—– Prominent Evangelical Seminary Cuts Staff (Baptist Press; Jan 15)

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in response to the national economic downturn, has reduced its administrative staff by 35 positions: 20 full-time and 15 part-time, effective Jan. 30….

The workforce reduction, combined with budget cuts made in December, are designed to close a projected $3.2 shortfall in the seminary’s $30 million budget, the news release stated, and will “place the seminary in a stronger financial position for 2009.”

Tuition for the 2009-10 academic year will increase by just under 10 percent according to current projections, SBTS President R. Albert Mohler Jr. wrote in a letter e-mailed to the Louisville, Ky., seminary community….

On Dec. 18, the seminary announced that it had reduced its budget by $1.7 million, including the halt in various capital projects along with reductions in travel expenses….

To date, the North American Mission Board, another of the SBC’s six seminaries and Woman’s Missionary Union also have announced budget cuts.

On Jan. 8, NAMB President Geoff Hammond asked NAMB team leaders to operate at 90 percent of their approved budgets during 2009….

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, announced Dec. 16 that it will be cutting its budget by approximately 10 percent, or $3.5 million to $4 million. Among reductions being made to the budget are “temporary suspension of many overseas travel programs and adjustments to campus facilities.”…

On Dec. 10, Woman’s Missionary Union announced it was enacting measures to reduce its 2009 budget by $1.4 million. Some of those steps included reducing team expense budgets in areas such as travel, projects and activities; implementing four weeks unpaid furlough for each staff member between January and August 2009; a hiring freeze on vacant positions; reducing employer contributions to retirement plans; freezing merit pay increases; and eliminating incentive bonuses in 2009….

On Aug. 1, LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. Rainer told employees the ministry was reducing its workforce by 5 percent and cutting expenses throughout the organization….

—– Atheist’s Protests Silences Lord’s Prayer In New Jersey Town Council (Joe Moszczynski/Religion News Service/USA Today; Jan 16)

NEWTON, New Jersey: For nearly 60 years, the town council here started its meetings by reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Council members felt the passage gave them guidance and inspiration.

That tradition ended recently after the council’s attorney advised members they should heed a request by a resident, an avowed atheist, to stop the practice.

Doug Radigan told the council at its Dec. 22 meeting the prayer was too Christian and was offensive to him. He asked for a secular replacement.

Council members said they were saddened – but not really surprised – they had to end a tradition begun in 1952.

“It’s not a surprise, but I’m disappointed that we had to cave into this or we would’ve been open to a lawsuit,” said longtime Councilwoman Thea Unhoch. “You can’t even say ‘Merry Christmas’ anymore.”

Radigan did not return calls for comment.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the number of U.S. communities that use Christian prayers, especially the “highly Christian” Lord’s Prayer, at government functions is slowly diminishing.

“If you’re going to a meeting to talk about potholes or cable TV, non-Christians feel like they don’t belong there,” said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

In a series of decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the religious prayers recited at government functions are in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“The more sectarian, the more likelihood it will be found unconstitutional,” Lynn said.

While the Lord’s Prayer tradition has officially ended in Newton, the council has informally agreed to start reciting secular invocations prior to its meetings, said Unhoch, who was pleased that the tradition of a prayer of some sort will continue.

—– Spanish Parents Win Fight To Remove Class Crucifix As Country Becomes Less Catholic, More Secular (Graham Keeley/The Times; Jan 21)

BARCELONA, Spain: The ongoing row between the Catholic Church and the Spanish Government has erupted again after a judge banned the crucifix from a primary school.

The ruling came after parents won a three-year legal battle with the local authorities over a crucifix in Macias Picavea school in Valladolid, northern Spain.

The Valladolid Cultural Association for Lay Schools argued that crucifixes infringed the 1978 Constitution, which establishes Spain as a non-denominational state but recognises individual religious rights.

Judge Alejandro Valentn Sastre ruled that “the presence of religious symbols such as a crucifix is an element of aggression which infringes rights and freedoms”.

The courtroom victory came late last year and has reignited a debate about the place of religious symbols in what was once one of Europe’s most devoutly Catholic countries. Ten years of one of the fastest rising rates of immigration on the Continent has increased the number of Muslims, Protestants and other religions in Spain.

And amid discontentment with the right-wing stance of Catholic hierarchy in Spain, many people are leaving the Church.

Fernando Pastor, 47, whose six-year-old daughter attends the school, led the secular campaign. “What stunned me was not so much that the cross was nailed to a wall but that it was at the head of a public educational activity which was not confessional,” Mr Pastor said.

The Episcopal Conference, the ruling body of the Roman Catholic Church, condemned the ruling. Archbishop Carlos Amigo, the Cardinal of Seville, said: “The most important thing is to educate the children to respect religious symbols of all types.” [Heh! Pretty ironic coming from a representative of a church that sanctioned the destruction of countless pagan religious symbols during hundreds of years of Christian colonialism, eh?]
The Catholic Confederation of School Parents said that the ruling was symptomatic of a “campaign of rabid secularism against religious symbols”.

Ramón Jáuregu, the Socialist parliamentary secretary, said however that it was not the responsibility of the Government to remove religious symbols.

The issue is likely to remain because the Spanish Government is preparing to reform its Law of Religious Liberties to give an official voice to other religions. Secular groups have been campaigning for years to remove any trace of the Church, which was seen by the Left as a political ally of the Franco dictatorship.

Civil Guard officers banned a statue of the Virgin Mary from their offices in Córdoba, members of the public demanded the removal of a cross at a police station in Tenerife and couples in the Basque country insisted that council buildings were cleared of crucifixes before civil weddings.

The secular cause has found an unlikely ally – a Catholic priest. Father Florentino Escribando Ruiz, from Badajoz, western Spain, suggested that crosses should be replaced with photographs showing suffering children from around the world.

—– UK Atheist Bus Ads Survive Challenge (Ruth Gledhill/The Times; Jan 16)

LONDON: There is to be no investigation into the atheist bus in spite of hundreds of complaints, Britain’s advertising watchdog has ruled.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 326 complaints about the campaign, in which buses have been plastered with the logo, “Theres probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

But in a statement today the ASA said the 140,000 campaign by the British Humanist Association was not in breach of the advertising code. “The ASA will therefore not launch an investigation and the case is now closed.”

The ASA said it “carefully assessed” the complaints it received. Some complained that the advertisement was offensive and denigratory to people of faith.

Others challenged whether the ad was misleading because the advertiser would not be able to substantiate its claim that God “probably” does not exist. The ASA council concluded that it was “an expression of the advertiser’s opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation.”

Although the ASA acknowledged that the content of the advertisement would be at odds with the beliefs of many, it concluded that it was “unlikely to mislead or to cause serious or widespread offence.”

—– Judge Voids Illinois Law on Silent Time in Schools (The New York Times/The Associated Press; Jan 21)

CHICAGO: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the state law requiring a moment of silence in public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state.

“The statute is a subtle effort to force students at impressionable ages to contemplate religion,” the judge, Robert W. Gettleman, said in his ruling.

The ruling came in a lawsuit designed to bar schools from enforcing the law, the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. It was filed by a talk show host, Rob Sherman, an outspoken atheist, and his daughter, Dawn, a student at Buffalo Grove High School in suburban Chicago.

Judge Gettleman’s ruling was not a surprise. He had already ruled in favor of Mr. Sherman in two previous decisions.

As passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the law allows students to reflect on the day