AROUND THE STATES

Virginia Councilor Loses Jesus Prayer Lawsuit

A federal court has set back a Virginia town councilman's crusade to offer sectarian prayers at public meetings.

Earlier this year, Fredericksburg City Councilor Hashmel C. Turner Jr. sued the city council over a policy allowing for only "non-denominational" invocations at its public meetings. Turner, a Baptist minister, on numerous occasions had given prayers invoking Jesus Christ. After the ACLU of Virginia complained, the council created a new a policy calling for non-denominational invocations.

In late 2005, the Fredericksburg mayor refused to allow Turner to offer a prayer after the preacher indicated he would not abide by the council's prayer policy. In early 2006, Turner sued the city arguing that the prayer policy violated his constitutional rights.

In August, Chief U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer ruled in favor of the city council. Citing federal court precedent, including the U.S. Supreme Court's 1983 ruling in Marsh v. Chambers, Spencer ruled that prayer before government bodies must not be sectarian.

"The Marsh Court emphasized," Spencer wrote in Turner v. dry Council of the City of Fredericksburg, "that although legislative prayers do not 'establish' religion, legislative bodies must ensure that any opening prayers are 'nonsectarian.'"

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the court to reject Turner's case. The council member was represented by the Rutherford Institute, a Religious Right legal outfit.

According to Religion News Service, Rutherford President John Whitehead indicated that an appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was being planned.

Florida Rep. Says Church-State Separation Is 'A Lie'

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FIa.) has unleashed an attention-grabbing attack on the First Amendment.

In August, Harris told the Florida Baptist Witness that the "separation of church and state is a lie we have been told." She added, "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin. They can legislate sin. They can say that abortion is all right. They can vote to sustain gay marriage."

Harris added that "God is the one who chooses our rulers."

"And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women and if people aren't involved in helping godly men in getting elected, then we're going to have a nation of secular laws. That's not what our Founding Fathers intended and that certainly isn't what God intended."

Harris' comments garnered nationwide attention and considerable criticism.

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty blasted Harris for her take on religion and government.

"In calling church-state separation a lie, Harris disregards history," said J. Brent Walker, the BJC's executive director, in an Aug. 29 statement. "In bemoaning our nation of secular laws, she misrepresents the nature of our government. In saying that non-Christians will only 'legislate sin,' she sets up her own religious test for office and maligns a whole class of public servants."

Calif. Charter School Founder Faces Prison For Fraud

A California jury has convicted a charter school founder of pilfering public funds and swindling investors.

In late summer, Khadijah Ghafur, founder of the now defunct Gateway Academy, was convicted of 13 felony counts, including theft of public funds and fraud. The Mercury News, a Bay area daily, reported that Ghafur was found guilty of using $75,000 in state education funds to repay a loan to buy land for the Islamic religious community where the school resided and diverting $30,000 in public funds to a private company that the jury determined was later shifted to Ghafur's husband.

The religious community in Fresno, called Baladullah, was comprised of followers of the Pakistani cleric Sheik Mubarik AIi Gilani.

Ghafur was also convicted of a fraud scheme that involved inflating the charter school's attendance to raise $630,000 from private investors. The Fresno-based charter school first ran into trouble in 2002, when officials discovered that the school was teaching religion and charging tuition.

Baptist Group Fights Fino For Cuba Travel

A progressive group of Baptist churches is fighting a claim by the U.S. Treasury Department that five of its member churches violated federal regulation on travel to Cuba.

The Religion News Service (RNS) reported that the Treasury Department issued a notice in early July to the Alliance of Baptists that several of the group's member churches between 2003 - 2005 violated their Cuba travel licenses by not engaging in "full-time religious activity."

The notice issued by the Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control accused the Alliance members of abusing their travel privileges because of "sightseeing and beach time." The Department said The Alliance of Baptists faces a fine of $34,000.

The Rev. Stan Hastey, the group's executive director, told the RNS that Treasury's accusations were unfounded and that the group would appeal the department's notice.