c. 2006 Religion News Service

Descendant of Jonathan Edwards May Face Gay Wedding Trial

(RNS) A Presbyterian minister who is a distant relative of famed Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards could face a church trial on charges that she officiated at a wedding for two women.

No formal charges have yet been filed against the Rev. Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh, but a church investigation committee will meet March 29 to consider whether she should face trial for marrying two women last year.

If church leaders decide to pursue a trial and Edwards is found guilty, she could face a range of penalties, from censure to defrocking. The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows same-sex unions as long as they are not equated with traditional marriage.

At least five complaints have been filed against Edwards for officiating at the June 25, 2005, wedding of Brenda Cole and Nancy McConn in Pittsburgh. The two women were legally married in Vancouver, British Columbia, several days later.

“Marriage is a sacred union between people who are committed to each other, without regard to gender,” Edwards told Presbyterian News Service.

A lesbian minister who married a gay couple was acquitted on similar charges March 3. A church court in California ruled the Rev. Janie Spahr was acting out of her conscience. Edwards said it is “unpredictable” what role Spahr’s trial might play in her own.

Puritan preacher Edwards is best known for his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

U.S. Muslim Scholars Say Quran Mandates No Death Penalty for Converts

(RNS) The potential execution of an Afghan man for converting from Islam to Christianity would go against Islamic law, say some Muslim scholars in the United States.

“The Quran says there is no compulsion in religion. That means one cannot force one to convert to a religion. But it also means that if one converts to another faith, there should be no reprisal for it,” said Asma Afsaruddin, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Notre Dame. “It threatens punishment in the next world, but that is God’s prerogative. The Quran has no penalty prescribed for apostasy.”

Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested in February after he was found with a Bible and charged with rejecting Islam. Some authorities in Afghanistan contend Islamic law mandates the death penalty for apostasy.

The trial judge in the case, Ansarullah Mawlazezadah, told the BBC, “We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so, we will forgive him.”

But if he doesn’t recant, Rahman could receive the death penalty, the judge said.

According to an International Religious Freedom Report issued by the U.S. State Department in November, Afghanistan’s constitution makes no reference to Islamic, or Shariah, law and “commits the state to abide by international treaties and conventions” that protect freedom of religion.

“I think that right now there’s in Afghanistan some differing interpretations of the Afghan constitution. These issues rightfully should get resolved through the court system, but they need to be resolved (in) a transparent manner and according to the rule of law,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormick in a press briefing Monday (March 20).

“Islamic scholars say the original ruling on apostasy was similar to that for treason in the legal system worldwide, and does not apply today to a person’s choice of religion,” Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, wrote in an e-mail.

Abdulaziz Sachedina, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Virginia, said, “Afghanistan is very much behind what’s going on in the Muslim world.”

_ Omar Sacirbey

Archbishop of Canterbury Criticizes Teaching of Creationism in Schools

LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says he does not believe that creationism _ the Bible-based version of the origins of the world _ should be taught in schools.

In an interview with London’s Guardian newspaper published Tuesday (March 21), Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said, “I think creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories.”

Asked if it should be taught in schools, he said, “I don’t think it should, actually. No, no.”

“Whatever the biblical account of creation is,” the archbishop said, “it’s not a theory alongside theories. It’s not as if the writer of Genesis or whatever sat down and said, `Well, how am I going to explain all this … I know: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

But that does not mean it should not be discussed, Williams said. Not teaching creationism, he explained, is “different from saying _ different from discussing, teaching what creation means.”

But “if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories, I think there’s just been a jarring of categories,” he said. “It’s not what it’s about.”

Williams told the newspaper that “my worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it.”

The issue of creationism has stirred some controversy in Britain, along with “intelligent design,” which contends that since creation is so complex, it would have taken some form of intelligent, or religious, force to direct it. But the debate has come nowhere near the vehemence that it has reached in the United States.

A spokesman for Britain’s Department of Education told the British Broadcasting Corp. that neither creationism nor intelligent design is taught as a subject in British schools. But creationism is taught in three schools run by the private Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

_ Al Webb/London

Jewish-Muslim Congress Discusses `United Nations’ of Religion

(RNS) More than 150 Jewish and Muslim religious leaders gathering in Seville, Spain, sent a joint message against extremism in favor of religious dialogue _ perhaps through a new, United Nations-style body.

In remarks on the opening day of the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis on Sunday (March 19), Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called for the formation of a “United Nations of religious groups” to help bridge religious divides, according to press reports.

