c. 1997 Religion News Service

Gore criticized for defense of”Ellen”TV show

(RNS) In a speech to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, Vice President Al Gore supported the controversial television show”Ellen,”saying it forces America to look at sexual orientation more openly.

On Thursday (Oct. 16) Gore said the lesbian character on ABC’s sitcom teaches the public to face their prejudices.”And when the character Ellen came out, millions of American were forced to look at sexual orientation in a more open light,”Gore said. The lead character, played by comedian Ellen DeGeneres, told friends and family on the sitcom last season she was homosexual. The actress also revealed publicly she was a lesbian around the same time.

Conservative critics, however, were quick to jump on Gore’s remarks.

Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition accused Gore of”craven pandering to Hollywood.”Tate said Gore’s support of a lesbian character”is way out of the mainstream.” DeGeneres objected this month to ABC’s decision to place a warning advisory on an episode where she kisses a female friend. One show this season is scheduled to end with DeGeneres and a woman heading hand-in-hand to her bedroom.

High-ranking Pentagon official plans to speak at West Point’s chapel

(RNS) The second-highest ranking civilian official of the Pentagon says he will deliver the first of a series of sermons on faith and values at the main chapel of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Oct. 26.

But the plans of Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre, a devout Lutheran, have created controversy because some critics believe the homilies represent an inappropriate crossing of the line of church-state separation.”The point is you have a government official who, by virtue of his position, has demanded to have a pulpit in a church,”said E. Robert Geehan, who was a chaplain at West Point from 1984 to 1993.”No government official can demand to be a preacher in a church.” West Point officials, who were surprised by Hamre’s request, at first recommended he speak instead in the school’s main auditorium, where he could reach a wider audience. But Hamre said he wanted to speak in the nondenominational Cadet Chapel because his intended message has a religious focus.”There’s a huge dimension to people’s lives called their spiritual lives, their religious lives and I’m going to talk to that,”Hamre told The Washington Post.”I’m not going to talk to them about what life’s like as deputy secretary of defense or what the administration is trying to do with its policy in Bosnia.” Hamre, who attended Harvard Divinity School before changing career plans and becoming a defense expert 20 years ago, does not believe he is crossing any line between church and state.”I look at that just in reverse,”he said.”If I had gone up and said I want to bring the entire student body together in an auditorium, and then made them listen to a sermon, then I would absolutely agree I’d be violating the church-state thing. But to go up to the chapel and to talk only to those who sought to go to a church that day, I don’t think that is a violation.” Col. Dayton M.”Mike”Cramer, the U.S. Military Academy’s top attorney, said the sole legal issue for West Point was whether attendance at Hamre’s homily would be mandatory. Cramer saw no legal grounds for objection once it was clear no one would be required to attend.

“Date rape”scene added to Denver’s Hell House Halloween production

(RNS) Date rape is another way to go to hell, according to Hell House, a controversial Halloween production in Arvada, Colo.

Hell House, an annual event, shows sin scenarios on stage in rooms at Abundant Life Christian Center in Arvada. The Halloween production uses lighting, sound, scenery, smells, costumes and graphic scenes including abortion and souls from Hell to scare people from sin.

For this year’s production, date rape has been added to the list of topics. Hell House attracted over 14,000 people in its first two years.”It’s awesome,”said the Rev. Keenan Roberts, associate pastor of Abundant Life Christian Center and Hell House director.

Roberts, who began Hell House three years ago, said he chose this scene to address victims and perpetrators.”I’ve counseled several … high school girls who have been raped on dates,”Roberts said.”I know it’s happened to an incredible percentage of people. There are a lot of walking wounded out there.” Roberts said while he hopes this will help rape victims heal, he has a message for perpetrators.”People have to honor other people’s rights,”he said.”The Bible says we have no right to defraud anyone and rape is defrauding.” The date rape scene doesn’t actually show rape or nudity.”You will know what’s happening,”Roberts said.”He’s demanding sex, the girl is screaming at him to stop. He overpowers her, verbally, physically and spiritually.”The boy yells:”Shut up and lay down, I want something more. You owe me.” Kristin Brindley, 14, visited Hell House on opening night. She said she was offended by”the date rape and the abortion thing.”But another teen, Stephanie Ray, 14, said the show moved her and depicted reality, adding the exhibit made her rededicate her life to Jesus.

