-Caveat Lector-
from: AMERICAN ATHEISTS
subject: AANEWS for October 12, 1999
A M E R I C A N A T H E I S T S
#652 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10/12/99
http://www.atheists.org
ftp.atheists.org/pub/atheists/
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A Service of AMERICAN ATHEISTS
"Leading The Way For Atheist Civil Rights
And The Separation Of State and Church"
---------------------------------------------------------------
In This Issue...
* Silverman loses: ball team discrimination to continue?
* Court refuses state-church separation cases
* Bible Week practice upheld
* Union County Atheists meeting
* Israel deports more Christian cultists
* Resources
* About this list...
SILVERMAN LOSES DISCRIMINATION CASE
A Pennsylvania freethinker who complained that he was a victim of
discrimination when he tried to attend a minor league baseball game
during a "church bulletin" promotion night has reportedly lost his
case.
Carl Silverman took his family to a Hagerstown (Maryland) Suns game in
April, 1998. That evening, the club was sponsoring a special discount
rate for those carrying a church bulletin. Silverman informed the
ticket clerk that he was not religious and did not have a bulletin.
He was told that he would then have to pay the full price of
admission.
Silverman filed a "Charge of Discrimination" complaint with the
Maryland Commission on Human Relations. The Commission attempted to
settle the dispute out of court, but team management remained firm and
even continued the practice. In addition, the Suns soon began
sporting a "halo" insignia on their uniforms. On June 12, 1998, the
Commission issued a "Cease and Desist" order and in late July ruled
that there existed "probable cause" for a charge of discrimination.
The Suns responded by launching a "Faith Community Night," and
announced that a portion of receipts would be used for legal defense
of its case.
A hearing was held in July, 1999 before Administrative Law Judge
Georgia Brady. Silverman asked that the six-year old promotion cease,
and argued that the team is a "public accommodation" and thus subject
to state and federal anti-discrimination statutes. Mr. Silverman had
few details about the ruling, and said only that his lawyers had been
informed today of the Administrative Court's decision.
For more information:
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/bball6.htm
**
HIGH COURT REFUSES FIRST AMENDMENT CASES
The U.S. Supreme Court today let stand lower court decisions, and
refused to hear several important First Amendment cases including a
dispute involving Maine's voucher system. As a result, there is
little clarification regarding the separation of church and state over
the question of public aid to religious schools, and no new legal
precedent was set.
Justices refused to hear an appeal in a case barring the state of
Pennsylvania from exempting religious publications from sales tax.
That let stand a decision in the case of Pittsburgh publisher Felice
Newman and Steven Zupcic. In 1993, Zupcic purchased several books at
a local store and noticed that the Muslim Koran and the Jewish
Haggadah were taxed, but the Bible was not. Four years later, a
Commonwealth Court ruled that the state acted improperly in making
some religious publications tax-exempt while placing a levy other
writings. Justice Sandra Newman wrote that the practice displayed "a
preference for communication of religious messages." Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Ridge decided to launch an appeal.
The high court also rejected an appeal in a case involving a voucher
program in Maine that provides funds for parents wishing to send their
children to attend private schools, but would not cover tuition
expenses for private religious institutions. Parents of
religious-school students said that the practice violated their rights
by refusing them equal financial help given to those parents whose
children attend private, nonsectarian schools. The Maine Supreme
Judicial Court and the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both upheld
the state policy, and those decisions stay intact as a result of
today's move.
Another case turned down by the Supreme Court involved a special
Jewish public school district set up by the state of New York to serve
disabled children. Justices split 6-3 in rejected the case, with
Justices O'Connor, Scalia and Thomas in favor of hearing arguments.
In 1989, the New York legislature created the Kiryas Joel school
district after local residents withdrew their disabled youngsters from
the public school system. In 1994, the high court ruled that the
state had illegally given special treatment to a particular religious
sect. Two more efforts by the legislator to create the special
religious district were also struck down. In August, a fourth law was
enacted.
Today's announcements from the court mean that only one church-state
dispute remains on the 1999-2000 docket. This involves a Louisiana
case which challenges a state program to provide computers and other
instructional materials at public expense for private and religious
schools.
