c. 2003 Religion News
Senator Seeks DOD Inquiry of Groups Approving Muslim Chaplains
WASHIGTON (RNS) Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has renewed his request that the Department of Defense investigate organizations involved in approving Muslim chaplains after an Army chaplain of that faith was detained upon his return from the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Army Chaplain (Capt.) Yousef Yee, 34, was detained Sept. 10 by federal officials. Military representatives have declined to give details of the nature of his detention but he was reportedly considered to have classified documents with him when he returned to the United States.
Yee was endorsed by the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council, said Chaplain (Col.) Philip Hill, executive officer for the Army’s chief of chaplains.
Schumer, who requested in March that the Defense Department’s inspector general investigate the selection of Muslim military chaplains, announced Tuesday (Sept. 23) that he has asked for an inquiry again.
“As I wrote to you in March, I fully support the teaching and worship of Islam in the military but want to ensure that the groups in charge of such activities are of the highest caliber, have unimpeachable reputations, and endorse religious pluralism so that Muslims of all sects are able to follow their faith,” Schumer wrote in letter to the inspector general.
“Captain Yee’s arrest and his connection to the AMAFVAC only underscores the need for a comprehensive investigation of these groups.”
Representatives of the endorsing organization, which is based in Virginia, could not be reached for comment. Its Web site said it could not respond to Yee’s detention “due to insufficient information” and requested privacy for Yee’s parents.
“Our prayers and concerns go out to the family members of Capt. James Yee,” the statement read, calling Yee by the name he used before his conversion.
Military officials referred questions about possible Defense Department action to a spokeswoman who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yee, a former Lutheran, converted to Islam in 1991. He studied in Damascus, Syria, to earn his degree in Islamic studies, Hill said.
Assigned to an Army unit at Guantanamo Bay, he was the only Muslim chaplain there.
Steve Lucas, spokesman for the Department of Defense’s Southern Command, said Yee served as the Islamic adviser to the commander of the joint task force that maintained the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay. He had daily contact with the detainees and counseled them.
The U.S. military has 12 Muslim chaplains. About 2,000 military members are serving at Guantanamo Bay, where there are about 650 detainees.
Asked if there was concern that questions about Yee would affect the chaplains’ ranks, Hill responded: “Not really. We’re pretty flexible people. We flex with whatever comes down the pike.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Two Episcopal Dioceses Disassociate From Sexuality Decisions
(RNS) The Episcopal dioceses of Central Florida and Albany, N.Y., have formally disassociated themselves from the actions of the Episcopal Church, after it confirmed the election of an openly gay bishop and implicitly recognized same-sex blessings.
Both dioceses held special meetings on Saturday (Sept. 20) to consider the actions taken at the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church in August in Minneapolis.
The Orlando-based diocese declared in one resolution that “by these erroneous actions the 74th General Convention has separated itself from the Anglican Communion.”
In another resolution, the diocese said it will only send money to the Episcopal Church from congregations that specifically request that action. As of Nov. 1, the diocesan board will determine where to redirect money normally forwarded to the Episcopal Church.
The resolutions, considered by almost 500 clergy and lay delegates, also sought the intervention of the primates of the communion “in this pastoral emergency.” The primates have called a special meeting to consider these matters Oct. 15-16.
“Bishop (John) Howe has said emphatically and repeatedly we are not leaving the Episcopal Church,” Joe Thoma, spokesman for the Central Florida diocese, told Religion News Service.
The Albany diocese passed a resolution affirming that “marriage is intended by God to be the faithful lifelong union of one man and one woman.”
Bishop Dan Herzog of Albany said he was “extremely proud” of the clergy and lay people who gathered for his diocese’s special meeting. The votes, by secret ballot, were cast by more than 200 people.
In an online letter to priests and deacons, he declared before the meeting that “there will be no proposal to leave the Episcopal Church.”
There was no immediate response to the votes from Episcopal Church headquarters, but Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold held a meeting Sept. 10-11 with 10 bishops who have a range of views on the sexuality debate.
“Regardless of our points of view, all of us recognized the polarization that was caused by our having to make an either/or decision with no possibility of any other mode of response,” Griswold wrote in a Sept. 12 letter to the House of Bishops about the meeting. “This has clearly caused pain, confusion and disbelief in many parts of the church, and a sense of rightness in other parts.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jewish `Women to Watch’ Chosen for New Year
(RNS) A Jewish magazine has named 10 “women to watch” in the Jewish new year, which begins this year at sunset on Sept. 26.
“Jewish Woman” magazine chose a novelist, an accountant, an anti-abuse advocate, a nursing home administrator and a bioethicist, among others for its annual “Women to Watch” issue.
