c. 1997 Religion News Service

School prayer amendment passes House subcommittee

(RNS) A proposed constitutional amendment that would restore state-sanctioned prayer in the public schools and insert the word God into the Constitution has been approved by a House Judiciary subcommittee.

The proposal, known as the Religious Freedom Amendment, passed on an 8-4 party-line vote, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats opposing.”This is a key step forward to restore the full protection for our American values and beliefs,”said Rep. Ernest J. Istook, R-Okla., the amendment’s chief sponsor.”We wish it did not require a constitutional amendment, but unelected judges have changed it for us, distorting our First Amendment religious liberties.”It is wrong to say that our children cannot start the day with simple prayers if they wish,”he said.

Critics, however, said the proposal _ drafted by a broad coalition of conservative groups including the National Association of Evangelicals _ would undermine religious freedom and impose state-sponsored Christianity in the schools.”Far from a `religious freedom’ amendment, this is a full frontal assault on the separation of church and state,”said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”It would usher in a dark era of taxpayer-supported religion and would saturate public institutions with whatever religion dominates the community.”The amendment, he said,”promotes religious tyranny, not religious liberty.” Action by the full committee is not expected until the spring. In order to be added to the Constitution, the measure must pass both the House and Senate by two-thirds majorities and be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

Mass marriage rededication blessing to highlight Moon festival

(RNS) The Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church will sponsor an eight-day cultural and sports festival in Washington, D.C., that will be capped by his blessing of a hoped-for 30,000 couples who will rededicate themselves to fidelity in marriage.”World Culture and Sports Festival III”_ scheduled for Nov. 23-30 _ will feature performances by singer Whitney Houston and the band Spyro Gyra, conferences on the roles that science, media, women and religion can play in achieving world peace, and competitions in soccer, basketball, swimming, track and field and other sports.

But the centerpiece of the festival _ being held in the United States for the first time after twice previously being staged in South Korea _ is”Blessing `97″_ set for Nov. 29 at Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.

At a Washington news conference Wednesday (Oct. 29), church officials said they hope as many as 30,000 couples _ who are being asked to pay $70 each for the blessing _ will rededicate themselves at the event to remaining husband and wife”eternally,”and to raise their children and grandchildren to abstain from sex outside marriage and not to divorce.

Officials said they expect some 3.6 million couples in about 160 nations also to rededicate themselves to fidelity in marriage at that time via satellite and videotape.

Marriage and family play a central role in Unification Church theology, which teaches that Jesus failed in his mission on earth because he did not establish the”perfect marriage.”The church _ which is said to have no more than 10,000 members in the United States _ also teaches that a sinless world can only result from a”sinless family.” Unlike mass Unification wedding ceremonies of the past, participants in”Blessing `97″will not be required to first join the church in order to receive Moon’s blessing.”This is not an attempt to bring new people into the Unification Church,”said the Rev. Phillip D. Shanker, director of the Moon-funded Family Federation for Peace.”Certainly it comes out of Rev. Moon’s theology, but this is absolutely not an effort to recruit. Our purpose is only to support the family.”

Chile’s Protestant churches may gain legal recognition

(RNS) Leaders of the Latin American Council of Churches say they are optimistic Chile’s legislature will soon approve a measure ensuring religious equality for all denominations in the country.

Currently, the Roman Catholic Church is the only body officially recognized in Chilean law and Protestant churches are treated in the same as private business corporations.

About 70 percent of Chile’s 14 million people are Roman Catholic. About 20 percent are members of various Protestant bodies.

The country has been considering a so-called”Worship Law”for the past six years. If it is passed, the law will put all churches on an equal footing, recognizing them as religious institutions operating under Chilean law.

The Rev. Walter Altmann, president of the church council and a leading Brazilian Lutheran theologian, said he was assured by government officials during an Oct. 1-13 visit to Chile that the proposed worship law would be passed.

Priest in India believed murdered for aiding untouchables

(RNS) A Roman Catholic priest was found beheaded in a forest in northern India, apparently murdered for aiding the region’s untouchables, the priest’s colleagues said Wednesday (Oct. 29).

The priest was identified as the Rev. A.T. Thomas, an Indian working with an Australian Jesuit-run mission in Bihar, India’s least-developed state where caste-based gang wars have killed hundreds of residents in recent years, the Associated Press reported.

Thomas was the third Catholic clergyman killed in the past two years in Bihar.

Quote of the day: Elliott Abrams, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center

(RNS) Elliott Abrams, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., writing in the Jewish newspaper, The Forward, recently criticized Promise Keepers, the evangelical men’s movement, for the prominent role”messianic Jews”_ converts to Christianity _ played at the group’s Oct. 4 rally in Washington:”Jews get to decide who is a Jew _ not Christians, whether newly minted one or old ones. Christians get to say which forms of belief take you out of Christianity. … Jews get to say what is beyond the pale for Jews, and the most obvious one is the belief in the divinity of Jesus. For evangelicals to support and celebrate the claims that believers in Jesus are still Jews is deeply offensive to any Jew. … Evangelicals leaders should get advice about Jews and Judaism from Jews _ not from converts who have abandoned Judaism.”

MJP END RNS