c. 2007 Religion News Service
GOP Wants Answers About Religious Texts in Prisons
WASHINGTON (RNS) A group of conservative House Republicans has sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons seeking information about its effort to ban religious texts from prison libraries.
“No matter how well-intentioned, a government project to limit books and other material deemed religious raises serious issues with respect to the religious liberties of Americans,” reads the Tuesday (Sept. 18) letter to Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley G. Lappin from three members of the Republican Study Committee.
The letter writers _ Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Donald Manzullo of Illinois _ were responding to a recent report in The New York Times that said chaplains were directed to remove from prison shelves any books and other materials that were not on a list of approved resources. The lawmakers want details about the Standardized Chapel Library Project, including the list of approved materials and an explanation of the process that disqualified other materials.
The newspaper reported that the bureau had said the project would bar materials that could “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.” The move was a response to a Justice Department report that recommended prisons should work to reduce the growth of militant Islamic and other religious groups.
Some leaders of religious organizations have also expressed concern about the bureau’s reported actions.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, wrote Lappin on Sept. 11 asking that the bureau publish the standards used in the project and the names of its religious consultants.
Prison Fellowship, a Christian prison ministry, also has contacted the bureau in hopes of reversing some of the decisions about permissible prison materials.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bishop Ordained With Vatican, Beijing Approval
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In the latest sign of improved relations between China’s state-run Catholic church and the country’s “underground” church loyal to Rome, another Chinese bishop was ordained Friday (Sept. 21) with the approval of both China’s communist government and the Holy See.
The Rev. Giuseppe Li Shan, 42, was ordained Friday morning in Beijing’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Although Li was chosen by the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the Vatican’s AsiaNews agency reported that his appointment was approved by Rome.
Li’s ordination comes less than two weeks after Paolo Xiao Zejiang, 40, became coadjutor bishop of the southern diocese of Guizhou, also with Vatican endorsement.
The two events suggest a significant easing in a historically tense relationship.
Chinese Catholics have been divided for half a century between an underground church loyal to Rome _ many of whose leaders have been imprisoned for long periods by the government _ and an “official” church that now claims 5 million members. The total number of Catholics in China today is estimated at 12 million to 15 million.
In an open letter to Chinese Catholics in June, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the Vatican’s longstanding demand that the Chinese church be free of state control, and emphatically described government-approved bishops as “illegitimate” unless their appointments are confirmed by Rome.
_ Francis X. Rocca
N.J. Revokes Tax-Exempt Status for Methodist Group
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) State officials have revoked the tax-exempt status of a Methodist-run seaside pavilion that church officials have said is off-limits to gay and lesbian civil union services.
Lisa P. Jackson, who heads the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, withdrew the Green Acres program tax exempt status because “… it is clear that the Pavilion is not open to all persons on an equal basis.”
“Simply put, the Pavilion needs to be available equally to all persons to retain its tax exempt eligibility under this particular statute,” Jackson said in a letter to the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
Several lesbian couples were denied when they asked to hold civil union ceremonies in the boardwalk gazebo overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Methodists call the open-sided structure a chapel, and say civil unions conflict with Methodist doctrine.
The lesbian couples filed a complaint with the state civil rights agency, claiming discrimination. The Camp Meeting Association, in turn, filed a federal lawsuit, claiming its constitutional rights would be violated if it were required to allow civil unions.
Gay activists called Jackson’s decision “a significant victory” for local residents. “It’s time for the Camp Meeting Association to see the handwriting on the pavilion, and end its discriminatory ban now,” said Steve Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality.
Jackson said the association can continue to claim a tax exemption “for the remainder of the Association’s property” on the parcel, but Neptune Township Tax Assessor Bernard Haney insisted a single block and lot number cannot be separated into parts.
“It’s all or nothing,” Haney said.
_ Judy Peet
Church Wants IRS Apology After Probe Into 2004 Sermon
LOS ANGELES (RNS) A prominent liberal Episcopal church wants an apology and clarification after a two-year Internal Revenue Service probe that threatened the church’s tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon just before the 2004 elections.
