SEE YOU AT THE POLE
Students continue prayer tradition around school flagpoles
SAN DIEGO (AP) β Organizers of today’s “See You At The Pole” events say the students gathered around their school flagpoles aren’t protesting. They’re praying.
National coordinator Doug Clark says the annual event, now in its third decade, is an opportunity for Christian students to connect at the beginning of the school year and pray for their classmates, their schools and the nation. Some students bring guitars to lead hymns as well.
Clark says the gatherings are constitutionally permissible at public schools because they’re student-led and take place outside of class time, usually before school starts. He says the prayer circles on thousands of campuses nationwide attract more than one million students each year on the fourth Wednesday in September.
Christian musicians promoting this year’s “See You At The Pole” include Casting Crowns lead singer Mark Hall, who is a youth pastor at his church in Georgia.
Sound:
329-a-08-(Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, in promotion for “See You At The Pole”)-“for your friends”-Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, says the prayer gatherings around school flagpoles have become an annual tradition on the fourth Wednesday of each September. (23 Sep 2014)
< 328-a-16-(Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, in promotion for “See You At The Pole”)-“you can pray”-Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, says this is the day each year that students gather for prayer around their school flagpoles. (23 Sep 2014) < 327-v-27-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)–Organizers of today’s “See You At The Pole” events say the students gathered around their school flagpoles aren’t protesting. They’re praying. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (23 Sep 2014) < CONSERVATIVE SCHOLAR-CAMPAIGN FINANCE Scholar behind anti-Obama film gets probation NEW YORK (AP) β The former president of a Christian college has been ordered to spend eight months in community confinement and undergo therapeutic counseling for arranging straw donors for a U.S. Senate candidate. Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty in May, admitting he arranged for straw donors to contribute $20,000 to New York Republican Wendy Long’s failed U.S. Senate bid. The charges came soon after D’Souza resigned his $600,000 job as head of The King’s College, an evangelical school in Manhattan, after World Magazine reported that he attended a conference with his fiancee while still married to his wife of 20 years. D’Souza made the film “2016: Obama’s America.” The 2012 documentary predicted dire consequences if the president was re-elected. Sound: 279-v-34-(Warren Levinson, AP correspondent)–A top conservative thinker has escaped jail time for a campaign finance conviction. AP correspondent Warren Levinson reports. (23 Sep 2014) < 330-v-32-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)–The former president of a Christian college has been ordered to spend eight months in community confinement and undergo therapeutic counseling for arranging straw donors for a Senate candidate. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (23 Sep 2014) < UPS SHOOTING Pastor: UPS gunman was ‘troubled’ over work BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) β A pastor says the man who killed two former co-workers and then himself at a UPS warehouse had told some people that he was having problems at work but never suggested that the situation might turn violent. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the shooter as Joe Tesney. Bill Wilks, the pastor at NorthPark Baptist Church, says Tesney, his wife and his two children had been members at the church since 2003. Wilks described the 45-year-old Tesney as being “troubled” over his work and financial situation. Police said earlier Tuesday that an ex-employee who had been fired just a day ago entered the sorting facility through a truck dock door and opened fire, killing a supervisor and another worker. PRISONS-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Judge orders Kentucky penitentiary to hold powwow LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) β A federal judge has ordered the Kentucky State Penitentiary to allow a group of death row inmates to hold an annual powwow with traditional foods after the prison chaplain tried to stop the ceremony. U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell on Tuesday concluded that the inmates would suffer irreparable harm if they weren’t allowed to buy special foods for the ritual. A prison chaplain last month postponed the powwow until October because a Native American volunteer who works with the condemned inmates wouldn’t be available on Friday, the ceremony’s scheduled date. The inmates sought to purchase buffalo, corn pemmican and fry bread. An appeals court reinstated a lawsuit in August saying the inmates should have the opportunity to show they have the right to conduct Native American religious ceremonies. GAY PRIDE-FIREFIGHTERS Providence defends former mayor in parade lawsuit PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) β The city of Providence, Rhode Island, is defending former Mayor Buddy Cianci (see-AN’-see) in a lawsuit brought by firefighters ordered to drive a fire truck in a 2001 gay pride parade. The sides went before the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to argue over whether Cianci and his then-fire chief are immune from being sued in the matter. Cianci was forced from office in 2002 after being convicted of corruption. He is running for mayor again. Two firefighters have argued that their constitutional free