c. 1997 Religion News Service
Egyptian court strikes ban on female circumcision
(RNS) The controversial practice of female circumcision was upheld Tuesday (June 24) by an Egyptian court decree overturning a year-old ban on the procedure in state and private clinics.
The ruling was celebrated by Islamic leaders and criticized by human rights advocates, who call the procedure”female genital mutilation.” The ritual was outlawed in Egypt last July, after a campaign by human rights groups. The reversal, however, still restricts individuals without medical training from performing the procedure, the Associated Press reported.
In his ruling, Judge Abdul Aziz Hamade said he did not deal with the health effects of the practice or its justification under Islamic doctrine, but focused on the legality of the ban, which he said placed undue restrictions on doctors.
The government is certain to appeal the ruling, said Mohammed Abdulal of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. He disputed the contention by some Muslim scholars that female circumcision is supported by the Koran, Islam’s holy book.
Typically performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 12, between 70 percent and 90 percent of Egypt’s 30 million women have undergone ritual genital-cutting. The procedure is carried out in dozens of African, Middle Eastern and Asian nations, and by some religious groups in the United States.
The ritual can cause hemorrhaging, scar tissue, cysts, sexual difficulties and problems in childbirth. In the latest Egyptian fatality blamed on the procedure, an 11-year-old girl had a seizure and died June 20.
Supporters of the ritual believe the operation enhances cleanliness and curbs a girl’s sexual appetite, which families say makes a girl more marriageable.”The ruling was a disaster and a serious setback,”said Ameena Shafig, a veteran women’s rights campaigner and Egyptian newspaper columnist.
Not so, said Muslim cleric Youssef al-Badry, a plaintiff in the case.”Thank God. It is a great day for Islam,”said al-Badry.”It is a verdict for virtue. … Justice has been served.”
China admits to arrest of prominent evangelical leader
(RNS) The arrest in March of a prominent Chinese church evangelical leader has been been acknowledged by the state-run Christian Council of China.
Council President Han Wenzao confirmed that Peter Xu Yongze, head of the New Birth Church, was arrested for violating rules governing social organizations.
Han’s statement, reported Monday (June 23) by the official Xinhua news agency, was Beijing’s first official comment on the case. The Xinhua account did not elaborate on the reasons for Xu’s arrest or indicate where he was jailed, the Associated Press reported.”The detaining of Xu is definitely not persecution of Christians by the Chinese government, but a normal handling of a criminal prosecution,”Han was quoted as saying. Calling Xu”doctrinally deficient,”Han said,”Xu’s doings entirely ran counter to the teachings of the Bible and the true canons of Christ. Xu is not a Christian at all.” An official at Christian Solidarity International, which has monitored the Xu arrest, had”nothing to add or subtract”concerning reasons for the latest development.”We’ll continue to monitor the situation,”said Jim Jacobson, CSI American spokesman,”but it is not easy to get details out of China.” Beijing does not recognize religious groups that are not government-affiliated, although the constitution does guarantee freedom of religion.
It is reported that Xu’s church, located in the central China city of Zhengzhou, numbers in the millions.
Han noted the U.S. and Japanese governments also had taken action against religious groups on legal grounds, citing the Branch Davidians and the Aum Shinrikyo cult.
AMA votes in favor of late-term abortion ban
(RNS) The nation’s most powerful organization of physicians has come out in favor of a federal ban outlawing a specific late-term abortion procedure that has galvanized the abortion debate this year.
The American Medical Association’s 475-member House of Delegates, meeting in Chicago, voted Tuesday (June 24) to support a controversial decision by its national board last month to back congressional efforts to ban what opponents of the procedure call”partial-birth”abortion. The stance now becomes official AMA policy.
Last year, Congress also voted to ban the procedure, but it was vetoed by President Clinton because the measure did not include an exemption to protect a woman’s health. While both houses have again passed the ban this year.
At Tuesday’s meeting, some doctors denounced the procedure as abhorrent and repugnant while others warned that the ban would thrust the government into medical decision-making.
The AMA represents 292,000 doctors, about 40 percent of U.S. physicians.
Louisiana moves toward”covenant”marriages
(RNS) Legislators took a major step (Monday) June 23 toward making Louisiana the first state to offer”covenant marriages.” Lawmakers gave final approval to an optional marriage contract that requires premarital counseling and is seen as an antidote to relatively easy to obtain no-fault divorce, which will still be available if Louisianans opt for the traditional marriage contract.
To get out of a covenant marriage, a spouse would have to prove physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, adultery or alcoholism, or the couple must live apart for at least two years.
The legislation has drawn opposite reactions from conservative Christians and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Associated Press reported.
Republican Rep. Tony Perkins, a conservative Christian and author of the bill, called it”a marriage contract that has weight.”He and fellow conservatives see it as a possible antidote to societal ills caused by the disintegration of the family. “It really is a Trojan Horse,”countered Martha Kegel of the Louisiana ACLU chapter. Kegel fears many couples who opt for the tighter marriage contract will find themselves subject to”a lot of misery from which they will not be able to get free.” No-fault laws, which do not require a showing of wrongdoing and allow divorce on the grounds that the marriage has simply broken down, exist in every state. Conservatives claim they have contributed to a sharp rise in divorce rates since the late 1960s.
The legislation could reach the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Foster by the end of June.
Vatican, Hungary sign pact to settle property-seizure claims
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Church in Hungary is closer to receiving new guarantees and protections after the Eastern European nation and the Vatican signed a pact on Friday (June 20), which settles claims over church property seized under communism.
The agreement, which must be ratified by Hungary’s parliament, was praised by Hungarian government and Vatican officials, but criticized by the Free Democrat Party, Reuters reported.
The pact gives Catholic schools the same status as state institutions and guarantees adequate autonomous financing to sustain the church’s religious activities. It calls for the return of property seized under communism, state compensation for property that cannot be returned, and the opportunity for Hungarians to direct 1.1 percent of their taxes to a church or charity of their choice.
The Free Democrats, claiming that singling out one religion for support might be unconstitutional, said the agreement could have a negative effect on the funding of other independent schools.
Two thirds of Hungarians are Roman Catholics.
Gaydos of St. Louis named bishop of Missouri diocese
(RNS) Monsignor John R. Gaydos, vicar general of the archdiocese of St. Louis, was named bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo., Wednesday (June 25).
Pope John Paul II made the announcement after he accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe, who had served the Missouri diocese since 1969.
Gaydos studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained in 1968.
The Diocese of Jefferson City comprises 38 counties with a Catholic population of 84,000.
Garry Hill, Odyssed TV CEO, dead at 46
(RNS) Garry E. Hill, president and CEO of the Odyssey television network, died Monday (June 23) in New York.
Hill, 46, suffered a stroke last month and underwent cancer treatment earlier this year.
Coming from the telecommunications industry, Hill spent a year at Odyssey, helping to position it as a premiere channel of religious programming.
Prior to joining Odyssey, he worked at Z Music Television, the Nashville-based music video network.
Quote of the day: Christian singer Michael W. Smith
(RNS) Contemporary Christian singer Michael W. Smith, writing in his new book”Friends Are Friends Forever”(Thomas Nelson) describes his notion of heaven:”Wheelchairs and pacemakers will be obsolete. The scars of abuse will be gone. Our darkest secrets will be absorbed by perfect light. There won’t be any dividing lines between the haves and the have-nots, between denominations or races.”
MJP END RNS