By not hearing the Maine case, the court may be signaling a reluctance
to deal with the volatile and complex issue of school vouchers. The
Maine decision suggests that that taxpayers should not have to fund
religious schools, and that those seeking a religious education for
their offspring must pay for that service. But last week, the high
court upheld a program in Arizona that allows the state to give tax
credits to people who donate scholarship money at private and
religious schools. The high court's decision drew mixed comments.
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice told Reuters
news service this afternoon that the Maine case involved "important
and substantial issues." Maine Attorney General Andrew Ketterer
praised the court's move, saying "This court has never suggested that
the exercise of religious rights requires public subsidization."
For more background on this story, visit:
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/pa2.htm
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/vouch6b.htm
**
BIBLE WEEK PROCLAMATION UPHELD ON STANDING TECHNICALITY
A federal judge has ruled that plaintiffs challenging a Bible week
proclamation issued by the town of Gilbert, Arizona lacked proper
standing in the case, and dismissed a challenge to the
constitutionally suspect practice. Local residents, represented by
the American Civil Liberties Union, had sued Gov. Jane Hull and
Gilbert Mayor Cynthia Dunham over a 1997 National Bible Week
Proclamation which declared that "the Bible is the foundational
document of the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our nation was
conceived," and exhorted all citizens to study the book.
The plaintiffs argued that such a decree violated the constitutional
separation of church and state.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver dismissed the case
saying that the residents, Ellis and Ellen Sklar, did not show
sufficient evidence that they had been harmed by the Mayor's actions.
"It is undisputed that the mental anguish and profound offense that
the (plaintiffs) experienced as a result of the 1997 Bible Week
Proclamation and the proposed 1998 Proclamation is genuine," she
noted. "Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has concluded that no matter
how significant, the psychological suffering resulting from knowledge
of purportedly unconstitutional conduct does not constitute judicially
cognizable injury for purpose of standing."
Silver noted that "lack of standing will not preclude a finding of
standing in future actions challenging the Bible Week Proclamation by
the Mayor and Town of Gilbert."
In a canned statement from her office, Mayor Dunham declared that she
was "ecstatic" over the ruling, and would follow through with plans
for a 1999 National Bible Week Proclamation. The event is to be begin
on November 23 according to the National Bible Association, a New York
group which urges government officials to issue decrees and mobilize
their communities to read the bible.
But Gilbert Councilman Mike Evans told the Arizona Republic Newspaper
that he wishes the Mayor "would have come to her senses" and get the
community out of the national flap over prayer and other religious
activism in government. "She must like involving the town in
controversy," Evans said. "There's no other conservative Republican
LDS mayor in the East Valley who sees the importance of it like she
does."
Indeed, despite even the powerful local influence of the Mormon church
and the conservative politics of the region, Bible Week proclamations
have been relatively rare. Mayors in Scottsdale and Tempe issued
Bible Week decrees in 1994 but have not since. In other nearby
communities like Apache Junction, Queen Creek and Mesa, the mayors are
Republican and Mormon, but none has ever proclaimed the Bible Week
event.
The Arizona case had also challenged Gov. Jane Hull, who intended to
issue a Bible Week Proclamation from her office. In November, Judge
Silver granted a temporary injunction against both the state and the
city of Gilbert from issuing any decrees, and Hull agreed to drop
plans for a bible observance. Dunham, however, continued to threaten
the practice, and received legal help from Pat Robertson's American
Center for Law and Justice.
Although the latest federal decision is based on a technicality
involving standing, an ACLJ press release sounded as if the case had
been decided on constitutional merits. Walter Weber, Senior
Litigation Counsel for ACLJ, gushed that the group was "pleased with
the action of the court."
"From the very beginning, we believed this case never belonged in
court. Now that the case has been dismissed, the Mayor is once more
free to proclaim a Bible Week."
Weber added that "The proclamation merely shows a tradition of
commemorating matters of importance to the life of the community," and
said that such a decree with "no different than previous proclamations
commemorating Thanksgiving or National Day of Prayer."
Thomas May, executive vice president of the National Bible
Association, told the Republic newspaper that "thousands of requests"
are now being mailed to cities and states throughout the nation asking
government officials to declare and support the National Bible Week.
