c. 1999 Religion News Service

Reno pledges to investigate potential flammable devices at Waco

(RNS) Attorney General Janet Reno vowed Thursday (Aug. 26) to”get to the bottom”of why it took the FBI six years to acknowledge that agents may have fired potentially flammable devices at the end of the 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidian sect.”It is absolutely critical that we do everything humanly possible to learn all the facts as accurately as possible and make them available to the Congress and public,”Reno said at a Justice Department news conference.

The FBI has launched an internal investigation into recent acknowledgments about the standoff near Waco, Texas. Reno said she had”no reason at this point to believe the FBI is responsible for the deaths of those people,”the Associated Press reported.

But she said she was”very, very frustrated”over the reports about possible use of flammable tear gas canisters six years after the FBI categorically denied using incendiary devices in the standoff.

She and FBI Director Louis Freeh have ordered an FBI inspector to direct 40 FBI agents in reinterviewing all who were at the scene in Waco.

FBI spokesman John Collingwood said Wednesday that the agents are to report”within weeks”on the use of military-type tear gas and why it took so long for a public admission.

Reno said she has reviewed in her mind many times the events of April 19, 1993, when the compound of the Branch Davidians went up in flames. She also has repeatedly asked herself how the government might have handled the situation differently.

Had no stand been taken that day, she said.”We don’t know if (sect leader) David Koresh would have done it two weeks later on his own, without any provocation, and the federal government would have been blamed for not acting sooner.” The standoff ended with the death of Koresh and about 80 other sect members during a fire that erupted after a tear gas assault on their wooden headquarters.

U.N. Security Council seeks protection for children from war

(RNS) The U.N. Security Council is calling on all nations to protect children from war and to stop enlisting them as soldiers.

A Security Council resolution repudiated the targeting, recruitment and abduction of children in war and encouraged governments to ratify and observe treaties protecting children.

At a Security Council meeting Wednesday (Aug. 25), representatives of almost 50 countries condemned the rising toll of warfare on the world’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”Today’s children are tomorrow’s hope,”said Deputy U.S. Ambassador Nancy Soderberg.”We must all work to ensure that hope is not extinguished by the blight of armed conflict.” In the last 10 years, 2 million children have been killed, 6 million seriously injured or disabled, 1 million orphaned, and 12 million made homeless by wars, the Associated Press reported.

More than 300,000 children younger than 18 _ some as young as 7 _ are participating in armed conflicts in places such as Colombia, Sri Lanka, Angola, Sudan and Afghanistan, U.N. figures show.

The resolution also asked warring parties to refrain from turning children younger than 18 into soldiers.

But Kamalesh Sharma, India’s U.N. ambassador, said the council should be dealing with the use and recruitment of children by insurgent organizations, armed rebels and terrorist groups.

Josefa Coelho da Cruz, Angola’s envoy, said that attempts to protect children in armed conflict in her country have been hampered by”bandits”that continued to pursue war against the government.

Bankers’ trade group suggests sermon to calm Y2K fears

(RNS) The American Bankers Association is distributing sample sermons to aid clergy in calming fears about potential Year 2000 computer problems.

The foray by the financiers into the spiritual realm is prompted by their desire to debunk expectations that the so-called Y2K bug will wreak havoc by crippling the banking system.”We wanted to reach out to the religious community,”John Hall, a spokesman for the trade group, said Wednesday (Aug. 25).

That’s why his organization is distributing the four-page homily to bankers who, in turn, can share them with local priests, ministers, rabbis and other religious leaders.”We want to go into the new millennium with hope, eagerness and faith in this new century of promise,”the sermon reads.”We don’t want to be crouched in our basements with candles, matches and guns.” The sermon counters some religious and survivalist literature that predicts that the start of the year 2000 will bring an apocalypse.”Things will work,”it says.”Hospitals will be open. Police and fire departments will be prepared. Power companies will be fully staffed. Banks will keep your money safe.” But Episcopal priest Paul Goodland of Fountain Hills, Ariz., said Thursday he wouldn’t use the sermon.”They’re treading where angels fear to tread,”he said of the bankers’ trade group.

Goodland, who served as mayor of Ames, Iowa, in the 1980s, said he questions banks’ readiness for 2000 because of problems he’s had with his ATM card.”Faith and trust in God is really where it belongs, not in banks,”he said.

Texas teen opts out of constitutional bout over pre-game prayer

(RNS) A Texas high school student has chosen not to lead her classmates in prayer before football games because she fears she could be expelled for violating the Constitution.

Stephanie Vega, 16, was elected by other students to deliver short messages”solemnizing”each of the Santa Fe Indians’ home games.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this year that student-led prayers were permitted at solemn occasions like graduations. But the court prohibited prayers before football games, saying they don’t share the”singularly serious nature”of graduations.

