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Parents ask Supreme Court to hear case on Calif. religious education ban
A group of parents have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case aimed at ending a California charter school policy banning the inclusion of religious materials in homeschool study programs.
The First Liberty Institute, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and King & Spalding LLP filed a petition last week on behalf of three families — John and Breanna Woolard, Hector and Diana Gonzales, and Carrie Dodson — in the case of John Woolard, et al. v. Tony Thurmond et al.
At issue was whether a California policy can allow charter schools to deny parents funding and academic credit for educational materials that are considered religious in nature.
“The charter schools overseeing petitioners’ independent-study programs rejected the use of works by William Penn and Jonathan Edwards because of their ‘religious content,’” the petition alleged.
The families had also sought to use materials including Bob Jones University’s “Focus on Fives” and “The Good and the Beautiful,” both designed to integrate religious teaching into academic subjects, according to ReligiousLiberty.TV.
“They rejected a grammar exercise using the sentence ‘God sends the rain to help plants grow’ because the school ‘can’t accept any work sample with any religious wording on it.’”
First Liberty Institute Executive General Counsel Hiram Sasser said in a statement last week that previous decisions in the litigation had wrongfully justified “the state’s religious discrimination.”
“Parents should not be punished for choosing quality religious curriculum meeting the state’s standard that they teach to their own children in their own home just because it’s religious,” he added.
Article 9, Section 8 of the California state constitution reads that “No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian [religious] or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools; nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly, in any of the common schools of this State.”
The schools also cited California Education Code § 47605(e)(1), which requires that “a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs.”
Given that charter schools in California are part of the public school system, the ban on public funding of religious instruction that is considered sectarian in nature is part of their directives.
In October 2023, parents whose children took part in the independent study programs of Blue Ridge Academy and Visions in Education charter schools sued California over the policy.
The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, argued that the parents should be allowed to include Christian instruction in their study program.
Defendants named in the suit included Tony Thurmond, superintendent of Public Instruction; Michael Coleman, superintendent of Maricopa Unified School District; board members of the Maricopa USD; Melissa Bassanelli, superintendent of San Juan Unified School District; board members of the San Juan USD; officials at Blue Ridge Academy and officials at Visions in Education.
Last September, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit — composed of Judges Andrew D. Hurwitz, Eric Miller and Jennifer Sung — unanimously ruled against the parents, upholding an earlier district court decision.
The panel’s opinion cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, which held that the Free Exercise Clause does not prohibit a state from providing “a strictly secular education in its public schools,” while the parents argued their case was distinguishable because the independent study programs functioned, in substance, as private homeschooling rather than public education.
Ninth Circuit Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz, an Obama appointee, authored the panel opinion, noting that “not all government decisions that engender religious objections impose burdens on religion that fall afoul of the Free Exercise Clause.”
“Plaintiffs have alleged, and we take as true, that the defendant charter schools provide parents great flexibility to choose which pre-existing curricula to use to educate their children, or to create their own,” wrote Hurwitz.
“But with that flexibility comes substantial legal constraints not applicable to private schools. … The extensive legal requirements applicable to the defendant charter schools’ independent study programs make the programs sufficiently public to defeat Plaintiffs’ free exercise claim.”
Following the panel’s ruling, the families petitioned the full Ninth Circuit for an en banc rehearing. “We are hopeful that the full Court will grant rehearing and come to the right decision, restoring protection for bedrock First Amendment principles,” said Alexander Kazam, co-counsel at King & Spalding, according to the California Family Council. That request did not succeed, leading the families to petition the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume its closed-door conferences to consider which cases to hear beginning Sept. 28, with its new term opening Oct. 5. A decision on whether the justices will take up Woolard v. Thurmond could come as soon as this fall, according to The Washington Examiner.
Sources:Christianpost
Televangelist Jim Bakker, a longtime Christian broadcaster and founder of the PTL television ministry, has died at 86, according to an announcement from his wife, Lori Bakker.
The Jim Bakker Show announced his death Monday evening, sharing a statement from Lori Bakker about her husband’s passing:
It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening.
For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry.
Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years. Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world.
Our family is grieving and we ask for your prayers and privacy during this time.
Jim finished his race with faith. His voice, his vision, and his legacy will never be forgotten.
— Lori Bakker
Bakker became one of the most recognizable figures in Christian television through “The PTL Club,” which he launched with his former wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, in the 1970s.
Bakker would go on to host “The Jim Bakker Show” alongside Lori, where he continued discussing faith, Biblical prophecy and current events.
In her statement, Lori Bakker said her husband remained focused on ministry and spreading the Gospel even in his final days.
The family is asking for prayer and privacy as they grieve.
Additional details surrounding Bakker’s death were not immediately announced.
Sources: Breaking Christian News
ഡാളസ്: ക്രൈസ്തവ സംഗീത ലോകത്തിന് സമാനതകളില്ലാത്ത സംഭാവനകൾ നൽകിയ പ്രശസ്ത സംഗീതജ്ഞൻ ഇവാ. ജെ. വി. പീറ്ററിന്റെയും അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ മകൻ സാങ്കി പീറ്ററിന്റെയും സ്മരണാർത്ഥം ഡാളസിൽ പ്രത്യേക സംഗീത സായാഹ്നം സംഘടിപ്പിക്കുന്നു.
