c. 1999 Religion News Service

Denver couple files suit after city order limits prayer meetings

(RNS) A Denver couple has filed suit against the city after it ordered them to limit the number of prayer meetings they hold at their home to one a month.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, filed the suit Tuesday (Aug. 3) on behalf of David and Diane Reiter. The ACLJ contends that the cease-and-desist order issued by the city zoning office is unconstitutional.”This is an example of religious hostility at its worst,”said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.”The city has trampled on the First Amendment rights of our clients and has enacted an order that is not only unconstitutional but absurd.” In March 1998, the Reiters began holding weekly prayer meetings in their home. In a letter to the zoning board, Sekulow wrote that between eight and 12 women would attend the meetings to study Christian literature.

Kent Strapko, administrator of the city’s zoning department, predicted that the city would win the suit, the Associated Press reported.”The ordinance gives the city the authority to protect residential neighborhoods from anything beyond reasonably expected activity that is not uncommon or disruptive,”Strapko said.”It includes football parties, yard sales and religious meetings. We don’t distinguish, ever.” The city filed the zoning order in October after receiving numerous complaints from neighbors.”The order was filed not because it was a religious group, not because it was a Bible study group, but because of the meetings’ impacts on adjacent properties,”Strapko said.”Complaints were made because of parking issues.” Sekulow’s letter to the zoning board said the order did not mention any parking or noise ordinance violations.

Southern Baptist seminary president strives to deal with his anger

(RNS) The president of a Southern Baptist seminary in Kansas City, Mo., who has been criticized for his fits of anger, has told school trustees he will strive to heal the rifts he caused by his temper.

Mark Coppenger, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, confessed to”misappropriation of anger”on Friday (July 30) at a trustee meeting. The main purpose of the executive committee meeting of trustees was to confront specific complaints that the school president had repeatedly become enraged and used profanity with subordinates, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

The meeting concludes a two-month investigation into Coppenger’s leadership. Trustees said issues related to anger were of the greatest concern raised by the investigation.

The trustees cited Coppenger’s”vision and leadership”and conservative theology in unanimously electing him president in 1995. But news reports reveal Coppenger had a long history of alienating co-workers with his temper.

When the seminary’s dean and vice president of academic affairs lodged the most recent complaint against Coppenger, he was reportedly fired. The trustee executive committee re-hired him the following day.

Coppenger acknowledged to the trustees that his anger was an”obstacle”and said he would depend on God as he tries to rebuild trust with staff and faculty he has offended.”All you can do is take your step,”he said in a statement.”If you try to chart the whole thing out, you are playing God. With integrity, you take your step and let him be Lord.” Coppenger and committee members declined to comment on the specific steps the theology president agreed to take.

Pope describes purgatory as”process of purification” (RNS) Pope John Paul II described purgatory Wednesday (Aug. 4) not as a place but a”process of purification”that removes man’s earthly imperfections so he may enter God’s kingdom.

The Roman Catholic pontiff spoke about the doctrine of purgatory in his address to some 7,000 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall.

Elio Guerriero, editor of the prestigious international review Communio, founded by Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, praised the pope for reviving a doctrine that he said had been all but forgotten by the church in recent years.

At his previous two audiences, the pope had talked about heaven and hell. Today, he said that purgatory, like heaven and hell, is not a place but a spiritual state of being.”Following our catechesis on the reality of heaven and hell, today we consider `purgatory,’ the process of purification for those who die in the love of God but who are not completely imbued with that love,”John Paul said.

Catechesis is the teaching of the Christian faith.

The pope said the death and resurrection of Jesus opened the way to humanity’s redemption, but it still is necessary for a person to be freed of”all trace of attachment to evil … all deformity of the spirit”in order to achieve the perfect union with God that is heaven.”Sacred scripture teaches us that we must be purified if we are to enter into perfect and complete union with God,”he said.”Jesus Christ, who became the perfect expiation for our sins and took upon himself the punishment that was our due, brings us God’s mercy and love.”But before we enter into God’s kingdom every trace of sin within us must be eliminated; every imperfection in our soul must be corrected. This is exactly what takes place in purgatory,”he said.

John Paul said purgatory is very different from hell, which he described last week as the state of suffering of”those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy.””Those who live in this state of purification after death are not separated from God but are immersed in the love of Christ,”he said.”Neither are they separated from the saints in heaven, who already enjoy the fullness of eternal life, nor from us on earth, who continue on our pilgrim journey to the father’s house.” The pope indicated that prayers of the living can help those in purgatory.”We all remain united in the mystical body of Christ, and we can therefore offer up prayers and good works on behalf of our brothers and sisters in purgatory,”he said.

