Christ, Christians and Christmas Under Attack In The Courts

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Washington pastor says public school is 'going to pay'

Displaying the same tenacity he demonstrated during his injury-shortened career in the NFL, Ken Hutcherson -- now a pro-family pastor in Kirkland, Washington -- is demanding that the pro-homosexual teachers who interrupted a school assembly at which he was speaking be fired.

In January, Pastor Hutcherson was invited to speak at his daughter's high school on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to talk about his personal experience overcoming racism. When Hutcherson rose to speak, teacher George Potratz booed. And at the end of Hutcherson's presentation -- in which he did not mention his pro-family beliefs -- another teacher by the name of Kit McCormick interrupted the assembly to challenge Hutcherson's biblical opposition to homosexuality. According to published reports, both teachers received letters of reprimand for their disruptive behavior.
 
However, a letter of reprimand will not satisfy Hutcherson, who is asking that they be fired. The outspoken pastor also met with school officials over alleged harassment his daughter has suffered since the incident. "If it was a homosexual student, every one of you would be calling because you think that the gay community would sue you," Hutcherson says he told school administrators.
 
As previously reported, one of the teachers who booed Hutcherson sponsors the school's Gay Straight Alliance -- and also happens to teach his daughter's advanced placement British literature class. According to the pastor, his daughter has continued to suffer emotional stress in that classroom since the school assembly. But his requests to have the teacher removed from the class have been denied, forcing him to enroll his daughter, who is a senior, in an online class with the University of Washington.
 
"You can see the arrogance that's going on in our public school system with the agenda of making our schools just so open and available to what the homosexual agenda is all about," he remarks. "I'm absolutely amazed at the stubbornness that we've run into in our public education system, especially with teachers who think that nothing can happen to them."

n addition, says the pastor and father, teachers at the school have approached his daughter -- and on at least one occasion, one of his daughter's friends -- in hopes of discouraging her from attending Gay Straight Alliance meetings in the aftermath of the assembly. They have reportedly advised that her presence causes members of the club to be "uncomfortable."
 
Hutcherson says the days of Christians just making a little noise and then going away are done. He shares that he told school officials "you are going to have to pay and pay dearly for your decisions in putting my daughter through the amount of stress that you have put her through in the last three weeks."
 
According to Hutcherson, if Christian teachers had interrupted a pro-homosexual speaker with whom they disagreed, those teachers would have at least been suspended, if not immediately fired. Teachers George Potratz and Kit McCormick say they are planning to appeal letters of reprimand they received for interrupting Hutcherson's presentation.

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Pastor opposes 'sex club' at daughter's high school

Ken Hutcherson, a pro-family pastor near Seattle, is objecting to the activities of what he calls a "sex club" in his daughter's public high school -- and to the fact that the club is allotted a whole day on the school calendar to promote its agenda.

Pastor Ken Hutcherson is developing a "history," so to speak, with Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington. When his daughter's senior class invited the pro-family activist to speak on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, two pro-homosexual teachers interrupted the assembly. Hutcherson then had to remove his daughter from one of those teacher's classrooms because of alleged harassment.

Now Hutcherson is upset because of a poster promoting the Gay Straight Alliance at the school. The poster displays silhouettes of three teenage couples -- one male-female, one female-female, and one male-male -- all embracing in front of a rainbow, as if they are about to kiss. It announces the weekly meetings of the GSA, a teacher-sponsored student group that promotes homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and gender confusion. (Click here to view a larger image of the poster.)
 
"Why are we promoting a sex club?" asks Hutcherson. "I mean, that's what it is. We are allowing a sex club in our schools, promoting and giving them a day where all of the students have to choose whether they're going to support it or not."
 
The day to promote the GSA that Hutcherson refers to is the Day of Silence, an annual event during which students are encouraged to refuse to speak to show their solidarity with allegedly persecuted homosexual students. The pastor explains what typically transpires on that particular day.
 
"What you do is, you have students come to school on the Day of Silence and they've got to choose to wear armbands and be silent because they support the Gay Straight Alliance," he says, "or ... if you don’t stay silent and if you don't wear this arm band, [you're saying] you're against gay rights."
 
Even though 16 is the age of consent in the state of Washington, students as young as 14 attend Mount Si. That means children who cannot legally have sex can participate in what Hutcherson has labeled a "sex club." The pastor says he is organizing parents and students to oppose the GSA and the Day of Silence. As he points out, no other club in the school is given a whole day to push its agenda.

 

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Support for 'In God We Trust' multiplying
Campaign encourages display of national motto

There have been battles waged in the United States by special interest groups in recent years in their attempts to remove "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and to have the Christian cross at the Mt. Soledad veterans memorial torn down. There's also been, more or less, a constant barrage of attacks on the national motto, "In God We Trust."

But there's also been a group of volunteers working quietly and efficiently to promote recognition of the motto, and their success is evidenced by the several dozen municipalities that already have adopted formal and permanent acknowledgments of that motto.

"Just today I received a message from a veteran back in Indianapolis, delighted with what we're doing, and wanting to be the key person [for this program] in his part of the country," Jacquie Sullivan, chief of the In God We Trust-America campaign, said.

It already has resulted in a long list of California municipalities specifically adopting the national motto as their own, and proudly posting it in their city council chambers.

"The United States of America has much to celebrate," a letter distributed to mayors and council members says. "The freedoms we prize were won through enormous pain and sacrifice and are perpetuated through tremendous courage and vision. Now to help preserve and protect the best of all that America stands for, a volunteer organization, In God We Trust-America, Inc., has been organized… Our mission is to encourage each city in our nation to join in prominently and permanently displaying our national motto, 'In God We Trust,' in every city hall throughout our great state and across America."

Sullivan told WND the volunteers see an importance in promoting patriotism "for the sake of our future generations."

"I think this is also a way of getting back some of what we've lost over the last 50 years," she said. "Love of God and love of country. That's very important. I've been very concerned about those who are wanting and trying to remove God from everything. That is not what our country is about."

