c. 1998 Religion News Service

Vatican cannot confirm Catholic `underground’ bishop arrested

(RNS) The Vatican said Friday (June 26) it cannot confirm that China arrested an underground Roman Catholic bishop because the government wanted him out of the way during President Clinton’s visit to China.

A U.S. based group that monitors incidents of alleged religious persecution in China, the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said in a statement that Julias Jia Zhiguo, a bishop in the northern Hebei province, had been taken into custody. Fides, a newsletter of the Vatican’s missionary arm, said it believes the report.”It’s a new case of house arrest but it’s fairly common practice for priests and clergy of the underground church,”Fides director Bernardo Cervellera told Reuters.

China’s underground Roman Catholic Church pledges allegiance to the pope and not the Chinese government body that supervises the approved Catholic church.

But Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said the Vatican could not confirm the report”because we don’t have a nunciature in China.”

Alabama emerges as ground zero in church-state war

(RNS) Alabama’s elected officials, already at the center of some of the most bitterly contested church-state issues, are continuing to take their views to the national stage.

On Thursday (June 25), two freshman House members from Alabama launched separate volleys in the war, with one calling for legislation that would allow states to post copies of the Ten Commandments in public places, and the other holding a rally for a New York City public school teacher fired for leading her students in prayer during class.

Alabama has been ground zero in the church-state war since Roy Moore, a county judge, refused to remove a replica of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom, sparking a dispute during which Gov. Fob James threatened to bring in the national guard to protect the court-displayed plaque. In addition, U.S. District Court Judge Ira DeMent has blocked DeKalb County school employees from engaging in prayer and other religious practices in the public schools and ordered employees to take training on church-state separation.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said his Ten Commandments bill would block the federal courts from having any say on matters of religious expression in public places.

His proposal drew an immediate response from Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, who accused the federal judiciary of doing”great damage to the cause of religious freedom.”Bauer said Aderholt’s bill is”a measured yet firm response to a pattern of judicial over-reaching that … is at variance with our history.” But Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the proposed legislation.”Rep. Aderholt apparently wants to turn courthouses and public schools into churches,”Lynn said.

Lynn also criticized the other Alabama GOP legislator, Rep. Bob Riley, who hosted a rally on the Capitol grounds for Mildred Rosario, the Bronx teacher who was fired for leading her students in prayer.”It’s time that we re-examine the moral soul of our nation,”Riley said.”We need to let our educators and students know that God is not a dirty word.” Said Lynn:”Mildred Rosario was paid to teach, not preach.”

Update: Black American Jews may get to stay in Israel

(RNS) A family of black American converts to Judaism may soon be granted Israeli citizenship, after having first been denied permanent entry into Israel in what had been described as racial discrimination.

Dan Evron, an attorney representing the family, said,”We hear unofficially that (the case) may be resolved soon,”the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service reported Thursday (June 25).

Meanwhile, an official with Judaism’s Conservative movement, under whose auspices the family converted to Judaism, withdrew earlier claims that race was an issue in the case. Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the umbrella group for Conservative rabbis, said the problem now appears bureaucratic.”We are saying that this was not an issue of racism. The Conservative movement sees the incident as a bureaucratic mishap,”Meyers said in Israel, where he met with government officials in an effort to resolve the case.”But if we were to find that this, in fact, was racist or had to do with the fact that they were converted by the Conservative movement, believe me, we would mount a severe protest,”he said.

Elazar Yaisrael, his wife, their four children and two grandchildren converted to Judaism a decade ago in Los Angeles, but had lived most recently in the Chicago area.

Under Israeli law, all Jews and converts to Judaism who do so under mainstream Jewish rabbinic supervision are entitled to automatic Israeli citizenship, should they settle in Israel. Elazar Yaisrael emigrated to Israel about 18 months ago and was granted Israeli citizenship.

But when he sought to enter Israel with his entire family in May, the Yaisraels were told they would have to return to Chicago to complete the immigration process, although they were allowed to remain in Israel on temporary visas.

Conservative officials initially feared the family’s plight was connected to race or Orthodox Jewish attempts to deny the validity of non-Orthodox conversions, currently a matter of hot political debate in Israel.

Meyers said the problem probably developed because the Yaisraels came from Chicago, an area that has been home to the Black Hebrews sect. Black Hebrews do not undergo mainstream conversions to Judaism, and Israel tries to limit their settlement in the Jewish state, although a small number do live there.

