The court's action was particularly galling because the IRS and Saddleback Community Church pastor Rick Warren had largely settled their differences and both agreed that the exemption was constitutional. Nevertheless, the court asked University of Southern California law professor Erwin Chemerinsky to write a brief on the deduction's constitutionality.
Congress didn't care much about Chemerinsky's interpretation, and instead passed a law quickly and unanimously clarifying the tax code on the issue.
With the new law in place, the IRS and Warren asked the court to dismiss the case. But having been drawn into the case, Chemerinsky didn't want to let go. He filed an opposition to the dismissal, then filed a motion to intervene as a private taxpayer.
But there's an ominous line in the dismissal: "Neither the voluntary dismissal here nor the passage of the Clergy Housing Allowance Clarification Act resolves the constitutionality of [clergy housing allowances]. Because Prof. Chemerinsky may raise this issue through a separate lawsuit, our denial of intervention will not impair his ability to protect his interest as a taxpayer."
In other words, it sounds like Warren may be heading back to court.
Temple wall may fall, say Israelis A 35-foot bulge in a wall at the Temple Mount is about to collapse, say Israeli archaeologists and leaders. "There are serious grounds for the apprehension that it could collapse," Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert told Israel Radio yesterday. "We have reached the moment of truth."
The bulge has been there for a while, but the Israelis say it's getting worse with Muslims' construction work.
Muslims say the wall is stable and that Israel is just trying to gain control of the area.
Some press reports are saying the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) is bulging, but it's actually the wall above it. The Western Wall, then, may still be in danger of collapse if the bulging wall falls. Weblog wonders what Bible prophecy enthusiasts think of all this. Would the collapse of the Western Wall be a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24:2 that "not one stone will be left on another"? Do some dispensational premillennialists believe this would be a sign of the end times?
ACLU loses two religion rulings | After losing two Ten Commandments rulings in Kentucky this week, the organization is trying to force them out of a Frederick, Md., cemetery (The Washington Times)
Also: ACLU seeks removal of stone | Ten Commandments replica in park is target; Constitutional violation claimed; Frederick renamed site to skirt conflict (The Baltimore Sun)
Court hears appeal of Burbank prayer ruling | Two years ago, a Los Angeles County judge ruled that Burbank City Council meetings cannot begin with sectarian prayers (Los Angeles Times)
Crosses become part of Nativity lawsuit | A wooden cross is the latest piece of evidence to be gathered for an upcoming federal trial on whether Tuscola County's Nativity scene violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state (The Bay City [Mich.] Times)
Board gears for ban proposal | Group wants to ban all materials dealing with witches and witchcraft (Middletown [Conn.] Press)
Jeb Bush cites religious 'bigotry' | Bush told reporters Friday that he questioned whether Jerry Regier was being pilloried because of his conservative religious views, and condemned a "soft bigotry that is emerging against people of faith." (Associated Press)
Also: Governor going out of his way to alienate women | Jeb Bush doesn't shy away from strong-minded working women, but the grave question facing his campaign strategists is whether Jerry Regier's presence, and the governor's staunch defense of his nominee, send the wrong signal (The Miami Herald)
Israeli arrest exposes deep faultlines in Greek Church | Members of the church said yesterday that Israel was trying to use the Hanna affair to put pressure on Patriarch Ireneus to obtain leases on church land in Israel and Jerusalem (Financial Times)
Also: Israel seizes priest in church power play | Israeli police have arrested a priest in a move that has re-ignited the battle for political control of the Greek Orthodox Church - the biggest landowner in the Holy Land (The Scotsman)
Police hope to catch church-going thief | In a bid to stop someone robbing parishioners while they are attending communion, police will be watching services (The Province, Vancouver, B.C., Canada)
Women knifed in church | A woman was arrested after stabbing two young women in an inner-Melbourne church and attacking a man who intervened (The Daily Telegraph, Australia)
Nigeria stoning sentence:
The savagery of Islamic law | Nigeria should intervene, by force if necessary, to stop an "Islamic court" from proceeding with a travesty of a trial that could result in a woman being stoned to death (Editorial, The Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
Casting stones | The Qur'an says nothing about stoning. Why is this mother facing death? (Time)
Life ethics:
Fertility laws branded 'ambiguous' | British law says both parties must consent to the storage and use of embryos created by IVF—but what happens when your former partner disagrees? (BBC)
