(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
by Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – A religious liberties group in California says that one city in that state is gaining a reputation of hostile discrimination toward local ministries.
Officials in El Cajon, California, have issued three citations this year alleging the illegal display of temporary banners all three were against vacation Bible schools.
One of the schools cited was held at the Foothills Christian Fellowship, the same church that's suing the city because city leaders have denied a request by the church to lease a near vacant shopping mall for services.
Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says the city is not applying the law fairly. “We're trying to use this information to help our other case against the city to show that we have evidence of clear, hostile discriminatory intent, that they have an axe to grind against churches, and in particular, the church that we're representing that's trying to reach out to the community,” he says.
Dacus says there are numerous temporary banners displayed at businesses throughout El Cajon, none of which have been cited by city officials. Foothills Christian Fellowship has had a Vacation Bible School for five years and no prior banner has been cited or challenged.
Louisiana School Relents Student Allowed to Start Bible Club
by Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – A Louisiana school has settled a pending lawsuit by agreeing to allow a student Bible club on campus.
The St. Martin Parish School Board in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was sued in federal court by 15-year-old Dominique Begnaud, who was told by school officials that she could not start a Bible club and Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club at Cecilia High School.
Begnaud was represented in her lawsuit by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel. Eric Stanley is an attorney with Liberty Counsel, and says the school did the right thing when faced with a federal lawsuit.
“The school realized very quickly that they didn't have a legal leg to stand on, and agreed to settle the case,” he notes. “We settled the case. Dominique has been able to start up her Bible club now, and the school has agreed to pay our attorney's fees and costs in settling the case. It's a very great victory.”
Stanley says many schools across the nation simply don't understand the constitutional guarantees that students have when it comes to religion on school grounds.
“It's one of those things that we look at and we think that the ACLU and other groups like that have so firmly ingrained into everybody's mind that phrase 'the separation of church and state,' that any time that the government comes into contact with religion, that's the immediate thought that comes into their mind 'Well, I can't do this because of the separation of church and state.' It's really a misconception based on ignorance,” Stanley says.
The Liberty Counsel is a civil liberties education and legal defense organization headquartered in Orlando, Florida.