c. 2003 Religion News Service
Muslim Leaders Seek More Discussions With Bush Administration
WASHINGTON (RNS) As other Muslims planned to mark Ramadan at a dinner at the White House, the leaders of several Muslim organizations urged the Bush administration to have more substantive conversations with Muslims.
“Basically, we feel that this administration has not dealt with the Muslim community in the right way,” Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, told a news conference Tuesday (Oct. 28).
“This administration has primarily engaged the American Muslim community and its leadership in photo opportunities.”
Bray said he thinks the administration is exercising a “double standard” by criticizing anti-Semitic comments made by the Muslim prime minister of Malaysia while permitting the U.S. defense undersecretary to remain in his position after making controversial remarks about religion.
Bray, who is based in Washington, and other leaders cited concerns about the Bush administration regarding detention of Muslims, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Middle East policy.
“We don’t believe that the only substantive dialogue with the Muslim community in America should be through the Department of Justice and through the FBI,” said Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Washington-based American Muslims for Jerusalem.
Imam Najee Ali, executive director of Los Angeles-based Project Islamic H.O.P.E., released a statement at the news conference in which he said: “President Bush needs to understand it’s not enough to invite Muslims to dinner at the White House during Ramadan, and then continue to occupy Iraq with U.S. troops.”
The White House did not immediately comment on the specific concerns of the religious leaders, but President Bush reiterated in a news conference Tuesday that he did not agree with the remarks of Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin. Boykin reportedly told a church audience, among other things, that terrorists were trying to destroy the United States “because we’re a Christian nation.”
“He doesn’t reflect my point of view or the view of this administration,” Bush said of the defense undersecretary, noting that Boykin is under investigation by an inspector general. “Our war is not against the Muslim faith.”
Bush added that the iftaar dinner, to which ambassadors and Muslim leaders have been invited to mark the breaking of the Muslim fast at sunset, demonstrates that the White House welcomes Muslims.
The White House has issued a presidential message about Ramadan, in which Bush declared: “Islam is a peaceful religion, and people who practice the Islamic faith have made great contributions to our nation and the world.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Messianic Congregation Not Out to Convert Jews, Presbyterians Say
(RNS) Leaders of a Presbyterian congregation in suburban Philadelphia that looks and feels like a synagogue said their aim is not to convert Jews to Christianity.
Congregation Avodat Yisrael, a “messianic Jewish” congregation that has received startup funds from the Presbyterian Church (USA), has been criticized by Jewish groups for trying to lure Jews into Christianity.
“We’re seeking to be faithful to our call as Christians,” the church’s pastor, the Rev. Andrew Sparks, told Presbyterian News Service.
“There’s a growing number of Jewish people who are coming to faith in Jesus Christ but who want to honor and maintain their Jewish heritage _ to be faithful both to Jesus and to how God made them as Jews.”
The congregation has received $145,000 from the local Philadelphia Presbytery, as well as $75,000 in startup funds from the denomination and $40,000 from the Synod of the Trinity, which covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia and a sliver of Ohio.
Sparks said the congregation, which celebrates Jewish holidays and uses Jewish ritual worship music, aims to reach Jews who no longer practice the Jewish faith, couples in mixed Christian-Jewish marriages and Jewish converts to Christianity.
“Nothing we do indicates we’re into aggressive proselytization,” said Sparks, a convert from Judaism.
The proposal was nearly defeated twice in the local presbytery, and officials at church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., heavily scrutinized a request for funding. Other local pastors have vocally criticized the congregation.
“It was the most discussed and most extensively reviewed proposal we’ve ever had,” Tim McCallister, who works with the church’s Mission Development Resources Committee, told the news service.
Church officials say the Philadelphia congregation does not change the church’s 1987 position that Jews “are already in a covenantal relationship with God.”
“The fact that the PCUSA has given support to this (new church development) does not change the commitments of the church … to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world (and) to build positive and respectful relations between Presbyterians and Jews,” said the Rev. Jay Rock, head of the denomination’s interfaith affairs office.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Poll: Little Consensus on Religious Influence on Policy Issues
(RNS) Most Americans think religious leaders should not try to influence government policy on abortion, but their views are more divided on whether those leaders should influence policies on school prayer and the death penalty, a Gallup Poll shows.
Sixty percent of U.S. adults polled in September said religious leaders should not attempt to influence government policy on abortion, compared to 38 percent who think religious leaders should try to influence such policy.
Far more _ 53 percent _ think religious leaders should try to influence government policy on prayer in public schools compared to 46 percent who think that influence should not occur.
Views on the death penalty are also divided, with 52 percent thinking religious leaders should not influence government policy on that topic, compared to 45 percent who think such influence is appropriate.
Pollsters determined that there is less consensus among those who attend church weekly about whether religious leaders should influence abortion policy.
Fifty-one percent of them think religious leaders should influence policy on abortion while 47 percent think they should not.