speech and religious rights were violated when they were ordered to drive in the parade. The city argues that it sent trucks to parades as a matter of course, that it was part of the firefighters’ regular duties, and that no constitutional rights were violated. CHICAGO ARCHBISHOP Chicago archbishop to-be won’t politicize faith LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (AP) β Chicago’s newly appointed archbishop says he will not politicize religion as some church leaders have done in the past. Speaking at a suburban Chicago parish, Bishop Blase Cupich (blayz SOO’-pihch) said he’s satisfied as long as parishioners are in church, willing to hear the word of God and open to conversion. The Vatican on Saturday announced that Pope Francis had appointed Cupich, who has been serving as the bishop of Spokane, Washington, to succeed Cardinal Francis George as head the Chicago archdiocese and its 2.2 million Catholics. George is 77-years-old and battling cancer. After his introduction in Chicago, Cupich said he returned to Spokane on Sunday to celebrate Mass at his home parish with his friends. He returned to the Chicago area to attend a conference of Catholic Extension, an organization that raises money to help Catholics in the nation’s poorest communities. PRIEST-CHARITY THEFT Priest scheduled for trial next week in theft DETROIT (AP) β A Catholic priest is scheduled for trial next week in the theft of money from a fund set up to help poor people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says the Rev. Timothy Kane’s trial is scheduled Monday in Circuit Court. The 58-year-old priest and an acquaintance, Dorreca Brewer, were charged in February with embezzlement. Brewer on Sept. 15 pleaded no contest to charges that she lied and embezzled. The Detroit Free Press reports that the 35-year-old is expected to avoid jail time. Prosecutors say the pair approved false applications for the Angel Fund and pocketed thousands of dollars over four years. The Angel Fund had been run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005. ANTI-ISLAMIC ADS NYC officials denounce anti-Islam transit ads NEW YORK (AP) β Some New York City officials and religious leaders are denouncing anti-Islamic ads that will appear soon on transit buses and subway stations. One of the ads depicts American journalist James Foley with his masked executioner in the moments before he was beheaded. Another is an image of a Muslim leader next to Adolf Hitler. City Comptroller Scott Stringer said at a news conference held in front of City Hall that the ads represent “the kind of hatred that we must have zero tolerance for.” A 2012 federal court decision ruled that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the region’s mass transit system, must run so-called viewpoint ads. The ads will run with a disclaimer saying that they do not represent the views of the MTA. ISRAEL-HOLY HOOPS For Alex Tyus, Israel more than just playing ball TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) β Hoping to impress NBA scouts when Maccabi Tel Aviv faces LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers next week, Alex Tyus has an important decision to make β whether to fast the previous day for the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. It’s the latest twist in the remarkable journey of Tyus, a 6-9 power forward who embraced Judaism while playing basketball at the University of Florida. Jewish-American players have long found a basketball refuge in Israel but the Jewish state has never seen anything like Tyus before: an African-American big man with no previous link to Judaism who converted and embarked on a path that led him to the Israeli national team and a European championship run with the best team in the country. Tyus and his future wife were both raised Christian and came to Judaism when they began thinking about how best to raise future children. VATICAN-TRADITIONALISTS Vatican eyes ‘gradual’ talks with breakaway group VATICAN CITY (AP) β The Vatican says talks are resuming with a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics. The head of the Vatican’s doctrine office met Tuesday with the head of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. A Vatican statement said both sides agreed to “proceed gradually and over a reasonable amount of time” to examine their differences “with a view to the envisioned full reconciliation.” The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (luh-FEHV’-ruh) founded the Swiss-based society in 1969, opposing the Second Vatican Council’s introduction of Mass in the vernacular and outreach to Jews. In 1988, the Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre and four bishops after he consecrated them without papal consent. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI made reconciling with the group a priority, but doctrinal talks broke down in 2012. VATICAN-DOMINICAN-ABUSE Vatican puts ex-Dominican envoy under house arrest VATICAN CITY (AP) β The Vatican says it has put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest following allegations that he sexually abused young boys in the Caribbean country. Josef Wesolowski has already been defrocked after the Vatican’s canon law court found him guilty in June and imposed its toughest penalty: laicization, or returning to life as a layman. On Tuesday, the Vatican’s separate criminal court opened a preliminary hearing into his case and ordered him placed under house arrest. A Vatican statement said Wesolowski presented medical documentation detailing health concerns that prevented a more restrictive type of detention. The Vatican has a few small detention rooms inside its police barracks. Wesolowski could face jail time if found guilty.
