c. 1999 Religion News Service

ELCA delegates vote to maintain stance on homosexuality

(RNS) Delegates to the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to maintain the denomination’s stance forbidding the ordination of practicing homosexuals.

The delegates, called voting members, adopted a resolution”to decline to propose at this assembly any change in the standards for rostered ministry related to non-celibate gay or lesbian persons.” By a 716-267 vote, they defeated an amendment that would have suspended the enforcement of ELCA policies that ban the ordination of practicing gays and lesbians and call for ordained ministers to abstain from sexual relationships with homosexuals.

They also defeated, by a vote of 559-414, an amendment calling for a denominationwide consultation to propose”strategies which might allow for the ordination of non-celibate lesbian and gay persons,”the ELCA News Service reported.

The Rev. Joseph M. Wagner, executive director of the ELCA Division for Ministry, said church officials believe the discussions regarding homosexuality _ in particular the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians _ should continue.”The church cares about that issue,”he said at a news conference following the Saturday (Aug. 21) votes.”It is concerned because it is a delicate issue and will take care that all voices be heard.” The Rev. Cynthia Witt, president of the Network for Inclusive Vision, called the actions”a missed opportunity to end discrimination against gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships.” Witt’s San Diego-based group affirms lesbian and gay Lutherans.

In other action in the closing days of the meeting, which ended in Denver on Sunday (Aug. 22), delegates also chose to maintain the denomination’s social statement on abortion. They defeated a move to amend the 1991 statement by removing language that supports publicly funded and legal abortion if the fetus has”lethal abnormalities incompatible with life,”or”except when the mother’s life is threatened or when lethal abnormalities indicate the prospective newborn will die very soon.” ELCA leaders issued a statement urging members to respect those who do not agree with the historic decision made during the meeting to pursue”full communion”with the Episcopal Church. The vote approving the decision passed by just slightly more than the required two-thirds margin, demonstrating that ELCA members are divided on the subject.”We must work together as one church,”urged Addie J. Butler, vice president of the ELCA, and the Rev. Charles H. Maahs, chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops, in a joint statement.

Evangelical Navy chaplain in dispute with Catholic commander

(RNS) An evangelical Navy chaplain says he resigned under pressure after he and his Catholic commander disagreed over whether his preaching was sufficiently pluralistic.

Lt. Cmdr. Philip Veitch said he was charged with five criminal offenses by the Naval Support Activity, a command in Naples, Italy. The charges were dropped when he agreed to resign.

Veitch told The Washington Times that he is working to rescind his resignation letter and has persuaded the Pentagon inspector general to investigate the matter.

Veitch said he has been forbidden by the Navy from conducting any religious activity and believes he is the victim of religious discrimination.”We have a sense of repression here,”Veitch said.”I am ordained by the Reformed Episcopal Church, and I will not have a Roman Catholic priest tell me what I can and cannot say. It won’t happen. I can’t have the government telling me what my denomination can or cannot say.” The Navy described the situation as a case of an officer violating regulations. A Navy charging document said Veitch’s e-mails to the command chaplain, asking him to explain why he could not preach on certain topics,”showed marked disdain, insolence and contempt.” Veitch denies the formal charges, which were showing disrespect to Capt. Ronald J. Buchmiller, the senior chaplain, and failing to go to appointed places of duty. After he refused to attend a disciplinary hearing, Veitch said he was given the options of quitting or facing trial.

But a Navy spokesman said Veitch chose the court-martial and later decided to resign instead. The Navy then dropped the five charges.”There was no ultimatum,”said Lt. j.g. Fred Kuebler.”It wasn’t `you resign or you will be court-martialed.’ They can’t do that, nor would they.” Keubler also denied Veitch’s charge of religious discrimination.

Muslim aerospace engineer claims sex bias by Muslim boss

(RNS) A Muslim aerospace engineer has sued her Muslim former supervisor at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., saying he limited her career opportunities because of his own Islamic beliefs about women’s roles.

