c. 1998 Religion News Service
House adds voucher amendment as it approves D.C. budget
(RNS) The House of Representatives has tacked on a controversial school voucher amendment to its approval of the 1999 budget for the District of Columbia, a move that is expected to prompt a presidential veto.
The $6.8 billion budget was approved Friday (Aug. 6).
The amendment would provide some poor children with as much as $3,200 each to pay tuition at private religious or secular schools. House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey, R-Texas, the amendment’s proposer, said District children deserve a decent education in a safe setting and the vouchers would not harm Washington’s public schools.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., countered that Republicans know the voucher program is unconstitutional and will cause the president to veto the city’s budget, The Washington Post reported.”This bill has become an excuse for indulging the controversial, social and financial whims of some members of this body,”Norton said.”That is unfair to you, it’s unfair to me, and it’s unfair to District residents.” The White House issued a statement saying the pilot voucher program would set a”dangerous precedent”and that the president would veto the bill.”We would strongly oppose any legislation allowing the use of federal taxpayer funds for private school vouchers,”the White House said.”Instead of investing additional resources in public schools, vouchers would allow a few selected students to attend private schools and would draw resources and attention away from the hard work of reforming public schools.” In May, the president vetoed a free-standing voucher bill for the District that would have set aside vouchers of up to $3,200 for 2,000 children in Washington.
Then, as well as now, members of Congress said they lacked the necessary votes to override the veto.
The Senate is not expected to vote on the District’s budget bill until September, but congressional staffers said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., has indicated he will add a voucher amendment to the Senate’s version of the measure.
Muslim group opens Washington lobbying effort
(RNS) A new Muslim group made its Washington debut this week, promising to end”animosity”toward American Muslims through its involvement in the political process and with the media.
The Islamic Supreme Council of America _ until now a primarily West Coast entity based in Mountain View, Calif. _ made its presence known in Washington with a three-day conference that opened Friday (Aug. 7) and featured an international array of speakers. The council recently opened a Washington office.
A council spokeswoman said some 3,000 people had registered for the conference.
Among the speakers was the president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, and Muslim religious and political representatives from Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Malaysia, Senegal, Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, several former Soviet republics and elsewhere.
They were joined by leading American Muslim academics and activists, who urged American Muslims to put aside their differences and become involved in American politics at all levels. American democracy, said George Washington University professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, gives Muslims”a much better chance to make our presence felt and to be in dialogue with others”compared to situations in other nations.
Despite its name, the council by no means speaks for all American Muslims, who are represented in the United States by a number of organizations. Rather, it is the creation of Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, the council’s chairman who said he hoped to unite Muslims currently divided by ethnic and theological differences.
However, some established American Muslim political activists, who declined to be named, told Religion News Service that Kabbani’s acceptance is limited among many mainstream Muslims because of his close association with Islam’s mystical Sufi wing.
Dilshad Fakroddin, a Kabbani spokeswoman, dismissed such comments as”a certain amount of professional jealousy”over the charismatic leader’s success in attracting scores of followers in recent years.
Iftekar A. Hai, an official with the San Francisco-based United Muslims of America, said Kabbani also runs into trouble with conservative Muslims because he is”more liberal”and decidedly open to working closely with non-Muslims and women.
In remarks opening the conference, Kabbani decried the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists.
Islam, he said, does not support terrorism and the”silent majority of Muslims in the United States condemns any act of terrorism anywhere.” Hedieh Mirahmadi, the council’s general secretary, said the group would”work within the existing system”to”provide positive Muslim role models”and make it”just a matter of time until others will love Islam as much as we do.”
Gospel artist Kirk Franklin to assist burned congregations
(RNS) Gospel artist Kirk Franklin, a product of the church, now plans to help congregations that have been the victim of fires rebuild their sanctuaries.
Franklin and Gospel Centric and Interscope Records have announced plans to contribute a total of $250,000 to the National Council of Churches Burned Churches Fund.
