c. 2005 Religion News Service Best Buy to Curb Violent Video Games, to Applause of Catholic Investors (RNS) Christian Brothers Investment Services announced Thursday (May 19) that it has withdrawn a shareholder resolution on violent video games that it filed with Best Buy Co. Inc. because the retailer has established a policy to restrict the sales of such games to youths. The New York-based consulting company, which fosters responsible Catholic financial decisions, said it was encouraged by the developments by the Minneapolis-based company to address video sales. “We are pleased with the progress to date at the company and commend Best Buy for improving its business practices in this area,” said Julie Tanner, corporate advocacy director for Christian Brothers Investment Services, in a statement. “We believe that Best Buy’s work here will diminish reputation risk and protect shareholder value.” The policy prohibits sale of “mature” video and computer games with an M rating to customers younger than 17. The investment company said Best Buy’s recently published policy includes a “mystery shopper” program that determines if cashiers are complying with company rules. The retailer’s Web site said these random audits are done at more than 100 stores each month. Sue Busch, a Best Buy spokeswoman, said the policy has existed for at least a year but it was posted on the company’s Web site earlier this month (May). “To promote employee compliance with this policy, Best Buy voluntarily developed and implemented a system in all stores providing for special prompts at cash registers when M-rated video or computer games are being purchased,” reads a statement on the company’s Web site. “The prompts require the cashier to confirm the age of the customer before selling an M-rated video or computer game.” The retailer said employees, who must sign an acknowledgment of the policy, will be disciplined and could be fired if they do not follow company rules about sales of video games. The investment company worked with other Catholic organizations on the resolution, including Trinity Health, a Michigan-based consortium of Catholic hospitals and other facilities, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, N.Y., and the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Mich. _ Adelle M. Banks Physicians in Congress Push Alternative to Embryonic Stem Cell Research WASHINGTON (RNS) With a congressional vote upcoming that would lift limits on embryonic stem cell research, five physicians from the House of Representatives are trying to counter what they consider widespread misconceptions about such research. “Embryonic stem cell research has been hyped to the extreme in this city and in Hollywood,” said Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Md., a physician who argues that taxpayer money should not be used to support such an ethically charged issue. At a Thursday (May 19) news conference, Weldon, joined by four other Republican congressmen who are doctors, offered umbilical cord blood cells and adult cells as viable moral alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. According to the congressmen, cord blood cells have more practical treatment potential than stem cells. “There are no treatments or even promising human trials involving embryonic stem cells,” said Rep Tom Coburn, R-Okla., also a doctor. “Before we divert more of our limited resources on hypothetical promises, we owe the public a real debate based on science, not emotion.” Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, all physicians, joined Coburn and Weldon at the news conference. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which may be voted on as early as the week of May 23, would boost federal funding for stem cell research and increase the amount of cells available for study. In 2001, President Bush limited the number of cells that can be used to about two dozen stem cell lines. As the physicians made their views known, religious voices also joined the debate, on opposite sides of the issue. Roman Catholic Cardinal William H. Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore and chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, wrote a letter to Congress in which he called stem cell research “large scale destruction of innocent human life.” “Government has no business forcing taxpayers to become complicit in the direct destruction of human life at any stage,” Keeler said. He added that the only policy change should be to end stem cell research altogether. On the other hand, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish organization supports the new legislation. “The Torah commands us to treat and cure the ill and to defeat disease wherever possible,” read a letter from the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, a New York City-based umbrella organization representing more than 1,000 synagogues. “The potential to save and heal human lives is an integral part of valuing human life,” the letter continued, adding the Jewish tradition does not afford embryos outside of the