c. 1996 Religion News Service

Naval Academy chaplain’s aide discharged over abortion protest

(RNS) An assistant to the Roman Catholic chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy has been discharged from the Navy after he refused to wear his uniform in protest of federal abortion law.

William J. Downes, a former petty officer, said he was angered by President Clinton’s recent veto of legislation that would have banned the late-term abortion procedure known as a partial-birth abortion.

A month after beginning his protest, Downes, 31, was discharged from the Navy on Monday (Nov. 25).”We’re at a crisis point in our nation’s history where our heritage of Judeo-Christian values is being so trashed it puts in jeopardy the peace and harmony of our society,”Downes told the The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Md., site of the Naval Academy.

An academy spokeswoman said Downes was administratively released from the Navy at his own request. The spokeswoman also said that his discharge was not classified as dishonorable.

Downes had requested an honorable discharge or a court martial in which he could defend his views.

Downes said he left the Navy because as a member of the military he was required to adhere to his oath to uphold the federal Constitution, which he believes the government has violated by allowing abortions.

In September, Downes joined other religious servicemen in filing a federal suit seeking to overturn a military order not to participate in a postcard campaign organized by the Catholic Church. The postcards asked members of Congress to override Clinton’s veto of the partial-birth abortion bill. The court case has yet to be resolved.

Downes, who is married and has two children, said he will attempt to find work in the anti-abortion movement or in Catholic schools.

Church of the Nazarene missionary dies in crash of hijacked airliner

(RNS) Church of the Nazarene medical missionary Ron Farris, who at age 7 told his family he wanted to be a missionary in Africa, was among the 127 people who died when a hijacked airliner crashed Saturday (Nov. 23) in the Indian Ocean.

Farris, a 46-year-old surgeon, was returning to his home in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from a working visit to India when the hijacked Ethiopian airliner with 175 on board crashed in waters off the Comoros Islands. Forty-eight passengers and crew members survived the crash.

Before going to Africa in 1987 with his wife and four children, Farris received his medical degree from Ohio State University’s School of Medicine and served his medical residency at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City. Mo.

Going to Africa”was the fulfillment of a dream for him,”Farris’ twin brother Lon E. Farris, a judge in Prince William County, Va., told The Washington Post Monday (Nov. 25).”He liked to help people, and he loved medicine. He had done his bit in regular medicine here and he wanted to go be of service in Africa. He got to for almost 10 years.” Farris’ father, retired Army chaplain J.W. Farris, said his son”just felt that God wanted him”to be a missionary.”He just always had that drive and made a lot of sacrifices.” Ron Farris directed Nazarene medical facilities in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria that served more than 40,000 people a year, his father said.

East Timor Catholic bishop says magazine misquoted him on Indonesia

(RNS) Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor, who shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has accused a German magazine of fabricating quotes it attributed to him that were highly derogatory to the government of Indonesia, which rules East Timor.

Belo said Monday (Nov. 25) that Der Spiegel magazine had made up quotes and distorted statements he made in an interview some seven months ago. The magazine quoted Belo as saying Indonesian officials treated residents of East Timor like”scabby dogs.” The reported comment prompted street protests in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and three days of counter-demonstrations by Belo supporters in Dili, the capital of East Timor.

Catholic East Timor was invaded and annexed by predominantly Muslim Indonesia in 1975. East Timor rebels have fought a blood 21-year insurrection ever since.

Belo is the top church official in East Timor and has become a rallying point of opposition to Indonesian rule. His international stature, greatly enhanced by receipt of the Nobel Prize he shared with another East Timor activist, had so far protected him from any Indonesian reprisals.”The expression `scabby dogs’ is totally unknown to me,”Belo said, according to the Associated Press.”Der Spiegel must assume full responsibility for using it.” The magazine said it was standing by its story.

Samford University, Alabama Baptists find compromise

(RNS) A two-year struggle over the election of trustees at Samford University has ended with a compromise reached at the Alabama Baptist State Convention.

Close to 2,000 delegates to the annual meeting overwhelmingly passed a”Covenant of Sacred Trust”between the Birmingham school and the convention, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. The meeting ended Nov. 20.

The covenant, which is not a legal document, calls for the university to submit nominees to the trustee board to a convention committee. Nominees jointly chosen by the committee and Samford will be recommended to the convention for approval. Approved nominees will then be elected by Samford’s board of trustees.

The dispute has been an ongoing controversy at annual meetings since Samford trustees voted in September 1994 to become a self-perpetuating board. A number of Southern Baptist schools have moved to distance themselves from state conventions to avoid conservative-moderate battles for control that have erupted throughout the Southern Baptist Convention.

Samford trustees had been concerned that political factions within the convention would try to stack the board.”There were documented threats to Samford University, its board of trustees and to its future that we couldn’t ignore,”said John Pittman, Samford’s trustee board chairman.”I hope now we can get on with our business and love each other, trust each other and work together.” Samford was founded by Baptists in 1841.

Quote of the Day: Paul Cedar, CEO of Mission America

(RNS) The Rev. Paul Cedar, chief executive officer of Mission America, which sponsored the recent”Fasting & Prayer 96″event that brought nearly 4,000 Christians together in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 14-16, explained the reason why people should seek spiritual renewal through the disciplines of fasting and prayer:”There is a growing desperation in this nation today. Sin is rampant. Where are the righteous? We have come to cry out to God. It is only by His mercy that this nation has not been consumed. America is in desperate need today of what only God can give … Fasting reminds us of who we are and who God is, and it helps us focus upon Him more clearly and specifically.”

MJP END RNS