c. 2005 Religion News Service
Religious Groups to Swarm Capitol Hill to Lobby Against Hunger
WASHINGTON (RNS) Frustrated with what they decry as government inaction, religious leaders from many faiths plan to invade Capitol Hill in June to demand a commitment to end hunger in America.
Organized by Christian hunger advocacy group Bread for the World, “Hunger No More: An Interfaith Convocation” will unite dozens of religious leaders at the Washington National Cathedral on June 6, the eve of its all-day lobbying effort on the Hill.
“What’s mainly needed to reduce hunger is stronger commitment, especially from our government,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, a Lutheran minister who is president of Bread for the World, in a telephone press conference Tuesday (May 17). “We are all scandalized by the persistence of mass hunger.”
Beckmann said the effort is needed because President Bush and Congress have shown they “have other priorities” than ending world hunger through their failure to maintain budget commitments to hunger and poverty programs.
Beckmann said more than 1,000 people would be participating in the lobbying effort on National Hunger Awareness Day, and that a request had also been made for a meeting with the White House.
“Elected officials have come together and basically have abdicated the clarion call that this indeed is a problem with a solution,” said H. Eric Schockman, president of Mazon, a Jewish Response to Hunger. “It is a question of equity. … Where do we set our federal spending priorities?”
The convocation is part of the June 4-7 national Bread for the World conference, titled “One Table, Many Voices: A Mobilization to End Poverty and Hunger,” and will feature a sermon by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa, and songs and sacred texts from myriad faiths.
“Theology may separate us and yet we have a lot in common,” said Georgetown University Muslim Chaplain Imam Yahya Hendi. “God wants all of us to take care of the poor and take care of the needy.”
According to Bread for the World, one in 10 American households is living with or at risk of hunger.
_ Shawna Gamache
ACLU Sues Over Federal Funding of Pa. Abstinence Program
(RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying it unconstitutionally funds an abstinence program that promotes evangelism.
According to the suit, filed Monday (May 16) in Boston, the government has awarded more than $1 million in grants to Silver Ring Thing in Moon Township, Pa.
Court papers describe its activities as including presentations with skits, music and the option of attending a religious discussion that includes proselytization.
“Students attending the three-hour presentation feel pressured to attend the religious programming,” the suit charges.
The presentation ends with students reciting an abstinence pledge and the wearing of a silver ring, which is supposed to be given to their spouse on the day of their wedding as a sign that the giver has abstained from sex. The rings, the court filing states, are inscribed with a reference to verses from 1 Thessalonians: “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.”
“Using public funds, the `Silver Ring Thing’ urges students to commit themselves to Christ,” said Julie Sternberg, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement.
“The courts have repeatedly said that taxpayer dollars cannot be used to promote religion. The `Silver Ring Thing’ blatantly violates this principle.”
In a statement issued Monday, the ministry said it could not comment on the specifics of the suit.
“The Silver Ring Thing is aware of the proper designation of the federal funds received and asserts that these monies have been properly directed at all times,” it said.
Steve Barbour, a spokesman for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, declined to respond to the suit.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” he said.
In 2002, a federal judge ruled against a Louisiana program designed to promote sexual abstinence, saying it unconstitutionally advanced religion.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Editors: Replace (plus) with symbol in next item
French Watchdog Agency Not Amused by Satirical Papal Puppet
PARIS _ France’s audiovisual watchdog agency has reprimanded a television channel for a puppet depiction of a pope blessing his Roman Catholic following “in the name of the father, the son and the Third Reich.”
France’s beloved and satiric political puppets, Les Guignols, have been unafraid to take on some of the world’s biggest heavyweights during their lengthy and often hilarious careers on television.
Just about everyone, including President Bush, has bumbled into the prime-time puppet show, to be laughed and jeered at by millions of faithful French viewers. One of the most memorable spoofs targeted the country’s own president, Jacques Chirac, portrayed in a Superman outfit during French election season three years ago as “Supermenteur,” or “Superliar.”
But France’s audiovisual watchdog agency, CSA, was not laughing last month when newly elected Pope Benedict XVI became the latest target of Les Guignol’s razor wit.
The “Third Reich” was a reference to the pontiff’s childhood in Nazi Germany, where he, like other German children, was forced to join the Hitler Youth Movement. Benedict’s family opposed the Nazi government and Benedict has denounced that period in history repeatedly.
Canal (plus), the French channel hosting Les Guignols, rushed out its apologies. But the gesture was clearly not enough. In a vote last week (May 11), the majority of CSA’s nine members reprimanded the channel for the show, one step short of a full sanction.
