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Tuesday October 27, 2009
Church and State:

A school district in Georgia, USA, recently decided that cheerleaders could not longer display banners with Bible verses at school football games — one of those ‘Church and State’ issues.
Result? More bible banners than ever, now displayed by fans in the stands instead of cheerleaders on the field.
While constitutional experts agree with the new policy, and many locals understand why it is being applied, the fans are using their right to free speech.
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Monday October 19, 2009
Christianity • Church and State:

The ‘Christian Right’ has been a major power broker in U.S. politics for 30 years, having played especially important roles in the 1980, 1994 and 2004 presidential elections, and in Republican administrations since the tenure of former President Ronald Reagan.
It appeared at its apex after the 2004 ‘values vote’ election, but now seems on the decline under President Barack Obama. The Christian Right has no clear leader or central movement organization to guide it, and many younger evangelicals are turning away from their parents’ emphasis on a narrow set of contentious social issues.
Nevertheless, it remains a powerful political force capable of resurgence,
Forbes writes.
Christian Right organizations are experiencing increased contributions and activism, as Obama and a Democratic Congress push socially progressive legislation.
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Monday November 10, 2008
Church and State • Homosexuality/Lesbianism/Bisexuality/Transg. • Mormonism/Mormon Church:

A couple thousand people gathered outside the Capitol in Sacramento this afternoon to rally for the legalization of same-sex marriages just days after voters imposed a constitutional ban.
The gathering follows several similar events around the Bay Area and California. Earlier today, more than 400 people gathered outside the distinctive Mormon Temple in Oakland to protest the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‘ support of Proposition 8.
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Saturday August 9, 2008
Church and State:

A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver’s licenses could be the beginning of the biblical “mark of the beast” will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles in Charleston, West Virginia, today.
Under the plan, followers of pastor Butch Paugh will be allowed to have their license photos taken at the Capitol DMV office and then removed from the computer system.
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Monday May 5, 2008
Abuse • Church and State:
Ignorance is the enemy of liberty. That truth has never been so forcefully made as it has been with the rescue of the hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas. As the clergy abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church has proved, Americans are all too willing to ignore evidence of child abuse when it occurs in the context of religious organizations.
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Thursday February 14, 2008
Church and State • Wiley S. Drake:
The inquiry into the Buena Park pastor’s actions comes six months after Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of Drake’s church because of the endorsement.
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Wednesday December 19, 2007
Church and State:
A U.S. judge ordered the Secret Service on Monday to disclose records of visits by nine prominent conservative Christian leaders to the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence.
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Tuesday October 2, 2007
Church and State:
The justices decided not to consider a challenge by religious groups to a New York law requiring health plans to cover birth control pills, and a California case in which an evangelical group was denied use of a public library for religious services.
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Monday September 24, 2007
Church and State:
The Internal Revenue Service has told a prominent Pasadena church that it has ended its lengthy investigation into a 2004 antiwar sermon, church leaders said Sunday. But the agency wrote in its letter to All Saints Episcopal Church that officials still considered the sermon to have been illegal, prompting the church to seek clarification, a corrected record and an apology from the IRS, the church’s rector told standing-room-only crowds of parishioners at Sunday’s services.
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Church and State:
The IRS has dropped an investigation into an anti-war sermon preached at All Saints Episcopal Church two days before the 2004 presidential election, the Rev. Ed Bacon told his cheering congregation Sunday.
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Saturday September 22, 2007
Church and State • Nakami Chi Group Ministries International:
You won’t find these Arizona religious groups in any neighborhood directory of churches. They don’t have temples. They don’t hold services. Instead, state and federal authorities say they are individually owned corporations, called corporations sole, that were set up to dodge income taxes. Promoters of the schemes rake in large fees and, in one case, used them as part of a pyramid scheme, authorities say.
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Tuesday September 18, 2007
Church and State:
Christian legal group’s counsel battles on behalf of religious right in court — and advises President Bush (though apparently not on how Christians ought to behave).
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Friday August 31, 2007
Church and State • Tyndale Theological Seminary:
The Texas Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions today and ruled that state restrictions on what unaccredited religious institutions can call themselves and their education training violate the First Amendment.
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Wednesday August 22, 2007
Church and State:
Last week, after an investigation spurred by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the Pentagon abruptly announced that it would not be delivering “freedom packages” to our soldiers in Iraq, as it had originally intended. The packages held Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which “soldiers for Christ” hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers.
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Wednesday July 4, 2007
Church and State:
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
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Friday May 25, 2007
Church and State:
Judge Paul Ridgeway said common law and state Supreme Court precedent allow witnesses and jurors to use the text “most sacred and obligatory upon their conscience.”
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Thursday April 26, 2007
Church and State:
Religion has no place in post offices run by churches and other private contractors, a federal judge has ruled, citing the constitutional separation of church and state.
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Saturday March 17, 2007
Church and State:
A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday in the long-running legal battle involving a West Rutland man who sued the state for the right to put a religious message on his license plate.
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Tuesday December 12, 2006
Church and State:
Nearly a dozen high-ranking military officers and Pentagon officials came under fire Monday for participating in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization, renewing an outcry over religious proselytizing within the ranks of the military.
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Thursday October 19, 2006
Church and State:
Alarmed by an increase in political activity by religious organizations, the IRS pledged earlier this year to crack down on violators.
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Thursday September 21, 2006
Church and State:
An Episcopal church’s decision Thursday not to cooperate with an IRS investigation into an anti-war sermon delivered before the 2004 presidential election sets up a high-profile confrontation between the liberal congregation and the IRS, which usually keeps such inquiries private. The leaders of the 3,500-member All Saints Church voted unanimously to resist an order to turn over documents related to the sermon, which was given just two days before the election. The decision means the IRS must decide whether to ask the Justice Department to pursue the case in court. A judge would then rule on the validity of the agency’s demands.
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Church and State:
Government libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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Wednesday September 20, 2006
Church and State:
The dispute centers on a sermon titled “If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush” that Regas delivered as a guest pastor. Though he did not endorse a candidate, he said Jesus would condemn the Iraq war and Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive war.
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Tuesday August 15, 2006
Church and State:
Wednesday August 2, 2006
Church and State:
SAN DIEGO, (AP) -- The U.S. Senate voted by unanimous consent Tuesday to acquire a concrete
cross in San Diego and the municipal park around it to protect the embattled monument from being taken down.
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