c. 1998 Religion News Service
Synagogues urged to note murder of abortion doctor
(RNS) Reform Jewish synagogues have been urged to note the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian during Sabbath services this week (Oct. 29-30).
The request was made by the movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which emphasized in a memo to its 870 affiliated synagogues across North America that Slepian belonged to a Reform congregation.
Slepian, an obstetrician-gynecologist who performed abortions, was killed by a bullet fired through his Amherst, N.Y.-kitchen window last Friday night (Oct. 23). Ironically, he had just returned home from a synagogue service at which he had marked the anniversary of his father’s death.
Although a member of Reform Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, N.Y., on the night he was murdered Slepian had attended services at Temple Beth El, a Conservative synagogue in Tonawanda, N.Y., to which he formerly belonged, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service reported.
Both Reform and Conservative Judaism are pro-choice in the abortion dispute.
In suggested sermon material sent by the UAHC to Reform synagogues, Reform rabbis were urged to”celebrate”Slepian’s life for the”rich and loving example he set,”while also condemning”the terrorism that brought an end to his life.” Slepian, 52, was buried Monday. In the days since his death, a variety of religious leaders _ anti-abortion as well as pro-choice _ have condemned Slepian’s murder, presumed to be the work of a radical anti-abortionist.
Richard Land, president of the staunchly anti-abortion Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for example, said”killing a human being who happens to be an abortion doctor in the name of the pro-life cause is obscene. It is grotesque to think a person can further the pro-life cause with the wanton, premeditated, execution-style murder of another human being.” Slepian’s death marked the fifth sniper attack on an abortion doctor in Canada and upstate New York since 1994. However, Slepian was the first to die in such an attack.
In a show of support, doctors from across the nation have volunteered to come to GYN Womenservices, the Buffalo-area abortion clinic where Slepian sometimes worked, to perform abortions, according to clinic executive director Melinda DuBois.
Wednesday (Oct. 28) in Washington, a memorial service sponsored by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice”to honor”Slepian was held outside the Capitol. The coalition has also scheduled a”national weekend of prayer, meditation and faithful action Nov. 20-22 following the traditional 30-day Jewish mourning period for Slepian.
Tutu praises country for coming to grips with apartheid-era abuses
(RNS) Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, head of a panel that has been investigating human rights abuses committed during the apartheid-era, says his country should be proud of itself for the way it has handled its transition to democracy.”We are a fantastic people,”Tutu said Wednesday (Oct. 28), on the eve of the scheduled release of his Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report.”We don’t give ourselves enough credit.” Tutu, a leading player in the fight against ending South Africa’s system of racial separation, has also been a key figure in efforts to have the country squarely face the abuses of the past and in reconciling the nation’s black and white populations.”We are doing something that the world is hungry for,”Tutu said of the truth panel’s effort.”In the crazy way that God does things, we have been given this remarkable role to be an example,”he said.
Tutu made his remarks as South Africa’s last apartheid-era leader, F.W. de Klerk, went to court to block the panel’s report, objecting that despite his role in negotiating an end to apartheid the panel reportedly labeled him”an accessory after the fact”to bombing in the 1980s of the headquarters of a church group and a labor federation.
Later, Tutu said the commission would”excise”de Klerk’s name from the report to avoid delaying its publication.”It upsets me deeply,”Tutu said of de Klerk’s resort to the courts.”We have been scrupulously fair to Mr. de Klerk and we reject the contention that we have been engaged in a vendetta against him.” The truth commission report is expected to be both a broad and detailed summary of South Africa’s human rights history from 1960 to 1994, the Associated Press reported.
Gay church sues Chicago TV station for rejecting `infomercial’
(RNS) The nation’s largest gay-oriented church has filed suit against a Chicago television station, contending the station broke an agreement to broadcast an”infomercial”intended to counter a spate of newspaper ads by conservative groups featuring people who said they had”overcome”their homosexuality.”We just wanted to make our voice heard against the overwhelming onslaught of people using the media to say how bad gay people are,”said the Rev. Michael Piazza, pastor of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, the congregation that produced the”infomercial.” Leaders of the congregation, which is affiliated with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, said they believe the station _ WGN-TV _ backed out of the agreement because they thought the production was too controversial and rejected the”infomercial””based on their views that this is not appropriate content”for the stations which WGN reaches through its satellite feed to cable companies, The New York Times reported Wednesday (Oct. 28).
Charles J. Sennett, senior counsel for the Tribune Company, which owns WGN-TV, declined to comment, The Times reported, but said the company would respond in court.
Phil Rozansky, president of Tower Media Advertising in Chicago, who worked with the church in getting the”infomercial”placed with WGN-TV, said the church’s version of the events as contained in the complaint differ from his experience.”I think what they’re trying to do is make this a political issue and a slam against gay rights,”he told The Times.”They’re jumping to conclusions and making accusations that are not appropriate and do not logically follow the facts.” Rozansky said he was working with the congregation to make changes sought by WGN”and they (the church) told me they were willing to make those changes, but then they brought in the lawyers.” The 30-minute production begins with a montage of anti-gay demonstrators and anti-gay speeches but then contrasts those images with pictures of happy church members, both gay and straight, and the church’s inclusive philosophy.
Clinton signs religious freedom act into law
(RNS) As expected, President Clinton has signed into law the International Religious Freedom Act recently passed by the Congress.
Clinton signed the bill without fanfare late Tuesday (Oct. 27).
The act mandates that the White House and State Department consider the level of religious freedom in foreign lands when dealing with their governments.
The act also calls for the White House to select from a broad range of options in responding to religious persecution abroad, from sending a private diplomatic note to invoking economic sanctions. But in a compromise measure that allowed the act to gain congressional approval, the president may also do nothing if that is determined to be in the best interest of the United States or those being persecuted.
Republican Sen. Don Nickles, the assistant majority leader and prime sponsor of the act, said the new law”will provide the United States with an array of foreign policy tools to combat religious persecution and to promote religious freedom.” Nickles also said the act”may well be the most significant foreign policy achievement”passed by the Congress this year.
Quote of the Day: Barry Lopez
(RNS)”We have taken the most obvious kind of wealth from this continent and overlooked the more lasting, the more valuable and sustaining experience of intimacy with it, the spiritual dimension of a responsible involvement with this place.” _ Nature writer and environmentalist Barry Lopez, quoted in the November/December issue of”Sierra”magazine.
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