c. 1998 Religion News Service
Judge dismisses final plaintiff in suit against Catholic weekly
(RNS) A federal judge has dismissed the last remaining plaintiff in a $30 million defamation lawsuit initially filed by Briggs & Stratton over reports in the National Catholic Reporter that questioned the morality of the company moving jobs to cheaper labor markets.
The ruling was hailed as a victory for freedom of the press by the publisher of NCR, a progressive, independent newsweekly based in Kansas City, Mo.
“From the start, this suit appeared to be an effort by Briggs & Stratton to dissuade the media from doing its job from printing the sometimes painful stories of victims of corporate decision-making,” publisher Thomas C. Fox said in a statement.
“This was a groundless lawsuit from the start. It was a tragic waste of time and energy, making the victory all the sweeter,” said Fox.
The controversy erupted in December 1994 after NCR published an article and column questioning whether the decision by the Milwaukee-based small engine manufacturer to move jobs to cheaper labor markets was in line with Catholic social teaching. Top officials at Briggs & Stratton are prominent Roman Catholics.
In 1996, Briggs & Stratton, as well as John Shiely, the company president; Thomas P. Krukowski, its labor lawyer; and George Thompson III, the director of corporate communications and community relations, filed suit against NCR.
In December 1997, however, Briggs & Stratton, Shiely and Krukowski withdrew from the suit, leaving Thompson to continue.
But in his ruling dismissing Thompson’s suit, U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert said, “There is no allegations that anyone … was misquoted. In fact, it is clear that the defendants thoroughly investigated the facts underlying the articles.”
Clevert called special attention to the efforts of NCR reporter Leslie Wirpsa to thoroughly investigate the matter.
“Wirpsa reviewed news accounts of the controversy, spent four days in Milwaukee conducting nearly two dozen interviews and compiled an extensive file of notes and published materials which she used in writing the news article,” Clevert said.
“Briggs & Stratton acted in a calculating way throughout,” said Fox. “They attempted to bully us. We are pleased with the outcome.”
Appeals court strikes down FCC rules opposed by religious stations
(RNS) An appeals court has struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s affirmative action rules for TV and radio broadcasters, handing two radio stations owned by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that had been accused of racial discrimination a major victory in its eight-year struggle with the FCC.
“The decision vindicates the church’s radio stations in Clayton, Mo., KFUO (AM) and KFUO-FM,” the Rev. Paul Devantier, executive director of the Missouri Synod’s Board for Communication Services said in a statement. “The church is very pleased that the court rejected the FCC’s ruling that it had violated the law by recruiting for positions within the church.”
Devantier said the denomination has long fought against racism but “had defended itself for the last eight years against the FCC’s efforts to penalize the church and other religious organizations for using religious hiring preferences as a means of fulfilling their religious missions.”
In 1990, the NAACP charged the stations had not sought minorities when hiring new employees and asked the FCC not to renew their licenses. The case went through several hearings and appeals, with the stations facing a $25,000 fine and the FCC maintaining the religious qualifications for some positions were in violation of FCC rules.
In February, the FCC adopted a proposal allowing religious broadcasters to use religious affiliation as an employment qualification for religious radio station employees. Despite the new policy, however, the Missouri Synod decided to continue its appeal, desiring a court decision because it believed the new FCC policy could change.
Devantier praised both the new FCC policy and the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia as “a vindication of religious freedoms.”
The Rev. Everett C. Parker, director emeritus of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, however, said he was disappointed by both decisions and said he fears the court ruling will lead to some broadcasters no longer supporting the hiring of women and minorities.
He called the court ruling “clearly unconstitutional” and the Missouri Synod’s claims that the decision gives them religious freedom “specious.”
“They had all the religious freedom that there is,” he said.
Parker, working on behalf of the United Church of Christ, filed the petition with the FCC that led them to enact the Equal Employment Opportunity rules in 1971. He predicted that if the case is appealed to the Supreme Court, the UCC office of communication would support the FCC with an amicus brief.
Healthcare institute awards grants to psychiatric residents
(RNS) The private National Institute for Healthcare Research has announced a new round of grants to medical schools and hospitals that will, for the first time, educate psychiatric residents about their patients’ spirituality.
