c. 2008 Religion News ServiceDole’s competitor files defamation suit over `godless’ claimWASHINGTON (RNS) Democrat Kay Hagan filed a defamation suit Thursday (Oct. 30) against Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s re-election campaign, saying her opponent for a Senate seat from North Carolina inaccurately accused her of having ties to an atheist political action committee.“A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan’s honor,” says the Dole ad. It ends with a female voice _ not Hagan’s _ saying “there is no God.”In the suit, filed in a Wake County, N.C., court, Hagan charges that Dole, a one-term Republican, and her campaign maligned her reputation with the ad that “falsely implies that (Hagan) shares the views of an entity that calls itself the Godless Americans PAC.”Hagan states in the suit that she attended a September fundraiser at the Boston home of Woody Kaplan but never took contributions from the Godless Americans PAC.Ellen Johnson, executive director of Enlighten the Vote, the new name of the PAC, said Kaplan was a former advisory board member but was involved in the fundraiser independently of the PAC.In an ad responding to Dole’s accusations, Hagan declares her faith in God and speaks of her years of teaching Sunday school.“I approve this message because my campaign is about creating jobs and fixing our economy, not bearing false witness against fellow Christians,” Hagan said.Johnson was featured in a TV clip in the Dole ad.“Kay Hagan has nothing to do with our PAC and she didn’t ask for our endorsement,” Johnson said in an interview. “We didn’t endorse her. … It just shows how desperate Elizabeth Dole is, but it’s a political tactic that is very effective. One day that won’t be effective. Today, unfortunately, it still is.”Dole campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Dole’s Web site has posted an ad responding to Hagan’s rebuttal.“If Godless Americans threw a party in your honor, would you go?” it asked.(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)Ed Buckner, who recently succeeded Johnson as president of American Atheists, said the Dole ad’s inclusion of two people who have represented his organization was unfair.“We’re nonpartisan and to be dragged into the partisanship in this way is not fair to us and it’s almost certainly unfair to the candidate,” said Buckner, also a former member of the Godless PAC’s advisory committee. “The Dole campaign is engaged in improper and unreasonable advertising.”_ Adelle M. BanksCanada’s Anglican bishops delay action on gay issues(RNS) Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada say they are unlikely to act on requests from several dioceses to approve blessings for same-sex unions or marriages, deferring the issue until the church’s General Synod in 2010.At least four dioceses _ Ottawa, Montreal, Niagara and Huron _ have asked for permission to bless same-sex relationships in Canada, where same-sex civil marriages were legalized in 2005. Those moves, along with similar action by the Episcopal Church, have angered more conservative members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.On Friday (Oct. 31), the Canadian church’s House of Bishops agreed to delay “with the greatest extent possible” any action on same-sex blessings until the entire church can weigh in at the 2010 convention.“Members of this House, while recognizing the difficulty that this commitment represents for dioceses that in conscience have made decisions on these matters, commit themselves to continue walking together and to hold each other in prayer,” the bishops said in a joint statement.The bishops also agreed, under pressure from the larger Anglican Communion, to continue a moratorium on electing any openly gay or lesbian bishops. They said they would continue to resist any “cross-border interventions” by conservative groups who seek to minister to the church’s minority traditionalist wing.Only the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster has permitted same-sex blessings, since 2002.Archbishop Fred Hiltz, the leader of the Canadian church, said lay and clergy delegates should be able to participate in the debate over same-sex blessings. He said a churchwide position on same-sex blessings “is not creedal in nature, but nonetheless it is doctrine.”“I trust the House of Bishops will support my call for respect for due process through the General Synod in this matter,” he told the bishops._ Kevin EckstromLuther’s trash found in German dig(RNS) Archaeologists have discovered Martin Luther’s kitchen trash, revealing new personal information about the father of the Protestant Reformation, the German publication Der Spiegel reports.The dig that started in 2003 took place at three different excavation sites in Germany: Luther’s parents’ house in the town of Mansfeld, his estate in Wittenberg, and the floor of the building where he was born in Eisleben.So far, archaeologists have found broken dishes, food remains, toys, and what they think is his wife’s wedding ring along with 250 silver coins. The German State Museum of Prehistory was scheduled to unveil the Luther discoveries Friday (Oct. 31) to coincide with Reformation Day.The article claims that the new discoveries reveal that Luther “fudged his parents’ social circumstances,” and that his family was more affluent than Luther claimed they were. But Luther’s adult home was “in keeping with his economic standing.”Archaeologists have also found book bindings, “quill knives” used to sharpen quill pens, and four writing sets with sand, ink and styluses.While the museum catalog claims the discoveries of Luther’s personal items allow “entire chapters in human life” to be re-examined, Germany’s Protestant congregations do not think the findings are religiously relevant, according to Der Spiegel._ Ashley GipsonOutspoken Ill. Episcopal bishop abruptly steps down(RNS) The Episcopal bishop of Quincy, Ill., who was poised to lead his small diocese to secede from the Episcopal Church next week, abruptly announced his retirement, effective Nov. 1, due to ill health.Bishop Keith Ackerman has been one of the most conservative leaders in the increasingly liberal U.S. church. His diocese is one of three that does not ordain women clergy, and he spoke out forcefully against the 2003 election of the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire.Ackerman’s diocese of 24 churches and about 1,800 members is scheduled to vote Nov. 7-8 on whether to formally leave the Episcopal Church and align itself with the more conservative Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.Ackerman, 62, had already been on sabbatical and was scheduled to return on Nov. 1. Instead, the diocese will vote on the motion to secede without him as leader, although he is scheduled to address the convention on Nov. 7, according to Episcopal News Service.“Bishop Ackerman has reached this decision after much thought and prayer. The bishop and his wife, Jo, conferred with his physicians, many trusted friends and the Standing Committee before making this decision,” a diocesan news release said.The Rev. James Marshall, the president of the diocese’s elected Standing Committee, said the bishop had been in “less than robust health” in recent years and said the turmoil in the American church “may have taken a toll on him.”The Rev. John Spencer, a diocesan spokesman, told Episcopal News Service that Ackerman’s abrupt retirement should not affect the secession plans, saying “the resolutions have been well thought out and all indications are that the diocese will move for realignment.”If approved, the Quincy diocese would become the third U.S. diocese, after the California-based Diocese of San Joaquin and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, to formally leave the U.S. church. The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, is poised to become the fourth.Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose leadership was not recognized by Ackerman, said the diocese will remain in her prayers. “We encourage all to remember that there is room in this church for all who desire to be members thereof,” she said in a statement Thursday (Oct. 30)._ Kevin EckstromQuote of the Day: Liberty University student Meghan Allen(RNS) “My goal is not to make laws Christian but to make government as small as possible so you can be as biblically Christian as you so choose.”_ Meghan Allen, student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., who hopes to become a lawyer. She was quoted by The Washington Post.KRE/PH END RNS