County Backs Off Targeting Private Bible Study Group

(KNM)---San Diego County officials in California have decided to cease actions  against a bible study group meeting in the private home of a Bonita Township resident after a flood of protests from around the nation and world--along with the prospect of serious legal challenges to the county--spared the group from sanctions imposed by the government. The case has caught the attention from multiple groups inlcuding religious and civil rights activists along with constitutional lawyers since it involved a government body ordering religious study to stop due to technicalities that some say are not pertinent.

Pastor David Jones was holding a weekly Bibe study at his home which at times attracted up to 20 people at the house. On a few occassions, parking became an issue on the residential street but it was not until a visitor dinged a neighbor's car that the problems began for the pastor and his study group. Jones paid the $220 in damage to the neighbor but soon found legal notices coming from the county that essentially ordered him to stop the studies beacuse he did not have a permit for them at his house.

The notion of an American needing a permit to hold a Bible study class at his own home caused outrage and accusations of the trampling of sacred American rights but the county persisted in its efforts to stop the studies and have Jones apply for a permit (and pay related fees) in order to hold Bible study. County officials declared Jones was holding a "religious assembly" without a permit but the county's own code says "religious assembly" is defined as "religious services involving public assembly such as customarily occurs in synagogues, temples, and churches." There is no mention of private residences.

First Black Female Rabbi Ordained In America

(KNM)---A Reformed Judaism school has announced it has ordained the first black female rabbi in the United States. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati said Alysa Stanton, age 45, is a native of the Ohio city and was among 14 people ordained at a recent ceremony. Describing herself as the "new face of Judaism", Staton said she wanted to "break down barriers, build bridges and provide hope." Stanton was a Pentocostal Christian and converted to Judaism 20 years ago while at Colorado State University.

Stanton, a former psychotherapist, will move to Greenville, N.C., where she will be rabbi of Congregation Bayt Shalom. "I'm a rabbi who happens to be an African American woman, but I'm not coming as the "black rabbi," I'm coming as a rabbi," Stanton said. She added, "Just being a rabbi period, and being a female, and being the first African American female rabbi in the world will carry its own challenges, joys, triumphs and trials because it's paving new ground."

There has been some criticism of the ordination from various Orthodox Jewish sects and by others who question Stanton's ability to truly relate to Jewish people and their religion. Other critics contend the ordination is not even valid.

###

Malaysia High Court Rules Non-Muslims Cannot Use Word "Allah"

(KNM)---The Malaysian High Court upheld a federal ban that makes it illegal for non-Muslims to use "Allah" in public or in any public communications, including papers or magazines. The case was brought to the highest judges of the land by the Catholic Church after it was ordered to cease using the word in its weekly papers. The government said that non-Muslims who used the word would confuse Muslims in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

Israel's Supreme Court Says Orthodox Jews Can't Have Monopoly Of Power

(KNM)---In a long-contested battle for the hearts and minds of the Israeli public and legal affirmation from the country's highest court, the Israel Reform Movement was victorious in its efforts to receive funding in schools to teach an alternative theological approach to the dominant Orthodox Jewish faith.

The victory was historic since only the Orthodox Jewish segment of Judaism is officially recognized by Israel's government and receives funding to support it. Although very small in Israel, the Reform and Conservative Jewish sects are prominent in the United States and each has financially supported efforts to petition Israel's government and courts to award offical recognition and the monetary benefits that come with it.

The Reform Jewish Movement believes that being unrecognized by the Israeli government has hindered its growth in a nation where less than half the population affiliate with the Orthodox Jewish sect and a majority label themselves as simply "traditional Jews".

Catholic Church In Maine Targeted By California Homosexual Group

(KNM)---The Empowering Spirits Foundation, a pro-homosexual activist group based in California, has filed formal legal suits against the Roman Catholic Church in Maine for its outspoken advocacy against same-sex marriage. The group wants the non-profit, tax-exempt status of the Church revoked.

The group says that by engaging in political activity aimed at overturning Maine's new same-sex marriage law, the diocese is violating IRS rules for nonprofits. The Church and its supporters say it is practicing its right to free speech which does not cease due to tax-exempt status. A diocese spokesman says IRS policy allows it to collect the more than 55,000 voter signatures needed to suspend the law and have voters decide its fate.  Bishop Richard Malone called the passing of the same-sex marriage law "a dangerous sociological experiment" and said the diocese would work with others to bring the issue to a vote in November.