“These are women whose vision compels them to look beyond the expected into new ways of being and doing,” the editors wrote in the magazine.
Jennifer Weiner, who is the popular author of best-selling novels “Good in Bed” and “In Her Shoes,” was named because her novels “resonate with women.”
Management and technology consultant Gila Bronner is “a CPA with a conscience,” serving on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and fundraising for politicians who support a solid U.S.-Israel relationship, in addition to her regular work duties.
Growing up, Cherie Kirschbaum was traumatized by an abusive father. But as an adult, Kirschbaum has spoken out about violence _ often thought not to affect Jewish families _ at the same time that she has become an advocate for a nonprofit affordable housing program.
Audrey Weiner (no relation to the novelist) is an executive at the Jewish Home and Hospital Life-Care System, where she works to “change the bureaucracy” of nursing home culture, which she describes as a troubling combination of hospital and military models.
Jewish medical ethics guide, but do not solely dictate, the work of Ruth Faden, who is a bioethicist who works at John Hopkins University on issues including genetic testing, bioterrorism and infectious diseases.
Also honored were Diana Cantor, who helps families establish savings plans for college tuition, Shifra Bronznick, who is an activist for women in Jewish communal life, and Sherri Mandell, who runs a foundation to help families who are affected by terrorism.
Maria Ramos, who is a social justice and multiculturalism advocate, and Rochelle Shoretz, who started a support network for young women who have breast cancer, were also honored.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Update: Court Sentences 13 for Deaths of Missionary, Sons
NEW DELHI, India (RNS) An Indian court sentenced one man to death and 12 others to life in prison Monday (Sept. 22) for the 1999 murders of an Australian Christian missionary and his two sons.
Judge Mahendra Nath Patnaik ordered capital punishment for Dara Singh, the chief defendant, in a packed courtroom in the northern Indian state of Orissa. In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, were torched alive by a mob as they slept outside a church in Manoharpur, a tribal village in Orissa.
Staines had been living in the nearby town of Baripada since 1965, where he worked among leprosy patients and was on the board of an evangelical missionary society in India.
The murders were part of a series of attacks against Christian institutions and missionaries in India blamed on right-wing Hindus who complained that poor Hindus were under pressure to convert.
Responding to the sentencing, Staines’ widow, Gladys, said she has forgiven the killers, but no individual is above the law of the land.
“I have forgiven the killers and have no bitterness. Forgiveness brings healing and our land needs healing from hatred and violence,” Gladys said in a statement from her home in Orissa. “(But), forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed upâÂ?¦ We need to honor both God and man respectively,” she said. Gladys continues to run the leprosy home started by her husband.
John Dayal of the All India Christian Council also expressed approval of the verdict. “There is a sense of satisfaction that justice has at last been done,” he said of the 31-month trial.
The death sentence of Singh, 42, is now subject to approval by the Orissa High Court. All 13 defendants are expected to appeal their convictions.
_ Joshua Newton and Christina Denny
Philosopher Emil Fackenheim Dead at 87
JERUSALEM (RNS) Rabbi Emil Fackenheim, a prominent Jewish philosopher who postulated that Judaism and Jewish life must continue and flourish after the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, died in Jerusalem on Sept. 19. He was 87.
A prolific writer whose books included “God’s Presence in History” and the much-lauded “To Mend the World,” Fackenheim was best known for creating what he called Judaism’s “16th Commandment,” _ an addition to the 613 God commanded the Jews to follow in the Bible.
Fackenheim’s 16th Commandment stated: “Thou shalt not award Hitler any posthumous victories.”
“Behind that seemingly simple statement,” said an obituary in The Jerusalem Post “lay a life of work examining how Judasim and Jewish existence could remain meaningful in the shadow of the death camps.”
Born in Gemany in 1916, Fackenheim experienced the Nazi regime first-hand. The Nazis arrested him on Nov. 9, 1938, on Kristallnacht _ the Night of Broken Glass _ during which they destroyed Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses throughout the country.
He was briefly imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp but released in 1939. After becoming a rabbi he fled Germany and made his way to Britain. After World War II British officials accused him of being an enemy alien and later sent him to Canada.
A longtime philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, where he received his doctorate, Fackenheim moved to Israel in 1984 and became a lecturer at the Hebrew University.
He is survived by four children.
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Day: Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Professor M. Craig Barnes
(RNS) “… the point of worship is not to find home but to become clearer about exactly what home it is we are yearning to find.”
_ M. Craig Barnes, professor of leadership and ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. An excerpt of his new book, “Searching for Home,” was quoted by Christian Century.
DEA END RNS
