Possible Stories to make into Video

If anyone has information about the location of the following people or those who were involved with the problem we would like to talk with them about making their incident into a movie or short video. LBVIP

No Team Prayer
A team and its coach can't pray together. Grant High School in Sacramento, Calif., which will play for the state's Division II championship March 19, has been forced to abandon a tradition of players and the coach praying together at games, The Sacramento Bee said.

A controversy began after Americans United for Separation of Church and State warned the Grant Joint Union High School District that it could face a lawsuit if coach Tony Lowden, an unordained youth minister, continued to pray with his team. Grant Superintendent James Rutter told Lowden he could not coach if he prayed with his players. Team members told Lowden they wanted him to lead them in what could be the school's first title.

"It's sad that a coach can't pray with his players. It's really silly," said Stephen Walton, a player who leads the prayer sessions. "We're going to keep praying, regardless. Just because he won't be praying with us doesn't mean he won't be praying at all."

Americans United said it received complaints after The Bee published a photograph last month of Lowden and his players huddled in prayer. Players have been inviting their opponents to join them in prayer after each game and reportedly have never been turned down.

Lowden said the prayers were voluntary and were initiated and led by students, making it acceptable for him to join in. All team members reportedly are Christians and are not alienating anyone. (Current News Summary . ReligionToday.com. 3/18/99.)

Christian Purging in Education
Board of Education members in Cleveland, Ohio, can't pray before their meetings. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 18 that the practice is unconstitutional, the Associated Press said. The ruling, which overturns a lower court's 1996 decision, says the prayers are similar to those said at high school graduation ceremonies, which it ruled are an illegal endorsement of religion. Attorneys for the school board have not decided if they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court." (Current News Summary. ReligionToday.com. 3/19/99.)

Ten Commandments Removed
On Thursday, Manhattan, Kansas administrators removed a granite tablet engraved with the Ten Commandments from a public locality. Even though the engraving had encouraged citizens for more than four decades, two groups -- the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State - threatened a legal battle against the city if the monument remained.

More than 4,000 residents had signed a petition asking that the display prevail, but city officials feared the threatened lawsuit from the two groups that continue to meticulously assault the religious freedoms of Americans.

At a time when our nation asks why our young people are resorting to loathsome acts of public violence, the ACLU and Americans United continue to tear at the only moral fabric that can penetrate and change the savage hearts of malicious teens like the two gunmen in Littleton, Colorado. (Liberty Alliance. 4/30/99.)

Graduation Address Rejected
A high school valedictorian in California will not be allowed to deliver his prepared address because it contains references to God. Jason Niemeyer was allowed to join 190 classmates on the football field at Oroville High School June 10, but the school barred him from speaking, the Scripps McClatchy news service said. The speech wasn't "at all up-front and in-your-face religious," he said. One version refers to "a friend who has personally helped me to achieve my goals, and I give Him the praise and glory for that." Niemeyer achieved a grade-point average above 4.0.

School officials barred Niemeyer's older brother Chris from delivering a valedictory address last year on the grounds that it was sectarian, with lines such as, "We must yield our lives to God." The Niemeyers, who attend a Nazarene church, have sued, claiming the school violated Chris' First Amendment rights. Jason has been added as a plaintiff. A third son, John, graduated from eighth grade this week and will attend Oroville High in the fall. He also has a straight-A average. "As a mother this has been crushing my heart, to think about going through it again," Janet Niemeyer, the boys' mother, said. (6/11/99. Religion Today. Current News Summary.)

Christians ­ Victims or Victimizers?
The Fort Worth church murders were not a senseless act. They had an express purpose: to kill Christians. This is called a hate crime. But we shouldn't be surprised that Janet Reno and other elites have trouble mustering up much outrage over the mounting body count resulting from anti-Christian hatred.

The number of Christians killed this year alone by fanatic gunmen greatly exceeds the number of abortion providers or gays murdered by right-wing haters. To so many media figures, Christians ­ specifically evangelicals, orthodox Catholics and others who believe in traditional Judeo-Christian moral teaching ­ are not victims, but victimizers. They are so used to casting Southern Baptists and fellow travelers as buffoons and bigots that they find it hard to imagine them as anything but.

It may never be said on TV, but I know what many people privately believe: 'Well, it's too bad for those Southern Baptists, but you know, they do bring this sort of thin on themselves, boycotting Disney, preaching against homosexuality, crusading against abortion and all that.' There's a sense that it's payback time, you deserve this. I'm not surmising this; I see it over and over again,' says William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. If the Fort Worth murderer, guns blazing, had walked into a synagogue, a gay bar, an abortion clinic or even a black church service, there is no doubt what the government, cultural and media elite's reaction would be. Unfortunately, dead Southern Baptist kids don't seem to matter as much to them as a murdered gay youth or a slain abortion doctor." (Rod Dreher. New York Post commentary. "Media Mum When the Victims are Christians." 9/17/99.)

Jailed College Student
On August 31, 1999, John Reyes began serving a six month jail sentence for praying and witnessing outside a public high school in Lynchburg, Virginia before school started.

