Faith Digest

Posted: 4/13/07

Faith Digest

Amish school reopens after shooting. Amish children entered their new school in Lancaster County, Penn., exactly six months after a gun-toting neighbor walked into their old schoolhouse and shot 10 students, killing five. The Amish demolished the old schoolhouse to erase a reminder of the horror experienced there. Four of the five girls who were shot Oct. 2 have returned to the new school, called New Hope Amish School. The fifth, a 6-year-old, needs a feeding tube and is not able to communicate, the Associated Press reported.

Flying imams test tolerance. Six Muslim imams filed suit after being thrown off a US Airways flight when other passengers reported suspicious behavior. The imams allegedly were praying in their seats, speaking negatively about President Bush and the Iraq war and asking for longer seatbelts, which passengers feared would be used as weapons. The imams are suing the airline, the airport and “those who may have knowingly made false reports against the imams with the intent to discriminate against them,” according to a letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group. The news prompted the U.S. House to pass shield laws to protect individuals who report suspicious behavior.

Baylor tops list of Christian schools. Baylor University topped the list of Relevant Media Group’s first-ever ranking of top Christian colleges and universities in the United States. Five colleges, ranging in size and location, made the list. Calvin College ranked second, followed by Pepperdine University, Wheaton College and Biola University. The list, created by Relevant’s magazine editors, was compiled to offer readers a chance to preview available Christian campuses that ranked high on a scale of academics, student life and spiritual life.

Woman claims religious right to eat monkey meat. A Staten Island woman claims she has the right to eat protected species in keeping with her religious beliefs. But prosecutors contend Liberian-born Mamie Manneh Jefferson illegally imported pieces of protected wildlife that carry the risk of infectious diseases. They argue she failed to show that eating the meat arises from a sincere religious belief. More than a year ago, federal agents at JFK International Airport allegedly discovered 65 pieces of illegal smoked bushmeat—including green monkey, hamadryas baboon and antelope—buried beneath smoked fish in a shipment to Jefferson from Guinea. Agents later found 33 pieces of bushmeat in the garage of Jefferson’s home. Jefferson is a member of a church that blends Christianity with African traditional religion. As part of their religious practices, they eat boiled, blessed bushmeat on Christmas and Easter and at ritualistic events such as weddings and baptisms, believing it brings them closer to God. If ultimately convicted on the federal smuggling charge, the 39-year-old defendant could face up to five years in a federal penitentiary, a fine, or a combination of the two. She currently is serving a two-year state prison sentence in an unrelated case for running over her husband’s girlfriend in the parking lot of a movie theater in February 2006. The victim survived.