* An Iowa judge will now decide if the phrase "spirit of Satan" is basis for a slander suit after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in a dispute at a rural Iowa church. On October 20 the justices rejected a petition by the United Methodist congregation to dismiss the case, sending the matter hack to Butler County. Iowa, for trial. On its face, the case is a simple defamation suit, but church-state watchers say it could hold important precedent on how much a secular court can or should involve itself in internal church matters. The case involves a 1999 letter written by a local church official about problems at a United Methodist church in Shell Rock, Iowa, population 1,298. Appealing for an end to divisions, District Superintendent Gerald Swinton noted that the "spirit of Satan" was at work in the congregation. Central to the controversy is church member Jane Kliebenstein, who said she was defamed by the letter because it falsely attacked her "integrity and moral character." She mad her husband sued for "fair and reasonable" damages.
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