c. 2005 Religion News Service

Serbian President Invites Pope to Visit Belgrade

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Serbian President Boris Tadic met with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (Sept. 29), expressing support for a papal visit to Belgrade. He also pressed the Vatican to back Serbia’s drive to take over the breakaway Kosovo province as its status comes under review by the United Nations.

A statement released by papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls following the 25-minute meeting said the “talks concentrated particularly on the need to teach values to young people, especially in the scholastic field.”

Navarro-Valls also said that Tadic invited the pope to Belgrade and that “Benedict XVI expressed the hope that such a visit may take place in the future.”

A visit to Serbia, which is 65 percent Orthodox, would be an important step in Benedict’s push to improve ecumenical ties between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

In an interview with Religion News Service, Tadic said the continued presence of Christian minorities living in the predominantly Muslim Kosovo depended on whether the U.N. granted Serbia sovereignty over the region.

“If Kosovo becomes an independent country, there’s no doubt that Serbs are going to leave Kosovo,” Tadic said, adding that Benedict “knows very well that the only way to have Christianity survive in Kosovo is to have the presence of Christian nations.”

Serbia, which is primarily Orthodox, has expressed alarm over the frequent vandalization and burning of churches in Kosovo in recent years. A three-day burning spree in March of 2004 claimed more than 30 churches.

Although the majority of Kosovar Muslims are considered moderate, Tadic pointed to reports that Islamic extremism is gaining influence in the region.

“It is not only a problem for Serbia,” Tadic said. “It is a problem for all communities in the region.”

The U.N. took over Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign ended Serb repression of the region’s ethnic Albanians. Negotiations on Kosovo’s final status are expected to begin this year.

Tadic, the first Serbian president to ever visit the pope at the Vatican, said in the interview that he is waiting for the Serbian Orthodox Church to invite Benedict before Belgrade extends an official invitation.

“I’m very optimistic and I hope that we are going to organize this visit as soon as possible,” Tadic said.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Woman Sues Christian School for Being Fired for Unwed Pregnancy

(RNS) An Alabama woman has sued a Christian school in federal court, claiming she was fired unfairly from her assistant teaching job while she was pregnant. The school contends her unwed pregnancy went against the values and religious principles taught there.

Tesana Lewis’ suit says she was hired Dec. 6, 2003, at Covenant Classical School in Hoover, Ala. She was fired four days later after officials learned she was pregnant. She was to help teach 12- to 20-month-olds.

Lawyers for the private religious school maintain Lewis was fired not because she was pregnant but because she was pregnant and unwed, which goes against the school’s Christian teachings. A federal court filing said Lewis would not assure the school she would stop her conduct of engaging in sex outside marriage.

“Biblically speaking, fornication is immoral,” the filing said.

Lewis’ attorney, David Arendall, states in a subsequent court filing that whether she was married or not, the school fired Lewis because she was pregnant, a violation of the federal Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, race and religion.

School lawyers Richard J.R. Raleigh Jr. and Clint L. Maze contend the school is private and exempt from the statute.

Arendall said Lewis had a baby boy, has moved to Texas and is about to get married.

The case was set to begin Oct. 11 before Senior U.S. District Judge William Acker Jr., but Lewis is asking for a delay until Oct. 18.

_ Val Walton

Testimony Continues in Intelligent Design Trial

HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) Intelligent design is unscientific, religious and “a form of special creationism,” according to a researcher who testified in a federal trial on a Dover Area School District science class policy revision.

“Intelligent design rejects natural explanations for natural phenomena,” said Robert T. Pennock, a professor of science and philosophy at Michigan State University and an author of books and research papers critical of intelligent design. “It does not qualify as science.”

He spoke Wednesday (Sept. 28) in a high-profile trial being watched across the country for legal implications concerning classroom battles over the teaching of evolution. For several years, some scholars have tried to advance intelligent design, the theory that living things show signs of having been designed by an intelligent force and that life is too complex to have simply “happened” by evolutionary chance.

Also Wednesday, two parents with children in the district testified that they heard school board members discuss religious concepts prior to the adoption of a policy of reading a statement on intelligent design to ninth-grade science students.

Christy Rehm and Beth Eveland said they heard board member William Buckingham defend a proposed change to the science curriculum at a June 2004 board meeting by saying, “Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can’t someone take a stand for him?”

Rehm said that around the same time, she heard another board member, Alan Bonsell, say that there are “only two theories” _ evolution and creationism _ and that both should be taught in the district.

Four months later, the board voted 6-3 to adopt a policy requiring teachers or administrators to read a statement on evolution and intelligent design at the start of a ninth grade unit on biology. The four-paragraph statement calls evolution “just a theory” with “gaps” and points to intelligent design as “an explanation of life that differs from Darwin’s view.”