Sullivan, a councilwoman in Bakersfield, Calif., started with her own city, and has been working out from there ever since. Nearly 30 California cities now display the motto in their city hall, council chamber or some other prominent location. Westminster, in Orange County, put up the words just last month.

There are opponents, of course. "The role for the government is to be benignly neutral," Peter Eliasberg, of the ACLU, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's not their job to be atheist, but also not to support religion…"

But Sullivan said her campaign isn't tied to a single religion, and Bakersfield's Muslims and Sikhs mostly support her plan too.

"These cases show a lot about the encouragement of cultural literacy and the origins of the American law and public and what the founders valued," Mike Johnson, of the Alliance Defense Fund, told the newspaper. "There's some kind of education purpose to it, a recognition of our history and heritage that transcends a religious purpose."

The organization has a legal opinion from The Pacific Justice Institute, whose chief, Brad Dacus, notes, the "United States Supreme Court has never indicated that governmental expression must be sanitized of all religious symbolism or references.

"To the contrary, the Court has acknowledged that phrases such as 'In God We Trust' serve the legitimate secular purposes of 'solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future, and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society,'" he said.

The volunteers noted that Francis Scott Key wrote the words, "and this be our Motto, in God be our Trust," in 1814 during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, and in 1861, the Supreme Court chief justice noted in a letter to the director of the U.S. Mint that, "The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins."

That was started just five years later, and in 1956, Congress voted to declare "In God We Trust" the national motto.

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Town struggles over mentioning Jesus in meeting prayers
'This commission needs whatever divine inspiration it can get'

Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini thought his prayers were answered when he devised a solution to a longtime feud over whether Jesus Christ should be part of invocations before public meetings.

Since September, Capellini has written inspirational verse, modified sacred texts and used prayers sent to him to read aloud before meetings begin. Usually it's nothing too long, maybe four or five lines, without mentioning Jesus.

"This commission needs whatever divine inspiration it can get," said Capellini, a Catholic.

Despite the city's attempts to address the debate, the four-year-long conflict is escalating. Some people want the name of Jesus invoked at the beginning of civic sessions; others prefer a nameless higher power, or even silence.

Capellini says the issue is a distraction. He and his co-commissioners are grappling with a tax shortfall, water shortages, raising water rates and a $30 million expansion of the city's water plant.

"God, whoever he or she may be, understands we have business to take care of," Capellini said. "We can't keep spending time to debate this. This is why we went with my invocations that didn't identify a particular god."

Capellini's good-faith efforts just stirred the pot even more.

Century Village resident Caryl Berner, is in the secular camp. Berner, who has been at every city meeting for four years, supports the mayor, and says her crusade is not about religion.

"I object to clergy who say they are there to pray in the name of Jesus Christ," Berner said. "I go to City Hall for city business, and if I need to pray, I go to a synagogue."

Berner complained to the American Civil Liberties Union, which reviewed two years of Deerfield invocations. The group did not sue after the city stopped bringing in outside religious figures, said Barry Butin, co-legal counsel of the ACLU's Broward County chapter.

Anthony Guadagnino, senior pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church, thinks clergy-led prayer that identifies Jesus Christ should remain part of municipal meetings.

"I think prayer is a very important part of our government and history in the United States," Guadagnino said. "Prayer matters."

Capellini, who has said that his business affairs that may relate to the city are being investigated by the state attorney, has been told by some residents he will lose votes if he does not resume clergy-led prayers.

"We have a diverse community and sometimes these things can unintentionally offend people and I understand where Caryl might be coming from," Capellini said.

Around Broward, only the Pledge of Allegiance is said in the County Center, as well as in Davie, Hillsboro Beach, Lauderhill, Margate, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Tamarac and Weston. Officials sometimes schedule moments of silence in memory of residents or officials. Margate, Oakland Park and Sunrise also regularly hold moments of silence.

In Lauderdale Lakes, officials conduct ecumenical prayer services to pay tribute to disaster victims, most recently in August, when Hurricane Dean struck Jamaica.

Nonsectarian prayers are said before meetings in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Lighthouse Point, Plantation and Wilton Manors.

"The founding fathers did it, the Congress does it, and we do it," said Plantation Commissioner Jerry Fadgen, where "God Almighty" or "The Father" are mentioned. "Part of our strength comes from our spiritual beliefs."

Jesus or "the Lord" is mentioned during invocations in Dania Beach, North Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Wilton Manors.

Several years ago Pompano Beach officials heard complaints about sectarian prayers, something that still happens occasionally despite requests by the city clerk to abstain.

"It's habitual and I don't think people are trying to antagonize others," Pompano Commissioner George Brummer said. "We are in many respects still in the Bible Belt. Usually when we have non-Christian clergy, like the Muslim Imam, it doesn't happen. I don't remember him calling upon Allah."

Though the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 approved nonsectarian prayer during legislative sessions, there are court challenges about prayer in a Georgia county meeting, the Indiana state legislature and a Delaware school board, said Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief in Washington.

"Prayers should be a sacred act, not a political act," Gunn said. "When politicians get involved, you have controversies just like this." Capellini will continue to recite his nonsectarian prayer selections.

"The commission needs some inspiration. It's our meeting and the invocation kind of sets the tone for us and makes us reflect on some points," he said.

"The prayer should unite us rather than divide us as a people, and shouldn't be used as a wedge."

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Petitions against gender-bender bill spawn harassment, possible lawsuit

A citizens group in Maryland's most populous county is considering legal action against two transgender activists accused of harassing and intimidating residents taking part in a petition drive to overturn a new law that bars discrimination against so-called "gender identity and expression."

The group Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) says it has collected far more than the 25,000 signatures of registered voters needed by March 9 to put up for referendum a law in Montgomery County that effectively declares transgender people and transvestites a protected class. CRG and other conservative groups warn the law would allow men confused about their gender to use public locker rooms and restrooms designated for females.
 
CRG spokeswoman Michelle Turner says two transgender activists approached a number of petition gatherers and signers last week and began harassing them at Montgomery County grocery stores, "telling them that they had to leave the area, that the signatures were illegal, and just making folks very uncomfortable with the environment and what was going on."
 
