $12.8 million project marks the first Jewish house of worship on the Naval Academy’s campus in Annapolis, Md. Until now, the Academy was the only service academy without a designated facility for Jewish worship.
The 35,000-square-foot structure will house the Navy’s national synagogue and spaces for leadership development as well as education and social events. It will also be home for the academy’s ethics curriculum and have a library and media center. The chapel itself will have 350 seats and feature a Jerusalem stone wall that the designers hope will be reminiscent of Jerusalem’s Western Wall.
The design concept for the structure encompasses the values of patriotism, specifically honoring American Jews who have died in combat, and spirituality, offering a respite from the demanding lifestyle of midshipmen.
“Our design strives to create a series of spaces that have a certain solidity and presence which not only humbles but inspires the visitor,” said Joseph A. Boggs, principal of Boggs & Partners Architects, which designed the structure.
“The experience of the space becomes a spiritual relief from the outside world,” said Boggs, who predicted construction could be complete as early as March 2005.
The academy estimates there are 125 Jewish midshipmen currently enrolled at the Naval Academy.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
African Anglicans Express Dismay at Robinson Consecration
LONDON (RNS) The consecration of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire was deplored Monday (Nov. 3) by a group of some 20 Anglican primates, mainly from Africa but also including the West Indies, South America, India and Pakistan, and southeast Asia.
“It is with profound sadness and pain that we have arrived at this moment in the history of the Anglican Communion,” said Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria in a statement issued on behalf of the Primates of the Global South.
“We are appalled that the authorities of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. have ignored the heartfelt plea of the Communion not to proceed with the scheduled consecration of Canon Gene Robinson.”
Robinson, an openly gay priest, was consecrated as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire on Sunday.
The consecration, said the dissenting primates, clearly demonstrates that authorities within the U.S. Episcopal Church considered their culture-based agenda of “far greater importance” than obedience to the word of God and Anglican unity.
“The overwhelming majority of the Primates of the Global South cannot and will not recognize the office or ministry of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop,” the statement added, noting that a “state of impaired communion” now existed both within a significant part of the Episcopal Church itself and between the denomination and most other Anglican provinces.
“As ECUSA has willfully disregarded the strong warnings given at (the recent primates’ meeting) Lambeth that such an action would `tear the fabric of the communion at its deepest level,’ we can now have no basis whatsoever for any further confidence that ECUSA will pay any regard to the findings of the recently announced commission set up by the archbishop of Canterbury,” the statement said.
The commission, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh, Ireland, is due to present an initial report by the end of next September.
The southern primates pledged their support to those bishops, clergy and laity within the Episcopal Church who opposed Robinson’s consecration.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Holocaust Survivor Louise Gips of Cleveland
(RNS) “There was many a time when we have a party or something in our family, and I watched the children and grandchildren march to light a candle or dance the hora. One thought always goes through my mind: Hitler must be flipping in his grave.”
_ Louise Gips, who attended a reunion of Holocaust survivors at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Sunday (Nov. 2). She was quoted by The Washington Post.
DEA END RNS
