c. 2004 Religion News Service

Atheist Group Sues Officials of White House Faith-Based Offices

(RNS) The Freedom from Religion Foundation has filed suit against officials of President Bush’s faith-based initiative, saying their actions unconstitutionally favor religious organizations.

The eight-page complaint, filed Thursday (June 17) in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wis., questions federal funding of faith-based groups as well as the national and regional conferences sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

Defendants named in the suit include Jim Towey, director of the office, executives of similar cabinet-level offices and several members of Bush’s cabinet.

“The defendants’ actions have violated the fundamental principle of the separation of church and state by using federal taxpayer appropriations to support activities that endorse religion and give faith-based organizations preferred positions as political insiders,” the suit alleges.

Towey responded by saying that the organization filing the suit doesn’t understand the operations of his office and the related cabinet-level centers.

“President Bush has made very clear that we’re to level the playing field, not to favor faith-based groups,” he told Religion News Service. “This organization’s lawsuit … looks more like a press release than anything else because much of what it alleges is simply untrue.”

The Madison-based foundation of atheists and agnostics charged that leaders of the faith-based initiative, through the conferences and in other ways, “send messages to non-adherents of religious belief that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.”

The foundation seeks a declaration that appropriations by the federal officials have violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and should no longer be permitted. They also seek the halt of funding for the cabinet-level centers and new rules to ensure that future funding does not support social-service providers that feature religion as an integral part of an activity receiving government money.

“The preferences for and endorsements of faith-based organizations by the defendants, as preferred providers of social services funded with federal taxpayer appropriations, belie the claim that defendants are trying to level the playing field for access to federal funds by faith-based organizations,” the suit states.

Towey responded that the cabinet-level centers are not granting money but are offering counseling on how to work with the federal government.

“Faith-based centers in the agencies don’t grant funds,” he said in an interview. “The conferences we hold are populated by groups of all different beliefs and no belief at all. They’re open to anyone that wants to come.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Massachusetts Catholic Leaders Ask Members to Voice Dismay on Gay Marriage

(RNS) Leaders of the Massachusetts Catholic church are calling on Catholics to voice their “profound disappointment” with lawmakers who did not vote to ban gay marriage earlier this year and to offer “highest praise” for those who did, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (June 15).

The Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which represents four Catholic dioceses, is sending letters to all 710 parishes in the state. The letters evaluate individual lawmakers’ votes on gay marriage for their consistency with church teachings.

At a March constitutional convention, the Massachusetts legislature narrowly approved putting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2006. The next legislature must also approve the measure before it goes before voters.

Gay marriages have been performed in Massachusetts since May 17 as a result of a Supreme Judicial Court ruling last November.

The letters do not expressly endorse any candidates. However, some people have been critical of the timing, as the mailings come only five months before all 200 Senate and House seats are contested in November’s election.

“I think the Massachusetts Catholic Conference is itching to get its tax exemption revoked,” said Robert Boston, spokesman for the nonpartisan, Washington-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “It would be hard to look at this as anything other than a command of who to vote for and who to vote against.”

Representatives for the Catholic church disagree.

“We leave it up to the pastor to disseminate or not disseminate our analysis of votes,” said Gerald D’Avolio, executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. “It’s his prerogative.”

More than two-thirds of Massachusetts lawmakers are Catholic, as are about half of all Massachusetts residents.

_ Juliana Finucane

Lesbian Film Outrages Hindu Religious Militants

NEW DELHI, India (RNS) An Indian film, “Girl Friend,” which narrates the tale of love between two women, has caused outrage among militant Hindu religious activists.

Street violence, including the trashing of movie theaters, has occurred in a number of cities.

Five activists in Varanasi in northern India consumed poison to protest its screening saying it violated Indian culture. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where their condition remains serious. An angry mob set fire to a theater there.

Nearly 100 activists of the right-wing Shiv Sena group smashed window panes, ripped up posters, and burned effigies at a hall screening the film in Bombay, capital of India’s movie industry.

Authorities are mounting a close watch on theaters showing the film in view of the violence.

“We will push the government to order the deletion of objectionable scenes in the film,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, vice president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party told reporters Wednesday (June 16).

India’s Censor Board had earlier passed the film but critics have generally panned the film.

Karan Razdan, the film’s director, said the movie is not against Indian culture. “I’m trying to show what’s happening in society,” he said.

While Indian laws slap a 10-year imprisonment for male-to-male relations, they are silent on female-to-female relationships.

_ Joshua Newton

Massachusetts Catholics Consider Dismissing Gay Employees Who Marry

(RNS)In Massachusetts, the only state that allows same-sex marriage, Catholic leaders are contemplating dismissing gay archdiocesan employees who wed their partners, according to several published news reports.

The newly proposed employment policies, first reported by the Boston Herald on Thursday (June 17), include one that would allow church employees to follow their consciences. The proposals have been sent to the state’s four bishops and their staff, the Boston Herald reported.

Daniel Avila, associate director for policy and research at the Massachusetts Catholic Conference told Reuters that “The church has long had a position that people working on its behalf need to display conduct consistent with the beliefs of the church.”

The four dioceses of Massachusetts, which are distinct entities under church and civil law, have spoken out against gay marriage in the state.

The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, has told reporters that the diocese has “had discussions about it. It’s obviously a very volatile issue.”

Quote of the Day: Former President Bill Clinton

(RNS) “I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could. I think that’s just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything.”

_ Former President Bill Clinton explaining his “terrible moral error” in his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky on the CBS program “60 Minutes.” The program was to be broadcast June 20.

DEA/JL END RNS