>> abernethy: coming up: this cross, in california's mojave desert, has been covered up because of a court battle over whether it is unconstitutional to have a christian symbol on public land. the supreme court takes up the case this coming week. and, the moral issues as the u.s. ponders the future in afghanistan, after eight years of war. also, a church garden that feeds both the bodies and spirits of those in need. plus, navaratri, a hindu festival dedicated to female deities. captioning sponsored by the lilly endowment

>> abernethy: welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. a series of natural disasters in southeast asia and the south pacific has faith-based aid groups organizing to help victims. thousands are dead or displaced after a week of earthquakes in indonesia, tsunamis in the samoan islands and a typhoon in the philippines. local religious sites not affected converted their premises to evacuation and

relief centers and helped with rescue efforts. religious and humanitarian groups are dispatching relief workers to the hardest hit areas with food, medicine, emergency shelter and other aid. representatives of faith communities are renewing their call on world leaders to take a strong stand to protect the environment. united nations delegates are meeting in bangkok to continue negotiations on a new climate change treaty. religious leaders want industrialized nations to make larger cuts in their carbon emissions. communist authorities in vietnam are cracking down on followers of internationally-known buddhist leader thich nhat hanh. police and an angry mob forcibly evicted nearly 400 buddhist monks and nuns from a monastery in central vietnam. the government claims the violence was the result of conflicts between two different buddhist groups. but thich nat han's followers

said the government is retaliating against them because of their teacher's call for religious freedom. there were elaborate celebrations in beijing this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the people's republic of china and 60 years of communist rule. but in other parts of the world, there were protests, as human rights and religious freedom activists criticized ongoing repression in china. in india, buddhist exiles demonstrated against the ongoing chinese occupation of their tibetan homeland. a new survey by the pew research center finds that fewer americans express support for legal abortion than in previous years. in this year's survey, americans were almost evenly divided, with 47% saying they support legal abortion and 45% against. in 2008, 54% of americans said they supported legal abortion

and 41% opposed it. this weekend, catholics around the country celebrate their annual red mass, in honor of all those working in the justice system. meanwhile, the supreme court is about to take up a case that could have major consequences for the line separating church and state. at issue is a cross on public land in the mojave desert in california. the first amendment to the constitution forbids the government from establishing any religion, and that has been interpreted as a ban on the government's favoring any one religion. could that make the cross in california and, perhaps, all religious symbols on all public land unconstitutional? tim o'brien reports.

why is it so important? well, because of my word to my friend, that i would maintain it. to me that means a whole lot >> reporter: buono had persuaded federal courts in california that the cross unconstitutionally promotes the christian faith, a claim henry sandoz says he just doesn't get. >> it shouldn't mean no more than a memorial to the veterans. and also, when you see a cross on the highway, you don't necessarily-and i don't either- think of the cross aspect like, you're saying, 'iwe think somebody died there. that's the meaning most have about it, or should have. >> reporter: the u.s. 9th circuit court of appeals however found putting the display on public land violated the first amendment's "establishment clause" which prohibits the government from establishing a

religion, a decision that has outraged many veterans and triggered a public relations campaign on their behalf by the dallas based liberty legal institute: >> our veterans stood for us. now that their memorials are under attack around the country, are you willing to stand with them? >> reporter: attorney kelly shackelford, who runs the liberty legal institute, says the cross is all about honoring the nation's war dead. and has nothing to do with promoting religion: >> if this cross goes down, because it's a memorial in the middle of the desert, if you have to tear down a seven foot cross in the middle of 1.6 million acres of desert, what do you have to do at arlington memorial cemetery with a 24-foot tall cross, i mean this would literally affect almost every community in our country because they have veterans' memorials and a lot of those have a religious imagery that's attached to those. >> reporter: what about arlington national cemetery? >> oh, wonderful. you know, there's probably no better place

