c. 1999 Religion News Service

Falwell: the Antichrist _ a male Jew _ may be alive

(RNS) Television evangelist Jerry Falwell has told a conference on the millennium that the Antichrist may well be alive and, as a”counterfeit”of Jesus, will be a male Jew.

Falwell made his remarks Thursday (Jan. 14) before a crowd of some 1,500 people in Kingsport, Tenn., the Associated Press reported.”Who will the Antichrist be? I don’t know. Nobody else knows,”said Falwell, a Baptist preacher best known for founding the Moral Majority, the conservative religio-political organization active in the 1970s and 1980s.”Is he alive and here today? Probably. Because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of (Jesus) Christ. Of course he’ll be Jewish. Of course he’ll pretend to be Christ. And if in fact the Lord is coming soon, and he’ll (the Antichrist) be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere today.” According to some biblical interpretations, the Antichrist will spread universal evil _ the Tribulation _ before the end of the world but will be conquered at the second coming of Jesus.

On Friday, speaking in Williamsburg, Va., Falwell said he did not intend for his remarks to be considered anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. He said he meant only that the Antichrist must be Jewish because Jesus was a Jew.

Rabbi A. James Rudin, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee and a RNS columnist, said he believes Falwell is a strong supporter of Israel and is not anti-Jewish but that the millennial theology Falwell was talking about”is very, very radioactive material.””This is part of what I call millennial madness,”Rudin said.”To single out any one man, and particularly to identify him as Jewish, plays into some latent and historical anti-Semitism from the past.” Rudin urged Christian leaders to”exercise great care”in addressing such issues because”this can produce negative responses among people who are not educated in the New Testament.”

Bauer edges closer to a presidential bid; names Reagan as replacement

(RNS) Michael Reagan has been named to replace conservative religious activist Gary Bauer as head of the Campaign for Working Families in advance of Bauer’s expected run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.

Bauer, who served in the White House under Reagan’s father, President Ronald Reagan, has yet to make his bid official. But he is expected to do so in February, at which point Michael Reagan will become chairman of CWF, a fast-growing political action committee.

As a candidate, Bauer would be barred from running a PAC. Reagan is a Los Angeles-based radio talk show host.

Bauer spokesman Tim Goeglein said Monday (Jan. 18) that Reagan’s appointment”would seem to take (Bauer) one step closer”to making official his bid for the White House.

Bauer, who has never run for elected office before, previously stepped down as president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based public policy organization founded by religious broadcaster James C. Dobson. Janet Parshall, also a radio talk-show host, has been named to replace Bauer as”national advocate and chief media spokesperson”for FRC.

Scottish cardinal sees forces”hell-bent”on destroying the family

(RNS) Secular forces in society are”hell-bent”on destroying the nuclear family and the Roman Catholic Church must step up to defend its vision of the family, Cardinal Thomas Winning, archbishop of Glasgow, said Sunday (Jan. 17) in a homily at the Mass marking the golden jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood.

Describing the family as”the smallest but the most precious cell in human society,”Winning said for some sections of contemporary society the family composed of husband, wife, and child or children was”only one model amongst many.””As a Christian I have to acknowledge the reality of other family forms,”he went on,”but for me and my church there is only one model, according to divine and natural law, and the sooner society returns to it the healthier we will all be. “Currently, the family is undergoing a traumatic period, and there can be little doubt that there are very well-organized and resourced forces at work in our society which are hell-bent _ and I use those words advisedly _ on destroying the Christian family.” But Winning said he did not believe those forces would be successful.”You will not succeed in destroying the Catholic church’s commitment to the family, whether you use all-out assaults on the institution of marriage or try to trick us under the guise of political correctness into accepting all sorts of lifestyles which are quite simply unacceptable to the Christian.”

Executive director of Southern Baptist auxiliary to retire

(RNS) The executive director of the Women’s Missionary Union, the Southern Baptist Convention auxiliary, has announced plans to retire.

