c. 2006 Religion News Service
President Vetoes Expansion of Stem Cell Research
(RNS) President Bush exercised the first veto of his presidency Wednesday (July 19) to reject a bill that would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Speaking at a White House event that included young children from the embryo program of a Christian adoption agency, Bush said that “these boys and girls are not spare parts.”
The legislation Bush vetoed was passed by the Senate on Tuesday and by the House of Representatives in 2005. It would have lifted restrictions imposed by the president in 2001 on embryonic stem cell research.
While many medical groups argue that the research holds the promise of cures for a variety of illnesses, conservative Christians and the Roman Catholic Church lambaste it because it involves the destruction of human embryos.
“This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others,” the president said. “It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it.”
Neither the Senate nor the House appears to have the two-thirds majority needed to override the president’s veto.
Bush signed a different bill related to stem cells that outlaws research on so-called “fetal farms,” where human pregnancies are initiated solely for scientific purposes.
A third stem cell bill, which the Senate approved unanimously Tuesday, would encourage research into methods of obtaining stem cells with the same properties as embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos. That bill stalled in the House on Wednesday, but the president said he would approve it if it reached his desk.
Because embryonic stem cells can be made into any kind of cell, many scientists consider them to be important steps toward finding cures for a variety of ailments _ from Parkinson’s disease to diabetes.
But the human embryo is essentially destroyed in the process, leading conservative Christians and the Catholic Church to condemn the procedure as tantamount to abortion.
Despite the president’s veto, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said lawmakers will not stop pushing for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
The president’s veto, Kennedy said, “may delay progress for a few months, maybe even a few years, but … we are coming back to fight this again and again and again and again until it’s achieved.”
_ J. Edward Mendez and Daniel Burke
Evangelical Christians Meet to Show Support for Israel
WASHINGTON (RNS) With rockets still roaring between Israel and southern Lebanon, 3,500 evangelical Christians met in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday (July 18-19) in support of the Jewish nation.
Backed by such prominent Christian conservatives as the Revs. Jerry Falwell and John Hagee, the 5-month-old Christians United for Israel was formed to repay a “debt to the Jewish people” by helping them maintain their foothold in the Middle East, Hagee said at a news conference Wednesday (July 19).
The conference was held amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Journalists and conference attendees packed into a room in the Capitol across the hall from the Senate floor to hear the group’s message that the nation of Israel needs the support of Christians.
“We are commanded by Isaiah to speak out for Israel,” said Hagee, the minister of an 18,000-member evangelical church in San Antonio. In the context of the growing military conflict there, he added, “we want Israel to have the ability to respond in the fullest measure.”
Recent fighting between the Muslim militant group Hezbollah and Israel has claimed about 300 Lebanese and 30 Israeli lives, the Associated Press and Reuters both reported Wednesday.
Christians United for Israel’s goal is lobbying legislators to support pro-Israeli policies. Its leaders have said they have no plans to try to convert Jews, but rather are acting out of a biblical obligation to protect the state of Israel.
“If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there would be no Christianity,” Hagee said.
Though the organization was initially met with skepticism in the Jewish community, the Christian group now says that many of those concerns have been allayed. In recent years, evangelicals have shown sympathy for Israel in growing numbers, with this week’s conference one of the most visible and concentrated demonstrations of their support.
“Any group, be it Christian or Muslim or atheist for that matter, that undertakes a righteous effort to support a good cause … we would salute and be very appreciative of any such initiative that they are undertaking,” said Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America, during a telephone interview.
_ Peter Sachs
Burned Churches Will Split $368,000
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Birmingham-Southern College has begun paying out $368,000 donated to help rebuild rural Alabama churches burned by arsonists earlier this year.
Teams of students, faculty and staff from the college have begun delivering checks from BSC’s Alabama Churches Rebuilding and Restoration Fund to 10 churches damaged or destroyed by fire in early February.
“There was a great outpouring from throughout the world,” said Lane Estes, executive assistant to Birmingham-Southern College President David Pollick. “We had donations from $5 to $150,000. We feel good about what was raised.”
The six churches that were completely destroyed by fire will get $53,000 each, a total of $318,000. The remaining $50,000 of the $368,000 fund was divided among four churches that had comparatively minor damage.
The college plans to invite representatives of the churches to attend a dinner on campus this fall.
“I see ongoing relationships coming out of this,” Estes said. “It has provided opportunities for us to reach out and for them to use us as a resource.”
The college announced its fund March 8 when officials learned that two of its students and one of its former students had been arrested for conspiracy and arson in the fires at nine of the churches.
The college also included in the fund a 10th church that was destroyed by fire Feb. 11. It was not linked to the other fires but may have been a copycat crime.
The fund received a $150,000 contribution from a Jackson Hole, Wyo., couple who wished to remain anonymous. “They came and delivered the check,” Estes said. “They didn’t want their name known.”
_ Greg Garrison
Pope Benedict XVI Writing New Book on Jesus
ROME (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI is using his vacation time in the Italian Alps to pen a new book on Jesus Christ, according to a newspaper report.
The report, published in La Repubblica of Rome on Tuesday (July 18) said the pontiff was composing a “theological narrative,” rather than a theoretical treatise, that aimed to recount the role of Christ to a mass audience.
The report said the book aimed to reinforce Roman Catholic belief in Christ as the savior of mankind. That principle was at the heart of the controversial Dominus Jesus, a theological document published by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith while Benedict was heading the office.
Dominus Jesus asserted that salvation was possible only through the mediation of Christ, prompting critics to call the document a major blow to interfaith and ecumenical efforts. Since assuming the papacy, Benedict has pushed a openness to dialogue between world religions.
The book would be the second major text of Benedict’s pontificate. His first work, Deus Caritas Est, was an encyclical that underlined the centrality of love in Christian life.
The pontiff has been on holiday in the northern Alpine village of Les Combes, Italy, since July 11. He returns to the Vatican on July 28.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Southern Baptist Anti-Drug Evangelist Ted Stone Dead at 72
(RNS) Ted Stone, a Southern Baptist evangelist and former drug addict who helped others overcome drug addiction, died Sunday (July 16) at the age of 72.
Stone, who was based in Durham, N.C., was on his fourth “Walk Across America,” spreading his anti-drug message, at the time of his death, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. He had started the walk in Chicago on June 19 and died after becoming unconscious while heading to a speaking engagement in Tennessee.
Stone, who founded Ted Stone Ministries, often said: “I used to be a drug addict, but I am no longer a drug addict. I am recovered forever by the grace of God, and that same hope can belong to you or anyone you love.”
After serving prison time in the 1970s as a result of his addiction, Stone became an evangelist for almost three decades. Several other walks across America, in 1996, 1998 and 2000, were highlights of his ministry.
He also served as a member of the board of visitors at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and a trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Ted Stone was a trophy of God’s grace who shared a powerful message concerning the danger of alcohol and drugs,” Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, told Baptist Press.
In the most recent of a series of columns he co-wrote with Philip Barber for Baptist Press, Stone continued his efforts to encourage churches to reach out to people who are hurting.
“In many of our churches we have settled into a false comfort zone in which we associate only with the lovable, with those whose background and present lifestyles resemble ours,” the column reads. “We are uncomfortable with those who are besieged with urgent problems. … We hold the solutions to those who cry out for help.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Lebanese Catholic Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir
(RNS) “As Christians, we believe that war is not inevitable; people choose war and people can choose peace. … Blessed are peacemakers, Jesus said.
_ Lebanese Catholic Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir at a special peace Mass at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church in Washington, D.C. A transcript of his remarks was provided by the diocese of Washington.
DSB/PH END RNS
