From the North American Religious Liberty Association
Today the Supreme Court decided what is likely the most important religious liberty case to come down in the past two decades.
In Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Court sided unanimously with a church sued for firing an employee on religious grounds, issuing an opinion on Wednesday that religious employers can keep the government out of hiring and firing decisions. [For additional details on the background and facts of the case, see the Liberty articles "An Issue of Church Autonomy: The Supreme Court Examines the Ministerial Exception Doctrine," (Sept/Oct) and "Hosanna Tabor: The Supreme Court Hears Arguments in a Case with Far-Reaching Implications for Church Organizations" (Nov/Dec).]
The Court’s opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, dismissed as an “extreme position” the plea of EEOC to limit any “ministerial exception” solely to workers who perform “exclusively religious functions.”
Justice Thomas went even further in his concurring opinion, saying that it was clear that the parochial school’s sponsoring church “sincerely” considered the teacher to be a minister, and “That would be sufficient for me to conclude that [this] suit is properly barred by the ministerial exception.”
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists joined an amicus brief urging the court to rule on behalf of the Lutheran Church.
Said Todd McFarland, associate counsel with the Office of General Counsel and NARLA’s legal advisor: “The General Conference is pleased with the Court’s decision and the reasoning behind it. In particular, the Court’s rejection of the Administration’s view that the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment did not provide protection to religious organizations is especially heartening. This ruling reinforces that America’s First Freedom remains relevant.”
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A letter of alarm from Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director for the National Center for Science Education:
]]>Believe it or not, the teaching of evolution is under attack.
Here we are, eight-six years after the Scopes Trial, in which a Tennessee teacher was convicted for teaching evolution, contrary to state law…
Read More (links to the full letter below):
Image from Spectrum article
According to a recent Spectrum article, the court case involving three La Sierra University employees who have filed suit for wrongful termination (Dr. James Beach, Dr. Gary Bradley, and Dr. Jeffry Kaatz) will proceed to trial.
]]>In the final analysis, Judge Taylor sided with the defendants’ claim that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently demonstrate the recording to be illegal (but allowed the plaintiffs to amend and replead the complaint), and sided against the defendants on the First Amendment-based demurrers. The judge sided with the defendant Ricardo Graham that he could not be held personally liable for the plaintiffs’ dismissal, but sided against Graham by finding sufficient facts to allege emotional distress. The judge denied all motions to strike, meaning that the case will proceed.
La Sierra University’s Board of Trustees took two actions during an October 11, 2011, meeting. Both actions relate to a currently circulating document titled “Joint Proposal of individual La Sierra University Faculty and Trustees.”
Affirmation of document approach
The La Sierra University Board of Trustees has been addressing the issues surrounding the teaching of origins and has emphasized a balanced approach that encompasses the Church’s belief of origins as well as a presenting a rigorous scientific curriculum.
The conceptual framework outlined in the “Joint Proposal” is not inconsistent with faculty efforts, but failed to recognize normal and established governance protocols. The Board of Trustees affirms the working document, prematurely published as the “Joint Proposal” in the Adventist Review, and encourages the La Sierra faculty to integrate it into the work of the Task Force on Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs and Values that is proceeding through the standard university curriculum processes.
The board will continue to attend to this matter.
Concern over document distribution
The La Sierra University Board of Trustees expressed its concern to the officers of the North American Division over the precipitous action taken to publicize the “Joint Proposal” without adequate prior consultation with the La Sierra University administration and board, especially in light of the ongoing discussions with Adventist Accrediting Association and Western Association of Schools and Colleges over issues of university governance and institutional autonomy.
Statement released at La Sierra University’s website.
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By Sean Pitman
The recently published Adventist Review article on the proposal of six LSU science professors regarding the teaching of origins is very disturbing to me, especially where the leaders of our church seem to happily accept the proposal of the LSU professors to continue to do what they’ve been doing all along – teaching mainstream evolutionism as the only valid “science” or empirically-based position on origins while biblical creationism is defined for their students as a “faith-only” position without any meaningful or rational backing by science or empirical evidence of any kind.
The LSU science professors who signed the document, especially Professors Grismer and Greer, are the very same ones who have been the most ardent in promoting mainstream evolutionary theories as the true story of origins while telling their students that the Biblical account is hopelessly out of touch with reality – at least without the input of enormous amounts of incredibly blind faith. Greer and Grismer, in particular, certainly don’t believe in a literal six day creation week during which all life was created on this planet just a few thousand years ago nor do they believe in a worldwide Noachian-style Flood. They’ve taught their students and have made many public statements that the only empirically-rational interpretation of the currently available evidence overwhelmingly favors the mainstream evolutionary model of origins. They’ve explained, over and over again, that the Biblical model simply isn’t rationally tenable from their own perspectives and that they personally do not and cannot support such a model in their own classrooms. Clearly then, such professors would be more than happy to sign a document that claims that the Biblical perspective on origins has absolutely no meaningful support from science or empirical evidence and is, rather, completely within the realm of empirically-blind faith and historical Adventist tradition.
