c. 2000 Religion News Service
Dalai Lama Asks for U.S. Help in Talks With China
(RNS) The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said Tuesday (June 20) he is willing to discuss the future of Tibet with Chinese leaders and wants the U.S. Congress to help create a dialogue.
The Dalai Lama was in Washington for meetings with President Clinton and Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Clinton and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger reiterated their support for the Dalai Lama and political and religious freedom in Tibet.
Relations between the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials have been frosty for decades, ever since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed revolt against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama said he would be open to talks with China, but China has long held the exiled leader in scorn, and views him as a threat to internal security.
“Anyplace, anytime, I am willing to meet with China leadership without preconditions,” the Dalai Lama said, the Associated Press reported.
A White House spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said the administration would continue to press for freedom for Tibet in talks with Chinese leaders.
“While we have not seen progress up to now, we haven’t given up hope,” Crowley said. “We’re going to continue to work hard. We continue to press (China) at every high-level opportunity we have, about its importance.”
Senate Passes Controversial Hate Crimes Legislation
(RNS) The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday (June 20) to expand federal hate crimes laws to include crimes based on sexual orientation, prompting praise from Jewish groups and scorn from conservative Christian organizations.
The 57-42 vote came after intense lobbying by the Clinton administration, which had promised gay rights groups it would push for the measure before Clinton leaves office next year. Despite opposition from the Republican leadership, 13 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats to pass the measure.
Supporters invoked the murders of James Byrd, a black Texas man dragged to his death by white supremacists, and Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student who was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in freezing temperatures last year.
The bill also adds handicapped status to the list of crimes that can be prosecuted as federal crimes, adding to race, religion and national origin. The bill would allow federal officials to prosecute if local officials refuse to press charges.
Several Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Congress and the Washington office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, representing Reform Judaism, praised the bill, saying Jews are especially sensitive to crimes based on bias or prejudice.
“As Jews, we know all too well what it is to be the victims of group hatred, of ethnic discrimination, of violence,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “Our history teaches us that to act against one is to act against all. To hurt one is to hurt all … and to stand with, defend, and protect one, is to protect all.”
Conservatives, however, said the bill would give special rights to a specific class of people _ homosexuals. Supporters of the bill blasted such criticism, saying groups like the Family Research Council, the Traditional Values Coalition and Focus on the Family were using their opposition to mask their resistance to equality for gays and lesbians.
“So-called hate crimes laws are by nature unfair because they accord some victims more government protection under law than others,” said Janet Parshall, a spokeswoman for the Family Research Council. “The government has no business creating special classes of crime and politicizing crime.”
The measure faces an uncertain future, however. The bill was attached to the Defense Department appropriations bill, and several Republican leaders say they will try to split the two bills. President Clinton has said he will veto the spending bill if it does not include the hate crimes provision, and the GOP-led House of Representatives has been reluctant to pass similar measures in the past.
New Legislation Protects Religious Broadcasters from FCC Limits
(RNS) The House voted Tuesday (June 20) to protect religious broadcasters by barring the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the content of speech aired by noncommercial educational television and radio stations.
In January, the FCC commissioners voted to drop controversial language in a December ruling that declared that some religious programming aired on noncommercial stations _ including that which focused on proselytizing _ could not be considered educational. But the new legislation intends to prevent similar moves in the future.
The measure, which passed in a 264-159 vote, was hailed by the National Religious Broadcasters, which mounted a campaign that protested the now-rescinded language.
“At the end of the day we’re one step closer to being sure that the government, in this case the FCC, will not be permitted to chip away our basic liberty of religious expression,” the Manassas, Va.- based organization said in a statement.
Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., also was among those cheering the decision.
“This legislation will send a strong message to the FCC that they cannot and should not be restricting the free speech of religious broadcasters,” said Pitts, who voted in favor of what is being called the Noncommercial Broadcasting Freedom of Expression Act.
“The federal power to issue licenses and regulate commerce is a powerful one. It should not be misused to restrict our freedoms or to worship as we see fit,” he said.
Opponents said the bill undermined the purpose of educational broadcasts by allowing religious groups to use the public airwaves to promote their beliefs.
“There will no longer ever again be a requirement that a public TV station must serve the educational needs of a community,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the Associated Press reported.
