University can reject Christian courses. The University of California has the right to reject courses taught at Christian high schools, a federal appeals court ruled Jan. 12. Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, Calif., and the Association of Christian Schools International claimed the university’s review policy was unconstitutional because it refused to certify courses that taught creationism and other beliefs. Students from private schools must meet certain high-school requirements before they are eligible to apply to an undergraduate campus of the University of California. The court ruled that evidence in the case failed to show that the university was discriminating on the basis of religion.
Executions rise as death sentences decline. The number of state-sponsored executions jumped 41 percent in 2009 even as the number of death penalty sentences dropped, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Informa-tion Center. Last year’s 52 executions nationwide represented a 41 percent increase from the 37 executions in 2008, the center reported. Much of that increase was due to the end of an eight-month informal moratorium on executions nationally through mid-2008, while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a case on methods used in lethal injection, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the center. But fewer death sentences were imposed by courts nationwide in 2009 than in any year since 1976, and the 106 death sentences issued nationwide in 2009 marked the seventh year of decline. The decline nationally in death sentences has been greatest in Texas.
Mother Teresa to be on postage stamp. The U.S. Postal Service plans to honor Mother Teresa with a stamp this year in recognition of her humanitarian work. Roy Betts, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said the Mother Teresa stamp tentatively is scheduled to go on sale Aug. 26. Mother Teresa was known for her work caring for the sick and needy in India and beyond for almost five decades.
Scholar finds serenity to accept Niebuhr’s authorship. After receiving new evidence, the editor of a prominent compilation of famous quotations now believes theologian Reinhold Niebuhr most likely is the author of the popular “Serenity Prayer.” Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, says he is about 80 percent sure Niebuhr originated the prayer popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous that usually begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. …” Shapiro, the associate librarian at Yale’s law library, previously had questioned in a scholarly journal whether Niebuhr actually was the author of the prayer. Niebuhr’s daughter has said the prayer was written in 1943, but Shapiro found references dating to the 1930s that did not credit the theologian. But he recently learned a Duke University librarian had found a 1937 reference crediting Niebuhr. Unless other new evidence refutes the finding, Shapiro said his next book of quotations, scheduled to be published in about five years, will credit Niebuhr.
Compiled from Religion News Service