c. 2007 Religion News Service

Court Revives Case Against Jehovah’s Witnesses

TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian court has ruled that the father of a teenaged Jehovah’s Witness who died five years ago can proceed with legal action against the church.

In its ruling on Aug. 31, the Alberta Court of Appeal revived large portions of a $925,000 lawsuit filed by Lawrence Hughes of Calgary, who accuses Jehovah’s Witness members of contributing to the death of his 17-year-old daughter, Bethany.

The lawsuit, which a lower court dismissed as an attack on the Witnesses’ religious beliefs, alleges that lawyers for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada counseled Bethany Hughes to refuse transfusions necessary to treat her leukemia.

The case made headlines and generated controversy over whether someone Bethany’s age could make informed decisions. Canada’s Charter of Rights allows those 18 and older to decide their own medical treatments, but ethicists argued that mature children should be allowed to decide unless their competence has been compromised.

Eventually, the Alberta government won temporary custody of Bethany and she was forcibly given 38 transfusions. She died Sept. 5, 2002, two months after doctors stopped the transfusions, which were determined to be ineffective.

Lawrence Hughes commenced his action two years ago after a court approved him as administrator of Bethany’s estate. But last year, a lower court ruled that his allegations were simply an attack on the church’s beliefs, and that litigation couldn’t proceed on the charge that a religious belief is wrong.

However, the appeals court noted the case will not put on trial the belief of Jehovah’s Witnesses that blood transfusions are forbidden by the Bible.

“The pleadings will not require any examination of the `truth’ of the (church’s) beliefs about blood transfusions,” the judges said.

Lawrence Hughes was shunned from the church after he rejected its teachings about blood transfusions and allowed Bethany to undergo the procedure.

_ Ron Csillag

UC Policy Gives Students Flexibility on Move-in Days

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (RNS) The University of California will no longer force students to choose between observing religious holidays and move-in days at dormitories, according to a new system-wide policy.

Previously, Jewish students had complained that move-in days often conflicted with the Jewish High Holy Days, such as this year, when move-in day is scheduled for Sept. 22, during Yom Kippur.

While school officials say they hope to resolve all conflicts after 2010, until then, students will be given options _ including allowing move-in days on other dates _ so students will not have to seek individual exceptions.

Under the policy, schools with move-in days that conflict with a religious holiday must change their schedule so no student will have to choose between fulfilling their religious obligations and moving in. Mandatory orientation activities have been rescheduled so no student will miss them because of religious reasons, said Todd Greenspan, the UC’s director of educational relations.

While the Jewish High Holy Days were the impetus for the change, the new policy applies to all religions, Greenspan said. Officials plan to meet with a diverse group of religious leaders to ensure the policy will not conflict with any major religious holiday.

After 2010, the institution plans to set a move-in calendar that should not conflict with any major religious holiday, Greenspan said.

UC officials developed the policy in June, after state Assemblyman Lloyd Levine and more than 60 Jewish community leaders and residents petitioned for a change.

“I just didn’t believe that any person should be forced to choose between their deeply held personal religious beliefs and the beginning of the rest of their life,” Levine said.

While UC officials have no data on the number of Jewish students in the system, 179,000 undergraduates attend nine campuses statewide, and about a quarter of them are freshmen. The 10th campus, UC San Francisco, is for graduate students only.

Arlene Miller, associate director for Jewish student life at University of California Los Angeles’ Hillel, a Jewish student organization, said the policy means Jews will not be singled out from their non-Jewish peers.

“It’s definitely awkward for new students to be moving in and to feel that the campus isn’t warm and welcome to them if they’re being told to move in on the eve or on the day of one of the most important holidays of the year,” she said.

_ Joanna Corman

Officials Probe Pastor’s Loans From Soldier’s Mother

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Investigators with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice on Tuesday (Sept. 4) interviewed the mother of a dead Marine who said she lent $75,000 to the Newark pastor who presided over her son’s funeral.

Cynthia Fleming said investigators reviewed canceled checks and copies of the loan agreement Bishop Steven Parrott signed in the months after he presided over the funeral for Cpl. James T. Jenkins, a decorated Iraq veteran who committed suicide after his second combat tour.

Fleming says most of that money has not been repaid.

“They looked at everything I had and told me to go back to my bank to get more,” said Fleming, who said she was interviewed at her home in Mount Holly by two investigators for nearly two hours.

David Wald, a spokesman for state Attorney General Anne Milgram, declined comment, citing agency policy that prohibits confirming or denying investigations.

Fleming, 48, says Parrott told her “the Lord” wanted him to ask for the loan on March 16, 2006, the day after she told the pastor she had been awarded her son’s death benefit. She ultimately gave most of that money to Parrott.

In interviews last month, Parrott, the pastor of the Lighthouse Temple, a small Pentacostal congregation in Newark, conceded that he owes Fleming and “others” money.

But Parrott, 51, refused to discuss the terms of the loans and did not return messages left on his cell phones.

Elders in Parrott’s mother church, Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostle Faith Inc., in July barred him from leading his congregation in worship after receiving complaints about the unpaid loans.

_ Wayne Woolley

Quote of the Day: Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dallas megachurch pastor

(RNS) “We have to stop standing on the road and watching the accident, pointing and staring while the people who are injured in both cars hemorrhage without solution.”

_ Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Dallas megachurch pastor who has been outspoken about the need to address domestic violence, writing in a guest column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after reports that Atlanta-area ministers Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks were involved in a recent confrontation after which Weeks was charged with assault.

KRE/RB END RNS