Taxpayer-funded lies | Antiabortion groups use "crisis-pregnancy centers" to scare women out of having abortions. Some lawmakers have cracked down on them. President Bush increased their federal funding (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com)
Hidden healer? | Abortion drug may be beneficial for reproductive health (Newsweek)
Sex and marriage:
Gay student sues for discrimination | A gay former student of a Melbourne Christian school is taking legal action under equal opportunity legislation, claiming the school discriminated against him because of his sexuality (The Australian)
Church's growing flock changes heart of Texas | As the largest predominantly gay church in the United States, and possibly the world, the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas is thriving. In doing so, it is challenging old stereotypes about conservatism and intolerance in the nation's ninth-largest city (The Washington Post)
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Marriage redefined? | As the legal fight over gay marriage heats up in New Jersey, the most adamant opponents decry the unions as unnatural and immoral -and most of all, a threat to the very foundation of society (The Bergen [N.J.] Record)
God called on to help ease tension in North Minneapolis | Ministers and leaders in the Minneapolis black community say they can't keep the lid on boiling police-community tensions by themselves (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
A shift in their focus for black churches | Neo-Pentecostals: Traditional congregations bristle at stress on the individual over social activism. (The Baltimore Sun)
Mother church of a secular city? | The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels could become the spiritual center of this disconnected city. Then again, it could become a $200-million reminder of just how little we have in common (Los Angeles Times)
Atop church, another, less deadly holy war | The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has evolved into a warren of shrines with exhaustive rules and claims, and every attempted alteration becomes embroiled in disputes (The New York Times)
Conservative Anglican churches opening in North Carolina | Ex-Episcopal priests and former Episcopalians have gone around Episcopal bishops in the United States and started 40 new churches under the banner of the Anglican Mission in America (Associated Press)
Conservative pastor at odds with liberal Episcopal Church | Because he disagrees with the Episcopal Church about women's ordination, homosexual priests and same-sex blessings, Gene Geromel has separated his church from the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan (The Flint [Mich.] Journal)
The Lord's air in church | Couples could soon be tying the knot in this inflatable church (The Sun, U.K.)
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Catholicism:
Report: Senior priest spied on Pope | A high-ranking Polish priest spied for communist authorities on church officials including Pope John Paul II, who was the bishop of Krakow at the time, a government institute said Friday (Associated Press)
Becoming a priest in a time of turmoil | The demands of celibacy, heavy workloads, and a sexual abuse crisis that has shattered trust in the church: The tasks facing Catholic priests-in-training, always demanding, are even more daunting now (The Boston Globe)
Wanted: a new patron saint | There is a strong Christian argument for the United Kingdom as an embodiment of the principle of unity through diversity, and a model of the Trinitarian doctrine of perichoresis, the inter-penetration of the constituent parts of a body so that they retain their identity but also contribute to a bigger whole (Ian Bradley, The Guardian)
Sex abuse scandals:
Accused priests charge slander | Some priests have used the civil courts in recent weeks to strike back against those who have accused them of sexual misconduct (The New York Times)
Priest protests parishioners' tax | The Rev. Henry C. Frascadore of St. Dominic Church in Southington said Friday he wants to know the source of the money used by the archdiocese to pay for settlements, legal fees and administrative leave for priests accused of wrongdoing (Associated Press)
Other stories of interest:
In God they trust, sort of | It's hard to give an account of your religious beliefs without sounding mawkish (Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times)
Exorcism as alternative medicine for Russian Orthodox faithful | The medieval practice of exorcism may have been frowned on in Soviet times, but it now draws hundreds of faithful daily, from all over the former Soviet Union, to the Troitse-Sergiev monastery (AFP)
Report: Priest slaps kid at baptism | El Mundo reports Father Enrique Abad slapped 3-year-old twice when she wouldn't stop crying (Associated Press)
Signs of the end | Christianity's dark side revealed in end-times speech (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
Evangelist fails to turn up | Thousands were expecting Morris Cerullo, and many walked off as Peter Youngren announced he was the replacement (The East African Standard, Nairobi)
Can human sexuality be a nonessential issue for a denomination that seeks to “stand in the center”?
And he teaches us to value diversity and individuality.
With one pastor dead, another saved, and churches of all denominations destroyed, local believers race to the frontlines of emergency response.
