c. 1996 Religion News Service

Black church burns in rural Alabama, adding to list of Southern fires

(RNS)-Another black Southern church has burned, adding to the list of at least 25 other African-American churches that have been the victims of fire since January 1995.

Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and the Alabama fire marshal’s office were investigating the cause of the blaze early Monday at Rising Star Baptist Church in Hale County, Ala., the Associated Press reported.

The Rev. Willie Coleman, pastor of the 102-member church, said he hopes the investigation will show that the fire is not part of the rash of arsons that have occurred in that region of the country.”My hope is that there isn’t any wrongdoing,”he said of the fire at his church.”It’ll feel worse if it’s arson. It’ll be better if it’s just an accident.” The fire erupted a week before many pastors of the burned churches are scheduled to visit Washington, where an ecumenical service and meetings with federal officials are planned on June 9 and 10 to draw more attention to the church burnings. The National Council of Churches, an organization of 33 Protestant and Orthodox denominations, is spearheading the events.

At a hearing last month, federal officials defended their handling of the church arson probes, while religious and civil rights groups urged that increased resources be committed to solve the crimes. The federal authorities said they continue to investigate whether the church fires are the product of a regional or national conspiracy, but have not uncovered such evidence. Some of the fires have been proven to be racially motivated.

Methodists go to court in dispute with California congregation

(RNS)-Officials of the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church have asked the secular courts for help in their efforts to oust the former pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Coronado, Calif.

The suit was filed Thursday, May 30, in the Probate Division of the Superior Court of San Diego County, the denomination said Monday (June 3). It seeks to block the elected leaders of St. Paul’s from keeping Thomas Warmer as its pastor and asks that local congregational leaders turn control of the church over to denominational officials.

The complex case began in 1993, when four now-adult women told denominational officials that they had been molested as teen-agers 25 years ago by Warmer, then pastor of Lemon Grove United Methodist Church. He became pastor of St. Paul’s in 1989. He has denied the charges.

No charges against Warmer have been filed in the secular courts, a denominational spokesman said.

Denomination officials began an investigation of the charges but a scheduled church trial was canceled after the denomination’s Judicial Council, its equivalent of the Supreme Court, ruled that the case was too old. Officials then began a second investigation to determine whether Warmer lied during the first probe.

As a result of that investigation, the pastor was suspended from the ministry and a second trial was scheduled. In February, however, Warmer surrendered his clergy credentials, in effect resigning from the ministry, and the second trial was also canceled.

Leaders of St. Paul’s, however, decided to keep Warmer and to allow him to function as its pastor even though he was suspended and did not have clergy credentials. In January, in a tense confrontation with Bishop Roy Sano, congregational leaders refused to allow the bishop to enter the church to explain the denomination’s actions. Church leaders have also refused to accept a church-appointed replacement for Warmer.

Under Methodist organizational regulations, local congregations hold property in trust for the denomination and local officers are responsible for insuring that the property is used in accordance with Methodist principles and rules, the denomination said in its release.”We have come to the point where we have exhausted every measure we could through regular church processes to bring them (congregational leaders) into compliance with the Disciple (the church’s rule book),”said the Rev. Patricia Farris, superintendent of the San Diego District, St. Paul’s local jurisdiction.

No one at the church was immediately available for comment. On Saturday (June 1), however, Scott Metzger, one of the leaders named in the petition, told the San Diego Union-Tribune the congregation plans to fight what he called”an attempt to have a Superior Court interpret church doctrine.”

Update: Vatican calls on governments for universal housing

(RNS)-The Vatican called on governments Tuesday (June 4) to make housing for all people a universal right and said policies that bolster the traditional family would eliminate a chief cause of homelessness.”The Holy See does indeed believe that adequate shelter and housing are a right of each and every person,”Archbishop Renato Martino told delegates to the United Nations’ Conference on Human Settlements, popularly known as Habitat II. The conference, which began June 3, will run to June 14.”Sadly, inadequate shelter is a sad part of life for many people spread throughout the world, in all countries and culture,”he said. But, he added, the elimination of homelessness and the provision of adequate shelter for all do”not come down to a mere question of economics and planning.” Martino’s call for making housing a fundamental human right echoed a similar call Monday at the conference’s opening session by a bloc of developing world nations.

The United States, Great Britain and India are among nations that oppose housing as a human right. They argue that housing for all is a worthy goal, but say that if enshrined as a human right it would open governments to a host of lawsuits demanding government-provided housing.

