c. 2005 Religion News Service
Air Force Clears General Accused of Proselytizing at Academy
(RNS) The Air Force has cleared a brigadier general accused of violating the Constitution by proselytizing non-Christian cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The military service determined that the allegation against Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, the commandant of cadets at the academy, “was not substantiated,” said Jennifer Stephens, an Air Force spokeswoman, in a Wednesday (Sept. 7) statement.
The Air Force Inspector General’s office investigated whether Weida violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by “using a religious communicative code to facilitate the proselytizing of non-Christian cadets.”
Weida, an evangelical Christian, was investigated for his outspoken promotion of faith and had been criticized for promoting the National Day of Prayer in an e-mail message.
“Gen. Weida has readily acknowledged that his actions were inappropriate and has taken positive, visible corrective actions that reflect his true character,” Stephens said. “Since the incident in question, Gen. Weida has also been a key leader in terms of strengthening and improving religious accommodation policies for cadets of all religions, along with those who claim no religion,” at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
On Aug. 29, the Air Force service issued new interim guidelines urging its military members and civilian employees to protect the free exercise of religion. Those guidelines were called for in a June report that investigated the religious climate at the academy.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Dean Tells Black Baptists: Race Played Role In Hurricane Katrina Survival
(RNS) Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told members of a predominantly black denomination that race has played a part in determining who survived Hurricane Katrina.
“As survivors are evacuated, order is restored, the water slowly begins to recede, and we sort through the rubble, we must also begin to come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not,” Dean said Wednesday (Sept. 7) at the National Baptist Convention of America meeting in Miami.
“And the question that emerged: How can this happen in America?”
Race has been a volatile issue since the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast, affecting a substantial number of African-Americans. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the issue during a visit Sunday to Bayou La Batre, Ala.
“This response is not about color,” said Rice, who is black and an Alabama native. “I don’t believe for one minute that people were allowed to suffer because of their color.”
Dean addressed the need for the country to focus more on the plight of the poor.
“People are poor throughout our country,” he said, according to prepared remarks released by his Washington-based political committee. “They are black, white, and brown. They are not refugees. They are our fellow Americans. The truth is that we have ignored the poor for far too long.”
The former Vermont governor and former presidential candidate called for a nonpartisan investigation of “failures” that occurred in the rescue and recovery of hurricane victims.
“We will continue to press for answers to what failed and why, to help the survivors heal, to rebuild, to heed the lessons of the past week and take the steps to keep our citizens safe,” Dean said.
“We still have a great deal of work to do in this country to ensure social and economic justice for every American, particularly those who struggle in the shadows of poverty. We cannot afford to move backward.”
Dean congratulated the Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, president of the denomination, and his membership for beginning to address the catastrophe. The Web site of the denomination, whose meeting ends Friday, lists eight churches that have been designated as “Hurricane Katrina relief centers” in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
_ Adelle M. Banks and Eddie Curran
Spread of AIDS in Russia to be Combated by `Moral Values,’ Priestly Aid
MOSCOW (RNS) The Russian Orthodox Church has launched a new program aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia, where experts are predicting an epidemic of the disease similar to the situation in Africa.
The program will see priests give spiritual guidance to HIV/AIDS patients and their families, as well as practical assistance in hospitals and prisons. Churches will also set up hotlines and consultation centers.
Priests will be instructed to treat people with the disease “as any other person suffering from some serious illness” and will be encouraged to promote tolerance for patients in their congregations, Father Vladimir Shmaly said at a press conference on Tuesday (Sept. 6).
“The HIV epidemic is a problem for society, the church and the state,” Shmaly said. “The church is prepared to help all of those who ask for it.”
The program also calls for promoting religious values to prevent the spread of the disease, including discouraging sex with multiple partners, drug use and homosexuality.
“The most important element of the struggle against this terrible disease must be the preaching of moral values,” Shmaly said. “The church must provide people with alternatives in the face of the massive spread of immoral patterns, such as drug consumption and depravity.”
Government officials welcomed the church’s participation in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Alexander Goliusov, an HIV/AIDS expert with the Federal Consumer Rights and Public Well-Being watchdog, said the church will be “an important and indispensable partner” and called its program “an historic step in combating the spread of the epidemic.”
