c. 2000 Religion News Service
First Seventh-day Adventist and Black Leads Navy Chaplains
(RNS) Rear Adm. Barry C. Black has been installed as the first Seventh-day Adventist and the first African-American to serve as Chief of Navy Chaplains.
Black was installed Aug. 18 at a ceremony at the Washington Naval Yard in Washington, D.C. He will manage a corps of more than 1,000 chaplains in the Navy.
Black told Adventist News Network that his denomination’s emphasis on religious liberty and keeping of the Sabbath has sensitized him to the need to accommodate the religions of all naval personnel.
“The moment equal accommodation is permitted to be jeopardized, it becomes an ethical slippery slope,” he said.
Before replacing Rear Adm. A. Byron Holderby as the Navy’s chief of chaplains, Black served for three years as deputy chief of chaplains.
Black, 51, said he views his selection as a sign of the diversity within the military.
“For an individual coming from a religious tradition as idiosyncratic as my own, to become a two-star admiral at the top of the heap, that is a tribute to the opportunities available in the military for people of all religious traditions,” he told The Baltimore Sun.
The Sun reported that Black is the second clergyman to lead the chaplain corps who is from a nonliturgical, evangelical tradition. In the past few years, some evangelical Navy chaplains have complained of bias by their high-church, liturgical colleagues.
TV Show Names “Top 10 People to Watch” on Spiritual Landscape
(RNS) African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Vashti McKenzie, “Veggie Tales” creator Phil Vischer and Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, a founding member of the Muslim Women’s League, are among up-and-coming leaders in American spiritual life named by Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
The Public Broadcasting Service newsmagazine will feature its choices for the “Top 10 People to Watch” on the spiritual landscape in the opening show of its fourth season, which begins airing Sept. 1. The show, hosted by veteran journalist Bob Abernethy, is distributed Fridays at 5 p.m. ET and airs at various times on more than 200 PBS stations nationwide (check local listings).
In alphabetical order, here are the up-and-coming spiritual leaders chosen by the program:
_ Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, 38, a California obstetrician and founding member and past president of the Muslim Women’s League, which formed the Women’s Coalition against Ethnic Cleansing.
_ Catherine Brekus, 36, religion historian at the University of Chicago Divinity School and author of the academic history of women preachers titled “Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845.”
_ Makoto Fujimura, 39, a Japanese-American artist based in New York City who uses ancient Japanese painting techniques to create modern abstract artwork conveying religious themes.
_ Rev. Adam Hamilton, 36, founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, which with more than 6,000 members, is the fastest-growing Methodist church in America.
_ Bishop T.D. Jakes, 43, an African-American Pentecostal minister based in Dallas who is known for his message of empowerment, especially for women, and whose ministry reaches out to prison inmates and victims of AIDS and domestic abuse.
_ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, 39, a Tibetan incarnate-lama who directed the first Tibetan-language feature film, “The Cup,” and leads Siddhartha’s Intent, an international organization that teaches Tibetan Buddhism.
_ Rabbi Irwin Kula, 42, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) in New York, who seeks to make ancient Jewish teaching spiritually relevant to younger generations and works to expand the definition of what it means to be Jewish.
_ Bishop Vashti McKenzie, 53, first woman bishop to be elected in the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 213-year history and author of the 1996 book “Not Without a Struggle” that challenged all-male church hierarchies.
_ Phil Vischer, 34, a computer-animator and president of Big Idea Productions in Chicago that created “VeggieTales,” a best-selling videotape series for children that tells Bible stories through animated vegetable characters.
_ Bishop Gabino Zavala, 48, the Hispanic Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, who served as subcommittee chair for “Encuentro 2000,” a national event celebrating cultural and racial diversity.
Survey Finds Muslims Are Mostly Unified on Social Issues
(RNS) American Muslims overwhelmingly support stricter gun control laws and school voucher programs, and tend to take stronger positions on issues than most Americans, according to a new poll.
The poll of 502 American Muslims, conducted by the American Muslim Council and Zogby International, found that the country’s estimated 6 million Muslims tend to vote Democratic, but on social policy questions, are drawn to both major parties.
Observers have targeted the Muslim community as a critical swing vote in battleground states with large Muslim populations, such as Michigan, California and New Jersey.
“This is an important religious group that is in the process of defining itself,” said pollster John Zogby, according to The Washington Times. “This is a pivotal group in the upcoming elections.”
The survey, released Monday (Aug.28), found that Muslims tend to be overwhelmingly united on all but a handful of social issues. Ninety-six percent support using the federal budget surplus for health care, 89 percent support stricter gun control measures, 84 percent support school vouchers and 75 percent support the death penalty.
But Muslims are hard to pin down into one ideological camp. Like the nation’s 42 million Catholic voters, they support a $1 increase in the hourly minimum wage _ a perennial Democratic issue _ but also support school voucher programs, an issue embraced by Republicans but rejected by most Democrats.