Dellanna O’Brien, 65, will retire Sept. 1 after 10 years in the post.”WMU has faced some of its hardest days this decade,”acknowledged O’Brien, who has worked to redefine her group as it faced declining participation by younger women and disputes over the auxiliary’s refusal to support the conservative faction that now controls the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention.

But she also cited accomplishments by the million-member WMU in the last 10 years, including strong support for offerings that support Southern Baptist missions, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

During her tenure, WMU developed a Christian Women’s Job Corps, a job training program that helps women in poverty gain self-sufficiency.

O’Brien suffered a stroke in September, but she said that was not a factor in her decision to retire, which she had made prior to that time.

Vatican `foreign minister’ urges end to isolation of Iraq

(RNS) The Vatican’s de facto foreign minister has called on the international community to end the eight years of isolation imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council following the Gulf War.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the French prelate who serves as the pope’s secretary for relations with states, characterized both international sanctions and military force as counter-productive and urged negotiations instead.

Tauran spoke in an interview with the Vatican Television Center to be aired by Catholic stations throughout the world in advance of Pope John Paul II’s scheduled meeting in St. Louis, Mo., on Jan. 26 with President Clinton.”For the Holy See it is important to find new ways that Iraq may be re-inserted into the international community,”Tauran said.”Isolation, to isolate a country, is never a solution. We see that with Iraq. We have seen it with Cuba and with Libya. Isolation leads to frustration, to reactions that are sometimes irrational and certainly don’t favor mutual comprehension.”The Holy See repeats that priority should be given to negotiation,”Tauran added.”The negotiating table unites; the military option, arms, divide. The force of law must prevail over the right of force.” Last week, the United States gave qualified backing to a French proposal to lift the oil embargo on Iraq provided the proceeds are used for food and pharmaceuticals for the Iraqi people but reiterated its opposition to the removal of all sanctions until Iraqi arms programs are dismantled.

The pope, who hopes to make a pilgrimage to Iraq in November to visit the ancient Chaldean city of Ur, believed to have been the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, strongly criticized the U.S.-led air attack on Iraq last month. He has consistently opposed economic sanctions on the grounds that they make the people of a country suffer for their leaders’ policies.

Lawyer William Bentley Ball dead at 82

(RNS) William Bentley Ball, a Roman Catholic lawyer and expert on church-state constitutional law, died Jan. 10 in Fort Myers, Fla., after a brief illness. He was 82.

A founder 30 years ago of the the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm of Ball, Skelly, Murren, and Connell, Ball was also the first executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and was its legal counsel through 1968.”I’m sure everyone that knew Mr. Ball and his work would agree that not only is this a great personal loss to his family, co-workers, and friends, but also a significant loss for the church, the legal profession, and all who defend and promote religious freedom,”said Robert O’Hara Jr., director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference.

Ball was best known for his defense of religious doctrine and practice against what he considered secular legal encroachments and was in the forefront of efforts to block the Kennedy and Johnson administrations from denying federal money to parochial schools.

In his best-known case, Ball successfully argued the precedent-setting case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1972 in which the court reversed the conviction of three Amish farmers who had refused to send their children to public school. The court held that requiring the children to attend public schools violated their constitutional right of freedom of religion.

Ball also wrote widely on issues of constitutional law and public policy and was the author of two books, most recently”Mere Creatures of the State.” He is survived by his wife Caroline, of Camp Hill, Pa., and their daughter, Virginia Duncan of Etters, Pa.

Quote of the day: Northern Ireland Roman Catholic leader John Hume

(RNS)”I think that when you look at conflict anywhere in the world … and you boil it down, it’s all about the same thing. It’s all about difference. The answer to difference is to respect it, not to fight it.” _ John Hume, Roman Catholic political leader in Northern Ireland and a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in a Sunday (Jan. 17) speech in Atlanta marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

DEA END RNS