c. 2000 Religion News Service
Religious Leaders Join Clinton in Calling for Minimum Wage Increase
(RNS) Religious leaders joined President Clinton on Wednesday (March 8) in calling for a $1 increase in the minimum wage as the Republican-led House of Representatives prepared to vote on the issue Thursday.
Though the White House ceremony was cast in largely partisan terms, religious leaders painted the minimum wage increase as a basic issue of justice and fairness to working Americans.
“It is unfair, it is unjust, it is unconscionable to have average people working full-time and still not get above the poverty line,” said Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark, a nun and lobbyist with NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby.
Protestant, Catholic and Jewish representatives had planned a rally on Capitol Hill to push for the wage increase, but that event was canceled when Clinton opted to hold his own rally at the White House. Still, religious leaders issued statements supporting the increase, which would be phased in over two years.
“So many of the working poor are in deep pain because of lack of sufficient income to provide for themselves and their families,” a coalition of 18 officials wrote to Clinton and members of Congress. “We believe … that increasing the minimum wage by $1 over two years would be one of the most compassionate and effective ways of responding to that pain.”
Those who signed the letter included officials from the National Council of Churches, Reform Judaism, several mainline Protestant denominations, Christian Orthodox and the Unitarian Universalists.
Kay Bengston, the assistant director for advocacy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said agencies aiding the poor within her church have seen increased need in recent years, despite the booming economy.
“Increasing the minimum wage is one of the parts that would make a big difference for those families,” Bengston said. “It’s a real issue of fairness and justice.”
Pope Urges Catholics to Show Solidarity with Poor During Lent
(RNS) Pope John Paul II marked Ash Wednesday (March 8) by urging Roman Catholics to use the 40-day period of fasting and penance for gestures of solidarity with the poor and other victims of violence and injustice.
“Abstinence and fasting must be accompanied by gestures of solidarity toward those suffering and going through difficult moments,” John Paul said in his weekly public audience.
He said that sacrifice in preparation for Easter would help the faithful “gain a greater interior freedom, making one more open to hearing God’s word and to the generous aiding of brothers in need.”
Conservatives Claim Victory on California’s Proposition 22
(RNS) The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Wednesday (March 8) his church and other religious conservatives had scored a “great victory” after California voters Tuesday approved a referendum that bars the recognition of gay marriages.
Gordon B. Hinckley, the 89-year-old president of the Mormon church, said in a speech at the National Press Club that although the church tries to stay out of politics, it will vigorously defend what it sees as moral issues facing society. Proposition 22, which passed by a 61 to 39 percent margin, keeps the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman.
“We are not anti-gay, we are pro-family,” Hinckley said. “Let me be clear on that.”
The fight to approve the measure was financed and led by religious conservatives. One of the nation’s most outspoken conservative groups, the Washington-based Family Research Council, said California’s decision shows that the traditional definition of marriage is something all religions can agree on.
“Mormons, Muslims, evangelicals, Catholics and others may disagree on religion, but all can agree that the heart of family life is marriage, the foundation of our civilization,” FRC spokeswoman Janet Parshall said in a statement.
Opponents of the measure, who found strong support in Hollywood, said while they may have lost the battle over Proposition 22, they are not calling it quits.
“This is a setback, but there’s no turning back,” said Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in a statement. “The movement toward equality is both incremental and inevitable. On issue after issue, in state after state, we are advancing. Like any social justice movement, however, we will suffer defeats along the way.”
Sudan Bombing of Relief Group’s Hospital Criticized
(RNS) A hospital operated by a U.S. relief group in Sudan was bombed Monday (March 6) for the second time in six days, prompting sharp criticism of the Khartoum government, including a protest by the U.S. special envoy to Sudan a day after wrapping up his four-day visit to the country.
“The government of Sudan just continues to demonstrate that they are a terrorist nation,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and son of the Rev. Billy Graham. Samaritan’s Purse operates the bombed hospital.
“For more than 25 years, Samaritan’s Purse has helped people all over the world recover from wars of hatred, but this is the first time we’ve ever been so blatantly and continuously attacked by the government of the very people we are trying to help.”
No one was killed in Monday’s attack. Two people were killed in a bombing at the hospital on March 1.
Monday’s bombing followed an attack Saturday (March 4) on Concern Worldwide, an Ireland-based international relief agency with operations in rebel-held territory in southern Sudan. The Sudanese government dropped two bombs inside the group’s compound, though no one was hurt.
Khartoum also destroyed a grade school in the Nuba Mountains in early February, killing 14 children and a teacher.
Concern and Samaritan’s Purse are two of about 24 international relief groups that remained in southern Sudan after signing a memo of understanding that gave greater control of their agencies’ operations to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a rebel group in southern Sudan that has fought for autonomy from the north and its Islamic-run government for the past 17 years.
The rebel army had given relief agencies until March 1 to sign the memo or face expulsion from the area, but 11 groups, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and World Vision, rejected the document and withdrew from the region.
The bombings were denounced by the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Harry Johnston, who began talks about Sudan on Wednesday (March 8) with Egyptian foreign ministry officials in Cairo.
“In my meetings with Foreign Minister (Mustafa Osman) Ismail and Justice Minister (Ali Mohamed Osman) Yassin, I shared the United States government’s grave concern and condemnation of the Sudanese government’s bombings of civilian targets,” said Johnston, who visited Sudan March 4-7.