womb the status of a full human being. _ Helena Andrews Ousted Jesuit Editor Welcomed at Santa Clara University (RNS) The Rev. Tom Reese, forced to resign as editor of the Jesuit magazine America under Vatican pressure, said he will move to California to take a job at Santa Clara University. Reese, a widely quoted commentator on church affairs, announced on May 6 that he would leave the New York magazine after seven years. Church leaders in Rome had pressured Reese to resign after he allowed dissenting views to be aired in the magazine. Reese will take a yearlong sabbatical at the Jesuit school “with no university responsibilities” as he ponders his future, Santa Clara President Paul Locatelli said in a news release. “It was important for him to come to a place where he felt welcome and would have the time to decide what he wanted to do next,” said Locatelli, also a Jesuit priest and a longtime friend of Reese. Locatelli said Reese, a political scientist by training, has been offered a chance to travel to El Salvador with other Jesuits, or work with the school’s centers for Jesuit education or ethics. “He can contribute to the campus in so many different ways,” Locatelli said. “I’m sure he wants to do a good deal of reading, writing and reflecting.” In an e-mail, Reese said he would leave the magazine on May 31 and spend the month of June “vacationing on the beach” before he begins his sabbatical. _ Kevin Eckstrom Poll: More in U.S. Find Death Penalty, Embryonic Stem Cell Research OK (RNS) A survey shows an increasing percentage of Americans consider the death penalty, embryonic stem cell research and having a baby out of wedlock “morally acceptable.” Seventy percent of Americans _ the highest rate since the Gallup Organization began conducting its Values and Beliefs survey in 2001 _ said the death penalty is morally acceptable. In 2004, 65 percent said it was morally acceptable. Pollsters also found record-high levels of moral acceptability on the following issues: _ Medical research using stem cells from human embryos (60 percent). _ Having a baby out of wedlock (54 percent). _ Medical testing on animals (66 percent). _ Buying or wearing clothing made from animal fur (64 percent). _ Cloning animals (35 percent). According to the survey, 66 percent of Americans say divorce is morally acceptable and 64 percent of them say gambling is permissible. The four issues that Americans are least likely to find acceptable are suicide (13 percent), cloning humans (9 percent), polygamy (6 percent) and adultery (5 percent). Americans are pessimistic that the state of moral values in the country will improve in the future: 77 percent said moral values are getting worse. Only 16 percent said they are improving. These results were the same as last year. Approximately 20 percent of Americans viewed the general state of moral values in the United States as excellent or good. Forty percent of Americans rated the current state as “only fair” and 39 percent said it was poor. The survey results are based on telephone interviews with 1,005 adults ages 18 and older throughout the United States from May 2 to 5. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. _ Heather Horiuchi Bush Cites Scripture to Urge Calvin College Grads to Serve GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) In a commencement address, President Bush urged graduates of an evangelical college to serve others as the Bible commands. In the run-up to Calvin College’s Saturday (May 21) commencement, 823 alumni, faculty, staff and students took out a full-page ad criticizing Bush’s policies as violating the principles of the evangelical school; about 100 faculty signed another half-page ad doing the same. But when he appeared before about 5,000 people _ including 900 graduating seniors _ Bush was greeted with an enthusiastic standing ovation. He gave a speech with references to God and Scripture. “As the Class of 2005 goes out into the world, I ask you to embrace this tradition of service and help set an example for all Americans,” he said. “As Americans we share an agenda that calls us to action _ a great responsibility to serve and love others, a responsibility that goes back to the greatest commandment.” According to the Bible’s Book of Matthew, Christ said the “greatest commandment” is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Christ then said, “The second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.”’ Continuing on this theme of service, Bush said: “This isn’t a Democratic idea. This isn’t a Republican idea. This is an American idea.” That was perhaps his biggest applause line of his 14-minute speech, which enabled him to reprise some of the themes of compassion that were the hallmarks of his first campaign in 2000. He spoke of “armies of compassion” and “social entrepreneurs,” and of serving the greater good. He also spoke the language of conciliator. “It is by becoming active in our communities that we move beyond our narrow interests,” Bush said. “In today’s complex world, there are a lot of things that pull us apart. We need to support and encourage the institutions and pursuits that bring us together.” Gaylen Byker, Calvin College’s president and a Bush supporter, was particularly impressed with how well the Bush team researched Calvin for the speech. “The president and his speech-writing staff got a good understanding of the college,” Byker said. “It was a call to service and understanding of the kinds of things we want our students to do and he encouraged them to do it.” Byker said he was pleased to see how well the ceremony went and that he wasn’t surprised the campus community came together after a month of tensions over the president’s visit. _ Steven Harmon and Mark O’Keefe Muslim Group Calls for FBI Investigation of Two Alleged Hate Crimes (RNS) Two recent violent incidents in New York City have led a prominent Muslim civil liberties group to call on the FBI to investigate the episodes as hate crimes. At a news conference Sunday (May 22), the New York chapter of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested FBI probes of the murder of a Bangladeshi man and the assault of a 13-year-old Muslim student, claiming that the incidents may have been the result of anti-Muslim bias. “Both of these disturbing incidents must be investigated thoroughly by the FBI to determine whether or not the attackers were motivated by anti-Muslim bias,” said Wissam Nasr, the executive director of CAIR-NY. On May 6, a Bangladeshi Muslim man was found dead in Brooklyn after being severely beaten. Because there was money in the victim’s pocket, area Muslims reported to CAIR that they suspected anti-Muslim bias. On May 18, a 13-year-old Muslim student was assaulted at his private school, the New Dorp Christian Academy, on Staten Island. The young man said his attackers physically assaulted him and called him a “terrorist” and “a relative of (Osama) bin Laden,” the Staten Island Advance newspaper reported. In addition to calling on the FBI to investigate, CAIR-NY’s Nasr is working with NYPD officials to increase patrols in the Brooklyn neighborhood where the Bangladeshi man was murdered. Nasr is also requesting police assistance in setting up a neighborhood watch group. The students who assaulted the 13-year-old Muslim may require “sensitivity training,” he said, and the administration at the school should be scrutinized. Federal hate crime charges may not be required for the youths, he said. Both episodes point to a need for FBI investigation, he said. “This is a situation that means a lot to Muslims,” Nasr told Religion News Service. “We just want to make sure that people don’t feel it’s OK to attack Muslims.” _ Holly Lebowitz Rossi Update: Mission Conference Urges Churches to Be Healing Communities
(RNS) Addressing a global imbalance of religious power, the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism has called on the world’s Christians to be “reconciling and healing communities.”
“While the centers of power are still predominantly in the global North, it is in the South and the East that the churches are growing most rapidly, as a result of faithful Christian mission and witness,” the conference said in a statement issued Wednesday (May 18).
The statement offered no specific suggestions on how to address the power imbalance.
Sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the mission conference _ the 13th such gathering since 1910 _ met May 9-16 near Athens, Greece. The final draft of the statement from the 600 delegates from 105 countries was issued by a conference commission.
“In Athens we were deeply aware of the new challenges that come from the need for reconciliation between East and West, North and South, and between Christians and people of other faiths,” the statement said.
“We have become painfully aware of the mistakes of the past, and pray that we may learn from them,” it added.
It said delegates were conscious that race, caste and gender bias continue to exist in the churches, adding: “As a global gathering, we are challenged by the violence inflicted by the forces of economic globalization, militarism and the plight of the marginalized people, especially the indigenous communities and people uprooted by migration.”
Perhaps reflecting the larger than usual presence of Pentecostals at the meeting, the statement put special stress on the role of healing, including that which takes place through prayer, ascetic practices “and the charisms (gifts) of healing through sacraments and healing services (and) through a combination of medical and spiritual, social and system approaches.”
While the meeting brought together an usually wide spectrum of theological views, the statement also expressed pain that “God’s mission is distorted by the divisions and lack of understanding that persists in and among the churches.”
_ David E. Anderson
Goal: 50,000 Hispanics Become Southern Baptists Within Five Years
(RNS) A Southern Baptist task force has urged leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to take “unprecedented” measures to evangelize the growing number of Hispanics in the country.
