c. 2006 Religion News Service

Mormon Church President, 95, Treated for Cancer in Intestine

(RNS) Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is said to be resting comfortably, after undergoing treatment for a cancerous condition, a church spokeswoman announced Wednesday (Jan. 25).

Hinckley, 95, had a routine medical screening, during which doctors found a “cancerous growth in his large intestine,” the church announced in a statement issued Tuesday (Jan. 24).

“The diseased portion of the intestine was successfully removed through a laparoscopic procedure.”

Church officials said they hoped Hinckley would be back to work soon.

“President Hinckley is resting comfortably,” church spokeswoman Kim Farah added in Wednesday’s statement. “As announced last evening, we expect that he will recover rapidly and resume his normal duties soon.”

She declined to disclose further details about his medical condition.

Hinckley, who was named president of the church in 1995, took part in festivities marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, the founder of the 12-million-member faith group, in December. In 2004, he was named by President Bush as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

_ Adelle M. Banks

UCC, Conservative Minority Disagree on Impact of Gay Marriage Vote

(RNS) Nearly six months after the United Church of Christ voted to support same-sex civil marriages, the negative fallout predicted by the denomination’s conservative minority may not be as pronounced as originally feared.

According to statistics released by the U.C.C., only 49 churches have voted to disaffiliate since the vote last July _ less than 1 percent of the U.C.C.’s 5,725 registered churches.

The statistics also cite a “resurgence of interest” in the U.C.C., with 23 new congregations joining the denomination, and 42 more expressing what the U.C.C. called “a firm interest” in joining.

At the same time, however, conservative groups cited different numbers, claiming the official U.C.C. numbers are low due to the bureaucratic process involved in leaving the denomination.

“Churches are not known for their organizational efficiency,” said the Rev. Robert Thompson, president of the board of directors of Faithful and Welcoming Churches of the U.C.C., which dissented with the “marriage equality” resolution.

Thompson said he has spoken with leaders of congregations who have voted to disaffiliate, but who have not yet completed this process. Thompson cited at least 75 “lost churches,” which he tallied through direct correspondence with pastors and congregants across the country. He added that he feels that number is probably low.

The Rev. David Runnion-Bareford of the independent and conservative minority Biblical Witness Fellowship, agreed. By the time the paperwork has been filed in two to three years, he believes the number will have grown to somewhere between 200-500 disaffiliated congregations.

The U.C.C. has long supported gay parishioners and gay rights; in 1972, it was the first U.S. church to ordain an openly gay man as pastor. The resolution passed by the U.C.C.’s General Synod supported civil marriage rights for gay couples, and many U.C.C. churches bless same-sex unions.

Since the 1960s, the total number of U.C.C. churches nationwide has dropped from about 7,000 to just under 5,700. “We grieve the loss of any and every congregation that decides to leave,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, the U.C.C.’s general minister president. “Not only because of the loss of members, but also for the loss of shared history, ministry and fellowship.”

_ Nate Herpich

Conservative Critics Charge Liberal Catholic Columnist With Plagiarism

(RNS) The University of Notre Dame is investigating charges of plagiarism lodged against one of its most prominent professors, the Rev. Richard McBrien, an influential _ and frequently liberal _ commentator on the Catholic Church.

The Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic campus watchdog group, urged an investigation of McBrien after one of his syndicated columns contained passages similar to one written by Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara.

McBrien dismissed the charges as “baseless,” but said he welcomed the investigation by school officials.

“They use any ploy they can to attempt to discredit theologians whom they regard as unorthodox and universities which they regard as un-Catholic according to their ultra-conservative perspective,” McBrien said in a statement to Religion News Service.

Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, told Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins that McBrien’s columns “long ago became an embarrassment to Notre Dame” and suggested that McBrien be fired or put on leave.

McBrien’s Jan. 2 “Banned in Boston” column described a protest of a Boston Catholic Charities fundraiser that honored Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who has sparred with church leaders over his support of abortion rights.

McBrien said Menino’s critics “not only miss the Latin Mass, but also the former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who allowed Operation Rescue, a militant anti-abortion organization, to use Catholic churches as staging areas of illegal blockades of abortion clinics.”

Three weeks earlier, McNamara had used nearly identical language, saying “these folks do not just miss the Latin Mass; they miss Cardinal Bernard Law … (who) would allow Operation Rescue to use Catholic churches as staging areas for illegal blockades of abortion clinics.”

Reilly cited other examples where he said McBrien had lifted McNamara’s words without attribution. McBrien told The Boston Herald he should have given more credit to McNamara, but denied charges of plagiarism.

“Plagiarism is when you steal someone’s ideas,” he told The Herald. “I was using the (Globe’s) facts (because) I’m not a reporter; I wasn’t at Menino’s talk.”

School officials have said they are investigating the charges according to the school’s standard procedures, but declined further comment.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Jordan’s Muslim Head of State to Speak at Evangelical Lunch

(RNS) King Abdullah II of Jordan has accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at an evangelical lunch gathering following the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2.

