c. 1999 Religion News Service
Religious groups, conservatives praise gambling commission’s work
(RNS) Religious groups and conservative activists are praising the work of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission for uncovering the”hidden epidemic”of gambling addiction.
The lengthy report, which includes recommendations to prohibit betting on college athletics and increase the national minimum betting age to 21, was submitted Friday (June 18) to the White House, Congress, state governors and Indian tribes.
Other recommendations _ there are more than 70 _ include a moratorium on further expansion of the gambling industry, restrictions on political donations by the industry, reduction in marketing of state lotteries and removal of automated teller machines from betting areas at racetracks and casinos.
Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, applauded the commission’s work.”The report uncovers the hidden epidemic of gambling addiction,”he said.”As we have seen, wherever gambling has gone, it has brought serious social implications _ addiction, crime, bankrupted businesses and broken families. … This report exposes gambling to be highly addictive.” Fassett said several recommendations affirm United Methodist Church policy that calls gambling”a menace to society.” Gary Bauer, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and former president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the report should prompt more attention to the effects of gambling.”The cost of treatment for addiction and corresponding family problems, such as domestic violence and job loss, is estimated to be $5 billion a year,”Bauer said.”The commission’s report should serve as a big wake-up call to all Americans.” James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo., served as a commissioner during two-year study. In a letter to more than 2.4 million constituents of his conservative Christian organization, he summarized the commission’s work and his hopes for its influence.”The commission’s findings, from any reasonable perspective, depict a depth of pain and devastation in this country that compels a change in the way betting activity is regarded,”Dobson wrote.
He criticized the gambling industry’s influence on children, the poor and American political life.”In summary, the illusion of pain-free riches promoted by the gambling industry has been exposed,”Dobson said.”It robs from the poor and exploits the most vulnerable. It undermines the ethic of work, sacrifice and personal responsibility that exemplify the best qualities of American society.”
Reaction to Ten Commandments vote splits along familiar lines
(RNS) Christian Coalition President Pat Robertson praised the House of Representatives’ vote to permit display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings”as a tremendous victory for people of faith.” Meanwhile, the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance, called the vote a”manipulation of Scripture to justify religious discrimination”and advance a partisan political agenda.
Predictably, religious leaders split along conservative-liberal lines over Thursday’s (June 17) House passage of an amendment to the juvenile crime bill. The measure was approved 248-180, even as opponents noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled almost two decades ago that posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings illegally breeches the church-state constitutional divide.
Taking note of the court decision, Robertson called the vote”a courageous move toward bringing values back into our public schools after decades of banishment by the courts. … Allowing the Ten Commandments to be posted on a schoolhouse wall is a common-sense measure that reaffirms the traditional moral values that our nation was built on.” Another conservative religious voice, Family Research Council spokeswoman Janet Parshall, labeled the vote”a good step towards healing the brokenness of the human heart that is so pervasive among our youth today.”Her comment was a reference to the rash of school shootings across the nation, including the Columbine High School incident in Littleton, Colo.
On the liberal side, Gaddy called the Ten Commandments vote”theologically abhorrent and politically arrogant.”He also called it a”transparent attempt to legislate a narrow and extreme interpretation of Christianity into public life”that undermines religious freedom.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said House Republicans who were the amendment’s principal supporters”politicized religion”with the measure. Although he expects the amendment to be defeated in the Senate, Lynn said his group would take the issue to court, should the amendment somehow survive the legislative process and become law.”It will not stand,”he said.
Jewish groups, members of a religious minority concerned about majority domination, also weighed in on the issue.
Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said the House vote was”an insidious effort to erode the wall of separation between church and state.”Paul Baum, American Jewish Congress executive director, said the Ten Commandments'”place”is in churches, synagogues and homes _ not public buildings.
Lyons ordered to pay $5.2 million, serve concurrent time
(RNS) Resigned Baptist leader Henry J. Lyons was ordered Friday (June 18) to pay $5.2 million in restitution for tax evasion and bank fraud.
Lyons, the former president of the prominent National Baptist Convention, USA, also was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. But Lyons, 57, is already at Lowell Correctional Institution near Ocala, Fla., serving 5 1/2 years in state prison for stealing money from charities and other companies. U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. of Tampa, Fla., said Lyons will serve the federal sentence concurrently with the state penalty, the Associated Press reported.”I do ask for mercy today,”Lyons told Adams before his sentence was issued.”I’m 57. I don’t have a lot of time to right all the wrong I have done. Time is not on my side. I need to do at least 100 good deeds for every bad deed.” Lyons pleaded guilty March 17 to five counts that grew out of his business dealings as head of one of the nation’s largest black church groups.
