c. 1998 Religion News Service

Methodist education agency accused of liberal bias

(RNS) Good News, the unofficial evangelical caucus within the United Methodist Church, has accused the denomination’s University Senate of”liberal bias.” The University Senate is the agency that determines which seminaries may be attended by United Methodist ministerial students.

It cited the Senate’s withdrawal of approval from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an interdenominational evangelical school in South Hamilton, Mass., as the most recent example of the Senate’s bias.”We see no reason for this other than a systematic theological bias and discrimination,”said the Rev. Wiley Case, pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Kokomo, Ind., and a Good News board member.”It further alienates responsible evangelicals as the denomination withdraws further into a narrow, parochial stance of liberalism and post-modernism. It is creating a liberal exclusiveness.” The charges against the Senate were part of a resolution adopted by the 40-member Good News board of directors, which met Aug. 12-14 in Wilmore, Ky. The Methodist agency had no immediate comment on the resolution.

Neither the church nor its official news agency said why Gordon-Conwell had been removed from the list of approved seminaries.

In other action at the meeting, the board commended the church’s Judicial Council for its recent ruling stating the church’s ban on clergy performing same-sex union ceremonies was church law and not simply a guideline.

Virginia law requiring parental notification on abortion upheld

(RNS) An appellate court has upheld a 1997 Virginia law mandating girls younger than 18 to notify a parent before they can have an abortion.

The 56-page opinion, issued Thursday (Aug. 20) by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, called the right of parents to know if a teen-aged daughter is planning an abortion”fully compatible”with abortion rights upheld by the Supreme Court, The Washington Post reported.”To hold otherwise, we are convinced, would be to turn child from parent and parent from child _ at the very moment in life when each is most in need of the other,”the court stated.

Virginia’s Republican leaders praised the ruling while abortion rights advocates considered whether to appeal the decision.”Today’s unanimous decision … is a tremendous victory,”said state Attorney General Mark L. Earley, a Republican who sponsored the measure when he was a state senator.

He views the law as”a carefully considered effort to protect minors, their parents and families from the devastating consequences of secret and hasty abortions.” It requires girls younger than 18 to tell a parent if they plan to have an abortion but does not mandate they get consent from the parent. The requirement to notify a parent can be waived if a girl can convince a judge that she is mature enough to make the decision alone.

Karen A. Raschke, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood in Richmond, voiced disappointment with the ruling.”The majority opinion asserts there’s a huge difference between a notice law and a consent law,”she said.”But to a young woman, it’s the same thing: Do I tell my parent or not?” Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote in the principal opinion that parents have a right to know when their children face”life-defining decisions.” He said:”A mother and father who assume the responsibility of the highest calling in life are entitled to the fullest possible measure … of constitutional encouragement in their sacred endeavor.”

Zambia’s churches unite in plea for debt cancellation

(RNS) Three major church organizations in Zambia, bringing together the nation’s main Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant and evangelical Christian church bodies, have joined in calling for the cancellation of the nation’s $7.1 billion foreign debt.”Zambia’s total debt is unpayable,”said the Zambia (Roman Catholic) Episcopal Conference, Christian Council of Zambia and Evangelical Fellowship Zambia in a joint pastoral letter.”Zambia cannot pay back because the debt burden is economically exhausting,”the letter added.”Zambia will not pay back because the debt burden is politically destabilizing, ethically unacceptable and hurts the poorest in our midst.” Fackson Banda, a spokesman for the CCZ, said the churches were not asking for”debt forgiveness because that suggests acknowledgment of guilt.”But our incurring of the debt has not been primarily our fault,”he said.”That’s why we ask for cancellation of an unpayable burden that is harming our people very much.” Although the government has kept up to date with its debt payment _ over $300 million in 1997 _ 70 percent of the country lives in poverty.

Ignatius Mwebe, secretary general of the Catholic episcopal conference, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that”more money is being spent (in Zambia) on debt servicing than all education and health expenditures combined.” He added:”In a country where 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the fact that money is spent on debt servicing instead of meeting the needs of the people has tragic consequences.” South Korean Catholic priest faces arrest for North Korea visit

(RNS) A South Korean Roman Catholic priest may face arrest for engaging in political activities during a recent visit to North Korea, South Korean officials have said.

The priest, the Rev. Moon Kyu-hyon, and eight other Catholic priests were allowed to make a weeklong visit to North Korea on condition they attend only religious functions marking the Aug. 15 Korean Independence Day, the Associated Press reported.

However, government officials said Moon attended a series of political functions. Moon has been a supporter of Korean unification and in 1990 was convicted of making an unauthorized visit to North Korean. He served three years in prison before being granted amnesty.

No one from either side of the 38th parallel, which divides the two Koreas, can visit the other side without government approval, which is rarely given.

Quote of the day: Pablo Beltran, Colombian guerrilla leader

(RNS)”In Colombia, we need social justice before (there can be) peace. We were forced to use armed struggle because there was no other way to achieve social justice. So when we get to the state of social justice and democratic participation there will be no more reason for armed struggle.” _ Pablo Beltran, a member of the central command of the Army of National Liberation, the smaller of two main guerrilla groups in Colombia who was in Geneva for talks with four international religious groups, including the World Council of Churches. Beltran made his remarks in an interview with Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

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