News You Should Know
April 21
Researchers from Oxford University in Oxford, England, have identified seven ancestral matriarchal groups from which all Europeans appear to be descended. FULL STORY
STUDENTS TELL JUDGE WICCAN STAR LED SCHOOL TO DISCIPLINE THEM
APRIL 22
Brandi Lehman said the five-pointed star she and fellow senior Shauntee Chaffin wear around their necks represents Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit -- a symbol of the nature-based Wiccan religion in which they believe.
Lehman and Chaffin testified in federal court Friday that Elwood school administrators violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion by asking them to take off or hide their pentagram necklaces while working in a cadet teaching program at an elementary school. FULL STORY
UPDATE - Court Oks pentagrams
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ELWOOD - A federal judge's decision ends a debate over religious rights. The judge ruled two Elwood High School students can wear their pentagrams and practice the religion of Wicca.
Earlier this month Brandi Lehman and Shauntee Chaffin walked to federal court wearing the necklaces that got them in trouble with Elwood school officials. The pentagrams are symbols of their Wicca faith.
"These girls cannot be punished for exercising their 1st amendment rights," says Jacquelyn Bowie of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.
Elwood school officials tried to convince a federal judge, that the girls' religious beliefs are irrelevant.
Elwood school attorney Thomas Wheeler says, "The girls admitted using the copy machine for personal use, and leaving school early, they just cut out of school."
Brandi and Shauntee, both high school seniors, received vocational training credit for assisting teachers at Edgewood Elementary School. The pair admits frequently leaving school early and using the school's copy machine to make a handful of copies of Wicca religious materials. When the principal found the copies, she asked the girls to put their necklaces away.
Bowie tells Eyewitness News, "The girls were forced to leave when they refused to remove them."
School officials argue that as so called "cadet teachers" the girls are held to higher standard. Returning to class is out of the question.
"Third graders have already asked, 'Where are the witches?' If (the teachers) answer, the ACLU will have us in court claiming we are bringing religious beliefs to the classroom."
THE AMAZING VIKINGS
MAY 8 (Issue Date)
Ravagers, despoilers, pagans, heathens--such epithets pretty well summed up the Vikings for those who lived in the British Isles during medieval times. For hundreds of years after their bloody appearance at the end of the 8th century A.D., these ruthless raiders would periodically sweep in from the sea to kill, plunder and destroy, essentially at will. "From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord" was a prayer uttered frequently and fervently at the close of the first millennium. Small wonder that the ancient Anglo-Saxons--and their cultural descendants in England, the U.S. and Canada--think of these seafaring Scandinavians as little more than violent brutes. FULL STORY
April 22
In the beginning, there wasn't that much fuss. Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. By 1900, mainstream Protestants had adapted their theology to it. More conservative Christians had misgivings. But nearly all agreed that the Earth is millions of years old, and there was no organized opposition to the teaching of evolution. FULL STORY
MONTPELIER, Vt.-Lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to legislation making Vermont the first state to grant gay couples nearly all of the rights and benefits of marriage.
The state House voted 79-68 for the "civil unions" bill, which was approved by the Senate last week. Democratic Gov. Howard Dean said he will sign it, possibly as soon as Thursday.
"I think the powerful message is that in Vermont, we tend to value people for who they are, not what they are," Dean said.
After the bill takes effect July 1, couples will be able to go to their town clerks for licenses. Then they will have their unions certified by a justice of the peace, judge or member of the clergy. FULL STORY
MOORE SAYS CHRISTIAN TEACHING STILL NEEDED
April 24
From Plymouth Rock to Independence Hall, America's roots are singularly Christian and from them grew "One nation under God" now under attack from godless judges and politicians, controversial Judge Roy Moore charged Saturday. Moore, an Etowah County circuit judge and Republican candidate for chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, said too many in elected leadership, including judges, have either forgotten or ignore that the foundation of all law, including the Constitution, is God's law. FULL STORY
THE KING AND US
April 22
In 1998, a team of archaeologists working at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall uncovered a stone inscribed with mysterious words, including one beginning with "ARTH" - inscriptions that they conclusively dated to the sixth century AD. This seemingly obscure find was greeted with headlines around the world: for both time and place were traditionally linked with the greatest legendary figure of Western culture, Arthur Pendragon, King of the Isles.
Did the stone prove once and for all the historical "truth" of the existence of Arthur? Well, the jury's still out, but whatever the truth is about the "Arthur stone", as it was dubbed by the world's media, this event, and the intense interest it aroused, showed just how extraordinarily potent a figure King Arthur still is. FULL STORY