Utah votes to keep bartender shields
SALT LAKE CITY - Barriers in Utah restaurants that shield patrons from seeing bartenders mix and pour drinks in restaurants will stay in place after a measure to scale back one of the Mormon-dominated state’s offbeat liquor laws died in the state Legislature.
Lawmakers voted 24-2 on Tuesday to kill a proposal to remove the barriers, known as “Zion curtains.”
Republican Sen. John Valentine said the move to keep the barricades stemmed from lawmakers’ fear that their removal would lead to more drinking in Utah.
The “Zion curtains” go back decades in the state’s history, and the nickname nods to Utah’s legacy as home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- The Associated Press
Commissioners sued for praying
SALISBURY, N.C. - A civil liberties group has filed a federal lawsuit against the Rowan County Board of Commissioners for their use of Christian prayers to bless their meetings.
A complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina names three Rowan residents as plaintiffs.
The suit accuses the county board of violating the First Amendment provision ordaining the separation of church and state by routinely praying to Jesus Christ to start their meetings. Federal courts have ruled in the past that boards can use an invocation, but only if it is nonsectarian.
- The Associated Press
Church dissolves; funds go to college
COOS BAY, Ore. - A century-old Coos Bay church with a declining congregation dissolved and remaining members gave $100,000 for college scholarships.
The World newspaper reports the check that was handed over Monday was the largest gift ever to the Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation.
The money will fund scholarships.
The money comes from First Presbyterian Church of Coos Bay, which sold its large building in 2008 to make room for a new fire station.
The congregation continued to meet in another church and had about $1 million in the bank, but members decided there were better uses for the money.
- The Associated Press
Museum unveils painted ceiling
WARSAW, Poland - A Jewish history museum in Warsaw has unveiled a reconstructed synagogue roof with an elaborately painted ceiling modeled on a 17th-century structure, presenting the first object that will go on permanent display in the highly awaited museum.
The wooden roof and ceiling will be a key attraction in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is due to open next year in the heart of the city’s former Jewish quarter.
The museum will tell the story of Jewish life in Poland.
The story will unfold largely with high-tech multimedia installations, but the reconstructed synagogue roof is a tangible object produced with the tools and techniques that were used when the original structure was first erected in the 1600s.
The ceiling is a rich panoply in milky blues and brownish reds of zodiac signs and animal symbols, along with inscriptions in Hebrew.
Religion, Pages 12 on 03/16/2013