According to Turner, one of those individuals is a senior staff member with Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, who is the chief sponsor of the bill. "So we've got a concern here," she explains, "especially with a [possible] civil rights violation by a government employee."
 
Turner says in addition to yelling invectives at the petitioners, the transgender protesters complained to store managers about the presence of the petition drive. The CRG spokeswoman notes that one of the threats against the petitioners, which can be viewed on the popular website YouTube, was issued by a member of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Steering Committee.
 
"We are asking those who were affected by the harassment to write their statement and to meet with our attorneys," she states, "and based on those statements -- and of course, the video that we have of the one senior staff member harassing our petition-gatherers -- we are more than likely going to look into possible legal action against at least this one individual."
 
Councilwoman Trachtenberg declined a request from OneNewsNow for an interview.

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Million$ to pro-homosexual groups bad news for Christians, says activist

Pro-family activist Peter LaBarbera warns that a $65 million endowment given to several groups that promote the homosexual lifestyle will be used in their efforts to "criminalize" Christian opposition to their agenda.

The Pride Foundation of Seattle announced on Sunday that Ric Weiland -- one of the first five people to work at software giant Microsoft -- has left $19 million of his estate to the homosexual activist group, and an additional $46 million for the Foundation to distribute to ten other pro-homosexuality groups, including the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Network, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
 
Weiland, who retired in 1988, committed suicide in 2006 at age 53 after a long struggle with depression and homosexuality.
 
Pointing to Weiland's bequeathal, Peter LaBarbera with the conservative group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality says activists pushing the homosexual lifestyle are more committed to their version of evangelism than most conservative Christians are to speaking the truth in the public square.
 
"Already the pro-homosexual movement outspends the pro-family movement specifically on the issue of homosexuality by a huge factor, and this is only going to make it worse," he laments.
 
LaBarbera says if they are out-funded 50- or 100-to-1, pro-family groups cannot compete in a public policy battle against homosexual activists. "I think it's time for pro-family people who believe that homosexuality should not be celebrated or turned into a civil right in our law ... it's time for some of them to step up to the plate and fund pro-family organizations to deal with this juggernaut that we see coming at us," he urges.
 
In addition to winning the fundraising battle, says LaBarbera, the homosexual movement is winning the battle for young hearts and minds as well -- which he calls "pretty scary."
 
"ecause what you're doing is creating a financial incentive for students to publicly declare their homosexuality at a young age," he explains. "And when you throw money in the mix, you're encouraging students to declare their homosexuality; you're promoting homosexuality among young people -- as if they needed it with all the pro-gay messages in our culture. I think it's just a very sad thing."
 
LaBarbera says homosexual activists are winning the culture war against their opponents not only because they are better funded, but also because they are singularly focused, while pro-family groups are fighting a variety of different issues, including abortion and embryonic stem-cell research.

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School Board to Pay in Jesus Prayer Suit

A Delaware school district has agreed to revise its policies on religion as part of a settlement with two Jewish families who had sued over the pervasiveness of Christian prayer and other religious activities in the schools.

One family said it was forced to leave its home in Georgetown because of an anti-Semitic backlash.

The settlement, which was approved Tuesday, includes payments to the families that both sides would not disclose. Although the settlement resolves many complaints in the suit, against the Indian River School District, the parties are proceeding with litigation over the school board practice of beginning its sessions with prayer.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants said their clients were satisfied with the settlement. On local blogs, the anger many people felt toward the families for protesting Christian prayer at school events has flared anew.

Mona Dobrich, 41, whose family was a plaintiff in the suit, said such a furious reaction had exacted a profound toll on her family and might indicate that the settlement would alter little on the ground.

“I feel that it is a good settlement because the rules are out there,” Mrs. Dobrich said in a telephone interview, referring to new policies the board has agreed to adopt. “Do I think life is going to change in Sussex County or all the other Sussex Counties in the country? No.”

Mrs. Dobrich, an Orthodox Jew, grew up in Sussex County. Though often the lone Jewish student in school, she said, she did not have problems with Christians or others. For years, while her daughter, Samantha, now 21, attended local schools, Mrs. Dobrich said, she listened to Christian prayers at school potluck dinners, award dinners and meetings of parent-teacher groups.

At Samantha’s high school graduation in 2004, a minister’s prayer proclaiming Jesus as the only way to the truth nudged Mrs. Dobrich to ask the school board to consider more generic and less exclusionary prayers, she said.

As news of the request spread, many local Christians saw it as an effort to limit the free exercise of religion, residents said. Anger spilled onto talk radio, in letters to the editor and at school board meetings attended by hundreds of people carrying signs praising Jesus.

In the settlement, the district did not concede that it had violated the First Amendment through its practices, said its lawyer, Jason Gosselin. The board approved the accord unanimously.

It mandates that within 30 days the district has to amend its religion policy to clarify what practices are constitutional. A detailed list of “real world examples” are to be sent to staff members and parents, including situations like prayer before sports events and the distribution of religious materials at schools.

The accord stipulates that school officials may not organize prayer at graduation. People will also be able to complain anonymously about violations about religious liberty or any other policies.

“I hope that the publication of these policies, training and education about them means there will be compliance in the district and things will get better,” said Thomas J. Allingham II, the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

The second family in the suit chose to remain anonymous. The family has remained in Sussex County.

Mrs. Dobrich’s decision to leave her hometown and seek legal help was made after a school board meeting in August 2004 on the prayer issue. Hundreds showed up to protest her position.

Her son, Alex, then 11, had written a short statement that said in part: “I feel bad when kids in my class call me ‘Jew boy.’ I do not want to move away from the house I have lived in forever.”

After the family received threats, Mrs. Dobrich said, she and Alex moved to Wilmington. Her husband, Marco, stayed in his local job to make sure that the family had health insurance.

They sold their house. But rent and expenses in Wilmington consumed their money.

Samantha dropped out of Columbia University because of the financial problems. Alex, who had attended public school, did not fit into to the Orthodox day schools he was attending and left, his mother said.