Iranian immigrant Shahzad Khaligh’s claims, scheduled to be heard for the first time in court on Tuesday (Aug. 24), include the charge that Fred Hadaegh repeatedly stated his belief that Muslim women”should not become independent human beings.” Hadaegh also attempted to prevent Khaligh from presenting technical papers at conferences and refused to sign her tuition reimbursement forms for a NASA program that aids employees in furthering their education, the lawsuit charges.”He was all the time telling me go home, get married, have babies,”said Khaligh, who left her 11-year career at the JPL facility in September 1997. The laboratory is operated for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by the California Institute of Technology.

The suit claims that managers at the facility were aware of Hadaegh’s alleged discrimination but took no action, the Associated Press reported.

Hadaegh, a senior research scientist, did not return a phone message asking for comment. However, Gordon Krischer, a lawyer representing Hadaegh and JPL, said,”Our clients believe there’s no substance in the case.” Muslim leaders say lawsuits against Muslims are common but usually involve non-Muslims.

Laila Al-Marayati, former president of the Muslim Women’s League, said she is not surprised by Khaligh’s claims because Muslim men sometimes”are not able to shift when they come to this country. But I also know men who work alongside women, or have women as bosses.” The status of women varies widely in the Muslim world, from legal equality in secular Turkey to the strictures in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan that bars women from school and work.

Dissident Greek Orthodox group to disband

(RNS) The dissident lay group that was instrumental in orchestrating the resignation of Archbishop Spyridon of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has announced it will disband.”We’re putting down our muskets and going back to our plows,”said Dean Popps, a Virginia businessman who served as media spokesman for Greek Orthodox American Leaders (GOAL).

Popps said GOAL’s board voted formally to disband Sunday (Aug. 22).”Corporate housekeeping and financial matters”will require several weeks of work, he said, but the group should cease to exist by”mid-fall 1999.” GOAL also announced it was canceling its October meeting scheduled for Providence, R.I., as a sign of its”confidence”in Spyridon’s replacement, Bishop Demetrios of Greece.

GOAL spent some two years trying to force Spyridon from office, arguing that his allegedly authoritarian ways and questionable financial dealings were hurting the 1.5-million member U.S. Greek Orthodox Church. GOAL eventually gained the backing of the denomination’s senior metropolitans (bishops), and scores of its priests, which undermined Spyridon’s support among his church superiors in Istanbul.

Last Thursday (Aug. 19), Spyridon announced he was resigning under pressure.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader who has ultimate authority over the archdiocese, immediately picked Demetrios to be the new archbishop. Demetrios is expected to arrive in the United States by early September.

Bill Gates and his wife create wealthiest charity in U.S.

(RNS) Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have created the wealthiest charity in the country.

Gates, the world’s richest man, and his wife donated an additional $6 million to their Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this month (August). The Seattle-based charity, a merger of two foundations previously supported by the Gateses, now has a total worth of $17.1 billion, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported.

The nation’s second largest charity is the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which has about $13 billion in assets. The Welcome Trust of London, England, is the world’s largest charity with assets of $19.2 billion.

Patty Stonesifer, a former Microsoft executive who now co-chairs the foundation, said the couple has donated three multibillion-dollar gifts this year.”Bill and Melinda have made a gift of about $5 billion every quarter,”she said.

The primary focus of the Gates Foundation is to make sure that technological advances in global health and education reach the people least able to afford them.

Quote of the day: Author and former Catholic monk Thomas Moore

(RNS)”To us a weekend camping trip is a secular vacation, but to a pagan a hike into the woods is a spiritual, religious activity, an entering into the precinct of divinities every bit as alive and present as our own.” _ Author, psychotherapist and former Catholic monk Thomas Moore, writing on the religious contribution of paganism in the fall 1999 issue of Spirituality & Health magazine.

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