The Texas Comptroller has decided that a Texas Unitarian church is not a religious organization for tax purposes. Her reasoning: The organization “does not have one system of belief.”
The Arizona House unanimously approved a bill intended to combat marriages of teenage girls in polygamist enclaves. The bill makes it illegal for parents or church officials to arrange and facilitate polygamous marriages involving children who have not reached the age of 18. A similar law already exists in Utah.
A former member and longtime critic of the Church of Scientology has been ordered by a Marin County, California judge to pay the church $500,000 for illegally using the its private documents. Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee issued the judgment in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Scientology defector Gerald Armstrong. In a separate case, a long-standing wrongful death lawsuit filed against the church by the estate of Scientology practitioner Lisa McPherson reached a surprise settlement, ending a fiercely contested legal battle. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
An Arizona judge has refused to evict a Colorado City man from a home on land owned by the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Superior Court Judge James Chavez denied a request to evict Ross Chatwin from property owned by the church’s United Effort Plan trust. Chatwin, who grew up in the church, publicly denounced the its leader in January. Chavez ruled that Chatwin could not be evicted unless the church compensates him for improvements he made to the property.
Authorities seized more than 100 animals that had been kept at a South San Francisco home for use as sacrifices by practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria. The Peninsula Humane Society took about 100 birds, eight pygmy goats, five rabbits and one pig from the home of Gilbert Stephson, a Santeria high priest, the Associated Press reported. Courts have ruled that it is not illegal for Santeria to engage in animal sacrifice rituals as long as the animals are cared for properly before slaughter.
A federal judge said the Summum religious group is likely to win a suit seeking to put its Seven Aphorisms (principles of creation) next to the Ten Commandments in a Utah public park, but stopped short of issuing a ruling. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson gave lawyers for the Salt Lake City-based church and the city until July 4 to reach a settlement.
An Amish man who had been ordered to remove livestock from his property to comply with town zoning ordinances will be allowed to keep a horse in his yard after all. A zoning ordinance adopted by Walker Township, Pennsylvania in 2000 prohibits residents from keeping livestock in densely populated districts, such as the one in which the Amish man, Jacob Stoltzfus, lives. Town officials reversed a zoning officer’s decision to remove the horse, citing the fact that the horse was already on the property when the regulation was put in place.
The Indiana Supreme Court will not review a former state trooper’s claim that his being fired for refusing to work at a casino violated his religious freedom. The court rejected an appeal by Ben Endres, while admitting that he raised an important legal question. Endres, who is now a St. Joseph County sheriff ’s deputy, wanted the court to require that the Indiana State Police rehire him and accommodate his religious belief against gambling.