Around the states

Ky. Public School Chapel To Be Turned Into Bathroom

A chapel inside a Kentucky public school will be renovated and converted into a bathroom before classes resume this fall, an attorney for the school has informed Americans United.

Johnnie L. Turner, Harlan County School Board attorney, told Americans United in a June 4 letter that constitutional concerns about the chapel, which Turner referred to as a "quiet room" at Cumberland High School, are unfounded. Turner said the room, previously a closet, "is presently being used as a room for students to go, sit, and do studies, meditation, and/or other things they should so desire."

Americans United wrote to Harlan County school officials after reports surfaced that the chapel had opened in April. Although Turner calls the space a "quiet room," AU noted that the room was dedicated to God in a ceremony attended by local clergy and students. It included a pulpit, an altar and pews decorated with crosses. The Lord's Prayer was posted on the wall.

In his letter, Turner claimed the pulpit was a podium and the altars were benches. He said there was no display of the Lord's Prayer and insisted that the crosses on the benches could be interpreted as the letter T.

Turner said the issue will be moot once the room is renovated. "I would advise you that this floor of the school building is going to be renovated during the summer months, as I understand," he wrote. "Since there are no bathrooms on that floor, bathrooms will be placed in the room which you have labeled as the `Chapel and or Quiet Room.' This will take care of any issues that may involve the quiet room at this school."

Minnesota Court Throws Out Teacher's Anti-Evolution Suit

Public school teachers have no right to refrain from teaching evolution just because they object to the concept on religious grounds, a Minnesota appeals court has ruled.

A three-judge panel with the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in May against Rod LeVake, formerly a high school biology teacher in the Faribault School District. LeVake sued the district when he was removed as a biology teacher in 1998 after Ken Hubert, the co-chair of the science department, expressed concern that LeVake had not covered evolution adequately in class.

When Hubert asked LeVake about the matter, LeVake said he could not teach evolution because he does not believe it occurred. He later wrote a paper critical of evolution that ended with a promise to offer his students "an honest look at the differences and inconsistencies of the theory without turning my class into a religious one."

School officials told LeVake this was unacceptable and reassigned him to teach ninth-grade natural sciences. Backed by TV preacher Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, he sued in state court, contending that this action violated his freedom of religion and free speech rights.

The court disagreed. "It is unclear on what basis LeVake argues that his right to free exercise of religion was violated," wrote Judge Daniel Foley for the appeals court. "LeVake does not contend that respondents prohibited him from practicing the religion of his choice. He does not assert that respondents demanded that he refrain from practicing his religion outside of the scope of his duties as a public school teacher in order to retain his teaching position, and he does not assert that the curriculum requirements incidentally infringed on his religious practice." (LeVake v. Independent School District 656)

Breakaway Church Can't Keep Building, Wisconsin Court Says

A Methodist congregation that broke away from the national denomination does not have the right to keep the church building, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled.

The court ruled 5-2 May 31 that members of the Elo United Methodist Church in Pickett, Wisc., must surrender the building to denominational officials. The church building, the court ruled, was held "in trust" by the local congregation but remained the property of the United Methodist Church.

Religion New Service reported that the 119-member congregation voted to leave the Methodist denomination in 1997 due to a disagreement over doctrine. Members renamed the building the Elo Evangelical Church, removed the name "United Methodist" from all church materials and even tried to evict the pastor from the parsonage.

After two years of unfruitful negotiations, the denomination's Wisconsin Annual Conference filed suit to get the church back. Declared the court, "Although the members of a local church may secede from a hierarchical system, they cannot secede and take the church property with them." (The Wisconsin Conference Board of Trustees of the United Methodist Church, Inc. v. Culver)

Massuchusetts Mormons Win Right To Erect Steeple

A Mormon church in Belmont, Mass., may erect an 83-foot steeple even though some neighbors have complained that it is too big, the state's highest court has ruled.

Belmont's Mormon temple opened last October after years of litigation by some residents in the exclusive Boston suburb who unsuccessfully claimed it violated local zoning ordinances. When that effort failed, opponents went back into court arguing that the steeple was too tall and unnecessary.