c. 2004 Religion News Service

Muslim Group Protests `Raghead Cadaver’ Comment on Imus Program

(RNS) A national Muslim civil liberties organization is protesting comments made on talk show host Don Imus’ program, which is nationally broadcast on radio and on television network MSNBC.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging its members to contact MSNBC to express their discontent. The group has also filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.

According to the Washington-based CAIR, on Friday (Nov. 19) an on-air personality pretended to be a “senior military affairs adviser” on the “Imus in the Morning” program. He referred to a wounded Iraqi who was shot and killed by a U.S. Marine in a mosque as a “booby-trapped raghead cadaver.”

Imus, broadcast on 90 radio stations in addition to MSNBC, often engages in caustic humor and criticism bordering on cruelty. But CAIR said this comment crossed the line into bigotry.

On Nov. 12, Imus engaged in an on-air discussion with a colleague during footage of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s funeral.

“They’re stupid to begin with, but they’re brainwashed now,” the colleague said, referring to Palestinians. “Stinking animals. They ought to drop the bomb right there, kill ’em all right now.”

This past spring, CAIR launched a campaign called “Hate Hurts America,” which is specifically aimed at what the group identifies as increasing anti-Muslim attacks on talk radio.

In a letter to NBC President Neal Shapiro, CAIR national communications director Ibrahim Hooper wrote, “We are firm defenders of the First Amendment, but these hate-filled and racist remarks can only serve to legitimize anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry in our society and could lead to further discrimination against members of the Islamic and Arab-American communities.”

On Tuesday (Nov. 23), MSNBC spokeswoman Leslie Zeller Schwartz issued a statement pointing out that views expressed on the Imus program are not those of MSNBC.

“Having said that, it was unfortunate that these remarks were telecast on MSNBC,” she said. “We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by these remarks.”

That didn’t satisfy CAIR.

“I suppose we should appreciate the fact that they responded at all,” said Hooper. “But it’s hard to characterize it as a strong apology.”

Holly Lebowitz Rossi and Mark O’Keefe

Disciples Ask to Enter Bankruptcy Case of Social Services Agency

(RNS) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has asked a federal bankruptcy judge to declare the church a “party of interest” as its social services agency undergoes bankruptcy reorganization.

The National Benevolent Association, one of 11 independent affiliate agencies of the Disciples, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last February. The St. Louis-based NBA provided elderly housing, counseling and treatment services at 90 locations in 20 states.

NBA officials cited a downturn in investments and a double-digit decline in government subsidies in declaring bankruptcy. Last week (Nov. 19), a New York-based liquidator paid $210 million for NBA’s 11 senior living facilities. The agency has also sold or leased three of six children’s ministries.

Because NBA operates independently of the denomination, church leaders had been reluctant to involve themselves in the court proceedings. But the Rev. William Chris Hobgood, the Disciples’ general minister and president, said the church wants to represent parishioners who have been donors.

For nearly a year, church leaders attempted to initiate “meaningful dialogue” with NBA officials with no success. Because of the independence of the agency, Hobgood said the church is not at financial risk.

“Whoever is finally approved by the courts, the Disciples hope to work closely with the new owners to help ensure that compassionate care is provided for those who need it most,” he said.

The church’s Nov. 16 request to enter the process must now be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio, which is overseeing the case.

Hobgood said the church hopes to be more “proactive” in representing parishioners’ interests to ensure that the agency’s mission to assist “the least of these” is continued.

“It now appears that NBA’s services to children, seniors and families may be significantly reduced, a change that is of great concern to many people,” he said.

Kevin Eckstrom

Strife-Torn Southern Baptist College Agrees to Reforms

(RNS) Trustees of Louisiana College have committed themselves to a series of reforms that they hope will spare the embattled Christian college from probation or outright loss of accreditation.

Generally, the trustees have agreed to limit themselves to a general oversight role, ceding accountability for faculty and curriculum to the college’s president and administration.

If the promises are kept, they would help protect academic freedom and repair “a general climate of fear” that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools said it found during a September visit to the Pineville campus.

The powerful accrediting agency said trustees, frustrated by their concerns over the direction of the college, had thrust themselves inappropriately into the day-to-day business of the school, sometimes minimizing the participation of faculty or administrators.

The college of 1,000 students, owned by the Southern Baptist denomination, is undergoing an internal battle over its religious identity. Its trustees, backed by many churches in the Louisiana Baptist Convention, believe the college is becoming too liberal and too timid in teaching Southern Baptist values.

On the other side are the bulk of Louisiana College’s faculty, who assert the college remains authentically Southern Baptist and true to its mission to integrate evangelical faith and education. They counter that the trustees’ approach favors “indoctrination” over religiously informed critical thinking.

After reviewing the concerns raised by the accreditation agency, Louisiana College President John Traylor released a response Nov. 16 promising a list of 25 remedies. Many involve pledges by faculty and administrators, but the biggest changes would come from trustees.

Trustees promised to work inside established channels and recommit themselves to faculty participation. They promised to hire consultants to brief them and others on campus about power-sharing and lines of authority.

They also promised to “revisit” their recent decision to rewrite, with little faculty participation, Louisiana College’s faculty handbook. And they said they would “review” another recent policy in which trustees demanded an early look at faculty candidates before the president offered them a contract.

They also promised to exercise independent judgment free of “undue influence” from the state Baptist convention and a faction of hard-liners within it. But especially on that matter, Louisiana College reminded the accreditation team that the school was church-owned, indicating that its Southern Baptist influence was precisely the reason for its existence.

Bruce Nolan

Activist Eyes 2008 Olympics if China Continues Religious Persecution

WASHINGTON (RNS) A human rights activist has proposed a campaign in which American businesses would withhold investment in the 2008 Olympics if persecution of religious groups continues in China.

The Rev. Bob Fu, president of the Midland, Texas-based China Aid Association, told a congressional committee examining religion in China that the U.S. government should compile a list of religious persecutors in China and make it public. It should then, he said, encourage U.S. corporations to not do business in provinces and cities where severe persecution is taking place.

Speaking Thursday (Nov. 18) before the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Fu said an estimated 20,000-plus members of underground religious groups “have been arrested, detained, kidnapped or placed under house arrest” since 2002.

Fu, whose expertise is in underground, Protestant “house churches” that resist registering with the government, said that figure would be much higher if Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that incorporates exercise with Buddhist and Taoist principles, were included.

The hearing was part of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, established in 1998 to monitor and make independent policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state and Congress on freedom of religion.

While Fu recommended punishing China, Commission Chair Preeta D. Bansal advocated a more positive approach, extending bank loan breaks to U.S. businesses that promoted Chinese religious freedom.

“One area that needs more thought and development is how to offer incentives to businesses to establish innovative approaches to promote religious freedom and related human rights outside the United States,” she said.

Bansal said now that China has made significant economic progress, it must turn its attention to human rights.

“It can no longer be argued that human rights violations are a temporary trade-off to achieve economic development,” Bansal said. “Achieving the full measure of economic development depends on improving human rights protections.”

Wangui Njuguna

Quote of the Day: John Podesta

(RNS) “Leaving the field to suggest that, `if you are religious, you are conservative,’ is dangerous for the Democrats. Most people, I think, want a sense from you that you have a strong moral core and they want to see something authentic in that regard. Our political leaders are going to have to feel more comfortable in speaking in those terms.”

John Podesta, former presidential chief of staff in the Clinton administration. He was quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

MO/PH RNS END