c. 2006 Religion News Service
Obama Addresses Warren’s AIDS Conference After Controversy
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (RNS) After earlier protests about his abortion stance, Sen. Barack Obama spoke Friday (Dec. 1) at one of the country’s most prominent megachurches, calling for spiritual efforts to address the AIDS pandemic.
“I don’t think we can deny that there is a moral and spiritual component to prevention,” said Obama, D-Ill., one of more than 50 speakers at Saddleback Church’s second annual AIDS conference. “The relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down and needs to be repaired.”
In the days leading up to the two-day meeting that ended on World AIDS Day, anti-abortion activists said Obama’s support for abortion rights should have disqualified him from speaking. The “Race Against Time” AIDS conference was at the church of Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life” and a maverick among evangelical clergy.
Obama didn’t directly address the earlier criticism about his appearance, but Warren did, noting that while people on the left and right wings of American politics may differ on abortion, “you gotta have two wings to fly.”
Warren added that both Obama and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who spoke on the same panel with Obama, “will speak with integrity, but more than that _ civility.”
Brownback discussed the millions of poor people worldwide who are suffering from AIDS and said, “if we can just give them the crumbs off our table, they can live and we can save our souls.”
Warren, Obama and Brownback all took HIV tests before more than a dozen news cameras and all tested negative.
“America has moved away from this disease. Much of Hollywood has moved on,” Warren said at the conference attended by more than 2,000 people. “It is the church that needs to take the lead on HIV/AIDS.”
The anti-abortion activists’ statements prompted a response from more than two dozen religious leaders who criticized them for playing “partisan politics” instead of addressing AIDS.
_ David Finnigan
Democrats Meet With Religious Leaders After Successful Midterm Vote
WASHINGTON (RNS) Hoping to capitalize on Democrats’ midterm election gains,leaders of the Democratic National Committee met Thursday (Nov. 30) in the first of a series of sessions with faith leaders to discuss ways the party can make further inroads in the religious community.
Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D.-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress, and DNC Chairman Howard Dean were at the meeting, as well as evangelical speaker and author the Rev. Tony Campolo, and political strategist Mike McCurry, who served as President Bill Clinton’s press secretary.
Democratic leaders acknowledged that they have been absent from faith discussions for too long and vowed to get more involved in issues important to people of faith, said some of the 50 religious leaders who attended the event.
“In overtly reaching out to the religious community, Democrats have been behind the curb,” said Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim, a Conservative synagogue in Alexandria, Va., who attended the meeting. “We have not been comfortable speaking the language of faith in the public sphere.”
“We hope these folks will become a permanent fixture _ a council of advisers of sorts,” DNC spokeswoman Amaya Smith said.
Campolo said Democratic speakers struck a conciliatory tone for their past treatment of religious voters _ a group that has traditionally been the bedrock of the Republican Party.
“Democrats have for a long time ignored the religious community _ they’ve written it off,” Campolo said. “Now they’re saying, `We’re not a secular party. We’re in harmony with the religious community.”’
Democrats this year won a majority (55 percent) of the Catholic vote, according to exit polls. They winnowed the GOP lead among weekly churchgoers _ the GOP’s advantage fell to 12 percentage points, down from 18 points in the 2004 congressional races. Republicans maintained their hold over white evangelicals with 70 percent of their votes, but less than the 78 percent they carried in 2004.
McCurry said gaining votes is important to Democrats, but Democrats also want to engage religious voters in authentic discussions.
“We are a political party. It is about getting votes,” McCurry said. “But we can also proudly proclaim our faith without being shy about it. We want to be intentional about raising the faith perspective.”
_ Rebecca U. Cho
British Muslims, Christians Join Up to Protect Christmas
LONDON (RNS) British Christian and Muslim leaders, fearful of a perceived backlash against Muslims, have joined forces in the name of political correctness to try to halt efforts to stamp out Christian traditions.
In a letter to town and city governments, the recently formed Christian Muslim Forum targeted local attempts to suppress Christmas by renaming the seasonal celebrations as “Winterval” and calling its festive lights “luminos.”
The forum, headed by Anglican Bishop David Gillett and senior Islamic cleric Ataullah Siddiqui, cited what “seems to be a secularizating agenda which fails to understand the concerns of religious communities.”
“The approach of some is to exclude mention of any specific religious event or celebration in order to avoid offending anyone,” it said. “The usual result of such a policy ends up offending most of the population.”
It stressed the adverse effect on British Muslims. “Sadly,” its letter said, “we have seen it is they who get the blame _ and for something they are not saying.”
The forum, set up earlier this year with the blessings of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, cited a string of common religious festivals that should be protected, including Easter, Christmas, Eid for Muslims, Diwali for Hindus and Hanukkah for Jews.
Gillett and Siddiqui said “it is important for the 77 percent who claim affiliation to one faith or another that these festivals should be seen and recognized, rather than banished from the public sphere.”
_ Al Webb
Former Pastor Charged With Trying to Kill Donor _ Twice
(RNS) A former California pastor has been arrested and accused of murder in the 2004 death of an 85-year-old man.
Stanislaus County authorities said they believe Doug Porter, 55, intended to kill Frank Craig in order to inherit Craig’s multimillion-dollar trust, The Modesto Bee reported.
The two men were involved in two auto crashes: the first in 2002, which crippled Craig after crashing into a tree, and the second in April 2004 which drowned the elderly man after driving into an irrigation canal. Porter was the driver in both cases and walked away with only minor injuries.
His no-bail arrest warrant includes charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and grand theft, Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold said. Porter was arrested Monday (Nov. 27) and booked on Thursday.
Craig had up to $4 million in stocks and real estate left to him after his brother died, according to another brother, N.J. Craig.
In 1999, Porter gained control of Craig’s finances when the agriculture enthusiast asked the pastor and high school wrestling coach to help him build a museum in eastern Stanislaus County. He wanted to showcase farm equipment and memorabilia he had acquired over the years.
Porter still has not broken ground on the museum.
The Modesto Bee reported that Craig’s friends said within days of Craig’s death, Porter began removing items from Craig’s home. Two months after his death, Porter told The Modesto Bee that Craig “basically left everything in the trust to me, Doug Porter.”
Eight months after the crash, Porter sold Craig’s 17-acre ranch to a neighboring nursery for more than $400,000, according to Stanislaus County assessor’s records.
“We’re just at the start of this and have to wait and see how the case plays itself out,” Goold said. “He is still innocent until proven guilty.”
_ Chansin Bird
Quote of the Day: Joshua Thompson, Hurricane Katrina relief recipient
(RNS) “Take it up with God.”
_ Joshua Thompson, who successfully convinced a Memphis church to give him a $75,000 home after claiming Hurricane Katrina left him and his wife homeless. Before moving into the house, they sold it for $88,000 and went back to New Orleans. He was quoted by The Associated Press.
KRE/JL END RNS
