c. 1996 Religion News Service

Archbishop Tutu suggests need for improved U.S. race relations

(RNS) Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigating human rights abuses committed during the apartheid era in South Africa, said Sunday (Nov. 17) the United States could use a similar truth-seeking process to improve race relations among Americans.

Speaking at a wide-ranging press conference after an address at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the retired Anglican leader touched on issues ranging from race relations to the needs of Rwandan refugees.”America needs to make a reality of what is contained in your Constitution and I think that many people are very deeply hurt in this country where theoretically you are free. Theoretically the sky is the limit, and yet there always seems to be an invisible ceiling against which most black people seem to hit their heads,”he said.”And that, I think, has led to a great deal of frustration and anger and pain and maybe you need to have a process like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Had you had that after your Civil War, maybe some of the things that are happening now would not be happening.” Tutu said the South African commission is dealing with the”horrors of the past”to ensure that the nation can move on from its previous racially segregated system of apartheid. He said the commission has forced politicians to speak about issues like forgiveness and reconciliation.”You can’t ever say of anyone that the person is a monster,”Tutu said.”They may have done monstrous deeds but they are not a monster and they have the capacity to change. Otherwise there’s no hope. … We have to say that forgiveness is not just a nebulous thing. It’s practical politics. Without forgiveness, there is no future.” As international leaders grapple with how to deal with hungry Rwandan refugees, many of whom are returning to their homeland from neighboring Zaire, Tutu said international intervention is necessary to address the”horrendous”humanitarian needs there. He added that the people of Rwanda need help in the rebuilding of their country, which has been wracked with ethnic conflict.”I’m quite certain that they will need very considerable aid in terms of re-establishing all kinds of infrastructure,”said Tutu.”Their judicial system doesn’t exist. Their communication system would need very considerable assistance.”

English Anglicans celebrate gay and lesbian Christian movement

(RNS) Some 2,000 supporters of gay rights in the Anglican Church jammed Southwark Cathedral in London on Saturday (Nov. 16) to mark the 20th anniversary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, an organization pressing for equal rights in the Church of England.

Among those attending the controversial worship service was retired U.S. Episcopal Bishop Walter Righter, who was acquitted on heresy charges earlier this year for his action in ordaining a non-celibate gay man as a deacon, the first step toward priesthood.

In a speech before the worship service, Righter told members of the British movement not to give up in their drive for equal rights in the church.”Keep the heat on,”Righter said.”God made you the way you are, and the church has to recognize that.” The service had generated controversy long before it began; evangelical Anglicans had called on Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey to ban the service. In a statement, however, Carey noted that it was not in his power to stop the service because he did not have jurisdiction over the cathedral.

At the same time, he said, allowing the use of the cathedral did not mean endorsing the goals of the movement. “To make a church or cathedral available to Christian people for worship and prayer, or to preach at such a gathering, cannot properly be taken as an endorsement of whatever the congregation wants, but is a mark of recognition that followers of Christ should cherish all that they have in common, notwithstanding strong differences of opinion on particular issues,”Carey said.

Bishop John Gladwin of the diocese of Guildford, who preached the sermon at the service, disappointed some in the audience by refusing to give a ringing endorsement to same-sex marriages.”You and I live in a culture of privatizing marriage by reducing it to a personal arrangement between two people,”Gladwin said.”It is not surprising, if that is all it is, that people begin to think that any private arrangement between two people should be treated as if it were marriage. But that falls well short of the Christian tradition.”Let me say gently to you, and I know this not going to be easy to hear: We cannot solve our dilemma by turning cohabitation or same-sex relationships into marriage,”he said.

At the same time, Gladwin urged his listeners not to let the divisions in the church over homosexuality force them out of the church.

Supreme Court says Minnesota may bar some charitable soliciting

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court Monday (Nov. 18) refused to overturn a lower court ruling that lets the state bar solicitation of state employees by charities that do not have a”local presence”in the state.

