Freedom Of Religion

The National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles dealt a blow Tuesday to an organizing campaign aimed at unionizing gravediggers who work at 10 cemeteries operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. "The cemetery operations are integral to the Catholic Church's religious mission and rituals" and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act, said the board in an opinion signed by Regional Director Victoria E. Aguayo.

Gilda Ghanipour has spent the last nine years on the run. Abandoned by her Muslim family for converting to Christianity, she has shuttled from one address to the next, terrified of being deported to her native Iran, where apostasy can be punished by death. Last year, Ghanipour stumbled upon a retired immigration judge and his Pepperdine University Law School students, who championed her quest for asylum. Ghanipour won the case. But she doesn't know it. The devoutly religious woman vanished shortly before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services delivered on her dream at the end of August.

Pope John Paul II appealed to world leaders Tuesday to accept religious freedom as a fundamental human right. "Religious freedom, an essential requirement of the dignity of every person, is a cornerstone of the structure of human rights," the Pope said, "and for this reason, an irreplaceable factor in the good of individuals and of the whole of society as well as of the personal fulfillment of each individual."

On Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation, Winslow Friday is preparing to surrender in his long fight with the federal government. The seeds of the conflict were planted four years ago when Friday shot a bald eagle out of a tree. His cousin needed a tail fan for an upcoming Sun Dance, the Northern Arapaho tribe's most important religious ceremony, and Friday wanted to help. So when Friday spotted the bird, he seized his chance. Charged with killing a bald eagle in violation of federal law, Friday had argued that the law hinders the practice of his religion -- a battle closely watched on the reservation.

Russia's leadership ignored a chorus of denunciations from around the world Friday when the lower house of parliament adopted a law hobbling religious activity by foreign missionaries and Russian faiths that refused to curry favor with the atheist leaders of the Communist era.

Advocates of religious rights quickly tick off the examples. In St. Louis, "a fourth-grader was put in detention three times for whispering a prayer before eating his meal," one said. Another cited a Pennsylvania case in which a "student's lunch box was confiscated because it included a note that said: 'Jesus loves you.'

American evangelist Billy Graham praised Chinese leaders, saying they are working to broaden freedom of religion. "There's no complacency here that I've found among the leaders," said Graham, who met with foreign reporters in Beijing. Graham's visit to China--his first--ends April 28.

Despondent over attacks on him and the Los Angeles Police Department, embattled Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon decided one recent day that he was ready to retire and move to Montana. But that night Vernon and his wife read several verses from the Bible, which they do every night before bed. A scriptural passage from Matthew spoke directly to him, Vernon said, imploring him to stay: "Your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your acts. . . ."

An Ontario Superior Court judge struck down a section of Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, saying it violated guarantees of freedom of religion and thought. Judge Douglas Rutherford made the decision in the case of Mohammed Momin Khawaja, a Canadian man charged with conspiring to carry out bombings in Britain. Rutherford said a clause that limits the definition of terrorist activity to acts motivated by religion, politics or ideology was unconstitutional. He left the rest of the act in place.

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Salt Lake City challenged official praying at public schools. Prayers at graduation ceremonies and other school-sponsored activities violate freedom of religion and the guaranteed separation of church and state, according to the suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four students, a teacher and a counselor. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1962 banned daily prayer rituals at public schools.

When a spiffy, $621-million visitors center opened at the U.S. Capitol last year, a number of lawmakers were taken aback by what they didn't see: the words "In God We Trust." Doing what members of Congress do when they're upset, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the walls of the complex.

Whether the issue is a Nativity scene in a town square or the Ten Commandments at a city hall, Americans never seem to tire of debating whether public displays of religion are constitutional. Year after year, courts give their blessings to some displays and the ax to others. After more than 200 years debating the 1st Amendment, why haven't we found consensus?

When the largest church in Boulder County, Colo., wanted to double its size two years ago, county commissioners said no. Rocky Mountain Christian Church already dominated a rural corner of the county northwest of Denver. If it became any larger, commissioners said, it would destroy the area's country atmosphere. But the church didn't accept the decision quietly.

An American Christian group that was stopped at the airport when it tried to bring in more than 300 Bibles won't leave the customs zone until it gets the books back, its leader said today. The four Americans, led by Pat Klein of the Wyoming-based Vision Beyond Borders, said they were convinced officials wanted them to leave the Kunming airport in southern China without the Bibles, preventing their distribution. "We paid a lot to come here and bring them," Klein said in a telephone interview from the customs area, where the four have been since Sunday.

A Quaker math instructor who was fired by Cal State East Bay after she refused on religious grounds to sign a state loyalty oath has been reinstated, university officials said Friday. Marianne Kearney-Brown, a pacifist, was concerned that signing the oath to "support and defend" the California and U.S. constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic" could commit her to take up arms. She was fired Feb.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to expand the rights of church groups, turning down appeals in a pair of cases. In the first case, the justices declined to hear a free-speech claim from an evangelical minister in Northern California who wanted to hold worship services in a public library meeting room.

Army officials say the Constitution protects a highly decorated lieutenant colonel with a top secret security clearance, who is also high priest of a dormant San Francisco-based satanic church. Army public affairs officer Greg Rixon in Washington said that Lt. Col. Michael A. Aquino, 41, a Vietnam veteran and the founder of the Temple of Set, can keep his security clearance, saying Aquino's practices are protected by his constitutional freedom of religion.

A judge in Preston, Minn., ruled that Amish people must display slow-moving vehicle signs on their horse-drawn buggies, but lawyers said the religious-freedom issue could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. State law requiring the signs does not violate the Amish's First Amendment right to freedom of religion, Fillmore County District Judge Clement Snyder ruled. Phillip Villaume, an attorney for the Amish, said the case will be appealed. He and Fillmore County Assistant Atty.

A Catholic bishop detained numerous times for his ties to the Vatican has died in police custody, according to a religious news agency and a monitoring group. Han Dingxiang, 70, from Hebei province just south of Beijing, reportedly died Sunday of cancer. A few close relatives were called to the hospital, but contact with fellow church members had been cut off after his most recent detention in September 2005.

A woman whose Muslim religious practice requires that she cover her head in public sued the Orange County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday, alleging her rights were violated when jail officials forced her to remove a head scarf while locked up for about eight hours. Souhair Khatib filed suit in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, alleging that her right to practice her religion had been violated, causing her "extreme mental and emotional distress."