c. 1997 Religion News Service
Groups criticize Clinton’s picks for gambling commission
(RNS) Anti-gambling groups, including the Christian Coalition, are criticizing the make-up of President Clinton’s National Gambling Impact Study Commission.
On Monday (April 28) Clinton named his three final picks for the 9-member commission: Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, former New Jersey State Treasurer Richard Leone, and Robert Loescher, who works for an American Indian environmental company based in Alaska.
Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, called the commission”tainted before it begins.””As the unfolding campaign finance scandal highlights, President Clinton has now sold his appointment to the highest bidder and has made this body the best commission money can buy,”Reed said.
White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the president labored to”make sure he has structured a commission that really does take in a variety of points of view.” But the Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, an umbrella organization of religious groups and other gambling opponents, said Bible and two other appointees are biased toward casinos.”It’s like appointing representatives of R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Liggett to a panel studying tobacco. It’s just wrong,”Grey said.
Two other members of the commission with”known casino ties,”according to Grey, are Terri Lanni, chief executive of the MGM Grand casino, who was appointed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and John Wilhelm, whose International Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union represents casino workers, appointed by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Both organizations say they will be watching every step the commission makes.”We will attend every commission hearing, monitor every meeting, and offer to the panel every piece of data and research we can get our hands on,”Grey said.
Jewish group urges ruling against Ten Commandments display
(RNS) The American Jewish Congress (AJC) Thursday (May 1) urged the Alabama Supreme Court to uphold a lower court’s decision ordering Judge Roy Moore to remove a replica of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom wall and to stop opening his court sessions with prayers by a Protestant minister.
In a friend-of-the court brief, the New York-based group said Moore is violating constitutional protections against”religious coercion and favoritism.” Moore, a judge in the Etowah County Circuit Court, has generated a national church-state controversy by displaying the replica of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom and having prayers to open his court sessions. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to eliminate the plaque and the prayers, and two separate lawsuits are pending before the Alabama Supreme Court.
In its brief to the state high court, the AJC argued that Moore’s activities are an inappropriate”injection of religion”into his courtroom. “Judge Moore was and is acting in an official capacity when he begins court sessions with a prayer and when he posted the Ten Commandments on his courtroom wall,”the brief stated.”If prayer takes place in the courtroom and if the Ten Commandments are displayed on its walls, it is because an official acting with the authority of the state has ordered that these things be done.” The AJC has also called for an investigation of Moore’s recent remarks that his”duty under the Constitution is to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian God, not the gods of other faiths.”
Anti-hunger legislation introduced on Capitol Hill
(RNS) As welfare reform is implemented around the country, a bipartisan group in Congress introduced legislation Wednesday (April 30) to offset the possibility that cutbacks will increase hunger among children, the disabled, the elderly and welfare recipients looking for work.
The legislation proposes that $7.5 billion be restored to federally sponsored programs that were cut in the welfare reform law, such as food stamps; the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) health and nutrition program, and assistance to emergency food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries.
Changes in federal spending”went too far and cut too much,”said Rep. James T. Walsh, R-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the proposed Hunger Has a Cure Act of 1997.”Millions of people in this country are suffering from a preventable illness _ hunger,”Walsh said at a news conference to introduce the legislation.”Fortunately, hunger has a cure, and effective federal nutrition programs are part of it.” Co-sponsoring the legislation are Reps. Tony Hall, D-Ohio; Marge Roukema, R-N.J.; and Eva Clayton, D-N.C. “Most people don’t realize that in the welfare bill passed last year, more than half the cuts came from nutrition programs,”said Clayton, adding that President Clinton supports the bill.
Clayton said the proposed legislation would help to offset the $28 billion in nutrition program cuts enacted in last year’s welfare reform bill.
The act’s title was borrowed from the motto of Second Harvest _ a national provider of emergency food assistance that endorsed the Hunger Has a Cure legislation along with more than 200 religious and charitable organizations in 45 states.
The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, which sponsored the news conference, said neither hungry people nor the private organizations trying to feed them can wait to see if welfare reforms will work or charitable giving will increase. “Nobody who is in the front lines of charity thinks they can fill all the gaps in feeding children, the disabled, the elderly and adults without work,”Beckmann said.”We’re no substitute for what the government must also do.” Update: Number of Indians dead in Hajj fire up to 94
(RNS) The number of Indians who died in a tent fire in Saudi Arabia during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in April is up to 94, according to an Indian embassy official in Saudi Arabia.
The official count on May 1 listed 94 Indian pilgrims dead, 174 in Saudi hospitals and 171 being treated at a medical mission in Mecca run by the Indian government.
Saudi Arabian officials said 343 pilgrims died and more than 1,500 were injured. The fire swept through more than 70,000 tents at Mena, near the Islamic holy city of Mecca.
Many Muslim devotees were burned to death and others were trampled in the mad stampede to escape the fire. About 80,000 Indians performed the Hajj this year, a trip made by about 2 million Muslims each year.
Saudi Arabia has not yet determined the cause of the fire, although independent reports attribute it to people cooking in their tents.
Clinton signs law banning federal funds for assisted suicide
(RNS) President Clinton signed a law Wednesday (April 30) banning the use of federal funds to pay for doctor-assisted suicide.
Clinton called the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act”appropriate legislation,”saying he has always been personally opposed to assisted suicide.”While I have deep sympathy for those who suffer greatly from incurable illness, I believe that to endorse assisted suicide would set us on a disturbing and perhaps dangerous path,”the president said in a statement.
The measure bars the use of federal funds for doctor-assisted suicide, but does not address other controversial issues such as the so-called”right to die.”It also does not prohibit the use of nonfederal funds for assisted suicide.
Clinton said, however, that the law does not bar using federal funds for meetings or other kinds of forums in which the issue might be discussed or debated.
The bill passed Congress with an overwhelming majority: 398-16 in the House and 99-0 in the Senate.
Teen-sex rate drops for first time in 25 years
(RNS) The percent of teens having sex dropped in 1995 for the first time in 25 years, a National Survey of Family Growth reported.
The survey released Thursday (May 1) shows that teens are also using birth control at an increased rate. The 1995 survey, an in-depth government study conducted every five years, said half of all teen girls between 15 and 19 have had sex at least once.
The percent of girls having sex had risen steadily, from 29 percent in 1970 to 55 percent in 1990, before dropping to 50 percent in 1995.
But Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, says teen pregnancy remains a problem. About 40 percent of young women become pregnant before they are 20, the highest teen pregnancy rate among industrialized nations.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a new campaign launched by Shalala, aims to cut teen pregnancy rates by one-third over 10 years.
The campaign rejects the idea that sex education and access to birth control prevent pregnancy. Instead, organizers want to convince teens that getting pregnant is a bad idea, and they plan to use TV public service announcements to get their message across.
Quote of the day: Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry of Los Angeles
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Church’s strong support for the use of federally financed vouchers for parents wishing to send their children to religious schools has some members of the hierarchy doing some soul-searching on whether accepting public money will dilute the school’s Catholic identity. In a recent issue of the National Catholic Reporter, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry of Los Angeles expressed his misgivings:”We’ve spent so much effort attempting to secure government support that we have neglected the question of definition _ what exactly a Catholic school should be. We’re not discussing it because there’s too much emphasis on obtaining public assistance.”
MJP END RNS
