SUPREME COURT-HEALTH OVERHAUL
Congressional speeches preview Hobby Lobby case
WASHINGTON (AP) β Next week’s Supreme Court arguments on challenges to the health care law’s birth control mandate are being previewed in Congress.
In House floor speeches, Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Texas Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson offered differing views on whether the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby should have to provide coverage for drugs and treatments they believe violate their faith by aborting pregnancies.
Johnson said business owners have personal religious rights, but their companies do not. She wondered if business owners who have a religious objection to vaccinations would be exempt from providing that coverage for their employees.
But Lankford said employers are only seeking the same freedom they enjoyed before passage of the health care law, which he said forces them to obey President Barack Obama’s religious convictions instead of their own.
Sound:
213-a-09-(U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., in House floor speech)-“with your faith”-Congressman James Lankford, R-Okla., says the owners of Hobby Lobby don’t want to provide coverage for drugs and treatments that violate their relgious beliefs. (16 Mar 2014)
< 215-a-09-(U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, in House floor speech)-“Americans do not”-Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, says businesses don’t have religious rights. (16 Mar 2014) < 212-a-12-(U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., in House floor speech)-“wrong with that”-Congressman James Lankford, R-Okla., says business owners shouldn’t be required to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs. (16 Mar 2014) < 214-a-15-(U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., in House floor speech)-“discarded as tissue”-Congressman James Lankford, R-Okla., says President Barack Obama shouldn’t force business owners to violate their faith. (16 Mar 2014) < 216-a-08-(U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, in House floor speech)-“of religious belief”-Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, says Hobby Lobby shouldn’t be allowed to deny its employees coverage for some contraceptives. (16 Mar 2014) < NYC EXPLOSION Church services remember those lost in NYC blast NEW YORK (AP) β As workers clear away the last of the rubble that once was two New York City apartment buildings, a pair of congregations have gathered to mourn β one for its lost church and the other for two members who lost their lives in the massive explosion. Members of Bethel Gospel Assembly remembered Griselde Camacho and Carmen Tanco, two of the eight people killed in Wednesday’s blast. The Sunday service was attended by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, who announced a fund drive to help those affected by the explosion. De Blasio also visited the house of worship where members of the Spanish Christian Church, which had been located on the first floor of one of the destroyed buildings, were spending Sunday. On Saturday a crew at the blast site found a large Bible in the rubble and returned it to the church’s pastor. Sound: 136-a-10-(Santos Mercado (mur-KAH’-doh), assistant pastor, Spanish Christian Church, in AP interview)-“there for us”-Santos Mercado, the assistant pastor at the Spanish Christian Church which was destroyed in the blast, says he’s grateful another church opened its doors for them. (16 Mar 2014) < 138-r-28-(Sound of choir, at Bethel Gospel Assembly, which lost two parishioners in the blast)–Sound of choir, at Bethel Gospel Assembly, which lost two parishioners in the blast. (16 Mar 2014) < 134-w-35-(Julie Walker, AP correspondent, with Santos Mercado, assistant pastor, Spanish Christian Church and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (de Blasio is pronounced dih BLAH’-zee-oh))–Two churches that lost parishioners in the deadly blast last week in East Harlem were remembering and mourning during Sunday mass. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports. ((opens with singing)) (16 Mar 2014) < 135-a-10-(Melissa Mark Viverito (vehv-ur-REE’-toh), speaker, New York City Council and Councilwoman for East Harlem, with reporters outside church services)-“demonstrating their love”-New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, who also represents the East Harlem neighborhood where the blast happened says the church services were a time to come together and support each other. (16 Mar 2014) < 137-a-16-(New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH’-zee-oh), speaking at Bethel Gospel Assembly, which lost two parishioners in the blast)-“and this community”-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spoke at Bethel Gospel Assembly, honored the two parishioners who were killed in the blast. (16 Mar 2014) < 012-w-38-(Julie Walker, AP correspondent, with Sal Cassano, New York City fire commissioner)–A large water-damaged Bible has been recovered from the site of Wednesday’s gas explosion in New York City, which had been in the church that once stood there. