c. 1998 Religion News Service
Baptists to consider family-related amendment to faith statement
(RNS) A committee of the Southern Baptist Convention plans to recommend an addition to the denomination’s statement of faith that affirms heterosexual marriage and declares the husband is responsible for the family and the wife should”submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.” The proposed addition to the Baptist Faith and Message speaks of family as the”foundational institution of human society”and calls marriage”God’s unique gift”for men and women.”A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect and to lead his family,”the proposed statement reads.”A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” The proposed addition also states that children are a blessing”from the moment of conception”and should be taught”God’s pattern for marriage”by their parents.
The potential change came at the request of a delegate to last year’s annual meeting of the denomination, who thought the statement of faith should include a section on the family. Delegates to the 1998 meeting, which will be held June 9-11 in Salt Lake City, will vote on the proposal of the special committee.”While the BF&M is not a creed, it is an extremely important document to Southern Baptists. We make additions only with prayerful consideration and study,”SBC President Tom Elliff said in appointing the committee.
Anthony Jordan, chairman of the committee, called the proposed addition”thoroughly biblical,”reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”The BF&M has not been amended since 1963 when the inimitable Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs led the effort to develop a statement of faith for Southern Baptists,”said Jordan.”The BF&M has stood the test of time as the clear declaration of our faith. The assignment to produce a concise, clear statement that expresses the generally held beliefs of Southern Baptists concerning family was a daunting one.” Jordan added that, like the original statement, the proposed article states its points in the positive.”We attempted to declare what we believe rather than describe what we are against,”he said.
Chinese Catholic bishop, out of prison, placed under house arrest
(RNS) An elderly bishop _ one of two underground Roman Catholic Church leaders released from Chinese prisons Saturday (May 9) _ has been placed house arrest.
Bishop Zeng Jungmu, 78, was immediately placed under house arrest following his release from a labor camp in the central province of Jiangxi, according to news reports.
Zeng _ who has spent a total of 32 years in prison _ was at the top of the list of Chinese Catholics jailed because of their loyalty to the Vatican. The Clinton administration has long sought his release, as did three American religious leaders who visited China in February.
Zeng’s release was seen as a gesture to the United States in advance of President Clinton’s planned June visit to China.
Also released was the Rev. Lu Genyou, who was arrested in early April. Lu is a priest in the northern province of Hebei. Few details of his arrest or situation were available.
Zeng, reportedly in poor health, was arrested again in 1995 and was formally sentenced in March 1996 to three years of forced labor and”re-education.”The Washington Post reported that Zeng’s court papers described him as”unemployed,””a counterrevolutionary,””a violator of administrative norms”and”hard-headed.” China’s communist government in 1958 established the official Catholic Patriotic Association and insisted it had the power to appoint its own bishops. That position was rejected by the Vatican, which said only it has the right to appoint Catholic bishops.
Catholics who remained loyal to the Vatican soon found themselves persecuted and driven underground. The official Catholic Church has about 4 million members. Religious activists say the underground Catholic Church has about twice that number.
More than 25 underground church leaders are reportedly still imprisoned by China.
Dobson says he’ll keep pressure on House GOP
(RNS) Religious broadcaster James C. Dobson says he intends to maintain pressure on Republicans in the House of Representatives, despite their promise to push aspects of the religious right’s legislative agenda.
Speaking on CNN’s”Evans and Novak”program Saturday (May 9), the Focus on the Family-founder said of House GOP members:”I want them to listen to the people who put them in power. I want them to pay attention to the issues that burn within the hearts of the primary constituency of the Republican Party. … If they won’t do that, then they ought to lose.” Dobson’s comments followed by a day a three-hour”frank talk”in Washington between House leaders and representatives of the religious right angered by what they see as the GOP’s unwillingness to make good on promises made to religious conservatives during campaigns.
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, announced at the meeting the formation of a”Values Action Team”to serve as a liaison between conservative religious leaders and lawmakers.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said GOP House members would specifically push for reduction of the federal tax code’s”marriage penalty,”an override of President Clinton’s veto of a procedure critics call partial-birth abortion, and the elimination of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Lawmakers also agreed to push for a vote on legislation designed to curb religious persecution abroad, a ban on human cloning, and a measure that would ban taking a female minor across state lines for an abortion without parental permission.
Dobson has threatened to bolt the Republican Party _ and take his supporters with him _ should the GOP continue, in his opinion, to give the agenda of religious conservatives short-shrift.
Meanwhile, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington watchdog group opposed to the religious right, attacked the GOP-religious conservative alliance as an”outrageous”back room deal.”Every American ought to be worried that TV preachers and fundamentalist politicos are setting our national agenda,”said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn.
Update: Muslim-Christian unrest continues in Pakistan
(RNS) Pakistani Muslim extremists _ some reportedly carrying automatic weapons _ were turned back by police Monday (May 11) from advancing on Christian homes and churches as unrest continued following the death of a Catholic bishop who committed suicide to protest Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
The militants shouted anti-American slogans as they marched through the streets of the city of Faisalabad toward the grave of Bishop John Joseph, the Associated Press reported.
