c. 1997 Religion News Service
Hawaii grants benefits, not legal marriage, to gay couples
(RNS) The Hawaii state legislature voted Tuesday (April 29) to grant gay couples rights and benefits that married couples receive but stopped short of legalizing same-sex marriage, calling for a national referendum next year on the issue.
Gay rights groups called the compromise bills a sellout, reversing the Hawaii Supreme Court’s 1993 decision that said a ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.
Under the new bills, homosexual couples would be eligible for spousal benefits for insurance and state pensions, inheritance rights, the right to sue for wrongful death, and other benefits, the Associated Press reported. Residency is not required.
If the bills are signed by Gov. Ben Cayetano, who supports the measures, the laws would take effect July 1.
Tracey Bennett, a leader of the Marriage Project Hawaii, an organization that promotes the legalization of same-sex marriages, said the state legislature traded a few benefits”for allowing the tyranny of the majority to prevail.” Hawaiian voters are expected to reject a constitutional amendment legalizing same-sex marriages in next year’s elections. Polls show that more than 70 percent of the state’s voters oppose legalizing the marriages.
The case in Hawaii has prompted action in other states and by the federal government. Congress passed last year the Defense of Marriage Act denying federal recognition of gay marriages and allowing states to pass pre-emptive measures prohibiting the recognition of same-sex unions in other states.
To date, 22 states have passed laws saying they will not recognize same-sex marriages.
Gospel music association names new president
(RNS) The Gospel Music Association (GMA) has announced that musician and entrepreneur Frank Breeden will become president of the 5,500-member Christian music organization on May 5.
Breeden, who has served on the GMA board of directors for the past decade, will oversee the daily management of the Nashville-based association whose members include Christian vocalists, musicians, songwriters and producers from around the world. He also will direct the Christian Music Trade Association, which focuses on the business side of the Christian music industry.
Breeden succeeds Bruce Koblish, who is assuming the presidency of Reunion Records.”Frank is the best person to lead this association for the next 10 years,”said GMA board chairman Roland Lundy.”Not only has he proven himself in the music industry, but as a consultant, he worked with many associations and non-profit groups, which gives him a head start in the day-to-day operation of the GMA.” Breeden is a veteran of the Christian music world. For the past two years he has headed Breeden and Associates, an artist management and consulting firm that represents inspirational musicians including Steve Gatlin and Janet Paschal. In 1994, he received a Dove Award nomination for producing an album by Gatlin.
From 1987 to 1991, Breeden led two Nashville-based music publishing organizations, Alexandria House and Keynotes, which he founded.
Breeden said his goals as GMA president will include establishing a physical building for the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; raising the level of Christian music promotion overseas; and increasing public awareness of the annual Dove Awards.
Six more men sue”Frugal Gourmet”over sex-abuse allegations
(RNS) Six more men have accused”Frugal Gourmet”TV chef Jeff Smith, a United Methodist minister, of sexually assaulting them during their teen-age years. The lawsuit alleges the abuse took place during the 1970s when the men worked at Smith’s former restaurant and catering business in Tacoma, Wash.
The allegations, filed Tuesday (April 29), were denied by Smith’s attorney in Pierce County Superior Court. The attorney has also denied charges against Smith in earlier suits filed by two other men, the Associated Press reported.
In the new suit, five of the men claim Smith sexually assaulted them in the 1970s while they were teens, and the sixth says Smith raped him after picking him up as a hitchhiker in 1992.
The suit alleges Smith used alcohol and coercive measures to seduce the boys into sexual intercourse. No criminal charges were ever filed against Smith, who is the author of 12 cookbooks.
Nicaragua’s churches involved in textbook controversy
(RNS) A campaign to teach Nicaraguan public school students using Roman Catholic textbooks has angered Protestant leaders, who claim the books violate freedom of religion and promote anti-Protestant sentiments.
The textbooks, produced by the Catholic archdiocese of Managua, blames racial tension on Protestants and warns Protestants not to criticize Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary.”Be careful, Protestant brothers. You’re playing with fire. If you want to increase your numbers by misleading unprepared Catholics, don’t mess with Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother. It’s something serious for which you’ll pay heavily,”the textbook states.
Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, the education official for the archdiocese, has urged school directors to use the books and encouraged parents to buy them for their children.
Gustavo Parajon, pastor and president of the Council of Evangelical Churches, said the Protestant community, which makes up 25 percent of Nicaragua’s population, needs to”start a campaign”demanding respect for the constitutional separation of church and state.
Parajon said using the books in schools violates the constitutional guarantee of secular education and endorses a specific religion.
Alfredo Marenco, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, insisted the government has not imposed the textbooks on schools.”It’s up to the parents what they want to have included in their children’s education,”he said. But Protestants see such a move as violating the constitutional rights of the minority.
Protestants also have protested that Catholic schools receive 45 percent of construction money from the government’s Social Investment Emergency Fund, but Protestants receive no government funding.
Atheistic Australian doctors more likely to support euthanasia
(RNS) A survey of doctors in Australia has found that those who consider themselves atheists or agnostics are more likely to support and actively assist in euthanasia than those who claim to have a religious affiliation.”Of all medical practitioners who had been asked to do so, more than one-quarter acknowledged that they had taken steps to hasten death,”said the researchers from the University of New South Wales.”Those doctors claiming to be agnostic or atheist were more likely to favor and to practice euthanasia and those who identified with any religion were more likely to be opposed.” The study was based on survey results from more than 1,200 randomly selected physicians in New South Wales.
The study found that 543 of the physicians said they had been asked by a patient to hasten death. Of those, 28 percent took actions to meet their patient’s request. Nearly 25 percent of those doctors who indicated a religious affiliation said they had taken actions to hasten death at a patient’s request. Of the non-religious doctors, 35 percent had taken similar actions.
The researchers found that 74 percent of those who thought active voluntary euthanasia was”sometimes right”based their view on secular ethical principles while 81 percent of those who thought it was”never right”based their views on religious principles.
Euthanasia is illegal in Australia. A controversial euthanasia law that led to four assisted suicides in the Northern Territory was overturned by the federal legislature in March.
The 1995 survey was recently publicized by the National Institute for Healthcare Research.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America
(RNS) The General Synod Council of the Reformed Church in America is recommending the denomination adopt a new mission statement when it meets next month in Milwaukee. The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the RCA, linked the proposed new statement to the church’s past:”Our founders chartered troubled waters to place roots in foreign soil. Today we journey to a new land. It is filled with promise, but fraught with peril. We are beckoned to be the church, living as God’s people, in the midst of a foreign and disbelieving culture.”
MJP END RNS