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports. (16 Mar 2014) < BOX OFFICE “Son of God” remains on box office top 10 LOS ANGELES (AP) β In its third weekend in theaters, “Son of God” has remained in the top ten at the box office. The big screen adaptation of parts of last year’s TV miniseries “The Bible” was the weekend’s seventh most popular film, according to studio estimates, selling another $5.4 million worth of tickets. Since its Feb. 28 release, “Son of God” has earned more than $50 million dollars at the box office. Russell Crowe’s “Noah” will continue the biblical thread at the theater on March 28, followed by “Heaven is for Real” starring Greg Kinnear on April 16. The Ridley Scott-directed movie “Exodus,” starring Christian Bale as Moses, will debut later this year. SABINE SCHOOLS SUED Settlement in suit involving La. Buddhist student NEW ORLEANS (AP) β Officials in a western Louisiana school system and the American Civil Liberties union have settled a lawsuit sparked by the treatment of a Buddhist sixth-grader whose parents say he was harassed at a school where officials routinely pushed Christian beliefs. The January lawsuit alleged, among other things, that a teacher at Negreet High School in Sabine (sah-BEEN’) Parish declared that Buddhism was stupid. It also said the school regularly incorporated Christian prayer into classes and school events and scrolled Bible verses on an electronic marquee in front of the school. Defendants in the suit included a science teacher who taught that “the earth was created by God 6,000 years ago, that evolution is ‘impossible’ and that the Bible is ‘100 percent true.'” The settlement says school officials won’t discourage or encourage religious activities; they won’t assign readings from religious texts, absent a non-religious educational purpose; and they won’t express their personal religious beliefs in class or at school events. BALL STATE-INTELLIGENT DESIGN Lawmakers query Ball State on intelligent design MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) β Four Indiana lawmakers are questioning Ball State University’s decision to prohibit the teaching of intelligent design in a science course. The Star Press reports that the legislators sent a letter this week to Ball State President Jo Ann Gora, saying her decision last summer raised questions about whether the school had violated the religious and academic freedom of the professor involved. Gora’s decision followed complaints that the “Boundaries of Science” class taught by Eric Hedin, an assistant professor of physics, was promoting the idea that nature displays evidence of intelligent design, which suggests that life and universe are too complex to have evolved by accident. Gora concluded that intelligent design is overwhelmingly regarded by the scientific community as a religious belief and not a scientific theory. GAY WEDDING-METHODIST BISHOP Methodist bishop cited for gay wedding in Alabama BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) β A retired United Methodist bishop who performed a wedding ceremony for two Alabama men after they were refused permission to marry in the church now faces formal complaints over the ceremony. A church statement said complaints had been filed against Bishop Melvin Talbert, who conducted the wedding ceremony for two men in Birmingham last October. Talbert, who declined to comment on the complaints, is accused of violating his “sacred trust” as a bishop by performing the ceremony. The church announced the complaints against Talbert a week after similar charges were dropped against a retired Methodist minister who presided at his son’s same-sex wedding in New York. In December, a minister from Pennsylvania was defrocked after presiding at his son’s same-sex wedding. GERMANY-VATICAN-DIVORCE German church leader signals opening for divorcees BERLIN (AP) β The new leader of Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops is signaling support for allowing some divorced but remarried Catholics to receive Communion after a “penitential period.” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who also sits on a panel that helps advise Pope Francis on Vatican reform, was elected last week to head the German Bishops’ Conference. Church teaching holds that unless their first marriage is annulled, remarried Catholics can’t receive Communion or other sacraments. The church is now discussing anew how to handle such cases. In an interview with the World on Sunday newspaper, Marx cited a prominent theologian’s proposal that “divorced people who recognize their failure can, after a penitential period, seek readmission to the sacraments.” He’s quoted as saying cardinals’ reactions were varied but he personally considers it “a viable path.” WESTBORO CHURCH-FOUNDER HEALTH Founder of anti-gay Kansas church in care facility TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) β The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., who founded a Kansas church that’s widely known for its anti-gay sentiments and protests at military funerals, is in a care facility, according to a church spokesman. The 84-year-old Phelps is being cared for in a Shawnee County facility, according to Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain. Members of the church, based in Topeka, frequently protest at funerals of soldiers with signs containing messages like “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Thank God for 9/11,” claiming the deaths are God’s punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion. Westboro Baptist, a small church comprised mostly of Phelps’ extended family, inspired a federal law and laws in numerous states limiting picketing at funerals. But in a major free-speech ruling in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldn’t be sued for monetary damages for inflicting pain on grieving families.
