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Fourteen religious groups– Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh– today urged political candidates to avoid inappropriate emphasis on religious belief in the upcoming campaign season. (Press release.) In a document titled Religion in Political Campaigns — An Interfaith Statement of Principles, drafted by the Anti-Defamation League, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Interfaith Alliance, [...]

In Bendross v. Readon, (FL Aoo., Feb. 15, 2012), a Florida appeals court held that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine does not apply to prevent a civil court from adjudicating a dispute over the make up of the a church’s board.  Bible Missionary Baptist Church was incorporated as a non-profit corporation under Florida law. Eugene Rice, a member [...]

Now that sex abuse victim claims have all been filed (see prior posting) in the bankruptcy proceedings of the the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the Archdiocese reports that in bankruptcy court proceedings on Feb. 9: The judge ruled that the claimants could no longer bring a negligence claim against the archdiocese.  It also found that the [...]

In Wirtz v. City of South Bend, (7th Cir., Feb. 7, 2012), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as untimely and moot an appeal by the city of South Bend, Indiana of two orders by the trial court in litigation over the city’s transfer of property to a Catholic high school for an athletic [...]

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today, in a 2-1 decision struck down California’s Proposition 8 that eliminated the right– previously created by the California Supreme Court’s interpretation of the state constitution– for same-sex couples to marry. In Perry v. Brown, (9th Cir., Feb. 7, 2012), [opinion on alternate website in case of traffic overload] [...]

As previously reported, On Jan. 29 Catholic Churches around the country read similar letters from their local bishops condemning the Obama administration’s new rules requiring contraception coverage by most health plans, with exemptions that are too narrow to include most Catholic schools and hospitals. It appears that the letter posed particular issues for Catholic chaplains in [...]

Yet another decision has been handed down in the 7-year litigation over Plano, Texas Independent School District rules that, among other things, prevented a student from handing out candy canes with attached religious messages. In Morgan v. Plano Independent School District, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12875 (ED TX, Feb. 1, 2012), a Texas federal magistrate judge summarized [...]

Yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor reports that as the fighting goes on in Syria, the conflict is moving from a popular uprising to a confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites, explaining: The regime’s reliance on Alawite militiamen, known as the Shabiha, to help suppress the 10-month uprising is mirrored by elements of the armed rebel forces rallying [...]

Today is the United Nations’-declared annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Haaretz reports on plans in countries across Europe for marking the day. The January 27 date was chosen because it is the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces. The United [...]

Today’s New York Times reports in a front page story that the 72-minute film, The Third Jihad, was shown on continuous loop to New York City police officers during training sign-in, and the training medical and administrative orientation process. The film, produced by the Clarion Fund, was shown for a period between 3 months and [...]