While it remains unclear how many religious leaders back Metzger’s proposal, it reportedly has broad support from a number of conflict-resolution experts.

Sponsored by the Paris-based peace foundation Hommes de Parole, the four-day conference brings together rabbis, imams, analysts and some Christian representatives from the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the United States.

The meeting comes at a time of heightened religious tension. Rising Islamic extremism in the Middle East and the electoral victory of the radical Islamist group Hamas in the Palestinian territories are feeding political and religious divisions.

The growing Muslim community in Europe is also creating new rifts. Religious tensions are particularly rife in France, home to Europe’s largest community of Jews and Muslims.

The location of the congress stands in symbolic contrast to such events. Seville’s Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in relative harmony during seven centuries of Moorish rule in Spain.

Still, political events have filtered into the meeting. Muslims used a session on family issues, for example, to denounce Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

Others directed fresh criticism against controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a number of newspapers around the world.

The first such Jewish-Muslim congress was held in Brussels last year. Organizers said they hope this year’s meeting will enlarge a network of religious leaders who can use their influence in international conflict resolution, and in denouncing religious extremism and promoting interfaith dialogue.

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Elcott Leaves American Jewish Committee for Think Tank

WASHINGTON (RNS) David Elcott, who oversaw U.S. interfaith relations for the American Jewish Committee, is leaving to head up a think tank devoted to securing Israel’s safety and security.

Elcott said he was reluctant to leave the AJC _ “one of the best positions I could have” _ but said he could not pass up the opportunity to serve as executive director of the Israel Policy Forum.

The think tank, with offices in Washington, New York and Jerusalem, was founded in 2003 to advocate a two-state solution that provides “secure homelands for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Elcott said.

“IPF will be a home for those who will not allow the ugly forces that threaten our people to rob us of hope and leave us only with despair,” Elcott said Tuesday (March 21). “It will also be a vehicle to affirm … the Jewish people’s support for a State of Israel living in peace and security next to an independent Palestinian state.”

Elcott has worked for the AJC for three years under Rabbi David Rosen, the group’s Jerusalem-based international interreligious affairs director.

Elcott was raised in the Conservative movement, is married to a Reform rabbi and attends an Orthodox synagogue. He also has ties to the small Reconstructionist movement and served for 16 years as vice president for the Center for Learning and Leadership, a New York Jewish think tank, before becoming a private corporate consultant.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Danish Parents Can Soon Name Their Kids Jesus Without Breaking Law

(RNS) Beginning in April, parents in Denmark can legally name their children Jesus.

The country’s parliament voted last June to add the biblical name of the Christian messiah to the approved register. A century-old name law restricts what Danish parents can call their kids. They are required to select the first names of their infants from the government’s roster.

Danes whose families immigrated from Spain or Latin America are most likely to call their sons Jesus because it was their persistent requests that prompted the approval, according to Jorgen Engmark, information officer at Denmark’s Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Engmark said the name had been disallowed because it is not a traditional Danish name.

“Now we have a lot of people, mainly those from Spain and Latin America, coming and saying that they want to name their children Jesus so we decided to add it to our list,” he added. “It is a traditional name in those countries, so why not accept it here?”

Engmark added that other non-Danish names, including Muslim ones, had also been approved.

The law is intended to protect children against indecent names, according to Michael Lerche, who teaches Danish language history at the University of Copenhagen. He said when the ruling was passed in 1904 it referred only to surnames and was enforced by local councils. But a revision in 1961 centralized enforcement and included first names because “some surnames could become first names.”

Lerche, a member of the university’s Institute of Name Research, noted that violators of this law must pay a monthly fine until they choose a name from the list and that children without an approved name are denied official documentation.

But Lerche averred that it is unlikely that native-born Danes will christen their sons Jesus because “Danes will find it odd to meet another Scandinavian with such a name.”

In neighboring Sweden, where a couple recently named their son Google (after the U.S. search engine), one does not need permission to be called Jesus. About 420 Swedes, including women, bear the name Jesus, according to the Swedish Bureau of Statistics.

_ Simon Reeves

Quote of the Day: Catholic Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston

(RNS) “It’s unlikely that I will experience a bloody persecution, but there’s always more subtle forms of persecution that people have to endure for their beliefs and to be able to witness to the Gospel. … And certainly one of them is to be ridiculed.”

_ Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, who will become Cardinal Sean O’Malley on Friday (March 24), reflecting on his new cardinal’s vestments that are red to symbolize a willingness to shed blood for the church. He was quoted by The Boston Globe.

MO/PH END RNS