Goals include baptizing more than 50,000 Hispanic converts by 2010 and starting 250 new Hispanic churches each year during that same period. The effort to start new churches, if successful, would give the denomination a total of 3,980 churches by 2010.
The task force members said the denomination must work among both Hispanic church members and non-Hispanics to evangelize Hispanics in their communities and workplaces.
“Due to the explosive growth of the Hispanic population, unprecedented cooperative efforts are going to be needed including the North American Mission Board, state conventions, state Hispanic fellowships, other Baptist agencies and existing churches,” concluded a report developed by task force members titled “21st Century Hispanic Realities: Transforming the Social and Religious Panorama of North America.”
The task force also recommended that the denomination’s mission board create a bilingual Web site to communicate with Hispanic Baptists and seminaries should offer training for Hispanic leaders at a range of education levels.
Task force leaders noted that there must be outreach to Hispanics who are not English speakers as well as those who are.
“We cannot be lulled into thinking that most Hispanics are assimilated and that our typical English-speaking approaches are all that we need to reach them and to start churches among them,” the 21st-century report reads.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Historic Torah Taken by Nazis Returned to Chief Rabbi
ROME (RNS) A precious 17th century Torah containing the body of wisdom and law of Jewish scripture has been returned to the chief rabbi of Rome more than six decades after it disappeared in a Nazi raid on Rome’s Jewish ghetto.
Dario Tedeschi, a lawyer who heads a government commission seeking the restoration of looted Jewish property, said that the director of a library in Amsterdam turned the book over to him at a meeting in Hannover, Germany.
“He told me that he had the assignment of consigning to me this book with a label that indicated its provenance from the library of the Rabbinical College of Rome,” Tedeschi said in an interview in the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday (May 24).
Tedeschi presented the small but valuable book to Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni on Monday at a ceremony in Palazzo Chigi, which houses the offices of the prime minister.
Calling the ceremony an “exceptional event,” Deputy Prime Minister Gianni Letta said, “We hope that others will follow it and that it will be possible to know more of these books and where they wound up.”
The Torah was the first of many books looted by the Nazis on Oct. 16, 1943 to be returned to the Jewish community. In the raid on the ghetto, the troops also seized 110 pounds of gold and arrested 1,022 Roman Jews to be transported to death camps.
The book was published in 1680. Its parchment pages contain the Pentateuch, which is made up of the first five books of the Bible, and prophetic readings for the Saturday service, Di Segni said.
_ Peggy Polk
After 33 Years, Christian Rock Group Petra to Retire
(RNS) Petra, a Christian rock group, will retire in December after 33 years of performances.
John Schlitt, longtime lead singer, expressed gratitude for the opportunities that have arisen from being in the group.
“We’ve had a good long run. … We’ve seen God’s hand at work in our music on every continent and in every language,” he said in a statement.
The decision to retire was made by all of the members, according to a news release from Inpop Records.
More than 25 years ago, the rock group’s music was banned in some Christian bookstores. Decades later, the band was inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame.
“The doubts about popular music mixing with Christian lyrics have mostly vanished due to their … track record of proven ministry and changed lives. Petra was a true pioneer for our industry,” said Frank Breeden, former president of the Gospel Music Association.
He made the statement when the group was inducted into the association’s Gospel Hall of Fame in 2000.
Petra’s style has evolved over the years, featuring a rotating group of musicians as the band has become an influential force in the contemporary Christian music world.
Petra has produced more than 20 albums and has received four Grammy Awards and 10 Dove Awards. The group is considering releasing a live album or box set and anticipates final tours in the United States and Europe.
_ Heather Horiuch
Quote of the Week: Former Secretary of the Interior James Watt
(RNS) “I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it. I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation _ that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator.”
_ Former Secretary of Interior James Watt, countering decades-old allegations that the former Reagan administration Cabinet member said protection of natural resources wasn’t important given the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Watt tried to clarify in an op-ed column for The Washington Post.
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