He admitted failing to pay taxes on $1.3 million in income, defrauding a bank and making false statements to federal housing officials and to a financial institution. In return, federal prosecutors dropped 49 other charges, including conspiracy, extortion and money laundering.
Lyons was sentenced in state court after his February conviction on grand theft and racketeering counts for bilking close to $4 million from corporations interested in doing business with Lyons’ denomination and stealing close to $250,000 donated by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith for burned black churches in the South.
Lyons voiced anguish”over my handling of ADL, the crime that has been committed there. That simply won’t go away. It tugs at me.” The minister also told the judge that he questions how he got behind prison walls.”What happened to Henry Lyons?”he said he asks himself.”I brought this on myself.” Lyons could have been fined an amount ranging from $10,000 to $2 million, but Adams waived a fine, knowing Lyons could not pay. The judge said Lyons already had forfeited his properties and assets and faced the multimillion-dollar restitution.
Activists rally to urge debt relief for poor nations
(RNS) Religious and humanitarian activists staged rallies across the country Friday (June 18) to urge President Clinton and leaders of the world’s most industrialized nations meeting in Cologne, Germany to cancel the debt that has crippled the world’s poorest nations.
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and other activists in Washington joined hands, forming a human chain around part of the U.S. Treasury building to illustrate the”chains of debt”they have cast as a moral and humanitarian imperative.”The people who loaned the money weren’t poor, the people who received the money weren’t poor, but the people who are suffering for the debt are poor _ that’s immoral!”Sojourners magazine editor Jim Wallis told Religion News Service at a rally before the event.”There is not one single thing around the world that would do more for poor people than to cancel the debt,”said Wallis, addressing the crowd of some 230 participants, ranging from college students to full-time activists.
Supporters of the movement, known as Jubilee 2000, accuse the United States and other rich nations of having encouraged”irresponsible”lending to some 41 mostly African nations that the World Bank has classified as”heavily indebted poor nations.” Uniting under the Jubilee 2000 banner, a worldwide coalition of diverse faith and humanitarian groups has succeeded in raising the visibility and educating people on an issue usually left in the hands of government finance officials.
Although leaders at the Cologne summit are expected to slash many billions from the debt load of the poor nations, Jubilee supporters want to see more aggressive measures. Ultimately, they are pushing for total debt forgiveness, based on an Old Testament”jubilee”notion that calls for a cancellation of debt every 50 years.”We are trying to say to President Clinton, `This needs more than a cosmetic solution,'”said Jubilee 2000 spokesman David Bryden.
Another protest was held in Louisville, Ky., where 150 Jubilee supporters gathered outside a federal building hoping to pressure lawmakers. A similar protest was planned later in the day in San Francisco.
The largest rally is scheduled to take place Saturday (June 19) in Cologne, where thousands are expected to form a human chain around the city center. Church officials, celebrities and musicians are set to participate, including Archbishop Oscar Rodriguez of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and U2’s Bono.
Christian Solidarity International loses U.N. tie
(RNS) Christian Solidarity International, the Swiss-based human rights group best known for buying freedom for Sudanese slaves, has lost its accreditation with a U.N. agency because it hosted a key Sudanese rebel at a U.N. forum.
The United States was the only nation voting against the withdrawal of CSI’s credentials with the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
CSI is one of hundreds of voluntary and non-governmental organizations allowed to take part in UNESCO’s work.
It was charged with violating the rules of accreditation by sponsoring testimony from John Garang, leader of Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army, at a U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva in March under the name of his own, unaccredited organization.
The SPLA is one of the main rebel groups from the largely Christian and animist southern part of Sudan waging a secessionist war against the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum.
After being warned, Garang spoke again as the SPLA leader rather than as a part of CSI. The Sudanese government, with whom the SPLA is at war, filed what it called a”technical complaint,”Reuters reported.”They (CSI) took everyone for granted and should have been more careful,”a Sudanese government spokesman said.
CSI is best known for its program to buy the freedom of Sudanese _ most from the Christian southern part of the country _ who have been sold into slavery. In January it announced that it had bought the freedom of 1,050 slaves, mainly children, for $50 per person. Its work has been both praised and criticized by other human rights organizations.
Three synagogues set on fire in California
(RNS) Three synagogues in the Sacramento, Calif., area were hit by apparently coordinated arson attacks Friday (June 18), and hate literature blaming the”International Jewsmedia”for the war in Kosovo was found at one of the buildings.
The fires caused moderate damage to two synagogues and destroyed a third temple’s library.
Federal officials were at the scenes, investigating the fires as hate crimes, and investigators took one youth into custody and were seeking several others, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities said that because of the timing and spacing of the fires, one person could not have set all three.