The financial settlement, which will be paid by the district’s insurer, will pay off the debt that the Dobriches accrued as they moved. The family has settled in Dover, Mrs. Dobrich said.

The Dobriches tried once to take Alex back to live in Georgetown and understood that they could not return.

“We tried to have Alex live with my sister in Georgetown,” Mrs. Dobrich said. “Alex was in the yard, and some kids came up and said, ‘There’s that boy who’s suing Jesus.’ ”

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Prayer warriors at 'gay' fest on trial
Police told Christians they had no speech rights in public park

A trial is scheduled to begin today in Elmira, N.Y., and lawyers for the defendants say it will be a test of whether the First Amendment affirmations of freedom of speech and freedom of religion still are valid in the United States.

"Choosing to exercise your First Amendment rights in a public place is not a crime," Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund said. "The government has no right to arrest citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights in public."

At issue is the arrest of several Christians at a "gay pride" event is Wisner Park in Elmira in 2007. Julian and Gloria Raven and several others entered the park to pray silently for the participants of the event celebrating homosexual behavior.

Officials with the ADF noted that the materials advertising the event said everyone was invited and it was open to the public. "The group did not draw a disorderly response from event participants," the ADF said.

However, an Elmira police sergeant had told the group they were banned from the park. They were not allowed to "cross the street, enter the park, or share their religion with anyone in the park," according to the ADF.

The group's members later were arrested and accused of "disorderly conduct."

"It seems oxymoronic to say that by walking silently in a public park, with heads bowed, these people somehow disturbed the peace," Oster said. "From the sit-ins of the 1960s to today, courts have repeatedly ruled that the police cannot arrest those who peacefully express their message in public places."

While the facts of the case make it seem relatively minor, the ADF said the issue is nothing less than the United States' freedoms of speech and religion.

"If this violation of these Christians' rights is allowed to stand, the First Amendment rights of all people of faith are in jeopardy," the ADF said.

When the Christians were arrested, officials with Elmira justified their actions to WND.

Assistant Police Chief Mike Robertson told WND that the members were accused of a "combination" of allegations, including the "intent" to cause a public inconvenience, a "disturbance" of a meeting of persons and obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

He also said at the time that the accusations would include taking part in "any act that serves no legitimate purpose."

Raven had told WND his group assembled to pray for three hours the night before Elmira's "pride" festival in promotion of the homosexual lifestyle.

"We have a legal right to be at an event held in a public square. We're not a hate group," he said. "We're Christians and we're going to be there to pray."

He said he contacted police, who told him he had no free speech rights in the public park.

"The female officer, she said, 'You're not going to cross the street. You're not going to enter the park and you're not going to share your religion with anybody in this park,'" he told WND.

"When she said that, for the first time in my life as a Christian, I felt now my freedom of speech is threatened or challenged," he said. "I was being told I could not share my religion with anybody in that park."

Raven said he told the officer "she was violating the Constitution that she had sworn to uphold, and she was very agitated and adamant, and couldn't look me straight in the eye."

Raven asked for the justification for such a threat and was not given a response.

He said his team of Christians then went into the park, and they were arrested within three or four minutes.

He said if the situation is left unchallenged, the city of Elmira will be in the position of being able to control the content of people's messages in a lawful assembly – or even thoughts if they are nearby.

"We didn't say boo to a goose, still we were arrested," he said.

The local newspaper reported the arrests came just "moments" after Elmira Mayor John Tonello delivered a speech "celebrating diversity."

And the actions prompted some immediate criticism from newspaper readers.

"I was appalled and disgusted by the gay stories strewn through the paper. What was even more disturbing was the way the city acted. Since when is it illegal to sit on the ground in a public park and recite Bible verses? Are they not protected by the same Constitution that allows gay people to have their gay pride event. These Bible thumpers had their constitutional right to free speech and assembly trampled on by the city. They should not have been arrested," said Kevin Raznoff.

Robertson told WND the Christians "certainly" have a right to assemble, but not on public property when there's an "organized" event there. Asked repeatedly about how the "disturbance" statute relates to First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, he did not answer.

"Obviously, they caused a disruption to an event that was taking place," he said.

But Raven confirmed to WND the Christians did not approach a single person, did not speak to anyone and did not even make any audible statements until after they were arrested.

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Greece sued over Town Board prayers

A church-state watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against the town of Greece over prayers offered at Town Board meetings.

In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Americans United for Separation of Church and State claims the Greece Town Board is flouting the First Amendment by opening public sessions with explicitly Christian prayers.

"This lawsuit strikes at the heart of our Constitution, which requires government to refrain from preferring any religion over others," said Ayesha N. Khan, legal director for Americans United in Washington, D.C. "That's particularly important with legislative bodies, which are charged with representing all their constituents, not just those who share the majoritarian faith."

The issue came to light last June, when the Genesee Valley Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter asking the town to halt its practice of opening board meetings with sectarian prayers.

The ACLU got involved after some area residents who had attended board meetings complained about pre-meeting prayers that invoked Jesus Christ.

Americans United sent a similar letter in July.

Responding to the ACLU's letter, Greece Town Supervisor John Auberger said in June that it was the town's position that it was not advancing any particular religion or giving preference to one faith over another. He said the town would continue its practice of inviting Greece clergy to offer a prayer before board meetings and would not censor prayers.

He stood by that on Thursday.

"For over 10 years we have started our Town Board meetings with a prayer from local clergy and private individuals representing a variety of faiths," he said in a written statement. "The opportunity to say a prayer at our meeting is available to any Greece resident. We do not control the content of the prayers given, nor do we place restrictions or guidelines on these prayers. It is our intention to continue this practice."

Generally, Greece officials invite local clergy to offer the pre-meeting prayers, rotating through a published list of religious organizations in Greece. According to the lawsuit, that list of clergy includes 37 people, all of whom are Christian.

Khan said that of 44 Greece meeting prayers reviewed by her group, only one was offered by a non-Christian. And, she said, the review showed that the vast majority of prayers delivered before meetings since 2004 were explicitly sectarian.