The breakfast, luncheon and related events are organized by the Fellowship Foundation, a low-profile evangelical Christian group. In recent years, both Republican and Democratic presidents have attended the breakfast at the Hilton Hotel Washington and President Bush is expected to make an appearance again this year.

Rock star Bono has agreed to be the breakfast’s keynote speaker.

Some are viewing the invitation of Abdullah, a Muslim head of state, as a small sign of cooperation in the often tense relationship between evangelical Christians and Muslims.

“It’s in the best interest of evangelicals and Muslims to engage in dialogue and get to know one another better. All too often, we view each other through stereotypes that are unfair,” said Richard Cizik, vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals in Washington. “If the king is looking for an opportunity to address evangelicals, this is it.”

Some 51 percent of American evangelicals say Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions, compared with 44 percent of Americans overall, according to a 2003 poll by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

But many evangelicals want good relations with Muslims, said Dr. Corwin Smidt, executive director of the Henry Institute for the study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. For them, the Jordanian monarch “is an entry point into trying to understand Middle East politics and the grievances many Muslims have against the West, presented from a perspective that isn’t seen as pure hostility.”

Asma Afsaruddin, an Islamic Studies professor at the University of Notre Dame agreed, saying “there are people within these (evangelical) organizations that want to reach out to Muslims.”

Merissa Khurma, a Jordanian Embassy spokeswoman in Washington, said interfaith relations are an “essential theme” for the king.

Other Muslim leaders have attended the breakfast in past years, including Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia and Yasser Arafat. But in 2003, several Muslims invited from Indonesia turned down an invitation to protest America’s imminent invasion of Iraq.

_ Omar Sacirbey

Thousands of Evangelical Christians to Pray for Israel Sunday

(RNS) Thousands of evangelical Christians are expected to pray for the peace and security of the Israeli state on the fourth annual “International Day of Prayer and Solidarity with Israel” Sunday (Jan. 29).

“Evangelical Christians are increasingly concerned with the imminent threats facing Israel and her struggle for survival,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the sponsoring International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, based in Chicago.

Eckstein _ recently named by Israel as a goodwill ambassador to the evangelical community in Latin America _ said that the prayer day gives Christians an opportunity to “express their concern for Israel” and learn about the country’s biblical past and present-day importance.

Entire denominations are urging congregations to take part in the prayer day, including the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant group.

“The U.S.-Israel relationship is stronger than it has ever been, and it is due in large part to the simple fact that evangelical Christians are virtually the only non-Jews who continue to visit Israel and advocate on her behalf,” Eckstein said.

_ David Barnes

Episcopal Parish Proposes Sainthood for Thurgood Marshall

WASHINGTON (RNS) Fellow parishioners of the late Supreme Court Justice and civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall are asking that Marshall be considered a saint in the Episcopal Church.

His candidacy is being advanced by, among others, Cissy Marshall, Thurgood Marshall’s wife, and the Rev. William Pregnall of St. Augustine’s Church in Washington.

If the grass-roots proposal is approved _ a process that takes years _ Marshall will be added to the church’s “Book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts,” one of three primary worship texts of the Episcopal Church.

“I personally know of no other American of the 20th century so deserving to be honored by the church,” said the Rev. Thomas Smith, retired rector of St. Augustine’s. “His life was a splendid witness to what the Holy Spirit can summon in one human life.”

Marshall began attending St. Augustine’s in 1965, when he came to Washington to serve as the first black U.S. solicitor general, under President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson nominated Marshall as the first black Supreme Court Justice in 1967.

Once approved by a diocese, the resolution must then be passed by two consecutive meetings of the national church’s General Convention, held every three years. The next convention is June 18.

If approved, Marshall’s feast day would be celebrated on May 17, commemorating his 1954 victory against school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education, a case he argued as an attorney before the Supreme Court. If the process is completed successfully, his feast day will be celebrated in May 2010, following the national convention in June 2009.

The “Book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts” contains information about commemorations on the official church calendar. Additions to the book are usually the result of grass-roots advocacy rather than decisions from church leadership.

“Our process honors the fact that saintliness is probably best discerned by the people who were closest” to the person in question rather than by the performance of posthumous miracles, said Jim Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. “If you ask me, Brown vs. Board of Education is pretty miraculous.”

“I personally know of no other American of the 20th century so deserving to be honored by the church,” Smith said. “His life was a splendid witness to what the Holy Spirit can summon in one human life.”

_ Anne Pessala

Quote of the Day: Family Research Council President Tony Perkins

(RNS) “I welcome the president’s remarks _ but he’d be more effective if he made them in person. Even Jimmy Carter doesn’t phone in to Habitat for Humanity.”

_ Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, comparing President Bush’s annual telephone call to March for Life anti-abortion protesters to former President Carter’s role in a prominent house-building ministry. He made his comments in his conservative Christian organization’s e-newsletter, Washington Update.

MO/JL END RNS