But once in purgatory, the pope said, there is no”further possibility of changing one’s own destiny.”He said this teaching is”unequivocal”and was reiterated 35 years ago by Vatican II, the council that Pope John XXIII called to renew and modernize the Roman Catholic Church.”The pope has done well to recall the attention of the faithful to purgatory because it is a theme almost forgotten if not ignored,”Guerriero told the Italian news agency AND Kronos.

Guerriero said purgatory was very important for believers”because the state of purification, which becomes evident after death, begins here on earth.”He said the pope has given priests the duty to remind believers”that it is important to prepare oneself in this life through purification in view of the final encounter with God.”

China sets reward for arrest of Falun Gong leader

(RNS) The government of China is offering a reward of at least $6,000 for information leading to the arrest of Li Hongzhi, leader of the banned Falun Gong sect who now lives in the United States.

An article in the semi-official China News Service said the government in mid-August will run a list of the country’s most wanted criminals and”publicly ordering the arrest of Li Hongzhi will be the first task,”Reuters reported.

On Tuesday (Aug. 3), Interpol, the Lyon, France-based international police agency, rejected China’s request for help in detaining Li.

The police agency said its constitution forbids it from undertaking”any intervention or activities of a political or religious character.” China is seeking Li’s arrest on charges of disturbing the public order by organizing mass demonstrations. The first of those demonstrations came in April when thousands of Falun Gong members surrounded the leadership compound in Beijing in surprise action that stunned Chinese leaders.

The sect members were protesting what they said was unfair media treatment of the group.

The government banned the sect on July 22 after thousands of members staged similar demonstrations at government offices in 30 cities in the wake of a crackdown on its leaders.

The group combines eclectic elements of Buddhism and Chinese mysticism with a meditation exercise known as qigong.”Public security organs will provide rewards starting at 50,000 yuan ($6,000),”the China News Service said in announcing the new action against the sect and its leadership. The reward is larger than six years’ salary for the average urban worker in China.

The government has been conducting an extensive media campaign to discredit the group.

On Wednesday, newspapers quoted leaders of the China Christian Council, the nation’s top Protestant group, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the officially recognized Roman Catholic organization, as critical of Falun Gong.”It has spread doomsday theories, claimed it has no strict organization, forbids followers from seeing doctors and worshipped its founder as a god,”said Han Wenzao, president of the CCC.

Evangelical group appoints new president, Washington director

(RNS) Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) has appointed a new president and director of Washington affairs.

The Chicago-based group, which focuses on issues related to Christians in the Middle East, announced the appointment of Donald A. Kruse, a career diplomat who spent 35 years with the Foreign Service, on July 23.

As part of his new responsibilities, Kruse will work on educational efforts for the House and Senate on issues concerning Christians, peace, and justice in the Middle East.

EMEU is a 12-year-old organization that works”to facilitate a deeper understanding and partnership between western Evangelical Christians and Middle Eastern churches,”according to the group’s literature.

Scottish church: Catholic Cardinal Hume destined for hell

(RNS) The final destination of the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume can only be hell, according to the Free Presbyterian Church.

The monthly magazine of the tiny extreme Calvinist Scottish Church this month carried an editorial bitterly attacking the popular Hume for”cunningly and successfully”promoting the interests of Rome while feigning support for the ecumenical movement.

The Free Presbyterian Church now has only about 3,000 members. It split in two in 1989 over the condemnation of its most prominent member, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, then lord chancellor, for attending the funeral of a Roman Catholic colleague.”In the midst of all the glowing tributes being paid, let us not forget that it was an ominous day for Britain when the man who was born George Hume became the leader of England’s Roman Catholics,”said the magazine.”Surely it must be our prayer that the rapid progress of Romanism in the nation under Hume’s leadership would not only be brought to a halt but drastically reversed.” The mainstream Church of Scotland was quick to dissociate itself from the attack. A spokesman pointed out that being ecumenical was not about giving up one’s particular denominational identity but about respecting those from different traditions and exploring together the richness of a shared Christian identity.”Cardinal Hume was gracious in his engagement with Christians of other traditions,”said the church’s spokesman.”No one who met him could have been anything other than impressed by him.” But the magazine’s editor, the Rev. Neil Ross, was unrepentant. The article represented the views of the Free Presbyterian Church and could not be regarded as unchristian, he said.”The whole point is that the Roman Catholic Church has advanced through him, which is to the detriment of the Protestant religion,”he told The Scotsman.”It is in my view unchristian to let a man think that all is well with him spiritually when he believes what is contrary to the Bible.” Quote of the day: Cassandra Lathan, moon worshipper

(RNS)”A god and goddess are making love. We have no right to look upon it.” _ Cassandra Lathan, a nurse and moon worshipper in Lizard, England, on the significance of the Aug. 11 solar eclipse, as quoted in the July 31 Washington Post.

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