A flier from an organization calling itself the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization was found at Knesset Israel Torah Center, one of the targeted houses of worship.”The ugly American and NATO aggressors are the ultimate hypocrites,”the flier said.”The fake Albanian refugee crisis was manufactured by the International Jewsmedia to justify the terrorizing, the bestial bombing of our Yugoslavia back into the dark ages.” The three synagogues are B’nai Israel, in downtown Sacramento; Congregation Beth Shalom, in suburban Carmichael; and Knesset Israel Torah Center in northeastern Sacramento County.
Pope reportedly criticizes German bishops on abortion
(RNS) German bishops will meet next week to formulate a response to a letter from Pope John Paul II, reportedly demanding they stop issuing certificates allowing women to receive abortions after counseling.”The German church will not stop counseling pregnant women,”said Archbishop Johannes Dyba of Fulda.”The only question is whether we will continue to issue the certificates or not.” Under German law, a woman seeking an abortion must first discuss her decision with an advisory service in order to get a certificate before she can go ahead with the abortion. A number of the advice centers are run by the Catholic Church.
Some abortion opponents fear that the church appears to be giving its stamp of approval to abortion by issuing the certificates. Others argue that by being able to issue the certificates, the church increases the number of women it can reach with its counseling and, in turn, the chance they might change their minds.
Although the bishops did not disclose the contents of the letter, a German newspaper reported that the pope made clear his opposition to their participation in the certificate program, Reuters said.
With pope gone, Polish Catholic activist is released from jail
(RNS) A Polish Catholic activist who led the campaign to place hundreds of crosses outside the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz has been freed from jail _ one day after Pope John Paul II left Poland.
Kazmierz Switon, 68, was arrested May 27 for placing explosive devices near the crosses in an attempt to prevent their removal prior to the start of the pope’s June 5 arrival in his homeland. Officials then removed some 300 crosses that Switon and his followers had placed at the Auschwitz site in Oswiecim, the Polish name for the area.
Jewish groups had agitated for removal of the crosses, saying their placement detracted from the memory of the more than 1 million Jews who died at Auschwitz and a neighboring death camp during the Holocaust. Switon maintained he just wanted to commemorate the 152 Polish Catholics who also died at Auschwitz.
Polish authorities and Roman Catholic officials ruled against Switon.
Virginia investigation clears Operation Blessing
(RNS) A Virginia investigation has found slipshod bookkeeping but no intent to cheat by Operation Blessing, a charity founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
The state attorney general’s office issued a report Thursday (June 17) saying there was”an unfortunate blemish”on the charity due to accounting practices related to its use of its relief airplanes for a diamond mining operation owned by a Robertson firm, The Washington Post reported.”Operation Blessing was motivated by legitimate charitable purposes”when it was working in what is now known as Congo during intense civil turmoil in 1994-95, the report said. The planes provided medical and other humanitarian relief.
But, the report said, the corporate use of the planes to ferry equipment to the for-profit mining operation”was not handled with the care and diligence to which charitable organizations must be held accountable.” Robertson’s Virginia Beach office issued a statement celebrating the findings because they concluded that no legal action needed to be taken against the charity or Robertson.
Operation Blessing had said that the diamond company reimbursed the charity for use of the aircraft.
State Democrats, however, have said the matter pointed to an improper use of a charity and a possible violation of the tax-exempt status of Operation Blessing.
Update: Mexican Protestants freed in church building dispute
(RNS) Thirteen Mexican evangelical Protestants have been released from custody after being held for trying to construct a church in the southern Mexican village of Mitziton _ and angering Roman Catholics in the process.
The 13 were arrested Tuesday (June 15) and released Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The Protestants said they were threatened and ordered to leave the area, which is in the state of Chiapas.
Chiapas, home to large numbers of Mayan Indian groups, has been the scene of increasing conflicts between growing numbers of evangelical Protestants and majority Roman Catholics. Tens of thousands of Protestant converts have been expelled from the area, and violence between the faith groups has escalated.
One of the 13 Protestants freed, Carmen Diaz Lopez, said she was not afraid of Catholic threats.”We have the right to build our temple, and we demand that our right to worship be respected,”she said.
Quote of the day: Pope John Paul II
(RNS)”I thank the Lord for having given the church a shepherd of great spiritual and moral character, of sensitive and unflinching ecumenical commitment and firm leadership in helping people of all beliefs to face the challenges of the last part of this difficult century.” _ Pope John Paul II in a letter to the Archdiocese of Westminster in expressing his condolences on the death Thursday (June 17) of Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.
DEA END RNS
