c. 1998 Religion News Service

Groups respond to rejection of”reparative”therapy

(RNS) Supporters and opponents of”reparative”therapy that attempts to change a gay person’s sexual orientation have sharply conflicting reactions to the American Psychiatric Association’s recent statement opposing such treatment.

The association’s board of trustees unanimously adopted a position statement opposing treatments such as”conversion”or”reparative”therapy during their meeting on Dec. 11-12.

In 1973, the APA removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders after reviewing evidence that it did not fit the criterion to be in the mental illness category.”It is fitting that this position opposing reparative therapy is adopted on the 25th anniversary of the removal of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the DSM,”said Dr. Rodrigo Munoz, president of APA.”There is no scientific evidence that reparative or conversion therapy is effective in changing a person’s sexual orientation. There is, however, evidence that this type of therapy can be destructive.” The statement said that such therapy could harm patients by causing anxiety, depression and self-destructive behavior.

Yvette Cantu, a policy analyst with the Washington-based Family Research Council who believes she has successfully”overcome homosexuality,”was disappointed in the APA’s new position.”It is unfortunate the American Psychiatric Association has given up on homosexuals,”she said in a statement.”I am living proof that homosexuals can change.” Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays lauded the APA’s stance.”We applaud the APA for joining other major professional organizations in taking a stand against this harmful practice,”said Kirsten Kingdon, the executive director of PFLAG, which is based in Washington.”Many PFLAG members have seen firsthand the damage that can come from trying to change a person’s sexual orientation.” Other organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Association of Social Workers, also have policies against reparative therapy.

Judges find error in lower court ruling on abortion protest

(RNS) A federal judge was wrong when he said”conscience-driven religious belief”entitled abortion protesters _ including a retired Roman Catholic bishop _ to acquittal on contempt charges, a New York appeals court has ruled.

But the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, voting 2-1, allowed the acquittal to stand Monday (Dec. 14) so the defendants would not face double jeopardy, the Associated Press reported.

Last year, Judge John Sprizzo ruled that Roman Catholic Bishop George Lynch, 80, and Brother Christopher Moscinski, 28, had not committed a crime when they blocked access to the Women’s Medical Pavilion in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., in 1995 by lying down in its driveway.

Sprizzo said their”conscience-driven religious belief”cleared them of criminal contempt for violating a court injunction prohibiting them from blocking the clinic.

His decision surprised people on both sides of the abortion debate.

The appellate court ruled Monday that Sprizzo was mistaken when he absolved the defendants of purposefully disobeying a restraining order.”Even godly motivation does not cancel this intent,”wrote Judge Dennis Jacobs. But he and Judge Robert Sack agreed that reversing Sprizzo’s ruling would expose the defendants to double jeopardy, or being tried twice for the same crime.

Judge Wilfred Feinberg, who cast the dissenting vote, said the defendants should be convicted because their acquittals were based on”gross legal error.” Defense attorney Robert Blakey, who had argued that the acquittals should stand even if the judge was mistaken, called the ruling”a vindication of civil liberties.”

Colorado clergy upset at state court’s clergy-misconduct rulings

(RNS) An ecumenical group of Colorado’s religious leaders has filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing the state’s courts are trampling on religious freedom by holding churches responsible for the misconduct of clergy.”In America, churches are by right autonomous and self-governing associations,”the church leaders said in the brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The federal appeals court is considering whether to reinstate a lawsuit filed against a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Marshall Gourley, and the archdiocese of Denver, by a former parishioner who alleges Gourley molested him as a teen-ager.

The lower federal court ruling went against the parishioner, saying it was filed too late and that a religious organization can’t be sued for the misconduct of its clergy.

Most other clergy misconduct cases have been brought in state courts.

In the brief the church leaders said their denominations”deplore and unequivocally condemn all forms of sexual, physical and emotional abuse,”but argued churches are”sacred associations of people”and have the right to determine how to train and supervise their clergy.