to express one's religious beliefs than in a cemetery. this is not a cemetery. >> reporter: at least on the surface frank buono, a transplanted new yorker, would appear to be an unlikely plaintiff in such a case. he helped run the mojave preserve in the mid-nineties as an assistant superintendent and he is a practicing catholic. the walls of his home are lined with crucifixes and other religious symbols. and buono rankles at the suggestion that the purpose of the mojave cross is solely to remember the nation's war dead. >> what really disturbs me is the argument that somehow the cross is a secular symbol. i can't think of anything more offensive to a christian to a catholic, than the cross is a secular symbol. they say well, 'ithe cross is a secular symbol of death and sacrifice." and i say, "well, only to the extent that symbolizes the death and sacrifices of jesus christ, that is why the cross is a symbol of death and sacrifice

and believe me-- to a muslim, to a jew, to a hindu, to a buddhist, the cross is no such symbol of death and sacrifice. >> reporter: the furor, if not the rage-- the case has generated has not been lost on. we've seen interviews with the people in that little town and they want to string you up. >> yeah, oh i have been told although i try to avoid the sites, that if you go on the internet and put my name on it, you'll get people saying incredible things about me. even within my own family i've had people say, what are you doing? this is the cross, you're a catholic >> reporter: buono's case also got the attention of the u.s. congress and representative jerry lewis, whose 41st congressional district includes the mojave preserve. lewis introduced legislation transferring the land on which the cross was located to a private veterans group-in hopes of circumventing the constitutional question the cross raised. >> we've attempted by way of the appropriations process-to first allow there to be a property

exchge, because we were fighting a battle against endless lawyers of aclu, it seemed to us important to set aside the question as early as possible to preserve the cross itself. >> reporter: lewis' bill allowed the interior department to take the land back should the cross ever be removed . prompting the lower courts to find the transaction a "sham." buono has now moved away from the mojave preserve. almost 500-miles away to a small town in arizona, not far from the mexican border. so far away that the interior department says buono no longer has a real stake in the case; the department has asked the supreme court to throw out buono's complaint because his only real injury "is that he must observe government conduct with which he disagrees." oyou live five hundred miles away. what's it to you? >> whether i'm 500-miles away or five feet away from it, the fact of the matter is that that land is land that i own, that's land that you own; that's federal

public lands. it belongs to everyone. and so it matters to me that the lands that are held in common by the united states do not become the venues for sectarian religious expressions-- even of my own religious expressions. >> reporter: legal scholars say this case has at least the potential to be the most important religion case to reach the supreme court in decades. but there have been many cases involving religious displays on public property. what makes this case so different may have less to do with the case itself than with the court that will decide it. the justices have long been sharply split on religion questions, often dividing 5-4; the addition of three new justices in the last four years, could change everything. erwin chemerinsky is dean of the law school at the university of california at irvine. >> i think there are five votesv on the current court that want to dramatically change the court with regard to the wall that separates church and state. these five justices: roberts, scalia, kennedy, thomas and

alito don't believe that there's a wall that separates church and state. >> reporter: no decision is likely from the high court for several months in a case that could have momentous consequences for the country. notwithstanding its simple beginnings. arising out of henry sandoz's pledge to a dying friend 26- years ago. >> you know, to me. i guess it's really great. i'm just kind of a hick, i guess you'd say a country person. and it's really out of the ordinary for me. >> reporter: the words'i separation of church and state' do not appear anywhere in the constitution. the first amendment ban on government establishment of religion would surely require at least some separation. but how much? this reconstituted supreme court today appears poised to reconsider that crucial question. for religion and ethics newsweekly, i'm tim o'brien in washington.