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that governmental bodies may open their sessions with prayer, but only if the prayer is nonsectarian and does not reference a particular deity or the language and symbols specific to one religion.

The Americans United lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of Greece residents Linda Stephens and Susan Galloway, seeks to have the court declare that Greece's current practice violates the Constitution and issue an injunction prohibiting sectarian prayer before the board meetings.

According to the suit, Galloway is Jewish and Stephens is an atheist, and both object to, are offended by and feel "unwelcome at board meetings because of the town's alignment with Christianity through the board's persistent presentation of Christian prayers."

Attempts to reach Galloway and Stephens for comment Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.

The suit also seeks "nominal" damages for the plaintiffs.

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Christians ordered to pay
big bucks – for praying!
Lawyer plans appeal of convictions
for disorderly conduct at 'gay' fest

Lawyers for a team of Christians convicted of disorderly conduct for praying at a "gay" fest in a public park in Elmira, N.Y., are promising an appeal of the verdict that left them with $100 fines.

Joel Oster, of the Alliance Defense Fund, said an appeal will be filed in Chemung County court for Julian and Gloria Raven, Maurice Kienenberger and Walter Quick, all of Elmira, who were ordered to pay $95 apiece in court costs in addition to the $100 fines.

Oster told the Star-Gazette newspaper that the police in the United States simply are not supposed to arrest people if someone else may be upset by their message.

The Supreme Court has ruled in cases involving "sit-in" protests, he said, that authorities cannot arrest blacks just because they were making white people angry.

"The police have a duty to protect the speaker," he told the court, according to the Star-Gazette.

"Choosing to exercise your First Amendment rights in a public place is not a crime," Oster said just before going into the trial.

At issue is the arrest of seven Christians at a "gay pride" event in Wisner Park in Elmira in 2007. Julian and Gloria Raven and several others entered the park to pray silently for the participants of the event celebrating homosexual behavior. Charges against three later were dropped, and only the four went to trial.

Officials with the ADF noted that the materials advertising the event said everyone was invited and it was open to the public. "The group did not draw a disorderly response from event participants," the ADF said.

According to the newspaper report, Police Sgt. Sharon Moyer told the court she warned Julian Raven that his rights at the event were limited.

He earlier said she had told him not to cross the street, go into the park or talk to anyone.

"He said he was there to preach the word of God," Moyer told the court, the newspaper reported. "I explained he was welcome to be there (at the festival), but he would not be allowed to confront the participants."

She accused the street preacher of being antagonistic.

Raven, however, said it was Moyer who was "aggressive from the get-go" and said her orders amounted to a deprivation of his rights.

"It seems oxymoronic to say that by walking silently in a public park, with heads bowed, these people somehow disturbed the peace," Oster said of the case earlier. "From the sit-ins of the 1960s to today, courts have repeatedly ruled that the police cannot arrest those who peacefully express their message in public places."

The ADF said the issues are no less than the freedoms of speech and religion.

"If this violation of these Christians' rights is allowed to stand, the First Amendment rights of all people of faith are in jeopardy," the ADF said.

When the Christians were arrested, officials with Elmira justified their actions to WND.

Assistant Police Chief Mike Robertson told WND that the members were accused of a "combination" of allegations, including the "intent" to cause a public inconvenience, a "disturbance" of a meeting of persons and obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

He also said at the time that the accusations would include taking part in "any act that serves no legitimate purpose."

Elmira City Judge Thomas Ramich's conclusion found that in order to prevent participants in the "gay" festival from being upset, the city was correct to arrest the Christians.

The newspaper reported he called Raven reckless for even going to the park.

The prosecutor, Robert Siglin, said the city was concerned for public safety, and that's why the Christians were arrested. During closing arguments he said speech freedoms don't matter when "public order" is an issue.

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Ten Commandments monuments challenged
Ruling creates way for stone tablets with competing beliefs

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court overturns a ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, children playing in parks soon could be tripping over a monument that lauds the principles of "psychokinesis, correspondence, vibration, opposition, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender."

The American Center for Law and Justice says it has filed additional information with the court in a dispute over such monuments on public land, which resulted from demands by an organization called "Summum" to be allowed the post its principles wherever any other monument, such as a monument to the Ten Commandments, has been erected.

That principle was endorsed by the appeals court in a consolidated case involving individual disputes in Duchesne, Utah, and Pleasant Grove, Utah, and officials with the ACLJ warn there could be huge ramifications if it is left unchanged.

A Statue of Tyranny in New York Harbor, or memorials to Adolf Hitler, King George the 3rd and others all would be possible, they said.

"It's very scary," Frank Manion, of the ACLJ told WND earlier. "The Minutemen in Massachusetts? We need a Redcoat. A George Washington statue? Why not George the 3rd. A Holocaust memorial? How about a Hitler memorial?"

The U.S. Supreme Court still hasn't determined whether it will hear and rule on the situation, but the ACLJ, which specializes in constitutional law, filed its documents in reply to a request from Summum that the court not hear the case because it has the ruling it desired..

The 10th Circuit found that Summum, or any other group, could erect any monuments they choose if there already is another monument on the grounds of the park or whatever area is in question. Many city halls, parks and other locations already have Ten Commandments monuments that have been donated over the generations.

The ACLJ said the Ten Commandments monuments are the real targets of the legal actions, because under the 10th Circuit decision, cities and other governments would be faced with the decision of allowing anything to be posted, or removing the Ten Commandments monuments. Lawyers have said a probable outcome in many cases would be orders to remove existing monuments.

"The Supreme Court is faced with a dramatic opportunity: preserve sound precedent involving the well-established distinction between government speech and private speech – or permit a twisted interpretation of the Constitution to create havoc in cities and localities across America," said Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the ACLJ.

"We're hopeful the high court will take the cases and correct a troubling decision that would ultimately force local governments to remove long-standing and well-established patriotic, religious and historical displays. The lower court decisions miss a key distinction between government speech and private speech. The government has to be neutral toward private speech, but it does not have to be neutral in its own speech. The 10th Circuit confused this rule when it said private parties have a First Amendment right to put up the monuments of their choosing in a city park, unless the city takes away all other donated monuments."

