c. 2000 Religion News Service
`Survivor’ Non-survivor Says His Faith Was Too Much for Other Castaways
(RNS) A former castaway on the CBS reality program “Survivor” said he believes the strength he has gained from his Christian beliefs was too much for his fellow castaways, who voted him off the island on which all 16 were stranded for 39 days earlier this year.
“There’s no doubt,” Dirk Been, 24, said during an appearance on religious broadcaster Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” talk show on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Been said the other castaways realized “there’s real power in this guy, we don’t know what it is, but if we want to win the game, we have to get rid of him.”
Been’s CBN appearance is scheduled to air Tuesday (Aug. 22), one night before CBS broadcasts a two-hour series finale in which the winner of the program’s $1 million jackpot will be identified.
Been, the fifth contestant voted off the island, said he was more interested in having fun and sharing Christianity than winning the money, the Associated Press reported. While on the island he spoke openly of his decision to remain a virgin and was shown reading from a Bible he had taken to the island.
Been said he later learned from other contestants that they often read from his Bible, which he left behind on the island. He said he would like to find out what happened to the book when all 16 contestants gather Wednesday (Aug. 23) in Los Angeles for a reunion and one-hour town hall meeting after the series finale is broadcast.
He said he was disappointed that in an early episode, contestant Rudy Boesch, 72, remarked, “The only reason I’d bring a Bible out here is if I needed toilet paper.” Been said the two had a good relationship and Boesch’s comment may have been taken out of context.
Been holds a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Seattle Pacific University. He said he applied to “Survivor” because he believed “the Lord had a plan.”
He owned just $16 at the time. After he lost his ATM card traveling from Seattle to his home state of Wisconsin, someone withdrew his life savings from the bank.
Maryland Seventh-day Adventist School Wins Right to State Funds
(RNS) A federal judge in Maryland has ruled state officials must directly subsidize a Seventh-day Adventist college, overturning a state decision that the school’s teachings were too religious in nature to receive state funds.
The landmark case involving Columbia Union College, a church-affiliated school of about 1,100 students in Takoma Park, Md., is considered important because it involves direct funds and not money to buy equipment.
Under the state’s Sellinger Program, private colleges can apply to receive $40 million in state funds for non-religious programs each year. Columbia Union first applied for the program in 1990 but was repeatedly denied. It filed suit in 1996.
Even though several Catholic colleges had qualified for the program, state officials said Columbia Union’s program was so infused with religion that giving it state money would violate the constitutional separation of church and state, according to The Washington Post.
Observers said Judge Marvin J. Garbis’ decision was heavily influenced by a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said parochial schools in Louisiana could use federal funds to buy computers. Garbis had previously ruled against the school, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told him to reconsider in light of the Supreme Court decision.
The Supreme Court had ruled in 1976 that the program could not be used for “pervasively sectarian” institutions, and state boards had repeatedly said the school was “pervasively sectarian.” Garbis said that decision still stands, but said the ruling was on “shaky footing” in light of the court’s Louisiana decision.
School officials heralded the decision as a victory for religious-based colleges and universities.
“What’s encouraging is that the judge recognized our faith commitment but said we should be treated equally with other Maryland colleges,” Columbia Union President Randal R. Wiseby told The Post.
Maryland officials are mulling an appeal.
“The state is in no position to give direct state aid to an institution … that exists solely to promote the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. That’s a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” said Assistant State Attorney General Pace McCokie.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to Offer Retirement Benefits
(RNS) The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a 10-year-old moderate organization, is embarking on a new area of alternative ministry for churches choosing to leave the Southern Baptist Convention _ ministerial retirement.
The Atlanta-based fellowship already offers alternative missions, education and other church programs.
The Church Benefits Board is scheduled to incorporate in September, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service. It is expected to begin receiving retirement contributions Oct. 1.
Two years ago, the fellowship voted to develop a benefits board to provide employment services, including retirement, to churches and organizations. At this summer’s General Assembly, the fellowship went forward with those plans and allocated $175,000 for the start-up of the new venture.
Gary Skeen, CBF coordinator of finance and administration, described the benefits board as a “separate organization with a self-perpetuating board.” It will operate in partnership with the Ministers and Missionaries Benefits Board of the American Baptist Churches USA.
“By partnering with ABC, we can bring to the table a fully mature benefits program that (otherwise) would have taken many years to develop,” said Skeen.
The American Baptists received a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service in July allowing its benefits board to partner with other Baptist groups in providing services to employees. The Alliance of Baptists, another moderate group, was the first to endorse the partnership, followed by CBF and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, a predominantly black denomination.
Skeen said CBF-related churches often inquire about transferring retirement funds from the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He said the Southern Baptist program is much larger than the entire program offered by the American Baptist board. The Southern Baptist board offers about 12 investment choices and the fellowship’s program will have eight, he said.
Jews Protest Disco Near Auschwitz Concentration Camp
(RNS) Jewish groups are decrying a decision in Poland to allow a disco club to open in a building used by the Nazis as a tannery for the nearby Auschwitz death camp.
Officials in the town of Oswiecim _ the Polish name for Auschwitz _ recently agreed to let a local entrepreneur open the disco. The town’s mayor, Adam Bilski, said he could not legally refuse a permit for the club.
Bilski said the club falls outside a zone near the death camp that is legally protected to prohibit activities or businesses that would be offensive to the memory of the camp, where more than 1.5 million people died during the Nazi Holocaust.