###

Nurse Wins Religious Discrimination Claim Against Hospital

(KNM)---A nurse with more than 23 years experience who refused to administor an abortion pill has won a case in Louisiana State Supreme Court over her demotion due to religious discrimination.  Toni Lemly, a nurse at  St. Tammany Parish Hospital, argues she was demoted to a part-time job after objecting to giving a 'morning-after' pill due to her religious belief against abortion. Lemly says the loss of fulltime employment seriously hurt her pay and benefits. The hospital's lawyers, expecting a quick court ruling in their favor, decided to go full-force against the nurse who wound up receiving a favorable judgement from the court.

Brian Arabie, a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund representing Ms. Lemly, said, {The hospital} acted unlawfully when it refused to make a reasonable accommodation for Ms. Lemly and instead terminated her fulltime position. "Toni provided St. Tammany Parish Hospital with options that would have accommodated both her fulltime position and their wish to distribute the morning-after abortion pill. Instead, the hospital chose to engage in discrimination based on her courageous commitment to the unborn. We are hopeful that the hospital will change course, do what's right for a dedicated nurse and her constitutional rights, and discontinue the need for any further litigation."

The case fuled the state's legislature to push a bill that would make it illegal for healthcare workers, including nurses and doctors, to be forced to participate in procedures, including abortions, they are morally or religiously against. The state bill mirrors a provision made by former President Bush to protect healthcare workers from participating in procedures they were consciously oppossed to but President Obama has indicated he may overturn that bill.

###

Concern Over 'Hate Crime' Bill Opposition Grows In Congress

(KNM)---Support by Democrats for a new law that many believe would persecute and prosecute anyone oppossed to same-sex marriage or homosexuality is beginning to wave as reports coming from Washington detail a flood of protest letters, calls and e mails approaching one million--leading the Democrat-fueled bill in danger of failing to even come to vote as elected officials stress over the political fallout a successful passage could reap.

Known as Bill H.R. 1913 in the House and Bill S. 909 in the Senate, it proposes harsher penalties against those whose victims were chosen based on an "actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity." President Obama, while campaigning for the office, embraced the proposed law that has been heavily pushed by homosexual activists. But opponets of the bill fear the law is so vaguely written with so many loopholes for interpretation that if passed, the law will become the main weapon to be used by homosexual groups against anyone or any organization, including churches, who speak out against them. Democrats admitted in committee hearings that a pastor could be prosecuted under the law if he spoke biblically against homosexuality, someone heard the comments and then committed a crime.

What began as a proposed law lobbied by the homosexual community to deter crimes against them has morphed into another Congressional bill that now many say is simply too vague and actually protects sex crimes that are now illegal including pedophilia. As the bill expanded in scope, Democrats included language that would protect anyone with dozens of sexual preferences or fetishes from so-called hate crimes. As written, someone who physically assaulted a pedophile could be jailed for a hate crime since pedophila would be included as a sexual preference.

Several Republicans in the House strongly objected to language in the bill and specifically called for the deletion of pedophila as a protected sexual preference but Democrats refused the motion. To move the bill pass its sexual focus, several Republicans also attempted to include hate crimes protection for military veterans who were attacked because of their service. Democrats unanimously rejected the amendment.

###

Michigan Church Pursues Legal Action Against Radical Group That Crashed Worship Services & Violated Numerous Civil Rights

(KNM)---Michigan's Mount Hope Church's congregation was celebrating their Faith during a worship service when a small group of people began shouting during the service. "Jesus was gay," they screamed as they rushed the front of the church. Two women began to intimately kiss in front of the congregation that included children as other protestors unfurled a profanity-laced banner and others threw papers in the air and around the church.  The protestors carried condoms, pink confetti, a megaphone and noisemakers as shaken worshippers feared for their safety before anger set it.

Now, months after the incident, the Delta Township church is taking legal action against the group and saying the protest violated a series of civil rights including "the exercise of the First Amendment right to religious freedom." Other charges include violence, intimidation, terroristic threats and obstructing a building.

The lawsuit was filed against the radical homosexual activist group "Bash Back" whose Lansing-chapter stormed the congregation after teasing visitors to its website that it was about to "target" an "anti-queer" establishment. The group proclaimed on its website, 'ONLY ONE DIRECTION! TRANS AND QUEER INSURRECTION!'

"The use of violent threats and criminal behavior to make a political point should never be acceptable in America," said Gary McCaleb, Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel. "Bash Back! revealed how dangerous the homosexual agenda is to our first liberty, religious freedom. ADF filed this suit to stop Bash Back! and other activist groups from invading churches, disrupting worship, silencing pastors, and terrifying adults and children who attend religious services."

