c. 1997 Religion News Service
New Senate task force to focus on religious persecution
(RNS) Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., is organizing a Republican senatorial task force that will focus on religious persecution around the world.
The task force, which has not been officially announced, will develop policy initiatives to address human rights abuses against religious believers, Lott’s office confirmed to RNS Thursday (March 27).
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., will chair the task force. Other members on the task force will be Republican Sens. Alfonse D’Amato, N.Y.; Dan Coats, Ind.; Richard Lugar, Ind.; and Arlen Specter, Pa., a spokesman from Inhofe’s office said.
An initial meeting is being planned for after the congressional Easter recess to organize the task force and discuss its goals, the spokesman added. The Republican Policy Committee will lend staff assistance to the group.
Inhofe’s spokesman said this is not expected to be a permanent entity, but rather a group that will examine possible legislative initiatives for this congressional session.
The relationship of the Republican task force to the newly established Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad is unclear, sources said.
For more than a year, there has been growing grassroots pressure on Congress and the Clinton administration to give greater policy attention to the issue of religious persecution.
Bishop apologizes to Buddhists for offending remarks by Catholics
(RNS) One week after the Vatican’s chief custodian of Roman Catholic doctrine ridiculed the growing appeal of Buddhism among Christians, a leading U.S. bishop has apologized to Buddhists for any comments uttered by Catholics that may have offended them.
The apology by Bishop Alexander J. Brunett of Helena, Mont., chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, came in a statement of greeting issued Thursday (March 27) to American Buddhists in advance of the upcoming Buddhist holiday of Vesakh.
Vesakh celebrates the life of Gautama Buddha, who’s teachings some 2,500 years ago form the basis of Buddhism. Various Buddhist traditions celebrate the holiday on April 8 or May 21.
Last week, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a French newsmagazine that the church must do all it can to stop the spread of Buddhist meditative practices among Roman Catholics. Ratzinger, one of Pope John Paul II’s closest advisers, called Buddhism”erotic spirituality”that”seduces”Catholics by offering”bliss without having concrete religious obligations.” Previously, the pope angered Buddhists by calling Buddhism a”negative”and”atheistic system”that stands in theological opposition to Christianity.
In his statement, Brunett noted the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on interfaith understanding and dialogue. He also referred to ongoing Catholic-Buddhist dialogue in Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco and other U.S. cities, in addition to meetings between Catholic and Buddhist monastics.
Despite such meetings, Brunett said”misunderstandings often occur”between Catholics and Buddhists, and he apologized for them without directly linking his apology to the statements of John Paul or Ratzinger.
He also implied that the media is at least partially at fault for the tension between Catholics and Buddhists.”There have been times when this commitment of respect and these teachings (of the Second Vatican Council) may seem to have been forgotten,”Brunett said.”If, at times, comments of Catholics, including comments reported perhaps inaccurately or with exaggeration by the media, have offended American Buddhists, I am sorry.”
New Era founder pleads no contest to fraud
(RNS) John G. Bennett Jr., founder of the bankrupt Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, pleaded no contest Wednesday (March 26) to charges that he defrauded nonprofit groups of more than $100 million.
Appearing in federal court, Bennett, 59, entered his plea to the 82-count indictment. After he was indicted in September on the charges, which include mail, wire and bank fraud and money laundering, he pleaded not guilty.
His new plea is a conditional one because he is appealing a judge’s decision to limit his attorneys’ plans to argue he was motivated by”unchecked religious fervor.”Bennett could change course and fight the charges at trial if he wins the appeal, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Bennett’s current no-contest plea is legally equivalent to a guilty plea or conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 26. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Goldberg said federal sentencing guidelines would give Bennett a prison term of 22 years to 27 years.
New Era had offered many charities a”matching grant”program that promised to double their money. When the foundation went bankrupt in 1995, investors lost about $135 million.
Federal investigators concluded the program was a Ponzi scheme, which created the illusion of financial success by using contributions from new investors to pay previous ones. The hundreds of groups across the country affected by the scandal ranged from evangelical ministries to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania.
Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a sponsor of a consortium of evangelical groups involved in the New Era case, told RNS that affected ministries have focused more on a settlement of the financial problems left in New Era’s wake than on Bennett’s court appearances.”We have been satisfied that the system of justice is going to run its course as a result of this pleading and whatever the appeal process generates,”Nelson said.
But Nelson said he didn’t appreciate Bennett’s plan to defend his actions by claiming they were the result of religious fervor.”You’re into the Flip Wilson kind of thing _ God or the devil made me do it,”said Nelson.”You wince at that.” Nelson said the more than 190 evangelical ministries that formed United Response to New Era and other creditors are in the distribution phase of settlements reached last year. In one settlement, agencies that lost money through New Era will receive money from organizations that profited from New Era dealings. In addition, Prudential Securities, New Era’s broker, made an out-of-court settlement with creditors.”Twenty-one percent of the claims have already been paid and we are expecting a total of 85 (percent) to 90 percent to ultimately be paid in either one or two more installments later this year,”said Nelson.
Some of the ministries are”holding on by their fingernails”for the additional payments, he said.”Twenty-one percent has been good, but there are many ministries that need a bigger return to restore themselves,”he said.
Update: Ark. lawmakers change `acts of God’ reference
(RNS) After Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee objected to tornados, floods and other storms being called”acts of God”in an insurance reform bill, state legislators have worked out a compromise that will change the wording to”natural causes.” After a week of debate, state representatives Wednesday (March 26) decided to remove the phrase”acts of God”from a bill designed to protect the insurance rights of storm victims. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, refused to sign the bill because of the reference to God.
In a letter to lawmakers, the Republican governor said he could not in good conscience allow a law to designate”a destructive and deadly force”as an act of God.”I feel that I have indeed witnessed many `acts of God,’ but I see His actions in the miraculous sparing of life, the sacrifice and selfless spirit in which so many responded to the pain of others,”he said.
Last week, the state House refused to remove the phrase from the bill but instead added the wording”or natural disasters.”In the compromise bill, destructive storms are simply called”natural causes.” The revised bill now goes back to committee before it can be taken up again in the full state House and Senate.
A Huckabee spokesman said the governor”can agree to this”compromise, according to the Associated Press.
Researchers: TV rating system may advertise `forbidden fruit’
(RNS) The TV industry’s new rating system created to protect children from violent or sexually explicit programming may in fact have the opposite effect of attracting young viewers to”forbidden fruit,”according to a new research project on TV violence.
Joanne Cantor, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin, said age-based ratings and warnings that”parental discretion is advised”often attract young viewers in what she called the”forbidden fruit syndrome.” Cantor is part of a research team from four universities studying the effects of violent television in a three-year project commissioned by the National Cable Television Industry.
Overall, this year’s National Television Violence Study, released Wednesday (March 26), researched more than 6,000 programs on 23 commercial, public and cable channels during the 1995-1996 TV season. The study found that programs, including those targeted at children, frequently”sanitized or glamorized”violence. More than half of the violent incidents failed to show victims suffering pain, the researchers said.
The research team did not specifically study the new rating system, which was implemented in January. However, Cantor did research the reaction of children to several other rating systems, including the Motion Picture Association ratings, on which the new TV system is modeled.
Based on that research, Cantor said children’s interest in various programs rose when the rating moved from G to PG-13 to R.
A statement released by Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, criticized the research project. “This kind of survey will give research a bad name. What’s more, after 28 years, 79 percent of parents find the movie ratings system very useful to fairly useful,”said Valenti.
Quote of the day: author and lecturer James P. Pinkerton
(RNS) Writing in The Los Angeles Times, author James P. Pinkerton, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, said federal welfare officials could learn key lessons from Mother Teresa:”Today, as faith in Big Government fades, it is urgent that people of goodwill take a look at models of social problem-solving. Specifically, what does Mother Teresa know about running a compassionate organization that Washington bureaucrats don’t? One element of her success is faith.”
MJP END RNS