“എണ്ണി എണ്ണി സ്തുതിക്കുവാൻ”, “നീയെൻ സ്വന്തം നീയെൻ പക്ഷം”, “നിനക്കായ് കരുതും അവൻ”, “പിളർന്നതാം പാറയെ” തുടങ്ങിയ അഞ്ഞൂറോളം ആത്മീയ ഗാനങ്ങളുടെ രചയിതാവാണ് ജെ. വി. പീറ്റർ. അനേകം പ്രതിഭകളെ വാർത്തെടുത്ത ഗോസ്പൽ ട്യൂണേഴ്സ് (Gospel Tuners) എന്ന ക്രിസ്തീയ മ്യൂസിക്കൽ ബാൻഡിന്റെ സാരഥിയുമായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹം. ജെ. വി. പീറ്ററിന്റെയും സാങ്കി പീറ്ററിന്റെയും ജീവിതത്തെയും സംഗീത പൈതൃകത്തെയും ആദരിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് ക്രിസ്ത്യൻ ക്ലാസ്സിക്കൽ മ്യൂസിക് ബാൻഡായ ‘ക്രോസ്സ്റിവർ വോയ്സ് ഡാളസ്’ (Crossriver Voice Dallas) ആണ് ഈ സ്മരണാഞ്ജലി ഒരുക്കുന്നത്.
നവംബർ 8, ഞായറാഴ്ച ഡാളസിലെ റോലറ്റിലുള്ള ഫിലഡൽഫിയ പെന്തക്കോസ്തൽ ചർച്ചിൽ വെച്ചാണ് പരിപാടി നടക്കുന്നത്. ജെ. വി. പീറ്ററിന്റെയും സാങ്കി പീറ്ററിന്റെയും പ്രശസ്ത ഗാനങ്ങളും അവയുടെ പിറകിലുള്ള പശ്ചാത്തല സാക്ഷ്യങ്ങളും മാത്രമായിരിക്കും ഈ സംഗീത സായാഹ്നത്തിന്റെ പ്രധാന ആകർഷണം. ‘ഗോസ്പൽ ട്യൂണേഴ്സ്’മായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് പ്രവർത്തിച്ച പ്രമുഖ ഗായകരും കലാകാരന്മാരും ഈ സ്മരണാഞ്ജലി സംഗീതവിരുന്നിൽ പങ്കുചേരും.
കൂടുതൽ വിവരങ്ങൾക്ക് ബന്ധപ്പെടുക:
ജോൺസ് പി. മാത്യൂസ്: 214-298-5415 (tel:214-298-5415)
മാത്യു കോശി: 972-415-6587 (tel:972-415-6587)
Sources:globalindiannews
An independent researcher who has devoted his life to exploring a site near Mount Ararat, believed by some to be the remains of Noah’s ark, is continuing his expedition to investigate what he believes could be the real-life location.
Andrew Jones, who runs Noah’s Ark Scans, a group he described as “a loose organization of individuals interested in pursuing scientific work and promoting [the ark site],” told CBN News his organization received a permit to drill at the site and has been actively engaged in exploring the area.
“This whole project is under Sivas Cumhuriyet University in Turkey, and I’m one of the vice presidents of the project,” Jones said. “The president is Professor Dr. Cenkur Atila, an archaeologist in Turkey, and he’s the one who got the permits for the project. The other vice president for the project has a PhD in archaeology.”
The researcher said other professionals are involved as well, sharing these details to push back on critics he said have accused him of being a lone wolf who’s “taking pictures and making up stuff.”
Jones said technology is allowing them to look 95 meters beneath the surface, deeper than the team has ever gone. He believes this could yield better clues about whether Noah’s Ark is truly underground, though he and his team haven’t yet been shown a full analysis of the findings.
“[Researchers are] seeing anomalies like right angles — some of the same things we were seeing with the 2019 traditional radar,” Jones said. “[Our researcher is] saying the same thing, anomalies that are associated with right angles, corridors, but which could be backfilled with silt, he said, but they’re showing… this pattern of a structure below the surface.”
Part of the exploration compares local and natural geology to see if there are any anomalies under the surface. In a few months, Noah’s Ark Scans will have a full radar analysis and will be able to more fully discern what’s present there. Depending on what they find, a deeper exploration will unfold next year.
“Then we’ll see what happens,” Jones said. “That will lead to … next year’s season.”
In addition to radar, the team has collected over 300 coring samples that will be analyzed at a Turkish university. The team is using various tools, including cameras, to try and dig into the site while also protecting it from damage.
“Since we believe this is Noah’s ark, the whole point is … if we hit a void or cavity, we want to film inside, not just take soil samples,” Jones said. “We have actually three different camera systems to go inside, to go down these holes because the holes are small.”
Ultimately, the researcher said he knows he can’t convince critics to believe that the site is truly where Noah’s ark came to rest. But he did deliver a powerful message to detractors.
“People are criticizing us right now,” Jones said. “I just say, be patient. Hold on. We’re doing this with a scientific team. It’s a multi-year project. We still have to get the soil analysis done. We’ll go where the data goes. So we just ask people to be patient and see what we find.”
Sources:faithwire
Jim Bakker, Televangelist and PTL Founder, Dies at 86, Wife Lori Bakker Announces
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