Canal (plus), the audiovisual agency said in a statement, must remember to “respect the different political, cultural and religious sensibilities of the public.” The reprimand was reportedly a first for Les Guignols during the show’s 17 years on television.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Best Christian Workplaces Named in Annual Survey
(RNS) Workplaces from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Duluth, Ga., are among the 40 organizations recognized as the “Best Christian Places to Work.”
An April survey conducted by the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, a research and consulting firm, polled 8,400 employees from 84 organizations with a Christian mission. It asked employees 50 questions about positives and negatives in their workplace.
When Jen Abbas suffered a brain injury last year that damaged her short-term memory and concept of time, her boss said, “Don’t worry about the job, it’s here for you.”
That kind of workplace compassion is what won Zondervan _ a Christian communications group in Grand Rapids, Mich. _ recognition in the third annual survey, according to Christianity Today.
The winners of the 11 categories were announced at the Christian Management Association conference in Long Beach, Calif. The Alliance Defense Fund in Scottsdale, Ariz., which advocates religious freedom, placed first in the “products and services” category.
“We thank God for the resources we’ve been able to provide to try to make this a good place to work,” said Alliance Defense Fund President Alan Sears to his staff. “And thanks to those in the leadership positions for trying to reflect Christ in their leadership.”
A common thread among the finalists in this year’s survey is that they sought employees’ opinions and acted on them, according to Al Lopus, executive director of the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. He added in an interview with Christianity Today, a sponsor of the survey, that inadequate feedback is a problem plaguing many Christian employees.
Winning organizations, according to the survey, had high levels of trust between management and employees when workers felt they were being treated with fairness and integrity.
According to previous surveys by the institute, finalist organizations experience “greater growth, higher operating margins and lower turnover than non-finalists.”
“Our vision for doing this is to help Christian leaders and organizations set the standard as the best places to work in the world,” said Lopus.
“Shouldn’t Christian organizations be the best places to work in the world?”
This year’s survey winners included:
Large product and service organization: Alliance Defense Fund, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Small product and service organization: DeMoss Group Inc., Duluth, Ga.
Large higher education institution: Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn.
Medium higher education institution: Evangel University, Springfield, Mo.
Small higher education institution: Phoenix Seminary, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Large media organization: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Small media organization: Howard Publishing Inc., West Monroe, La.
_ Helena Andrews
UCC to Follow Presbyterians in Mulling Divestment From Israel
(RNS) The United Church of Christ will vote in July on whether to pull church money from U.S. companies involved in constructing Israeli settlements and security measures in Palestinian territories.
If approved, the 1.4 million-member church (with a $3 billion investment portfolio) would become the second U.S. Protestant body to pull investments from Israel in protest of what they call Israel’s harsh treatment of the Palestinians.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted last year to begin divesting from U.S. companies profiting from Israeli construction in the West Bank and Gaza. The United Methodist Church and the Presbyterians have used shareholder actions to protest use of the Illinois-based Caterpillar’s bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes.
The UCC will also consider two related resolutions, one calling on Israel to tear down its separation wall in the West Bank, and a second that proposes further study of divestment. Church delegates will vote on the resolutions at the General Synod conference in July.
The resolution urging divestment was drafted by the church’s Penn West Conference, based outside Pittsburgh.
The resolution says economic pressure was used successfully to end apartheid in South Africa _ a comparison that angers Jewish leaders. It also states the church’s continued support of the existence of Israel as a nation, and opposition to anti-Semitism, noting “both the ancient Jewish people and Palestinian people are known as Semitic.”
Mark Pelavin, director of interreligious affairs for the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest U.S. Jewish denomination at 1.5 million members, called the UCC resolutions “counterproductive.”
“They’re cast in terms of helping the peace process,” Pelavin said. “I think they would have the opposite effect. Such one-sided approaches undermine rather than support the peace process.”
Pelavin said representatives of his organization would be talking to UCC ministers and congregations nationwide about other ways to use their financial resources to make an impact.
A model of selective investing in Israeli and Palestinian products through companies seen as socially responsible _ like ones being explored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America _ is more positive than selective divesting, he said.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Quote of the Day: Rev. Thomas Sullivan of Babson College
(RNS) “There’s a fine line to walk between sharing your values at work in a positive way and feeling the workplace would be better if everybody shared your values. As soon as you get into the second realm, you start having uncomfortable people.”
_ The Rev. Thomas Sullivan, director of spiritual life at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., commenting on dynamics of religious expression in the workplace. He was quoted in an article on that topic by the Los Angeles Times.
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