c. 1996 Religion News Service
Religious leaders warn against hate talk
(RNS)-The rising tide of hate talk permeating the U.S. airwaves in particular and public discourse in general is endangering the nation, according to a group of religious leaders.”Our American public square is being systematically poisoned by the language of assault,”the fourth Maston Colloquium held at the Center for Christian Ethics said in a statement May 23.”Brutal attacks on public figures are now commonplace in the media as well as in the political arena,”the statement said.
Titled”Countering the Language of Assault Without Compromising the First Amendment,”the colloquium statement urged media owners, personalities, and consumers to turn away from”the language of assault”to more responsible public dialogue. It did not name any specific programs.
The incivility found in much talk radio threatens the rule of law, undermines authority and chisels away at the civil contract among Americans, the religious leaders said.”We call on people of good will and especially on people of faith in God to build a fence of protest, rejection and correction around those who may persist in spewing the pollution of hate into the public airways.” Participants involved in drafting the statement included Foy Valentine, president of the Center for Christian Ethics; Jimmy R. Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Franklin H. Littell, retired professor of religion at Temple University; the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Elspeth Davies Rostow, Stiles professor emerita at the University of Texas; and Oliver S. Thomas, special counsel, National Council of Churches.
Adventists send $500,000 in medical aid to North Korea
(RNS)-Medicines and medical supplies valued at $500,000 arrived in North Korean health clinics in early May from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the agency has reported.
Summer and fall floods in 1995 destroyed the North Korean rice crop, drove an estimated 500,00 people from their homes, destroyed factories and inundated mines.
The damage was so great that the North Korean government, usually closed to the outside world, set aside its suspicions and agreed to allow the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to launch aid appeals. In January, it changed its mind, saying the problem was resolved and the opening of the country to aid workers had been abused.
In March, it changed its mind again and gave permission for further appeals.
On Friday (May 24), IFRC said there are again growing signs of famine and the food supply situation is rapidly deteriorating, Reuters reported.
ADRA is one of the relief groups that has been responding to the emergency since the initial appeal. Since last September, the Adventist aid agency has shipped 38,000 pounds of powdered milk for children, 40 tons of rice from Vietnam, and medical supplies and medicines, including antibiotics, vaccines, and vitamins. “The openness (North Korea) is showing to us is unprecedented in the past 40 years,”said Ralph Watts, president of ADRA.”We are going to do everything possible to nurture that openness by assisting the people in that country in their time of need.”
Roman Catholic liberation theologian attacks ban on marriage
(RNS)-Leonardo Boff, a former Franciscan priest and key leader in the liberation theology movement, has attacked the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on marriage for priests as a”violation of human rights.””The celibate person loses a great dimension of his/her spirituality and of his/her encounter with God,”Boff said in an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso.”Getting married, according to my experience, is a challenge. It is not easy to live with another person or to tolerate the differences that sometimes make you angry,”said Boff.”In marriage, the words `God is love’ are not a metaphor nor just an expression, but an experience of saintliness. The church hinders this experience, and this is a violation of human rights.” Boff, 57, resigned from the priesthood in 1992. He is married to Marcia Miranda, a social worker, theologian, human-rights activist and leader of the Faith and Politics Movement in Brazil.
Boff’s views have earned him trouble with the Vatican. In 1985, he was silenced for a year because the Vatican disagreed with his views on liberation theology. In 1992, the Vatican again threatened him with the imposition of a five-year silence and forced exile to a Franciscan monastery in Korea or the Philippines, Ecumenical News International reported May 22. Instead, Boff resigned from the priesthood.
Catholic bishops applaud House minimum wage vote
(RNS)-The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have praised the House of Representatives for passing legislation to raise the minimum wage and urged the Senate to follow suit.
On May 23, the House voted 281-144 to boost the federal minimum wage to $5.15 an hour, a ninety-cent per hour increase. The issue has been the subject of intense partisan debate, with Democrats solidly backing the rise and Republicans divided on the question.
In a May 24 statement, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., chair of the bishops’ Domestic Policy Committee, said the minimum wage”is neither a new issue, nor a difficult one for the bishops.”For many decades, the Catholic bishops have advocated a decent wage floor for all Americans. In our tradition, decent work at decent wages is the foundation of social justice.” Skylstad said it would be”a shame and a real tragedy”if partisan bickering and political maneuvering between Republicans and Democrats undermined final passage of the bill.”For us, this is a human issue,”Skylstad said.”In our shelters and soup kitchens, in our parishes and schools, we see working families who can’t make ends meet because they work at minimum wage jobs. We serve too many families where men and women work full time and sill live in poverty.”
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick nominated as Presbyterian stated clerk
(RNS)-The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of Presbyterian Church (USA), has been nominated to be the 2.7 million-member denomination’s next stated clerk, the church’s top day-to-day official.
Kirkpatrick, ordained in 1968, has led the world mission effort of the Presbyterian Church for 15 years, since before the 1983 reunion of northern and southern Presbyterian denominations.”My vision of the church has been shaped by the ecumenical movement and by a larger vision of the unity of the whole church,”Kirkpatrick said in an interview with the Presbyterian News Service, the denomination’s official news agency.”The heart of that vision is a diversity that we need to celebrate and a unity in Christ that is mission-centered-to share Christ with the world in ways that make the church a provisional demonstration of the realm of God.” Kirkpatrick’s nomination now goes to the denomination’s General Assembly, which meets June 29-July 6 in Albuquerque, N.M. It is possible Kirkpatrick’s nomination will be challenged by nominations made from the floor.
If elected, Kirkpatrick will succeed the Rev. James Andrews, the incumbent stated clerk.
Quote of the day: Robert Seiple, president, World Vision U.S., on the wave of violence in Burundi.
A slow, little-noticed genocide is taking place in Burundi, according to Robert Seiple, president of the evangelical aid agency, World Vision, U.S. In a May 22 World Vision newsletter, Seiple urges Americans to take note of the killings and do what they can to help end the suffering:”Perhaps weary of ethnic violence in Bosnia and Rwanda, we ignore creeping genocide in a part of the world we don’t know much about, where the people seem so different from us, where we never fought a war, and where we can’t figure out how to fix the problem. We as Christians, we as Americans must take note; these killings cannot go unnoticed. … Reconciliation will be difficult and take many years to accomplish. But as in Bosnia and Rwanda-as well as our own cities and families-it is the only hope for Burundi’s future. In the supreme act of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God has shown the way for us in his vertical act of reconciliation. … It is up to us to seek horizontal reconciliation between his fallen children.”
MJP END