The court, without comment, rejected an appeal by a coalition of national charities of an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld Minnesota’s rule requiring a”local presence”for charities in order to participate in the State Employee Combined Charitable Campaign. In such campaigns, contributions are solicited from public employees and made through payroll deductions.

Since 1992, Minnesota has required that charities participating in the fund-raising drive be based in Minnesota and do most of their charitable work in the state.

Affected national groups, according to the Associated Press, include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Amnesty International, Prison Fellowship, Toys for Tots and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.

The national federations argued that the Minnesota rule amounts to”parochial favoritism”and if allowed to stand means that”legislation similar to that at issue here is virtually certain to follow in other jurisdictions.” The appeal to the Supreme Court was based on the charities’ contention that the rule amounted to an unlawful bias against interstate commerce. The lower courts had rejected that claim, saying that Minnesota was acting properly, like any other employer, by”restricting access to its workplace.” In addition to Minnesota, the circuit court’s ruling is applicable in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Author of controversial Baptist report on Freemasonry joins the Masons

(RNS) A former Southern Baptist official who wrote a controversial 1993 study about Freemasonry has announced plans to join his local Masonic Temple.

Gary Leazer, former director of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board’s interfaith witness department, has petitioned for membership in Masonic Lodge No. 492 in Clarkston, Ga., Baptist news agencies reported.

Southern Baptist officials asked Leazer to resign in 1993, seven months after he issued an 80-page study that concluded Masonry is compatible with Southern Baptist theology. The report was vehemently criticized by several Southern Baptists who alleged that it was too sympathetic to Masons.

Southern Baptists have long debated whether Freemasonry membership is appropriate.

In a newsletter circulated via e-mail, Leazer said he had”no interest at all in becoming a Mason”when he began his study in 1992. However he said, during the study and as the controversy erupted afterward, he became favorably impressed by”men I know of or have met who are Masons.” Dr. Larry Holly, a Southern Baptist physician who was one of the strongest critics of Leazer’s report, blasted Leazer’s decision in his own e-mail posting monitored by the Associated Baptist Press, an independent agency.”Gary Leazer has declared what has been true for a long time; he is now a public, out-of-the-closet Mason,”wrote Holly, adding:”Isn’t it wonderful that the (Home Mission Board) now has an official statement on Freemasonry which was essentially written by a Freemason?” In his newsletter, Leazer said he has reconciled Masonic membership with his own faith.”I know that my critics will have a field day with my decision, but I have to answer to God for my decision, and He has given me perfect peace about my decision,”Leazer wrote.

Mother Teresa gets U.S.”honorary”citizen papers

(RNS) Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun whose work among India’s poor has made her a legend, officially became an honorary citizen of the United States Saturday (Nov. 16).”This is a gift of God. I am afraid I am not worthy of it,”the 86-year-old nun said in Calcutta after receiving the honorary-citizenship documents from U.S. Ambassador to India Frank Wisner.

Earlier this fall, the House and Senate passed a resolution calling for honorary citizenship for the nun who in 1979 won the Nobel Peace Prize. President Clinton conferred the honor on Oct. 1.

The honor is symbolic and does not confer any U.S. rights or privileges.

Honorary U.S. citizenship has been granted only three other times _ to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who is believed to have saved at least 20,000 Jews from the Nazis; and to Pennsylvania founder William Penn and his wife, Hannah.

Quote of the day: Ray Wilkinson, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(RNS) Hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, housed first in refugee camps in Zaire and then scattered throughout the forests and countryside along the border as fighting between Hutu militants and Zairean Tutsis, trekked back into Rwanda over the weekend. The sudden exodus, which aid workers thought would take weeks, caught relief groups and U.N. agencies off-guard as they scrambled to aid the hungry and dying refugees along the way. Ray Wilkinson, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, described the first hours of the emergency response:”This is a seat-of-the-pants plan. The old plan has been swept out the window.”

MJP END RNS