c. 2005 Religion News Service

Muslim Group Praises Station for Firing Host, Who Then Lands New Job

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Council on American-Islamic Relations has thanked Washington radio station WMAL for firing a conservative talk show host for anti-Islamic statements during a broadcast.

But on Wednesday (Aug. 24), Michael Graham announced that he will have a new show, broadcast on the Internet, where there will be “no liberal network execs, no advertisers, not even the FCC” to stifle expression of his views.

In a broadcast July 25 on his Washington morning show, Graham made several comments that prompted criticism, including “The problem is not extremism; the problem is Islam.” He also said, “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.”

CAIR, a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group, complained to WMAL and its advertisers. The station initially backed Graham, but two days after his broadcast WMAL’s president and general manager, Chris Berry, said the talk show host went “over the line.”

Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, praised the station.

“Just as Michael Graham has the right to hold bigoted views, so, too, does our society have the right to live free of hatred and incitement,” Awad said. “We are saddened that Michael Graham would not take responsibility (for) his hate-filled words, but we do welcome WMAL’s action as a step toward reducing the level of anti-Muslim bigotry on our nation’s airwaves.”

In a statement on his Web site, Graham said he stands by his comments and that WMAL’s decision reflected a dangerous willingness to compromise with interest groups.

“As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show,” Graham said.

On Wednesday, Graham announced his new show, “Michael Graham, Unleashed!” which will be broadcast on Righttalk.com, where it can be downloaded to an iPod or another MP3 player.

“Rightalk.com has asked me to do this show, not because they necessarily agree with everything I say, but because they understand that free speech and open discourse are key elements in successful talk radio, not to mention successful democracies and thriving societies, too,” Graham wrote on his Web site.

_ Hugh S. Moore

Conservative Jews Endorse Roberts for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (RNS) Judge John Roberts, President Bush’s pick to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, has been deemed “qualified to serve” by a group representing the Conservative Jewish movement.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, the public policy committee of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism said Roberts passes guidelines that were crafted on the basis of Jewish laws and sacred texts.

Three Conservative leaders said Roberts appears to meet general criteria that a judge be “well trained, well educated and enjoy wide respect”; that he eschews an “ideologically defined approach to judicial interpretation”; and that he has a “balanced respect” for the law in past decisions.

William Bresnick and Rabbi Jack Moline, co-chairs of the public policy committee, and Mark Waldman, director of public policy, said their seal of approval “reflects the position” of the Conservative movement, which claims more than 1 million Jews in some 700 synagogues.

The Orthodox Union has not weighed in on the Roberts nomination because it does not endorse or oppose specific judicial nominees, said its Washington director, Nathan Diament.

The Religious Action Center, which represents Reform Judaism, has taken a more cautious approach but has not endorsed or rejected Roberts. It is asking U.S. Jews to submit questions that they would like Roberts to answer before Specter’s committee during confirmation hearings next month.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Analysis: Regular Churchgoers Tend to Support Bush Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans who attend church services regularly tend to support President Bush’s foreign policy, including the war in Iraq, according to an analysis by Public Agenda, a public policy think tank.

The study, which appears in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, was based on a new type of survey called the Foreign Policy Index, which is “designed to explore the public’s long-term judgments and beliefs about America’s role in the world,” according to the study’s author, Public Agenda Chairman Daniel Yankelovich.

“People who regularly attend religious services are confident about the success of U.S. policies in Iraq and express low levels of worry about casualties or cost,” Yankelovich said. “They are optimistic about Washington’s commitment to helping other nations democratize, they are comfortable with the United States’ diplomatic relations, they are satisfied that the United States is fully living up to its moral ideals and conducting its foreign policy in a humanitarian spirit.”

The parallels are so pronounced that on some issues “frequent attendance at religious services has become a proxy for support of U.S. foreign policy,” Yankelovich said.

He argued that the divisions between the foreign policy opinions of actively religious Americans and those who don’t attend church have changed since World War II and the Cold War, when Americans’ views were more unified.

“The actively religious U.S. public tends to see the world in terms of good and evil, holds its own values in the highest moral esteem, and feels ready to make whatever sacrifices are required to combat what they perceive as evil,” he said.

According to Yankelovich, President Bush has become a more appealing leader to religious people, especially evangelical Protestants, because of what they view as his moral clarity.

“They can take what he says at face value and accept his sincerity and clarity of moral purpose. He is on the side of good, and therefore what he does is right,” Yankelovich said.

“The religiously committed will make whatever sacrifices he says are needed to protect the nation. Their sentiments echo the traditional theme of American exceptionalism: Americans are a people chosen for a special mission in the world and especially blessed by God.”

The Foreign Policy Index is based on a series of interviews with a random sample of 1,004 adults. It was conducted June 1-13, and the margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_ Hugh S. Moore

Familiar Leader to Become President of Concordia Seminary in Fall

(RNS) The flagship seminary of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) will have a familiar leader officially take over this fall as its next president.

The Rev. Dale A. Meyer, now interim president of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, will be installed Sept. 4 during the annual opening church service for the seminary’s 2005-2006 year. Meyer has been the interim president of the flagship institution of the LCMS since November 2004.

Meyer also holds the positions of professor of practical theology and occupant of the Gregg H. Benidt Memorial Chair of Homiletics and Literature at the seminary.

Meyer was the speaker on “The Lutheran Hour” radio program from 1989 to 2001, the LCMS reported in a news release.

Meyer graduated from Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Ind., and holds a master of divinity degree from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, as well as a doctor of philosophy degree from Washington University, St. Louis.

_ Heather Horiuchi

Quote of the Day: Kim Clark, new president of Brigham Young University-Idaho

(RNS) “You have to appreciate what this is like. We behold him to be a prophet. Imagine yourself getting a call from Moses.”

_ Kim Clark, who left his position as dean of Harvard Business School in response to the call of Gordon Hinckley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for him to become the president of Brigham Young University-Idaho. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

MO/PH END RNS