c. 1998 Religion News Service
Federal task force to address abortion provider attacks
(RNS) A new federal task force will investigate various threats and attacks on abortion providers, the Justice Department has announced.
The task force’s work will include investigations of shootings of abortion doctors in upstate New York, an Internet site that lists doctors who have been shot as”fatality”or”wounded,”and bomb threats and fake anthrax contamination letters at clinics.”We are now heavily engaged in developing a new plan which will build on what we’ve done already,”said Associate Attorney General Raymond C. Fisher, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official.
He said the new effort was sparked by the Oct. 23 killing of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian of Buffalo, N.Y., as well as the wounding of four other abortion providers in New York and Canada during the past four years.
The threats to clinics were an additional motivating factor. Ten clinics in four states received letters during the last week of October with false claims that they contained deadly anthrax spores. One clinic also got a false bomb in the mail.”It’s a very, very troubling development because you have women and health care providers who are engaged in what is their perfect right, constitutional right, to have health care services,”Fisher said.”And you have violence which is being directed at these people, and it’s not something we can tolerate.” The multiagency effort will follow the model of a task force established in 1996 to investigate a spate of arsons at predominantly African-American churches. The FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, doctors, abortion rights groups and local law enforcement representatives in upstate New York and Canada have been included in discussions about security and investigative measures.
In the Slepian investigation, the FBI is seeking James Charles Kopp, an anti-abortion activist, as a material witness. A car registered in his name was seen near Slepian’s home at the time of the doctor’s murder. He also has been identified as the person who delivered anti-abortion packages to a Canadian newspaper, the Associated Press reported.
In a related matter, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is sponsoring a National Interfaith Weekend of Prayer and Reflection Nov. 20-22 to honor Slepian. The weekend falls at the end of the traditional Jewish 30-day period of mourning. The Washington-based coalition, which has chosen the theme”End the Violence, End the Silence: A Tribute to Dr. Slepian,”is encouraging people of various faiths to speak out against violence during that time.
U.S. health department, faith groups encourage organ donors
(RNS) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has joined forces with faith groups to encourage Americans to consider organ and tissue donations, especially during National Donor Sabbath, to be marked Nov. 13-15.
National Donor Sabbath is part of the National Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative that was launched last December by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and Vice President Al Gore. Thousands of congregations of a range of faiths are expected to observe the special weekend with representatives of transplant organizations.”Many Americans turn to religious leaders for guidance about end-of-life decisions, and we hope that organ and tissue donation can be part of that discussion when appropriate,”said Shalala in a statement.”Nearly all religions support organ and tissue donation as one of the highest expressions of compassion and generosity.” An average of 11 people die each day waiting for a transplant because of the critically low number of organs donated in this country. More than 58,000 people are waiting for a healthy organ to replace a failing heart, liver, kidney, lung or pancreas. Fewer than 20,000 people received an organ transplant last year.
A recent study conducted for HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration found that only 2 percent of relatives of potential donors who had died in the previous year had heard about tissue and organ donation from a clergy member.”The religious community has a unique responsibility to help Americans learn about organ and tissue donation before a crisis arises,”said the Rev. Clark Lobenstine, executive director of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.
Other supporters of National Donor Sabbath include the Congress of National Black Churches, the General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the National Council of Churches, the Rabbinical Council of America, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the National Spiritual Assembly of Baha’is.
Bangladesh Muslim writer ordered to face blasphemy charge
(RNS) A Bangladesh court has given writer Taslima Nasrin until Jan. 5 to surrender and face charges of blaspheming Islam, even as Muslim extremists have offered new rewards for finding her.
The feminist writer is in hiding in Bangladesh after returning home secretly in September to care for her dying mother. Nasrin, 36, had spent the previous four years in exile after fundamentalists posted a $5,000 reward for her death.
Wednesday (Nov. 4), a branch of the South Asian nation’s main Muslim fundamentalist political party offered another $2,000 reward for finding Nasrin. A day earlier, Nasrin’s attorney told a court in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, that his client feared she would be killed if she appeared for trial, the Agence France Press news agency reported.
Nasrin has been a target for extremists since 1994. Her problems began when she was accused of blasphemy for saying the Koran, Islam’s holy book, should be rewritten. She denied having said that, but admitted to saying that male-dominated Islamic society needed reform.
Her novel,”Lajja”(Shame), has been banned in Bangladesh because it criticizes the nation’s Muslims for persecuting minority Hindus.
Nasrin’s situation is reminiscent of writer Salman Rushdie, who for nearly a decade has lived in hiding after Iranian Muslim leaders condemned him to death for allegedly blaspheming Islam.
Billy Graham turns 80
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham turns 80 Saturday (Nov. 7) and plans to continue a busy crusade schedule in the coming year.”I’ll be 80 this week and I’m looking forward to that, and I’m looking forward to my 90th birthday,”he said in a statement.”I want to hang around so I can help others and steer them and encourage them.” Graham, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, completed a crusade in the Tampa Bay area in late October. He began his ministry in that region more than six decades ago.
