c. 2000 Religion News Service
Evangelicals Say Environmentalists Embrace `Faulty Science’
(RNS) Leading evangelicals gathered in Washington on Monday (April 17) to issue a statement on the environment, saying humans should take priority over nature and that the environmental movement embraces “faulty science” and “strident street theater.”
Led by talk show host and Focus on the Family president James Dobson, an array of conservative evangelicals gathered to launch the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship and chide the environmental movement for being too radical.
The religious leaders signed what they called the “Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship” and urged the passage of specific legislation they say will aid the environment. This is the first major statement politically conservative evangelicals have made on the environment. More liberal Protestants have advocated environmental protection for years.
As part of the declaration, the leaders questioned doomsday statistics about global warming, booming population growth and a needed reduction in the use of fossil fuels. The signers said the mainline Protestant National Council of Churches wants to use the global warming issue as a “litmus test” for religious faith.
“The exaggerated attention given to global warming and other unproven theories also diverts money, attention and scientific research away from problems that are critical in the United States and developing world,” the group said in a statement.
The group also took aim at the environmental lobby, saying environmentalists base their platforms on “faulty science and economics, strident street theater, and demands for immediate, drastic action on problems that are often hypothetical or overstated.”
Signers of the declaration included Dobson, Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a conservative Jewish activist.
Brent Blackwelder, president of the Friends of the Earth U.S.A., disputed those claims and said the environmental movement’s position are based on sound science. He suggested that evangelicals look to the Bible for God’s commandments to take care of the earth.
“There’s very clear evidence in the Old Testament that people were to be watching out for their neighbors and creation, and it sounds to me that this group seems to be acting on behalf on the corporate polluters in issuing a diatribe against the environmental movement, whereas the environmental movement has wanted to be stewards of creation and not wanting to poison our fellow human beings,” Blackwelder said.
Supreme Court Allows School to Ban Ten Commandments Ad
(RNS) The Supreme Court on Monday (April 17) refused to rule against a California school district’s rejection of an ad containing the Ten Commandments on a high school baseball field.
The Court let stand a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that said the Southern California school district did not infringe on religious freedom by not allowing a local businessman to post the 10 Commandments on a baseball field sign, according to the Associated Press.
Because the Court dismissed the case without hearing it or issuing a formal decision, no legal precedent was set.
Edward DiLoreto, who owns a local engineering firm, wanted to buy the ad from the Downey High School baseball booster club for $400. The ad would have posted the 10 Commandments and said, “Meditate on these principles to live by.”
The school district rejected the ad, along with a proposed ad by Planned Parenthood, and DiLoreto sued for “impermissable viewpoint-based discrimination.” DiLoreto and his lawyers claimed the school board was using “misguided ideas about their responsibilities with respect to the separation of church and state.”
State and federal courts ruled against DiLoreto, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld those rulings. Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court essentially affirmed those decisions.
The Appeals court had ruled in November that the baseball field fence was “a forum limited to certain subjects and not open for indiscriminate use by the general public.” In addition, it ruled that the district was free to exclude subjects “that would be disruptive to the educational purposes of the school.”
Muslims Ask Clinton to Ban Use of `Secret Evidence’
(RNS) Leaders of the nation’s Muslim community have asked President Clinton to support a bill that would ban the use of “secret evidence” to detain people who are suspected to have ties to terrorists.
Immigration officials can legally detain an individual without ever filing criminal charges by using secret evidence in deportation proceedings. The suspects are thought to be associates of terrorists or terrorist organizations, and the supporting evidence is shown only to the immigration judge and not to the suspect or his lawyers.
Immigration officials do not have an official count on how many suspects are being held on secret evidence cases. One official put that number at a half dozen or fewer, while Muslim watchdog groups say as many as 25 suspects are sitting in prison, not knowing what they are charged with.
Muslim leaders have said for years that the practice is unconstitutional and unfairly targets people of Middle Eastern heritage. A bill in the House of Representatives would ban secret evidence; so far, 65 members have signed on to the bill.
At an Atlanta reception on April 14, Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, presented Clinton with a letter urging him to support the Secret Evidence Repeal Act. Clinton said he would consider the request.
According to the letter, “the use of secret evidence undermines our democracy and lessens the international credibility of the United States on the issue of human rights.”
