c. 2008 Religion News Service
Beatles’ guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dies
(RNS) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru who brought transcendental meditation to the West and popularized it through science and celebrities such as the Beatles, died Tuesday (Feb. 5) in the Netherlands.
Maharishi apparently died of natural causes, according to Bobby Roth, a spokesman for the spiritual leader’s Transcendental Meditation movement, and was thought to be 91 years old.
“He has done what he set out to do in 1957 _ to lay the foundation for a peaceful world,” said Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam, who heads the Global Country of World Peace, one of Maharishi’s myriad international organizations.
More than 5 million people worldwide _ including a range of celebrities from the Beach Boys to Clint Eastwood _ have learned transcendental meditation, which rose to prominence with the hippies of the 1960s.
But Maharishi, whose name means “great seer,” was more interested in courting scientists than celebrities, said John Hagelin, head of the U.S. branch of the TM movement, as practitioners call it.
Transcendental meditation, which he claimed to resurrect from ancient Indian texts called the Vedas, could bring lasting personal and societal changes, according to Maharishi. “He took it out of the realm of mysticism and brought it to the mainstream,” said Hagelin, who ran for president in 2000 with the Natural Law Party.
TM practitioners sit twice a day and repeat a “meaningless” mantra, said Roth, that calms the mind and allows access to a deeper level of consciousness. Roth, who is Jewish, said the practice is “spiritual,” not religious, and can help people of any faith realize profound truths.
Hagelin and others have also touted TM’s ability to heal everything from hypertension to war through “the Maharishi effect” of many people meditating at one time, and have pushed schools and businesses to adopt the practice.
Maharishi’s reach and grand designs had greatly expanded in recent decades,extending into medicine, architecture and organic farming, which are now taught at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.
Just last month, Maharishi announced his intention to cede control of his global organization and “retire into silence.”
“I think I have done whatever can be done,” Maharishi said at the time, “and I am very sensitive about it.”
Haggard leaves `restoration’ process with Colorado church
(RNS) Ted Haggard, the former pastor of a Colorado megachurch who was dismissed after a sex and drug scandal, has decided to end a “spiritual restoration” process that had been set up by the congregation.
“He has recently requested to end his official relationship with the New Life Church Restoration Team and this has been accepted by them,” reads a Tuesday (Feb. 5) statement from the trustee board of the church in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Haggard was dismissed from his church in November 2006 for “sexually immoral conduct.”
The former pastor, who also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said he bought methamphetamine and paid a Denver male escort for massages. Haggard acknowledged sexual immorality but denied that he used the drug.
The statement commented on Haggard’s “extraordinary” leadership as the church’s founding pastor, but said his restoration process was not complete.
“New Life Church recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry,” the statement reads. “However, we wish him and his family only success in the future.”
New Life Church’s statement said Haggard will continue his work on accountability at Barnett’s church.
“He has selected Phoenix First Assembly and Pastor Tommy Barnett as his local church fellowship and is maintaining an accountability relationship there,” the statement reads.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Anglican `covenant’ would shift more power to Canterbury
(RNS) The head of the Church of England and an international council would have greater power to settle disputes within the Anglican Communion under a draft of a proposed “covenant” released Wednesday (Feb. 6).
The covenant seeks to build common ground between the communion’s 38 member provinces around the world, which have sharply disagreed since its U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church, elected a gay bishop in 2004.
Drawn up by a 12-member international team meeting in England, the covenant is the second draft to be proposed; the first draft was released last year and roundly criticized. This draft will be discussed and amended at the Lambeth Conference, a meeting of nearly 600 Anglican bishops, in July. Implementation is likely years away.
While asserting the autonomy of each province, the covenant nonetheless lays out a process through which threats to the “unity of the Communion and the effectiveness or credibility of its mission” may be challenged.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the Church of England and is recognized by Anglicans as the “first among equals,” would be given the power to make “requests” of national churches based on those challenges. The Most Rev. Rowan Williams is the current Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Anglican Consultative Council, an international body appointed by the 38 provinces, would be the last court of appeals on all disputes. It would have the power to determine if a province has “relinquished the force and meaning” of the covenant, the consequences of which are not specified.
Jim Naughton, director of communications for the diocese of Washington, said the draft seems to decrease the power of Anglican archbishops, or primates. Several primates, particularly those from the “global South,” have tried to force North American Anglicans to recant their pro-gay stance or be removed from the Anglican Communion.
“The main question of whether the Episcopal and Canadian churches were going to be disciplined for moving towards full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians is over,” Naughton said. “There is nothing on the horizon that could result in our expulsion.”
Kendall Harmon, a leading conservative from South Carolina, said “one has the feeling that this is another example of the English bureaucracy being asked to swallow problems instead of dealing with them.”