Superintendent Richard Ownby of Santa Fe’s school district cautioned that any student who led prayers at the opening game for Santa Fe High School on Sept. 3″would be disciplined as if they had cursed.” That prompted Vega, a junior, to change her mind about her assigned duty, the Associated Press reported.”When a student is told by the government that she may say anything except a prayer, and if she does pray, she will be disciplined as if she had cursed, it is just too much pressure,”she said in a statement.”I do not want to be expelled from school for using the word `God’ in a reverent manner.” The Santa Fe school district has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas supports the ban on prayer.”I don’t think students realize what it’s like to sit in a stadium and listen to a prayer about the wonders of Jesus Christ when you are a member of the Jewish or Muslim faith,”said Diana Phillip of the ACLU’s Dallas office.

George Wilson, Graham associate, dies at 85

(RNS) George M. Wilson, executive vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from its founding in 1950 to his retirement 37 years later, died Tuesday (Aug. 24). He was 85 and lived in Minneapolis.

Wilson began his association with Graham when he was business manager and the famed evangelist was president of Minneapolis’ Northwestern College.”George Wilson has been one of my closest advisers for well over 40 years,”Graham said in a statement,”and I owe him a debt of gratitude I can never repay. All of us are going to miss him terribly.” Born in North Dakota, Wilson was also chairman of the board of Prison Fellowship, founder and president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, and vice president of the Christian Broadcasting Association.

He had been confined to a wheelchair for many years following a series of strokes.

Update: 40 more Chinese underground church leaders arrested

(RNS) Chinese police have reportedly arrested 40 more leaders of the Protestant”house church”movement. The new arrests bring to nearly 50 the number of church leaders taken into custody in recent days.

The new arrests occurred Tuesday (Aug. 24) as the 40 leaders gathered in a house in Henan province’s Tange county, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. The arrests appear aimed at crushing the underground house church movement in central China, the center said.

House churches are illegal congregations that operate independently of China’s government-sanctioned religious movements. The house churches are generally evangelical and charismatic in character.

The crackdown against the house churches has coincided with efforts by China’s communist rulers to also arrest leaders of the non-Christian Falun Gong spiritual sect, which ran afoul of the government by staging mass public rallies.

Pope John Paul to again visit India

(RNS) Pope John Paul II will visit India in November to participate in a meeting of the Roman Catholic Church’s Asian bishops. He last visited largely Hindu India in 1986.

Although the Vatican did not immediately confirm the trip, church officials in New Delhi said the visit will occur Nov. 5-8. The pope had hoped the meeting could be held in China, however Beijing officials rejected that idea.

In recent months, there has been a rise in Christian-Hindu violence in India. The Delhi Catholic Archdiocese Thursday (Aug. 26) said the Indian Christian community”is much alarmed at the present situation in the country and the inaction of the government with regard to the minorities.” The government maintains it is unclear how much of the violence is religiously based, and how much is a result of squabbles between neighbors over land and other issues. Some Hindus also say the trouble stems at least in part from Christian efforts to convert Hindus.

Israeli officials say second Holy Sepulcher exit unlikely

(RNS) Israeli officials say it is unlikely a second entrance and exit to the crowded Church of the Holy Sepulcher can be constructed in time to handle the millions of pilgrims expected to visit Jerusalem for the millennium.

Although the government wants a second exit for safety reasons, the Christian denominations that control the church’s interior have been unable to agree on a location for the entrance door.

Jerusalem police chief Yair Yitzhaki said the government will not force Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Coptic church leaders to agree on a location. However, the government has warned that without a second door, the number of people able to visit the church will be restricted.

The church, located in Jerusalem’s Old City, is traditionally believed to cover the sites of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

New Greek Orthodox archbishop to be installed Sept. 18

(RNS) The new head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America will be formally enthroned in New York on Sept. 18.

Archbishop Demetrios of Greece was recently named to head the archdiocese following the forced resignation of Archbishop Spyridon. Spyridon ran afoul of church critics who accused him of heavy-handed management and financial failings.

Retired Archbishop Iakovos, who Spyridon replaced in 1996, will preside over Demetrios’ enthronement, which will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the archdiocese said in a statement.

Demetrios is expected to arrive in the United States Sept. 16.

Quote of the Day: Fevzi Kisioglu, a staunch Muslim and survivor of Turkey’s recent killer earthquake.

(RNS)”God is punishing us. We’ve lost our way.” _ Fevzi Kisioglu, a religious Muslim who survived the Turkish earthquake that killed more than 13,000 people. He is one of a growing number of Muslim fundamentalists in Turkey who are calling the quake divine retribution for the nation’s secular ways. He was quoted by the Associated Press Wednesday (Aug. 25).

IR END RNS