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
Cardinal Says Abortion and Social Justice Are Not `Competing Causes’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who has overseen the Catholic Church’s relationship with dissenting politicians, says opposition to abortion and support of social justice cannot be “competing causes” in the church’s political life.
McCarrick, chairman of a task force on the church’s relationship with politicians, spoke two weeks after an election in which conservative and progressive Catholics competed to highlight opposition to abortion and the church’s extensive teaching on social concerns as paramount.
“The treatment of `the least of these’ beginning with unborn children and including all those who suffer in our nation and our world are at the heart of our mission in public life,” McCarrick said in a written report given to bishops Wednesday (Nov. 17) at their annual meeting here.
President Bush, a Methodist, narrowly won the Catholic vote in his successful bid for a second term, but having a liberal Catholic heading the Democratic ticket sparked a fierce political debate about how Catholic values should play out in the public square.
McCarrick, seeking a middle ground, said the church’s social teaching must not be pigeon-holed as either liberal or conservative, and should never be partisan.
“I look around the room and see bishops who have been unfairly attacked as partisan, others who have been called cowards,” McCarrick said. “Some have been accused of being `single issue,’ indifferent to the poor or unconcerned about war. Others have been called unconcerned about the destruction of unborn human life but preoccupied by war. That is not who we are.”
McCarrick, who often serves as an informal church liaison to the nation’s capital, said the work of his committee will continue well beyond the election. The bishops’ doctrine committee will take up the issue of when _ or if _ bishops should deny Communion to any Catholic who dissents from church teaching.
“We do not believe our commitment to human life and dignity and our pursuit of justice and peace are competing causes,” said McCarrick, noting that the bishops “do not believe all issues have equal moral claims.”
Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., the bishops’ new president, said the church will not abandon political questions just because the election is over. “That’s going to be an ongoing discussion and a pastoral situation that we bishops need to continue to address,” he said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Warns Against Making Religion an Instrument of Intolerance
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Meeting with the Muslim, Orthodox and Jewish leaders of the Caucasian republic of Azerbaijan, Pope John Paul II warned Thursday (Nov. 18) that religion must never become an instrument of intolerance or aggression.
John Paul called the inter-religious delegation, which was returning the visit he made to Azerbaijan in 2002, a “symbol for the world” that “tolerance is possible and constitutes a value of civilization that poses the premise for a wider and more solid human, civil and social development.”
The 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff urged a final resolution of the conflict between predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and the mainly Armenian Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh. Hostilities, which broke out in 1992, were suspended with a cease-fire in 1994, but there has been no peace treaty.
In a broader appeal, apparently addressed to the strife-torn Caucasus, Iraq and the entire Middle East, the pope said, “No one has the right to present or to use religions as an instrument of intolerance or as a means of aggression, violence and death.”
“On the contrary,” he said, “their reciprocal friendship and esteem, if also sustained by the commitment of governments to tolerance, constitutes a rich resource of authentic progress and peace.”
John Paul’s words echoed the pledge to repudiate violence that he led during a pilgrimage of representatives of the world’s major religions to Assisi, home of the 13th century prophet of peace St. Francis, on Jan. 24, 2002. That was in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America by Muslim terrorists.
“There is no religious goal which can possibly justify the use of violence by man against man,” the pope told the Assisi gathering.
To the Azeri religious leaders, he said, “Together, Muslims, Jews and Christians, we want to address an appeal to humanity in the name of God and of civilization that it cease its homicidal violence and follow the way of love and justice for all. This is the way of religions.”
The delegation was made up of Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahurkur Pashazade, head of Caucasian Muslims, Orthodox Bishop Aleksandr of Baku, and the leader of the ancient community of the Jews of the Mountain, who was not identified by name.
According to Vatican statistics, there are only about 300 Catholics in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea.
_ Peggy Polk
Graham Utilizes Technology to Preach in Multiple Languages
PASADENA, Calif. (RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham has always gone to extraordinary efforts to communicate his message. But his four-day California crusade is being instantly interpreted into an unprecedented 26 languages, including sign language.
Ira Schipper, who has worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for 34 years, said crusades have been translated since 1980, but none has been immediately interpreted into as many languages as the Rose Bowl event.
