c. 2006 Religion News Service
Congress Approves Increase in Indecency Fines
WASHINGTON (RNS) Social conservative activists are cheering a Senate vote last week (May 19) to significantly increase the penalty to radio and television broadcasters for airing “indecency.”
Passed unanimously by a voice vote, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act raises the maximum penalty to $325,000 for each violation. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission can fine a broadcaster $32,500 per incident.
“This is a major victory for families,” said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parent Television Council, a conservative advocacy group.
In 2005, the House of Representatives passed legislation that could increase the fine to $500,000 per incident, after pop star Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during a Super Bowl halftime show.
A House-Senate conference committee will now work out the differences between the two versions and send the bill to President Bush, who is expected to sign it.
“We are one step closer to giving the FCC the tools it needs to clean up American airwaves,” Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Christian Family Research Council, said in a statement.
Referring to the Jackson incident in a floor statement last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said, “When families are watching a Sunday night football game, they shouldn’t have to brace themselves for a televised strip tease.”
The Senate bill had stalled while lawmakers debated whether to include cable and satellite companies _ such as MTV and XM Satellite Radio _ in the new rules. The FCC does not regulate those companies, and they were ultimately left out of final legislation.
Some broadcasters grumbled that the Senate’s timing _ Republicans’ poll numbers are sagging ahead of fall elections _ seemed politically opportunistic.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said in statement that “It’s time that broadcast indecency fines represent a real economic penalty and not just a slap on the wrist.”
_ Daniel Burke
School Board Member Allegedly Labels Religious Groups `Undesirable’
(RNS) A South Carolina church has filed suit against a school board in Charleston, S.C., charging violation of constitutional rights because the board allegedly wants to ban “undesirable” groups from meeting at a school.
The church, Gracepointe Church, is being represented by the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization that specializes in religious issues, against Dorchester County School District Four.
According to the suit, school board member Cheryl Mushrush privately told the church pastor that the board did not want to set a precedent by allowing extended use of facilities because other “undesirable” groups _ such as Muslims _ might seek to use them too.
Doug McKusick, staff attorney for the Rutherford Institute, said Mushrush’s comments “may be reflecting views of the board members.”
Charles Boykins, the attorney representing the school board members, denied such remarks had been made.
The district authorized the church to begin using the Woodland High School gymnasium for Sunday services in August 2005 while the church sought other sites.
McKusick said that church “followed all written school board policies” by paying fees for facility use and paying for a school district employee to be at the facility during usage. He said, “There is no restriction to number of times for use and groups shouldn’t be restricted if the written policy is followed.”
Boykins said, “The length of use is solely the issue and has nothing to do with the school board’s viewpoints.” He said the policy was “not pursuant to a long-term occupancy, but only for occasional use” and that any use of more than three months requires board approval.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday (May 25).
_ Preetom Bhattacharya
N.Y. Military Chaplain Cleared for Possible Sainthood
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (RNS) A military chaplain who was killed in 1967 during the Vietnam War has been officially declared a “Servant of God,” which sets him on a path to possible sainthood.
The Rev. Vincent Capodanno, popularly known as “the Grunt Padre,” received the designation during a Mass on Saturday (May 20) at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Father Vincent, as he was known to his eight siblings, was a Maryknoll missionary who left the safety of a parish in Taiwan in 1966 to serve as a chaplain in Vietnam.
Sixteen months after he arrived in the country, he was killed while caring for a wounded Marine in a raging battle.
Now, thanks to the untiring efforts of his brother, James Capodanno of Eltingville, N.Y., the organization Catholics in the Military, and the Archdiocese for Military Services in Washington, the Vatican announced in February that it had accepted the cause of canonization for Capodanno.
To be named a saint, Capodanno’s intercession would have to be found responsible for two miracles.
_ Leslie Palma-Simoncek
Church Marks End of an Era With Last Frisian Worship Service
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Amid the mingling of about 400 kinsfolk, the Rev. Louis Tamminga listened to the same words again and again. When did you come over? What boat did you take? What village are you from? You must have known so-and-so.
But the language he heard wasn’t English. A half-century later, the sounds of Frisian _ a Dutch dialect _ keep ringing in his ears.
“I still picture that scene, these people running into each other and hugging,” said Tamminga, who preached at the first Frisian-language worship service in Grand Rapids 50 years ago.
The ancient tongue imported by postwar immigrants faded from West Michigan on Sunday (May 21) with the 50th _ and last _ annual Frisian-language service and a 20-year Dutch-language song fest.
The Christian Reformed Church, which has its headquarters here, traces its roots to the Netherlands and many church members have Dutch heritage.
Both services in past years have drawn more than 500 people, mostly immigrants from the Netherlands. But both have seen smaller crowds in recent years as immigrants passed away and subsequent generations moved away from the old-country talk.
“It was fun to preach in those early years to a full house, and singing was thunderous,” said the Rev. William Buursma, a retired Christian Reformed Church pastor who preached at 12 of the Frisian-language services.
“I realize that it was inevitable, but it’s still a painful thing. It’s something that’s part of my roots. There’s going to be a void there.”
Buursma arrived in the United States as a 3-year-old with grandparents who never learned English. Tamminga came alone as a 21-year-old to study in a seminary.
As much as the Frisian-language service had been a celebration of language, culture and spiritual continuity, the Dutch song fest was a source of memories. The gathering was launched on a whim and drew as many as 575 people in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of Holland’s liberation from the Nazis.
The fest featured religious and patriotic songs that many Hollanders learned at their mothers’ knees.
“We all grew up singing around the old pump organ,” said Dick Gootjes, one of the event’s organizers. “That was very much a part of life.”
But few immigrants now come from the Netherlands, and the language has fallen out of use by Dutch families who Gootjes said “were hell-bent on Americanizing.”
“We’re all changing, and this generation is slowly passing on,” he said. “It’s one of those things that just dies off. It’s nostalgia at its best.”
_ Matt Vande Bunte
Quote of the Day: Mormon convert and singer Gladys Knight
(RNS) “They thought I was crazy. They thought I had lost my mind. `What are you doing over there with those Mormons? They don’t like black people.’ Yes, when I came to this church, I asked, `Do y’all like black people or not?”’
_ R&B Grammy winner Gladys Knight, speaking at the Suitland (Md.) Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the weekend of May 20. She was quoted by The Washington Post.
KRE/PH END RNS
