c. 2007 Religion News Service
Gay Man at Center of Court Case Joins Virginia Church
(RNS) The openly gay Virginia man who was at the center of a high-profile court case after he was denied membership in a United Methodist church has been accepted into membership under the church’s new pastor.
The Rev. Barry Burkholder, current pastor of South Hill (Va.) United Methodist Church, said he welcomed the man into membership during services March 11 on the basis that he “met all the requirements” and professed a “belief in Jesus Christ.”
In a 2005 ruling, the Methodists’ highest court sided with South Hill’s former pastor, the Rev. Ed Johnson, who refused to admit the gay man as a church member. The controversial decision upheld the right of local pastors to make those decisions based on their own discretion.
Johnson _ who was put on unvoluntary leave but has since been reinstated _ was eventually placed with another congregation, according to officials of the church’s Virginia Conference.
The new pastor, Burkholder, said the man (who has not been named publicly) approached him about church membership after the pastor arrived last July.
“He was sincere,” Burkholder said. “I know that as we talked he satisfied me that he believes that Jesus Christ died for his sins.”
Susan S. Garrett, director of connectional ministries at the Virginia Conference headquartered just outside Richmond, said the membership was a “local pastor decision.”
“The authority now falls on me,” Burkholder said. “It is very important to know that the bishop didn’t impose anything on me or suggest what I needed to do in this situation.”
Burkholder said he feels there was “not a major disconnect” among congregants concerning the man’s membership. “We felt the time was appropriate,” he said. “For the majority of the congregation he was warmly received.”
_ Melissa Stee
Conservative Seminary in Jerusalem Won’t Admit Gays and Lesbians
JERUSALEM (RNS) The Conservative Jewish movement’s main seminary here has decided not to follow its U.S. counterparts and will continue its ban on gay and lesbian rabbinical students.
The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary said “there will be no change in the admissions policy” after the American branch’s Rabbinical Assembly voted in December to permit the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and allow same-sex union ceremonies.
The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the movement’s flagship American seminary, said March 26 that it would begin admitting gay and lesbian students.
Schechter’s decision underscores the differences between the movement’s American and more traditional Israeli branches. It remains to be seen how Schechter’s U.S. donors will react to its decision.
Rabbi Einat Ramon, Schechter’s dean, said: “I have great respect for … Conservative rabbis who have chosen to follow a different opinion, and for the Reform movement in Judaism which has long admitted candidates to its rabbinical schools who are practicing gays and lesbians or who favor same-sex commitment ceremonies. However, Jewish law has traditionally prohibited homosexuality and only sanctifies sexual relations between members of the opposite sex.
“Today in particular, when the traditional family is in trouble, it is especially important that we ordain modern rabbis who are devoted to this institution and identify with this worldview,” Ramon said.
Ramon said Jewish theology “regards the union between a man a woman who are sexually and emotionally different from one another as a complementary covenant of friendship and intimacy, which forms the basis for procreation and childrearing.”
_ Michele Chabin
Gay Cleric Says Crucifixion Beliefs Are `Insane’
LONDON (RNS) One of Britain’s most controversial clerics has triggered more uproar by suggesting that the standard teachings about the Crucifixion are “repulsive” and “insane” and make God appear to be a “psychopath.”
The Very Rev. Jeffrey John, whose homosexuality cost him the chance to become an Anglican bishop four years ago, has targeted the Christian theory of “penal substitution,” which says God sent Jesus Christ into the world to be punished for the sins of mankind.
John became dean of St. Albans Cathedral after it was disclosed that he was gay, although he was no longer sexually active. The disclosure forced him to stand down as a candidate to become bishop of Reading in 2003.
The cleric stirred his latest round of controversy during a Lenten talk on BBC radio on Wednesday (April 4), when he said he had long thought the concept of penal substitution was “pretty repulsive as well as nonsensical.”
“What sort of God was this, getting so angry with the world and the people he created, and then to calm himself down, demanding the blood of his own son?” John asked. “And anyway,” he said, “why should God forgive us through punishing somebody else?“
“It was worse than illogical, it was insane,” he added. “It made God sound like a psychopath. If any human behaved like this, we would say they were a monster.”
The cleric insisted that “that explanation of the cross just doesn’t work, but sadly, it’s one that’s still all too often preached.
John’s comments immediately drew fire from Anglican leaders, including Willesden Bishop Peter Broadbent, who said that “to ignore the entirety of the language about atonement and sacrifice and the cross is to nullify the message of what Good Friday and Jesus dying for us is all about.”
_ Al Webb
Poll: Giuliani Leads Among Evangelicals, Clinton Leads Among Catholics
WASHINGTON (RNS) Presidential hopefuls Rudolph Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Clinton hold early leads among key religious voting blocs in the race to win their party nominations, according to a national survey released this week.
The survey by the Pew Research Center shows religious voters leaning towards more recognizable candidates in the early stages of the race, according to John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Giuliani, a Republican, leads Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., among white evangelical Republican-leaning voters, 27 percent to 23 percent. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was third (7 percent) even though he hasn’t announced his candidacy. The GOP’s fundraising leader, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was fourth (6 percent) among this key group of Republican voters.