Interpreters are isolated in individual booths wearing headsets. They listen to Graham’s message in English then quickly interpret it into another tongue. Each language is broadcast on a low-wave frequency. Attendees at the Rose Bowl receive the translated messages via headsets attuned to the appropriate frequency.
Schipper said it’s important that each person hears the message in his or her “heart language.”
“We believe that the message we have, that Mr. Graham’s been preaching for all these years, is the answer to the problems of the world, if people would get right with God through Jesus Christ,” he said.
The interpreters are all volunteers from local churches _ just a few of the 20,000 people from 1,200 churches who are sponsoring the event.
On Thursday, the crusade’s first day, Graham preached a simple message about the sins of man and the love of God to a crowd of about 45,000. It was the type of sermon that Graham, 86, has been preaching for 55 years in stadiums around the world.
Graham’s sermon, delivered in a matter-of-fact manner, still has the ability to stir people’s souls. When he invited his audience to come to the field and give their lives to Christ they poured from the stands.
Officials from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association estimated that 2,500 people came forward. Some held hands, others pushed wheelchair-users toward the stage. Almost the entire field filled with people.
“You’ve come to Jesus,” Graham said to the group gathered before the stage. “He’ll forgive you. He’s willing to change you. But you have to allow him.”
Historically, Graham has always embraced the latest technology to communicate to an international audience. In 1995, during the Global Mission from San Juan, Puerto Rico, crusade organizers utilized satellite technology to beam tape-delayed messages in more than 100 languages to sites around the world.
“They estimate more than a billion people heard at least one of the programs,” said William Martin, author of the Graham biography “Prophet With Honor.” Nobody had done it on that big of a scale.”
_ Marshall Allen
Database of Holocaust Victims Unveiled, Accessible Online
JERUSALEM (RNS) Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, launched its much-awaited central database of Holocaust victims Monday (Nov. 22). Its goal is to register as many additional names as possible before the information is gone forever.
To date, Yad Vashem has entered the names of approximately 3 million of the estimated 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust into the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. It is accessible to the public via Yad Vashem’s Web site (http://www.yadvashem.org).
Although the site will serve as a memorial and an educational tool, Yad Vashem’s primary impetus is to register as many of the 6 million victims as possible. Half remain unknown.
At a press conference to announce the launch, Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, said the online database is the central tool in the “11th hour campaign” to collect unrecorded names. “It is a race against time,” he stressed, noting that those who were young children in the Holocaust are now in their 70s.
There are several reasons why so many remain unaccounted for, according to Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari.
“For a lot of survivors, it was too emotionally difficult to fill out the memorial pages” that have existed at Yad Vashem for decades. “Registering a victim is the final acknowledgment of their loved one’s death.”
Yaari told Religion News Service that “there are some people who we will never know because their entire families, their entire communities, were wiped out. There was simply no one left to record their names.”
By going online, Yaari said, “perhaps grandchildren will sit down at the computer with their grandparents and input the data. There will come a day when the people who know the names will no longer be with us.”
The online database will enable users worldwide to access millions of personal and historical documents archived in 14 languages using cutting-edge Web search systems. Users can perform comprehensive searches, submit information and take part in educational programs.
_ Michele Chabin
Conservatives Vow to Keep Close Eye on Specter
WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative groups who tried to derail Sen. Arlen Specter’s bid to head the Senate Judiciary Committee said they are disappointed he will get the post, but vowed to keep a close watch on him.
Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, was forced to defend his expected chairmanship after he warned President Bush that judicial nominees who do not support abortion rights would have a hard time winning confirmation.
After he assured the White House and other GOP leaders that he would not block Bush’s appointments, the nine Republican members of the committee said Thursday (Nov. 18) that they would support the maverick Specter.
“Sen. Specter will be held to his word, ” said James Dobson, founder and chairman of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, adding, “We will be watching Sen. Specter closely, and reporting on him fully.”
Critics, led by the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition, staged a “pray-in” on Capitol Hill on Nov. 16 in an attempt to deny Specter the chairmanship.
The conservative Family Research Council said it would also keep pressure on Specter to allow a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to clear his committee.
“This is an issue that will not subside and the integrity of Sen. Specter’s word will be tested through his leadership of the Judiciary Committee,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.
