c. 2000 Religion News Service
Abortion Supporters, Foes React to RU-486 Approval
(RNS) Groups from opposite sides of the abortion issue are criticizing and hailing the approval Thursday (Sept. 28) by the Food and Drug Administration of the drug RU-486 that has been dubbed the “abortion pill.”
“The approval of mifepristone is the result of the FDA’s careful evaluation of the scientific evidence related to the safe and effective use of this drug,” said Dr. Jane E. Henney, U.S. commissioner of food and drugs, in a statement.
The FDA approved the use of mifepristone in conjunction with another drug, misoprostol, to terminate early pregnancies.
Gail Quinn, executive director of the Secretariat of the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, condemned the approval as “the latest in a series of capitulations to abortion advocates” by the federal agency.
“Worst of all, approving chemical abortion will further numb our consciences to the violence of abortion and the taking of innocent human life,” Quinn said in a statement.
The independent Catholics for a Free Choice, on the other hand, praised the decision.
“FDA approval of RU-486 will be welcomed by Catholic women, who have abortions at the same rate as other women in the United States,” stated Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. “To have one more option for very early abortion is morally and emotionally a significant advance.”
Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Gloria Feldt estimated that the pill would be available at her organization’s centers in about a month.
“We have arrived at the end of a long, frustrating and often heart-rending wait, and the beginning of a new era,” she said in a statement.
Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America opposed the FDA approval of the controversial drug.
“Women who would never consider a surgical abortion will now naively proceed in this game of `health’ roulette, believing that the FDA’s stamp of approval proves this drug to be safe and effective,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, bioethics policy analyst for Focus on the Familly, in a statement.
“This new method does not change the fact that abortion _ whether by surgical procedure or by ingesting a pill _ puts women at risk.”
Wendy Wright, director of communications for Concerned Women for America, also is concerned about the drug’s risks.
“Unlike medicine, which heals, it has no purpose other than to kill a human life,” she said in a statement. “After years of research, there are still too many questions left unanswered.”
Online Auctioning of Church Records a Growing Concern for Archivists
(RNS) People who come across old church records and think they could make a quick profit by auctioning them on the Internet should return those documents to the church, says the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
The commission, which met in Baltimore Sept. 22-23, said the auctioning of valuable historical records _ either deliberately or by accident _ is a growing concern for church archivists.
People who may be cleaning out a deceased relative’s house and come across baptism or membership records sometimes auction them off on Internet sites such as eBay. Getting rid of those records is a huge mistake, the commission said.
Often members in small churches keep the records in their homes and unknowing relatives just try to get rid of them. They are most often bought by genealogy enthusiasts, but once they’re sold, they can be hard to track down, said L. Dale Patterson, an archivist on the commission.
One commission member noticed such records for sale on eBay and contacted the buyer. After the situation was explained, the buyer made photocopies and sent the originals to the archives commission.
“Church records don’t walk home with you,” Patterson said, according to the United Methodist News Service.
Religious Leaders Urge Housing Funds for Poor
(RNS) Some 425 religious leaders from around the nation have issued a letter to President Clinton and other politicians, including presidential contenders Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore, urging them to use a $5 billion Federal Housing Administration surplus to provide affordable housing for low-income families.
The surplus, announced by Clinton in May, “could begin to lead this nation toward a resolution of the growing national affordable housing crisis,” said the letter dated Thursday (Sept. 28). “This action could lead us in a new direction for federal housing policy essential to solving America’s long-standing housing crisis.”
Among the letter’s signers were Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Bishop Felton Edwin May, of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Hozan Alan Senauke, national coordinator of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
The statement condemned politicians for remaining silent about the nation’s shortage of affordable housing.
“While the national conventions of both major parties focused on the needs of children, the plight of millions of them growing up in housing that is unsafe and/or unhealthy was ignored,” read the letter. “At a time when the FHA surplus and the national budget surplus provide a historic opportunity to end this nation’s housing crisis, there is an unconscionable silence by our nation’s political leadership.”
Providing affordable housing “is a moral imperative, a sacred moment that cannot be shunned,” the group declared. “What kind of people would we be if we had the opportunity to reduce this enormous suffering and did not accept that opportunity?”