The donation will come from anticipated profits from Franklin’s”The Nu Nation Project”album scheduled for release Sept. 22.”We are grateful that Kirk Franklin and his record company are focusing attention on the continuing burning of churches and synagogues,”said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary, in a statement.”As a gospel artist, his gift is especially fitting since many of the churches that have been burned are precisely the ones whose tradition gave birth to gospel music.” Campbell said the council will have assisted in the rebuilding of 156 burned churches by year’s end.”However, sadly, we know of at least 20 churches at the present moment trying to figure out how to rebuild,”she said.”Yet because church burnings are no longer in the national spotlight, it has been more difficult to raise money.” Franklin’s new album will include the song”Lean On Me,”written and produced by him and featuring the artist performing with others, including, U2’s Bono, R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Crystal Lewis as well as Franklin’s group, The Family.”I was raised in the church,”Franklin said.”It is important that we support the churches and synagogues that have been burned or defaced. I couldn’t help but help. Those churches are part of me.” Franklin, who has won numerous awards for his work, brings renewed attention to a cause the NCC has championed for a few years.
In June 1996, the council brought nationwide attention to church burnings by bringing pastors of burned churches to Washington to meet with federal officials. Since that time, the NCC has raised more than $9 million cash and $2.4 in material gifts to help burned churches. The council has awarded close to $7 million in reconstruction grants and has spent $1.25 million on racial justice and reconciliation efforts.
Vatican, Israel squabble over appointment of Greek Catholic archbishop
(RNS) Israel and the Vatican have traded words over the appointment of a Greek Catholic archbishop for Israel’s Galilee region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday (Aug. 6) he was upset with the Vatican’s selection of Bishop Boutros Mouallem, a Palestinian living in Brazil, to become archbishop of the Galilee Greek Catholic jurisdiction.
In response, Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said in a statement that”the appointment of bishops in the Catholic Church is the reserve of the pope in the exercise of his supreme power,”Reuters news agency reported.
The Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern rite Catholic church loyal to the Vatican. The church has about 50,000 members in the Galilee, a heavily Arab region in north Israel.
Netanyahu said Mouallem’s appointment resulted from pressure from Palestinian political leaders”who oppose peace between Israel and the Palestinians.” Benedettini denied the charge.”In the nomination of His Excellency Mouallem, the synod of the Greek Catholic Church carried out its duties free of any external pressures,”he said.
The Italian news agency ANSA said Netanyahu had threatened to prevent Mouallem’s entry into Israel. Rome’s La Repubblica newspaper said Mouallem was among the refugees who fled Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Should the tiff escalate, it could threaten the always fragile relations between the Vatican and Israel, who established full diplomatic ties in 1994. Pope John Paul II has expressed a desire to visit Israel as part of a historic trip to the Holy Land to mark the year 2000.
Religious bias charged over baseball team’s ticket discount plan
(RNS) A minor league baseball team in Hagerstown, Md., is probably committing religious discrimination for offering fans a discount on tickets if they bring church bulletins to Sunday games, the Maryland Commission on Human Relations says.
The Hagerstown Suns, a Class A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, offers families of up to six people a group admission price of $6 if they bring a church bulletin, the Associated Press reported.
But Carl Silverman, of Waynesboro, Pa., said the team is violating laws against religious discrimination in places of public accommodation.”What the Suns are doing violates both state and federal anti-discrimination provisions and we hope they (the team) will agree to resolve the issue,”said Dwight Sullivan of the Maryland branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the case on Silverman’s side.
On Wednesday (Aug. 5), the Maryland human relations agency found probable cause for the discrimination claim. But the Suns said the promotion, which has been going on for five years, is not discriminatory and they have announced a”Faith Community Night”at their Aug. 17 home game to raise money for a legal defense fund.
Lambeth Conference bishops express shock at embassy bombing
(RNS) Anglican Archbishop David Gitari of Nairobi, Kenya, Friday (Aug. 7) told the Lambeth Conference he and his fellow bishops from Kenya and Tanzania were deeply shocked by the bombings at U.S. embassies in the two nations.”To hear of bombs exploding in places with which we are familiar is very shocking indeed,”Gitari said in a brief speech at the meeting of the world’s Anglican bishops.
Emphasizing that political differences cannot be resolved by using violence, Gitari said:”Those responsible for this should hear that the entire world gathered here condemns them for the action they have taken.” Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, sent the governments of the United States, Kenya, and Tanzania a message in the name of the conference condemning the bombings.
Quote of the Day: St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of Kensington, Md.
(RNS)”Come in for a faith lift.” _ Sign outside St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Kensington, Md.
DEA END RNS
