c. 1998 Religion News Service

FCC grants religious broadcasters’ petition on employment requirements

(RNS) The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a proposal allowing religious broadcasters to use religious affiliation or belief as an employment qualification for employees of a religious radio station.

The proposal overrides other anti-bias rules that forbid discrimination on the basis of religion.”We believe that it is reasonable to conclude that it may be appropriate for all employees of religious broadcasters to share a common commitment to a licensee’s basic religious objective and mission,”the FCC said in an Order and Policy Statement issued Feb. 25.”By allowing religious broadcasters to use religious belief or affiliation as a job qualification for all station jobs, we will eliminate the potential danger of impermissible governmental interference with a religious broadcaster’s judgment in the conduct and definition of its religious affairs, and … end the need for the commission’s current practice of engaging in case-by-case analysis of particular job categories to determine if they involve espousal of the licensee’s religious views,”the policy statement said.

The new policy had been pushed by the National Religious Broadcasters, the umbrella service organization for the nation’s religious broadcasters.

Before the new policy, the FCC, while generally forbidding discrimination based on religion, had permitted an exception for religious broadcasters that allowed them to use religious affiliation or belief as an employment qualification for employees hired to”espouse religious views over the air.”

Lawyers seek release of Rwandan pastor accused of genocide complicity

(RNS) Attorneys for a Rwandan pastor accused of genocide in his home country have asked a court to release the 73-year-old minister from jail in Laredo, Texas, and not to extradite him to Africa where he faces war crimes charges.

U.S. District Judge John Rainey said Monday (March 2) he would rule on whether to free Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, sometime this week but a decision on extradition would come at a later, undetermined time, Reuters said.

Ntakirutimana was jailed last week. He had previously been jailed in December, but U.S. Magistrate Marcel Notzon ruled on Dec. 17 that there was no legal requirement for the U.S. to extradite him to face the United Nations-established tribunal investigating war crimes as a result of the 1994 genocide in which militant Rwandan Hutus led in the killing of some 500,000 Tutsis in the African country. Ntakirutimana is Hutu.

The pastor is accused of having lured Tutsis to his church as a place of refuge and then brought in Hutu militia to kill the refugees.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, serving as the pastor’s attorney, argued that the U.N. has no right to set up war crimes tribunals and that the evidence against Ntakirutimana is weak.

Pregnant Scottish women responding to prelates offer to aid

(RNS) A year ago, in a move that attracted attention around the world, Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning, archbishop of Glasgow, offered financial and practical help to women with unwanted pregnancies if they would carry their babies to term.

Over the past 12 months, the cardinal’s office said Tuesday (March 3), some 250 pregnant women have taken him up on the offer.

Winning’s office said that over the past year, 46 babies, including one set of twins, have been born to women helped by the plan, while another 44 are due in the next few months. Currently, 136 women are being cared for in various practical ways.

However, nearly 12,000 abortions took place in Scotland in 1996, the last year for which figures are available _ an average of 230 a week.

Winning, however, expressed his delight in knowing that”so many young mothers who desperately wanted to keep their babies, but felt they had no way of doing so, have been helped to make the right decision.” In making his offer a year ago, the cardinal said it would all have been worthwhile if just one baby was saved.”Now, when I look at the figures, I’m bowled over to think that around 100 children are either born or about to be born whose very existence was under threat a few months ago,”he added.

Winning’s office said a number of unnamed dioceses throughout the world, including Ireland, South Africa, Canada, and the United States, have expressed interest in the program with a view to setting up similar initiatives.

NAE calls for more ministry to senior adults

(RNS) The National Association of Evangelicals adopted a resolution Tuesday (March 3) calling on its member bodies to develop”aggressive ministries to senior adults,”a fast-growing segment of society it says is not receiving enough attention.”The senior adult population in the United States of America is growing three times more rapidly than the national population rate,”the resolution said.”In spite of this fact, only 1 percent of the churches surveyed have a director of adult ministry, while 80 percent of the same churches have a volunteer or paid youth worker.” The statement noted that senior adults have experience and knowledge that should be used in congregations. It also said more churches need to make their buildings accessible to seniors who have physical limitations by providing ramps, large-print hymnals, elevators and adequate sound systems.

The Rev. Cliff Christensen, chairman of the NAE resolutions committee, said the association wanted to raise awareness about the need to reach out to the elderly.”There is no question that senior adults often are sort of forgotten in the life of the church,”he said.”There is a lot of attention paid to youth and youth activities and we forget just how much senior adults have to offer to the life of the church, their experience, their wisdom … and there are lots of ministries that they can be involved in in the life of the church as well.” The NAE, meeting in Orlando, Fla., also passed resolutions supporting public education and the building of affordable housing. A fourth resolution called on its member denominations to take official action opposing pornography.

The NAE membership includes 43,000 congregations, 49 denominations and individual congregations from an additional 27 denominations.

Report: hate groups growing in the United States

(RNS) The number of organized hate groups in the United States grew last year, mostly through the establishment of new chapters of already established white-power organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Monday (March 2).

In the report, the group said 474 hate groups and their chapters engaged in some form of racist behavior in 1997.

According to the report, most of the increase comes from growth in the number of chapters of organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and churches belonging to the Christian Identity movement, whose followers cite the Bible as the basis of their racist views.

The law center said interest in the hate groups has been fueled by the Internet, a strain of rock music that promotes white power and the approach of the millennium, which some groups consider as a potential Armageddon.

Quote of the day: The Boy Scouts and the New Jersey courts

(RNS) On Monday (March 2), the Appellate Division of New Jersey’s State Superior Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on admitting gay scoutmasters violates the state’s anti-bias laws.

Said the ruling:”There is absolutely no evidence before us, empirical or otherwise, supporting a conclusion that a gay scoutmaster, solely because he is a homosexual, does not possess the strength of character necessary to properly care for, or to impart BSA humanitarian ideals to the young boys in his charge.” Responded Scout spokesman Gregg Shields:”The Boy Scouts of America has a right as a voluntary association to reach youth with the traditional values that it has taught since 1910, and to establish membership and leadership standards. The Boy Scouts of America is not a public accommodation. It’s a voluntary association, and anyone who agrees with our principles is welcome to join.”

DEA END RNS