Martino, the Vatican’s representative at the United Nations in New York, also used the forum to highlight the Roman Catholic Church’s aim of making the traditional family the focus of its international efforts, whether concerning population, women’s rights or shelter.

He said the”policies which encourage the formation of strong families and stable marriages are the best way to eliminate one of the underlying causes of homelessness.”The most basic relationship within the family is that between parents and children,”he added.”For this reason it should also be clearly recognized that parents have the primary duty and responsibility to provide for the housing needs of their children.” The Vatican took a similar stance on the family at last year’s U.N. women’s conference in Beijing and the 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo.

But critics charged that while efforts to improve the lives of families were welcome, the Vatican position excluded the rights of others, such as single parents, unwed mothers and gay couples.

In face of church opposition, Bolivia government drops abortion proposal

(RNS)-The Bolivian government, faced with adamant opposition from Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, has quickly backed away from a proposal floated by a high official in the country’s health ministry that the nation consider legalizing abortion.

The call for reconsideration of the nation’s abortion laws, which currently make all abortions illegal, was first made last month by Oscar Sandoval, the National Secretary on Health.

Both Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders quickly denounced the suggestion.”One cannot try to take life away from some to save others,”Bishop Edmundo Abastoflor, president of the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference said, referring to the rationale of some abortion-rights supporters that illegal abortions sometimes result in the death of the mother.

The Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC), an ecumenically financed religious news agency based in Peru, said that both the National Association of Protestants of Bolivia and the United Protestant Churches for Peace expressed their”vehement rejection”of the suggestion.

Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada quickly distanced himself from the suggestion.”This is not a government proposal,”he told reporters May 28.”Abortion continues to be a crime, it is illegal, there is no plan for legalization.” But Undersecretary on Health Javier Torres Goitia, noting that according to government figures there are some 50,000 illegal abortions each year, said the idea of changing the nation’s abortion laws still needs to be debated.”As health workers and people who love life, we cannot continue closing our eyes before such a painful reality,”he said.

Detroit doctor to be next Council of Jewish Federations president

(RNS)-Dr. Conrad L. Giles, a Detroit ophthalmologist long active in Jewish affairs, has been nominated as the next president of the Council of Jewish Federations.

Giles’ election will be confirmed at the council’s next annual meeting, scheduled for Nov. 13-16 in Seattle. The council is the national umbrella agency for American Jewish community fund-raising activities. It oversees the annual distribution of about $700 million.

Giles is a former council vice president and currently serves as its treasurer. He is also a former president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and the Michigan Jewish Conference and is a board member of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Once confirmed, Giles will serve a two-year term. He will replace Maynard I. Wishner of Chicago.

Roman Catholic movie critic wins University of Dayton award

(RNS)-Roman Catholic movie critic Henry Herx, whose thumbs up or down have provided direction to Roman Catholic parents for more than three decades, has been named winner of the 1996 Daniel J. Kane Religious Communications Award by the University of Dayton.

Herx is director of the Office of Film and Broadcasting for the U.S. Catholic Conference. He is best known for his weekly movie and video reviews for the Catholic News Service, the church’s official news agency.

In addition, Herx is the author of the best-selling”The Family Guide to Movies and Videos,”which was first published in 1988 and revised and updated in 1991 and 1995.

Herx has been involved in the moral analysis of film and popular culture since 1962 when he became the founding director of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Center for Film Study.

The presentation of the prize, which carries no monetary award, is scheduled for June 20 at the university.

Quote of the Day: Michael Medved, author and media critic, on Hollywood’s effect on popular culture..

(RNS)-Author and media critic Michael Medved recently addressed Hollywood’s effect on the popular culture at a conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by the Center for Christian Jewish Values. In his speech, Medved took up the issue of sex and violence on television:”The heart of the problem isn’t too much violence, too much sex, too much sleaze. It’s too much TV, period. … The very nature of the medium undermines the fundamental values of the Jewish and Christian traditions.”TV encourages impatience and a short attention span, in place of a long-term view of reality; it emphasizes the lurid, the violent, the dysfunctional and the dramatic, instead of stressing the blessings of everyday life for which we should feel grateful; and TV feeds an addiction to mindless thrills and constant titillation, as opposed to a focus on hard work and discipline as the way to deeper happiness and fulfillment.”

MJP END