c. 2005 Religion News Service
Religious Conservatives Disappointed in Frist’s New Stem-Cell View
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious conservatives are expressing disappointment over Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s announcement that he supports expansion of federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
In a lengthy floor speech Friday (July 29), the Tennessee Republican declared his stance based on his knowledge as a medical doctor and his personal, “pro-life” beliefs.
“I believe human life begins at conception,” he said, according to remarks prepared for delivery that were posted on his Web site. “This position is consistent with my faith. But, to me, it isn’t just a matter of faith. It’s a fact of science. … I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported.”
Many conservative Christians oppose the research because it involves destruction of embryos.
“It is an understatement to say that the pro-life community is disappointed by Sen. Frist’s decision to join efforts to void President Bush’s policy limiting the funding of embryonic stem-cell research,” said James Dobson, founder and chairman of Colorado-based Focus on the Family Action.
“A morally sound line must be drawn at the beginning of this journey into stem cell research: that no human life is sacrificed for possible or proven scientific gain _ period.”
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS. STORY MAY END HERE)
Bush has said he would veto legislation that would loosen the restrictions he placed on embryonic stem cell research in 2001. Frist’s pronouncement enhances the chance of such legislation passing.
“While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001, will over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases,” Frist said in his remarks.
Some religious conservatives say there have been advancements in adult stem-cell research that do not require embryo destruction.
“While we respect the senator’s desire to support a science that offers hope to ailing patients, we want to respectfully remind him that that hope already exists through the numerous advances in adult stem-cell research,” said Lanier Swann, director of government relations for the Washington-based Concerned Women for America.
Some religious organizations support embryonic research. The Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Washington-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, welcomed Frist’s announcement.
“It’s time to end the ideological stranglehold and pass legislation to fund this life-saving research,” he said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Vatican Suggests Israel Breaks Law in Responding to Terrorism
(RNS) The Vatican, in a sharp retort to Israeli criticism of Pope Benedict XVI, said it could not protest every act of Palestinian terrorism because Israel’s responses are “not always compatible with the norms of international law.”
The unusually pointed statement issued by the Vatican on Thursday (July 28) follows Israeli criticism that the pope ignored Israel when mentioning terrorist attacks in London, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey last Sunday (July 24).
Israel summoned the Holy See’s ambassador to Israel to lodge a formal complaint, but the Vatican statement called the complaints “groundless.” The church appeared particularly angry at suggestions that the late Pope John Paul II had been silent on the issue.
“Not every attack against Israel could be followed by an immediate public condemnation,” the church said.
“There are several reasons for this, among them the fact that attacks against Israel were sometimes followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the norms of international law. It would, consequently, have been impossible to condemn the former and remain silent on the latter.”
The public war of words between the Vatican and Jerusalem has threatened to sour the new pope’s overtures to Jews, as well as John Paul’s long legacy of unprecedented good relations with Jews.
John Paul established formal diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994. The statement also warned Israel against trying to influence the Holy See’s international diplomacy.
“Just as the Israeli government understandably does not allow its pronouncements to be dictated by others, neither can the Holy See accept lessons and directives from any other authority concerning the orientation and contents of its own declarations,” it said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Baptist World Alliance Approves U.S. Members, Higher Budget
(RNS) The Baptist World Alliance, despite a substantial loss of funding from the Southern Baptist Convention, has received significant contributions from North America this year _ including a $25,000 check from best-selling author Rick Warren.
The development was announced by the alliance as its General Council met on Wednesday (July 27), the same day its Baptist World Centenary Congress opened in Birmingham, England.
Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention cut its ties with the global group, claiming it had a “leftward drift,” a charge alliance officials denied. The denomination had given the group $300,000 at the time, a reduction from a previous annual contribution of $425,000.
Warren, speaking at a press conference on Thursday, said he didn’t agree with the action taken by his denomination last year.
“I think that it was a mistake,” said the author of “The Purpose Driven Life. “When the Southern Baptists pulled out funding, my wife and I wrote a check for $25,000 to BWA. I see absolutely zero reason in separating my fellowship from anybody.”
Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz said North American churches have contributed $500,000 to his organization this year, according to a news release from the alliance. Those positive finances led the General Council to approve a 2006 budget of $2.34 million, which is larger than its 2005 budget of $1.97 million.
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
In a related matter, the global body also has approved the membership of two moderate Baptist state conventions with ties to that denomination.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia were officially accepted as members of the alliance. The two groups each participate in the central funding program of the Southern Baptist Convention but have more moderate leadership than conservative-led conventions in their states.
“It is important for Texas Baptists to really understand how big our Baptist family is,” said Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, in a statement from his organization. “We are not alone. We have many partners. We are not responsible for the world alone.”
