c. 1997 Religion News Service
Bishops urge support for Northern Ireland peace
(RNS) Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., head of the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops committee on international affairs, has called on Americans”not to tire”in their support of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
McCarrick made his plea in the annual St. Patrick’s Day message issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The annual feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, McCarrick said, is a good time to”support and encourage a just peace and reconciliation for which so many in Northern Ireland yearn, work and pray.” McCarrick urged Catholics and Protestants to turn away from violence and to recognize that both communities in Northern Ireland have rich traditions and can benefit from each other.
Americans could help the peace process in Northern Ireland by withholding support from violent groups, he said.
The archbishop also said Americans should continue to support talks between political leaders in Northern Ireland and the British and Irish governments.
One concrete way Americans can contribute to the peace process is through practical initiatives such as investing in Northern Ireland to create desperately needed jobs. Such actions, he said, are”practical acts of solidarity”that are”indispensable to peace in Northern Ireland.” Negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland have been recessed as Britain prepares for its general election scheduled for May 1.
Sinn Fein, the legal political arm of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, has been excluded from the talks as long as it refuses to reinstate a cease-fire. Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell is chairing the talks.
Supreme Court acts on trio of religion-related cases
(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court acted on a trio of religion-related cases Monday (March 17) but the cases broke no new ground in the carefully watched church-state area.
In one ruling, the Court refused to review a lawsuit by TV evangelist Robert Tilton’s church that accused ABC News and a nonprofit group of conspiring to drive the church out of business.
Without comment, the Court turned away arguments that Tilton’s Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church, headquartered near Dallas, should be allowed to pursue conspiracy and racketeering charges because of the network’s 1991″PrimeTime Live”report that portrayed Tilton as an insensitive fraud.
The suit accused the Trinity Foundation, a church-monitoring group, of manufacturing false evidence against Tilton and the church.
In a second ruling, the justices rejected an appeal by the city of San Francisco that sought to allow it to keep a 103-foot-tall Christian cross in a public park.
Also acting without comment in the case, the Court refused to hear the city’s argument that the cross, erected in 1934, should be viewed as a cultural landmark and not a government endorsement of religion.
In the third case, the justices let stand rulings that said Gerald D’Amelia Jr., of the Orange County (New York) district attorney’s office, is not immune from being sued over a 1993 incident in which he refused to drop sex abuse charges against a suspect until she swore her innocence on a Bible in her church.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, is suing D’Amelia, alleging his conduct amounted to an unlawfully coerced religious practice.
Boesak returns to South Africa to face trial
(RNS) Allan Boesak, the former clergyman who was one of South Africa’s best known anti-apartheid activists, returned Sunday (March 16) to Cape Town to face trial on charges of corruption and misconduct.
Despite the cloud over Boesak’s reputation, he was welcomed by a cheering crowd and the South African Justice Minister Dullah Omar, a leader of the African National Congress, the secular group that led the fight against apartheid, The New York Times said Monday (March 17).
Boesak, formerly a minister in Cape Town, became internationally famous for his efforts to have the Dutch Reformed Church condemn apartheid and his rallying of churches around the globe for the anti-apartheid struggle. He was closely allied with the ANC.
He had been living in California during the past year, studying at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley.
Boesak faces nine charges of fraud and 21 charges of theft, involving the disappearance of more than $800,000, most of it donated to his Foundation for Peace and Justice by Danish and Swedish aid organizations.
Lawyers for DanChurch Aid, one of the organizations bringing charges against Boesak, said the money was used to buy a luxurious home in Cape Town and to settle the debts of Boesak’s wife.”I have come back to this country, my country, my home, because I am not afraid to face those who have charged me; because I am, as they know, totally innocent of the charges they have leveled against me,”Boesak told the crowd at the airport.
When the charges first surfaced, officials from the African National Congress brushed them aside. It has been nearly two years since the case, which is often cited as an example of how slow the new government is to take action against its own, was brought to the government’s attention.
The charges against Boesak are not his first experience with scandal. He was forced to resign from the ministry in 1990 after having an extramarital affair with the woman who is now his second wife.
Prince Charles works to preserve Mt. Sinai monastery
(RNS) Britain’s Prince Charles has created a foundation to preserve the Monastery of St. Catherine, the 1,470-year-old hermitage built at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where the biblical Book of Exodus says Moses encountered God in the burning bush and received the Ten Commandments.
