c. 2004 Religion News Service
Call to Renewal Urges Retention of Faith-based Office
(RNS) Call to Renewal, a religiously rooted anti-poverty group, has urged President Bush and Sen. John Kerry to keep the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives in the next presidential administration.
“We believe an Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives in the White House can help address poverty in this country,” wrote Jim Wallis, convener of the Washington-based organization, in letters sent Thursday (July 29) to Bush and Kerry.
“Shutting the door on efforts to find the right mix of partnership between the government and churches _ that respects the separation of church and state _ is akin to saying the faith community is not willing to be creative when it comes to serving `the least of these.”’
The letters were prompted by calls from other faith-based community leaders to eliminate the office.
The Interfaith Alliance sent letters in mid-July to Kerry and Bush seeking the dismantling of the office and its related Cabinet-level centers. The Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based alliance, said such a move would “reverse the past four years of bad public policy which inappropriately has mixed religion with politics in the appropriations process.”
Wallis argued that government partnerships with faith-based groups and secular nonprofits should be encouraged as long as they do not violate the First Amendment. He suggested specific future emphases of an office related to faith-based initiatives, such as the requirement that groups seeking government funding form separate tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. He also recommended a focus on “morally based policy priorities” as well as a commitment to funding assistance for social services.
“Dismantling the office may result in less controversy about church/state concerns, but it will also likely restrict opportunities for reducing poverty,” he wrote. “An Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives can make a difference.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Churches Should Ignore Falwell, Watchdog Groups Say
WASHINGTON (RNS) Jerry Falwell is misleading churches into thinking they can endorse political candidates, two Washington-based watchdog groups warned in complaints to federal agencies.
Falwell, an icon of religious conservatives and founder of the Moral Majority, insists there was nothing improper about a July 1 e-mail in which he solicited donations to help re-elect President Bush.
“For conservative people of faith, voting for principle this year means voting for the re-election of George W. Bush,” he wrote in a “Falwell Confidential” e-mail sent to supporters.
Soon after, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, saying Falwell violated his tax-exempt status that prohibits the endorsement of political candidates. Falwell said the statement was legal because it was funded by the Liberty Alliance, a separate organization registered as a lobbying group, not his church.
In a subsequent July 21 e-mail, Falwell urged churches to “ignore” the warnings from Americans United. He included an analysis from Mathew Staver, president of the affiliated Liberty Counsel, which said “the IRS has almost no teeth” to prosecute churches.
That is a dangerous message for churches to follow, said the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance watchdog group. It said the Liberty Alliance violated corporation laws that restrict endorsements to private communications not intended for the general public.
“Campaigning for incorporated entities is blatantly illegal,” said Gerald Herbert, director of litigation for the group. “This content … aimed at getting the general public to contribute and vote for a federal candidate shows complete disregard for the federal election laws.”
The Campaign Legal Center filed complaints with both the IRS and the Federal Election Commission, urging immediate action. “This is not a close or difficult case,” it told the IRS.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United, urged churches not to listen to Falwell. “His distortions could have serious consequences for any pastor foolish enough to take his advice. The IRS should step in now,” Lynn said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Poll: Most Americans Say U.S. Should Obey International Laws on Torture
(RNS) Two-thirds of Americans say the United States should abide by international laws barring governments from ever using physical torture while 29 percent found those laws “too restrictive,” according to a new poll.
The poll was done by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, a research group affiliated with the University of Maryland, and Knowledge Networks, a polling and market research firm. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.
Participants in the survey were given scenarios in which interrogators were pursuing information about terrorism and asked what _ if any, coercive techniques they would condone. Only one from a list of 14 _ sleep deprivation _ was consistently approved by a majority. Others on the list included hooding prisoners and sexual humiliation.
“The American people say that this (the other forms of torture) is not acceptable and the American people are right,” said Kevin J. Barry, a retired military judge who has been outspoken in his condemnation of current military treatment of prisoners.
Both the Geneva Convention, which the United States signed in 1949, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the United States signed in 1984, outlaw the use of torture on prisioners of war and other detainees.
However, senior Bush administration officials, including the president himself, have argued the “war on terrorism” presents a new paradigm that wipes away the old rules for dealing with international criminals.
Several interrogation methods approved by the Department of Defense since the attacks of Sept. 11, including the use of threatening dogs and forcing detainees to go naked, were rejected by most of the Americans polled.
Even if told the United States believed a detainee was withholding information that could prove critical to stopping an attack on the United States, 58 percent of Americans said they would not support the use of threatening dogs and 75 percent disapproved of forcing detainees to remain naked.
“Basically, the public supports the system of international laws restricting torture and coercion, though it would consider making some limited exceptions if there was high confidence that a catastrophic outcome would be prevented,” said Steven Kull, PIPA director.
Eighty-one percent of people polled said U.S.-held detainees should have the right to a hearing, 77 percent said the detainees should be allowed to contact family members and 93 percent said the Red Cross should have access to the prisioners.
Barry, the retired military judge, said that it was “inexplicable” for the Bush administration to talk about “values” and “freedom” while restricting the rights of those it holds in Cuba and Iraq.
“I just don’t understand the disconnect between the words that are spoken and the actions that are taken _ they just don’t fit the same standards,” he said.
_ Daniel Burke
Reform Jewish Leaders Criticize Presbyterian Statements on Israel
(RNS) Leaders of the Reform Jewish movement have told Presbyterian leaders that recent church statements on Israel and Jewish evangelism make it “harder and harder” to find common ground on other issues.
Top leaders from the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis said positions taken by the Presbyterian Church (USA) were one-sided and unfairly critical of Israel.
“Singling out Israel, while it faces an unending wave of Palestinian terrorism, not only threatens the well-being of the Jewish state but of Presbyterian-Jewish relations here in North America,” Rabbis Eric Yoffie and Paul Menitoff said in a letter sent Tuesday (July 27).
During the church’s recent General Assembly meeting in Richmond, Va., delegates voted to explore targeted divestment from businesses operating in Israel, and also condemned a wall meant to keep Palestinian militants out of Israel.
Delegates also turned down an effort to cut off funding to messianic Jewish congregations that critics say are an offensive attempt to convert Jews to Christianity. The rabbis said proselytizing, like Israel, “is a survival issue for our community.”
“Your support of divestment from Israel creates a worrisome double standard,” Yoffie and Menitoff said. “Are human rights violations by Israel greater than those committed by the Palestinians? By the Syrians? By the Iranians?”
The Presbyterians’ highest officer, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has agreed to meet with the Reform leaders, who represent the largest group of American Jews.
Presbyterians and Reform Jews often work together on social issues and legislation in Washington, but the rabbis said, “In candor and in friendship, we must tell you that the actions of your General Assembly make it harder and harder to find common ground.”
The only Jewish group to publicly support the Presbyterians has been San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace. The grass-roots group said an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas is the only way to assure peace in the Middle East.
“Responsible investment … is a vital tool in bringing a just peace to the troubled region of Israel-Palestine,” the group said. “When a 3 million-member institution with the fiscal clout and moral credibility of (the) PCUSA takes a stand, others will soon follow.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Democratic Presidential Nominee Sen. John Kerry
(RNS) “I don’t wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don’t want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side.”
_ Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in his acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday (July 29).
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