c. 1998 Religion News Service

House school prayer backer says measure’s passage is iffy

(RNS) On the eve of a scheduled House vote, the chief backer of a controversial bid to amend the Constitution to allow voluntary group prayer in public schools said prospects for passage of the measure are anything but certain.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to hold a final vote Thursday (June 4) on the Religious Freedom Amendment, which has been heavily pushed by Christian conservatives. The measure would guarantee students the right to hold voluntary group prayers in public schools and allow public officials to display religious objects _ such as replicas of the Ten Commandments _ in courtrooms and other public facilities.

At a Washington news conference Wednesday, Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. said he expected a House majority to support the bill. But gaining the two-thirds majority required for passage of a proposed constitutional amendment will be tough, he added.”I can’t say if it will get two-thirds,”Istook said.

Meanwhile, opponents of the measure gleefully predicted the amendment will not get the necessary plurality.”It’s a sure defeat that’s only a political exercise at this point,”said Rob Boston, assistant communications director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based watchdog group.”They’re going through the motions so that the Christian Coalition voter guide can point to congressman so-and-so and say, `Look, he voted against what they call religious freedom,'”he said.

Boston predicted as many as 200 of the 434 House members will vote against the measure, which is opposed by President Clinton and a number of liberal and middle-of-the-road Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other groups.

Opponents say the measure is unnecessary and, if passed, would weaken church-state separation.

However, Istook said the proposed amendment would pass if”the members of Congress are in tune with the American people.”He cited numerous surveys over the years showing nearly three-fourths of Americans surveyed say they support school prayer.

To underscore his point, Istook displayed 1 million petition signatures in support of the amendment gathered by the popular Christian performer Carman at his concerts around the nation.

Carman, who joined Istook on Capitol Hill Wednesday, blamed a myriad of social ills _ including escalating teen pregnancy rates and school violence _ on Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s that disallowed school prayer.”When we took God out of the classroom, we had to put metal detectors in the classroom ultimately,”he said.

Should the House approve the measure by a two-thirds vote, the Senate would have to follow suit. Two-thirds of the states also would have to ratify the amendment for it to become law.

Clinton’s China MFN request attacked by Christian conservatives

(RNS) President Clinton’s Wednesday (June 3) announcement that he will again request”most favored nation”status for China to facilitate trade and strategic relations with Beijing drew immediate criticism from Christian conservatives.

The president, speaking at the White House, said he was asking Congress to again back his China policy because”not to renew (MFN status) would be to sever our economic and, to a large measure, our strategic relationship with China, turning our back on a fourth of the world at a time when our cooperation for world peace and security is especially important, in light of recent events in South Asia.” The reference to South Asia was to recent nuclear tests by China’s neighbors Pakistan and India.

However, Gary Bauer, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, dismissed Clinton’s argument as”part of an overall abandonment of the president’s previous commitment to get serious about China’s flagrant disregard for basic human rights.” Bauer _ who has indicated he may run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 _ is a leader in the ranks of Christian conservatives who want the White House to forcefully confront China because of what they say is that nation’s systematic repression of religious freedom in particular and human rights in general.

The China MFN debate has become an annual Washington vehicle for debating China’s record and administration policy. This year, the issue’s profile is even more hightened by the president’s scheduled late-June visit to China and growing Washington scandals involving campaign fund raising and the transfer of U.S. missile technology to Beijing.

Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., a favorite of Christian conservatives and another possible presidential candidate, also criticized Clinton’s call for renewed MFN status for China.”The administration must stop being a doormat for the oppressors of the Chinese people,”Ashcroft said.

House passes `tithing bill’ protecting gifts from donor’s creditors

(RNS) The House of Representatives Wednesday (June 3) unanimously passed legislation that insures secular charities and religious institutions can retain donations given by donors who later file for bankruptcy.

The”tithing bill,”as the measure was called, adds language to the federal bankruptcy code that makes sure the institutions cannot be forced to give the donations to creditors of the bankrupt donor.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation and President Clinton is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation was offered in response to a case in which a bankruptcy trustee demanded the return of $13,450 given to Crystal Evangelical Free Church of Minneapolis by a couple in the year prior to their bankruptcy filing.”Many churches and charities survive solely on day-to-day contributions,”said Rep. Ron Packard, R-Calif., the bill’s primary House sponsor.”It’s absolutely unbelievable that a place of worship or a charity can be held responsible for a debt they had nothing to do with.”I don’t think we should be telling people that they can’t practice their faith because they are having financial problems. It’s absurd and it’s un-American,”he added.

