"Weblog: Vouchers, Pledge Decisions Spark National Conversation on Church and State"

With thousands of other people commenting on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision allowing school vouchers and Wednesday’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision banning the Pledge of Allegiance, you don’t need any more commentary from Weblog (Actually, just finding all these stories took so long this morning that there’s no time left to write.) Those aren’t the only big stories going on, either—keep scrolling down for more.

Voucher decision news and reaction:

Supreme Court upholds voucher system that pays religious schools’ tuition | The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the use of public money for religious school tuition in a decisive 5-to-4 ruling (The New York Times)
Cleveland program ruled constitutional (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
Court upholds Ohio school vouchers | Ruling says program offers poor families freedom of choice (The Washington Post)
Questions about the school voucher system | What yesterday’s Supreme Court decision means to you (USA Today)
Parents embrace school voucher ruling | Some parents embrace school voucher ruling; Florida critics vow to press court challenge (Associated Press)
Voters protective of public schools, wary of vouchers | Backers vow to push for parent choice (The Washington Post)

Voucher decision analysis:

The battleground shifts | The ruling would seem to hold at least the potential of a turnaround for a movement that has attracted an unusual assortment of advocates—from conservatives to religious leaders to parents in urban minority neighborhoods to a sitting president of the United States—but that has seemed in danger of drifting off the horizon (The New York Times)
Voucher backers see opening for a wider agenda | Legislators around the country are likely to begin exploring ways of spending money previously reserved for public education (The New York Times)
Church, state wall is lowered in schools (USA Today)
Private school aid efforts will face state challenges | Legal barriers likely to impede use of funds (The Boston Globe)
Ruling could galvanize school choice advocates | Coucher or tax-credit programs might soon be enacted in the District of Columbia, Texas, Minnesota and Colorado (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
Decision gives few hints of how high a wall remains | Validating school vouchers, the Supreme Court either did little more than apply well-worn constitutional precedents, or else it made a profound shift in doctrine on religion issues (The Boston Globe)
Next barrier to vouchers is selling idea to the public | Court offers momentum, but it has to be shown that the concept is the answer to the school problem (Los Angeles Times)
Voucher fight expected in Colo (The Denver Post)
High court backs vouchers: School choice decision won’t affect Massachusetts | State constitution still contains the so-called Anti-Aid Amendment that bars giving public money to religious schools (Boston Herald)

Voucher opinion:

Vouchers pass court test, face real-world challenge | Whether this constitutional green light will spur educational reform is far from certain—particularly if states seize on the ruling to build voucher programs that aren’t focused on those who need them most: poor students in failing schools (Editorial, USA Today)
Vouchers have overcome | Free at last, private school choice is free at last (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
The supremes pledge allegiance to God | Praise the Lord and pass the vouchers to the churches! (Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.com)
The wrong ruling on vouchers | The Supreme Court’s decision on school vouchers was a bad decision on constitutional grounds, and a bad one for American education (The New York Times)
The refining of religious neutrality | Yesterday the Supreme Court played a calming role in the culture wars by declaring that the era of strict separation between church and state is over (Jeffrey Rosen, The New York Times)
Letting parents decide | Vouchers may offer answers for some children. In fact, our quarrel with the Cleveland program would be that the vouchers are too small (Editorial, The Washington Post)
A win for America’s children | It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (Rod Paige, The Washington Post)
Implacable enemies of choice | The opposition to school choice for the poor is the starkest immorality in contemporary politics (George F. Will, The Washington Post)
The price of vouchers | The court needed to do an advanced yoga twist to find that a state program dedicating 96 percent of its funds to religious schools does not advance religion (Editorial, The Boston Globe)
Kausfiles’ (tentative) simple unified court theory | Tying the “pledge” and voucher cases together (Mickey Kaus)
Voucher ruling helps clarify church-state role | The Supreme Court Thursday rightly extended a trend it began in the middle 1980s to give religion the same standing that secular institutions have in the public square (Editorial, The Dallas Morning News)
Up from mediocrity | Vouchers in Milwaukee: The Polly Williams story (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 1990)
Opening the schoolhouse door | The politicians can’t stop school choice now (John Fund, The Wall Street Journal)
School vouchers win backing of high court | The 5-4 ruling allows use of taxpayer money to send students to parochial campuses. It’s a major victory for ‘choice’ movement (Los Angeles Times)
Good news for education | The Supreme Court says that when the government gives people a voucher to spend on education and they choose to spend it at a religious school, this no more constitutes government endorsement of religion than spending G.I. Bill money at Pepperdine (Samuel Walker, National Review Online)
Choice win | The Court made it clear that while the Establishment Clause forbids, well, “establishments” of religion, it does not require reformers to discriminate against religious schools and the families who choose them (Richard W. Garnett, National Review Online)
On to the state legislatures | The outcome of the case is not terribly surprising, given that the Court has ruled numerous times in recent years in favor of neutral aid to religious institutions. What is surprising, however, is how solid the decision is (Robert Alt, National Review Online)
What’s next for school choice? | Lots of possibilities, but also plenty of problems (John J. Miller, National Review Online)
The stuff of kids’ dreams | While we chalk one up for freedom, we should not forget how hard the struggle has been and how many people have helped bring about this victory (Clint Bolick, National Review Online)

