c. 2000 Religion News Service

Rev. Daniel Weiss To Retire as American Baptists’ General Secretary

(RNS) The Rev. Daniel E. Weiss, has announced plans to retire as general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA in August.

Weiss, 62, will complete his third four-year term in August and plans to retire at the end of that month, the denomination announced. He has served as general secretary since 1988.

In a mid-January letter to American Baptist Churches USA President Trinette V. McCray, Weiss said:”This is a great denomination, a clear reflection of God’s new humanity in Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the opportunities given to me to be part of it.” In his role as general secretary, Weiss has emphasized evangelism, local congregations, religious freedom and respect for the diversity among American Baptists.

From the denomination’s national offices in Valley Forge, Pa., he has maintained the American Baptist Churches’ commitment to ecumenical and interfaith efforts. He also has been outspoken about the need for churches to speak out against religious persecution and racism.

Weiss, the highest-ranking executive of the 1.5-million-member denomination, previously served as executive director of the denomination’s Board of Educational Ministries. Before taking that post in 1983, the former pastor served simultaneously as president of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, both American Baptist-related schools.

Weiss plans to spend his retirement with his wife, Rachel, living in Florida and Massachusetts.

Study: Congress should back contraception and abstinence in sex ed

(RNS) Calling on Congress to”pull its collective head out of the sand,”a national sex education group urged the government to boost federal spending for teaching teenagers both abstinence and contraception.”We’ve got to get out of this either/or mindset,”said James Wagoner, presidents of Advocates for Youth.”It’s not abstinence or contraception. We need information about both. That’s the comprehensive approach.” In a report released Wednesday (Jan. 19), the nonprofit group said Congress spends more money on services supporting teen births _ $38 billion _ than on teen pregnancy prevention _ $138 million. Wagoner attributed the disparity partly to welfare reform legislation of 1996, which promoted an abstinence-until-marriage policy. That policy is ineffective, he said.”The research is clear _ abstinence alone is not the answer,”said Wagoner.”Programs that teach young people abstinence and contraception demonstrate more success at delaying sexual activity among youth who have not yet had sex, and at improving contraceptive use among teens when they do become sexually active.” Wagoner said that though the nation’s teen pregnancy rates have dropped in recent years, the United States still has the highest teen birth rate of all the industrialized nations, and urged Congress to follow the lead of sex education programs established in countries such as France, where the teen abortion rate is one-third lower than that in the United States. “The U.S. could learn a few things from Europe, most importantly about the value of an open and pragmatic approach to adolescent sexuality _ one that promotes rather than censors information and provides rather than restricts services,”said Wagoner.”We found that virtually no subject was off limits in their sexuality education campaigns, while in Washington, Congress puts a quarter billion dollars into sexuality education programs that prohibit the mention of contraception.” Wagoner said the nation’s youth would suffer as long as Congress did not”put political ideology aside”and”provide young people with the tools of responsible decision-making about sex.””This isn’t just a harmless congressional policy gone awry,”he said.”It represents a rejection of science, a rejection of research, and a refusal to acknowledge that ignorance is nobody’s ally in the era of AIDS.” Supreme Court considers limits on abortion protesters

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday (Jan. 19) over the limits that might be placed on the free-speech rights of demonstrators who offer”sidewalk counseling”outside abortion clinics.

The case centers around a Colorado law that requires protesters to keep at least eight feet away from people entering health-care clinics unless someone agrees to closer contact to take a leaflet or talk.

Justice Antonin Scalia challenged Colorado Solicitor General Michael E. McLachlan when he argued the law was written in a neutral way.”I think we know what it’s aimed at, which is abortion protesters,”said Scalia, who added that counseling someone to consider the results of abortion is”a totally different entity when you do it from eight feet away.” Attorney Jay A. Sekulow, representing three protesters, asked the justices to reverse a Colorado Supreme Court ruling upholding the law.”You certainly can convey anything you want to convey orally from a distance of eight feet,”Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told Sekulow. If someone wants to take a leaflet,”they can and will and it would be the same if it were one foot or eight feet,”she added.

Sekulow argued that the law”makes the peaceful distribution of a leaflet, the display of a sign … a crime if prior consent is not obtained,”the Associated Press reported.

McLachlan argued the law was meant to protect vulnerable people seeking health care.

But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy questioned if the law would prevent all protest activity outside a medical office, even if it is only one office in a tall building.”It seems to me that this is troublesome,”said Kennedy.

Eighteen states are supporting Colorado. The demonstrators are backed by such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and the AFL-CIO.

The ACLU’s brief said that protecting women’s right to seek medical treatment is a significant goal, but they believe the law goes too far by preventing speech _ such as passing out a leaflet _ that would not prevent someone from entering or leaving a clinic.

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Good Friday law

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a Maryland law that mandates the annual closing of schools on Good Friday.

Without comment, the justices Tuesday (Jan. 18) turned away an appeal by retired teacher Judith Koenick, who argued that the rule violated the separation of church and state required by the U.S. Constitution.

Thirteen states have made Good Friday a legal holiday but only three _ Maryland, North Dakota and Illinois _ mandate that all schools be closed on Good Friday.