John, a college student at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, had never been in trouble before. But on November 10, 1997, John and approximately 150 other Liberty University students and supporters stood outside E.C. Glass High School where they prayed, shared the Gospel and displayed signs about abortion to students entering the school.

Despite the presence of some 45 police officers, no one was arrested. At the request of a police officers, John assisted in moving the protesters off school property. Nevertheless, John was indicted, convicted of trespass and sentenced to the maximum sentence of one year in jail (six months of which were suspended)." (AFA Action Alert. 8/31/99.)

Victory for Prayer
In 1997, U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent handed down an injunction that was one of our nation's most damaging legal assaults on the rights of religious students to express themselves. That ruling was recently struck down!

In a 3-0 decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Judge DeMent wrongly restricted student-initiated prayer at DeKalb, Alabama schools. 'This is a victory for all the school children in the public schools of our state, that they do not surrender their constitutional rights when they attend a public school in Alabama,' said Attorney General Bill Pryor." ( Liberty Alliance. 7/16/99.)

U.S. Capitol Praying
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has ruled in favor of a Maryland evangelist who sued the U.S. Capitol Police after he was told it was illegal for him to pray inside the U.S. Capitol because praying was considered to be a prohibited form of demonstration. The Court also ordered the Capitol Police to refrain from using what it calls 'an unconstitutional restriction on speech' in the future.

Pierre Bynum, an associate pastor at Waldorf Christian Assembly in Waldorf, Maryland, and a group of eight persons were on a self-guided tour of the Capitol in November of 1996 and engaged in a few moments of prayer during which the members of the group bowed their heads and folded their hands. The police said such activity was considered to be a 'demonstration' and warned the group they would be arrested if they continued to pray.

Bynum was represented in his lawsuit by the American Center for Law and Justice, whose senior counsel James Henderson said the ruling was ' an important decision upholding the First Amendment rights of all citizens.'" (Maranatha Christian Journal . 4/11/2000.)

Students' Right to Pray
In a dramatic and urgently-needed victory for student graduation prayer, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 10-2 vote, issued a 94-page decision upholding the rights of students to pray and articulate their beliefs during graduation ceremonies.

The court found that since the Duval County (Jacksonville, FL) policy 'unambiguously recognizes' the difference between government speech endorsing religion ­prohibited by the Establishment Clause ­ and private speech that may contain a prayerful message ­ protected by the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses ­ their policy is constitutional. The court affirmed the earlier decision of a district court.

Schools should not be in the business of censoring students' speech simply because the message is religious. Such discrimination is nothing less than educational tyranny. Public schools ­ of all places ­ should accommodate and nurture students who have found peace and fulfillment in their faith." (WorldNetDaily. Rev. Jerry Falwell. "Right to Pray at Graduation." 3/18/2000.)

University Bans Christians
Tufts Christian Fellowship was stripped of its official 'student organization' status in a secret, midnight meeting because the group would not allow an admitted homosexual to hold a leadership position. Tufts University administration de-recognized an affiliate of international college ministry InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

The university's decision was prompted by a complaint against the Christian club by Julie Catalano, who claimed she had been discriminated against because of her sexual orientation. Catalano sought a leadership position within the Christian group and asserted her belief that homosexual practice is a biblically acceptable lifestyle.

Curtis Chang, TCF's leader and affiliate chaplain at the university said, 'Barring religious groups from using religious-based values in leadership selection is the same as prohibiting them from practicing the religious nature of their group.'

Hadley Arkes, a jurisprudence professor at Amherst College, wrote a letter to Change after the decision was handed down. According to Arkes, "What the University has done is nothing less than declared orthodox Christianity and Judaism as illegitimate, as religious traditions that should have no legitimate place in the life of the University, or in the lives of the students collected there.'" (WorldNetDaily news. 4/25/2000.)

Banned in America
On May 17, 2000, schools and courthouses in eastern Kentucky were taking down displays of historical documents ­ including the Mayflower Compact and the preamble to the state's constitution ­ in compliance with an order from Federal District Judge Jennifer Coffman, who said the displays are a violation of the First Amendment.

The judge claimed that these displays do not pass constitutional muster as they were specifically designed to promote Christianity. Displays contained the following documents:

* The National Motto ­ 'In God We Trust.'
* The Declaration of Independence ­ the phrase, 'All men are endowed by their Creator."
* The Preamble to the Constitution of Kentucky ­ the phrase, 'We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God'
* A Congressional Record page ­ called the 'Year of the Bible.'
* A Proclamation by President Ronald Reagan ­ '1983 Year of the Bible.'
* An Excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln ­ 'Lincoln's Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible.'
* The Mayflower Compact ­ colony's founders invoke 'the name of God.'
* The Ten Commandments

Defendants, including Judge Darrell BeShears of Pulaski County, who set up a display in his courthouse, maintain their purpose was to teach residents and students about American religious history and the foundations of the modern state. 'We certainly agree with the judge's ruling. There is little chance that these displays could be found constitutional,' said Jeff Vessels, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky." (WorldNetDaily. 5/17/2000.)