Specter, who supports abortion rights, vowed to give a full and fair hearing to any nominee sent up by the White House. He noted that he has voted for all of the president’s nominees, even those he disagrees with.
“I have no reason to believe that I’ll be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy of nomination,” Specter told reporters.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Central Baptist Theological Seminary Names First Woman President
(RNS) Central Baptist Theological Seminary has elected Molly T. Marshall, a longtime professor at the Kansas school, as its 10th president.
When Marshall begins her new position Jan. 1, she will be the first woman to hold the top position at any Baptist-affiliated seminary accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.
“We interviewed a field of exceptionally well-qualified candidates, but Dr. Marshall’s love and devotion for theological education is what convinced the committee that she is the right choice to lead the seminary into a new era,” said incoming board chairman Don Wissman in a statement.
Marshall has worked at the seminary in Kansas City, Kan., for nine years, most recently as acting academic dean. She also has been a professor of theology and spiritual formation.
“I’m grateful for the trust and confidence the board has given me to lead Central as a teaching church seminary _ realigning congregational life with theological education,” she said in a statement.
Marshall moved to the seminary after resigning under pressure from a position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in the midst of the denomination’s battles between moderates and conservatives. She had been critical of the Southern Baptist Convention’s position against women pastors.
Over the course of her career, she has served as a minister at churches in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Kentucky and has been president of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Atheists Claim They Are, Indeed, in Foxholes
WASHINGTON (RNS) Atheists are objecting to the cliche “there are no atheists in foxholes.”
A U.S. Navy Chaplin’s recent remarks on national television has drawn the latest criticism.
Commander Kal McAlexander said on CNN’s “American Morning” on Nov. 9 that “there is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole,” suggesting that, faced with the horrors of war, American soldiers depend on their religious faith to give them strength.
American Atheists, Inc., a civil rights group that advocates the separation of church and state, as well as the rights of atheists, vehemently objects to the commander’s assertion. The group, with nationwide chapters, was founded in 1963 by activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a litigant in the court case that removed organized prayer from public schools.
“The claim is both ridiculously inaccurate and divisive,” said the group’s president, Ellen Johnson, in a press release, “Statements like this are unprofessional and inappropriate especially when made by an active duty officer working for an organization that prides itself on diversity.”
Johnson asked for McAlexander to apologize and said that his statement discriminates against U.S. soldiers who are non-believers and are in harm’s way in Iraq to serve their country, alongside their believer commrades.
Johnson cited the Nov. 2002 Godless Americans March on Washington, in which hundreds of atheist military personnel and veterans participated, and the existence of the organization Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, which has a membership of both active duty and retired members of the armed forces.
“Chaplains of all services have perpetuated this prejudice by making statements to the effect that there can be no atheists in wartime,” states the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers on its web site.
It asks senior chaplains to publish an official condemnation of what they call a discriminatory practice against atheist service members.
_ Itir Yakar
Pope to Actor: `You Are Crazy to Make a Film About Me’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Introduced to the Polish actor who will play him in a made-for-television film about his life before he was elected to lead the world’s 1 billion Catholics, Pope John Paul II appeared surprised.
“You are crazy to make a film about me. But what have I ever done?” he asked.
The actor, Piotr Adamczyk, told the Italian television guide Sorrisi e Canzoni (Smiles and Songs) he was left momentarily speechless and felt as though he were 6 years old again, seeing John Paul on his first trip back to Poland as pope in 1979.
“I laughed and I only managed to say to him: `I am very happy. I am truly happy,”’ Adamczyk recalled.
Adamczyk will star in the $13 million film “Karol Wojtyla: Story of a Man Who Became Pope,” which will be shown on Italian television in the spring. The Italian production is directed by Giacomo Battiato and co-stars Raoul Bova, Ennio Fantastichini and Violante Placido.
Adamczyk, 31, had his brief encounter with the 84-year-old John Paul, himself an actor and playwright in his youth, after a general audience. He said that faced with the pope in person, “for the first time in my life I forgot my lines.”
_ Peggy Polk
Quote of the Week: Billy Graham
(RNS) “In fact, I’ve thought a number of times, the pope is going on with his message to the world at his age. I can go on at my age with the Gospel I’ve preached all over.”
_ Billy Graham, 86, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, as he prepared for a four-day evangelistic crusade in Pasadena, Calif.
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