c. 1998 Religion News Service

U.S. church aid workers expelled from Laos

(RNS) Three U.S. Christian aid workers in Laos associated with an Arkansas church have been expelled from that southeast Asian nation following their arrest for allegedly participating in unauthorized religious activities.

The three aid workers were associated with Partners for Progress, a humanitarian aid group funded primarily by the 6th and Izard Church of Christ in Little Rock. The congregation is affiliated with Churches of Christ, a loose association of some 13,000 independent, evangelical Protestant churches.

The aid workers _ Kenneth Fox, 58, of Mesa, Ariz., and Jerry and Meg Canfield, 51 and 37 respectively, of Fort Smith, Ark. _ were detained Friday (Jan. 30) and charged with participating in an unlawful assembly, disseminating religious materials without official permission and”creating dissension between the Laotian people and their government,”the Associated Press reported.

Some 44 people, mostly Laotians, were also arrested.

The news service said a Bible study class was in progress when the arrests were made.

The aid workers were released Tuesday (Feb. 3) after spending one night in jail and three at an immigration detention facility and told to leave Laos within seven days. Bill McDonough, Partners for Progress international director, said in an interview that the three were in good condition.

The fate of the Laotians arrested is unknown.

McDonough said he was”not certain”about the details of the arrests but understood the house in which the arrests took place had received the approval of local officials to operate as a church. He said it was”logical”to assume a Bible study class or prayer service was in progress at the time of the arrests.

Laos, a communist nation, is predominantly Buddhist, but is also home to small numbers of Catholics and Protestants.

While the Laotian constitution guarantees religious freedom, a 1997 U.S. State Department report on the persecution of Christians abroad said”in practice, the (Laotian) government continues to restrict freedom of religion, especially for some Christian denominations.” Foreigners, said the report, are prohibited from proselytizing. Importing foreign religious publications and artifacts is also restricted.

The report noted that Laotian authorities often associate Christians with unwanted”foreign influences.” McDonough said the Laotian government had made it clear it does not want Partners for Progress to leave Laos, where it has provided medical aid, sanitation improvements and English-language instruction to medical workers since 1993.”We’ll probably have to rotate our personnel, but that’s all,”he said.

Partners for Progress operates in 39 nations, according to McDonough.

Army of God claims responsibility for Alabama abortion clinic bomb

(RNS) A shadowy group calling itself the Army of God has taken responsibility for the recent bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic that killed one person.

Two letters from the group _ which also took responsibility for two bombings in Atlanta last year _ were intercepted Monday (Feb.2) by federal authorities. The letters were addressed to the Atlanta office of the Reuters news agency and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper.

Officials said the letters, which were reportedly identical, were similar to those in which the group had claimed responsibility for the Atlanta bombings of an abortion clinic and a night club frequented by homosexuals. For example, all the letters were written in block type.

Woody Endersen, the federal official heading the investigation of the Atlanta bombings and the blast at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, told Reuters he believed all the letters had come from the same source.”The handwriting and other elements are identical,”he said.

The letters pertaining to the latest bombing were reportedly postmarked in Birmingham and mailed Thursday (Jan. 29) _ the same day as the bombing there. A security guard was killed in the blast and a nurse was maimed.”The bombing in Birmingham was carried out by the Army of God,”said the letters.”Let those who work in the murder mill’s around the nation be warned once more _ you will be targeted without quarter _ you are not immune from retaliation. Your commissar’s in Washington can’t protect you.” The letters also said anyone connected with the selling of the abortion pill RU-486 would be targeted.

Army of God is a name that has been used since the early 1980s by various anti-abortionists. The group’s membership is unknown.

In 1982, Army of God was linked to fires at two Florida abortion clinics, an explosion at a Falls Church, Va., abortion clinic, and the kidnapping of a doctor who performed abortions and his wife from their home in Edwardsville, Ill. Army of God claimed responsibility in each case.

Don Benny of Oxford, Wis., who called himself the Army of God leader, was convicted of all those crimes.

Castro demands end to embargo; bishops agree sanctions should be eased

(RNS) In his first speech since Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, President Fidel Castro praised Cubans for the welcome they gave the pontiff and demanded an end to the U.S. embargo against the island nation.

Meanwhile, a leading U.S. Roman Catholic official endorsed calls for an easing of the embargo.

In a four-hour talk on Cuban state television that began late Monday (Feb. 2) and continued past midnight, Castro also rejected a proposal by an anti-Castro Cuban-American exile group to provide food and medicine to Cuba, despite the three-decades-old U.S. embargo.

