PARENTS TRY TO STOP EVANGELIST SPEAKER

MARION - The battle over secular assemblies to be delivered by a Texas
evangelist in Marion schools next week is headed to federal court.

Robert Marsh, parent of a fourth-grader in this southern Illinois city,
asked the U.S. District Court in Benton Friday to issue a temporary
restraining order canceling the four assemblies in grades five through 12
because he claims they violate the constitutional separation of church and
state.

The judge assigned to the case, James Foreman, was not in court Friday and
did not hear the motion, said Richard Whitney, Marsh's lawyer.

"We were told to come back Monday" for the judge to consider it then,
Whitney said.

The battle pitting neighbors against neighbors in this town of 15,000
started after school officials took Fort Worth, Texas-based evangelist
Ronnie Hill up on his offer to give anti-drug assemblies at the schools
while he is in town leading a nightly prayer crusade at nearby Cornerstone
Community Church.