Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 27, 1995                   TAG: 9502280045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGH COURT TO TACKLE UVA CASE

Beginning this week, the justices will take up new disputes that could help answer the question of how government should treat religion.

Two key cases involve the University of Virginia's denial of funds for a student-run Christian magazine, to be argued Wednesday, and the state of Ohio's rejection of a Ku Klux Klan cross in a public square where a Christmas tree and a menorah were erected, to be heard in April.

The court has long struggled with how to ensure government neither promotes nor inhibits religion, a dilemma made more difficult by greater religious diversity and church groups' increasing involvement with secular activities such as housing, child care and education.

The prevailing question in the new cases is whether religious groups should be treated differently than their nonreligious counterparts. The university case, for example, tests whether a magazine with a religious mission - ``to challenge Christians to live, in word and deed, according to the faith they proclaim'' - should be denied access to student activity funds allowed for publications with nonreligious viewpoints.

In 1991 when Ronald W. Rosenberger and other students sought $5,800 to help publish their evangelical Christian magazine, the school denied the request based on the journal's religious message.

When money is involved, university lawyers say, religion must be set apart, lest the state appear to be endorsing religion. They also note that the policy does not deny funding only to religious publications. Political, philanthropic and purely social activities also do not qualify for the money generated by student fees.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the university, saying it was rightly maintaining a strict separation of church and state. But Rosenberger, of Great Falls, said the policy violates students' right to speak freely and exercise their religion. His Wide Awake magazine folded after four issues for lack of money.

In the Ku Klux Klan cross dispute, a lower appeals court said when Ohio allowed a Christmas tree to go up but not the Klan's 10-foot cross, the state wrongly discriminated. ``Zealots have First Amendment rights, too,'' the court said.