c. 1997 Religion News Service

Clinton criticized for plans to speak at gay fund-raiser

(RNS) President Clinton, scheduled to address a Saturday (Nov. 8) fund-raiser for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights organization, is being sharply criticized by social conservative for agreeing to speak at the event.”The president’s action is an unfortunate misuse of the highest office in the land,”said Robert H. Knight, director of cultural studies for the Family Research Council, a Washington-based advocacy group.”To use the bully pulpit to glamorize behavior that offends the values of millions of Americans, behavior which is also unhealthy and destructive to individuals, families and communities, is a disservice to the American people.” Knight also said Clinton is putting the agenda of”a well-heeled special interest”group _ gays _ above”the well-being of America’s young people.” Clinton, who won the majority of gay and lesbian voters in his 1992 and 1996 campaigns, will be the first president to speak at an event sponsored by a gay and lesbian organization.

In his speech, the president is expected to focus on the White House Conference on hate crimes, scheduled for Monday (Nov. 10). The conference will focus on attacks on gays as well as on minorities and religious groups.”The president is going to go to this group (Human Rights Campaign) of Americans who work, as other Americans do, to break down barriers and discrimination that have existed facing members of their community,”White House spokesman Michael McCurry said Thursday (Nov. 6).

The Traditional Values Coalition, a faith-based conservative advocacy group, also criticized Clinton’s decision to speak at the fund-raiser in a statement issued from Washington.”This is a sad day for the presidency,”said the Rev. Louis Sheldon, founder and chairman of the coalition, which claims 32,000-member churches nationwide. Noting that Clinton is expected to focus on the hate crimes conference, Sheldon said he hoped”the president will not be tricked into lumping the objections of religious citizens to homosexuality in as some kind of `hate crime.'”

Catholic bishops: proposed immigration law still filled with inequities

(RNS) Proposed legislation that would give some relief from deportation to Nicaraguan, El Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees, who fled their countries during the civil wars of the 1980s, has been welcomed by the U.S. Catholic Conference as a step in the right direction.

But the USCC, the Washington-based social policy arm of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, said the compromise legislation is still riddled with inequities.”While we are pleased that Congress is poised to correct a portion of last year’s ill-considered immigration `reform’ law, we are distressed by the unevenness and inequality of the proposed solution,”said Bishop John Cummins, chairman of the Bishops Migration Committee, in a statement Friday (Nov. 7).

The compromise makes it easier for Nicaraguans who fled the leftist Sandinista regime to apply for permanent residency than for Salvadorans or Guatemalans who fled right-wing violence. It also does not have any provision for Haitians.”We note with great dismay that some in Congress have prevailed in insisting on unequal forms of relief for similarly situated people,”Cummins said.”The aggressors these people fled had different names and wore various uniforms, but the terror which prompted their flight was the same,”he added.”We strongly believe that the fullest and most equal relief possible should be offered to all those who are similarly situated.” The proposed legislation affects the status of an estimated 300,000 Central American refugees.

Report: secret bank account controlled by Lyons, Edwards found

(RNS) The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times has reported that more than $1 million intended for the National Baptist Convention USA wound up in a secret bank account under the control of the Rev. Henry Lyons, the denomination’s president, and a one-time employee, Bernice Edwards.

The account at the Guaranty Bank in Milwaukee, Wis., was used by Lyons and Edwards to buy a waterfront home and a diamond ring, the newspaper reported Thursday (Nov. 6).

Lyons has been under fire in the denomination for alleged personal and financial improprieties but an effort to oust him as president during the denomination’s convention this summer failed.

According to the newspaper report, the Wisconsin account was opened by Josephine Hicks, who owns a Milwaukee diner, at the behest of Edwards, a longtime friend.

Hicks, however, said when she became aware of the large wire transfers of funds going in and out of the account, she became uncomfortable. She closed the account more than a year ago, the Associated Press quoted the Times as reporting.

Lyons, however, denied having any control over the Wisconsin account.”Only Mrs. Hicks and Ms. Edwards had access to the funds in the underlying bank account,”Lyons said in a written response to questions.

German court lets stand Bavarian crucifix ruling

(RNS) Germany’s highest court Friday (Nov. 7) refused to hear an appeal of a Bavarian court’ decision allowing crucifixes to hang in public school classrooms in the state.

The Federal Constitutional Court said the challenge to the state law was a matter for the state constitutional court and it saw no grounds for involving itself in the dispute, the Associated Press reported from Karlsruhe, Germany.

The dispute over crucifixes in Bavarian school classrooms has been ongoing for a dozen years. In 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court struck down a law mandating the crosses in public classrooms, sparking a massive protest in the conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic state. State officials responded with a new law requiring the crucifixes but allowing an exception if a parent raises a”serious and reasonable”objection.

Methodist agency announces support for civil rights nominee

(RNS) The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church said Friday (Nov. 7) it supports the confirmation of Bill Lann Lee to be assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department.

Lee, an Asian-American, has come under fire from conservatives _ particularly Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee _ for his support for affirmative action programs.”We offer our prayers for those in authority who serve the public to rise above partisanship and support efforts for justice and equal opportunity for all people,”said the Rev. Tom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the Washington-based Methodist agency.

White said Lee is”a well-qualified candidate, who is clearly committed to enforcing civil rights laws to protect all persons’ regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age or disability,”Fassett said.

Quote of the day: Jerzey Buzek, prime minister of Poland

(RNS)”There is undoubtedly only one faith, though ways of expressing and transmitting it differ. In the Evangelical (Protestant) Church, contact with God is expressed more through intellectual feeling, whereas in the Catholic Church, the faith is more emotional. I couldn’t say which is better.” Polish Prime Minister Jerzey Buzek, a Lutheran, in an interview with KAI, the information agency of the Polish Roman Catholic Church, as reported by Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

MJP END RNS