"The proclamation now encourages people who are interested in Bible
week to observe it. So, there's no coercion." May added that the
Association "is not a religious group."
For further information on this story, visit:
http://www.atheists.org/flashline/bibwk7.htm
**
UNION COUNTY, N.J. ATHEISTS ORGANIZING
Atheists in the Newark, N.J. and Union County area are invited to
gatherings hosted by the new UNION COUNTY ATHEISTS group. Gather at
the new meeting place, University Diner which is right next to Kean
University at 580 Elmora Avenue, Elizabeth, N.J. , every Sunday at
11:00 a.m. Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit
http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/atheists for further information.
**
ISRAEL DEPORTS PILGRIMS AMIDST FEARS OF MILLENNIAL TERRORISM
Another group of Christians has been deported by Israeli officials
amidst rising concerns over cult violence and millennialist hysteria.
Last night, 25 Irish worshippers were turned away at the port of Haifa
when they attempted to enter the country without visas. Israeli
spokesmen described the group as an "extreme Christian cult" who were
suspected of planning a mass suicide. Although newspaper reports in
Britain and Ireland suggested that the Israeli police were confusing
this group with the American Concerned Christians cult of Denver,
Colorado, police spokesperson Linda Hemuhin said that there was no
connection.
The Irish Times newspaper reports that the group is part of the
Pilgrim House Community, a Catholic organization based in Castletown,
Wexford. A local priest, Eugene McCarney, said that the community was
a "committed and dedicated Christian group," and denied an apocalyptic
agenda. Israeli sources, though, said that the sect had been tracked
by a special intelligence unit set up to stop millennialist cults from
committing acts of violence, especially with some three million
tourists expected in the Holy Land in the year 2000.
Target For Doomsday
In January, Israel expelled 14 members of the Concerned Christians
group because of alleged plans to commit mass suicide in preparation
for the apocalypse. The country is already a destination for hundreds
of fundamentalist Christians who are convinced that Jesus Christ will
return to Earth and land on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives some time in
the year 2000. One police spokesman told the British Broadcasting
Service last January, "If the Messiah doesn't show up as expected, we
fear some of the disappointed believers may take matters into their
own hands and hasten along the end of times. Given all the problems
we have here already, Israel can ill afford a Waco."
In addition to the conflagration at Waco, Texas involving the Branch
Davidian cult, observers also point to an increasing trend of cult
activity and violence. They cite the 39 members of the Heaven's Gate
group who killed themselves in California during the appearance of the
Hale Bopp comet which they said would herald the arrival of aliens.
There is also concern over other suicides such as those carried out by
75 members of the Order of the Solar Temple in Canada and Switzerland,
or the Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subways linked to the Aum
Supreme Truth cult.
Israeli officials are particularly worried, though, since their
country is the focal point of Moslem, Jewish and Christian religious
belief. Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, has deployed 400
agents and special troops to track millennialist groups; the
government fears that some will attempt acts of violence on the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming and other
apocalyptic events in the year 2000.
Another concern involves "Jerusalem Syndrome," a psychological
disorder where people believe that they are biblical era figures, and
feel a compulsion to preach in the streets. Dr. Yair Barel, a mental
health expert in Jerusalem first identified the syndrome in 1982. He
said that most victims believe that they are reincarnations of Jesus,
Mary or Moses, but several have claimed to be King David or even Mary
Magdalene. Some who succumb to the malady have a history of mental
illness, while others do not; all feel overcome by what he terms the
"spiritual atmosphere" of the city.
"The danger exists that someone will try to do something very
violent," Barel told the BBC. He predicted that local hospitals and
mental institutes could become swamped by as many as 800 visitors
suffering from Jerusalem Syndrome.
Less obvious are those hundreds of Christian pilgrims who have already
poured into Israel and settled in Palestinian towns near the Mount of
Olives. They believe they will witness the Second Coming as Christ
rides through the East gate of the city. One sect has even
established a live webcam broadcast for the expected visit.
For further information, visit:
http://www.americanatheist.org/win96-7/T2/
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/mill1.htm
**
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