Home to some 20 Greek Orthodox monks, the monastery has become a tourist attraction in recent years, despite its relatively remote location in the southern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. But tourism has taxed the monastery’s resources.
Prince Charles said the foundation hopes to preserve the monastery and its collection of ancient religious books and art works, The New York Times reported Saturday (March 15).
Among the art work at the monastery is a collection of religious icons, some of which date to the sixth century. Some of the icons are included in”The Glory of Byzantium”show currently on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Prince Charles toured the show prior to speaking about his foundation at a dinner held last Tuesday (March 11) at the museum. Speaking about his visit to the monastery two years ago, the prince told the dinner audience he was”utterly captivated and deeply moved by the monastery’s special aura.” The prince also noted that Christianity, Islam and Judaism _ which all venerate Moses to various degrees _ all consider Mount Sinai holy. Because of that, he said, the monastery”stands as above all a symbol of religious unity, where Islam, Christianity and Judaism find a common ground.”
English cleric says it’s OK to steal from the rich
(RNS) A Church of England priest has come under fire for publicly proclaiming that stealing is OK _ as long as its only big corporations you steal from.
The Rev. John Papworth’s Robin Hood approach to the eighth commandment prompted a quick rejoinder from Church of England officials.”As far as we are concerned,”a spokesman for the church told the London Daily Telegraph,”the commandment is quite clear: `Thou shalt not steal.'” Papworth, who is connected with St. Mark’s Church in London’s St. John’s Wood area, made his controversial comment first to a police consultative committee and then repeated it on a BBC radio program.
While it is wrong to steal from individuals or small neighborhood stores, mega-stores that run little stores out of business are another matter, he said.”These faceless giant stores are exploiting vulnerable people by firing off a barrage of publicity leading them to shelves filled with easily accessible goods. … Shoplifters stealing from supermarkets are not breaking the commandment … because these giant stores are impersonal things without souls,”said Papworth, 75.
He also said that with large corporations”all you are confronted with are these boardroom barons sitting around the boardroom plotting how to take the maximum amount of money out of people’s pockets for the minimum in return,”according to the Associated Press.
Candidate for seminary appointment rejected
(RNS) His views on women in ministry may have cost Steven Harmon a position on the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to a report from Associated Baptist Press, the independent Baptist news agency.
Harmon, who believes the question of ordaining or hiring a woman as a pastor should be left up to local churches, was recommended for a faculty position by seminary President Ken Hemphill, Academic Dean Tommy Lea and four faculty of the school’s theology department.
But after talking to trustees and meeting with the Academic Affairs Committee, Hemphill and Lea rescinded their endorsement, saying they felt it was”God’s will”they terminate the proposal.”After I listened to what the board was saying and looked at what was best for all concerned, I prayed about it, thought about it and reflected on it and decided to withdraw the nomination,”Lea said.”In light of input from our trustee body we came to believe that it was not God’s will to bring this candidate and, therefore, removed him from consideration,”Hemphill said in a prepared statement.
Harmon told the Baptist Standard, the weekly news journal of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, that he was given no reason why his appointment was withdrawn except that Lea told him his beliefs were”not in conformity”with the”Baptist Faith and Message,”a statement of belief adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1963.
Harmon considers himself a conservative scholar and believes the Bible is literally true. He said during his interviews, trustees questioned him on his views about women in ministry and about a letter-to-the-editor he wrote to the Baptist Standard rejecting conservative Baptist claims that the seminary was”sprinkled with liberals.” His view that ordaining or hiring a woman as senior pastor should be left to each local church is a stance the conservative leadership of the convention rejects.
Quote of the day: Nina Shea of Freedom of House
(RNS) Nina Shea, director of the human rights group Freedom House, wrote in Monday’s Los Angeles Times of Hollywood’s rallying around the cause of Scientology, facing bias in Germany, while it ignores the wider persecution of Christians around the world:”While the Hollywood and the celebrity-driven media, with the U.S. government in tow, remain preoccupied with the relatively minor travails of the Scientologists, a multitude of foreign regimes continue to brutalize and murder Christians. How much longer will the world’s most influential power and its cultural elite remain silent?”
MJP END RNS