Three other parents offered similar testimony Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg, where the landmark trial on separation of church and state issues has attracted global media attention. The outcome of the trial could affect the way science is taught in public school classrooms across the country.

Rehm and Eveland are among 11 parents in the district who, with guidance from the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the board in an attempt to have the statement removed from the classroom.

_ Bill Sulon

Survey Shows Religion Shapes Physicians’ Views on Evolution

(UNDATED) A national survey shows more than half of American physicians believe the theory of evolution is more accurate than intelligent design, but views vary widely by religious background.

For several years, some scholars have tried to advance intelligent design, the theory that living things show signs of having been designed by an intelligent force and that life is too complex to have simply “happened” by evolutionary chance.

The survey, released Wednesday (Sept. 28), tried to determine support of that theory. It was conducted by HCD Research and the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social and Religious Research at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Sixty-three percent of the 1,472 physicians surveyed responded that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution corresponds more closely to their professional beliefs than intelligent design. But the survey showed Jewish physicians overwhelmingly support evolution, while Catholics and Protestants exhibit more reserved support.

“As our earlier physician studies indicated, religion, culture and ethnic heritage have an impact on their views of science, even from this relatively homogenous groups of physicians who share similar education, income and social status,” Glenn Kessler, co-founder and managing partner of HCD Research, said in a statement.

The survey showed nearly nine out of 10 Jewish physicians said they agree with the theory of evolution and 83 percent said they think intelligent design is “a religiously inspired pseudo-science.” Catholic physicians agree with the theory of evolution at a rate of 60 percent and describe intelligent design as a pseudo-science at a rate of 51 percent.

Sympathy for intelligent design surfaced primarily within the Protestant medical community. Less than half (46 percent) of Protestant physicians feel that God initiated and guided an evolutionary process, while 35 percent believe God created humans as they appear now. The majority (63 percent) said they believe intelligent design to be a “legitimate scientific speculation.”

While most Catholic physicians (67 percent) say God initiated and guided the evolutionary process, the majority of Jewish doctors (65 percent) agreed with the statement “Humans evolved naturally with no supernatural involvement.”

The medical community was evenly divided on the issue of intelligent design education within schools, with 50 percent saying the theory should be allowed but not required.

The study, conducted May 13-15, continued the investigation of the social, political and economic issues facing the U.S. health care system. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

_ Jason Kane

Editors: To obtain a photo of award winners Giuliani and Lieberman for the following story, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

Jews and Christians Rally Around Israel

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 600 Christians and Jews gathered in Washington this week to strategize how they can best support Israel.

The two-day briefing, organized by the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, consisted of seminars with a focus on aggressively promoting Israel.

“We’re fighting the battlefield of international media,” said Calev Ben-David, an American journalist who moved to Israel 20 years ago and holds dual citizenship. “Don’t wait for someone to bad-mouth Israel. Be proactive.”

The briefing culminated with an awards banquet Wednesday (Sept. 28). Receiving the organization’s “Friend of Israel” award were Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a longtime supporter of Israel, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who headed a U.S. delegation to an international conference against anti-Semitism in Vienna, Austria.

In his comments, Lieberman praised the organization’s founder, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, for realizing in 1983 that “in fact there were more Christian Zionists in America than Jewish Zionists.” Since then, the organization has promoted understanding between Christians and Jews while supporting Israel.

Speaking at the dinner, Eckstein said that over the years, evangelical Christians have contributed more than $80 million to help 250,000 Russian and Ethiopian Jews migrate to Israel. Eckstein also announced that there are about 6,000 Jews, descendants of the tribe of Menashe, in India whom IFCJ intends to send to Israel.

A frequent message throughout the event was that Americans should share their wealth with the rest of the world.

“It’s a nice thing to be able to do. I helped (Jews) leave Russia and go to Israel,” said Margaret Green, an evangelical Christian from Orlando, Fla., who said she donates regularly to IFCJ. “When I have enough money … I’ll get a family from Ethiopia out. That will be next on my list.”

Eckstein, who opened a bureau in Jerusalem for the IFCJ, drew on a biblical passage to illustrate the bond between Jews and Christians in this mission of return to Israel.

“God is calling His children home (Jews to Israel),” Eckstein said.

“And Christians, as the book of Isaiah said, are carrying the children of Israel in their arms and on their shoulders.”

_ Kabuika Kamunga and Mark O’Keefe

Quote of the Day: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas

(RNS) “So, how was your day?”

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, a few hours after he became the highest-ranking congressional leader to be indicted while in office. He made the comment Wednesday (Sept. 28) in Washington while giving a speech to supporters of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

MO/PH END RNS