Pledge of Allegiance news:

Judge blocks pledge decision during appeals | Republicans seek political gain, but ruling spurs bipartisan ire (The Washington Post)
Two officials seek review of decision on pledge | Attorney General John Ashcroft and Gov. Gray Davis of California both want full United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse panel’s decision (The New York Times)
GOP eyes pledge as a political issue | Republicans say a federal appeals court ruling highlights the importance of ending Senate Democrats’ blockade of President Bush’s judicial nominees (The Washington Times)
9th Circuit’s rulings frequently overturned (The Washington Times)
Keep God in the pledge, an angry chorus cries (Los Angeles Times)
In New York, It’s outrage followed by ‘consider the source’ | Criticizing decision leads to criticizing California, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (Los Angeles Times)

Pledge of Allegiance reaction:

Nation rallies around Pledge (The Washington Times)
N.Y. pols turn backs on full-fledged pledge | Three Big Apple Democrats swam against the congressional tide yesterday, refusing to join the overwhelming support for a resolution to keep the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (New York Post)

Pledge opinion:

Court pledge ruling: One nation, divisible | A roundup of newspaper editorials (USA Today)
When God goes public | By acknowledging God while ordering firm protection for religious minorities, the Founders had it right—both ways (Editorial, USA Today)
One nation, under Zeus | God —or the Supreme Court —should save the honorable Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from itself (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
Judging God | Just what we need, the Pledge is now unconstitutional (Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal)
Jerry Falwell and Barry Lynn debate pledge ruling (CNN)
Atheists and pantheists may take a moment to bask in victory | Even those of us who are made uncomfortable by the phrase “under God” have long since treated it as part of the national boilerplate, no more controversial than that weird eye on the top of the pyramid on the back of the $1 bill (Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle)
Words don’t make us godlike | It’s not the sudden ejection of God from our Pledge of Allegiance that is the real problem this morning. It is the slow, steady, been-going-on-quietly-for-years ejection of God from our lives (Beverly Beckham, Boston Herald)
Taking the pledge | Overwrought argument intoxicates a federal court (Editorial, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Do kids understand the Pledge of Allegiance? | Only the God part (Timothy Noah, Slate.com)
America’s pledge | The entire moral inheritance of our Founding Fathers is predicated on the repeated idea that something beyond the power and wisdom of mere mortals is necessary for the survival of the United States (Victor Davis Hanson, New York Post)
A new slugfest, under God | The culture wars, after a brief time-out for such mundane matters as fighting terrorism, are back (Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post)
Pledging allegiance: Wrong for the right reasons | Before the 9th Circuit panel’s ruling, we combined sharp limitations on religion’s role in government institutions with at least some permission for its expression. Politicians are angry with the two judges not because they are “nuts,” but because their unfortunate yet principled decision has forced us to decide explicitly if this is what we really want (E. J. Dionne Jr, The Washington Post)
Rise! Shine! Give ‘under God’ your glory! | In the Senate Chamber, it’s suddenly pledge week (David Montgomery, The Washington Post)
‘One nation, under God’ | There is quite a difference between a general reference to God and an official state-supported religion (Editorial, The Washington Times)
One nation, under clods | Ever since prayer was taken out of schools, and ever since the Pledge of Allegiance was stricken from the daily goings-on in our public schoolhouses, the public education system in this country has gone downhill — leaving our children lost (Deborah Simmons, The Washington Times)
Rushing to the defense of God | I more or less completely agree with the Religious Right in their denunciations of this batty decision. I just found it hysterical to see how quickly the political class responded to the court’s ruling (Jonah Goldberg)
Much ado about propagandist pledge | The decision is entirely correct in constitutional terms, although, as an atheist and a civil libertarian, I wish that a more substantive issue than the Pledge were responsible for reigniting the passions of the religiously correct (Susan Jacoby, Newsday)