Human Rights Watch also denounced the attacks, as did Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy.
“The sustained and intentional bombing of civilian targets by the government of Sudan is reprehensible and clearly demonstrates to the world that this administration is unconcerned with the human security of its population,” Axworthy said.
Christian School Students Suspended Over Back Street Boys Concert
(RNS) Four students at a private Christian school in San Antonio were suspended after attending a concert given by the pop group the Backstreet Boys.
School officials at Sunnybrook Christian Academy gave the students one-day suspensions for attending the March 1 concert because, according to school administrator Trudie Perez, they disobeyed a school rule that forbade “involvement with inappropriate music.”
“They (the Backstreet Boys) have some good music, but some of the music, I have been told, has certain sexual references,” said Perez, noting the group’s lyrics include phrases such as “I want to touch your body all night.”
“That’s not the message that we want to convey to our young people. We send the message of sexual abstinence,” the Associated Press reported Perez as saying.
Two of the suspended students returned to school Friday (March 3), but one,a high school senior, may leave the school.
Poll: Israelis Upbeat About Pope’s Visit
(RNS) A new Gallup poll shows that most Israelis are upbeat about the impending visit of Pope John Paul II to the country beginning March 21.
Nearly 60 percent of 500 Jewish Israelis who were surveyed in the March 3 telephone poll said they viewed the pope’s visit as positive, while only 12 percent viewed the event negatively, according to the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, which sponsored the survey.
“These findings contradict the `conventional wisdom’ that Israelis are either negative or apathetic about the pope, Christianity and related matters,” said Dr. Ron Kronish, director of the ICCI.
Moreover, a far higher proportion of Israeli Jews tend to view the pope’s visit as a pilgrimage or as a peace mission rather than a political junket or as an attempt to convert Jews to Christianity, the poll found.
Over 40 percent of those questioned thought the main goal of the visit was for pilgrimage or peacemaking, while only 22 percent thought the pope aimed to influence the peace process, and only 5 percent believed he was seeking to convert Jews to Christianity.
One of the more surprising findings of the poll was that many Jewish Israelis apparently would like to learn more about Christianity.
Nearly 50 percent of those surveyed expressed interest in a dialogue with Christians and only about one-quarter of those questioned felt the programs of the Israeli Ministry of Education are adequate in fostering understanding and mutual respect.
NCC Secretary General Calls for Charges Against Pinochet
(RNS) The general secretary of the National Council of Churches said Tuesday (March 7) that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet should face charges for crimes against humanity.
The Rev. Robert Edgar, who leads the ecumenical body of 35 Protestant and Orthodox church communions, said Pinochet must face charges in order to bring justice and peace to the families of thousands of political opponents who disappeared during his 17-year rule from 1973 to 1990.
“We do not believe that the case of General Pinochet is over, and it will not be over until the full truth is told and heard … in a way that satisfies his victims and the families of his victims,” Edgar said, echoing an identical statement issued by the World Council of Churches.
Pinochet returned to Chile on March 3 after spending 16 months under house arrest in Britain while Spanish authorities tried to bring charges against the 84-year-old general. A British court eventually found Pinochet too ill to stand trial and allowed him to return to Chile.
But Pinochet’s troubles are far from over. He now faces more than 70 lawsuits filed by Chilean citizens for alleged human rights abuses during his rule. An official government report issued after Pinochet stepped down in 1990 found that 3,197 people were killed or disappeared during Pinochet’s rule.
Edgar’s statement followed calls by the World Council of Churches, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for Chilean courts to bring charges against Pinochet.
“An extremely important new precedent has been set,” Edgar said. “No dictator again feels that he can move with impunity.”
Update: Parental Permission Needed for Interracial Dating
(RNS) Students at Bob Jones University need a note of approval from their parents if they want to date interracially, the school’s president said Monday (March 6).
“We will carry out the will of your parents,” Bob Jones III, president of the South Carolina university, told students at a chapel service, the Associated Press reported. “They will need to have a say in this.”
Jones added he thought most people viewed interracial dating as an inappropriate choice.
“I think that’s evidenced by the fact that so few people are interracially married,” Jones said. “When you date interracially or marry interracially, it cuts you off from people.”
The school’s ban on interracial dating, which ended March 3, was established in the 1950s, and was intended to prevent relationships between Asian and white students. Black students were not allowed to enroll there until 1970.
In 1983 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the policy violated federal statute, and the university lost its tax-exempt status.
The school was thrust into the national spotlight when presidential candidate George W. Bush appeared there during his campaign for the South Carolina primary. Two of Bush’s rivals for the U.S. presidency, Alan Keyes and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized him for not denouncing the ban when he spoke at the school.
Joe Ignacio, a senior from Guam, supported the school’s decision to end its ban on interracial relationships.
“We looked like idiots in front of the nation,” he said. “I would’ve preferred they do away with the ban (completely), but I realize this is Bob Jones.”
Quote of the Day: Theo-Ben Gurirab, president of the United Nations General Assembly
(RNS) “To this day, the strategies that have been applied to peace negotiations have at least one thing in common: They have almost entirely ignored women’s visions for peace and social change. Women are half of every community. Are they therefore not also half of every solution?”
_ Theo-Ben Gurirab, Namibian foreign minister and president of the United Nations General Assembly, during a U.N. town hall meeting marking International Women’s Day on March 8.
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