From the Pensacola New Journal:

ACLU wins injunction against Santa Rosa School District.

Carmen Paige
cpaige@pnj.com

A federal judge has ordered the Santa Rosa County School District to stop promoting religion and prayer in the classroom and at school events. U.S. District Court Judge Casey Rodgers ruled Friday after school officials admitted allegations in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU sued the district, Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and former Superintendent John Rogers on behalf of two unnamed Pace High students.

Rodgers’ order prohibits employees from:

• Promoting prayer at school-sponsored events, including graduation.

• Planning or financing religious baccalaureate services.

• Promoting religious beliefs to students in class or during school-sponsored events and activities.

• Holding school-sponsored events at churches.

“We are pleased with Friday’s decision, and we look forward to working with the defendants and the court to bring the School District in line permanently with the First Amendment,” said attorney James Stevenson of the Florida ACLU’s…

Since a majority of Californians passed Proposition 8, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), who make up 2% of the California’s population, have been attacked by some who are upset with the outcome.  I have Latter-day Saint family and friends in California. All can share a story of the intimidation they have experienced as a result of their support for Proposition 8.

When the attacks first occurred, Latter-day Saints were stunned as some saw their employment threatened and their places of worship vandalized. Many Latter-day Saints wondered, “where is the outrage? Will no one defend us?”

The rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry surprised many on both sides of the issue.

Some community and religious leaders are now responding.

This week, The Becket Fund, a non-profit interfaith organization that defends religious liberties, posted an ad, signed by community leaders, in the New York Times to defend the right of religious people to speak out on issues with out the fear of retribution.

See ad: click here.

Learn more at the Becket Fund website: click here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…

The pulpit and politics in my church – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – rarely come together. Ranking religious institutions and political involvement on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most politically active, my church is likely to be rated a 2 or 3 on the scale.

My church affirms it’s political neutrality. However, it maintains the right to speak out on social and moral issues that affect the Church and families. And occasionally the Church encourages action.

Most recently, our church leaders are encouraging members to vote YES on Proposition 8 in California to provide a legal definition of marriage being between a man and a woman. LDS.org, the Church’s website, offers various links to discussions and information on this issue.

One point made in the discussions is the idea of the “Tyranny of Tolerance” – when tolerance is redefined to mean acceptance rather than love.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Latter-day Saint church leader, clarifies and reminds us what “tolerance” means:

“Tolerance obviously requires a non-contentious manner…

I’m always way behind in my New Yorker reading, so I just got around to reading a great essay by Jill Lepore - a history professor at Harvard - in the April 14 issue of the magazine.

The essay surveys some recent books about religious liberty and the founding of America. Here’s a long-ish excerpt that gives the reader a glimpse of where Lepore is going in the essay:

History is after all only a pack of tricks we play on the dead,” Voltaire once quipped. The Founding Fathers had their own pack of tricks: they turned their backs on the past. If they had meekly inherited the faith of their fathers, they would have written a constitution establishing Christianity as the national religion. They did not.Nearly every American colony was settled with an established religion; Connecticut’s 1639 founding document explained that the whole purpose of government was “to mayntayne and presearve the liberty and…