Pledge history:

How the pledge got God | Minister, now 91, gave Ike the idea one Sunday morning (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
With little ado, Congress put God in pledge in 1954 | The change was made to draw attention to the difference between the system of government in this country and “godless Communism.” (The New York Times)
‘If it says “God,” ‘ so be it | The minister whose 1954 sermon at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church put “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance said yesterday its elimination would amount to “the god of big money defeating” monotheistic faith (The Washington Times)
For a single father, a long, lonely quest | Calif. man makes pledge case his life’s work (The Washington Post)

Other church-state issues:

Offended by ‘In God We Trust’ | Plaintiff in controversial pledge case claims religious ‘coercion’ (Houston Chronicle)
Va. schools forge ahead with national motto | ‘In God We Trust’ must be displayed in buildings (The Washington Post)
Religious group can use school | A federal judge said Wednesday the New York Board of Education must allow a Bronx religious group to rent space in a public school for meetings that include worship (New York Daily News)
Jeffco district wins Columbine tiles case | School not required to hang tiles painted with religious themes by family members (The Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
Also: Court upholds ban on religious art at Columbine | Appeal planned on tiles created after rampage (The Denver Post)
Also: Court upholds ban on religious tiles (Associated Press)
Also: Court bars religious tiles from Columbine (Reuters)
S.C. governor signs bill allowing student-led prayer | Under law, school boards will be able to adopt policies permitting student-led messages — including prayers — at school-sponsored events (Associated Press)
Lawmakers reject exemption for Amish | Pennsylvania bill would have allowed an Amish sect to use gray reflective tape instead of orange triangles on their buggies (Associated Press)

Politics:

Democrats want J.C. Watts to postpone retirement | Fourth-ranking House Republican says he’s tiring of Washington (The Washington Times)
Senators guard religious freedoms in the workplace | Workplace Religious Freedom Act would establish three factors to be considered when determining whether providing an accommodation would cause an employer an undue hardship (CNSNews.com)

Persecution:

Missionaries arrested in China for helping North Koreans escape | Beijing appears to be clamping down further on activists who help North Koreans defect to the South via foreign missions in China, according to South Korean officials (CNSNews.com)
Sudan bombs two church compounds | At least four injured (Associated Press)

Life ethics:

Australian PM unveils cloning legislation | The legislation tabled in Parliament bans human cloning and other “unacceptable practices” like growing a foetus outside a woman’s body, and strictly controls research on human embryos (The Canberra Times)
Abortion war foes the best of friends | Priest, picketer oppose violence (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Senator grills Shedd on abortion views | South Carolina district judge, nominated by President Bush to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, declined to say what he believed (The Washington Times)
Countries in glass houses shouldn’t … | The claim that “I own myself,” that I am the ultimate arbiter of life and death, defines the common ground of the suicide bomber and the abortionist (Star Parker, USA Today)
Despite ruling, University of Houston won’t allow abortion photos in Butler Plaza | Judge says school is violating prolife group’s right to free speech (Houston Chronicle)