Joseph died after shooting himself in the head last week to protest the death sentence given a 26-year-old Catholic man under the blasphemy law, which makes it illegal to insult the Prophet Muhammad or Islam. Ayub Massih received the death penalty for reportedly speaking positively about author Salman Rushdie’s novel”The Satanic Verses.” Muslims also consider the novel blasphemous and Rushdie has been in hiding for nearly a decade after Iran’s Islamic government sentenced him to death in absentia.
Islam considers blasphemy akin to treason. In Pakistan, blasphemy has been a capital crime since 1986, although none of the reported 200 Christians convicted under the law have been executed. However, several have been murdered by Muslim mobs.
Pakistan has about 2 million Christians and more than 140 million Muslims.
Following Joseph’s burial Sunday, Muslims attacked and burned Christian homes and shops, leaving dozens homeless. Sixteen Muslims and five Christians were arrested.
Muslims have threatened general strikes and to bring down the central government if concessions are made to the Christian minority.
Virginia judge denies witch from performing weddings
(RNS) A Virginia judge refused Friday (May 8) to allow a self-proclaimed witch perform wedding ceremonies in the state.
Rosemary Kooiman of Lanham, Md., applied unsuccessfully to the Fairfax County Circuit Court for permission to officiate at marriage ceremonies in her pagan religion, Wicca.”I am not criticizing your beliefs,”said Chief Judge F. Bruce Bach, The Washington Post reported.”But your religion does not qualify as a religious denomination.” Kooiman, who described herself as a self-ordained minister of a 50-member group, said she was disappointed by the decision and plans to appeal.”To me, this is religious discrimination,”said Kooiman, 69.”He has the basic cultural bias: If the religion is not Christian, it is not valid.” She explained to Bach at a hearing that Wicca is a nature religion that celebrates life and seasonal cycles using pre-Christian European rituals.
Kooiman appeared before Bach after two members of her religious group who live in Fairfax County requested she conduct their wedding. Marriage licenses in Virginia are only considered valid if they are signed by someone authorized to perform the ceremony. Authorization must be received by a judge or a clerk of the circuit court.
Jane Deliee, Fairfax Circuit Court’s chief deputy clerk, said Kooiman was one of three out-of-state Wicca members who have been turned down by Bach this year.
Judith and William Alford of Reston, Va., were disappointed that they first had to be married by a justice of the peace.”We did this reluctantly, because it was not what we wanted,”said Judith Alford, a 37-year-old financial analyst. She called the judge’s decision”a slap in the face to our religion, to our priestess and to all pagans.”
Lenox, Inc., head tapped to head World Vision relief agency
(RNS) Richard Stearns, the president and CEO of Lenox, Inc., the New Jersey-based company that manufactures fine china, will become the new head of the U.S. operations of World Vision, the evangelical Christian relief and development and organization.
Stearns, 47, succeeds Robert Seiple, who leaves June 30 after 11 years as head of the relief agency that last year raised some $350 million in cash donations, grants and goods from corporations and private donors.”This is a job unlike virtually any other in the world,”Stearns said in a statement announcing his appointment.
Seiple, who said he has known Stearns _ a donor to World Vision for 15 years _ for more than a decade, said Stearns is”highly committed and brings with him a strong sense of calling to this ministry.” Stearns joined Lenox in 1987 as president of the firm’s collectables division after 20 years in marketing and management for such firms as Gillette Co., Parker Brothers Games and the Franklin Mint. He was named president of Lenox, Inc., in 1993 and CEO in 1995.
At World Vision, Stearns will be responsible for overseeing fund raising in the United States as well as for the development of public policy and advocacy on behalf of the poor for the Christian aid organization.
Established in 1950, World Vision has more than 4,000 programs in nearly 100 countries. The U.S.-based operation also has service program in a number of America’s inner cities.
Roy Eckardt, scholar of Christian-Jewish relations, dies
(RNS) The Rev. Roy Eckardt, a leading scholar of Christian-Jewish relations, has died in Coopersburg, Pa., of a brain tumor. He was 79.
Eckardt, chairman emeritus of religion studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where he taught for 31 years, was a United Methodist Church minister who frequently spoke out against Christian teachings he considered anti-Semitic.
He wrote 18 books and numerous articles on moral philosophy and the theology of politics. Some were co-authored with his wife, Alice.
Among his books were:”Black-Woman-Jew: Three Wars for Human Liberation,””Elder and Younger Brothers: The Encounter of Jews and Christians,”and”Christianity and the Children of Israel.” Former President Jimmy Carter named Eckardt a special consultant to the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. He also served the United States Holocaust Memorial Council as a special advisor from 1981-1986.
Quote of the day: Rollin DeLap, Southern Baptist mission official
(RNS)”If I zapped you with the power to recite 100 verses of Scripture and also gave you a $100 bill, which would it upset you more to lose? The fact is, for far too many of you, the answer is the $100 bill.” _ Rollin DeLap, assistant director of the evangelism and church growth department of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, in an April 30 speech to students at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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