c. 2005 Religion News Service Conservative Groups Drop Boycott of Procter & Gamble (RNS) The American Family Association and other conservative Christian groups have dropped their boycott of Procter & Gamble, saying they believe the company is “backing off its support for the homosexual agenda.” The boycott began last fall and garnered almost 400,000 pledges to halt purchases of the Cincinnati manufacturer’s products, especially Crest toothpaste and Tide laundry detergent. “Judging by all we found in our research, it appears that our concerns have been addressed,” said Donald Wildmon, chairman of the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, in a statement. “Insofar as we can tell by our monitoring, P&G has stopped their sponsorship of TV programs promoting the homosexual lifestyle, such as `Will and Grace,’ and they have stopped their sponsorships of homosexual Internet sites.” The boycott came at a time when Procter & Gamble had donated $10,000 to a campaign for the repeal of a city ordinance barring the enactment of gay rights laws. Company spokesman Doug Shelton said he was pleased to learn of the boycott’s suspension. “We were disappointed by their initial action to boycott our products,” he said. “Our consumers come first at P&G and that’s where we’ll continue to focus our attention.” He declined to discuss the company’s advertising practices. Focus on the Family also has suspended the boycott, the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based organization announced. “Procter & Gamble executives clearly have heard the message their customers sent them: `We like your products, but not some of the political causes you have aligned yourself with,”’ said Gary Schneeberger, director of media and constituent communications for Focus on the Family, in a statement in the ministry’s e-newsletter Citizen Link. _ Adelle M. Banks Survey: Most Support Restrictions on Indecent Material in Media (RNS) Seventy-five percent of Americans favor enforcement of government restrictions on television content during hours when children are most likely to be watching, a new survey has found. “New Concerns About Internet and Reality Shows” was released Tuesday (April 19) by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The survey interviewed 1,505 adults March 17-21 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. In addition to favoring restrictions on television during prime child-viewing hours, 69 percent of those surveyed supported steeper fines for indecent network programming. Sixty percent favored extending the same rules to cable television stations. Americans also largely agreed that parents are primarily responsible for keeping explicit or offensive content away from their children. The survey found a “tug of war” in public opinion, however. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed see a significant danger in the government imposing restrictions on the entertainment industry, compared to 41 percent who say that harmful content is the greater danger. This divide follows political and religious lines. Fifty-seven percent of those who identify themselves as conservative Republicans feel the entertainment industry is a greater danger, whereas 72 percent of liberal Democrats say that excessive government restrictions are the more pressing concern. Fifty-one percent of white evangelical Protestants object to the entertainment industry more than the government initiatives, compared to only 27 percent of “secular” Americans. A majority _ 68 percent _ agree that children’s exposure to sex and violence on television gives them “the wrong idea” about what’s permissible in society. The survey was released in the midst of an ongoing, and often heated, debate over proposals before Congress that would further involve government in enforcing decency standards in the media. _ Holly Lebowitz Rossi Update: Muslims File Federal Lawsuit Over Border Searches

(RNS) American Muslim and civil liberties groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that Muslims who attend religious conferences outside the United States are subject to increased and unfair scrutiny upon their return to the country.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, was brought by five American citizens who are Muslim. In January, they were detained, interrogated, photographed and fingerprinted when returning to the United States from an annual conference, called “Reviving the Islamic Spirit,” in Toronto.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the suit Wednesday (April 20) on behalf of the five complainants.

The five plaintiffs, all of whom have valid U.S. passports, were among dozens who were stopped at the Buffalo border crossing. They were questioned, some of them, for as long as 61/2 hours, and had their cell phones confiscated when they tried to contact lawyers or the media, the complaint states.

The suit, which names Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as well as customs and border officials, claims that the men and women “were subjected to this treatment solely because they had attended the conference.”

The complaint asks the court to issue a declaration that the border officials acted unlawfully, as well as an injunction against repeating the practices around other conferences.

After the January episode, CAIR set up a hot line in case similar incidents occurred when Muslims returned from hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

“When American citizens are targeted by their own government and detained, searched, fingerprinted and photographed with threat of arrest for committing no crime, this is not only unacceptable and unlawful, but also unconstitutional and un-American,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, national legal director for CAIR.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Betting Begins on Next Pope

LONDON (RNS) Barely two days after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have opened a book on who might eventually succeed him.

“Ridiculous,” was the comment of one highly placed British churchman, Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales.

Paddy Power is quoting the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, as the favorite at 6-1; the Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, at 7-1, with Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Madariaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at the same odds; Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, at 9-1; the Nigerian Curial Cardinal Francis Arinze at 10-1; and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, also at 10-1.

And for those who would like a second German pope, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, bishop of Mainz, is quoted at 16-1.

Already the bookmakers say they have taken more than 100 bets _ which, when converted to dollars, is estimated to be between $1,900 and $2,850.

Paddy Power’s book on the successor to Pope John Paul II took more than $380,000 in bets and the firm paid out $146,300 to those who put money on Cardinal Ratzinger, at odds that began at an initial 12-1 and went down to 3-1 just before the cardinals began their conclave to choose a new pope.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Former hostage Ashley Smith of Duluth, Ga.

(RNS) “I surrendered completely and let God work in the situation. I would not be here if not for Jesus.”

_ Former hostage Ashley Smith of Duluth, Ga., who was held hostage after an Atlanta courtroom shooting in March, addressing the Greater Augusta Area Harvest Crusade of evangelist Greg Laurie in Georgia on Tuesday (April 19).

MO/PH END RNS