DALLAS -- Some Texas school districts are scrambling to interpret a state law that requires public schools to incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum.
The Legislature provided little guidance, no funding for materials or teacher training when it passed the law in 2007 requiring Bible literacy to be taught starting in the 2009-2010 school year.
Attorney General Greg Abbott has said the law doesn't require schools to offer a Bible course, although they can offer it as an elective. However, they must provide some sort of lessons, he said.
That has left some schools offering elective classes, while others are embedding Bible literacy into current courses.
Religious scholars and confused educators warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose -- to examine the Bible's influence in history and literature. To ensure religious neutrality, legislators mandated teacher training, state-approved materials and curriculum standards considered adequate by the attorney general. However, lawmakers did not specify what that training would include or provide funding.
The state Board of Education provided little additional guidance. It said the curriculum for independent studies classes in English and social studies already covered the biblical material.
Texas Education Agency officials said they did not request funding because materials and training were already covered for those two courses.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, blames the education agency for the confusion.
"TEA had the duty to prepare teachers to teach the course, but they neglected to request funds," he said. "I assumed the funds were there."
Fresco in danger of being lost
CLEVELAND -- A rare religious fresco painted 63 years ago by an Italian immigrant known as "the Michelangelo of Cleveland" is in danger of being lost as the Roman Catholic diocese downsizes.
Romeo Celleghin, who settled in Cleveland in the early 1920s, painted dozens of churches in northeast Ohio. He said his greatest work was a fresco at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lorain, a 103-year-old parish scheduled to close Dec. 13.
Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon announced a plan in March to reduce the number of parishes in the diocese by 52. Many old, inner-city parishes have shrunk as the population of Cleveland has decreased through flight to the suburbs. The diocese has said that 42 percent of parishes are operating in the red.
Celleghin's 1946 piece features God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost flanked by ornately cloaked saints and angels in a field of clouds and stars.
Removal of the fresco from the Lorain church would be costly and complex, said diocese spokesman Robert Tayek. But he said the diocese hopes to find a new owner for the building who will preserve the fresco.
"Our intent for a closed building is to further its use by finding a purpose that will serve the community, not to raze the structure," he said.
A fresco is painted on wet or dry plaster, and is a dying art because it's costly and time-consuming.
Some parishioners at Holy Trinity have been taking pictures of the fresco as the church's closing draws near.
Group: Law could trigger challenges
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Municipal League says it may discuss repealing or modifying a new law it believes sets the stage for legal challenges to multiple state statutes and local ordinances that interfere with professed religious beliefs.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act that took effect in June puts in place a "strict scrutiny" legal rule that makes it easier for people claiming a law or ordinance violates their religious beliefs to win their cases.
According to an article published by the Tennessee Municipal League, "Tennessee state and local governments will now face an uphill battle in upholding laws of general applicability when someone claiming religious offense cries foul."
The article was written by Josh Jones, a legal consultant for the University of Tennessee's Municipal Advisory Service, and published in the current issue of Town and City, the TML's official newspaper.
Supporters of the law said the concerns are unfounded.
"All we've said (in the law) is simply that the first freedom is the freedom of religion," said former state Republican Sen. David Fowler, the president of Family Action of Tennessee, which lobbied for passage of the measure.
"If it requires local governments to think about what they're doing rather than proceed willy-nilly, well, there's nothing wrong with that. It's appropriate to ask the government: 'Is there a compelling reason for what we're doing? Is there a lesser way to accomplish it without impacting someone's religious freedom?"'
Ind. judge won't reduce bond
INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana judge has declined to reduce $1.5 million cash bonds for a former pastor and his sons charged with bilking church members nationwide out of millions of dollars.
Special Judge Dena Martin said 65-year-old Vaughn Reeves Sr. and his three sons failed to show why their bonds should be lowered.
Sullivan County Prosecutor Bob Hunley had argued the men were flight risks, noting all four had moved out of state after a federal judge in 2005 froze their company's assets and appointed a receiver following a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prosecutors say Reeves and his three sons -- Chip, 44; Chris, 40; and Josh, 32 -- set up a company called Alanar Inc. and used it to dupe church members into a Ponzi scheme that played on their faith. They are accused of urging the members to purchase bonds to support church construction projects and using the money to buy themselves planes and sports cars.
They are accused of duping about 11,000 people into buying bonds worth $120 million, diverting money from new investments to pay off previous investors and pocketing about $6 million.
Defense attorneys are seeking to have the charges dismissed, saying the five-year statute of limitations has expired since the alleged scheme early this decade. But prosecutors argue that deadline should run from 2005, when they became aware of the scheme and when the bonds matured. A hearing is set for Nov. 6.
Martin last week granted defense motions to select jurors from other counties but held off on deciding where the men's trials should be held. Hunley wants the trial to be held in Sullivan, about 25 miles south of Terre Haute, where Alanar was based.
