Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Judge backs UC on Christian textbooks
This article was on yesterday's front page of our newspaper, DAILY BREEZE:
Judge backs UC on Christian textbooks
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Article
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.
Disputing claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said the university's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.
Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no anti-religious bias in the university's system of reviewing high school classes. Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has appealed Otero's rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday. Her clients include the Association of Christian Schools International, two Southern California high schools and several students.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
The suit, filed in 2005, challenged UC's review of high school courses taken by would-be applicants to the 10-campus system. Most students qualify by taking an approved set of college preparatory classes; students whose courses lack UC approval can remain eligible by scoring well in those subjects on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
Christian schools in the suit accused the university of rejecting courses that include any religious viewpoint, "any instance of God's guidance of history, or any alternative ... to evolution."
But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.
UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.
For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
He also said the Christian schools presented no evidence that the university's decisions were motivated by hostility to religion.
UC attorney Christopher Patti said Tuesday that the judge assessed the review process accurately.
"We evaluate the courses to see whether they prepare these kids to come to college at UC," he said. "There was no evidence that these students were in fact denied the ability to come to the university."
But Monk, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said Otero had used the wrong legal standard and had given the university too much deference.
"Science courses from a religious perspective are not approved," she said. "If it comes from certain publishers or from a religious perspective, UC simply denies them."
Judge backs UC on Christian textbooks
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Article
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.
Disputing claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said the university's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.
Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no anti-religious bias in the university's system of reviewing high school classes. Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has appealed Otero's rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday. Her clients include the Association of Christian Schools International, two Southern California high schools and several students.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
The suit, filed in 2005, challenged UC's review of high school courses taken by would-be applicants to the 10-campus system. Most students qualify by taking an approved set of college preparatory classes; students whose courses lack UC approval can remain eligible by scoring well in those subjects on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
Christian schools in the suit accused the university of rejecting courses that include any religious viewpoint, "any instance of God's guidance of history, or any alternative ... to evolution."
But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.
UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.
For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
He also said the Christian schools presented no evidence that the university's decisions were motivated by hostility to religion.
UC attorney Christopher Patti said Tuesday that the judge assessed the review process accurately.
"We evaluate the courses to see whether they prepare these kids to come to college at UC," he said. "There was no evidence that these students were in fact denied the ability to come to the university."
But Monk, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said Otero had used the wrong legal standard and had given the university too much deference.
"Science courses from a religious perspective are not approved," she said. "If it comes from certain publishers or from a religious perspective, UC simply denies them."
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Camp Meeting 2008
Here is a slideshow of some of the pics we took at Camp. It was one of the best Camps we have ever had. I want to thank everyone who attended and made it great! I have a long list of "thank you's" that I will add to this post. Enjoy the pictures!
For more pictures of Camp Meeting 2008, make sure you get to the following blogs. They have some great shots.
Shirley Buxton
Ronda Hurst
Tena Valenti
Monday, August 11, 2008
Happy Birthday Steve!
Steve turned 22 on August 1st. This was the first year in a while that his birthday wasn't in the middle of Camp Meeting. We are late in our posting due to being in Santa Maria this past week. We are very proud of Steve or Stevo as we call him. He's a great young man that lives for God, is our drummer in the church, works at Western Credit Union and is going to school at a neighboring college. He is the life of the party....whether it's here at home or at a major conference. Buddy, we love you and pray God best for you! You make us laugh and our hearts warm by the love you show to us. It's hard to believe our little boy is all grown up!
THE MEMORY CONTINUES
Today, August 11th would have been my nephew, Shiloh's 30th birthday! After talking to his Dad, my brother, Tim this evening, as well as some other members of our family, we all were reminising about Shiloh and our memories of him. Shiloh was taken suddenly on October 12, 1994 in a car accident at the age of 16. His sister Cheyenne was with him and was seriously hurt, but God allowed us to keep her. That night will forever be marked in the life of the Foster family. Shiloh and Cheyenne were on their way to church. In thinking of Shiloh's life, I will never forget the phone call that came one evening after a mission's conference in Stockton, when he told me at the age of 12 that he felt a call to preach. I remember the night at a youth congress the year before his death, that the preacher said that night that there were young men in that service who had never publicly acknowledged their call to preach and that God was bidding for them that evening. I watched Shiloh get up and walk to the front in dedication to God. He may have never preached a message like he dreamed, but his life has touched hundreds of young people as his story has been preached across the county by his uncles, cousins, his aunt, his granddad, and many friends.
At the Variety Youth Conference in West Monroe, LA. the July before his death, Shiloh gave his testimony of how he went from a Christian School of around 250 to a public high school of over 5000 students and how you can live for God. Part of his testimony is on his footstone of his grave as shown above. (click on picture to read) Shiloh, we miss you so much. We know that one day we will all be together again in heaven.
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