According to the legislation, a nonprofit organization is eligible for a noncommercial educational license if it broadcasts material the organization believes serves an educational, religious, cultural or instructional purpose. The FCC is prohibited from imposing any requirements that link licensing to, for example, the number of hours of educational programming.
Supreme Court Sued By Anti-Abortion Group Over Protest Limits
(RNS) The Supreme Court, which usually considers others’ legal issues, is itself at the center of a lawsuit by anti-abortion activists.
The Christian Defense Coalition sued the high court Tuesday (June 20), saying a regulation barring large signs on the sidewalks outside the court violates the First Amendment.
Brian R. Chavez-Ochoa, a lawyer for the coalition, asked Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court of Columbia to issue a preliminary injunction to stop Supreme Court police from enforcing the rule.
An attorney for the Supreme Court asked for a dismissal of the lawsuit or a summary judgment in the court’s favor.
Hogan, after hearing arguments for both sides, said he likely would issue a written opinion within two days, the Associated Press reported.
Chavez-Ochoa said “Regulation Six,” signed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was enacted on the same day as his clients’ demonstration to halt their protest.
Twenty-two demonstrators were arrested by court police April 25 when they would not remove huge banners depicting a decapitated fetus. The Supreme Court was hearing arguments about Nebraska’s ban on a surgical procedure called “partial-birth” abortion by its opponents.
“Clearly the Supreme Court did not agree with the content of our message,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, the protest leader. “It is an unconstitutional regulation against free speech on what should be the most hallowed sidewalk in the nation.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally M. Rider argued on behalf of the Supreme Court that the regulation was put in place due to legitimate concerns for “safety, security, access and decorum.”
“A lot of thought went into it,” said Rider. “It has nothing to do with the content (of the signs). It has to do with the physical size of the signs.”
Supreme Court police Marshal Dale Bosley testified earlier he only saw the back of the signs and was not concerned about their message. Rather, he said they were large enough to be used to hide an assailant, block access to the court, as a weapon or block the line of sight of court police.
Church of England Vicar Will Keep Parish After Sex-Change Operation
LONDON (RNS) – A twice-married and twice-divorced Church of England vicar is to have a sex-change operation but continue to minister to his Wiltshire, England parish _ no longer as the Rev. Peter but instead as the Rev. Carol Stone.
At a news conference in Bristol on June 19, Stone, 46, said he was relieved to receive the backing of Bishop Barry Rogerson of Bristol. He said the decision to have the operation ended a lifetime journey.
“Among my earliest memories are of me wishing that I was other than I was,” he said. “Every night I prayed I would wake up as a girl. If there was another way, I would not be here today. Nobody does this by choice.”
Stone also said his 18-year-old daughter had been “tremendously supportive.”
Rogerson said he had told Stone’s congregation about their vicar’s decision after morning service on Sunday.
“The response was one of overwhelming support and a general desire to keep Peter, or Carol, as their parish priest,” he said.
Archbishop of New Delhi Dies in Car Accident
(RNS) The Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi died in a car accident in Poland on Tuesday (June 20), an aide said Wednesday.
Archbishop Alan de Lastic, who had served in the post since 1991, was 70.
De Lastic was a frequent critic of the Indian government because of an increase in attacks on churches and Christians in the past two years.
On June 9, after the killing of a priest and explosions at two churches, he said India’s Christian minority was facing its most serious challenge in five decades, the Associated Press reported.
He said there was “a definite strategy and plan at the national level … to intimidate Christians.”
De Lastic hosted Pope John Paul II when the pontiff visited New Delhi last October.
The archbishop had arrived in Poland on Friday (June 16) for a five-day trip to meet Polish Cardinal Josef Glemp and visit religious sites. The accident occurred as he was returning to Warsaw from Krakow.
Quote of the day: The Rev. H. Gerard Knoche Jr., the newly elected bishop of the Delaware-Maryland synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
(RNS) “My mother was never happy that I went into the ministry, but she always said, `If you must do it, at least get to be a bishop.”’
_ The Rev. H. Gerard Knoche, Jr., the newly elected bishop of the Delaware-Maryland synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaking after he was elected to a six-year term on June 17.
DEA END RNS
