Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Inside This Issue: Time 21, 2000 Today’s Weather 7 " etCetera » 93 looks at If • jj *ygm summer This Week; Isolated PAGE 6 Thunderstorms with o • 1 ' n 1- n inno " hkdhs n the md “90s. Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Vol. 93, No. 93 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA www.gamecock.sc.edu High Court reaffirms prayer ban by Richard Carelli Associated Press Washington - In a crushing defeat for school-prayer supporters, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that pray ing in public schools must be private. By a 6-3 vote Monday, the court barred officials from letting students lead sta dium crowds in prayer before football games. The court’s sweeping language in a Texas case could extend far beyond school sports events — eventually af fecting graduation ceremonies, mo ments of silence and more. The ruling said a school district’s policy of allowing such student-led prayers violated the constitutionally required separation of government and religion. Champions of a strict church-state separation exulted. “The court’s decision signals a reaf firmation of the appropriate role of re ligion in public schools—one in which private religious expression is consti tutionally protected but officially sanc tioned religious observances are not,” said David Harris of the American Jew ish Committee. Opponents were aggrieved. “The government’s ‘benign neu trality’ toward religion in this country is now nothing short of malevolent hostility,” said Jan LaRue of the con servative Family Research Council. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court: “Nothing in the Con stitution ... prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during or after the school day. But the religious liberty protect ed by the Constitution is abridged when the state affirmatively sponsors the par ticular religious practice of prayer.” As the latest word on a political ly volatile issue that has bedeviled the nation’s highest court for 40 years, the ruling offered a ringing endorsement of a landmark 1962 decision that outlawed organized, officially spon PRAYER. see page 3 Resolution won’t affect local Baptists by John Huiett News Editor Although the Southern Baptist Con vention last week passed a resolution bar ring women from serving as pastors, rep resentatives from two Columbia churches claim the resolution will have no local effect. . Citing New Testament Scripture say ing men should be the leaders of both the home and the church, the convention on June 14 declared adherence to the bib lical principal. Shortly after the resolution passed at the convention’s annual conference, held this year in Orlando, Fla., President tones Merritt told MSNBC that the state of current culture is irrelevant to the con vention, saying his job is simply to “tell you what the word of God says and preach it.” However, Merritt admitted the res olution doesn’t necessarily apply to all Southern Baptists, the world’s largest Protestant denomination. “Wfe don’t speak for all Baptist groups, and we don’t speak for all Baptists,” Mer ritt said. Lanette James confirms that. For the past seven years, James has been the minister of education to chil dren and head of downtown ministries for Columbia’s First Baptist Church, the city’s largest Southern Baptist church with more than 3,000 members. “The national convention has no bind ing authority over our church,” James said. James said the church has four fe male ministers but no women in the position of senior pastor. Nor would they ever, she said, not because the national convention forbids it, but because it’s biblically sound. “Our church agrees with that [South ern Baptist Convention] decision,” James said. “But we don’t believe that women shouldn’t be ministers at all.” And she assured that the women on the First Baptist staff aren’t looked down on by their male counterparts. “Wfe are respected,” tones said. “Our opinion counts.” Roger Orman, administrative pastor for North Trenholm Baptist Church, agrees with James but takes it a step fur ther. “The Southern Baptist Convention has no governing mandating authority over a local church - none,” Orman said. “Every church is autonomous. A local church ordains someone, not the con vention. A local church hires and fires pastors, not the convention. We owe the convention nothing other than our vol untary participation.” Orman added that North Trenholm Baptist, with membership totaling around 2,300, would never adopt a practice sim ply because the Convention passed it as a resolution. “If they decided they wanted to paint Orlando green, we’d say, ‘Great. Go for it. But we’re not giving you any paint,”’ Orman said. The resolution comes at a time when the Southern Baptist Convention has al ready spent a fair amount of time in head lines in recent years. Baptists see rage 3 Se»n Rayford Photographer USC’s Baptist Student Center is a group that operates autonomous of the Southern Baptist Convention, as do all local Baptist churches. LOST AND FOUND USC attractive to many strays by Jairus Dayton '' Staff Writer Many neighborhoods in the downtown Columbia area have had a host of new residents moving in, but they’re not college students or relocat ing families. instead, stray dogs and cats have been running free, generating as many as 45 phone calls a week from concerned neighborhood residents to pest and an imal control centers. Twenty or more of these calls are coming from USC alone. This has proved to be disturbing news for some pet lovers at USC. "It is really upsetting to see home less animals wandering around the cam pus," medical technology sophomore Sheena Tatum said. "Not only is it un sanitary, but it also makes the city look bad. We have enough problems Strays see page 2 Sean Rayford Photographer Stray pets, such as these kittens pictured at Columbia’s Humane Society, generate as many as 45 phone calls a week to animal and pest control centers in the Columbia area. Columbia Animal Control will pickup and transport strays. They can be reached at 776-7387.