Anti-nuke nun gets 3 years for vandalism
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An 84-year-old nun has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for breaking into and defacing a storage bunker holding bomb-grade uranium in a peace protest at a Tennessee weapons plant.
Sister Megan Rice was sentenced Tuesday along with two men who were each sentenced to more than five years in prison.
The three activists cut through three fences on July 28, 2012, and reached a storage bunker that holds the nation’s primary supply of bomb-grade uranium. They painted messages, hung banners and threw blood on the bunker wall.
While officials claimed there was never any danger of the protesters reaching materials that could be detonated or used to assemble a dirty bomb, the break-in raised serious questions about security.
Crowd memorializes snake-handling pastor
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. - A snake-handling minister in Kentucky who died after being bitten by one of the serpents during a church service has been remembered fondly at a memorial service.
Jamie Coots was known for his role on the National Geographic television reality show Snake Salvation. But a family friend remembered him Tuesday night for his “great faith” and tolerance of others. Bill Bisceglia of Middlesboro told Knoxville, Tenn., station WBIR-TV that the 42-year-old Coots didn’t argue with people who didn’t agree with him, but maintained his own beliefs until he died.
Coots was handling a rattlesnake when he was bitten Feb. 15.
- The Associated Press
Church seeks appeal on display of crosses
CHICAGO - The attorney for an Indiana church says its free speech rights were violated when a federal judge blocked the city of Evansville from allowing 31 crosses decorated by Vacation Bible School students to be erected along the city’s public riverfront.
Evansville officials had approved the display requested by Westside Christian Church, but two local residents filed suit against the city, arguing that the 6-foot-tall crosses along four blocks of city property would appear to endorse religion. Judge Sarah Evans Barker agreed and prohibited the display.
On Tuesday, the church’s attorney, Bryan Beauman, urged the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling.
But Gavin Rose, an attorney for the ACLU of Indiana, said the church had no right to appeal since the ruling was against the city, and the city didn’t appeal.
- The Associated Press
Iowa college to pull hotel room Bibles
DES MOINES, Iowa - Bibles will be removed from guest rooms at Iowa State University’s Hotel Memorial Union in Ames.
The Des Moines Register says a guest complained to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The organization wrote to Memorial Union director Richard Reynolds on Jan. 29, asking for the Bibles to be removed. The group’s attorney, Patrick Elliott, said that for a state-run university to provide a Bible to guests, “that policy facilitates illegal endorsement of Christianity over other religions and over nonreligion.”
Reynolds responded last week and said the Bibles would be removed by March 1.
The hotel occupies several floors in the Memorial Union and has 52 rooms. The Bibles will be placed in the Memorial Union’s Browsing Library.
- The Associated Press
Religion, Pages 12 on 02/22/2014