Freedom Of Religion

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."

Is religious freedom suddenly under attack in America? That's what the nation's Roman Catholic bishops and some non-Catholic allies would have you believe. But reports of the demise of this fundamental liberty are greatly exaggerated. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishopshas designated June 21 to July 4 as a "fortnight for freedom. " During those two weeks, the church will trumpet its already well-known opposition to an Obama administration regulation that private health insurance plans include contraception services.

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.

ATLANTA - Stung by criticism that they are engaging in partisan attacks in a presidential campaign, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops insisted Wednesday that their fight with President Obama has nothing to do with party politics or contraception, and everything to do with what they see as a fundamental assault on religious liberty. The bishops did not shrink from attacking the administration in a dispute that has become their signature issue, one involving what Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton called "the most serious intrusion of government that we have ever experienced.

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.'

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.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that states may not require public schools to teach "creation science," dealing a crushing blow to a once-growing movement in the South to put the biblical view of creation on equal standing with the theory of evolution in public education. On a 7-2 vote, the justices said that a 1981 Louisiana law mandating creation science instruction violated the legal principle of separation of church and state.

A federal judge Monday refused to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles by the leaders of a church that includes sex in its rituals and that the city alleges is a front for prostitution. In denying the city's request to throw out the suit, U.S. District Judge William Byrne said the case brought by Will Tracy and his wife, Mary Ellen, of Canyon Country, raises "numerous triable issues." The two were convicted by a Los Angeles Municipal Court jury Sept.

In a report issued Monday, the French government called on nations worldwide to stop the growth of religious sects, and criticized the United States for offering too much religious freedom to "cults." "The confusion maintained across the Atlantic between religious freedom . . . and prevention, even repression, of punishable sectarian excesses does not make dialogue any easier," said the report, issued by the Interministerial Mission for the Fight Against Sects. A U.S.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.