c. 1996 Religion News Service

Bill to protest”religious communication”introduced in Congress

(RNS)-Legislation to prevent prosecutors from using”privileged religious communication”against defendants-as was recently attempted in a tape-recorded confession in Oregon-has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.).

King spokesman Dan Michaelis said the bill-which will be publicly unveiled at a New York news conference Monday (June 10)-grants no new rights but rather”reinforces those that exist.”The Oregon incident made it clear to us that certain things had to be spelled out more clearly,”Michaelis said Friday (June 7).

The Oregon incident involved the Lane County district attorney, who taped a late-April confession made to a Roman Catholic priest by a suspect charged with burglary and theft in a case that also involved the shooting deaths of three teenagers. An outcry from church officials later prompted the district attorney to relinquish the tape.

The King bill-the”Religious Communication Sanctity Act”-would provide for a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for any government official who”surreptitiously listens to or records, in any manner, any communication that is privileged, because of its religious character.” The bill also provides for the immediate destruction of any such recording or transcripts of the recording.

William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, hailed the proposed legislation.”After what happened in Eugene, Oregon, it is clear that this bill is a mustâÂ?¦,”Donohue said.”If our First Amendment right to religious freedom means anything, it means that all privileged religious communications must be protected from the reach of the state,”he said in a statement.

Relief groups suspend non-emergency Burundi aid to protest killings

(RNS)-In a show of support for relief organizations and to mourn the loss of three Swiss Red Cross workers, the United Nations said Friday (June 7) its agencies will suspend non-emergency work in Burundi for one day next week.

The U.N. statement came on the heels of an announcement by 28 relief organizations, including Oxfam, Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Care, and Save the Children, which said they would stop non-emergency work for a week to protest the June 4 ambush and murder of the workers.”A U.N. agencies’ meeting in Bujumbura yesterday (June 6) decided to suspend activities for one day next Tuesday (June 11) to express firm solidarity with the ICRC and condemn the slayings of the three delegates (workers),”Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, told Reuters.

No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hutus and Tutsis have blamed each other.

The National Council for the Defense of Democracy (NCDD), the largest Hutu rebel group in Burundi, called for an inquiry into the killings. The group suggested Wednesday (June 5) that the largely Tutsi army carried out the attack because Tutsi militias had accused the Red Cross of siding with the Hutus in the civil war. But in Thursday’s (June 6) statement condemning the assault, the NCDD left open the possibility that its armed wing, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, was involved, Reuters said.

Baptists of different races, denominations pledge to work on racial unity

(RNS)-Baptist officials meeting at a recent summit reached across racial and ideological lines to combat racism in America.

Two days of intense discussions by leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. and the Progressive National Baptist Convention produced a number of suggestions for building racial unity, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”Baptists in the United States should be a tremendous force against racism,”said the Rev. Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, which sponsored the meeting.

The second racism summit of U.S. Baptist leaders was held May 30-31 in Orlando, Fla.

The officials called for other black and white Baptist groups not represented at the meeting to join in reconciliation efforts.

Among the suggestions were joint production of church school materials and joint work on housing projects.

Attorney G. Elaine Smith, the first African-American woman to serve as president of the American Baptist Churches, proposed that leaders of five denominations-the Southern Baptist Convention, American Baptist Churches, National Baptist Convention, USA, Progressive National Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention of America-give official greetings at annual or biennial meetings as a show of unity.”Our stance against racism has to permeate who we are as a denomination,”she said.”It needs to be lived constantly.” The Rev. Bennett W. Smith, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, praised Southern Baptist Convention President Jim Henry for his efforts on race relations, which included the 1995 passage of a resolution acknowledging past and present racism in Henry’s denomination.”The SBC has come worlds from where it’s been under your leadership,”Smith told Henry, whose term as president ends June 13.”It will be a sad day for all of us black people when you leave.” The group also formed a committee, the North American Baptist Committee against Racism, and chose Rev. Harold Carter, pastor of New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore, as its leader.

Controversy marks German preparations for pope’s trip

(RNS)-Pope John Paul II is scheduled to visit Germany, the home of the Protestant Reformation, later this month, and the trip is already generating controversy among Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. Even Chancellor Helmut Kohl has weighed in with a dissent on church teaching.

During the June 21-23 visit to Germany, John Paul will visit Paderborn to beatify two anti-Nazi German priests who died during World War II and celebrate a Mass in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

On Monday, Reuters reported that Catholic prelates from Paderborn and Berlin were summoned to Rome for talks with the Vatican on the trip.

Some German publications said the talks involved special security arrangements for the pope but the Rev. Roland Steinke, vicar general for the Berlin archdiocese, denied the reports.”I think there will be protests, especially at the public event at the Brandenburg Gate,”Steinke said, referring to the pope’s planned stroll through the Berlin landmark.”Whether they (the protests) go beyond the status of a fun event remains to be seen.” The Vatican’s strong affirmation in recent years of church teaching forbidding the ordination of women or married priests, its continued opposition to the use of contraception, and its reining in of dissent have sparked a protest movement among German Catholics.

Last year, 1.5 million German Catholics-more than a third of the country’s Catholic churchgoers-signed a petition calling for reform of the church.