The evangelist plans to continue to hold crusades in Indianapolis in June and in St. Louis in October. He also is preparing for an international evangelism conference called Amsterdam 2000, that is scheduled to be held July 29-Aug. 6, 2000 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Graham said he declined numerous invitations to host a celebration in his honor. Instead, he planned to have a quiet, private lunch with his family.”That’s not the one I want to celebrate,”he said.”I want to celebrate my 100th birthday.”
Berlin court says Muslim students entitled to religious instruction
(RNS) A Berlin court has ruled that the German city’s 32,000 Muslim school children are entitled to voluntary religious instruction in public schools.
Until now, classes for Roman Catholic and Protestant students have been the only ones offered. Muslim instruction had long been resisted by Berlin officials.
However, Barbara John, Berlin’s commissioner for foreign affairs, welcomed the court decision.”We delayed this much too long, and the result was the decision ended up in court,”John told the New York Times.”The fact is, there is a growing phobia about Islam in European countries linked to television images of Iraq, Algeria and Iran, and that fear is gravely misplaced.” At the same time, some Berlin Muslims said the Islamic Federation, which pushed the court case, is a radical political group unrepresentative of the city’s 220,000-member community.
The federation represents just 12 of the 70 mosques in Berlin, and its chairman, Nail Dural, advocates the establishment of an Islamic state in secular Turkey. Turkey is the homeland of 70 percent of Berlin’s Muslim residents.
Berlin’s liberal Turkish Union urged Muslim parents to keep their children out of religious classes run by the federation. Religious instruction is mandatory in most of Germany, but is voluntary in Berlin.
New sex abuse suits filed against Dallas Catholic diocese
(RNS) The Roman Catholic diocese of Dallas announced Thursday (Nov. 5) it faces two more sexual abuse lawsuits _ just four months after agreeing to the largest-ever sexual abuse settlement.
The lawsuits, similar to the $23.4 million settlement in July, charge former priests Rudy Kos, a target of the earlier lawsuit, and Robert Peebles, of sexually molesting three young boys in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The diocese said it made the unusual move of releasing the charges because it objected to the same law firm _ Windle Turley _ seeking additional money after the July settlement in which”the church negotiated in good faith.” The diocese said that during the”serious, tough negotiations”that led to the July settlement, the law firm indicated it did not have additional cases against the church.
The law firm disputed the account, saying in a statement that”these three victims, all who have been known to the diocese for years, have every right to assert their own injury claims just as they have done.””It is truly unfortunate,”the law firm said,”that the DioceseâÂ?¦will not face up to the reality that it has more victims in need of care and counseling. The diocesan attitude makes the bishops’ apology ring hollow.” The original lawsuit involved 11 plaintiffs, including eight former altar boys, who charged that Kos sexually abused them _ and that diocese officials covered it up _ for more than a decade, according to the Associated Press.
Kos, who has been defrocked, is serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting the young boys. Peebles has also been subject to sexual abuse charges for which the diocese has paid $5 million to settle.
English Catholics circulating spoof on Vatican campaign on dissent
(RNS) The Vatican has excommunicated St. Paul!
Or so it would seem.
English Roman Catholics _ especially those who disapprove of the Vatican’s crackdown on dissenting views _ are getting great amusement these days from a spoof notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”concerning the writings of St. Paul of Tarsus”.
The bogus notification takes issue with a host of St. Paul’s New Testament writings, noting, for example that St. Paul’s references to women as”apostles”in his Letter to the Romans”directly contradicts the teaching of the pontiff on the issue of the ordination of women.” Further, St. Paul found cause for conflict with”Pope St. Peter”_ a reference to the apostle Peter believed to be the first pope, and that Paul himself admitted to”wilful disagreement with the Holy Father (Gal. 2:1).” The satirical document makes the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, declare that”in order to protect the good of the Christian faithful”these biblical positions”are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.” An”explanatory note”adds that”St. Paul’s canonization may be revoked”and his basilica in Rome”is to be rededicated to the late Mother Teresa.” In addition,”Catholic motel owners are warned to expunge the writings of St. Paul from all Gideons’ Bibles in all motel suites, even at the risk of disturbing honeymooners.”
Quote of the day:”Gigi”Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s daughter
(RNS)”The Episcopalians were very polite. They drove by but they didn’t stop and get out to look. The Presbyterians were a little bolder since Mom was a Presbyterian. They stopped to look but they didn’t come very close. Then a bus parked in the driveway and people piled into the yard, taking pictures, peeking into the windows, calling us by name, asking to come in. Those were the Baptists.” Virginia”Gigi”Graham Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s oldest daughter, quipping in a Baptist Press article about how church groups would treat her Montreat, N.C., home as a tourist attraction on Sunday afternoons when she was growing up. Baptist Press is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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