The ACLJ, which has worked on the case with the Thomas More Law Center, contends that the Constitution "does not empower private parties to force permanent displays into a park, crowding out the available physical space and trumping the government's own vision" for the parks.

"In the Duchesne case, even an attorney for Summum admitted to the federal district court that its position could lead to bizarre results. Summum's attorneys told the court that if a city park is required to display monuments contributed by all comers, the city park may well end up looking like a cemetery with many, many monuments," the ACLJ said.

Under Summum's theology, adherents believe the first set of stone tablets Moses received on Mt. Sinai contained its seven aphorisms "made by a divine being."

"The first set of stone tablets was not inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Rather, they contained aphorisms of a Higher Law that held very profound and deep meanings," the organization's website says.

The group believes Moses "had been initiated into an understanding of the inner, esoteric source" of those aphorisms, but when he "observed the immature behavior and attitude of the Israelites" he realized they could not understand them too.

"So Moses destroyed the stone tables and revealed the aphorisms to a select few."

The law firm warned earlier: "In 1886, the United States government accepted from the people of France a donation of a 151-foot tall colossal statue called "Liberty Enlightening the World. Since that time, the government has displayed this Statue of Liberty in a traditional public forum in New York Harbor.

"For years, demonstrators with messages to deliver have assembled, handed out literature and otherwise expressed themselves at the site subject to certain regulations of the time, place and manner of their expression. But it probably never occurred to any such demonstrators that they enjoyed a constitutional right to insist that the government allow them to erect their own 151-foot tall statue or monument setting forth an alternative message to that conveyed by Lady Liberty," the law firm warned.

"Under the flawed private speech jurisprudence of the panel in this case – there exists no principled basis upon which the government could turn down for permanent display on Liberty Island a donation of a 'Statue of Tyranny,' or, perhaps, a new copper colossus bearing the message 'Pay No Attention to the Lady With the Torch – the Golden Door is Now Closed,'" the legal briefs argue.

[Soldier4Christ]

Preacher on trial for ministering in 'Witch City'
Disorderly conduct count pending over street message
Posted: March 07, 2008
9:21 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A "Witch City" trial is scheduled Monday for a street preacher who was arrested and accused of disorderly conduct for expressing his belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a public street in Salem, Mass., on Halloween night in 2007.

"Michael [Marcavage] is guilty of nothing more than preaching the Gospel," said Ben DuPre, an attorney with former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law, who is representing Marcavage.

"The city of Salem does not have the right to arrest Mr. Marcavage simply because his religious message is not welcome there. The police should have been protecting Mr. Marcavage's right to speak instead of targeting him for the Christian content of his speech. Preaching the Gospel is not disorderly conduct, even on Halloween night," he said.

Moore's organization, a religious-liberties legal group, is defending Marcavage at trial because the prosecutors still insist his calm delivery of a biblical warning against sin was considered disorderly conduct, even though other boisterous behavior involving others at the same time was not halted.

Marcavage earlier had been charged with using an amplified megaphone to deliver the message of love and hope, but that charge was dropped after lawyers documented his arrest at 8:30 p.m. and pointed out that Salem laws allow such amplification until 10 p.m.

"Halloween night in Salem is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans," DuPre told WND. "It's a big sin-fest. That's, of course, why Michael went there. He feels called to deliver the message of the Gospel."

The city boasts on its own website: "Of course, Salem has become known as The Witch City! The Salem Witch Museum , the Witch Dungeon Museum and The Witch History Museum take you back in history to 1692, yet, present-day popularization of the witchcraft hysteria doesn't reveal anything about the large number of modern Witches living in Salem today."

It was clear that police "just wanted to shut him down," DuPre continued. "He [Marcavage] tried to get an explanation from them. He has a right to preach in Salem."

He said while the sermon may not have been welcomed by some in the crowd, such speech is exactly what the First Amendment is supposed to protect.

The officers arrested him by grabbing his megaphone and throwing him to the ground, the video reveals.

Marcavage, whose Repent America website calls for sinners to turn from their ways and follow God, describes his work as evangelizing and "zealously labor[ing] to further the Kingdom of God."

He was one of the original Philadelphia 11 team whose members preached the Gospel at a homosexual festival and were arrested, only to be cleared later.

He also is challenging speech restrictions imposed by the National Park Service at the Liberty Bell Center in Philadelphia, which houses the Liberty Bell, the artifact from American history that rang to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and is inscribed with "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof," a biblical quotation from Leviticus 25:10.

"We were speaking on the issue of abortion being tolerated in this nation, generally how abortion is simply a representation of how wicked our nation has become, and the need to repent for sin in our own lives," he told WND of the Philadelphia situation. He referenced the loss of liberty by the unborn who are aborted, he said.

WND also reported just a week ago on an appeal planned on behalf of a team of four Christians convicted of disorderly conduct for praying at a "gay" festival in Elmira, N.Y.

Joel Oster, of the Alliance Defense Fund, said an appeal will be filed in Chemung County court for Julian and Gloria Raven, Maurice Kienenberger and Walter Quick, all of Elmira, who were ordered to pay $95 apiece in court costs in addition to the $100 fines.

"Choosing to exercise your First Amendment rights in a public place is not a crime," Oster said just before going into the trial.

[Soldier4Christ]

Christian librarian takes
'gay' profs to federal court
Accused of sexual harassment for recommending
'Marketing of Evil' as required university reading

A former librarian at Ohio State University-Mansfield who was accused publicly of "sexual harassment" and derided in obscenity-laden e-mails exchanged among faculty members – just for recommending students read the best-selling book "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian – has sued the school and faculty members, alleging they violated his 1st and 14th Amendment rights.

The federal case was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio by a lawyer representing Scott Savage, a devout Quaker and formerly the head of Reference and Instructional Services at Bromfield Library on Ohio State University's Mansfield campus.

Savage took a leave of absence and later said he was forced into resigning because of the virulent reaction from homosexual faculty members after he suggested the book be included in a required reading list for freshmen.