_ Daniel Burke
Ruth Stafford Peale, co-founder of Guideposts magazine, dead at 101
(RNS) Ruth Stafford Peale, the co-founder of the inspirational magazine Guideposts and widow of author and minister Norman Vincent Peale, died Wednesday (Feb. 6) at her home in Pawling, N.Y., the Guideposts organization announced.
Peale, who was 101, was called the “first lady of positive thinking” after her husband wrote the best-selling book “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
She helped found the Guideposts organization in 1945; its flagship publication now has a paid circulation of 2.5 million and a readership of 8 million.
“Her strength and belief in the power of prayer was an example to thousands and an inspiration to millions,” said Richard V. Hopple, president of Guideposts, in a statement on the organization’s Web site.
The Fonda, Iowa, native was a high school math teacher before she married her husband, who soon became the pastor of New York’s Marble Collegiate Church, where he served for 52 years. When he died in 1993, they had been married for 63 years.
Ruth Peale was the first woman president of the National Board of North American Missions of the Reformed Church in America, and also served on the board of directors of several organizations, including more than 50 years with the American Bible Society.
“She was a renowned speaker and author in her own right and personified one of her most famous quotes: `Find a need and fill it,”’ said the Rev. Paul Irwin, president of the Bible society.
Peale was the author of “Secrets of Staying in Love,” and the autobiographical “A Lifetime of Positive Thinking.” The organization she helped found now includes prayer ministries and a program that provides handmade sweaters to needy children across the globe.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Williams says Shariah `unavoidable’ in UK laws
LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has triggered a storm of controversy by suggesting that Britain should adopt some aspects of Islam’s tough Shariah law into its legal system.
In a BBC radio interview Thursday (Feb. 7), Williams said the 1.6 million Muslims now living in Britain make that prospect all but “unavoidable” and that “as a matter of fact, certain conditions of Sharia are already recognized in our society.”
He suggested that parts of Sharia dealing with marital disputes and financial affairs could be incorporated into British law. But he pointedly rejected draconian punishments, such as the public beheading or hanging of murderers and drug traffickers, that are practiced in some Islamic societies.
“Nobody in their right mind, I think, would want to see in this country a kind of inhumanity that sometimes appears to be associated with the practice of law in some Islamic states (with) the extreme punishments, the attitude toward women as well,” he said.
But Britain has to “face up to the fact” that thousands of its citizens do not relate to its legal system, Williams said, and what is needed is a “constructive accommodation” with some Muslim practices.
For instance, he proposed a “plural jurisdiction” under which Muslims would be allowed to choose whether some legal disputes could be dealt with secular or Sharia courts.
But the archbishop’s remarks brought furious protests across the country. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, called them “muddled and unhelpful.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office said in a statement that Sharia law “cannot be used as justification for committing breaches of English law.” His culture secretary, Andy Burnham, described the archbishop’s proposals as “a recipe for chaos.”
Khalid Mahmood, a Muslim member of Britain’s Parliament, insisted that “the vast majority of UK Muslims oppose any such move to introduce Sharia here” and that “British law is the envy of the world.”
Shaista Gohir, one of the Brown administration’s adviser on Muslim women, said there was no need for Sharia courts in Britain because “the majority of Muslims do not want it.”
_ Al Webb
Egyptian court allows Muslims to become Christians
(RNS) Egypt’s Supreme Civil Court has permitted 12 Coptic Christians who had converted to Islam to revert to their original faith, the second such recent victory for religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim nation.
The ruling, which overturns an April decision by a lower court, allows the 12 Christians to carry government identity papers indicating their religious choice. Egypt’s secular courts often defer to Shariah, or Islamic law, which forbids conversions from Islam, in such circumstances, according to international human right’s experts.
At least some of the Coptic Christians were men who converted to Islam in order to obtain a divorce, which is proscribed by the Coptic Orthodox Church, according to international news reports.
“The judges’ decision marks a happy ending to an absurd and unnecessary court fight,” said Hossam Bahga, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “It was only the stubborn insistence of Interior Ministry officials to place their prejudice above the law that made it necessary to go to court at all.”
The National ID cards are required for education, employment, financial transactions and other purposes. The Muslim ID subjected the Christians to Muslim family law, and determined their children’s religion and education, according to Human Rights Watch, which says it has documented 211 similar cases in Egypt.
“The state should not be in the business of controlling religious conversion,” said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This court decision will have repercussions for all Egyptians who wish to change their faith without facing administrative or criminal punishment.”
_ Daniel Burke
Holocaust survivor Rep. Tom Lantos dies at 80
(RNS) Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress and a longtime champion of human rights, died Monday (Feb. 11) at age 80 at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.
“He will be difficult to replace,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “The generation of Holocaust survivors, in another decade … there won’t be any Holocaust survivors.”
