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Euless Man Told To Stop Religious Sacrifices

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Dec 27, 2006 4:40 pm US/Central

Euless Man Told To Stop Religious Sacrifices

by Mary Stewart
EULESS (CBS 11 News) ― A Euless man is suing the city because, he says, they're trying to restrict his religious freedom.

Jose Merced is an oba, a priest of the Santeria Temple.

According to an affidavit, Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean religion that considers animal sacrifice "essential" because, they believe, "spiritual forces manifest themselves in the world via the energy in blood."

Merced practices this religion in his home, and says that his Euless congregation sacrifices chickens and sometimes goats. According to court documents, the police appeared at his home earlier in the year and told him that he could no longer perform sacrificial ceremonies.

Merced's lawyer, John Wheat Gibson, says that the city of Euless is limiting his constitutional rights, and sites a 1993 Supreme Court case from several Santeria adherents in Hialeah, Florida that struck down a prohibition against animal sacrifice.

The Euless city attorney said that he had not yet been served with a federal lawsuit, and would not be able to comment even if he had been.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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