Critics have attacked Russian authorities and the church for being slow to respond to the country’s growing HIV/AIDS problem. Russia has the largest HIV/AIDS epidemic in Europe, with more than 1 million people infected, according to various studies. Initially seen here as a disease that affected only intravenous drug users, HIV/AIDS is increasingly spreading to the general population. Infection rates are higher in Russia than anywhere outside sub-Saharan Africa and experts predict more than 5 million Russians could die of the disease in the next 20 years.
_ Michael Mainville
Katrina Boosts Terrorists’ Morale, Hurricane Called `Soldier of God’
(RNS) The devastation from Hurricane Katrina caused a “morale lift” at extremist Web sites across the Middle East, according to an organization that monitors terrorism.
The Terrorism Research Center, an Arlington, Va., group, said one site posted more than 50 photographs of the destruction. Another compiled news clips into a propaganda video, while an unnamed writer on another claimed “Katrina is the newest soldier of God.”
Terrorists are monitoring the much-criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina, as are lawmakers and homeland security experts.
Katrina’s aftermath “has grave implications for our ability to deal with terrorism,” said Rep. Jane Harman of California, the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat.
“I couldn’t help but think how much this resembles the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction in a major American city. … I have no doubt the terrorists have watched this unfold and they understand its implications,” Harman said.
Experts say Katrina should be carefully and critically examined for its broader implications to terrorism.
“We need to move past the finger-pointing and really try to take Katrina as a case study to distill some lessons learned from it,” said terrorism expert Brian Jenkins, senior adviser to the president of RAND Corp., a national security think tank.
Jenkins said the problems encountered in getting residents out of New Orleans should prompt questions about how well other cities can be evacuated. Depending on the type of incident, he said, officials may need to mobilize more ways to get people out or to encourage them to stay put and “shelter in place” if that can be done safely.
Jenkins said the disturbing images of dead bodies, flood-ravaged towns and pleading victims also point to the need to address the psychological effects of disasters, including panic. “Terrorism is not simply what the terrorists can do, but the terror created by those events,” he said.
_ Chuck McCutcheon
Led by Saudi Arabia, Islamic Nations Contribute to Hurricane Relief
(RNS) Offers of help to Hurricane Katrina victims are coming from all over the world, including Islamic countries.
Among the 94 nations offering to help are poverty-stricken Bangladesh, war-ravaged Afghanistan, communist Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
In the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyad, Dr. Muhammad al-Quwayz writes that “no one denies the United States killed thousands and destroyed countries in our Islamic world, Africa and Asia; it has oppressed and carried out unjust deeds in a provocative manner.” But, he said, “Its injustice should not prevent us from adopting a fair stand on the Katrina tragedy for it is a catastrophe in every sense of the word and calls for cooperation, not gloating,” according to a translation provided by the BBC.
The State Department said that Saudi officials made what it described as a generous contribution to the American Red Cross.
Other pledges include four ships with 1,000 soldiers to aid evacuations, from Canada; 45 tons of military meals already shipped from Germany’s air force; $1 million from Bangladesh; $100,000 from Afghanistan; and even $25,000 from Sri Lanka, which said through a spokesman that it was trying to reciprocate for American assistance after last December’s tsunami.
“The American people can take great heart from the fact that when we need help, when we need assistance, the world is answering the call,” said Sean McCormack, assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
The largest donation so far appears to be the $28 million from oil-rich Qatar, but U.S. officials seem most moved by the $25,000 from Sri Lanka, given that country’s ongoing struggles to recover from the deadly tsunami.
“I think that that is really quite touching,” McCormack said. “It is a $25,000 donation, but here coming from a country that has recently suffered greatly from the tsunami and lost a number of lives and is itself in the process of rebuilding.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged Tuesday to do “everything we can” to help find foreigners who were on the Gulf Coast during Katrina. Officials said they have received requests from a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, for help locating missing citizens, but didn’t have a firm number.
_ Bruce Alpert
Quote of the Day: The Late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
(RNS) “I have a day job. But I keep my Sundays free.”
_ Words of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, recalled by his pastor, when the high court judge was asked to help at a Sunday service. The recollection by the Rev. George Evans of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in McLean, Va., came during Rehnquist’s funeral on Wednesday (Sept. 7). He was quoted by The Washington Times.
MO/JL END RNS