White evangelicals gave 78 percent of their votes to President Bush in 2004 and 72 percent to Republican congressional candidates in 2006.
White (non-Hispanic) Catholics, a crucial swing group, according to Green, are also showing early support for Giuliani among those who lean among Republican, at 37 percent. McCain is second (23 percent) among these voters, who went 56 percent in favor of Bush in the 2004 election. Gingrich and Romney are tied at 9 percent each.
Clinton leads among white Catholics who lean Democratic, with 33 percent of their support. According to exit polls, 50 percent of white Catholics voted for Democrats in the 2006 mid-term elections _ a slight shift away from the GOP in the 2004 presidential results.
Former Vice President Al Gore, who has said he isn’t running for president, is second (22 percent), followed closely by 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards (21 percent). Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is fourth (12 percent).
“We’re still early in the process, and it’s a time when name recognition plays a special role,” said Green. “We think these numbers are very interesting in that they provide a baseline by which candidates must react.”
_ Philip Turner
Pope Says `Nothing Positive’ Happening in Iraq
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday (April 8), Pope Benedict XVI offered a global survey of natural and man-made disasters, including military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and called on Christians to be “apostles of peace.”
A day earlier, the Vatican confirmed that the pope had personally intervened on behalf of 15 British military personnel held captive by Iran before their release.
In his traditional Urbi et Orbi (“to the City and the World”) Easter message, Benedict deplored a range of “natural calamities and human tragedies” including famine, disease, terrorism, religious violence and “the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons” on five continents.
Among the dozen crisis zones to which he referred, the pope spoke in particular detail about recent “violence and looting” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, upcoming elections in East Timor, and the need for a “negotiated solution” to civil war in Sri Lanka.
Four years after the fall of Baghdad to U.S.-led military forces, Benedict was strikingly pessimistic in his assessment of conditions in Iraq. “Nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees,” he said.
The pope also noted “growing unrest and instability” in Afghanistan, where U.S. and other NATO forces have been stationed since 2001.
On Saturday, the Vatican confirmed a report by the British newspaper the Guardian that Benedict had written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging him to the release the 15 British sailors and marines in time for Easter.
Freeing the Britons, who were captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf on March 23, would be a “significant religious gesture of goodwill from the Iranian people,” Benedict reportedly wrote to Khamenei.
It is unknown whether the pope’s appeal influenced Iran’s decision to release the captives, who returned to Britain on April 5.
_ Francis X. Rocca
`B.C’ Cartoonist Johnny Hart Dies at 76
(RNS) Cartoonist Johnny Hart, creator of the award-winning and sometimes controversial “B.C.” comic strip, died in his home in Endicott, N.Y., Saturday (April 7). He was 76.
Hart created the comic strip featuring prehistoric characters in 1958. The strip had a following of more than 100 million readers worldwide. Hart was inspired to create his own strip by the work of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz. Hart read Schulz’s work during his time at the art department of General Electric, according to the Web site of the Creators Syndicate, which distributed “B.C.” to 1,300 newspapers nationwide.
After his religious conversion in 1987, Hart began integrating elements of his evangelical Christian faith into his comics, a decision that later drew criticism from Jewish and Muslim faith groups.
Jewish groups were especially upset with his Easter-themed cartoon published on Easter Sunday in 2001 that featured the words “It is finished” above a menorah that transforms into a cross.
Jewish groups called for the strip’s removal from newspapers and labeled it as “insensitive and offensive” because of what they saw as a depiction of Christianity superseding Judaism.
Hart insisted that he only intended for the cartoon to “pay tribute to both” Christians and Jews.
Hart and “B.C.” earned numerous awards, including Best Humor Strip in America and Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonist Society.
He is survived by his wife Bobby and two daughters, Patti and Perri.
_ Melissa Stee
Google, Holocaust Museum Offer Close View of Darfur Violence
WASHINGTON (RNS) An unprecedented look at the devastating crisis in Darfur is a free download away under a new partnership between the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google.
Using the mapping technology of Google Earth, people can _ with a single click _ pinpoint villages and huts that have been burned to the ground and track the steps of the hundreds of thousands of refugees.
“People around the world need to see what genocide looks like,” Daowd Salih, a Darfurian refugee, said at a Tuesday (April 10) news conference announcing the partnership. “It is not about numbers, it is about people.”
An estimated 400,000 people have died in Darfur, a war-torn western province of Sudan, where the Khartoum government is accused of supporting Arab “Janjaweed” militias against black Africans. The U.S. government has called the conflict genocide since 2004.
Links to photos, videos, personal accounts and data are provided on Google Earth’s “Global Awareness” layer by the Holocaust museum. Museum director Sara Bloomfield called it an attempt to create “understanding and empathy” to create a “community of conscience.”
