c. 2007 Religion News Service
Philly Episcopal bishop suspended pending church trial
(RNS) The Episcopal Bishop of Philadelphia has been barred from ministry pending a church trial to determine his culpability in protecting his brother, a former Episcopal priest who was accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s.
Bishop Charles Bennison has been accused of “conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy” by an Episcopal Church committee and was barred from all ordained ministry by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Wednesday (Oct. 31).
As rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, Calif., in 1973, Bennison acted “passively and self-protectively” when his brother, John, a youth minister at the parish, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old member of the youth group, according to the church committee.
John Bennison was married at the time, according to the committee’s presentment, or charge, against the bishop.
Charles Bennison failed to provide pastoral care to the girl, who was not identified by Episcopal News Service. Neither did he take steps to end the “affair,” report his brother to anyone, investigate whether his brother was abusing other children or tell the girl’s parents about the affair until three years had passed, according to the presentment.
Later, Bennison did not prevent his brother’s ordination, his later request to be reinstated after renouncing his orders in 1977, or his transfer between two California dioceses, according to the Episcopal committee.
John Bennison was forced to leave the priesthood in 2006 when news of his abuse was made public, according to Episcopal News Service.
A trial date for Bishop Bennison has not yet been set. He will be paid in the meantime, ENS reported.
_ Daniel Burke
Kerry laments faith missteps in 2004 race
WASHINGTON (RNS) In 2004, then-presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., didn’t make his religious background and convictions clear to the public, he said Thursday (Nov.1), and paid a price for it.
“The challenge for anyone running for president is how to explain who they are … I could have done a better job of that, and probably should have,” Kerry said at a session hosted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Looking back on his own journey of faith, experience on the campaign trail and religious studies since the 2004 election, Kerry outlined his mistakes and mapped out areas of common ground for religious liberals and conservatives.
In 2004, Kerry said, he hesitated to forcefully rebut attempts by conservatives who used wedge issues to drive religious voters to President Bush. “That was a lesson for me: Don’t let anything hang out there.”
Wistfully recalling the experience of another Catholic politician from Massachusetts, Kerry said: “President Kennedy’s challenge was to prove that he was not too Catholic to be president. My challenge was to prove that I was Catholic enough.”
The senator said he should have responded to the handful of Catholic bishops who pledged to ban him from Communion because of his support for abortion rights.
Those bishops “made the argument” on banning him from Communion “but it’s not a church position,” he said. “And what we didn’t do was make … sure the Catholic position was in front of people as much as it should be.”
Kerry said he told an American cardinal after the election that “you have a position on abortion but you don’t have to have a policy. … When a 15-year-old girl is raped by her uncle and is pregnant you don’t have to have a policy on that. I do.” Kerry said the cardinal, whom he refused to name, is now in Rome.
Kerry said liberals and conservatives should come together on the value of human life, the environment, war and peace issues and reducing the number of abortions.
While Kerry said abortion should be decided by women and their doctors, he also believes that it should be “rare.”
“I believe very deeply that it’s not a contradiction to be pro-choice and against abortion,” he said.
_ Daniel Burke
Top Episcopal bishop warns Pittsburgh against leaving church
(RNS) Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has sent a strongly worded warning to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, telling the conservative cleric not to lead his diocese to secede from the national church at its Nov. 2-3 convention.
Duncan has publicly supported changes that would allow Pittsburgh to leave the Episcopal Church and align with another province in the global Anglican Communion.
Some conservatives throughout the majority-liberal Episcopal Church have switched their allegiances to other branches of that 38-member communion, but no diocese as yet has seceded from the U.S. church.
In a letter made public late Wednesday (Oct. 31), Jefferts Schori called on Duncan “to lead your diocese on a new course that recognizes the interdependent and hierarchical relationship between the national church and its dioceses and parishes.”
If Duncan does not change course, Jefferts Schori said, he may be accused of abandoning the “Communion of the Church _ by actions and substantive statements,” and face disciplinary action, Jefferts Schori said.
Bishops found guilty of abandoning the church can be removed from ministry under Episcopal rules.
Duncan said Wednesday that he will not make any public statement on the matter until Friday at Pittsburgh’s convention. “I’ll make it to my people and then to the media,” he said.
_ Daniel Burke
Group wants to add pimping to anti-trafficking bill
WASHINGTON (RNS) Groups advocating for women’s rights and both conservative and progressive Christian causes banded together Thursday (Nov. 1) to push for changes in a human trafficking bill in the House of Representatives.
The coalition is generally in support of the bill, but says it should be expanded to cover prostitution within the United States. In fact, they want Congress to equate pimping in the U.S. to international human trafficking, and make it easier to prosecute those who hire out prostitutes.
It’s an argument that has found an unlikely assortment of allies ranging from Gloria Steinem on the left through progressive Christian leader Jim Wallis to evangelical and Southern Baptist leaders on the right.
However, equating pimping with trafficking rests on the notion that all prostitutes are victims, said Ann Jordan, director of the Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons for the human rights organization Global Rights, which is not part of the coalition.
The informal coalition represents groups including Concerned Women for America, the Salvation Army and Equality Now. The groups met here to lobby the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering the bill.
The U.S. has had an impact on how human trafficking is viewed internationally, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., “but domestically, we’re not taking it seriously.”
The coalition wants to make several changes in the legislation, including redefining trafficking so it is not limited to moving people across state or national lines. This would mean that pimping would effectively be classified as a type of human trafficking.
They also want to change a non-binding federal “model law” that currently requires proof of force, fraud or coercion in order to prosecute a pimp. Coalition members say the current model limits prosecutions because many prostitutes are unwilling to testify against their pimps.
Laurence Rothenberg, a deputy assistant attorney general who oversees anti-trafficking programs, said the model law “has been very successful in raising awareness in the states about human trafficking” and does not preclude other laws that can be used to prosecute pimps.
Jordan, of Global Rights, disagrees that “force, fraud or coercion” is too narrow a limitation; coercion has been defined to include psychological coercion, she said.
The federal government bases its jurisdiction of human trafficking on the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery, Jordan said. She said it is unclear how federal jurisdiction could apply to all manner of prostitution offenses.
_ Beckie Supiano
Quote of the Day: Dare 2 Share Ministries President Greg Stier
(RNS) “Hell is the crazy cousin that Protestants keep locking in the basement. … A lot of people don’t want to talk about hell and engage it because if there is a hell, there’s a possibility they are going there.”
_ Greg Stier, president of Dare 2 Share Ministries, an evangelical youth ministry in Denver, Colo. He was quoted by The Washington Times.
KRE/RB END RNS
