c. 1997 Religion News Service

Schuller under investigation for alleged in-flight fight

(RNS) TV preacher Robert H. Schuller is being investigated by federal authorities after a United Airlines flight attendant alleged the televangelist injured him during an in-flight altercation.

The 70-year-old founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., denied at a news conference Tuesday (July 1) he had misbehaved.”I am innocent,”he said.”I have not broken a single one of the Ten Commandments, and I have not broken any of the teachings of Jesus Christ.” At the time of the alleged incident, Schuller was flying Saturday (June 28) from Los Angeles to New York to speak at a memorial service for Betty Shabazz, the widow of the late Malcolm X, The Los Angeles Times reported.

He was not arrested and no civil lawsuits or criminal charges have been filed in connection with the incident.

Schuller, who reaches a TV audience of 20 million each week with his”Hour of Power”program, explained his side of the story with the help of his attorney Terry Giles, who was linked to the California news conference by telephone from Chicago.

The incident occurred after Schuller asked to hang up a garment bag containing the clerical robe he planned to wear at the Shabazz service, but the 35-year-old male flight attendant told him he could not. With the help of a supervisor, a compromise was reached: Schuller could remove the robe from the bag and hang it as a coat.

Giles said the compromise appeared to make the attendant”irate.” Later, when fruit and cheese were served, the attendant refused to allow Schuller _ who is on a low-fat diet _ to have fruit without cheese. Schuller got out of his first-class seat and asked a female flight attendant for a serving of grapes.

After that, Schuller somehow touched the first attendant who jumped back and said, `If you touch me again, I will call the police,'”the Associated Press reported.

Giles said he was told by sources the flight attendant claimed Schuller either put him in a headlock or pushed him.

United Airlines spokesman Tony Molinaro told The Los Angeles Times that the flight attendant”did see one of our company doctors and he is on sick leave right now, and he is injured.” Schuller said he usually communicates with physical contact.”I had no impression if I touched him that could in any sense be considered a violent”act, he said, according to the AP.

Arson suspected in church fire that occurred after Klan rally

(RNS) Arson is suspected in a fire that destroyed a small black church in Little River, Ala., two nights after Klansmen rallied a few miles away.

And evidence of attempted arson was found at a second black church nearby the rural community in southwestern Alabama, where federal, state and local authorities converged Tuesday (July 1) to begin a joint investigation.

The incidents come a year after a rash of church fires of various origin terrorized communities across the South before subsiding.”We’re treating it as an arson, but we don’t know that for a fact,”said Huey A.”Hoss”Mack Jr., chief investigator of the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators believe that the fire was set late Monday or early Tuesday.

Only the burned-out shell of St. Joe Baptist Church remained standing, while about 200 yards down the dirt road the front door of Tate Chapel AME Church lay smashed in.”They had attempted to set fire to it, but there’s almost no damage to it,”Mack said of Tate Chapel.

No congregants appeared to have been inside either church at the time of the attacks.

The arson occurred two nights after a rally by the Alabama White Knights, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, on Saturday evening in Tensaw, about 10 miles south of Little River.

Mack said no immediate evidence pointed to Klan involvement, but the rally’s proximity to the attacks warranted scrutiny.

The Rev. Joe Lewis Dees, pastor of St. Joe Baptist, said he believed there was a Klan connection.”I could be wrong,”Dees said,”but I definitely think so.” Last month, the National Church Arson Task Force, a joint effort of the U.S. Treasury and Justice departments, issued a one-year anniversary report stating that evidence does not support the theory that a nationwide conspiracy is behind the burning of black churches.

But the same report made clear that racism was involved in many church burnings, and that members and former members of hate groups were linked to some of them.

Zambian government asks religious groups to identify”satanists” (RNS) A top Zambian official has asked church leaders to identify religious groups that participate in satanism so the government can ban the groups.