The alliance now has 213 members.
_ Adelle M. Banks
House Lawmakers Propose Bill on Prayer at Military Academies
(RNS) House lawmakers have introduced legislation to guarantee military service academies the right to include voluntary, nondenominational prayer at school events.
The “Military Academy First Amendment Protection Act” was introduced by Reps. Walter Jones, R-NC, and Madeleine Bordallo, D-GU, on Tuesday (July 26). Jones said in a news release that challenges to the practice of prayer at military schools prompted him to propose the legislation.
“We cannot allow this kind of attack on the traditions of our nation’s military institutions to continue,” he said.
In 2003, an appeals court ruled the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. violated the constitutional separation of church and state by holding organized prayers before mandatory meals.
More recently, Abraham Foxman, director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, urged the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis to end formal prayer before meals at the school.
In a letter dated June 17, Foxman cited the practice of requiring midshipmen to stand in formation before lunch while the chaplain recites a prayer.
“VMI’s regular mealtime prayer put a forbidden `stamp of approval’ on religious observance. So does the Naval Academy’s traditional ritual, and it should stop now,” Foxman said in the letter.
If passed, the bill would affect prayer at the U.S. military schools.
_ Nancy Glass
Cal Guy, Influential Missions Professor, Dead at 88
(RNS) Cal Guy, an influential missions professor who taught for more than 35 years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, died Monday (July 25).
He was 88 and died of natural causes, the Fort Worth, Texas-based school announced.
Guy was known for challenging mid-20th-century mission techniques and said that missionaries were too “westernized, institutionalized, building-ized, and subsidized” in the way they approached missions. He differed with those who thought missionaries should remove converts from their cultural influences and build church buildings that resembled those in the West.
His approach, instead, was to encourage missionaries to learn the culture of the people they wanted to convert and find ways to present the gospel so that new converts could share it with their communities and foster indigenous church growth. For example, starting in the 1970s, he spent three decades cultivating a relationship with Bangladesh Baptists that included the use of a gospel booklet translated into the native language that local Baptists were able to introduce in villages in that South Asian country.
Jerry Rankin, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, recently said of his former professor: “Cal Guy became my mentor. He planted within me the heart of a mission strategy that has shaped my ministry and leadership ever since.”
Guy, born Robert Calvin Guy, was a Jackson, Tenn., native who served as a pastor in Tennessee and Texas during his years in college and seminary. He was a member of the faculty of Southwestern Seminary _ one of six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention _ from 1946 to 1982. In 1980, when the seminary launched what is now called its World Mission Center, Guy was the founding director.
“Cal Guy … was a champion of innovative methodology without watering down the content of the gospel message,” said Southwestern Seminar President Paige Patterson, in a statement. “While his shoes will be filled by those upon whom Dr. Guy left his mark, it is nonetheless the case that his unique style, ready sense of humor, insight into missions theory and strategy simply cannot be replaced.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Mormon Conference Will Address Critiques of Church
SEATTLE (RNS) In what organizers call a push for open scholarship, an Internet-based Mormon think tank’s annual conference will focus on defending some of the church’s most controversial aspects head-on.
The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research’s two-day conference, to be held Aug. 5-6 in Sandy, Utah, will touch upon issues traditionally skirted by Mormons. These include discrepancies between DNA research and the Book of Mormon, the growing issue of Mormon fundamentalism and allegations of sexual abuse made against one of the church’s most famous scholars.
“The reason why we have people who are involved in apologetics is because quite honestly there are arguments out there and there are issues that need to be addressed,” said Craig Foster, a spokesman for FAIR. He said there is a growing movement among Mormons “to look at our history, look at our documents, look at the past and try to understand it, warts and all.”
An Internet-based nonprofit, FAIR was formed in 1997 by a group of scholars and researchers who had been independently defending Mormonism on Internet message boards and decided to combine their efforts, hosting an annual conference in addition to a number of online postings and publications at http://www.fairlds.org.
Though FAIR is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Foster said he has seen an increasing call for openness in the church, with scholars increasingly encouraged to address issues instead of glossing over them.
“The approach is, you know, no matter how uncomfortable it is, let’s study it,” Foster said.
_ Shawna Gamache
Quote of the Day: Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Legal Counsel Jared Leland
(RNS) “To replace a cemetery with a runway is to fly by First Amendment principles and crash on religious rights.”
_ Jared Leland, media and legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based law firm that challenged the seizure of cemetery property that would be used to expand a runway at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an environmental impact statement Thursday (July 28) that supported the city’s plan for modernizing the airport.
MO/JL END RNS