In a case that made national headlines, Savage was condemned publicly by a 21-0 faculty vote on March 13, 2006, to be formally investigated for "sexual harassment" after several professors, including two who are openly homosexual, objected to the librarian's having recommended "The Marketing of Evil." Subtitled "How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom," chapter one exposes the marketing strategies and tactics of the "gay rights" movement.

Included as defendants in Savage's action are Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee; Nancy K. Campbell, a human resources officer; T. Glenn Hill, a consultant; members of the university's board of directors, and Christopher Phelps, Norman W. Jones, James F. Buckley, Hannibal Hamlin and Gary Kennedy, who teach on the campus.

Also named as a defendant is former Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook, whom Savage described as allowing the false accusations against him to be pursued.

As WND reported previously, one of the homosexual professors, J.F. Buckley, in a March 9, 2006, e-mail, reacted this way to Savage's recommendation of Kupelian's book: "As a gay man I have long ago realized that the world is full of homophobic, hate-mongers who, of course, say that they are not. So I am not shocked, only deeply saddened – and THREATENED [sic] – that such mindless folks are on this great campus. ... You have made me fearful and uneasy being a gay man on this campus. I am, in fact, notifying the OSU-M campus, and Ohio State University in general, that I no longer feel safe doing my job. I am being harassed."

The unprecedented formal attack on Savage, as well as a threat of a legal counterattack by the Alliance Defense Fund, finally ended when OSU backed down and informed Savage he was not guilty.

But the lawsuit outlines how the professors and school, despite failing to uphold the accusations, continued to conspire to attack and damage Savage.

"What we found was an incredibly concerted effort on their part, long after the complaint cleared me, to try and get me fired, otherwise harass me, to try and turn staff, non-faculty members, there against me, all quite openly," Savage told WND.

And besides the damage to his career, he told WND that the impact on freedom of speech could be huge.

"Anyone at Ohio State, faculty or students for that matter, are in danger," he said. "You look at how kids spontaneously break out into debates over any number of subjects. Now at Ohio State University, if somebody defends Christian marriage, they might be hit with a sexual harassment charge."

"Look at what happened to me. Who in their right mind would utter so much as a peep?" he said.

He said his goal is justice, but doesn't know if that's possible.

"Justice would have occurred if the university had honored my counterclaim and admitted these professors falsely accused me. That would have been justice. But two things need to happen. The professors need to be completely exposed and brought to account for having done that to me. And the university needs to change its policies so this stuff doesn't happen again," he said.

A spokeswoman in Gee's office at the university took a message but refused to respond to WND's requests for comment, and a message left with Holbrook, who now is vice president for research and innovation at the University of South Florida, generated only a response from an assistant who asked questions about the lawsuit.

Savage's attorney, Tom Condit, told WND the scenario is a case of homosexuals "posturing" themselves as victims, then making "aggressive" demands against Christians.

"Scott Savage never threw his religion around at these people," he said. "But Christians are the ones who are willing to stand up to these folks."

"They demand not just tolerance, but approval," he said. "Scott never said one thing as to his opinion as to homosexuality. He recommended a book that suggested the homosexual lobby is marketed in a slick way."

Condit said the case earlier was filed in state court, but since it addressed constitutional issues also needed to be handled in a federal court.

Hamlin, in one e-mail, exhorted his colleagues to simply "refuse to allow the situation to be cast in terms of freedom of speech," and in another recommended an official complaint be drawn up against Savage.

In an e-mail from Jones, he advised the library manager that he would withdraw from using the facility because of Savage, generating a response from the library manager that such a "personal attack" was greatly disturbing to her.

It was Buckley who unleashed an obscenity-filled diatribe on the subject, according to copies of e-mails accompanying the lawsuit.

"What the G-- d----- f----- h--- kind of homophobic s--- h--- is this?" he ranted. The e-mails document how faculty members first talked about changing Savage's mind, then reprimanding, then censuring, and finally getting rid of him.

In still another e-mail, Jones complained that it was inappropriate for a librarian to dispute his judgment when he pronounced an opinion. Savage also is variously described as a "troll" and "virulent parasite."

Phelps discussed how "dangerous" it was to let Savage know what the faculty was planning to do, and Jones at one point said he would not participate in a meeting to discuss the situation unless there was "no public record."

The lawsuit explains it simply: "This action arose because Plaintiff Scott Savage dared to express an opinion and recommend a book that was rooted in Christian morality and therefore offended the pro-homosexual faculty at OSU-Mansfield."

His recommendations came after he agreed to serve on the First Year Reading Experience Committee to choose books freshmen would be required to read. "At the committee's first meeting, several books were proposed that carried a leftist perspective on history, culture, or politics," including authors such as notorious atheist Richard Dawkins, the lawsuit said.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

Each of those book titles was e-mailed to committee members, accompanied by a "brief Amazon.com" description. Savage responded with the comment that the books were "polarizing" and suggested an alternative.

Several professors, including Jones and Hamlin, immediately attacked his comments and Hamlin specifically suggested the purpose of the students' reading assignment was to oppose "Christian fundamentalism."

He commented, in light of Savage's Christian beliefs:

    Furthermore, I think the university can afford to polarize, and in fact has an obligation to, on certain issues … I would say polarize away … Certainly this may offend some students who come from [a Christian fundamentalist] background or hold such beliefs. But welcome to the secular university…

Savage then responded with suggestions for "The Marketing of Evil," David Horowitz' "The Professors," Bat Ye'or's "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis," and Sen. Rick Santorum's "It Takes a Family," including Amazon.com descriptions.

Jones immediately condemned "The Marketing of Evil" as "homophobic tripe," Savage defended his academic freedom to suggest it, and Jones responded with an attack on Savage to his supervisor.

Then Buckley, who was not on the committee, sent an e-mail to all Mansfield faculty and staff claiming he felt "threatened" and "harassed" by Savage's book recommendation, sending the case spiraling into a formal sexual harassment complaint against Savage.

Savage in April 2006 received a letter from the school noting he was not guilty of discrimination or harassment, but Hill followed with a defense of the accusation.