California-Nevada Methodists to be `welcoming’ to all, including gays

(RNS) The California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has pledged to make its local congregations”welcoming”to all people without regard to sexual orientation.

The conference action came after several days of”spiritual discernment”in which the 1,600 delegates attending the June 17-21 meeting tried to understand God’s will regarding homosexuality.

The conference has 407 churches in southern California, Nevada, Hawaii, Saipan and Guam. It has been badly split by the gay issue and efforts have been made by a number of conservative evangelicals in the conference to form a separate jurisdiction.

Officials said the use of the word”welcoming”represented a new way of identifying the conference’s approach to homosexuality. More common terms in use are”reconciling,”used by supporters of gays, and”transforming,”reflecting the belief that homosexuality is a sin but that God can transform gays and lesbians. By using the word”welcoming,”a number of delegates said, they were avoiding saying they accepted or rejected a particularly sexual orientation.

East Timor bishop meets with new Indonesian leader, urges free speech

(RNS) Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo called on the Indonesian government Friday (June 26) to cut the number of troops stationed in disputed East Timor and grant the Timorese people”freedom of opinion … even though they are political in nature.” Belo said the call for troop reductions and freedom of speech were among the proposals he put forward to the country’s new president, B.J. Habibie, when the two met Wednesday.

He said Habibie had indicated a willingness to withdraw some of the 10,000 troops stationed in East Timor, which has been seeking independence or more autonomy from Indonesia.

Belo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said on Wednesday he and Habibie had an open and frank discussion about the situation in East Timor although he acknowledged the most important issue _ independence for East Timor _ was not discussed.”He supports how to improve first the internal situation,”Belo said Wednesday.”The other thing (independence) … maybe it will come later.” The meeting with Belo was a sign of a new sense of moderation on the East Timor issue since the forced retirement of President Suharto on May 21.

Habibie’s government has freed 16 political prisoners, most Timorese, and indicated more will be freed in stages.

But Belo said Friday Habibie should go further,”giving clemency and amnesty to all political prisoners in East Timor and outside.”

PETA presses `Jesus was a vegetarian’ campaign

(RNS) Roman Catholic priests, Southern Baptists and, now, even poultry producers, are getting an earful from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as they step up their campaign to convince the world Jesus was a vegetarian and, they say, every Christian should be, too.

The campaign, which began in January with letters to all U.S. Catholic bishops and to evangelists Billy Graham, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, is expanding in an attempt to reach people in the pews.

Since June 1, letters from PETA have gone out to some 17,300 Catholic parish priests nationwide asking them to preach vegetarianism. The mass mailing included a survey of clergy beliefs about vegetarianism and the well-being of animals.

During the massive gathering of Southern Baptists in Salt Lake City earlier this month, a PETA volunteer dressed as Jesus picketed the Salt Palace convention center. Putting a new spin on the Ten Commandments, his sign read:”Thou Shalt Not Kill _ Go Vegetarian.” And PETA has started advertising its message in strategic cities this spring and summer. A PETA ad appeared in early June in the Little Rock, Ark., paper as the city hosted a poultry producers convention.

PETA has also taken its campaign to Indianapolis for a meeting of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., the nation’s largest predominantly black denomination.

It’s too early to tell if all the letters and ads are working, said campaign director Bruce Friedrich. About a dozen Catholic bishops and representatives of Graham and Robertson responded to PETA’s letter, he said.

Most disagreed with the group’s scriptural interpretations.

PETA, however, has no plans to end its Christian campaign any time soon.

T-shirt and bumper-sticker sales will be the next push this summer, Friedrich said. Also, through the rest of the year the group plans to keep sending its Jesus impersonator to religion conventions and agricultural conferences.

Quote of the day: Bishop T.D. Jakes

(RNS)”Woman is the ark God built to rescue man from the storm of life. She is the fortress to which he can escape from the mounting stress of day-to-day existence. She is the light in the night. She is the element of love and the instrument of passion.” _ Bishop T.D. Jakes, Pentecostal pastor of The Potter’s House, a nondenominational church in Dallas, writing about relationships in his forthcoming book”The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord”(G.P. Putnam’s Sons).

DEA END RNS