The group told media after the incident, "This church is nothing short of a disease in the community, and in the minds of those who attend." One of the defendents, Amy Field was interviewed by a local radio station and asked if she believed the group had violated the church's rights. Field replied, "I'm not concerned with their civil rights."

###

Tension Between Obama & Catholics Continues As Calls for Opposition To Catholic Critic On Advisory Board Increase

(KNM)---President Obama's sour relationship with Catholics continued to deepen as his decision to appoint a vocal Catholic critic and homosexual rights activist, who some say is an anti-Catholic bigot, to a presidential advisory board on religion has generated increasing calls for the appointment to be scuttled or else risk being perceived as truly hostile toward Catholics in the nation.

An increasing number of Republicans are also joining the protests and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said he hopes more members of Congress will object to Obama appointing an adviser who he believes has attacked the Catholic Church. Boehner signed a letter with nearly two dozen prominent Catholics calling on Obama to remove Harry Knox from the President?s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships because of his history of anti-Catholic statements.

Knox is the director of the Faith and Religion Program at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual rights organization.  Knox has said, among other things, that the pope?s view on condoms was "hurting people in the name of Jesus," and that the Church's denial of communion to a  "married" lesbian couple was  an "act of spiritual and emotional violence."

Knox has also called Pope Benedict XVI a discredited leader and described the Catholic Knights of Columbus a "discredited army of oppression" because they supported a California ballot initiative to define marriage as being between one man and one woman.

###

Union Autoworker Loses Court Case Over Religious Objections

(KNM & CNS)---A fired Indiana autoworker failed to prove that he lost his job due to religious discrimination after objecting to pay his union dues over religious reasons. The 6th Circuit three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to dismiss his case against the union. Jeffrey Reed, a worker at AM General in Mishawaka, withdrew from the union after deciding that he could not financially support the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Works of America (UAW) without violating his personal religious beliefs. AM General employees had to become union members or pay the union an agency fee equal to the amount of union dues.

The UAW directed AM General to deduct from Reed's pay a reduced fee that omitted any portion used for political expenditures.  But Reed insisted that he could not support the union in any amount. The union then directed Reed to pay the full dues to one of three charities selected by UAW and AM General, and the union refunded him the amount he paid in agency fees. As a result,  Reed piad $100 more charity than he had paid to the union in agency fees.  He filed a Title VII lawsuit, claiming UAW failed to accommodate his religious objections to supporting the union. 

Scholars Begin Global Hunt Missing Pages Of Bible

(KNM)--A quest is under way on four continents to find the missing pages of one of the world's most important holy texts, the 1 000-year-old Hebrew Bible known as the Crown of Aleppo.

Crusaders held it for ransom, fire almost destroyed it and it was reputedly smuggled across Mideast borders hidden in a washing machine. But in 1958, when it finally reached Israel, 196 pages were missing - about 40%of the total - and for some Old Testament scholars they have become a kind of holy grail. Researchers representing the manuscript's custodian in Jerusalem now say they have leads on some of the missing pages and are nearer their goal of making the manuscript whole again.

The Crown, known in English as the Aleppo Codex, may not be as famous as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But to many scholars it is even more important, because it is considered the definitive edition of the Bible for Jewry worldwide.

The key to finding the pages is thought to lie with the insular diaspora of Jews originating in Aleppo, Syria, where the manuscript resided in a synagogue's iron chest for centuries. A turning point in its history came three days after the UN passed the 1947 resolution to grant Israel statehood, provoking a Syrian mob to burn down the synagogue. Aleppo's Jews rescued the Codex, but in the ensuing years the 10 000-strong community was uprooted and scattered around the world.

Scholars believe that Aleppo Jews still hold many of the missing pages, while others have fallen into the hands of antiquities dealers. Two fragments have already surfaced: a full page in 1982, and a smaller piece last year that had been carried for decades by a Brooklyn man, Sam Sabbagh, as a good-luck charm. Persistent rumours tell of more waiting to be found.

When the Codex reached Israel 50 years ago it was presented to Izhak Ben-Zvi, the country's president and a scholar of Jewish communities in the Islamic world. Although the manuscript is housed at the Israel Museum with the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Ben-Zvi Institute founded by the late president remains its legal custodian and is behind the new search.

Past efforts, including some by Israeli diplomats and Mossad secret service agents, came up against a wall of silence in the Aleppo community. The new search has recruited a small group of Aleppo Jews, better able to win the community's trust, and has yielded information on the whereabouts of specific pieces and on the people who are holding them, said Zvi Zameret, the Ben-Zvi Institute's director.