A federal appeals court has struck down the Illinois law. A challenge to Indiana’s Good Friday law is pending before the justices, but they have not yet said whether they will fully review that case.”This is not going away,”said Dwight Sullivan, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney in Baltimore, the Associated Press reported.”You have the Constitution being applied differently in different states.” In her appeal, Koenick, who is Jewish, said the Maryland law”sends the message to non-Christians that the state finds Good Friday, and thus Christianity, to be a religion worth honoring while their religion or nonreligion is not of equal importance.” The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there is a legitimate purpose for the long weekend _ the avoidance of anticipated high absenteeism among students and teachers on the days around Easter. Good Friday, which falls two days before Easter Sunday, commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, welcomed the high court’s action but criticized the focus of the appellate court on secular rather than religious reasoning.”It should instead have squarely faced the issue by saying that the Maryland law was accommodating _ not sponsoring _ a religious tradition that is grounded in our nation’s history,”said Donohue in a statement.”Indeed, in Montgomery County, Maryland, schools properly close on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah; this accommodates Judaism without sponsoring anything.” Maryland law does not mandate school closings for any Jewish holiday, the AP reported. The Montgomery County schools are closed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement based on findings that large numbers of students would be absent if schools were open at those times.

Pope calls Holy Year ecumenical service”a significant representation” (RNS) Pope John Paul II said Wednesday (Jan. 19)”a significant representation”of the world’s non-Catholic Christians joined in his special ecumenical service for Holy Year.”Yesterday (Jan. 18), I opened the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Paul’s-Without-the-Walls in the presence of a significant representation of brothers of other Christian churches and communions on the day in which the annual Week of Prayers for Christian Unity began,”the pope told some 3,750 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience.

John Paul called on the young, the sick and newlyweds to work in their own ways for unity among Christians.”I urge you, dear young people, to become apostles of dialogue, of listening and of forgiving. I ask you, dear sick people, to offer your suffering for the unity of all believers in Christ. I invite you, dear newlyweds, to be builders of communion, starting with your families,”he said.

Delegates from 23 Orthodox and Reformed churches and communions attended the Holy Door ceremony and celebration of a Liturgy of the Word in the Basilica of St. Paul’s-Without-the-Walls. Together they represented an estimated 80 per cent of Christianity.

But spokesmen for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Italian Methodist Church, which boycotted the service, reiterated their opposition to Holy Year observances because the pope has linked them to the granting of indulgences, a key issue in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

During a Holy Year, the pope grants Roman Catholic pilgrims plenary indulgences _ or full remission of temporal punishment for sins _ when they enter the Holy Doors of Rome’s major basilicas to confess their sins and pray for the church.”The time and place of salvation, the remission of sins and punishment are only in Jesus Christ, and no one can make himself manager of them,”Waldensian Pastor Salvatore Ricciardi said.

Ricciardi spoke for the World Reformed Alliance, which represents some 70 million Protestants in the Calvinist tradition.

The Rev. Valdo Benecchi of the Methodist Church in Italy said although members would not participate in any ecumenical encounters associated with Holy Year they continue to support ecumenism. A representative of the World Methodist Council did take part in Tuesday’s service.”The absence of the Italian Methodist Church does not signify in any way the cessation of ecumenical dialogue,”Benecchi said. Rather, he said, it is a sign of the belief that”you can live only on the terrain of faithfulness to the word of God.” It appeared that the pope also will be disappointed in his hopes for an interfaith meeting with Jewish and Muslim leaders on Mt. Sinai during a Holy Year pilgrimage he is expected to make to Egypt Feb. 24-26.

Archbishop Giovanbattista Re, deputy Vatican secretary of State, confirmed that preparations for the trip have been completed and said it will be announced shortly. Vatican sources said the pope will visit the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.

The Vatican already has announced that John Paul will travel to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority March 20-26 to visit Mount Nebo, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Update: Indiana district avoids suit over moral precepts

(RNS) An Indiana school district has avoided a legal battle by removing the phrase”Trust in God”from a list of moral precepts that have been posted in the district’s schools.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has decided not to carry out its threat to file a lawsuit against the school system after the board voted unanimously Jan. 11 not to include the phrase.

Removing the”obvious reference to God … made it unlikely that we’d prevail in any litigation,”said Ken Falk, the ICLU’s legal director.

School board member Steve Phillips’ called the ICLU’s decision”fantastic,”The Courier-Journal, a Louisville, Ky., newspaper reported.”As a school board member, I never heard one negative comment about what we’re trying to do,”he said.

Superintendent Rob Hooker drafted the precepts in an effort to promote a more civil, moral school atmosphere. He considered the then-11 principles to be an alternative to posting the Ten Commandments. The board voted last fall to post the Ten Commandments, but changed its mind after being warned of possible legal challenges.

The approved precepts feature 10 pennies preceding each principle. The words”In God We Trust”on each penny are hard to read.

By Jan. 12, all five of the schools had posted the 10 principles, which include”Save sex for marriage,””Tell the truth,””Respect authority,”and”Honor your parents and family members.”

Quote of the Day: Neo-spiritualist Joanne Liverani of Burke, Va.

(RNS)”We discovered the God within. That’s why we need God. Because we are God. God gives me the ability to create my own godliness.” Joanne Liverani, of Burke, Va., who along with her husband Ed has begun their own church, retaining bits of their old religion and rejecting the rest. She was quoted in the Tuesday (Jan. 18) edition of The Washington Post.

DEAEND RNS