Federal Trial Date Set in Harding Case

Judge William R Wilson will hear the case June 30 in Little Rock.

Dennis Gilliam, a Searcy citizen originally filed suit against Harding University and the White County Medical Center in October of 2006 alledging that tax free bonds were illegally issued on behalf of both entities. The suit also named several members of both organizations. Another man ,Billy Pruitt joined that lawsuit and the City of Searcy was added as a defendant.

In March, the suit was split between state and federal courts. The federal suit named Harding and the City of Searcy and the White County suit against the hospital and the country, according an article in The Daily Citizen.

According to David Crouch, Director of Public Relations at Harding, the University has received $34.3 million dollars in bonds since 1991. The American Heritage Center was remodeled with $8 million dollars in private donations.

Gilliam's lawyers toured the campus on Monday this week in search of religious icons on school buildings. Nearly every building on campus has Biblical scriptures in it, but it is debatable as to whether or not a scripture is an icon.

Marty Bowen, a lawyer from a Little Rock firm is representing Gilliam. Bowen had the following to say about his clients: "Mr. Gillam and Mr. Pruitt are not against religious freedom at all. We're not picking on Harding because they're Church of Christ. We cherish and would die for their right to worship as they see fit. It's just that when the city provides them financing through a facilities board for Harding specifically, the city is financing a religious-based university. We have no problem with religion whatsoever. We think religion can benefit greatly if government stays out of its business and vice versa. I told the people at Harding that. This is not about religious freedom. We don't want to seem like were here to attack religions."

The early stages of the suit caused Harding to reconsider plans for a Health Science program. Originally, Harding intended to house the program in the vacant south campus of the White County Medical Center. Instead, the program was delayed for a year while the construction of a facility on Harding's Searcy campus was completed.