c. 2000 Religion News Service
Boy Scouts Want to Be Back on Charitable Donation List
(RNS) The Boy Scouts of America are fighting a Connecticut decision that prohibits state employees from donating a portion of their paychecks to the Scouts because state officials say the group violates the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
Last month, Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities removed the Scouts from a list of organizations that could receive United Way donations because of the Scouts’ position against gays. The Scouts are trying to get back on that list. A hearing is expected on June 19, according to the Associated Press.
The ruling and appeal come as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in a high-profile case on whether the Scouts can oust gay leaders because they violate the group’s ban on homosexuality and do not reflect the group’s “morally straight” membership standards.
Connecticut hires the United Way to solicit paycheck donations from state employees for various charitable groups. Last year the campaign raised $1.3 million for more than 800 charities. However, the state can withhold employee donations from any groups that violate the state’s anti-discrimination law.
George Davidson, the Scouts’ attorney, said “the selective targeting of the Boy Scouts for exclusion based on their dislike of the Boy Scouts’ message is unconstitutional.” State officials, meanwhile, said they expected the legal challenge and will leave it up to the courts.
Davidson said organizations receiving donations include some based on ethnicity, religion and age, such as Catholics for a Free Choice or the National Black Child Development Institute.
Suit Alleges Physical, Mental Abuse in Hare Krishna Schools
(RNS) More than 40 former members of Hare Krishna schools have filed a $400 million lawsuit, claiming they were subjected to 20 years of physical and mental abuse at boarding schools in the United States and India.
The suit, filed in federal court in Dallas on Monday (June 12), claims the victims were raped and beaten, and small children were forced to sleep in soiled sheets or stand in dark closets as punishment, the Reuters news agency reported.
The suit was filed against the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the movement’s umbrella group, along with 16 related organizations and 17 governing board members. The suit also names the estate of the movement’s leader, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Victims claim the abuse occurred from 1972 _ when the first school, or gurukula, opened in Dallas _ until around 1990 at more than a half-dozen schools in the United States and India. The movement opened the schools for the children of Krishna followers so the parents could devote themselves to the movement and sell tracts and seek donations in public places.
“This lawsuit describes the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment of little children which we have seen,” said the group’s attorney, Windle Turley. “It includes rape, sexual abuse, physical torture and emotional terror of children as young as 3 years of age.”
The problem of physical and mental abuse at religious-run boarding schools is not new. Several Christian churches, including the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Christian and Missionary Alliance, have confronted past abuse at church-run missionary schools in Africa. The Hare Krishna movement has acknowledged problems since the early 1990s.
Anuttama Dasa, ISKCON’s communications director, said Hare Krishna leaders regretted any alleged abuse, but said the $400 million sought in damages is “excessive” and targets Krishna congregations that were not involved in the abuse.
“If the events alleged in this suit did occur, we regret that they did, and we will make every effort to help address the needs of the young people named in the suit,” Dasa said in a statement.
The Hare Krishna movement traces its roots to Hinduism and was founded in the United States in 1966 by Swami Prabhupada. The movement, with its repetitive chants and distinctive saffron and orange robes, quickly caught on in the 1960s hippie scene.
Renewed Religious Strife Hits Indonesia
(RNS) Following renewed religious violence in northern Indonesia Monday (June 12), a military official said Tuesday that “destructive anarchy” had taken hold of the nation.
“Unrest … still plagues the nation’s livelihood,” Indonesian military commander Admiral Widodo told Parliament. “What has … emerged are acts of destructive anarchy.”
Eight people died Monday in fighting between Christians and Muslims in Ambon, the capital of the Maluku provinces (known as the Spice Islands during the Dutch colonial era), Reuters reported. Six victims were Christians and Muslims participating in the fighting, said military officials. The two other victims were police officers shot by snipers.
A Catholic church and dozens of homes were set on fire during the clashes.
“The security situation in the Moluccas is still worrying us,” said Widodo, noting that conditions in the northern province of Aceh remain unsafe despite the declaration June 2 of a three-month ceasefire between troops and rebels in the region.
The Maluku provinces have been plagued by religious clashes between Christians and Muslims since violence first erupted in the provincial capital of Ambon in January of last year. About 2,500 people have died in the fighting.
Tension in the provinces has been aggravated by the recent arrival of more than 2,000 Muslim paramilitary troops from a training camp in Java. Many of the troops have promised to launch a holy war against Christians in the region,though paramilitary leaders say they do not intend to harm Christians.
Church of Scientology Cleared in Death of Member
(RNS) Charges against the Church of Scientology have been dropped in the 1995 death of a church member after Florida prosecutors said they could not prove the allegations.
Church member Lisa McPherson died in 1995 after a minor car accident. After a few hours at the hospital, McPherson left with church members and died 17 days later.
Investigators said McPherson had lost 40 pounds and was dehydrated, and prosecutors claimed that church members forced her to take medication against her will at the church’s Clearwater, Fla., headquarters.
An autopsy showed McPherson died of an embolism, or blood vessel blockage, and investigators said lack of water and being confined to a bed may have contributed to her death. Prosecutors charged the church with practicing medicine without a license and criminal neglect of a disabled adult.
But after a medical examiner changed her report from “undetermined” to “accidental” death, prosecutors said they could not prove that church members were responsible.
The church, which has often battled negative stereotypes about its beliefs and practices, welcomed the decision as a complete exoneration.
“Unfortunately, a few people saw fit to capitalize on the death of a member of our religion in the most unseemly way possible,” said church spokesman Mark Rinder. “They invented all manner of stories about Ms. McPherson, covered extensively in the media, which were proven untrue.”
Update: Accused Jews Appear in Iranian Court
(RNS) The courtroom appearance Tuesday (June 13) of several Iranian Jews charged with spying for Israel has helped buttress the defense’s contention that the men are not guilty, defense attorneys said after the hearing.
Farzad Kashi, Nasser Levi-Haim, Farhad Seleh and Shahrokh Pakhahad were summoned to a brief hearing before a judge of the Revolutionary Court, defense attorneys said, though they declined to say more.
“Issues that came up in court today were of benefit to our clients and strengthen the defense team’s assertions that our clients are not guilty,” said lead defense attorney Esmail Nasseri.
Defense attorneys said that on Monday (June 12), a fifth man accused in the case, Javid Bent-Yaqoub, confronted one of several Muslims charged with complicity in the alleged Jewish spy ring, Reuters news agency reported. Bent-Yaqoub said he and the Muslim suspect never contacted one another, his lawyer reported.
The five men are among 13 Iranian Jews who were arrested and imprisoned more than a year ago. They were accused of releasing classified information to Israel. The 13 men face lengthy prison sentences _ or possibly the death penalty _ if convicted.
Court officials have reported that most of the accused men have already confessed to giving confidential information to Israel, but Nasseri attacked the state’s claim that confessions of guilt from the accused are valid.
“They have made confessions in the past but one must not forget they were in prison for a long period and confessions made during such a long period are not always exact in that they are not aware of the legal terminology,” he said.
Concern about whether judicial proceedings against the 13 men will be fair has drawn international attention to the case, but court officials have denied the proceedings are biased against the accused.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Georgy Mitrofanov of the Russian Orthodox Church
(RNS) “Saints are not sinless. And the czar’s policy had many faults.”
_ The Rev. Georgy Mitrofanov, a member of the Canonization Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the likely canonization in August of Russia’s last imperial ruler, Czar Nicholas II, and his family. He was quoted by Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
DEA END RNS
