c. 1997 Religion News Service
Singer Bob Dylan to perform for pope
(RNS) Folk-rock legend Bob Dylan is scheduled to sing for Pope John Paul II next month at a Roman Catholic youth rally in the central Italian city of Bologna.
Dylan _ whose songs include”The Times They are a-Changing”and”Blowin’ in the Wind”_ will be one of several singers who will perform Sept. 27 at the World Eucharistic Congress, sponsored by the Vatican. The pope is expected to spend about 90 minutes at the event _ long enough to hear Dylan sing, according to Monsignor Ernesto Vecchi, an event organizer. However, Dylan has not yet publicly confirmed his appearance.
Vecchi told Reuters that Dylan _ who burst onto the world stage in the 1960s as a singer of civil rights-oriented folk songs before switching to rock _ was invited because”he has a spiritual nature.””We chose him as the representative of the best type of rock,”said Vecchi.
Dylan, 56, was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minn., the son of Jewish parents. He took the name Dylan in tribute to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
In the late 1970s, Dylan announced that he had become a born-again Christian. Several years later, he returned to Judaism through involvement with the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch-Chabad Hasidic Jewish group, with which he is still involved.
Poll: Support for school vouchers growing
(RNS) A growing number of Americans say they favor proposals that would allow parents to send their children to the public, private or church-related school of their choice with tuition at nonpublic schools paid for, in all or in part, by the government.
According to a newly released survey by Phi Delta Kappa, a national education organization, and the Gallup Poll, 49 percent said they favor such proposals _ also called school vouchers. In 1996, 43 percent said they favor school vouchers.
However, when the question is rephrased substituting the term”public expense”for”government expense,”support for such proposals drops to 44 percent. Last year, 36 percent said they would favor such proposals at public expense.
In other findings, 81 percent of Americans said they favor placing a computer in every classroom; 77 percent said they want national standards established for measuring academic performance; and 73 percent believe parents should have the right to send their children to any public school they choose.
The nationwide poll of 1,517 adults _ including 1,017 parents with children in public schools _ has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
More allegations leveled against Lyons
(RNS) Allegations of financial irregularities continue to pile up against the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, the embattled head of the 8.5 million-member National Baptist Convention, USA.
The St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday (Aug. 27) that $400,000 earned from business deals involving the denomination was given by Lyons to Bernice Edwards, a convicted embezzler and the church’s former public relations director. Documents prepared by Lyons and reviewed by the newspaper indicate that at least $187,000 of the money went toward a $700,000 home co-owned by Lyons and Edwards; $135,000 paid for a Mercedes-Benz; and $22,000 purchased a time-share unit, the Associated Press reported.
Last month, Lyon’s wife, Deborah, was charged with trying to set fire to the $700,000 house in an exclusive St. Petersburg, Fla., neighborhood. At the time, Mrs. Lyons said she thought her husband and Edwards were having an affair, but she denied that the next day.
A 200-member church board has already heard adultery charges against Lyons and has voted to retain him as president of the NBCUSA.
However, another church committee is currently investigating the financial allegations. Lyons told that committee Saturday that much of the money given to Edwards was paid to the church by corporations, such as the $75,000 commission fee Edwards earned for a deal she negotiated with General Motors Corp. to display their cars at the church’s annual meetings, the AP reported.
In another deal, Edwards was paid $365,000 for selling the denomination’s mailing list to Globe Life and Accident Insurance Co. of Oklahoma City.
Also Wednesday, the Tampa Tribune reported that Lyons has been acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist on behalf of Nigerian military leader Gen. Sani Abacha, the AP reported.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has confirmed that Lyons met with the 39-member Congressional Black Caucus late last year on behalf of Abacha. The U.S. Justice Department told the newspaper that Lyons had not registered as a foreign lobbyist as required by law.
The annual meeting of the NBCUSA, the nation’s largest black Baptist denomination, is scheduled to begin Sept. 1 in Denver.
Jury awards $750,000 in priest sexual misconduct case
(RNS) A federal jury in New Haven, Conn., has found that the Roman Catholic diocese of Bridgeport breached it special trust with a church member when it failed to investigate charges of sexual abuse by one its priests.
The jury awarded $750,000 to Frank Martinelli, 50, who said that while he was a teenager he was sexually molested by the Rev. Laurence Brett. Brett, who did not attend the seven-day trial, was dropped as a defendant in the case when neither side could reach him.”Justice has been delivered,”Martinelli said after the jury decision.
Officials of the diocese said they were disappointed at the jury’s ruling but expressed hope the judge would set the award aside at a future hearing, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (Aug. 27).
During the trial Martinelli alleged the diocese knew of similar complaints of abuse by Brett as early as 1962 but either did not investigate them or covered them up.
He said the diocese should have warned potential victims _ including himself _ while they were still minors so victims could have received counseling and therapy.
But the diocese said it did not learn of the abuse until shortly before Martinelli filed suit in 1993.
It did not attempt to dispute the sexual allegations made against Brett but said it could not be held liable for his actions.”The diocese has condemned those actions on the part of Father Brett,”a diocesan spokesman said.”Condemning that kind of action implicitly apologizes to anyone hurt by it.”
Russian Orthodox leader seeks to ban proselytizing
(RNS) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexii II, Wednesday (Aug. 27) called for a complete ban on proselytizing in Russia by”non-traditional”faiths.
The Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted Alexii as saying that”North American”religious freedom was out of place in Russia. He called proselytizing”an attempt by unworthy means to lure people to another faith from the religions of their ancestors.” Alexii said”we must completely bar proselytizing.” Alexii’s comments preceded by days Monday’s (Sept. 1) scheduled meeting of a new commission established to find a legislative compromise to Russia’s current controversy over the success that Protestant and other religious groups have had in gaining converts in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Evangelical Protestants, Mormons and other groups coming from the West have been in the forefront of the missionary efforts.
Earlier this summer, Alexii backed a bill that would have made it virtually impossible for so-called non-traditional faiths to operate in Russia. The same bill would have granted special protective status to the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as to Judaism, Islam and Buddhism _ faiths deemed traditionally Russian.
President Boris Yeltsin vetoed the bill, saying it was unconstitutional, but promised to work with Alexii to find a compromise.
Wednesday, Alexii said:”I think we have our own traditions and history and our legislation must consider them. Sometimes they even try to impose North American standards on us. But entering into European society, we would like to preserve our face, our profile, those spiritual-cultural traditions which formed over the 1,000-year history of Russia.”
Quote of the day: Author Douglas Groothuis
(RNS) Douglas Groothuis, author of”The Soul in Cyberspace”(Baker), was interviewed in the Sept. 1 issue of Christianity Today on the virtues and vices of life on the Internet. Asked how the Internet might dehumanize people, Groothuis responded:”The Internet distributes information widely and quickly, but in a merely electronic form, which lacks the personal presence at the heart of biblical discipleship, fellowship, worship. When cyberspace begins to replace embodied interactions, we fail to honor the incarnational nature of Christianity. We may be `connected’ to people around the world through the Internet while we neglect our spouses, neighbors and churches. This is wrong.”
MJP END RNS