What’s more, Bilski said much of the town is tired of living with the reputation of a massive death camp.
“They want to live normally,” Bilski said, according to the Reuters news agency. “Some compromise has to be reached to take into account their problems.”
Jewish groups, meanwhile, said the decision was an “obscenity.”
“It is difficult to put into words the level of rage felt by the victims of the Nazis and world Jewry at both the owners of the discotheque and political establishment in Poland that would validate the mocking of the victims of Auschwitz,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “Young Poles are being encouraged to dance in the immediate vicinity of the largest Jewish graveyard in history.”
Russian Orthodox Dedicate Rebuilt Church Destroyed by Communists
(RNS) In a lengthy ceremony marking the end of a four-day summit of its Council of Bishops, the Russian Orthodox Church officially elevated Russia’s last czar to sainthood Sunday (Aug. 20).
Hundreds of onlookers packed Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow to witness the ceremony canonizing Nicholas II, his wife and their five children,Reuters reported. The czar and his family were killed by a Bolshevik firing squad in 1918.
Last week the council included the family among hundreds worthy of canonization because, according to the council, they perished for their faith in the church despite Soviet repression.
“God soothe the souls of the dead slaves, sufferers and penitents of the 20th century who are unified with their church _ the dead and killed Emperor Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevitch Alexei and Princesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia,” said Patriarch Alexii II during a service that also included prayers for the 118 crewmen who died when the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea earlier this month.
The czar’s canonization came a day after church leaders consecrated Christ the Savior Cathedral, first built in 1812 to mark Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of Russian forces, the Associated Press reported. The cathedral was demolished in 1931 under the orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, but construction on a new cathedral atop the original site began in 1995.
Also during their meeting, leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to remain a part of the 337-member World Council of Churches until a special commission of Orthodox and council churches finishes looking into concerns of its Orthodox members, Ecumenical News International reported.
Liz Claiborne Inc. Recalls Jeans With Koran Verses Printed on Pocket
(RNS) Fashion giant Liz Claiborne Inc. has agreed to recall 8,000 pairs of jeans with verses from the Koran on the back pocket after a Muslim watchdog group said the jeans were offensive.
Liz Claiborne and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced the recall Wednesday (Aug. 16). Liz Claiborne agreed to recall the jeans, which were shipped out in February and sell for $68 a pair, and have them destroyed.
CAIR officials said the verses, taken from the holy book of Islam, were offensive in part because they were printed on the back pocket of the jeans and people would be sitting on holy scripture. CAIR said it appreciated Liz Claiborne’s quick response to their request.
“Liz Claiborne officials demonstrated the sincere nature of their regret through the swift and sensitive way in which they reacted to this unfortunate and apparently unintentional incident,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
Liz Claiborne officials said they did not mean to offend Muslims and had used the design as part of a clothing line to highlight Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern imagery. Company officials said the lettering had been taken from a photo of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine in Jerusalem, and they had been told it was “nonsensical.”
“We are profoundly sorry that any of our products reflected insensitivity toward the Muslim faith, as this was certainly never our intent,” the company said in a statement.
Update: Kentucky Appeals Ruling on Ten Commandments Monument
(RNS) Kentucky’s attorney general has announced the state is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that barred the placement of a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds.
Attorney General Ben Chandler stated the plan to appeal in a letter to Denis Fleming, general counsel to Gov. Paul Patton.
Chandler’s office is defending Armand Russ, a Finance Cabinet official named as a defendant in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Russ is the facilities manager for the state government.
The appeal is to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the Associated Press reported. In the letter to Chandler, Fleming suggested that the state should not press on to the U.S. Supreme Court if the appeal is denied.
“It would seem that by taking the issue to two courts you would have fulfilled your obligation to promote the public policy as adopted by the General Assembly,” Fleming wrote.
On July 25, U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood struck down a General Assembly resolution calling for the 6-foot-tall monument to be removed from storage and placed near a giant floral clock on the grounds of the Capitol in Frankfort.
Hood disagreed with monument supporters who said it was a shrine to the legal history of Kentucky. Hood agreed with the ACLU that the erection of the monument would amount to a government endorsement of religion.
Tiny Georgia Church Will No Longer Use Mother Teresa’s Name
(RNS) A Woodstock, Ga., church that included Mother Teresa’s name in its title has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to change its name.
Jim Towey, an attorney for Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by the famous nun, said he and Bishop Richard Roberts of Mother Teresa Parish of the Catholic Church of North America, struck a deal that includes the dropping of the suit.
“They will stop using her name immediately and the Missionaries of Charity will waive any claim to the interest in the money the church has collected in her name,” Towey said, the Associated Press reported.
The order of nuns and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta filed suit in July after the church declined to drop the name. They claimed that the church used the famous nun’s name to attract contributions and money.
The tiny church is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church but with a group of about 70 independent Catholic churches.
Mother Teresa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was known for her work among India’s poor, died in 1997.
Quote of the day: Hungarian President Ferenc Madl
(RNS) “This reflects that Hungary, committed to the beliefs and convictions of St. Stephen, wishes to be a bridge between the East and the West, the Eastern and Western church.”
_ Hungarian President Ferenc Madl in a speech Aug. 19 to Parliament after the announcement that the Eastern Orthodox Church had accepted as a saint Hungary’s King Saint Stephen I, the first saint canonized by the Roman Catholic church after its schism with Orthodoxy in 1054 to also be recognized by the Orthodox church. He was quoted by Reuters.
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