On the topic of the death penalty, 53 percent of weekly churchgoers think religious leaders should influence government policy and 41 percent think they should not.
The highest percentage of weekly churchgoers _ 67 percent _ think religious leaders should attempt to influence policy on school prayer, while 32 percent of them think religious leaders should not be involved in such discussions.
The poll results are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 19-21 with 1,003 adults nationwide. They have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Editors: Information suitable for graphic treatment follows:
Americans’ View of Religious Leaders’ Role in Influencing Government Policy
_ On Abortion:
Should be involved: 38 percent
Should not: 60 percent
_ On Prayer in Schools:
Should be involved: 53 percent
Should not: 46 percent
_ On Death Penalty:
Should be involved: 45 percent
Should not: 52 percent
Source: The Gallup Organization
_ Adelle M. Banks
Santorum Urges Passage of CARE Act
WASHINGTON (RNS) Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., urged Senate Democrats on Tuesday (Oct. 28) to remove their block on the CARE Act, which would enact some of President Bush’s “faith-based initiatives,” and allow the bill to move to a House-Senate conference committee.
Santorum, at a rally seeking to drum up support for the legislation, said the CARE Act, passed by the Senate in April, is deadlocked by Democrats who fear Republicans will not cooperate when the bill goes to conference committee.
But Santorum said the bill no longer carries contentious legislation _ especially after much of its faith-based language and content was removed earlier in the year _ and that Democrats are making a political statement instead of an ideological argument.
“We’ve kept our word,” Santorum said of Senate Republicans who toned down the bill’s faith-based language at Democrats’ request. “We now hope Democratic members will keep their word.”
Opponents of the CARE Act say its support of faith-based groups violates the separation of church and state. All mention of religion was removed from the Senate version of the bill earlier this year after liberal groups questioned the “faith-based initiatives.”
Provisions supporting direct funding of church activities and permitting groups receiving federal funding to give preference to job applicants based on their religious beliefs were removed from the Senate bill.
The CARE Act would provide tax breaks for contributions to charity groups, including faith-based organizations. It also includes a yearly $150 million grant for the Compassion Capital Fund, which would provide money for smaller charity groups. Faith-based charity groups, which are usually community-based, would benefit from the grant.
Other provisions of the CARE Act would provide $2 billion for food producers and restaurants to offset costs and liabilities of donating food overstock to charity.
Paul Hessler, executive director of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, which donates food to children, the elderly, and disabled and homeless adults, said, “There is no good reason not to pass this legislation. People are suffering today.”
Brian Gallagher, president of United Way of America, protested the Senate’s failure to act on the Social Services Block Grant program. Those grants, prescribed in the House version of the CARE Act, would also give money to state and community nonprofit groups.
_ Michelle Gabriel
Poll: Teen Girls More Approving of Gay Marriage Than Teen Boys
(RNS) Teenage girls are almost twice as likely to accept the idea of gay marriage as teenage boys, according to a new Gallup Poll.
A slight majority of teenage girls _ 56 percent _ approve of gay marriage, compared with just 30 percent of boys, according to Gallup’s Tuesday Morning Briefing.
Younger teens ages to 13 and 15 were slightly more approving _ 45 percent _ than older teens ages 16 and 17. Only 38 percent of older teens approved.
While about nine in 10 teens approve of marriage between Jews and non-Jews, or between blacks and whites or Hispanics and non-Hispanics, teens are far less approving of gay marriage _ 55 percent disapprove, while 42 percent of teens approve of gay marriage.
Among teenagers who attend church regularly, only 29 percent approve of gay marriage. Fifty-three percent of teens who do not regularly attend church approve of gay marriage.
A separate Gallup Poll in September found that 32 percent of Americans thought same-sex couples should be granted “the same legal rights as married couples,” while 35 percent were opposed. Thirty-two percent said it doesn’t matter.
The Gallup Poll of 517 teenagers was conducted on the Internet between Aug. 1 and Aug. 29, 2003 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Update: Church of Scotland Elects First Woman Moderator
LONDON (RNS) The Church of Scotland’s general assembly will have its first woman moderator next year _ and its first elder, rather than minister, to hold this post since the 16th century.
Alison Elliot, 54, associate director of Edinburgh University’s Center for Theology and Public Issues, was elected Monday (Oct. 27) as moderator-designate.
Elliot was the convener of the denomination’s Church and Nation Committee from 1996 to 2000. She is married with two children.
Her term of office will begin when the general assembly convenes in Edinburgh next May.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Glenn McGee, editor in chief of American Journal of Bioethics
(RNS) “They want to `rescue’ this girl, but they completely fail to care about old people eating dog food because they can’t afford their medications.”
_ Glenn McGee, editor in chief of the American Journal of Bioethics, commenting on his ethical objection to the Florida Legislature enacting a law that permitted Gov. Jeb Bush to order the restoration of a feeding tube for a severely brain-damaged woman. He was quoted by USA Today.
DEA END RNS
