c. 1997 Religion News Service

Aid workers reported abducted in Chechnya

(RNS) Leaders of the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation said Friday (Oct. 24) two more aid workers have been taken prisoner in Chechnya.

The WCC and LWF, parent organizations of Action by Churches (ACTS), said the kidnapped humanitarian workers are Hungarian nationals _ Gabor Dunaijsky, 44, and Istvan Olah, 47. They were abducted Thursday (Oct. 23) by a group of about 10 masked and armed men, according to reports reaching ACTS in Geneva.

Dunaijsky is the head of the ACT-Hungarian Interchurch Aid program in Grozny and Olah is an agriculturalist. Two other relief workers were abducted Sept. 20 and are still missing.

The WCC and LWF made an appeal to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, as well as to Aslan Maskhadov, president of the Chechen Republic, and to Movlady Oudougov, vice premier of the Chechen Republic.”We are gravely concerned for the safety of all four staff members involved in the abductions,”WCC Acting General Secretary Mary Ann Lundy and LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko said in their letter to the Russian and Chechen leaders.”The situation is obviously extremely insecure, and the ability of humanitarian relief agencies to carry out their necessary activities in the region are severely compromised. We ask you, on behalf of the families, colleagues and friends of the abductees and on behalf of the populations which depend upon their work, to urgently and thoroughly investigate these incidents and to use your best endeavors to locate the abductees and to secure their safety,”the statement said.

Calif. drivers won’t have to give `mark of beast’ number for licenses

(RNS) Five men who believe Social Security numbers represent the biblical”mark of the beast”are not required to give their numbers to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a Los Angeles court has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne ruled the DMV improperly forced five drivers to provide Social Security numbers to obtain or renew their driver’s licenses.

Wayne said the DMV could use another method to identify the men to respect their”sincerely held religious convictions … that anyone who uses his or her Social Security number is in danger of not receiving eternal life.” Some evangelical Christians believe the”mark of the beast”_ found in the New Testament book of Revelation _ could be an identifying mark or number without which no one can buy or sell anything in today’s world and use of the numbers is satanic. That conclusion is disputed by most evangelicals.

California has a history of cases where residents sought to obtain or renew licenses without providing a Social Security number although those cases dealt with anti-government and privacy arguments.

This is the first case involving religious objections to the use of Social Security numbers.”I think that the majority of the five men have Social Security numbers, but their convictions generally are that they shouldn’t use them at all,”said Ross S. Heckmann, a lawyer who represented two of the five.”This makes my clients’ lives much more difficult but this is their sincere conviction.” One of the men, Paul Villandry of Littlerock, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times on Friday (Oct. 24) his refusal to give the DMV a Social Security number led him to several convictions for driving without a license.”If I’m locked into that number, I’m going to hell,”Villandry said.”I chose to serve God and let God work it out for me.” Deputy District Attorney Angela Sierra said her office will appeal the court ruling.

Brigham Young University scotches Rodin nudes

(RNS) A Mormon-owned university has pulled four nude images from an art exhibit by renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the 19th-century artist best known for his seated figure”The Thinker”and whose romantic realism style often drew on biblical and religious themes.

The Provo, Utah, school decided to exclude”The Kiss,””Saint John The Baptist Preaching,””The Prodigal Son,”and”Monument to Balzac”from a traveling exhibit because the sculptor represented the figures in the nude.

Campbell Gray, director of the BYU Museum of Art, said the sculptures, although popular, would disrupt the exhibit and offend some viewers, the Associated Press reported Monday (Oct. 27).”We have felt that the nature of those works are such that the viewer will be concentrating on them in a way that is not good for us,”Gray said.”The Kiss,”an 1886 piece and one of Rodin’s most famous, shows a nude man and woman in an embrace while”Saint John The Baptist Preaching”shows the prophet nude in midstride to emphasize his mortality.

The pieces are part of a traveling exhibit called”The Hands of Rodin, A Tribute to B. Gerald Cantor.”Cantor collected works by Rodin.

Gray said it took two months to decide whether the pieces would be shown at the school. He said the decision reflects the university’s interpretation of the moral climate of the surrounding community and the religious views of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its leaders.

Report: King’s son a possibility to head the SCLC

(RNS) The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr., and the South’s premier civil rights organization through much of the late 1950s and 1960s, may appoint King’s son _ Martin Luther King III _ as its new head.