Amish Buggy Accidents Decline With Safety Measures
(RNS) Traffic accidents in parts of Ohio are down since Amish drivers have added safety devices such as lights and reflective tape to their horse-drawn buggies, a state report said.
Statistics from the Ohio Department of Public Safety showed a 20 percent decline in the average number of buggy accidents in Geauga County, east of Cleveland, the Associated Press reported. That decrease is partly attributed to the success of safety guidelines established in 1996. A recent report showed about 80 percent of Amish people in the county adopted the recommendations.
Ninety-two buggy accidents occurred in Geauga County in the four years before the safety guidelines were issued, but that number dropped to 72 in the succeeding four years _ even though the Amish population rose 10 percent.
Officials say the number of accidents have remained the same or increased south of Cleveland in Ashland, Holmes and Wayne counties. In the latter two counties, some Amish people have opted to hang oil lamps in their buggies at night rather than run battery-powered lights.
Ohio began examining safety issues regarding horse-drawn buggies in 1994 at the request of Amish residents. Twelve Amish people died and more than 600 were injured between 1992 and 1999 in car and buggy accidents in Ohio. An average of 140 such accidents happen every year.
N.C. Bishops Urge Death Penalty Moratorium
(RNS) Urging “all people of good will” to take steps to transform the United States’ into “a society that imposes justice without violence,” North Carolina’s two Roman Catholic bishops have issued a pastoral letter calling for a moratorium on executions in the state during Holy Week.
In their letter published on the front page of The Catholic News & Herald, which is delivered to all Catholic households in the Diocese of Charlotte, Bishops William Curlin of Charlotte and Joseph Gossman of Raleigh said a moratorium on executions could be the first step toward the end of the death penalty in the state, the Associated Press reported.
The bishops said they recognized the “enormous pain” of crime victims’ families as well as the importance of Catholic parishes in helping them cope, but maintained that “the violent act of capital punishment is merely vengeance, an act that keeps us as a nation steeped in violence.”
Meanwhile, in the first stop along the Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace in Greensboro, two dozen demonstrators marched in Greensboro on Sunday (April 16) demanding, among other things, the abolishment of the death penalty. Protestors will travel from Greensboro to the state capital of Raleigh where a final rally is scheduled for Friday (April 21).
In the past 23 years, 15 people have been executed in North Carolina. Since 1973, three innocent people have been freed from death row in the state, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Center.
More than 200 people currently await execution.
The Rev. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, has supported calls for a death penalty moratorium in the state, saying he believes the death penalty discriminates against poor people and minorities.
China Blocks U.N. Vote on Human Rights Abuses
(RNS) Introducing a “no-action” motion that passed by a 22-18 vote, China successfully prevented the U.N. Human Rights Commission from discussing a U.S. motion to censure the country because of its human rights record.
Twelve countries abstained and one was absent during the vote, which came Tuesday (April 18) during the commission’s annual meeting in Geneva.
“Today’s decision represents a sorry failure of political will,” said Human Rights Watch representative Joanna Weschler, the Associated Press reported. “The credibility of the U.N. Commission has been seriously damaged by its unwillingness to censure China or even to discuss its rights performance.”
The blocked censure resolution criticized China’s “severe restrictions on the rights of citizens” within the past year, noting “increased restrictions” on the freedom of Tibetans and “harsh crackdowns” on those critical of the government.
“We must acknowledge that the situation of human rights in China remains very poor,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Harold Koh. “Its human rights record has not improved and has in fact deteriorated markedly over the last 12 months.”
But Chinese Ambassador Qiao Zonghuai accused the United States of manipulating the commission “to make unwarranted attacks on China,” and contended Washington’s “anti-China political farce” was “a mockery toward the commission.”
The U.S. has unsuccessfully attempted to censure China nine times in the past decade. Human rights watchdog groups have reported recently that Chinese authorities have seized $95 million and about 3,000 businesses belonging to the Zhong Gong religious sect and arrested several hundred members of Falun Gong followers.
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Jerry Falwell
(RNS) “I laugh at myself because I realize others are. There are a lot of our guys who take themselves too seriously.”
_ The Rev. Jerry Falwell, former head of the Moral Majority and chancellor of Liberty University, quoted in Christianity Today. Falwell said he knows his vocal position on issues makes him an easy target for opponents and tries to take their criticisms in stride.
KRE END RNS
