c. 2005 Religion News Service

French Poll of Muslims Finds Anti-Semitism, Attachment to French Values

PARIS (RNS) Nearly half of practicing Muslims among France’s ethnic immigrant population are likely to be anti-Semitic, a new study finds.

Forty-six percent of practicing Muslims _ compared with 30 percent of non-practicing Muslims _ have anti-Semitic views, the survey said.

“It’s a concern,” said Vincent Tiberj, a researcher for the study billed as the one of the most holistic to date of France’s Muslim population.

But the wide-ranging survey by the Institute of Political Studies in Paris also shows that a large percentage of Muslims aren’t particularly religious, and many strongly ascribe to the country’s official separation of church and state.

Those surveyed were generally better educated than the average French person, and more to the political left.

“These new French are generally well integrated. There’s a real attachment to the values of French society,” said Tiberj.

The findings come at a time of soul searching in France following three weeks of violence last month, largely by ethnic North African youths. The unrest cast doubt on French efforts to integrate generations of immigrants and their offspring _ many of them of Muslim origin.

The study surveyed roughly 1,000 naturalized French citizens and first- or second-generation immigrants over the age of 18. It found that about 59 percent described themselves as Muslims. Among those, only about one in five said they went to mosque regularly.

Those who described themselves as Muslims, however, tended to hold strong views on a number of social mores. Four out of 10 approved of installing separate swimming hours for women and men in public pools. About the same number condemned homosexuality.

The new survey underscores the heterogeneous nature of French immigrants of ethnic origin _ who often are simply categorized as Muslims, Tiberj said.

“It’s time French think differently” he said. “They need to realize that being French isn’t necessarily being … Catholic. That there are many types of French with different religions, different colors, different stories.”

_ Elizabeth Bryant

First Female Southern Baptist Preacher Dies

(RNS) Addie Davis, the first woman ordained a Southern Baptist minister, has died. She was 88.

She died Dec. 3 in her hometown of Covington, Va., after a brief illness, the Associated Baptist Press reported.

Davis was ordained in 1964 by Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. No one at the church knew that the 47-year-old seminary student was making history, according to the ABP.

“Her focus was not on the cause of women in ministry but on ministry,” said the Rev. Diane Hill of Watts Baptist, who organized a 40th anniversary of the ordination service.

Hills said Davis was a humble woman with a strong calling to preach the gospel. “She was very quiet, but when she opened her mouth, you listened,” said Hill.

At the 2004 anniversary service, Davis urged listeners to have patience and rely on their faith, reported Baptist Today.

“It is hard to wait; we want instant satisfaction,” she told the crowd.

“At our acceptance of Jesus Christ,” she preached, “we made a commitment to honor and follow to all of our ability.”

Baptist historian Pam Durso told the ABP that Davis’ ordination “marked a new era for Baptists, and in the 41 years since that event, thousands of women have been ordained by Baptist churches in the South.”

Davis served at churches in Vermont, Rhode Island and Virginia. She is profiled in “Courage and Hope: The Stories of Ten Baptist Women Ministers,” a 2005 book edited by Durso and her husband.

Davis once told the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun that she received several letters opposing her preaching.

One writer “said I was to learn from my husband,” she said. “The problem is that I have never married.”

The Southern Baptist Convention declared in 2000 “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” But because Baptists believe in local church autonomy, congregations can decide for themselves whom to ordain.

Watts Street left the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1990s, like many other churches that felt the organization had become too conservative.

Davis’ funeral was held Dec. 7 in Covington, Va.

_ Nicole LaRosa

Same-Sex Couples Register for Civil Partnerships in United Kingdom

LONDON (RNS) Despite the objection of the Roman Catholic Church, more than 1,200 same-sex couples in the United Kingdom have registered their intention of entering into civil partnerships.

The date the legal relationship becomes possible varies. The date for Northern Ireland is Dec. 19, for Scotland Dec. 20, and for England and Wales Dec. 21.

In emergencies, the law allows couples to enter into partnerships before those dates. A man terminally ill with lung cancer, 46-year-old Matthew Roche of Brighton, entered into a civil partnership with his partner Christopher Camp on Dec. 5 _ the first day couples were able to register for the ceremony.

He soon died at the hospice where the ceremony was held.

The government expects 4,500 couples to enter into a civil partnership during the first year the legislation is in force.

They include singer Elton John and his partner David Furnish. Their ceremony is scheduled to take place Dec. 21 at Windsor Guildhall _ where the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, married his longtime mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles last April.

Civil partners will enjoy significant benefits. A surviving partner will be treated in the same way as a spouse if a partner dies without making a will, including exemption from inheritance tax. And like a husband or wife, a civil partner cannot be prosecuted for conspiring with his or her partner.

Not everyone is happy with the new arrangement. It has come in for criticism from a Roman Catholic spokesman for England and Wales, Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff.

“The government has effectively established same-sex marriage in all but name,” Smith said in a statement. “As a result there is a real danger that the deeply rooted understanding of marriage as a permanent and exclusive relationship between a woman and a man, and as the best context for raising children, will be eroded.

“What the government needs to do in terms of public policy is support and promote marriage rather than undermine it. Civil partnership is not based on (the) natural complementarity of male and female, and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by same-sex partnerships, nor can a same-sex couple cooperate with God to create new life.”

_ Robert Nowell

Supporters of Slain Nun Praise Conviction in Brazil

(RNS) Supporters and relatives of a 73-year-old American nun murdered in Brazil are praising the recent conviction of two men but say they are still hoping for justice for others connected to the crime.

After a two-day trial in Belem, Brazil, a seven-person jury on Sunday (Dec. 11) found Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, two ranch hands, guilty of the Feb. 12 killing of Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

Stang lived and worked in Brazil for some 30 years and was known for her tireless work on behalf of landless peasants in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest.

Sales was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for the actual shooting of Stang, while Batista, an accomplice, was sentenced to 17 years.

“We are grateful that the process of justice has begun,” Sister Elizabeth Bowyer, a spokeswoman for Stang’s order, said in a statement. “Our attention now turns to the trials of those charged with ordering and arranging the execution.”

Three other men now await trial for the murder, including two ranchers who stand accused of planning the killing. They are expected to be tried sometime in 2006.

For the past year, Stang’s family had been pushing Brazilian authorities on the case, which received international attention. In an interview prior to the conviction, David Stang, 68, Dorothy Stang’s brother, said the murder was a “typical, classic struggle between good and evil.” He said it involved peasants fighting lumber and ranching interests that had pushed them from their land.

In a report earlier this year, an investigation by the Brazilian Senate concluded that Stang’s murder was part of a larger pattern of violence by groups involved in what it called “land grabbing and illegal deforestation.” The commission also concluded that there was sufficient evidence that considerable financial resources were used to finance the assassination of the American nun.

During the trial, prosecutors said the two convicted men were offered $25,000 to commit Stang’s murder, a charge they denied.

_ Chris Herlinger

Quote of the Day: Pope Benedict XVI

(RNS) “In today’s consumer society, this time of year unfortunately suffers from a sort of commercial pollution that threatens to alter its true spirit.”

_ Pope Benedict XVI addressing a Sunday (Jan. 11) general audience on the meaning of Christmas. The pope encouraged people to set up nativity scenes as a reminder of the holiday’s religious significance.

MO/RB END RNS