c. 2000 Religion News Service
Religious Liberty Bill Passes Congress, Heads to Clinton
(RNS) A bill giving greater protection to religious organizations in zoning disputes now awaits President Clinton’s signature after being passed by both the House and the Senate.
The legislation gives religious institutions greater power in zoning disputes with local governments. Under the new law, governments must prove a “compelling interest” in order to restrict the use, destruction or building of houses of worship.
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act also gives greater leeway to prison inmates to practice their religious faith as long as it does not undermine prison security.
The bill follows the landmark Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997 because it violated states’ rights. The new bill received broad support from Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and parachurch groups.
The rejection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act “left religious groups in general, and religious minorities most particularly, without the constitutional protections that have made religious experience in America so unique and remarkable,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Ministries that work in prisons said the bill validates a number of faith-based programs that have helped rehabilitate inmates.
“It is significant that the Senate has given protection to prisoners’ access to these life-changing religious programs,” said Pat Nolan, president of Justice Fellowship.
Religious Activists, Celebrities Urge End to Iraq Sanctions
(RNS) Several religious activists joined with Richard Gere, Martin Sheen, Rosie O’Donnell and more than 30 other celebrities to place an ad in The New York Times on Friday (July 28) demanding the immediate suspension of U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
“Are the Children of Iraq Our Enemies?” asks the advertisement.
“Ten years ago, on August 6, 1990, the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Iraq. Since then, over 1 million Iraqis, mostly children under five, have died. Ten years is enough! The military sanctions on Iraq should continue, but the economic sanctions not only do not work, they are killing innocent Iraqi children. We say the time has come to stop killing Iraqi children. Lift the economic sanctions now!”
Eight religious leaders signed the statement: Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Rabbi Douglas Krantz, Sister Joan Chittister, the Rev. James Lawson, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Sister Helen Prejean and the Rev. John Dear, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the group sponsoring the ad.
Other celebrities who signed the statement included singer Joan Baez, fashion designer Todd Oldham, and actors Liam Neeson, Susan Sarandon and Jeremy Irons.
To mark the 10-year anniversary of the imposition of the sanctions, Sheen will lead a march from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House on Aug. 6. A sit-in in front of the White House will take place the following morning. Both events are sponsored by the FOR, the nation’s largest interfaith peace organization.
CORPUS Tells Bishops to Open Priesthood to Married Men
(RNS) Responding to a request by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops for ideas on how to ease a growing shortage of priests, an independent group with large numbers of married priests has told the bishops to open the priesthood to married men.
CORPUS, which urges the ordination of married men as well as women, released an open letter to the nation’s Catholic bishops, saying restricting the priesthood to celibate males “runs counter to the movement of the Holy Spirit among the people of God.”
At their spring meeting in Milwaukee in June, the bishops expressed growing concern about the shrinking ranks of Catholic priests. The number of priests in 1998 was 46,352, compared to 53,796 in 1960. Similarly, the church ordained 1,527 men in 1960, compared to only 460 in 1998.
The bishops asked for ideas on how to meet the needs of a growing church with fewer available clergy. CORPUS responded that restricting the priesthood to men “holds hostage from the people of God the Eucharist and other sacramental ministry.”
“What good father among you would give his child a stone when asked for bread?” the letter said. “You hold the Eucharist-centered, sacramental needs of your sisters and brothers in your hands.”
Religious Groups Call for Scrapping `Star Wars’ Plan
(RNS) More than two dozen national faith groups have teamed up to form an interfaith coalition to protest the Clinton administration’s proposed national missile defense system.
The 28 groups _ among them Church Women United, Buddhist Peace Fellowship and the Central Conference of American Rabbis _ said the defense system is an unjustified expense and a threat to international security.
“There is widespread feeling within the faith community that deployment of national missile defense is ill-advised,” said Howard W. Hallman of the Interfaith Committee for Nuclear Disarmament and Methodists United for Peace With Justice.
“It seeks a technological fix for problems best solved through multilateral diplomacy. It risks starting a new nuclear arms race. The cost of unproven national missile defense is exorbitant and wastes resources better used to meet human and community needs,” he added.
The possibility that the defense system could spark a new arms race was also raised by Mark Pelavin of the Religious Action Center, the legislative office of the Reform Jewish Movement in North America, who said the missile system “could provide the impetus for a new arms race, threatening not only our nation but, in this nuclear age, our planet.”
“We must remove ourselves from the path of nuclear destruction, to a day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, a day when our safety and security are not dependent on the very technology which threatens our existence,” said Pelavin.
The Rev. Russell Siler of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said he believed the proposed defense system “is a road that leads away from the quest for peace.”
“Our precious resources must be used to build a more just society and a just peace. The cause of peace is well-served by a simple demonstration of power,” he said.
Other members of the coalition include the Muslim Peace Fellowship, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the National Council of Churches.
The coalition was organized by the Interfaith Committee on Nuclear Affairs and 20/20 Vision, a Washington, D.C.-based group focusing on peace and environmental issues.
President Clinton is expected to decide by September whether to implement the $60 billion defense system.
Hawaii Scraps the Rainbow in Rainbow Warriors Logo
(RNS) Concerned there are homosexual overtones in the rainbow logo used by the University of Hawaii’s football team, school officials have decided to abandon the 77-year-old logo.
The officials said the team has used the rainbow as its symbol because of the rainbows that appear frequently in Manoa Valley, home to the university’s main campus. Instead, the team will use the letter “H” styled in a traditional Hawaiian design called kapa.
On Wednesday (July 26) officials revealed the new logo, and announced the team’s name change from the Rainbow Warriors to the Warriors.
“That logo really put a stigma on our program at times in regards to its part of the gay community, their flags and so forth,” athletic director Hugh Yoshida told a local television station on Thursday (July 27), the Associated Press reported. “Some of the student athletes had some feelings in regard to that.”
He said the decision to replace the team’s logo should not be viewed as a statement against gays.
“We are just trying to get a new image out there,” said Yoshida.
But Ken Miller, co-chairman of Honolulu’s Gay and Lesbian Community Center, took issue with the school’s decision.
“It sends a very bad message _ not only to the students but the athletes who happen to be gay and struggling with that issue,” he said.
Sudanese Bishop Honored With Freedom Award
(RNS) Exiled Roman Catholic bishop and human rights activist Macram Max Gassis has been awarded the A. Philip Randolph-Bayard Rustin Freedom Award by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an African-American trade union-related organization.
The award has been given annually since 1970 to “people outside the labor movement for his or her contributions to racial equality,” Norman Hill, president of the Institute, told the humanitarian agency Sudan Relief and Rescue.
Exiled from Sudan for his opposition to human rights abuses in the country, Gassis will receive his award Saturday (July 29) in Washington. His diocese in central Sudan includes regions heavily damaged by the country’s civil war between the northern government and rebels in the south. More than 2 million people have died in violence and war-induced famines since fighting began in 1983.
Earlier this year a Sudanese military airplane bombed a Catholic primary school in a town in Gassis’ diocese. One teacher and 14 students died in the attack.
Gassis continues to work with projects in Sudan from his headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, Sudan Relief and Rescue said.
Quote of the Day: Actor Henry Winkler
(RNS) “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.”
_ Actor Henry Winkler, best known for his role as Fonzie on “Happy Days,” after his Emmy nomination was withdrawn when it was discovered his appearances on NBC’s “Battery Park” did not air in the Emmy eligibility period. Winkler was quoted in USA Today.
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