According to the Associated Press, King’s name has emerged as the most likely candidate for presidency of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.”It’s not written in stone, but somebody’s got the chisel,”a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference board of directors said Sunday (Oct. 26).

The board member, who spoke anonymously, said the SCLC’s search committee recommended King for the position. The directors are expected to meet this week to vote, but the final decision will be made by conference delegates during the coming weekend (Nov. 1-2).”I think he’s going to be the man,”said Milton A. Reid, a board member from Norfolk, Va, and a member of the search committee.”I can’t think of anything that would stop it.” The SCLC was co-founded in 1957 by the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy Jr., Martin Luther King Jr., and other clergymen. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, the present leader, is stepping down after 20 years as the group’s leader.

King, 40, was a Fulton County commissioner from 1986 to 1994. Since then, he has lectured on human rights and community activism.

Italy’s St. Francis basilica celebrates first Mass after quakes

(RNS) The 13th-century Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, one of Italy’s most endearing architectural and religious shrines that was battered by a series of devastating earthquakes, was reopened for its first Mass on Sunday (Oct. 26), one month after the first quake damaged the church.

While the upper basilica is not expected to reopen until millennium celebrations in 2000, the lower basilica, which houses the tomb of St. Francis, Italy’s patron saint, was cleared of ruble for the service.

Engineering officials said that with continuing tremors in central Italy, most of the church remained unsafe. The situation is similarly uncertain in many Umbrian towns _ the region of Italy that includes Assisi _ which are doted with churches and other monuments that have been severely damaged.

Many of them contain celebrated art treasures. A government official put the restoration price of these buildings at $400 million. But the estimates could climb once inspections are fully complete.

Scientists say they expect additional tremors in the months ahead, which would exacerbate the devastation that has left thousands homeless. The tremors have been centered in Umbria and the Marches region, and have been felt as far south as Rome.

The quakes began Sept. 26. Four people who were investigating damage inside the Assisi basilica from a quake hours earlier were killed when a second quake ripped apart the upper basilica’s ceiling, causing the collapse of two giant frescoes _ one of St. Jerome, the other of St. Matthew, painted by Cimabue. Quakes on Oct. 7 and Oct. 14 caused additional damage to the building facade, delaying further the restoration period.

Britain marks 30th anniversary of legal abortion

(RNS) A Gallup poll conducted as Britain marked the 30th anniversary of its law legalizing access to most abortions has found women less in favor of abortion than men and would like to narrow the time in which a woman can get an abortion.

According to the poll, 59 percent of women believe abortion should be legal only through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and not the current law’s 24 weeks.

The poll was commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph. It did not give a margin of error.

The newspaper also quoted a spokesman for the Abortion Law Reform Association, which is campaigning for abortion on demand, as saying:”I am staggered. This flies in the face of any polls we have conducted, which show that 80 percent of people are in favor of keeping the status quo.” Roman Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume, in a TV interview also marking the 30th anniversary, called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to convince his Labor Party and the British nation that abortion is wrong.”My message to Tony Blair would be, `You are a man of integrity, you are an honest man, and you see things clearly. I would have thought you should give leadership within your party and try to convince them that abortion is wrong and that we ought, as a nation, to do something about it,'”Hume said.

But Hume added that he thought it is generally agreed very little can be expected from the current parliament in terms of restricting abortion.

The Gallup Poll, meanwhile, found only limited support for abortion on demand _ favored by 21 percent of women and 31 percent of men.

Some 68 percent of women and 57 percent of men said abortion should only be allowed in particular circumstances, while 9 percent of women and 10 percent of men thought it should never be allowed.

In other findings, the poll found 32 percent of women and 38 percent of men thought the present laws on abortion were satisfactory, but 47 percent of women and 34 percent of men thought they should be amended to make abortions more difficult to obtain, while 13 percent of women and 21 percent of men wanted abortion made easier.

Quote of the day: Ann Hardy, Million Woman march participant

(RNS)”Anyone can say that they believe in family values, or in doing more at their churches. But it means more when you see many thousands of people are willing to give up their time to come here and say it together. That’s what makes the message so powerful.” Ann Hardy, a participant in the Million Women March held in Philadelphia, Saturday (Oct. 25), as quoted in USA Today.

MJP END RNS