Lantos was a respected voice for global human rights during his long stretch on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which he chaired after the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.
Lantos died from cancer of the esophagus, said spokeswoman Lynne Weil. At the congressman’s bedside were his wife of 58 years, two daughters and “many of his 18 grandchildren and two of his great-grandchildren,” a press statement said.
The Jewish Democrat, who represented San Francisco’s Peninsula suburbs for 27 years, earned widespread bipartisan respect. His cancer diagnosis last year had prompted him not to seek a 15th term in 2008.
Jewish groups praised Lantos for his advocacy. “How often did his powerful words carry the day on a critical issue!” read a statement from the Washington-based Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Lantos was a teenager when the Nazis marched into Budapest in 1944 during World War II. He was sent to a forced labor camp but escaped and returned to Budapest to join the resistance, living with an aunt in an apartment under the protection of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who rescued Hungarian Jews.
After being elected to Congress in 1980, Lantos founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and has defended practicing Christians in overwhelmingly Muslim Sudan and Saudi Arabia, and Tibetan Buddhists persecuted by their Chinese communist rulers. He was a strong advocate for Israel and co-chair of the House’s anti-Semitism task force.
_ David Finnigan
Jerusalem OKs first non-Orthodox cemetery
JERUSALEM (RNS) Non-Orthodox groups are praising the Jerusalem municipality’s decision to approve the establishment of the city’s first non-Orthodox cemetery.
All Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem are maintained by ultra-Orthodox burial societies that conduct burials according to the strictest standards of Jewish law. Jerusalemites seeking another type of burial must find a cemetery outside the city.
Jerusalem’s Orthodox cemeteries do not permit burial in a coffin and prohibit the burial of non-Jews _ including the first-degree relatives of a Jew buried in the cemetery. Nor do they permit women to say kaddish, the memorial prayer, out loud, or Reform and Conservative Jews to conduct burials according to their respective religious practices.
The municipality’s decision comes a decade after the Israeli High Court ordered the government to provide pluralistic options. Since then, non-Orthodox Jews have tried, unsuccessfully, to force the city’s ultra-Orthodox mayor and other religious officials to allot land for this purpose. Non-Orthodox cemeteries are already operating in several other Israeli cities.
Mayor Uri Lupolianski appeared to welcome the decision, saying “Jerusalem is a pluralistic city that has a duty to allow people to choose their way of life and their burial,”
But Rabbi Andy Sacks, director of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, said he was perturbed by Lupolianski’s statement.
“It’s incredible that he’s being praised for what the court demanded of him,” Sacks said. “It’s not like he came around and understood the needs of the non-Orthodox community.”
Sacks predicted that the proposed cemetery will appeal to families from all denominations, including some in the modern-Orthodox community.
“A Lot of people want to be buried within Jewish law and tradition, but not necessarily according to the customs and style of the Orthodox movement,” Sacks said.
_ Michele Chabin
UpDATE: Turkey approves amendments to allow hijabs
(RNS) The Turkish Parliament passed two constitutional amendments on Saturday (Feb. 9) granting Muslim women the right to wear Islamic head scarves in universities, despite protests from thousands of secular Turks.
The first amendment grants equal treatment to everyone by state institutions, Speaker Koksal Toptan told the Associated Press. The second amendment states, “No one can be deprived of (his or her) right to higher education.”
Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, was founded as a secular country by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who prohibited wearing religious attire in public. Secular Turks fear lifting the ban on hijabs, or Islamic head scarves, is the first step toward allowing religious symbols in all aspects of public life.
“This law will create chaos in universities and will lead to the disintegration of the nation,” said Kamer Genc, an independent lawmaker, according to the Associated Press.
Some secular women worry that if head scarves are allowed in universities, they may also be pressured to cover their bodies elsewhere. However, the government plans to create laws specifying how the hijab is to be worn and forbidding full-length chadors or burqas.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Action Party have agreed scarves should be tied beneath the chin, leaving the woman’s face exposed.
The main opposition, the Republican People’s Party, said it will appeal the decision in the courts.
“We are experiencing a constitutional amendment brought by imposition, not by social consensus,” said Kemal Kilcdaroglu, the deputy chairman of the party’s parliamentary group, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The government claims the measure will expand democracy and freedoms to help Turkey become accepted into the European Union, according to the Associated Press.
The amendments still require the signature of President Abdullah Gul, an observant Muslim, to be made official.
_ Brittani Hamm
Quote of the Week: New Hampshire state Rep. Jason Bedrick
(RNS) “To not shake hands with half your constituents, that qualifies me as a disabled politician.”
_ State Rep. Jason Bedrick, R-N.H., whose Orthodox Jewish faith prohibits him from shaking hands with members of the opposite sex. He was quoted by the Concord Monitor.
KRE END RNS
