(18)    Mon 12 Jun 95 23:23
By: Robin Murray-o'hair
To: All
Re: Theist_Watch Short Shots
St:
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THEISTWATCH SHORT SHOTS

 by Conrad Goeringer

     A news conference is to be held today by those protesting a
Washington, D.C. Board of Education decision to accept a ballot
initiative on behalf of organized student prayer at all school events.
American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way are going
to court to reverse the Board's 2-1 decision voted on last May 16.  While
all board members went on record saying that the decision was blatantly
unconstitutional, two suggested that the courts should rule on the
matter.

     The suit charges that such religious ritual violates the D.C. Human
Rights Act as well as the First Amendment.

                    ******************

     Here's something from USA TODAY that "family values" cheerleaders
should look at.  A study by Opinion Research Corporation found that 57
percent of those suffering from chronic heartburn were married, as
opposed to 13 percent who never tied the knot.  Seems that divorce clears
up heartburn, too -- only 13 percent of divorcees have to chew antacids.
The segment least affected were those individuals living in "sin" (2
percent) followed by those who were separated (3 percent).

                    ******************


     Remember the "Shouting Women"?  THEISTWATCH covered the antics of
Joan Sudwoj and Cynthia Balconi last April as they stormed into Roman
Catholic churches around Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and shouted prayers.
The pair managed to disrupt some church services,  spook kids, and drown
out a choir in the process.  Not bad.  They were cited for contempt of
court on April 13 when they crashed church services at the Blessed
Sacrament Cathedral.  Seems that charges against the gals were dropped on
June 2, since they toned things down and complied with court orders.

     The two belong to something called the Bayside Movement, and believe
that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1970 in, of all places, Flushing, N.Y.
and asked people to pray loudly to prevent worldwide disaster.

     God must be getting hard-of-hearing.

                    ******************

     Ecumenical Press reports that travel writer Arthur Frommer -- the
guy that brings you the world on $5 a day -- is "horrified" about the
town of Branson, Missouri.  The country-music hot-spot has become a venue
for what he calls "intensely political, extremely right-wing viewpoints,"
In his just-released book titled BRANSON1, he also charges entertainers
with hypocrisy for singing gospel music while living lives that are
anything BUT righteous.

     Seems to be an appropriate follow-up to comments a prof from Texas
made several years ago about country-music lyrics.  Listen up, Michael
Medved and Tipper Gore!  This "all-American music" form is filled with
illiterate and ungrammatical phraseology, and themes of boozing,
cheating, fighting, and . . . well, like we said, it's "all-American."

                    ******************

     Satanic panic almost struck New York recently, when officials found
a mutilated bear which had a cross placed over it.  Pundits suggested
ritual murder by an elusive satanic coven -- did they run out of babies
and cattle? Turns out that a 12-year-old found the carcass which had been
shot by a hunter and gutted, then fashioned a cross from two sticks as a
gesture of sympathy.

                    ******************

     'Tis about time for some political and philosophical consistency in
this world.  A former prostitute in Florida who is identified in court
records only as "Jane Roe II" (hearkening back to Roe. v. Wade) is
arguing that if legal abortion means that women have absolute control
over their own bodies, then prostitution should be legal.  Her suit, now
winding its way through Florida courts, also says that the right to
privacy on which abortion is based should also cover consensual adult
sex.

                    ******************

     And we have a bit of consistency from Rev. Jere Allen, executive
director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Washington association.  He
wants the SBC to acknowledge at its upcoming annual meeting in Atlanta,
George, that it was founded due to slavery.  Seems that he's correct.
Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 when Baptists split over
the debate of whether slave owners could also be missionaries of the
Christian religion.  Allen, a fifth-generation descendent of a North
Carolina slave owner, says that an apology to all Blacks is needed.
Others like Rev. Mark Coppinger are quoted in Ecumenical Press as
questioning the importance of such a statement, and whether the church
could meaningfully repent over "something done in 1845."

     Might be a start.

                          --30--







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