Why then are Elders Dan Jackson, Richardo Graham, and Larry Blackmer, high-ranking leaders within our Seventh-day Adventist Church, so excited about this proposal for LSU science professors to keep doing what they’ve always been doing? – promoting evolutionism as the only empirically-rational scientific conclusion on origins while Biblical creationism is presented as being completely out of touch with empirical reality? a faith-only relic of Adventism and outdated Christianity in general? Do they not realize that faith is meaningless without at least some support from empirical evidence? that even scientific conclusions, theories, and notions of reality are based on leaps of faith to one degree or another? that modern evolutionary ‘science’ is no less faith-based than is Biblical creationism? that the greater the available evidence the greater the faith of those sincerely looking for truth? Did the faith of Jesus’ disciples increased or decrease after empirical evidence was given to them of the Resurrection?
Therefore, for our church leaders to go along with the notion that the Biblical account of origins has no basis in rational empirical evidence that goes beyond empirically-blind faith is a huge step backward in the church’s understanding of faith and its relationship to evidence. Is this the message that we really want to give to our young people? that there is no rational or otherwise substantive empirically-based reason to believe the Genesis account of origins? that the Genesis account of origins must be taken on blind faith alone in the face of otherwise overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary? Or, is this more about politics within the church than it is about upholding the supposedly “fundamental” positions of the church as something incredibly valuable to present to the world as a basis of a solid hope in the Gospel message?
Back to square one we go…
Sean Pitman
http://www.DetectingDesign.com
The Adventist Review
By Mark A. Kellner
A statement by a group of biology professors and trustees at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist Church-owned school in Riverside, California to affirm and incorporate the church’s position on creation at the classroom instructional level alongside traditional scientific approaches has been welcomed by officers and educational administrators of the North American Division, the regional entity of the church which provides oversight and accreditation to church-operated institutions.
The joint statement, prepared and signed by six LSU biology professors and a group of trustees, offers hope of a peaceful resolution to tensions that have surrounded church and public media accounts of the curricular differences between the university’s teaching on origins and the doctrinal positions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“We’re pleased to see the dialogue move to a new and constructive level,” says Larry Blackmer, vice-president for education for the North American Division. “When you’re trying to build a bridge, you pay special honor to those who help engineer the foundations and the architecture that will support future traffic, and we consider this development one that has considerable positive potential.”
In their statement, the faculty members and trustees said “two core principles” were behind their proposal:
First, “affirmation and incorporation of the Biblical concept of creation, including the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of Genesis 1 and 2, as a faith position at the classroom level, when questions of origins are discussed.”
Second, a “continued teaching and research in the various disciplines of the modern sciences according to the most up-to-date and rigorous standards of the published science, to which we contribute as practicing scientists and active faculty, including the data which highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various models.” (Read more)
Read the full texts of the both the LSU biology faculty/trustee statement and the response by the North American Division leadership.
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As you may have noticed we’ve had quite a bit of technical drama lately. Comments are working and everything has been updated. We don’t know what originally caused the 404 error with the comments, but we suspect it had to do with a conflict between our old theme and the updated WordPress.
The reason the whole site went down was because the theme became corrupted. All we needed to do in the end was reinstall the theme and everything was up and running. So what seemed like a very complicated situation ended up having a very simple solution.
-Educate Truth Webmaster
UPDATE 10/2/2011
It turns out all of our technical problems were due to exceeding our database limit. It had nothing to do with our theme. We’ve transfered our database to a much bigger one now, so we should be good for the next eight years–hopefully we won’t be around that long. Everything is running smoothly now.
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The Press Enterprise
By David Olson
The legal wrangling in a case involving the resignations of three La Sierra University employees has veered into questions of religious freedom and the university’s accreditation.
The three sued the university in July. They contend Ricardo Graham, the chairman of the La Sierra board and a top Seventh-day Adventist Church official, illegally coerced them into resigning after hearing a recording of the three criticizing Graham and two top Adventist education officials. Two remain at the university as professors, but not in their previous administrative posts.
The three acknowledge in their suit they were “very critical” of the officials after an April meeting that discussed concerns about the Adventist-affiliated university’s adherence to church teaching. An Adventist church body has criticized La Sierra for not doing enough to present church teaching on Biblical creationism in its science classes.
Graham, the Pacific Union Adventist conference Graham heads, the Adventist church’s education division and the two education officials also are named in the suit. (Read more)
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North American Division & Pacific Union Conference response to filed complaint by the LSU-3. You can read McCuneWright’s response here.
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Educate Truth shares the following article from the Adventist Review as a service to readers:
]]>Outside counsel retained to defend school, leaders
BY the Adventist Review staff:
A July 28 lawsuit filed by three employees of La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist Church-owned tertiary institution against its board chairman, the university and two officials of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, is “without merit,†the church’s top attorney says.
“The litigation is without merit, and will be defended in the most appropriate manner,†says Karnik Doukmetzian, an attorney and the North American Division’s General Counsel. “External counsel has been retained through Adventist Risk Management which provides insurance coverage for the defendants involved, and will be defending the organizations and individuals named in the suit.”