c. 1998 Religion News Service
Religious investor coalition won’t endorse sweatshop agreement
(RNS) The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an umbrella organization of religious agencies that hold stocks, has announced it will endorse a White House brokered agreement between between apparel manufacturers and other human rights groups.”Key principles, such as payment of a sustainable living wage to employees, and credible independent monitoring, are not sufficiently addressed,”said Timothy Smith, ICCR executive director.
The accord, which President Clinton praised as”a historic step toward reducing sweatshops around the world,”was hammered out by a White House task force that included representatives of Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne and Phillips-Van Heusen.
Under the accord, American manufacturers pledge not to do business with companies overseas that use forced labor or require employees to work more than 60 hours a week. Companies will also prohibit hiring children younger than 15 except in countries where 14-year-olds can work legally.
The agreement also commits the companies to pay the minimum wage required by local laws.”The agreement provides for a study of wages,”said the Rev. David Schilling, who represented the ICCR on the task force that hammered out the deal.”But it does not commit participating companies to pay a sustainable living wage in apparel and footwear plants around the world.”A factory may be clean, well-organized and monitored, but unless the workers are paid a sustainable living wage, it is still a sweatshop,”he said.
The ICCR is a coalition of 275 Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish denominations, religious communities, pension funds, hospital corporations and foundations with over $90 billion in combined portfolio worth.
Smith said while the agreement does take”several important steps”forward in the campaign against sweatshop labor, until the companies agree to pay sustainable, living wages to their employees, it cannot endorse the agreement.
Jesuit magazine criticizes proposed Vatican rules for Catholic higher ed
(RNS) America, the Jesuit-run magazine, says proposed new norms for Catholic higher education are”unworkable and dangerous.” The proposed rules, which will be debated and discussed by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops at their meeting which begins Nov. 16, are the second effort by the prelates to implement on a local level more general norms set by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
The rules generally deal with the relationship between the church’s hierarchy and Catholic higher education.
In 1996, the bishops agreed to a set of norms that had been worked out between the church leaders and the leaders of Catholic educational institutions. But in 1997, the Vatican rejected the U.S.-drafted norms because they were not”juridical”enough for Rome _ that is, according to critics, they did not give local bishops enough power to crack down on theologians who dissent from church teachings.
Under the new rules criticized by America is the requirement that only”faithful Catholics”who manifest an”integrity of doctrine and personal conduct”may be recruited to be on the faculty of a Catholic education institution. They also require the majority of the board of trustees should be”faithful Catholics.””Such regulations might be appropriate for Catholic seminaries,”the magazine’s editorial said.”For Catholic colleges and universities that live in a world of accrediting associations and government regulations, the adoption of such norms would reverse three decades of development.
The magazine accused the Vatican of completely ignoring the original intention of the papal statement _ to adopt the general rules to a particular local context.”The impact of these (proposed) norms could be disasterous for U.S. Catholic higher education,”the editorial said.
Eight schools honored for medicine and spirituality courses
(RNS) Seven medical schools and a school of osteopathy were honored with $25,000 awards Wednesday (Nov. 11) for courses that will focus on spirituality and medicine.
The awards were given by the John Templeton Foundation and the National Institute for Healthcare Research for the fourth time.
The courses this year will look at the effect of spirituality and religious beliefs and practices on disease and health and the integration of spiritual aspects of healing with the mental and physical aspects of medicine.
Recipients this year are: Harvard University Medical School in Boston; Howard University College of Medicine in Washington; Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C.; St. Louis University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine in St. Louis; University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Mo.; University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in Texas; University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, Va.; and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.
Nineteen other schools _ including Brown University in Providence, R.I., Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore _ have received awards since 1995.
The programs reflect increased attention on religion and spirituality by the medical community.
More than 40 of the 126 accredited medical schools in the country are offering courses dealing with spirituality and medicine.”Five years ago, you could count on one hand the number of medical schools offering courses on spirituality,”said Dr. David B. Larson, president of NIHR, a nonprofit organization based in Rockville, Md., that supports research on the relationship between health and spirituality.
Conservative Texas Baptists break with state convention
(RNS) Conservative Southern Baptists in Texas have split off from the more moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas to form their own organization.
The group, called the Southern Baptists of Texas, severed their ties with the official Texas Baptist organization and opened their own convention at Woodforest Baptist Church in Houston. About 700 people, including 499 delegates, attended the rump convention, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (Nov. 10).
The New York Times estimated the breakaway group represented about 150 of the some 5,700 Southern Baptist congregations in the state.
It is the second group of conservatives in states still dominated by moderates that have broken away from state organizations. Two years ago, conservatives in Virginia also split with that state convention and formed their own rebel group.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas, with 2.7 million members, is the largest state convention in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant body. The SBC is firmly under the control of religious and political conservatives.
In breaking away, the conservatives argued that the moderate Texas convention was taking steps to distance itself from the SBC.
British Catholic bishops urge access for people with disabilities
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Church should make sure disabled people are able to play their full part in the life of the church and not be excluded from contributing to its life and mission, the bishops of England and Wales say in a statement published Monday (Nov. 9).”People with disabilities, their families and careers, are encouraged to take their rightful place as equal members of the church, with gifts to bring to its life and mission,”the bishops said.
The document, which notes that people with disabilities do not form a single homogeneous group, said disabilities fall into three main categories: physical, including conditions such as cerebral palsy, diseases like multiple sclerosis, and the effects of injury such as paraplegia or loss of a limb; sensory, such as impaired sight or hearing; and learning disabilities involving impaired brain function resulting from genetic or medical causes or from injury.
It sets out specific guidelines on how those with disabilities can be fully included in the church’s life, ranging from providing interpretation in sign language for the deaf and ensuring adequate wheelchair access, to involving the disabled in catechesis _ religious education _ both as learners and teachers.
The bishops also said the disabled should not be excluded from the sacraments.”In a church which includes all, people with disabilities will be encouraged to share fully in its sacramental life,”the document said.”The emphasis will be on welcoming and enabling participation. The sacraments are for all.” This includes marriage _”People with disabilities have the right to marry and to expect the support of the church in celebrating and living their marriage”_ and ordination _”It is a particularly valuable sign of an inclusive church if people with disabilities are numbered amongst its priests, permanent deacons and religious.”
Quote of the day: U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata
(RNS)”From our perspective, the increasingly blurred lines between war and peace, and the necessity to reach out to victims of forced displacement across those lines, makes the protection of refugees and returnees a more complex exercise than ever before.” Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, speaking to the U.N. Security Council Tuesday (Nov. 10).
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