Serb Church Supports Milosevic Opponent
(RNS) In a show of support for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s political rival, the Serbian Orthodox Church recognized Vojislav Kostunica as Yugoslavia’s “elected president” and urged him to ensure a peaceful transition to power.
“The Holy Synod calls on Vojislav Kostunica and all the people elected together with him, when they take over the control of the state, its parliament and its municipalities, to do so in a peaceful and dignified way,” read a statement issued by the church, whose opinions exert no direct influence on politics but are widely respected by the nation.
The statement came the same day Yugoslavia’s election commission called for an Oct. 8 runoff between Milosevic and Kostunica, Reuters news agency reported, because neither received the required 50 percent majority in presidential elections held Sunday (Sept. 24).
Both Kostunica, who has the support of Western political leaders, and Milosevic have claimed victory in the elections.
The election commission reported Wednesday (Sept. 27) that Kostunica finished ahead of Milosevic with 48.96 percent of the vote, compared to 38.62 percent for the incumbent.
But Kostunica insists the election results determined by opposition poll monitors _ which credit him with 52.54 percent of the vote and Milosevic with 32.01 percent _ are more accurate.
Religious Leaders Rally for Passage of Hate Crimes Bill
(RNS) An alliance of religious leaders on Thursday (Sept. 28) criticized the Christian Coalition for not supporting legislation that would cover homosexuals under federal hate crimes law.
In a midday rally across the street from the White House, more than 100 people gathered to urge congressional Republicans to pass the legislation, which would add sexual orientation, gender and disability to a list of federally protected classes.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, asked why the Coalition was not joining the rally just one day before it opened its annual Washington Road to Victory rally.
“As a people of faith, we cannot help but wonder why they do not stand with us today,” Saperstein said to loud applause. “We can only hope that they will join us in the Bible-based message of love and tolerance for fellow man.”
The rally came just days after a gay man was killed and six others injured in a Roanoke, Va., gay bar. The suspect, Ronald Edward Gay, told police he opened fire because he was tired of being thought of as a homosexual because of his last name.
Legislation that would add sexual orientation to the hate crimes list is currently in a House-Senate conference committee. The Senate earlier this year approved the language and the House voiced support for it, but Republican leaders have vowed to strip it from the final bill that heads to President Clinton.
The Rt. Rev. Neff Powell, the Episcopal bishop from Roanoke, Va., said the clergy in his diocese are “uniformly horrified” by the shooting at the Backstreet Cafe. Powell said even conservatives, like those in the Christian Coalition, should oppose hateful violence.
“The people being killed are all children of God, and they are our brothers and sisters,” Powell said. “They are worthy of our love. We worship the God of love, not of hate, and these actions come out of hate.”
Rajwant Singh, president of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said he was representing Eastern religions, all of which teach tolerance and love, regardless of sexual orientation.
“Hate crimes are a challenge to all religious believers,” Singh said. “If you want to meet God, you cannot break another person’s heart, because that is where God lives.”
Update: Nun in Abuse Case Freed With Admonition
(RNS) Sister Marie Docherty, the Scottish nun who was found guilty last week on four charges of cruelty to children between 1965 and 1980, was freed Thursday (Sept. 28) after Sheriff Colin Harris told her the only appropriate sentence was to admonish her on each of the four charges.
One of her victims, 41-year-old Jeanette Adams, whom Sister Marie had been found guilty of hitting with a hairbrush and force-feeding, said she was “really totally disgusted” by the ruling.
The nun’s lawyer, Paul Cullen, calling for the sentence of admonition, said the four charges on which she had been convicted were “substantially reduced versions” of the original charges.
Harris said that taking into account the circumstances of the case and the fact the nun was now 58 years old and suffering from a heart condition, he had concluded imprisonment would not be appropriate, nor would community service or a fine.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Barry Lynn
(RNS) “This is the strangest thing Pat Boone has done since he put out that heavy metal CD three years ago.”
_ The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, commenting on the Christian Coalition’s recruitment of 1950s crooner Pat Boone to urge churches to distribute the Coalition’s voter guides in churches.
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