Dr. David Larson, president of NIHR, viewed the new grants as a sign of warming relations between the fields of religion and medicine, in this case in the specialty of psychiatry.
“This is a seminal event in a field which historically since Freud has not looked nicely on religion and spirituality,” he said. “The times have changed and now there’s a level playing field.”
Larson said a committee of the American Psychiatric Association determined in 1990 that psychiatrists should respect patients’ beliefs and not impose their own beliefs on patients.
Now, he said, his organization is helping the psychiatrists of the future get training to help them understand how religion may be a factor in their patients’ lives. The $15,000 grants, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, will be used for training, lectures, and field trips by psychiatric residents.
Winners of the grants Baylor College of Medicine; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; California Pacific Medical Center, University of California; San Francisco School of Medicine; Loma Linda University School of Medicine; Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Noted religion expert, minister break same-sex ground at Harvard
(RNS) Diana Eck, a leading professor of comparative religion at Harvard University, and the Rev. Dorothy Austin, an Episcopal minister who teaches religion and psychology at New Jersey’s Drew University, will become the first same-sex couple to serve as housemasters, or live-in adults, at a Harvard student dormitory.
Eck and Austin will assume their new duties as housemasters of Lowell House dormitory in July. Some 450 male and female students live in the dorm where the two women will serve as sort of surrogate parents.
Eck, a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, recently released the CD-ROM “On Common Ground: World Religions in America” and is a leading expert on the changing American religious landscape. She is also a member of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad.
Austin, who formerly taught at Harvard, commutes from Boston to Madison, N.J., where she spends half the week teaching at Drew. One of her classes is Spirituality, Health and Healing, the New York Times reported Wednesday (April 15).
Eck and Austin met as Harvard graduate students in 1976 and have been active in gay issues at the school.
Austin said the couples’ sexual orientation was not an issue during the housemaster interview process.
“I brought it up,” she told the Times. “I said, `You know, it just so happens that most instances, as far as I know, housemasters have been kind of on an Ozzie and Harriet model, and how would it be to have Harriet and Harriet?’ To which everyone just laughed and said, `That’s no problem.”’
Eck, who noted she expects to hear criticism of Harvard’s decision, said “Our universities are one of the places where issues of difference are being negotiated and worked out. If we can’t work them out at Harvard, how are we going to work them out in New York or in Chicago or in the world?”
Controversial guru Frederick Lenz III found dead
(RNS) Frederick P. Lenz III a controversial spiritual teacher who also called himself Atmananda and Zen Master Rama was found dead Monday (April 13) in a bay adjacent to his $2-million home in Old Field, N.Y. He was 48.
Police Wednesday (April 15) awaited the results of an autopsy to clear up the circumstances of Lenz’ death. Police speculated Lenz accidently fell into the water from a floating pier, and that drugs may have been involved.
An unidentified woman who spoke incoherently was found in Lenz’ home, according to reports.
Called a con man who sexually and financially exploited his followers, Lenz was born in San Diego but grew up in Connecticut, where his father was mayor of Stamford. Returning to California, he became a student of Eastern religions. In the late 1970s he began gathering followers and using the names Atmananda and Zen Master Rama.
He denied ever abusing his followers who according to reports never numbered more than a few hundred, despite the widespread publicity he received but admitted having sex with them.
Lenz called himself a Buddhist, albeit one who prefered a lavish lifestyle to aceticism. In recent years, Lenz wrote novels and gave seminars on computer software development, for which students reportedly paid as much as $3,500 a month.
Quote of the day: Egyptian Economy Minister Yousef Boutros-Ghali
(RNS) “We have not asked for outside help. I will ally myself with the nearest Egyptian Muslim rather than an American congressman.”
Egyptian Economy Minister Yousef Boutros-Ghali, nephew of the former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and one of two Coptic Christians in the 30-member Egyptian cabinet, on legislation in Congress that would make religious discrimination by foreign governments a factor in U.S. foreign policy. His grandfather, the first Coptic prime minister of Egypt, was assassinated by a Muslim extremist in 1910. He was quoted in the Washington Post Wednesday (April 15).
MJP END RNS
AP-NY-04-15-98 1651EDT
