c. 2005 Religion News Service

Pope Laments Consumerism, Loss of Religious Traditions at Christmas

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Consumerism has obscured the traditional meaning of Christmas, Pope Benedict XVI said on Wednesday (Nov. 21), renewing his call to keep the birth of Christ at the center of holiday celebrations.

Donning a fur-trimmed crimson cap and cape, the pope bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus as he reflected on the significance of Christmas during his weekly general audience.

“As a certain modern consumer culture tends to make the Christian symbols of the Christmas celebration disappear, it is necessary for everyone to grasp the value of Christmas traditions that are part of our faith and culture,” Benedict said.

Benedict has repeatedly criticized the custom of holiday gift-giving as he prepares to celebrate the first Christmas of his papacy.

On Sunday (Nov. 18) he encouraged Catholics to give “joy” to others rather than “expensive gifts that cost time and money.” A week before, he warned that consumerism “pollutes” the Christmas spirit and encouraged his audience to erect nativity scenes as a reminder of the holiday’s religious significance.

On Wednesday Benedict said the tradition of hanging Christmas lights evoked the birth of Christ who is “the star that indicates the path and guides men through the darkness and dangers of the world.”

“In seeing the city streets and squares decorated with blazing lights, let us remember that these lights refer to another light, invisible to the eyes, but not to the heart,” Benedict said.

The Vatican recently installed an elaborate nativity scene at the center of St. Peter’s Square, flanked by an Austrian fir tree that tops 100 feet.

Benedict’s festive red cap, meanwhile, was a popular accessory among medieval and Renaissance popes during the chill of winter months.

_ Stacy Meichtry

New Jersey Attorney General Bans Religion as Sole Profiling Factor

(RNS) New Jersey authorities cannot use “ethnicity, religious affiliation, or religious practice” as the sole factor in determining whether to investigate someone for possible terrorist activity, according to an order by state Attorney General Peter Harvey.

The written order, released Tuesday (Dec. 20), is a response to allegations raised this fall that New Jersey’s Office of Counter-Terrorism targeted suspects in terrorism investigations solely because of their Muslim faith or Arab heritage.

“The citizens of New Jersey rightfully expect that all lawful and appropriate means will be used to thwart terrorists,” Harvey noted. “The impermissible use of such stereotypes would ultimately undermine our counter-terrorism efforts by alienating significant segments of our society.”

The directive applies to all 51,500 police officers in the state, including counter-terrorism agents, and builds upon a similar order Harvey issued in June prohibiting police from targeting suspects based solely on the color of their skin.

Police, however, can still use race and religious identifiers when they are advised to “be on the lookout” for a specific suspect.

State Police initially raised questions about whether Counter-Terrorism agents were profiling Muslims after an internal audit found 140 questionable reports they had entered into a crime-fighting database known as the Statewide Intelligence Management System, or SIMS. Counter-Terrorism Director Sidney Caspersen has vigorously denied the profiling accusation and said the reports were simply incomplete.

Muslim groups voiced support for the directive.

“It shows a desire to return to being a people of law … where your actions trigger law enforcement activities, not race, religion or any of those other things about you,” said Yaser ElMenshawy, chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, a council of mosques and Islamic organizations based in Newark.

_ Rick Hepp

Death of Baha’i Prisoner Marks `New Wave of Persecutions’

(RNS) An Iranian prisoner has died after being held for 10 years on charges that he had converted from Islam to the Baha’i faith, the Baha’i International Community says.

According to the New York City-based group, Zabihollah Mahrami’s Dec. 15 death marks the start of “a new wave of persecutions” of the faith’s followers.

Iran became the target of international criticism in January 1996, when the country’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Mahrami to death on charges of “apostasy,” a legal term used in Iran to signify the abandonment of Islam.

The Baha’i faith, which originated in Iran 150 years ago, upholds many Islamic tenets but opposes Islam’s use of an organized clergy. The faith claims 5 million members in 191 countries worldwide, including thousands in Iran where it is officially considered “a misleading and wayward sect.”

In a statement, the Baha’i International Community’s United Nations office said that at least 59 Baha’is have been arrested, detained or imprisoned so far this year _ a sharp increase from figures of the last several years.

Mahrami’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following protests by several foreign governments. Iranian officials later said that he had been imprisoned for spying for Israel rather than for his religious convictions.

Mahrami held a civil service job in the years leading up to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, when he and other Baha’is were purged from the country’s government. He was earning a living installing Venetian blinds when he was arrested in 1995.

Mahrami was a lifelong Baha’i, but he was accused of converting from Islam when a civil service colleague told a newspaper that he had converted in an effort to prevent him from losing his job, the Baha’i group said.

Bani Dugal, the Baha’i community’s principal representative to the United Nations, told Baha’i World News Service that in the Yazd prison Mahrami received numerous death threats and was forced to perform arduous physical labor.

“In this light there should be no doubt that the Iranian authorities bear manifest responsibility for the death of this innocent man, whose only crime was his belief in the Baha’i faith,” Dugal said.

_ David M. Barnes

Residents Hope Intelligent Design Ruling Dims Spotlight on Town

DOVER, Pa. (RNS) The initial reaction in this York County community to a federal court decision on the intelligent design issue: Glad it’s over. Get the media out of town.

Not long after U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III ruled Tuesday (Dec. 20) that the school district’s intelligent design policy promotes religion and violates the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions, Robert Maul, 85, sat in the warmth of his pickup truck and contemplated the six-week trial.

He was fed up with the whole question of intelligent design, which contends the universe and many living things are so complex that they must have been created by an intelligent, higher being.

“They should have just left it the way it was, like when I went to school,” said Maul, a lifelong Dover resident. “I’m not in favor of what they were trying to swing here.”

Dover Area High School students said they were tired of reporters asking them what they thought.

“Every day, there’s like 50 reporters hanging around,” said Shawn Mitchell, 15, a 10th grader at the school. The New York Times, Newsweek and even Rolling Stone joined legions of local media outlets.

The Dover Area School District has been the subject of national news coverage and occasional lampooning since the school board passed a policy last year requiring district administrators to inform ninth-grade science students about intelligent design.

Board members who supported intelligent design were voted out of office in this year’s election. One of those who lost his seat, David Napierskie, said he thinks Jones’ ruling went too far.

“I think his decision is another (indication) of how everything is becoming anti-religious in this country,” he said. “I’m waiting for the ACLU to have the Constitution declared unconstitutional.”

But Judy McIlvaine, one of the candidates who successfully challenged the intelligent design slate on the board, expressed relief.

“I think that Judge Jones has done U.S. students a favor with his well thought-out, definitive and sweeping decision. Now they can learn science as science and not have to have it mixed with something that is not science.”

_ T.W. Burger

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Jesse Jackson

(RNS) “Tookie is dead. We’re not safer, we’re not more secure, we’re not more humane.”

_ The Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist, speaking at the funeral Tuesday (Dec. 20) of Stanley Tookie Williams, who was put to death by injection for the 1979 murders of a 7-Eleven clerk and three motel owners. Jackson was quoted by the Associated Press.

MO/RB END RNS