c. 2000 Religion News Service
Conservative Leaders Oppose U.S. Position on Sex Trafficking
(RNS) Several conservative leaders, including Southern Baptist official Richard Land and Campus Crusade for Christ President Bill Bright, are opposing U.S. support of a new definition of sexual exploitation that will be considered by the United Nations Jan. 17.
In a Jan. 7 letter addressed to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, six conservative leaders argued against the”stunning”position the United States has taken on the so-called”Vienna Protocol”of the U.N. Convention on Transnational Organized Crime concerning sexual trafficking in women and children.”In sum, the position now taken by United States negotiators is that concerted international action against sex traffickers should be restricted only to those responsible for `forced prostitution,'”they wrote.”The United States position effectively would block the prosecution of international traffickers and procurers _ including those involved in organized crime _ unless it could be proved that `force’ had been used on the trafficked women.” The leaders addressed their concerns to the first lady in her role as co-chair of the President’s Interagency Council on Women. They also voiced concern that the position of U.S. delegates to the upcoming Vienna meeting is that international action against pornographers should be limited to those engaging in activities without the consent of the women involved.”As with prostitution trafficking, the United States position effectively would block prosecution of the growing, hard-core international pornography `industry,'”they wrote.
The letter was signed by Land; Bright; Chuck Colson, chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries; Mary Ann Glendon, law professor at Harvard University; Kay Cole James, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation; and Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
Voicing similar concerns in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece Monday (Jan. 10), Colson and Bill Bennett, co-director of Empower America, discussed what they believe would be the effect of a successful White House position on the matter.”If the administration’s position is accepted, the focus of attention would shift from the profiteers who traffic in women to the supposed state of mind of the victimized women,”Colson and Bennett wrote.”It would create loopholes long sought by perpetrators, insulating them from criminal prosecution.” The first lady’s press office could not be immediately reached for comment.
Christian Music Sales Near 50 Million Mark in 1999
(RNS) Christian music sales in 1999 reached almost 50 million units, an increase of 11.5 percent over 1998’s sales.
Christian retailers accounted for 57.5 percent of the 1999 sales while mainstream retail stores accounted for 42.5 percent. The figures are based on reports of SoundScan, a computerized network that collects sales data from retailers and compiles results for industry reports, including charts in Billboard magazine.
Contemporary Christian and gospel music are the music industry’s fifth-largest-selling genre, selling more than twice as many albums as the Latin genre and also selling more than classical, jazz and New Age genres combined.
Album sales in the Christian music category represented 6.6 percent of the 754.8 million records sold in the entire music industry in 1999, the Christian Music Trade Association, a Nashville, Tenn.-based organization, announced.
The five top-selling albums in the Christian music genre reflect its diversity: Charlotte Church’s”Voice of an Angel”ranked first, followed by Kirk Franklin’s”Nu Nation Project,””Speechless”by Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant’s”Christmas to Remember”and”WoW 2000,”a compilation album by various artists.”This year’s sales figures indicate the strength of the Christian music marketplace and demonstrate the diversity consumers are looking for,”said Frank Breeden, president of the Gospel Music Association and executive director of the Christian Music Trade Association.”Sales across the board tell the story that the Christian/gospel music industry is healthy and that more people are choosing our genre as a form of entertainment consistent with their lifestyle.” Breeden added that the music industry’s strength is breaking the stereotype that it is embraced mainly in the states viewed as being part of the”Bible Belt”region. SoundScan figures show the top five Christian/gospel markets are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Baptist World Alliance Picks New Leader, Affirms Social Justice
(RNS) At the 18th Baptist World Congress, held Jan. 5-9 in Melbourne, Australia, about 6,000 members of the Baptist World Alliance elected a new president and passed resolutions pledging to fight for social justice.
Billy Kim, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, was elected to a five-year term as the 19th president of the BWA. Kim, who will succeed Brazilian pastor Nilson do Amaral Fanini, will take office in July at a BWA General Council meeting in Cuba.
BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz urged Baptists to work toward achieving solidarity among Christians as they enter a new millennium, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”Division between Catholic, Orthodox, ecumenical and evangelical Christians is in some cases worse than at the beginning of the 20th century,”Lotz said.”Baptists must work for the unity of God’s people.” He also encouraged delegates to support a resolution declaring the next 10 years a”Decade for Racial Justice,”and urged that they fight”all forms of racism and ethnic conflict.” Delegates to the Melbourne meeting also approved several other resolutions, including ones that called for Christian evangelism and growth, and opposed human rights violations.
Alabama Church Members Sue Pastor Over Secessionist Promotion
(RNS) Members of a York, Ala., congregation have filed a lawsuit against their pastor in state court, aiming to prove the Rev. Martin Murphy has used church property and resources to promote a secessionist group, which is a violation of the church’s corporate charter.
Trial is scheduled for Sept. 30.
The lawsuit, filed this month, stems from tension between York Presbyterian Church and Murphy over his membership in the League of the South, a secessionist organization based in Tuscaloosa, the Associated Press reported.
Murphy, 52, pastor of the 120-year-old Sumter County church since 1992, joined the League in 1997 but resigned from the group about a year ago once the congregation began to split over the issue.
The lawsuit in state court follows a circuit court decision handed down in December that ruled Murphy had violated church rules. The circuit court ordered the pastor and his wife to leave their church-owned home and expelled the pastor’s followers from York Presbyterian.
Circuit Court Judge Eddie Hardaway also gave church elders control of the church and about $41,000 in the congregation’s bank accounts.
Murphy is now holding services at the home of one of his supporters.
Elian Gonzalez’s Case Now Set for Florida Court
(RNS) The ever-evolving case of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy whose Florida relatives want him to remain in the United States, now will lead to a March 6 court hearing in Miami.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez on Monday (Jan. 10) granted emergency custody to Elian’s great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and said Elian should remain with his U.S. relatives until the court date she has set.
In response, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Tuesday it no longer intends to force his immediate return to Cuba, the Associated Press reported.”We have no plans to take charge of him, and we have no plans to forcibly remove him from the home,”said spokesman Mike Gilhooly.
The INS had decided Jan. 6 that Elian should be returned to Cuba.
In between the court and the INS decisions, members of Congress were moving to block efforts to return Elian to his father in Cuba. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena for Elian to testify before a House committee in February, but Burton’s spokesman said the congressman did not expect to compel the boy to testify.
The Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which has supported the return of Elian to his father in Cuba, opposed the”delaying tactics”of Burton.”Little Elian Gonzalez deserves to be reunited immediately with his biological father and closest family members in Cuba,”Edgar said in a statement released Jan. 8.”The longer this whole process drags on, the more disconnected this small child becomes from those who have raised him and who love him.” Elian’s case has prompted international debate since U.S. officials gave his great-uncle in Miami custody of the boy in late November after he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida. The boy’s mother and nine others died in an apparent attempt to immigrate illegally to the United States.
Elian’s Miami relatives believe they can give him a better life away from the communist island. His divorced father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has said he would not travel to the United States to get his son but the judge has ordered him to appear at the March hearing, saying,”Failure to appear may result in a decision adverse to his interests.”
Quote of the Day: Kaye O’Bara of Miami
(RNS)”What I do is not a burden, it’s an honor. I asked God for two daughters. I didn’t put restrictions on it.” Kaye O’Bara of Miami, describing her care for her 46-year-old daughter, Edwarda, who has been in a diabetic coma for 30 years. O’Bara, a devout Roman Catholic and former kindergarten teacher, was quoted in the Tuesday (Jan. 11) edition of USA Today.
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