c. 1997 Religion News Service

San Francisco archdiocese compromises on gay benefits law

(RNS) San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archdiocese has agreed to provide employees with”spousal-equivalent”benefits to comply with a city ordinance requiring contractors to extend job benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian workers.

Archbishop William Levada had asked San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown for an exemption to the law and had threatened to sue the city under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act if no such exemption was made.

A compromise, reached in a meeting between Levada, Brown and other city officials last Thursday (Feb. 6), will allow employees of city contractors to designate someone in their household to receive”spousal-equivalent benefits.”Designees could include a spouse, sibling, other relative or unmarried partner.

The changes in the language of the ordinance _ which can be adopted by any contractor _ permit the church to avoid officially sanctioning homosexual domestic-partner relationships.”While religiously affiliated organizations extend their services to any and all who are in need,”Levada wrote in a letter to Brown,”these organizations must also be permitted to maintain their operations (including employee benefit plans) in a manner that is consistent with their religious principles.” Two Catholic organizations in San Francisco, Catholic Charities and Catholic Health Care West, hold city contracts.

Chinese officials put curfew on town after Muslim riot

(RNS) Chinese officials have put a curfew on a town in the Xinjiang region of northwest China after Muslim rioters killed and injured Han Chinese during a protest against Beijing rule, authorities said Monday (Feb. 10).

Young Muslims of the Uighur ethnic group in Yining went on a rampage last week, burning stores, smashing vehicles and beating up and torching Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China, the Reuter news agency said.

Local authorities were called in to suppress a small riot, which began after a Han Chinese policeman tried to arrest a Uighur (pronounced wee-ger). The scene attracted onlookers and exploded into one of the worst riots seen in Xinjiang since the 1949 communist takeover.

The government sent out about 1,000 officers to suppress the uprising, and both Han Chinese and Uighurs were reported killed or injured in the ensuing conflict.

The Associated Press noted wildly conflicting reports on the number of people who died in the riots, ranging from four to 300.

Xinjiang has a long history of tension between its native population of Turkic-speaking Uighurs and the ruling ethnic Han Chinese, who make up only 38 percent of the region’s population.

Walker Railey, ex-Methodist minister, settles suit with wife’s family

(RNS) A once-prominent United Methodist minister who was accused of trying to kill his wife has settled a civil suit with his wife’s family.

Walker Railey, a former Dallas minister, had been acquitted of attempted murder charges, but the family of his wife, Peggy Railey, won an $18-million civil judgment against him that found him responsible for the attack on his wife. Walker Railey, now 49 and living in California, never paid any of the judgment.

In December, a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge excused Walker Railey from paying the judgment, the New York Times reported Monday (Feb. 10). Instead of paying damages to the family, Walker Railey agreed to write alimony checks for $168.50 twice each month to his wife, who remains in a permanent vegetative state in a nursing home in Texas.

In exchange, he will get the divorce he has sought for at least seven years.

The agreement ends a long, litigious battle that began with the mysterious strangling of Peggy Railey on the evening of April 22, 1987 in the garage of their East Dallas home. At the time, Walker Railey was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Dallas, one of the largest Methodist congregations in the country, and considered a likely candidate for bishop someday.

After dealing with about six courts on the issues surrounding the case, both Railey and his wife’s family seem relieved to have the legalities behind them.”It will be some small satisfaction that he will have to remember Peggy at least twice a month,”said Ted Nicolai, brother and legal guardian of Peggy Railey.

Walker Railey’s lawyer, Michael Pezzulli, said,”We offered to pay what the California divorce schedules say we should. As part of the settlement, we also agreed to give them 25 percent of any net proceeds from book or movie deals _ but I doubt there will be any after this much time.” Soon after the attack, Walker Railey attempted to commit suicide, writing a note saying he was being influenced by”demons.”A few months later, he admitted to having an affair with Lucy Papillon, the daughter of another Methodist clergyman.

Walker Railey relinquished his United Methodist clergy credentials after his wife was attacked. He and Papillon moved to California late in 1987.

Study of TV commercials finds little religious, spiritual content

(RNS) A new study of nearly 800 television commercials has found little religious or spiritual content.

Sixteen of 797 commercials studied had any spiritual or religious content, the Associated Press reported.

The study examined commercials from four broadcast and four cable networks, including CNN, early last year.

It was researched by Brendan Maguire of Western Illinois University in Macomb and Georgie Ann Weatherby of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. The two researchers taped five hours of commercials from each network during different intervals during a 24-hour period.

They found that fewer than 2 percent had any spiritual or religious content. Eight commercials with religious aspects were shown a total of 16 times.

The Bible was not prominent in any of the commercials, in contrast to the well-known ad in which a monk who had meticulously illustrated a set of Scriptures used a copying machine to keep up with demand.

But there were some conventional religious symbols in some commercials. A Buick spot showed a family driving up to a church and a Coke commercial depicted a choir singing outside a church.

There also were some irreverent commercials, such as a devil beating an angel in a debate in a Wendy’s ad.

But the most significant finding in the study was how infrequent religious references appeared in the advertisements.”I guess I was a bit surprised, given all the attention to traditional values,”Maguire said in an interview.

The researchers said the findings do not necessarily mean that religion is becoming less significant in society but rather may demonstrate advertisers’ reluctance to highlight religious content that is less dramatic than high-energy activities such as skiing, jogging and surfing, and less flashy than a sexy model on a beach.

Christian Reformed Churches in Canada criticized for pro-gay stance

(RNS) An official body of the Christian Reformed Churches in Canada, the Canadian arm of the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Christian Reformed Church, has provoked a firestorm of controversy on both sides of the border by telling the Canadian government it supports legislation protecting the civil rights of gays and lesbian.

The Committee for Contact with the Government, the official lobbying group of the Canadian Council, the denomination’s top body in Canada, said the federal legislature should enact”appropriate legislation … ensuring that there is protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation with regard to housing, employment and services.” The brief, as the official statement to the government is called, also suggested the legislation somehow accommodate same-sex partnerships, arguing that”mutually supportive relationships of a private and perhaps intimate nature other than those understood by the familiar and historic terms”of family and marriage”should be given a wholly new designation.” It said it did not support the use of the word”family”to describe such relationships but said”such units might be referred to as domestic partnerships (and) that they should be formally registered much like `traditional’ marriages.” The brief has set off a volley of protests in the CRC, a conservative denomination of 211,000 members that traces its roots back to the Netherlands.”Whatever we say to the government, we do not want in any way, especially at the present time, to speak of registered domestic partnerships,”the Rev. John Hellinga told a Jan. 28 session of the Classis Chatham (Canada). A classis is a group of congregations similar to a presbytery.

The classis is demanding that the committee’s action be rescinded and that the Canadian Council”reject and oppose any attempt to give legal recognition to homosexual relations.”

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Phil Wogaman

(RNS) The Rev. Phil Wogaman, author and senior pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., addressed the topic of interracial adoptions in a recent column distributed by United Methodist News Service:”Racial categories have been very real historically, but I am struck by how arbitrary they are. For instance, those who object to cross-racial adoption might ponder whether a cross-racial couple could adopt, and if so, which race.

And, since many people _ including African-Americans _ are of mixed ancestry, which part of the mixture should define the child? Besides, isn’t our identity as children of God vastly more important than any racial or ethnic category?”

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