c. 2007 Religion News Service
Vatican Appeals To Stop Execution of Georgia Man
(RNS) The Vatican is appealing to U.S. officials to commute the death sentence of a Georgia man convicted of killing a police officer in 1989.
Saying that a number of key witnesses have recanted their testimonies, the Vatican embassy in Washington sent a letter to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, requesting clemency for Troy Anthony Davis, 38.
“In the name of Pope Benedict XVI, I am respectfully asking you to commute Troy’s sentence to life in prison without parole,” wrote Vatican diplomat Monsignor Martin Krebs.
Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer.
His execution was originally scheduled for Tuesday (July 17), but is on hold while the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles weighs the case. The board must rule by Oct. 14.
The Vatican is joined by civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in petitioning for clemency for Davis.
“As a man of faith, I am sure I know what God wants you to do. Do justice. Commute the sentence of Troy Anthony Davis,” Lewis said at a clemency hearing last week.
While he was present at the scene of the murder, Davis says that he wasn’t responsible for the murder. Seven witnesses have recanted or contradicted testimony implicating him, according to Davis’ lawyers.
The Board of Pardons and Paroles has received thousands of letters on Davis’ behalf. A representative said they will treat the Vatican’s request like the others.
“The board has to base its decision on facts,” spokesman Scheree Lipscomb told The Associated Press.
_ Michelle Rindels
British Pol Says Muslims Must Learn English Language and Culture
LONDON (RNS) A senior Muslim politician says foreign imams should be barred from preaching in British mosques unless they speak acceptable English and pass tests on British culture and way of life.
Nazir Ahmed, who sits in England’s the House of Lords, the nation’s upper chamber of Parliament, said his suggestion could be a way to help tackle Islamic extremism and terrorism.
After a meeting with Muslim Council of Britain chief Muhammed Abdul-Bari Friday (July 20) Ahmed said: “We should not allow imams to enter the country who do not speak English and who do not understand our way of life,” according to London’s Daily Telegraph.
“They should be tested to a much higher standard on language and British culture before they leave Islamabad, Delhi and Casablanca, and if they refuse they should not be allowed in,” said Ahmed, who became Britain’s first Muslim peer nine years ago. He recently served on the government’s Preventing Extremism Task Force.
Abdul-Bari said he did not “recognize” any problem with non-English speaking imams. Muslim Council spokesman Inayat Bungawala said Ahmed’s proposal is “ludicrous and completely unworkable.”
Under current government regulations, Muslim preachers can enter Britain as part of a special visa program for religious ministers, under which they need only basic English.
A survey by the British Broadcasting Corp. earlier this month found that only about 6 percent of imams in Britain preach in English. Most deliver their messages in Urdu, an Asian language that many young British Muslims do not comprehend.
The British government has made some provisions for a voluntary program under which imams can receive training in English and British culture. But that is not enough, said Ahmed.
“You can’t be wishy-washy and implement English lessons voluntarily,” he said. “They must be compulsory, like in Germany, where all sermons have to be delivered in German.”
_ Al Webb
Leader of Humanistic Judaism Dead at 79
(RNS) Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the founder of the humanistic stream of Judaism, died Saturday (July 21) in an automobile accident.
Wine, 79, was vacationing in Morocco at the time.
Described by the Humanist chaplain of Harvard University as “the greatest American religious leader you never heard of,” Wine founded the movement of Humanistic Judaism in 1963 and the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969. The society has more than 30 congregations and communities led by rabbis or lay leaders in the U.S. and Israel.
Wine gained national attention when Time magazine featured his fledgling congregation in 1965. More traditional Jewish leaders thought he was leading a 1960s craze but the movement went on to have an international federation and an institute that trains Humanist rabbis.
“He had a creative, new vision for what role religion and humanism could play in American life,” said Greg Epstein, the Harvard chaplain, who was trained by Wine.
A Detroit native, Wine was the founding rabbi of the Birmingham Temple in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Mich. Like the movement Wine led, the congregation celebrates Jewish culture but does not link it to a belief in God.
“He created the idea of a congregation of proud atheists and agnostics,” Epstein said. “He did that without acknowledging the moral authority of any god. He did that with a nervy assertion that only human beings can determine what the moral basis for an ethical community ought to be.”
Epstein said Wine was an atheist who did not dwell on that description.
“His focus was on being positive and talking about what he did believe in,” Epstein said.
Wine was the author of several books, including “Humanistic Judaism,” “Judaism Beyond God,” and “Staying Sane in a Crazy World.”
“Rabbi Wine was a visionary who created a Jewish home for so many of us who would have been lost to Judaism,” said Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris, president of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Walter Contreras
(RNS) “We’ve always been on board with (white) evangelicals. How can they not be on board with an issue that means so much to us?”
_ The Rev. Walter Contreras of the Network of Hispanic Pastors of Southern California, speaking about some white evangelicals’ reluctance to back immigration reform. He was quoted by Time magazine. (July 19)
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