The IRS told All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena that its tax-exempt status would remain intact despite the sermon that officials said “constituted prohibited political campaign intervention,” according to a press release issued by the church.
On Sunday (Sept. 23), the church’s rector, the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon Jr., said the letter did “not clarify what in the sermon … was a transgression.”
“While we are pleased that the IRS examination is finally over, the IRS has failed to explain its conclusion regarding the single sermon at issue. Synagogues, mosques, and churches across America have no more guidance about the IRS rules now than when we started this process over two long years ago,” Bacon said.
In June of 2005, the IRS began to investigate the church after the Rev. George Regas delivered a sermon titled “If Jesus debated Senator Kerry and President Bush” on the Sunday before the 2004 election.
In the sermon, Regas said that “good people of profound faith will be for either George Bush or John Kerry.” Regas went on to refer to both candidates as “devout Christians” and made it clear that his intention was not to instruct people how to vote.
But in a Nov. 1, 2004, article, the Los Angeles Times referred to the anti-war, anti-poverty speech as “a searing indictment of the Bush administration’s policies on Iraq.” According to church attorneys, it was the newspaper article that prompted the IRS investigation.
Although the church admits it would not have been difficult for the congregation to surmise Regas’ political leanings, Bacon said the pulpit was never intended “to advocate for or against any candidate.”
_ Lilly Fowler
New Mexico Episcopal Bishop Plans to Leave for Catholic Church
(RNS) As Episcopal bishops gathered in New Orleans for a critical meeting, the bishop of Rio Grande said he plans to resign and convert to Roman Catholicism, becoming the third Episcopal bishop to join the Catholic Church this year.
Bishop Jeffrey Steenson, whose Albuquerque, N.M.-based diocese includes churches in Texas and New Mexico, was expected to announce his decision to the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops Monday (Sept. 24).
Steenson will be the first active bishop to convert to Catholicism this year. The two other bishop converts, Daniel Herzog of Albany, N.Y., and Clarence C. Pope of Fort Worth, Texas, were retired.
“My conscience is deeply troubled about where the Episcopal Church is heading, and this has become a crisis for me because of my ordination vow to uphold its doctrine, discipline, and worship,” Steenson said in a letter to Rio Grande clergy.
Steenson was elected bishop of Rio Grande in 2004 and installed a year later.
“I yearn for a passionate commitment to Christian truth and to the Catholic faith and I realize on so many levels that I just can’t go where the Episcopal Church is going,” Steenson told Stand Firm, a conservative Episcopal Web site.
_ Daniel Burke
Televangelist Rex Humbard Dies at 88
(RNS) The Rev. Rex Humbard, a pioneer Southern gospel minister who launched what would become a worldwide empire of broadcast evangelism from Akron, Ohio, in the 1950s, died Friday (Sept. 21) at age 88.
From his earliest years, Humbard knew he would be a minister. He once said he was proclaiming biblical Scriptures by the time he was 2 years old.
By the 1960s, his voice and image as a preacher had spread over the globe, and he was influencing a generation of future charismatic ministers to employ broadcasting as the most powerful medium of religious communication.
Born to traveling evangelist parents, Humbard developed a folksy, storytelling revival style that drew millions of listeners and viewers to the radio and television sermons he became so adept at conducting.
U.S. News & World Report in 1999 called Humbard one of the 25 Shapers of the Modern Era for his influence in redirecting Christian evangelism into television and incorporating entertainment features into the broadcast of sermons.
For 24 years, until his departure from Ohio in 1982, Humbard oversaw television and radio broadcasts of a then-unprecedented scope from the sprawling, domed Cathedral of Tomorrow he built in Cuyahoga Falls in 1958; the building was sold to another evangelist in 1994.
At the height of Humbard’s popularity and influence, in the 1960s and early ’70s, his down-home messages of faith and redemption were syndicated on more than 600 television stations and, he claimed, to almost 20 million viewers worldwide.
