c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Following is a collection of domestic religion stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports).

Foster appointment as teen-pregnancy adviser under attack

(RNS)-Anti-abortion groups are attacking President Clinton’s appointment of Dr. Henry Foster, Clinton’s failed surgeon general nominee, to head a a bipartisan task force to confront the problem of teen pregnancy.

Foster is best known for establishing the”I Have a Future”program in Nashville, Tenn., which aimed at reducing the number of teen pregnancies in the city.”In his career as a doctor and through his … program in Nashville, Dr. Foster has dedicated his energies to dealing with this complex, profoundly human problem of teen pregnancy, and he’s had a remarkable amount of success,”Clinton said Monday (Jan. 29) at a White House session announcing the establishment of the task force.

Foster’s appointment to the unpaid post does not need Senate confirmation.

Beverly LaHaye, president of Concerned Women for America, a Washington-based advocacy group and one of the organizations that led the fight against Foster’s confirmation as surgeon general, called the appointment”bad medicine.”LaHaye criticized Foster’s support for legal abortion and making condoms available to sexually active teenagers.

The Family Research Council, a Washington-based advocacy group, criticized Foster on the same grounds.”The only programs that really work to reduce teen pregnancy are abstinence programs,”said Gracie Hsu, a policy analyst for the group.

The Catholic Campaign for America, an independent conservative Roman Catholic advocacy group, said the Foster appointment”mocks every pro-life, pro-family American.” Other members of the National Campaign to Reduce Teen Pregnancy task force include Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served as President Reagan’s surgeon general; former Gov. Tom Keane (R-N.J.); former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.); actress Whoopi Goldberg; and the Rev. Andrew Young, former Democratic mayor of Atlanta.

Episcopal diocese of Newark says some suicides by gravely ill are moral

(RNS)-The Episcopal diocese of Newark, N.J., has adopted a resolution declaring that committing suicide or aiding someone else to commit suicide may be morally acceptable for Christians under some circumstances involving terminally ill patients.

The resolution, the result of a year-long study by a diocesan task force, said suicide may be acceptable for a terminally ill patient when”pain is persistent and/or progressive; when all other reasonable means of amelioration of pain and suffering have been exhausted; and when the decision to hasten death is a truly informed and voluntary choice free from external coercion.” The resolution was adopted after lengthy debate during the diocesan convention Jan. 27.”Assisted suicide is going on all the time,”said Bishop John S. Spong of Newark.”What we are doing is bringing the issue out in the open for discussion in the context of our faith tradition.” Speaking of his personal views, Spong said that”after much internal wrestling,”he now favors legalizing assisted suicide,”but only under circumstances that would effectively preclude both self-interest and malevolence.” The convention’s action put the diocese at odds with the national Episcopal Church.

In 1991, the denomination’s General Convention approved a resolution saying that”it is morally wrong and unacceptable to take a human life in order to relieve the suffering caused by incurable illness.” That same resolution also said, however, that”there is no moral obligation to prolong the act of dying by extraordinary means and at all costs if such dying person is ill and has no reasonable expectation of recovery.” In a separate development, Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, criticized Dr. Jack Kevorkian of Michigan for his role in attending the death of a 48-year-old woman who committed suicide. The woman was reported to have multiple sclerosis.”The news that Dr. Jack Kevorkian has presided over the death of yet another woman with physical disabilities reminds us how close our society is to embracing a culture of death,”Law said in a statement.

Restructuring plan for Jewish charities unveiled

(RNS)-The North American Jewish community’s leading charities are studying a plan that would dramatically restructure their $700 million annual fundraising drive.

The plan, unveiled at a meeting Sunday (Jan. 28) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., would merge the Council of Jewish Federations with the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal.

The council is the umbrella group for 189 regional Jewish agencies in the United States and Canada that raise funds in conjunction with the United Jewish Appeal. They, in turn, give the United Israel Appeal about 40 percent of what they raise for distribution in Israel.

Joel Tauber of Detroit, UJA president and co-chairman of the committee that proposed the restructuring plan, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service that initial reaction to the plan has been favorable.

The organizations have been working on a restructuring plan for two years as part of an effort to more efficiently utilize resources in the face of steadily declining donations in recent years.

Critics have long said the agencies duplicated services. Some have also said the amount of money sent to Israel should be reduced because of pressing domestic needs .

To reduce United Israel Appeal opposition to the restructuring plan, Tauber’s committee urged that the agencies commit to sending a minimum of $310 million to Israel over the next three years.

If all the agencies involved approve the plan, the restructuring will go into effect next Jan. 1. A fourth major agency, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which aids overseas Jewish communities threatened by war and political upheaval, would remain a separate organization under the plan.

Groups seek to block Ohio school voucher plan

(RNS)-A group of Ohio parents and clergy, with legal support from four national- and state-level civil liberties and education groups, has filed suit to block Ohio’s private school voucher law from going into effect in Cleveland in September.

The suit, filed Wednesday in the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, argues that the law violates the separation of church and state provisions of both the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.

It asks that the law be permanently blocked and that all preparations under way to implement it be ended.

Ohio legislators passed the law, the Pilot Scholarship Program, as part of the state’s budget last June. Under its provisions, both religious and secular private schools would be allowed to participate in the program in which low-income parents of public school students receive vouchers which they can use to reduce tuition at private schools.

The groups providing the legal assistance in filing the suit included Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, the Ohio Education Association, and People for the American Way.

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