After an appeals court ruled against the Minneapolis court in 1992, similar attempts by creditors to gain access to funds given as donations to churches surfaced in Kentucky, Oregon and elsewhere, according to the Center for Law and Religious Freedom, an Annandale, Va.-group that supported Packard’s bill, formally known as the Religious Freedom and Charitable Donation Protection Act.

Russian religious leaders condemn attacks on places of worship

(RNS) In an unusual show of solidarity, officials of Russia’s leading but often feuding religious faiths have united to express condemnation of a recent spate of attacks on places of worship across the country.

The condemnation was issued at a May 19 news conference by Russian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist leaders and was prompted by a bomb attack May 13 on a synagogue in Moscow in which two construction workers were injured.

Participants also mentioned a clash between Buddhist monks and local police in Siberia over the moving of a priceless Buddhist atlas and arson attacks on two Russian Orthodox in the Kostroma region of Russia.”We are deeply concerned by the terrorist acts directed against sacred places and the heightening of interethnic conflicts in traditionally calm regions of Russia,”the religious leaders said.”There is no vindication for those who foment hatred or commit sacrilege, vandalism, violence and even murder,”they said.”The words `peace’ and `accord’ will have little significance until society and the authorities are aware of their responsibilities to one another and to future generations.”

Florida bishop resigns over pedophilia accusations

(RNS) Bishop Joseph Keith Symons of the diocese of Palm Beach resigned Tuesday (June 2) after admitting to allegations he sexually molested teenage boys earlier in his career, according to wire service reports.”Early in my 40 years of priestly ministry, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with minors,”the 65-year old Symons said.

John Paul accepted Symons’ resignation effective Tuesday and appointed Bishop Robert Lynch of the diocese St. Petersburg as apostolic administrator for the Palm Beach Diocese until Symons’ successor is named.

Lynch said Symons left Palm Beach on Monday for treatment at an undisclosed location.

Accusations against Symons arose five weeks ago when a middle-aged man reported to church officials the bishop had sexually molested him as a teen.

Lynch did not specify where or when the actions happened but said at least five boys, all parishioners and probably all altar boys, were abused. He said Symons told him he had not molested anyone for 25 years. “I want to believe him,”Lynch said.”But sometimes (pedophiles) are in such deep denial that they don’t remember what they did.” After several years of abusing children, Symons said he consulted another priest, who told him to stop drinking alcohol and uphold his vow of celibacy.

Lynch said the spiritual adviser should not be faulted for not telling Symons to seek help immediately at the time of the confession. “Pedophilia wasn’t even in the psychological manuals when this abuse happened,”Lynch said.”The old theory was: make a good confession and sin no more. We never realized it was a disease.”

Mount St. Helens provides fodder for creationist cause

(RNS) Studies of the effects of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens are causing some geologists to rethink their positions on creationism, according to John Morris, a leading advocate of biblical creationism.

Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego told an audience at Heritage Baptist Church in Oklahoma City last month (May 24) about the growing acceptance creationist thought is finding in the scientific community, reported Baptist Press, the official news agency of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Traditionally, he said geologists have used what he called the principle of uniformity to study the Earth. This approach looks at the past with only evidence that can be seen in the present.

The Bible, however, presents what Morris called”catastrophism”_ the view that major changes in the earth’s crust have happened because of catastrophes instead of gradual changes over time.

Morris, who has a doctoral degree in geological engineering from the University of Oklahoma, said the eruption of Mount St. Helens presented a”catastrophe”scientists could observe and apply to geological formations.

The eruption caused canyons to form after massive explosions underneath the layered debris of glacier water, lava and rocks that the volcano pushed down the mountain.

These canyons mirrored similar rock formations around the world, including the Grand Canyon, Morris said. Before studying the eruption, most scientists thought the Colorado River carved out the Grand Canyon through the gradual process of water erosion. But now, those views are shifting. “Mount St. Helens caused the field of geology to become more catastrophic in its view,”Morris said.”Evolutionists started to realize that catastrophic mud flows may have laid down the layers in the Grand Canyon.” He added:”The point is, God’s Word is true and we can trust it, even when we talk about ancient history.

Quote of the day: Dr. Christiane Welflens

(RNS)”Twenty percent of the women who die during pregnancy die from the consequences of clandestine abortion. This represents the central drama of reproductive health in Africa. And the women who do not die are condemned to bear heavy consequences for their health far into the future, from sterility to chronic pain to psychological scars.” _ Dr. Christiane Welflens, director of obstetrics at Yopougon University Hospital Center, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, quoted by The New York Times in an article June 3 on illegal abortions in Africa.

DEA END RNS