"In a series of e-mails and communications dating from immediately after their public exposure in early April 2006 and continuing to at least the end of May 2006, those five OSU-Mansfield faculty members continued to conspire to drive Mr. Savage from his position …," says the lawsuit.

"Defendant faculty members were gearing up a campaign to further harass Mr. Savage and to make his work in the library impossible," it adds.

After Savage had been cleared, Phelps, the lawsuit says, still told the university provost the librarian "is an acknowledged advocate of bigotry."

"Not only did he sent e-mails to FIRE but he has a very intimate relationship with WorldNetDaily, a vituperous and rabid web site …," Phelps continued.

Savage then took a leave of absence because of the "extreme emotional distress that was the direct result of Defendants' false and defamatory accusations …," and eventually felt forced to resign, the lawsuit said.

The result was a series of violations of Savage's constitutional and statutory rights, including freedom of speech and academic freedom, the lawsuit charges. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief ordering Savage's reinstatement "to a library position other than his former position at OSU-Mansfield," as well as policy changes to prevent their use in order to "harass and punish constitutionally protected speech and academic freedom."

Savage has written two books on his faith: "A Plain Life" and "The Plain Reader."

[Soldier4Christ]

Prosecutor accused of spying on church
Lawsuit alleges he also led police raid on worship band

The prosecuting attorney for Waterford Township in Michigan has been accused of spying on a church's activities and personally leading police raids on its worship band because he doesn't like "rock" music.

In a lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Law Center, Prosecuting Attorney Walter Bedell is accused of coordinating raids on Faith Baptist Church and its worship band in which uniformed police officers entered the church without permission or a warrant and accused band members of "disorderly conduct."

The raids apparently were prompted by a neighbor who complained about being able to hear the church's worship band from his nearby home, according to lawyers for the Thomas More Law Center.

But from there on, the lawsuit said, things were out of control.

"Without a warrant or other legal authorization, uniformed police officers conducted several raids on Faith Baptist Church in Waterford Township, Mich., and threatened to prosecute several young Christian musicians for disorderly conduct – because the township prosecutor objected to the playing of contemporary religious music," the law firm confirmed.

Spokesman Brian Rooney called it prosecutorial "overzealousness."

"He shouldn't do that as a prosecutor," Rooney suggested, because of the potential conflict of interest. "Now he's a potential witness."

He said the church, in that location for more than 50 years, is close to both homes and an airport. In order to minimize its impact in its own neighborhood, church officials have worked to insulate their building.

Still, one of the neighbors recently complained about hearing the worship band from his yard, the law firm said.

As a result, several police raids were conducted, musicians were threatened with prosecution, and church officials even had to work to convince officers not to interrupt a worship service to take the drivers' licenses of band members.

"Uniformed police officers entering a church during religious services and young church members being threatened with prosecution is something that happens in Communist China – not in America," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the Law Center.

"It is clear that Waterford Township authorities targeted Faith Baptist Church because of the type of religious music it uses in its services. Some of the individual police officers involved in the raids – apparently more sensitive to the constitutional protections surrounding religion than were their superiors – personally apologized afterwards," he said.

Township Supervisor Carl Solden, who also is a defendant in the case, told WND the police did not "raid" the church. "We haven't done any raids on churches," he said.

He said the issue arose from the neighbor who several times has complained about hearing church praise band music in his home. "That was the pretext on which we were there (at the church)," he said. He told WND since he wasn't there, he had few other details about the situations that developed.

Other defendants are the township itself as well as Police Chief Daniel T. McCaw and his deputy Jeffrey James.

Faith Baptist, which is headed by Pastor Jim Combs, has a congregation of 10,000 who attend services on three campuses. The police raids targeted the Waterford Township campus with 5,000 members, the lawsuit said.

The pastor contacted Thomas More in late 2007 after the raids developed. One happened during a Wednesday night youth service when uniformed police officers led by the prosecutor himself "burst into the church's sanctuary where the church's 'Praise and Worship' band was warming up," the lawsuit said.

"The prosecutor ordered the officers to take the names and addresses of all the young people on stage so that they could be charged with 'disorderly conduct,'" it said.

"The very next Sunday, Waterford Township police again raided Faith Baptist, this time during Pastor Comb's evening sermon. Officers were about to disrupt the services and remove the 'Praise and Worship' band members and order them to surrender their driver's licenses for personal information. However, an assistant pastor volunteered to bring the members to the police so as not to create an uproar among the congregation."

The lawsuit described the law enforcement team raid this way:

"These officers were instructed by a supervisor to make liaison with Bedell and inform him that they were en route to FBC. The uniformed officers rendezvoused with Bedell, who, acting in a law enforcement capacity, personally led and directed this raid. Bedell and the uniformed officers, again without a search warrant, arrest warrant or any other legal authority, entered FBC, advanced into the interior chapel, and detained and began interrogating Youth Pastor Jayson Combs. Bedell and the uniformed police officers also detained members of FBC's band, including two children…"

Then just days later, church officials spotted the prosecutor personally conducting "surveillance" on the church from his parked car, the lawsuit said.

The action alleges violations of the free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of association rights for the church and band members under both the Michigan and U.S. Constitutions.

"The township prosecutor was very explicit: he told the pastors that churches should not play 'rock music,' and threatened that each time he heard music coming from the church he would conduct a raid," said Brandon Bolling, the Law Center attorney who is working on the case.

"Defendents threatened that every time a complaint is received against FBC, they will conduct a raid, conduct investigation therein, and collect evidence sufficient to charge FBC members with violating the Township Ordinance."

The multiple claims for relief included allegations the church members "suffered and continue to suffer fear, humiliation, shame, indignity, worry, embarrassment, loss of reputation, and emotional and physical distress."

WND has reported recently on several cases in which Christians were convicted of disorderly conduct. In one case, a street preacher delivering a Gospel message on a public street was arrested and eventually convicted, and an appeal is being planned.

WND also reported earlier on an appeal planned on behalf of a team of four Christians convicted of disorderly conduct for praying at a "gay" festival in Elmira, N.Y.