>> abernethy: this past week in washington, the administration's top political, military and diplomatic leaders gathered to think through u.s. options in afghanistan. on october 7, the u.s. will have been involved militarily in afghanistan for eight years. what is our mission there, can it be achieved and what are the moral dimensions of the debate? william galston is a senior fellow at the brookings institution in washington. he brings to the discussion a strong grounding in the just war tradition. bill, welcome. >> good to be here. >> abernethy: well, what can we say about what the mission is, in afghanistan should be? >> well, we have to understand the mission in light of 9/11, the attack on the united states which killed thousands of civilians was conceived and launched by al-queda using afghanistan as a base with the taliban government sheltering them. and the piece of the mission on

which everyone agrees is the importance, the urgency, and the moral justification, the defense of justification, of making sure that afghanistan cannot again serve as the base for terrorist attacks on the united states. >> abernethy: okay, so what are the means to that end? how do we do it? >> that's one of the questions that's being debated in washington right now. and there are two basic options. option number one is to try to create an afghan government that is legitimate, enjoys the consent of the people, and has the capacity to prevent al-queda and other terrorist groups from acting on its territory. the other possibility is to abandon the hope of creating such a government on the grounds that we don't have the capacity to do it, and focus instead on direct attacks on al-queda and other terrorists using, using drones, using bombs. >> abernethy: in pakistan. >> and special forces in

pakistan as well as afghanistan absolutely. >> abernethy: yeah. and so, can we do either of those? >> that is a very important question as we learned so painfully decades ago in vietnam. it is wrong not to ask the question at the threshold. can we do what we want to do? it is immoral to send young people-- young american men and women-- to die in pursuit of an end that cannot be attained, and it is even worse if political leaders have good reason in advance to believe that the end that they are publicly declaring is unobtainable. and the worst of all is to use american troops for the immediate political advantage of the party of the administration in power. >> abernethy: one of the... one of the issues here is whether we can create the trust of the afghan people in our ability to stay and do what's necessary.

can they trust us to see it through? >> that is a critical question because, by having anything to do with us in these remote villages, they are risking their lives, and it would be wrong of us to send a signal that we're in for the long haul and then leave our local allies in the lurch. unfortunately, we have done that from time to time since the second world war, and the results were never pretty, and the policy is never justified. if we tell people that they can depend on us, we've given a solemn promise on which they are wagering their lives and we better honor that promise. >> abernethy: and so how do you come out quickly? how do you come out of it? >> i think that... i think that we have to go forward, and i have reluctantly concluded that investment of additional troops represents the best way forward and others that i respect differ with that conclusion. >> abernethy: william galston of the brookings institution. many thanks.

>> my pleasure. >> abernethy: one of the effects of the recession has been a new interest in growing your own vegetables. we have a story today about a church that has taken up gardening, not for its own use but for the people with special needs next door. deborah potter reports. >> reporter: it's hard work on a warm day, but bob lewis never shirks. >> i garden at home. on off days, i'm out here. >> reporter: here is a vegetable patch in front of st. luke's episcopal church in suburban washington, tended by volunteers from the parish. >> we got a bumper crop and more coming in! >> reporter: last year, this garden was just an idea. something the rector dreamed up. >> i think "come eat, go serve" is becoming our slogan. >> reporter: for reverend stephanie nagley, the garden as a way of living out what she sees as god's call to give away what you've been given,

especially in tough times. st. luke's is one of several churches across the country that planted vegetable gardens for the first time this spring, partly in response to the recession. most of their food goes to local food banks but what comes out of this garden goes right next door. all of the produce grown at the church is donated to st. luke's house, a mental health facility the parish helped to found almost 30 years ago. cooking class is offered daily as part of a life skills program. the goal of the class is to help these adults with mental illness learn to live more independently. >> what are you learning? >> how to cook different veggies. >> reporter: the fact that those veggies come from the church next door isn't lost on anyone at st. luke's house. >> i think it's really absolutely nice. we get a lot more veggies to eat. >> i really appreciate it. i really should thank them sometime, i guess.

