Theology in the News

Should we pray for students to do well on state tests?

Praying for better grades.  That’s what happened inside a Baltimore City school and now legal experts say it violated the separation of church and state.

Dozens of students and parents gathered inside Tench Tilghman Elementary and Middle School last week for a Saturday prayer service aimed at motivating students to do well on state testing.

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Hat-tip: Dr Jim West

Huffington Post

An astronomy professor who sued the University of Kentucky after claiming he lost out on a top job because of his Christian beliefs reached a settlement Tuesday with the school.

The university agreed to pay $125,000 to Martin Gaskell in exchange for dropping a federal religious discrimination suit he filed in Lexington in 2009. A trial was set for next month.

Gaskell claimed he was passed over to be director of UK’s MacAdam Student Observatory because of his religion and statements that were perceived to be critical of evolution.

Court records showed Gaskell was a front-runner for the job, but some professors called him “something close to a creationist” and “potentially evangelical” in interoffice e-mails to other university scientists.

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Gaskell has said he is not “creationist,” or someone who believes the Bible’s origin story puts the age of the universe at a few thousand years. He also said his views on evolution are in line with biological science.

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