Religious Brick Barred
A Tennessee couple barred from inscribing a religious message on a commemorative brick at their daughter's school are suing the local school board. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed suit on behalf of Thomas and Melody Horne, who live in East Brainerd County.

The Hornes each wanted to buy a $50 brick inscribed 'Hope Horne, to the Glory of God,' but were told by school officials that they could not use any language referring to God. The Hornes suggested writing the dedication in Latin instead ­ 'Hope Horne, Soli Deo Gloria' ­ but were turned down again.

The Hornes' suit argues that the brick project ­ which has raised around $15,000 for the school ­ was open to everyone in the community, and the application placed no restrictions on messages. ACLJ attorney Stuart Roth said, 'Individual citizens are always free to engage in religious speech. It's not the government speaking. It's the family speaking, not the school.'" (Charisma News Service. 6/6/2000.)

Denying Workplace Christians
Three employees of Sandia National laboratories have brought a discrimination suit against the company after a proposed employee group ­ Christians in the Workplace Networking Group ­ was denied official recognition. The Christian employees complain that, while they have been denied permission to meet, Sandia officially recognizes the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Networking Group at the facility.

Stephen M. Crampton, legal counsel for the employees and an attorney with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says the response has been one of 'hypocrisy.' Sandia's response, he says, claims that it provides 'an employee-friendly environment free of prejudice to anyone,' and in the same breath it attacks AFA as being 'inflammatory and divisive.' "In other words,' Crampton said, 'Sandia believes in diversity only when it does not include religious beliefs. Such as biased position, excluding the cornerstone of the First Amendment, must be stricken.'" (National Liberty Journal. June 2000.)

Teacher Restricted
Burlington-Edison High School (Mt. Vernon WA) science teacher Roger DeHart says he always corrects the biology textbook he uses in class. He says he must seek 'true evidence, accurate evidence,' no matter what. And when he finds that evidence, he must present that to his ninth- and 10th-grade students.

But recently DeHart, accused two years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union of bringing God into the classroom, found some new evidence pointing out alleged flaws in research done to support Darwin's theories. Principal Beth Vander Veen refused to allow DeHart to introduce five articles ­ all from mainstream publications ­ to supplement the biology course curriculum for his students.

The ACLU accused him of teaching the theory of intelligent design. That theory assumes the world is too complex to be anything but the plan of an intelligent agent, which the ACLU believes borders on teaching creationism in a state-funded, public school. They claim DeHart's evidence will just plant seeds of doubt in students' minds." (Skagit Valley Herald. Mt. Vernon, WA. 5/29/2000.)

Keep Christians Out of Parks!
During a span of seven days, members of the RJL Church-State Law Group have caused, first, the Douglas County Sheriff, then the U.S. Census Bureau, and now, the U.S. Forest Service to accommodate the free exercise of religion.

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has a ministry in Woodland Park, Col. Called Lutheran Valley Retreat (LVR). LVR has a mountain camp where it hosts religious retreats. Under a special use permit with the U.S. Forest Service it also takes "retreats" on backpacking and horse packing trips into the U.S. Forest Service land. The small print of the permit required LVR, as a licensee, to promise not to discriminate in its hiring classifications, including religion.

This obviously would not do because a Lutheran ministry has many legitimate reasons to discriminate based upon religion in both its hiring and its delivery of services. What makes this situation unusual is that the Forest Service was merely entering a contract with LVR, and many believe that the government, when contracting with a religious institution, must require that religious institution to follow the identical rules that a secular contracting party would follow.

Not so, argued Nathan Adams, who invoked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the recent Boy Scouts v. Dale decision that finely articulates the right of expressive association for values-inculcating organizations, and the parochial line of cases. After working his way up through the Forest Service bureaucracy, Nate convinced their Washington, D.C. attorneys not only to allow LVR to drop the offending provisions, but to change U.S. Forest Service contracts for religious organization nationally. (Report emailed to Tom Pedigo, AFA of CO State Director. 8/30/2000.)

Policing Park Preachers
A man handcuffed by police and threatened with pepper spray for speaking about his Christian faith in a Portage, Wisc., park is suing the city and its police department over his arrest. Greg Breneman says that officers were wrong to stop him from witnessing in the downtown park recently.

A lawsuit charging unlawful arrest was filed on his behalf by the Liberty Counsel, represented by General Counsel Mathew Staver, warning them that Breneman had a constitutional right to speak in the park. Staver took up the case after officers had tried to stop Breneman and other Christians gathering in the park.

Breneman had been arrested and accused of obstruction, but his case was later dismissed. Staver said that the police had apparently presumed that Breneman would give up and go away if he was harassed enough. 'This man does not shout, yell, or use any amplification devices. He speaks calmly and peacefully. It is reprehensible when police officers attempt to stifle the right of citizens to peacefully assemble,' Staver said. 'Police officers are not above the law.'" (Charisma News Service . 11/17/2000.)