Bloomfield compared Darfur to the Holocaust, saying people either were unaware or skeptical of reports that Hitler and the Nazis were terrorizing Jews before and during World War II.
Elliot Schrage of Google Earth said users will get a view of Darfur that they can’t obtain by reading statistics or everyday news reports.
“We are trying to visualize the genocide to spark people to action,” Schrage said.
_ Philip Turner
Alabama Church Arsonists Sentenced to Prison
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Three former Birmingham college students are headed for federal prison cells after a judge Monday (April 9) ordered them to serve sentences ranging from seven to eight years for a series of rural church fires last year.
U.S. District Judge David Proctor sentenced Matthew Cloyd, 21, and Benjamin Moseley, 20, to eight-year prison terms for setting fire to nine churches in West Alabama. Russell DeBusk, 20, who confessed to setting five fires, received a seven-year sentence.
In addition, the judge ordered combined restitution of $3.1 million, with Cloyd and Moseley bearing a greater share of responsibility for those payments than DeBusk.
Monday’s sentences came after an emotional hearing in which pastors from burned churches spoke of forgiveness, defense lawyers urged leniency and the judge quoted Scriptures assuring the trio that good can come from bad.
“You harmed a lot of people, but with God’s grace you have … opportunity to do good still,” Proctor said.
The first series of fires on Feb. 3, 2006, in which all three participated, damaged two churches and destroyed three. Cloyd and Moseley set a second batch four days later to distract investigators; those fires destroyed four churches.
DeBusk offered an explanation for the fires that brought shock and fear to the West Alabama communities and more than 100 law enforcement officers on a round-the-clock mission to solve the mysterious crimes: He said the three decided to break into a church and set fire to plastic flowers after not having much luck spotlighting deer. He said the fires fed off each other, and a “snowball effect” happened as they set out to set more fires.
DeBusk said the magnitude hit him after he sobered up the next day and became physically ill.
One by one, the three young men, wearing orange jail jumpsuits and leg irons, stood next to their attorneys at a lectern before Proctor. They apologized and expressed regret for the harm and destruction caused during a night of drinking.
“I’m ready to accept the consequences of my actions and move forward, your honor,” Cloyd said.
Moseley said he knew he did wrong and was aware there would be repercussions. “I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done,” he said.
They faced a minimum of seven years in prison because two firefighters were injured battling a fire at Ashby Baptist Church.
_ Val Walton
Groups Say `Fundamentalist’ Safety Drill Was Improper
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. _ A public safety drill at a New Jersey school has caught the ire of several conservative Christian groups and pastors around the country who are charging local police and school officials with anti-Christian bias.
The groups are demanding formal apologies because mock gunmen in the drill last month at Burlington Township High School were marked as members of a “right-wing fundamentalist group,” the “New Crusaders,” who were intent on avenging the punishment given to a fictional student for praying before class.
In the last week, on blogs, cable TV and in the local Burlington County Times, pastors and spokespeople for conservative and religious groups have alleged that police who oversaw the drill were insensitive _ at best _ to Christians. They want the police to apologize for how they conducted the drill.
Walt Corter, who designed the exercise as public safety director for the Burlington police, said future drills will include only generic descriptions of the assailants. Still, he said he believes the March 22 drill did not carry negative messages about Christians. The word “Christian” was not used at all, he noted.
“I did not envision any religious group when I drew this scenario up,” he said. “This could’ve been any religion.”
The Burlington Township School District struck a similar note in a prepared statement: “Any perceived insensitivities to our religious community as a result of the emergency exercise scenario are regrettable. It was certainly not the intent to portray any group in a negative manner.”
The afternoon exercise, conducted after a half-day of school for 150 teachers and about 30 of the school’s 1,000 students, Corter said, was a simulation of how police and school administrators would react if two gunmen shot students and took hostages. Police officers posed as the gunmen; student volunteers as the hostages.
The goal was to practice the school’s procedures for lockdown and evacuations, he said. Such drills at schools have become more common since the fatal shootings of 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago.
During the drill, a group of leaders instructed other attendees that the gunmen were supposed to be members of a right-wing fundamentalist group that “didn’t believe in separation of state and church,” and one of the intruder’s daughters had been suspended from school for praying before each class, Corter said.
“There was no mention of any religion, no mention of Christianity,” Corter said.
But the Rev. David Boudwin, associate pastor at Fountain Life Center, a non-denominational church in neighboring Florence, said the connotation was obvious.
“When you say right-wing fundamentalists, that’s one group. That’s Christian people that are upset with the child being not allowed to pray in school. … If it’s not Christians, who is it?”
_ Jeff Diamant
Quote of the Week: Spelling Bee Champion Elliot Huck
(RNS) “If I make exceptions to following God’s rule, even if it is only once, there will be more exceptions that will follow.”
_ Elliot Huck, 14, who made it to Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2005 and 2006, but refused to compete in the Bloomington, Ind., regional bee this year because it was scheduled on a Sunday. He was quoted by World magazine about his belief that God commands Christians to keep the Sabbath holy.
KRE/PH END RNS