>> i think the clients get a real kick out of it. one guy in particular is always double checking, "are you guys really using that in your cooking classes, are you sure?" "yes, we definitely are using that in our cooking classes." >> reporter: the clients and staff of st. luke's house benefit from the garden's bounty, but that's not its only value. >> ooh, there's a big one. >> reporter: parishioner anne elsbree organized the 30 volunteers who tilled the ground, planted the seeds and now harvest the crops. >> i think it's produced good teamwork at church. we've all been working on a project together and getting results. it's been very satisfying. >> in some ways, i think a lot of this was just sort of an unconscious bubbling up of people's faith. i think it's sort of come to this next era where it's really now articulated. and we're making it clear that this is what we've been about all along. >> reporter: cara gonzalez worships at st. luke's and has brought the local youth organization she works with to

help out in the garden. >> there's definitely something spiritual about working with the earth and feeling a relationship with all of god's creation and then taking that and making it into a human relationship with those who benefit in the cooking program and with the youth who benefit. i think it's all about that connectedness and that's very spiritual. >> reporter: this year's harvest was such a success that st. luke's plans to keep the garden going next year and make it bigger, so it can feed even more people, body and spirit. >> here take a sniff. >> reporter: for "religion and ethics newsweekly,..." >> tell me that's not spiritual right there. mmm, amazing. >> reporter:... i'm deborah potter in bethesda, maryland. >> abernethy: saudi arabia has announced that everyone arriving for the annual pilgrimage to mecca in late november will have to swallow a dose of oral polio vaccine, under official

supervision. prior to this year, the saudis asked only for proof of vaccination when pilgrims arrived. but people from countries where polio was endemic were forcibly vaccinated. muslim-majority countries where polio is still endemic include pakistan, afghanistan and regions of nigeria and india. on our calendar, jews are celebrating sukkot, a time of thanksgiving. many jews build temporary shelters, called sukkahs, to commemorate the period when the children of israel wondered in the desert. at the completion of sukkot is simhat torah, a joyous festival to mark the end of the annual torah-reading cycle. the scrolls are taken from the ark and paraded around the synagogue. some worshipers also dance with for the more than two million hindus in the u.s., this week brought the end of one of their most important holidays,

navaratri, a nine-day observance with a strong emphasis on the female. hindus believe in one transcendant supreme being, brahman, who is represented by many forms, deities. each three-day period of navaratri is dedicated to a different goddess: first, durga, then lakshmi, then saraswathi. we visited the shiva vishnu temple in lanham, maryland, just outside washington, d.c. our guide was narayanswamy subramianian. >> navaratri is known as the festival of nine nights, and this is dedicated to the supreme being in the form of the divine mother. the mother is worshipped in three different forms. each of these forms have a certain characteristic. goddess durga helps us overcome obstacles. goddess lakshmi gives us both spiritual and material wealth. and goddess saraswathi confers knowledge and wisdom, ultimately

taking us to the path of liberation. we have been having a special fire ceremony. this year, in view of the calamities we're facing in the world, we seek the divine grace and blessings of the divine mother to mitigate financial turmoil, h1n1 virus and other diseases that are spreading. the priests offered a variety of things: fruits, vegetables, grains. in india, women wear what's called saris. so we offer saris to the divine mother. these are all offered with clarified butter, the purest form of offering. the fire is a carrier of all the oblations that you give to the divinity. just like when you send a telegraph money order, the fire takes what you give and converts it to the kind of food or material things that is desired by that deity. material offering, when combined with chanting portions of the

700 hymns on the divine mother, becomes a very powerful vibrational offering to the deity. we feel that the divine vibrations will reach throughout the world and will benefit all mankind. water is supposed to be a very powerful way of absorbing these vibrations. they carried these silver pots filled with water that were energized with all the chantings up to the temple. the sanctified water is poured on the deities. this is one way of recharging, resanctifying the deities and increasing the positive vibrations. the deities are already charged; but, from time to time, we need to recharge it so that vibrations increase and it becomes more and more powerful in terms of blessing the devotee who comes to worship.

we have anthromorphic forms where god is deified in a human form. and as we progress in our meditation, in our spiritual exercises, the form no longer becomes important. god is no longer confined to a certain temple, to a certain deity. god is everywhere. once you start seeing god in everything, that's when you have reached a certain level of perfection. and that's when we say there's no more work for you because you're now merged with the god. this is what hinduism is all about. >> abernethy: that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. we have much more on our website. you can comment on our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from pope benedict the sixteenth's pilgrimage last weekend to the czech republic.

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