Castro said the proposal by the Cuban-American National Foundation was an attempt to short-circuit growing opposition in the United States to the embargo, which has helped wreck the Cuban economy. The proposal would have provided Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian aid provided Castro gave assurances the aid would not be diverted to government stores or Communist Party members.

Castro called the embargo”economic warfare against”the Cuban people, but added that Cuba”does not ask for handouts.” The embargo was also criticized Monday by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., chairman of the United States Catholic Conference’s international policy committee. The USCC is the policy arm of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a statement on behalf of the USCC, McCarrick urged Washington to end the”onerous and evidently meaningless ban”on direct flights from the United States to Cuba _ a prohibition that was suspended so that Catholic pilgrims and others could get to Cuba for the papal visit.

McCarrick also asked the U.S. government to end all restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. He noted new religious freedoms enjoyed by Cubans and hoped”further hopeful signs of positive developments”in Cuba might lead to”needed rapproachment”between Havana and Washington.

While in Cuba, the pope repeatedly criticized the embargo, which the Catholic Church argues unjustly hurts society’s most vulnerable, such as children and the ill.

As for the papal visit, which ended Jan. 25, Castro said he was proud of the reception given John Paul by the Cuban people, less than 40 percent of whom are baptized Catholics.”I need to express my deepest admiration, my recognition and gratitude to the people for their behavior and for the success achieved,”Castro said.

However, Castro made no mention of the pope’s request that a number of Cuban political prisoners be released or the pope’s criticisms of Cuban government policies.

U.S. businessman says China holds dozens of Catholic clergy

(RNS) A U.S. businessman who has established ties with the Chinese government says Beijing has detained dozens of Catholic priests and bishops over the last four years.

Businessman John Kamm, speaking on Hong Kong radio, said:”At the end of 1993, there were no priests or bishops in prison in China, to the best of our knowledge. That is manifestly not the case now. There are at least several dozen priests and bishops under some form of detention.” Kamm’s comments were reported Tuesday (Feb. 3) by the Associated Press. Kamm was not identified further.

A 1997 State Department report on persecution of Christians abroad said”four Catholic underground bishops”were among the”many Christians who remain imprisoned or detained, or whose whereabouts are unknown.” China has two Catholic churches. The state-sanctioned church, which does not recognize the authority of Pope John Paul II, has about 4 million members. The unregistered, Vatican-affiliated underground Catholic Church”claims a membership far larger”than that of the official church, according to the State Department report, although no precise figures are available.

Three U.S. religious leaders _ Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation; Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J.,; and the Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals _ are scheduled to leave Sunday (Feb. 8) on a three-week visit to China to look into allegations that religious persecution is widespread there.

Senate Democrats introduce cloning limits bill

(RNS) Senate Democrats, treading cautiously in the emotional bioethics field, Monday (Feb. 2) introduced legislation that would ban human cloning for 10 years but allow cloning of human cells and tissues for research aimed at fighting disease and infertility.”This legislation is carefully drafted to prohibit attempts to clone a human being while not impeding other vital research involving the cloning of cells, tissues, DNA and animals,”said Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., co-sponsor of the measure with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

Lawmakers have been rushing to toughen laws on bioethical matters since physicist Richard Seed announced last month his intention to clone a human within the next two years.

Late last month, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, introduced legislation for a total and permanent ban on cloning that would include the kinds of research exempted by the Democrats bill.”A temporary ban is unacceptable,”Armey said in a statement responding to the Feinstein bill.”You can’t put a statute of limitations on right and wrong. Congress should enact a permanent ban on human cloning to keep this frighting idea the province of the mad scientists of science fiction.” Senate Republicans said they also plan to introduce a cloning bill that would ban the cloning technique Scottish scientists used last year to clone a sheep.

Armey promised a House vote on the Republican ban before the end of the month and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the Senate could vote as early as the end of this week.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine said it favored the Democratic proposal because it allowed for continued research and its spokesman said the GOP was mixing abortion politics and research, Reuters reported.”We don’t want to be cloning people,”said Benjamin Younger, ASRM executive director.”Most of the Republican language would prohibit any research with the embryo, but our ethics committee found embryo research is acceptable.”The very-conservatives in Congress feel that when you have a single embryo cell, you have a person and to do anything with that is abortion,”he said.”The scientific community does not agree.”

Quote of the day: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

(RNS)”Those who are supposedly without virtue certainly need to know that it makes a difference to be virtuous. They will only learn that from those who are already living virtuous lives, a part of which is to help lead others. Having the character that will lead others to the path of virtue does not require extraordinary intelligence, a privileged upbringing or significant wealth. People of every station in life can influence the world in which we live.” _ Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a speech in Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday (Feb. 1).

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