Colorado, according to lawyers who represent religious groups in misconduct cases, has a reputation for repeated rulings that churches have a fiduciary responsibility to protect church members.”Colorado has basically said the state can regulate churches,”said Douglas Laycock, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas.

But Joyce Seelen, who has won between $3 million and $4 million for clients in clergy misconduct suits, disagreed with the church leaders.”I’m curious what deeply held religious belief has caused churches to turn away from the issue of child abuse and abuse of others vulnerable in churches,”Seleen said.

The brief was filed by a coalition of groups including Adventist, Mormon, Muslim, Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran denominational bodies and several evangelical organizations.

Church management magazine planned for British church leaders

(RNS) _ A new magazine, Church Management International, is being launched in Great Britain in an effort to help British church leaders better manage their financial and physical assets.

The bi-monthly magazine, aimed at providing a forum for the discussion of management issues affecting the churches, will have an initial print run of 20,000, and the hope of those producing it is that in three years it will have a circulation of 30,000 or more throughout the English-speaking world.

The team behind the new magazine is convinced there is a market for the magazine.

The failure of British churches to get involved in management is costing them a fortune, said Jonathan Rudd, who is in charge of marketing and distribution.”On the other hand, if you just take straightforward management theory and apply it to the churches it doesn’t work,”he added.

He said there are common issues about managing the churches that were shared internationally, and the magazine aims to provide a forum for discussion of those issues with a special emphasis on church growth.

For example, a church just starting up often begins by sharing or renting a building. The congregation could do with professional advice to make sure it was getting a good deal, he said. The same would apply when it reached the stage of constructing its own church building. Another issue is the whole question of working with volunteers _ an area where charities have a fund of experience that could be drawn on.

Terry Winter, popular Canadian TV evangelist, dead at 56

(RNS) Terry Winter, one of Canada’s most popular TV evangelists who prided himself on his non-bombastic approach to preaching, has died of a massive aneurism. He was 56.

Winter, of Vancouver, British Columbia, died Dec. 11.

His show aired weekly on more than 26 TV major stations that broadcast across Canada and in the northern United States, including on Vision TV, Canada’s multifaith network. He had a weekly viewing audience of about 300,000, which arguably ranked him second in Canada only to David Mainse, of the program”100 Huntley Street,”whose on-air style was more sentimental than Winter’s, but still avuncular and low-key.”Terry was a TV pastor-teacher who broke the mold. He was quiet and laidback with a lot of dignity,”said Rev. David Short, priest at Vancouver’s St. John’s Shaughnessy church, a large evangelical Anglican congregation that Winter attended with his wife and children.

Canadians have never been drawn to televangelists as passionately or in great numbers as Americans have to such flamboyant figures such as Benny Hinn or Jimmy Swaggart. Only 8 percent of the Canadian population is evangelical, compared to roughly 30 percent in the United States.

Winter’s TV show often consisted of him sitting at his desk or in front of a fireplace, carrying on a thoughtful conversation with well-known evangelical leaders, including Billy Graham, former Watergate conspirator turned evangelist Chuck Colson, British theologians Michael Green and John Stott, and American author Tony Campolo, spiritual adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Although Mainse and Winter were colleagues who spoke fondly of each other, they had different attitudes to Christian broadcasting. Mainse successfully pushed Canada’s broadcast regulators this year to follow the U.S. model, and it recently granted Mainse his own all-Christian TV network.

Winter, however, preferred the traditional Canadian approach, which meant he avidly supported multifaith broadcasting through Vision TV and believed each station should air a balance of opinions on religious and other issues.

Raised in Nanaimo, B.C., in the Church of the Brethren denomination, Winter illustrated the low priority evangelicals place on denominational ties by attending an Anglican church.

Quote of the day: Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition.

(RNS)”We have circulated petitions for the last month and a half. I quit counting signatures when we broke a quarter of a million about two weeks ago.” _ Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition on its petition campaign to impeach President Clinton.

DEA END RNS