Kohl, a Roman Catholic, in an interview with Catholic magazines, expressed his disagreement with the church on the birth control issue.”I see it as a question of conscience,”Kohl said, adding that”a lot of Catholics have problems with the church’s position.”He expressed support for a 1968 declaration by the German bishops that said contraceptives should be a matter of individual conscience and responsibility.

Protestants, meanwhile, criticized some of the preparations for the trip.

At a gathering organized by the Institute for Inter-Confessional Research, Protestant theologians said the choice of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Paderborn rather than a Protestant church for an ecumenical service showed a lack of”ecumenical sensitivity.” Participants at the meeting also called on the pope to remember Protestant martyrs such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian executed by the Nazis for his role in a plot to assassinate Hitler, when he beatifies the Catholic martyrs.

Three former Baptist presidents criticize others for Clinton letter

(RNS)-Three former presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention have criticized other men who have held that post for writing to President Clinton and opposing his veto of a bill that would have outlawed a controversial late-term abortion procedure.”It is unprecedented for former presidents to act together on such a sensitive issue aligning themselves with explicitly political goals,”wrote Jimmy R. Allen, president in 1978 and 1979, Carl Bates, president in 1971 and 1972, and Wayne Dehoney, president in 1965 and 1966.”Hence, we see this letter as an unwise secular political intrusion outside the Baptist tradition.” Allen, now a chaplain of the Big Canoe, Ga., mountain community said he and the two other men are more moderate than the conservative leaders who signed the letter. Dehoney is the retired pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and Bates is the retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Charlotte, N.C.”It just seemed to us to be a misuse of the office,”Allen said in a brief interview Friday (June 7).”It’s not the kind of thing that Baptists have done or ought to do.” The three writers responded to a strongly worded June 5 letter to Clinton, who is a Southern Baptist. Jim Henry, the current president of the 15.6 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, and 10 past presidents signed the letter. The letter called the veto”shameful”and urged Clinton to reverse his stand.”Partial-birth abortion is not defensible in light of God’s revelation,”Henry and the other leaders wrote.

Clinton vetoed the bill, which would have prohibited doctors from performing a procedure known as dilation and extraction for late-term abortions, on April 10.

The letter from Henry and the 10 past presidents assured Clinton that Southern Baptists are”vigorously opposed”to this procedure.

Allen, Bates and Dehoney said”it is beyond reasonable comprehension that any group of men should presume to speak for the overwhelming majority of Southern Baptists.”

Televangelist T.D. Jakes moving from West Virginia to Dallas

(RNS)-The Rev. T.D. Jakes, a flamboyant televangelist featured on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and Black Entertainment Television, is moving his ministry from Cross Lanes, W. Va., to Dallas.

Jakes, author of best-selling books such as”Woman, Thou Art Loosed: Healing the Wounds of the Past,”decided to make the move for financial reasons. A popular speaker at Christian meetings, he often preaches on reconciliation and healing.

His new church, called”The Potter’s House,”has television facilities that his Cross Lanes church did not, Jakes said. The new facility will allow his ministry to tape some of his shows at the Dallas location.”It (taping) was done as we traveled across the country, and that’s expensive,”he told the Charleston Daily Mail.”Now we can do it from The Potter’s House and still do some on the road. It gives us an option.” Jakes’ ministry paid $3.2 million for the Eagle’s Nest, a former church seating 5,000, Jakes’ spokeswoman, Jackie Thompson in Nashville, Tenn., told the Associated Press.

T.D. Jakes Ministries, which began in 1993, offers books, tapes and conferences for thousands of people. His show,”Get Ready with T.D. Jakes,”is broadcast in Christian and secular markets by the Trinity Broadcasting Network and Black Entertainment Television, respectively.

Jakes also is vice presiding bishop of Higher Ground Assemblies, the Pentecostal parent organization of about 230 churches.

Canadian parliament approves law barring discrimination against gays

(RBS)-The Canadian Senate gave final approval Wednesday (June 5) to legislation banning discrimination against homosexuals.

Supporters of the law, which passed the House of Commons on May 9, called it more far-reaching than any federal-level gay rights laws in the United States, Reuters reported.

The law bans discrimination against homosexuals in federal agencies and federally regulated companies.

Supporters of the bill, including Justice Minister Allan Rock, said it was a matter of human rights and concerned only employment opportunities for homosexuals. But opponents said the measure could have larger implications, such as providing benefits in same-sex marriages and providing a legal basis for affirmative action programs for homosexuals.

The bill, which will amend the Canadian Human Rights Act, requires routine approval from the Canadian representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state.

Quote of the day: From”A Declaration of Conscience on Nigeria”issued by 40 African and U.S. church leaders.

(RNS)-On May 28, 40 prominent African and U.S. religious leaders, meeting under the auspices of the American Committee on Africa, held a day-long conference to discuss the prospects for democracy in Nigeria. At the end of the meeting, the religious leaders issued”A Declaration of Conscience on Nigeria,”which said, in part:”The Nigerian regime has stripped away the peoples’ most basic human and civil rights, replacing them with violence, fear and intolerance. Many religious, political, trade union and community leaders have been unjustly imprisoned, forced into exile or murdered. The nation’s hospitals and universities, once the pride of Africa, are in ruins. … We call on all people of good will to mark the 36th anniversary of Nigerian independence as `Nigerian Freedom Sunday’ on Oct. 3, 1996, a day of prayer for the victims of oppression and dictatorship and the return of freedom and democracy.”

JC END ANDERSON