Reports in local newspapers that satanism is growing in the southern African nation, and that satanists have infiltrated some mainstream churches, prompted Zambia’s deputy minister for religious affairs to make the request, reported Ecumenical News International (ENI) a Geneva-based religious news agency.

Peter Chintala, an official in President Frederick Chiluba’s government and a Protestant pastor, said he would use the Societies Act, through which the government registers churches, to root out satanism.”As soon as we get concrete proof, we are going to deregister such `churches,'”Chintala told ENI.

Two teen-age girls told Zambian television they had participated in satanic rituals _ including drinking blood _ after being”enticed”by men claiming to be Pentecostal preachers.

Mainstream churches in Zambia have also squared off with members of the Unification Church, founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, accusing them of infiltrating churches with the intent of draining membership.”They are giving out money and other gifts to these poor villagers to entice them,”Richard Kutemwa, a Pentecostal preacher, told ENI. Unification church members vehemently deny such accusations.

Archbishop tells South Africa to stop blaming apartheid

(RNS) South Africa can no longer blame its problems on past apartheid, an Anglican archbishop told President Nelson Mandela’s government this week.

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town made his remarks Sunday (June 29) during a strongly worded sermon at the city’s Anglican Cathedral at a service marking the 150th anniversary of the appointment of the first bishop to Cape Town, reported Ecumenical News International (ENI), a Geneva-based religious news agency.

Ndungane, successor to retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the prestigious Cape Town post, said that although apartheid had placed constraints on Mandela’s government, it is time to take action toward solving the nation’s present problems.”There is a growing feeling of frustration and anger at the failure of the authorities to curb the rising tide of violence and corruption,”the archbishop said in his sermon.”Enough is enough! Excuses do not provide housing and shelter,”he said.

Abortion-rights group plans to distribute abortion pill free of charge

(RNS) A small abortion-rights group is stepping up its effort to bring a version of the French abortion pill RU-486 to the United States by making it available for free to 10,000 American women.

Abortion Rights Mobilization, a New York-based nonprofit group, announced the plan Wednesday (July 2), following receipt of new funding allowing it to distribute the drug at no cost in clinical research trials, the Associated Press reported.

The drug, an alternative to surgical abortion, is Abortion Rights Mobilization’s version of the French pill commonly known as RU-486. It is effective on women up to eight _ possibly nine _ weeks into pregnancy and has already been provided free of charge to more than 1,000 women, The New York Times reported.

The stopgap measure is a response to the stalled efforts to begin commercial marketing of the drug in the United States.

Evangelical Methodist clergywomen form support network

(RNS) A new network and support group for theologically conservative clergywomen in the United Methodist Church was formed June 25 during the annual meeting of Good News, the independent evangelical movement within the denomination.

The group, the Connection of Evangelical Clergywomen, is to be”a voice not often heard from, with a message of Christian faith, hope and love,”according to the Rev. Helen Rainer, convenor of the group and pastor of The Church of the Master United Methodist Church in Howell, N.J.

Rainer said the group will connect clergywomen who affirm”that Jesus Christ is Lord, and who proclaim the traditional orthodox truths of the Bible within the Wesleyan heritage.”It will be a”much needed”support group for those clergywomen who are”disregarded and marginalized”because they are not”radical feminists nor theologically liberal,”she said.

Quote of the day: Daniel E. Weiss, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches

(RNS) In an address at the biennial meeting of the American Baptist Churches, General Secretary Daniel E. Weiss emphasized the need to be grounded in the Bible:”Today we are surrounded by a cacophony of conflicting voices alleging to speak God’s truth and calling for our allegiance. We are invited to `feel good’ religion; preoccupation with sideline, detracting issues; weak-kneed anemic theologies; opinions based upon human prejudices and hopes, all in God’s name. Now, more than ever, we need to know the Word, be saturated in it, be possessed by it, be guided by it, immersed in it, instructed by it, judged by it, corrected by it, helped by it, comforted by it, motivated by it.”

MJP END RNS