Category: Entanglement

December 29, 2005

Judges allow another 10 Commandments historical sham

A 3 judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday December 20th that a 10 Commandments display in Mercer County Kentucky was not unconstitutional.

The case brought by the ACLU, concerned the Commandments viewed alongside nine other documents, including the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence at the Mercer County courthouse in Harrodsburg.

The court used the recent precedent of McCreary County, Ky., v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky that was decided by the US Supreme Court this past June.

The court used the common historical sham to justify the presence of the Decalogue and gave the ACLU some lumps for their involvement in the case.

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December 27, 2005

Reynoldsburg, OH Mayor Ignores Law on Holiday Scenes – Again

In 2005, the mayor didn’t put up the Navtivity scene. He claimed that road work in front of city hall made it too difficult to keep the scene safe from damage. He intends to put it back up in 2006 along with symbols from other religions:

McPherson said he already has approved a symbol celebrating the winter solstice and another for the Hindu religion — a partman, part-eagle deity called Garuda who sometimes represents the sun.

Of course if he plans on including such symbols then he also needs one from Kwanzaa, Jain, Sikh, Witchcraft, magick, the occult, Sumerian, Zoroastrian, Baha’i, Islamic, Wicca, Neopaganism, Druid, Celtic, and on and on. If Mayor McPherson says no to any religious symbol then he is risking the city of Reynoldsburg to a law suit.

Just like in 2004, McPherson is ignoring the law and even the advice of his own City Attorney.

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December 21, 2005

Judge throws book at Dover Board in ruling

On December 20, 2005, Judge John E. Jones III, In The United States District Court For The Middle District Of Pennsylvania, ruled that the Dover District School Board violated the US Constitution when they changed the 9th grade Biology curriculum to include Intelligent Design (ID).

Some of the members of the Board who voted for the change didn’t even know what ID was all about.

The Judge also took to task some members who lied under oath and tried to cover their tracks when the change caused some issues for the community.

Read the postJudge throws book at Dover Board in ruling
December 20, 2005

Victory for real science in Dover, PA

Judge in Dover case rules in favor of the parents who wanted to keep ID out of their children’s classroom

“We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion.

Jones wrote that he wasn’t saying the intelligent design concept shouldn’t be studied and discussed, saying its advocates “have bona fide and deeply held beliefs which drive their scholarly endeavors.”

But, he wrote, “our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom.”

More later —

Read the postVictory for real science in Dover, PA
December 15, 2005

Cal Thomas gets it on “war” on Christmas

Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist, has gone against his conservative brethren. Both in a recent column and on the FOX News Channel, Thomas complained about the efforts in support of “Merry Christmas”. In his column titled “Not so silent night”, Thomas writes:

“The effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas” might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the “Happy Holidays” mantra required by some store managers.

I have never understood why so many Christians feel the need to see and hear “Merry Christmas” proclaimed to them at stores by people who may not believe its central message. While TV personalities, junk mail letters and some of the ordained bemoan the increasing secularization of culture; perhaps some teaching might be helpful from the One in whose behalf they claim to speak.”

So we may not agree with everything Cal has to say but at least on this issue he gets it.

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December 12, 2005

Public funding for church social work not really needed

The new Family Life Center might be able to help a few hundred people while approximately 2,000 disabled children and adults may have to be sent to extended care facilities if they are to get any treatment at all.

It is a shame when people donate more money to churches than they pay in taxes yet complain that churches and other religious groups should get more tax payer money to do what the government should be doing. Real people with real problems get hurt.

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