One of Humbard’s loyal viewers was Elvis Presley, who regularly gathered his backup singers, the Imperials, in his hotel room on Sunday mornings to watch “his preacher,” according to a news release Friday from the Humbard family. Upon the singer’s death, Presley’s father asked Humbard to officiate at the funeral service.
_ Frank Bentayou
Giuliani Adviser Under Fire for `Too Many Mosques’ Comment
(RNS) Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is rejecting calls to fire one his top homeland security advisers, Rep. Peter King, after the Long Island Republican said there are “too many mosques” in the United States.
“I’ve known Pete for 41 years, so I’m not about to do that,” Giuliani told reporters in Northern Virginia on Thursday (Sept. 20).
“We have, unfortunately, too many mosques in this country. There’s too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview with Politico.com. “There’s been a lack of full cooperation from too many people in the Muslim community.”
After King said his comments were taken out of context, the news Web site posted the interview online. By Friday afternoon, the clip had received more than 20,200 views on YouTube.
Muslim and other religious leaders denounced King, who has been criticized in the past for controversial comments he has made about Muslims.
“It’s hard for me to see it as other than downright bigotry,” said Rev. Mark Lukens, president of the Long Island Chapter of the Interfaith Alliance. “I’m sure he could do a lot better in terms of a homeland security adviser, and I hope he gives this a hard look.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee also called on Giuliani to take King off his campaign.
“Rep. King has had a history of racist and Islamophobic remarks that sanction racial profiling and the mistreatment of Muslim Americans,” MPAC said in a statement.
_ Omar Sacirbey
Pentagon Concludes Probe of Muslim Chaplain
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded a review of a former Muslim chaplain who was detained and later cleared of espionage charges, saying the Department of Defense acted properly in investigating the Army chaplain.
“We found that DOD officials acted in good faith and within applicable standards in ordering Chaplain Yee’s initial and continued pretrial confinement and Chaplain Yee was not targeted because of his religious affiliation,” reads a two-page executive summary of the review involving former Army Chaplain (Capt.) James Yee.
Yee was held at a military brig for 76 days and the charges against him were dropped in March 2004. The inspector general said an investigation determined in May 2004 that Yee possessed 54 documents with secret information when he was arrested in 2003.
The summary noted two policy violations by military officials regarding Yee. It said a general exceeded his authority when he dismissed Yee’s reprimand for downloading pornography and committing adultery. It also said a letter to the editor written by a public affairs officer violated DOD policy.
While DOD spokesman Lt. Col. Brian Maka said Yee’s case is now closed, Yee’s attorney, Eugene R. Fidell, feels differently.
“This case will not be over until the Department of the Army apologizes to Chaplain Yee,” Fidell said.
Army officials could not be immediately reached for further comment.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Vatican Says Reports of U.S. Papal Visit `Premature’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The spokesman for Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Sept. 20) that press reports of the pope’s visit to the United States next year were “premature” and “misleading” because no plans had been set.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi said that a predicted visit by the pope to United Nations headquarters in New York next April was a “plausible hypothesis,” and that the Vatican was “working toward” a visit at that time. “But we have not made any commitments,” Lombardi said.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited the pope to New York during a visit to the Vatican this past April. The Vatican announced later the same month that Benedict had accepted the invitation, but no date was announced.
“I have nothing to say on the subject until a program ready for publication has been formulated and approved,” Lombardi told Religion News Service. “Premature hypotheses are misleading because they create expectations that are then not realized.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Adventist Missionary Claims Church Benefits Are Discriminatory
WASHINGTON (RNS) A Maryland county human rights office is investigating claims by a retired Seventh-day Adventist missionary who says his church is paying him a meager amount of retirement benefits based on his country of origin.
Pastor Berhane Woldemariam, 71, of Adelphi, Md., filed a complaint with the Montgomery County (Md.) Office of Human Rights in February. Earlier this month, the director of that office denied a church request to dismiss the case.