Billy Graham in Cincinnati:

Graham regrets anti-Jewish quip | Many Cincinnati-area Jews may have forgiven the Rev. Billy Graham, but will not soon forget his words (The Cincinnati Post)
Also: Billy Graham apologizes for anti-Jewish comments | The Rev. Billy Graham met with Jewish leaders this week and apologized for comments he made 30 years ago that a Jewish “stranglehold” of the media was ruining the country (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
Man with a mission | Who is Billy Graham? (The Cincinnati Post)
Mission holds arms open to all denominations (The Cincinnati Post)
Graham to Cincinnati: It’s time to make peace | Most of his sermon to the predominantly white audience was the message that all people are sinners and need God. But the evangelist briefly raised the issue of racial healing (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
Newsman now a volunteer | For the first time in attending a Billy Graham citywide crusade, the badge on my lapel will read “Counselor” rather than “Press.” (Jim Adams, The Cincinnati Post)
At 83, Graham paces himself | Despite illness, age, preacher’s ready (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Munoz now tackling ‘godly legacy’ | Mission chairman testifies to Jesus’ role in his life (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Excerpts from the Rev. Billy Graham’s sermon
Moment with Graham has inspired woman for decades | A child then, she’s Christian counselor now (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Visitors have God, others in mind | Some come for God’s message, others to spread own (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
35,000 braved storm at stadium | About 45 minutes before the inaugural service of the four-day Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Billy Graham mission, thousands scurried for cover when the thunderstorm hit (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Graham’s message to Cincinnati: Love each other, dark or light | Crowd of 35,000 responds warmly to evangelist (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
More Billy Graham coverage (The Cincinnati Post)

Sexuality and gender:

The most unlikely story behind a gay rights victory | Almost everything about a same-sex death benefits bill for partners of firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty is a mystery (The New York Times)
Presbyterian pastors sued over church’s rule on gays | Sixteen accused of ordaining actively homosexual clergy (The New York Times)

Church controversies:

Baptist agency cuts off D.C. funds | Local Panel Rejects Doctrinal Demands (The Washington Post)
Conservative Maryland priest quits Episcopal church | Samuel Edwards, after long battle for control of Accokeek parish, says he’ll start a mission church with Anglican Province of Christ the King (Associated Press)
Also: Critical priest quitting Episcopal church (The Dallas Morning News)
Rwanda cleric threatens to split B.C. Anglicans | Joins same-sex union fight (The National Post, Canada)

Catholicism:

Holy smoke! Vatican bans puffing on the job | A law approved by Pope John Paul and made public on Thursday will ban smoking in nearly all closed spaces inside the 108-acre city-state as of July 1 (Reuters)
Women plan Catholic ordination | Leaders threaten excommunication (The Daily Telegraph, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia)
Clerics’ sex reporting bill proves unexpectedly complicated | What seemed last week to be nothing more than a seed of doubt over a bill that would require priests to report suspected sexual abuse has grown into a thorny legal question about how to avoid discouraging sexually active teenagers from seeking health care or counseling (The New York Times)

Other articles of interest:

Bitter test of a flock’s faith | Congregation struggles to endure damage to church (Newsday)
Group turns prayers into houses in Habitat for Humanity project | Muslims, Jews, and Catholics who gathered after 9/11 will join with Protestants in suburban Seattle to build houses (The Seattle Times)
Proving ground | A seminary campus appears tranquil, but it’s a rough-and-tumble time for students forced to confront the hard issues of faith (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Religion News in Brief | Rowan Williams, Southern Baptist abuse, Salvation Army dispute, Henry Lyons returns, and other stories (Associated Press)
Jerry Falwell’s kingdom | If he gets his way in federal court this summer, the conservative pastor will leave his most visible legacy—a master-planned Christian community where members of his flock can live from “birth to antiquity.” (Associated Press)
Spotlight dims on local man | But nearly three months after making the astonishing claim that his father was the true assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Ronald Denton Wilson of Keystone Heights remains a commodity for the media, if not the FBI (The Gainesville [Fla.] Sun)