Nearly a third of Muslim voters (31.9 percent) said U.S. foreign policy does not “demonstrate respect” toward the Muslim faith and just over half (55.4 percent) said the United States has not pursued an “even-handed” policy on the Middle East.
The survey also found that Muslims tend to take stronger positions on issues even within their own political parties. While 98 percent of Muslim Democrats want to use the federal surplus for health care, only 46 percent of non-Muslim Democrats share that view. In addition, 70 percent of Republican Muslims support gun control, while only 20 percent of non-Muslim Republicans support stricter laws.
The survey, conducted in March, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Lieberman Qualifies Remarks on Religion; Reaction Continues
(RNS) Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Monday (Aug. 28) that his frequent references to God and faith on the campaign trail are more about the moral discourse in the country and less about “programs or legislation.”
Lieberman, the first Jew on a major party national ticket, was criticized on Monday by the Anti-Defamation League for his frequent references to God. The ADL in a statement said it was “inappropriate and even unsettling” for Lieberman to bring his faith so openly into the political arena.
Speaking to The New York Times after the ADL issued its statement, Lieberman said he was not implying that non-believers are less patriotic or less American, but said the country should not exclude faith and religion from public discourse.
“This is really less a matter of programs or legislation than it is of giving respect to the constructive role that faith can play in the lives of individuals, and in the lives of the community,” Lieberman said.
His running mate, Vice President Al Gore, said he has no intentions of reining in Lieberman’s God talk.
“I believe (in) what Joe Lieberman is saying,” Gore said, according to USA Today. “He’s a man of great faith, and I knew that when I selected him.”
Lieberman’s comments _ he told a black church in Detroit that America needs to “reaffirm our faith and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God and God’s purpose” _ have unleashed a flurry of criticism from fellow Jews, some Christians and church-state organizations.
The Orthodox Union, which represents Orthodox Jewish congregations, issued a statement praising the “increased embrace of spirituality and religious values in public life” without mentioning Lieberman by name. The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, had cautiously not commented on Lieberman’s comments until after the ADL issued its statements.
“I know you to be a sincere man who holds religion in the highest regard,” Lynn wrote to Lieberman, “But before the religious rhetoric in this campaign spins dangerously out of control, I urge you to accept the fact that enough is enough.”
Religious Leaders Sign `Commitment to Global Peace’
(RNS) More than 1,000 religious leaders from around the world will be invited to sign a “Commitment to Global Peace” at the historic Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders being held in New York through Thursday (Aug. 31).
Religious leaders gathered for the summit will not be required to sign the statement, but organizers hope most of the assembled leaders will endorse its principles. The statement includes 11 promises to work for global peace, education and the abolition of nuclear weapons, among other things.
“We accept that men and women are equal partners in all aspects of life and children are the hope of the future,” the statement reads in its introduction. “Our world is plagued by violence, war and destruction, which are sometimes perpetrated in the name of religion.”
The statement continues, saying, “Building peace requires an attitude of reverence for life, freedom and justice, the eradication of poverty, and the protection of the environment for present and future generations.”
Signers will pledge to “appeal to all religious communities and ethnic and national groups to respect the right to freedom of religion, to seek reconciliation, and to engage in mutual forgiveness and healing.”
In addition, signers will “practice and promote in our communities the values of the inner dimension of peace, including especially study, prayer, meditation, a sense of the sacred, humility, love, compassion, tolerance and a spirit of service …”
The summit, which opened at the United Nations with an address by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has drawn fire from critics who said organizers bowed to Chinese pressure to exclude the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Tibetan Buddhists and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Britain’s Patron Saint Gets a Liturgical Boost From the Vatican
(RNS) St. George, the fourth-century martyr who became the patron saint of England in the Middle Ages, has been upgraded by the Vatican in the liturgical calendar of England’s Roman Catholic churches.
While the other national patrons of Britain and Ireland _ St. Andrew of Scotland, St. David of Wales, and St. Patrick of Ireland _ had their feast days ranked as solemnities, St. George’s was listed as a mere feast.
That meant that if St. George’s feast day, April 23, fell during Holy Week or Easter Week, as it often does, it disappeared from the liturgical calendar completely that year.
Now, as a solemnity, it will be celebrated on the next available day other than a Sunday.
The new national calendar for England was approved by the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales in 1993, following widespread consultation, but it was only accepted by Rome in June this year. The Vatican’s approval was announced Tuesday (Aug. 29). The new calendar will take effect from Advent this year.
Other patrons of Europe that are celebrated as solemnities are Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St. Benedict, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross _ who is better known as Edith Stein.
Quote of the Day: Media mogul Ted Turner
(RNS) “Nobody was going to heaven but just us. … It just confused the devil out of me because I said heaven is going to be a mighty empty place with nobody else there. So I was pretty confused and turned off by it. I said it just can’t be right.”
_ Media mogul Ted Turner, who funded a large portion of the U.N. Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, speaking at the conference on Tuesday (Aug. 29). Turner was talking about his early Christian upbringing and why he turned away from plans to be a minister.
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