“I find that the disputed issues of material fact involved in the resolution of this matter are sufficiently complex to require an extensive investigation,” said Odessa M. Shannon, director of the office in Rockville, Md. The world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is located in nearby Silver Spring, Md.
Woldemariam is a native of Eritrea, which was part of Ethiopia at the time of his birth.
His pro bono lawyer, Nathaniel Rickard, filed the claims with the human rights office in hopes of getting the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to increase Woldemariam’s monthly pay from its current rate of about $120 a month.
Woldemariam’s complaint questioned church policy, saying: “ … The General Conference asserts the right, for the purposes of determining retirement benefits, to treat non-U.S. born citizens employed while residing in the United States in a less favorable manner than U.S. born citizens employed while residing in the United States.”
Thomas E. Wetmore, associate general counsel for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, said the church believes Woldemariam’s current payments are appropriate.
“The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists believes that Mr. Woldemariam is currently receiving the retirement benefits to which he is entitled under the retirement plan of his former employer in Africa where he lived and worked for almost his entire career before emigrating to the United States,” Wetmore said in an e-mailed response to questions.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Canadian Muslims Apply for Sharia Banks
TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s federal government has received its first requests to start up sharia-compliant banks.
Canada’s bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), is studying two proposals for banks that would offer services in keeping with Islamic laws that forbid speculation and interest, but rather favor transactions where profit and loss are shared.
If approved _ and that would be a long way off _ such an institution would be among the first in the Western world, reports the Globe and Mail newspaper.
The request, from unidentified applicants, has led Canadian banking officials into uncharted territory. They have wondered whether these institutions could be reliably audited, governed by directors or monitored.
“Are the deposits insurable?” one OSFI study asked.
Canada’s finance ministry established an Islamic financial services working group in June to study the issue.
Under sharia law, charging or paying interest is usury and therefore considered haram, or forbidden.
The Islamic financial model works on the basis of risk-sharing. The customer and the bank share the risk of any investment on agreed terms, and divide any profits between them.
That has been the general model at United Muslims (UM) Financial Inc., a Toronto-area firm that has offered interest-free mortgages since 2004, in partnership with Credit Union Central of Ontario.
There are about 300 Islamic financial institutions in 75 countries, with assets of more than $300 billion and another $400 billion in financial investments, which, according to sharia, cannot be in areas such as gambling, alcohol, pork or pornography; or one that assumes a high level of risk.
_ Ron Csillag
Methodists to Consider Divestment Proposal
WASHINGTON (RNS) The United Methodist Church must divest from companies that contribute to the “oppression of Palestinians” or do business with Sudan, according to the church’s social service agency.
The Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society voted to send resolutions calling for the divestments to the denomination’s General Conference next spring.
The board also approved a resolution seeking to establish a “socially responsibility investment task force,” according to United Methodist News Service.
“In a world primarily defined by economic transactions, the next steps should be targeted divestment with businesses directly involved in the oppression of Palestinians and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur,” said the Rev. Steve Sprecher, chairman of the agency’s Peace with Justice task force.
The resolution particularly calls for divestment in Caterpillar Inc., the Illinois-based manufacturer. The Methodist board says Caterpillar supplies the Israeli army with bulldozers used for “the illegal destruction of Palestinian homes, orchards and olive groves.”
Church agencies, foundations, local churches and pension boards that invest United Methodist funds would be required to divest from Caterpillar by 2009 should the resolution pass.
The board of directors solicited input on divestment from Jewish, Arab and Palestinian communities for the past three years, according to the church news agency.
_ Daniel Burke
Quote of the Week: Mariposa (Calif.) County Supervisor Brad Aborn
(RNS) “I’m sorry, maybe I’m missing something in my upbringing as a Methodist, but Paintball for Jesus? God help us all. Seriously, this teaches bad habits of shooting each other.”
_ Mariposa (Calif.) County Supervisor Brad Aborn on a proposal to bring “Paintball for Jesus” to public land. He was quoted by the Contra Costa Times.
END RNS