Newark archbishop: archdiocese won’t buy”sweatshop”school uniforms

(RNS) The sweat put into Catholic school uniforms better not come from sweatshops, the archbishop of Newark, N.J., announced Thursday (Oct. 16).

Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, speaking at a news conference with Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, called for principals, teachers and students at the archdiocese’s parochial schools to get educated on sweatshops.

At the top of the agenda is a program to ensure that none of the uniforms worn by students in the archdiocese’s schools are manufactured in sweatshops.

The monitoring and education program is a joint effort of the archdiocese, federal and state labor departments and UNITE, the garment workers union.”Catholic social teaching has stressed always the dignity of every human being,”McCarrick said.”We believe that everyone has the right to have their basic human needs for food, clothing, health care and housing met through just wages and in safe working conditions.”We believe we have an obligation to teach those principles to the students in our schools and our religious education programs. If change is to be long-lasting, we have to begin with them,”he said.

There are about 300 sweatshops in New Jersey in which immigrant workers _ often illegals _ are paid well below the minimum wage and denied overtime, health and other benefits, the Associated Press reported.

Because of this, the archdiocese launched an anti-sweatshop curriculum for the 24,000 students in its schools in grades seven through 12. Archdiocesan officials said they believe it is the first program of its kind in the nation.”Sweatshops clearly have no place on the American landscape,”Herman told the news conference.”No child should wear clothes that are made by workers who are robbed of their own childhood.”

British abortion opponents mark 30th anniversary of legal abortion

(RNS) Opponents of abortion will take to the streets in the thousands over the Oct. 25-26 weekend to mark the 30th anniversary of Britain’s passage of the 1967 Abortion Act, which legalized most abortions.

On Saturday, in cities and towns throughout Britain up to 20,000 people are expected to take part in at least 77″pro-life chains”in which people with placards will stand about 10 feet apart and line the pavements for two hours from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster, will take part in the London chain.

Sunday afternoon, there will be a silent”walk of witness”through central London in which Hume will again take part, as will two of his auxiliaries _ Bishops James O’Brien and Vincent Nichols.

The 1967 Abortion Act was piloted through Parliament by Liberal David Steel, an elder of the Church of Scotland as well as member of Parliament. He sought to update the so-called Bourne judgment of 1938, when distinguished gynecologist Aleck Bourne invited prosecution after carrying out an abortion on a 14-year-old girl who was pregnant after being raped by a number of soldiers.

Bourne was acquitted on the grounds he operated in order to preserve the life of the mother. In the ruling, the judge noted”the doctor is of the opinion, on reasonable grounds and with adequate knowledge, that the probable consequence of the continuance of the pregnancy will be to make the mother a physical or mental wreck.” In the years between 1959 and the passage of the 1967 law, there was a slow rise in the number of legal abortions _ from 1,800 in 1959 to 9,100 in 1967.

The 1967 law, which greatly eased access to abortion, was followed by a sharp rise in the procedure. In 1996, there were 167,648 abortions performed.

Quote of the day: Jeffrey Klein, editor of Mother Jones magazine

(RNS)”Nietzsche could not conceive the extent to which religion could be a source of human empowerment. And Marx did not recognize that our desire to connect with a transcendent power runs even deeper than our drive for economic satisfaction. Each of us seeks. How we honor each other’s search will tell the tale of the next millennium.” Mother Jones editor Jeffrey Klein writing on how progressives have erred in dismissing the importance of religion.

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