c. 2000 Religion News Service
Presbyterians Approve Sweeping Social Policy Statements
(RNS) Delegates to the General Assembly policy-making session of the Presbyterian Church (USA) passed a series of resolutions on a number of hot-button social issues before ending their convention in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday (July 1).
While most of the resolutions easily passed through one of the last sessions of the convention, several of the issues highlighted fissures in the 2.5 million-member church and revealed geographic and philosophical disparities within the church.
Delegates voted 407-81 to approve a sweeping statement that urges church members to avoid gambling. The statement said that gambling “becomes unloving, unjust, and destructive and elevates personal pleasure, social expedience and economic gain before God and neighbor.”
The church also approved on a voice vote a resolution urging greater accountability for police violence. The resolution urged churches to become involved in interfaith efforts to combat police violence, and asked police departments to “uphold the law and not abuse their authority and that training include psychological testing, counseling (and) antiracism training” for new officers.
The church also voted 395-113 to support the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Capitols of South Carolina and Georgia. Delegates took the action a day before South Carolina removed the flag from its statehouse dome, ending months of bitter controversy.
But the Confederate flag vote brought back long-standing tensions in the church, which was reunited in 1983 between its Southern and Northern branches, which had split in 1861 over the issue of slavery. Several delegates from Southern presbyteries said the resolution, which was sponsored by churches in Detroit, did not express the pride that Southern Presbyterians hold for their Confederate heritage.
In other business, the church urged federal funding of needle exchange programs for drug addicts and also called on both Democrats and Republicans to pass comprehensive campaign finance reform.
Bishop Barred by Pope from Gay Pride Conference
(RNS) Bishop Jacques Gaillot, the activist French prelate barred by Pope John Paul II from speaking at a conference on homosexuality and religion, Monday (July 3) called on the Roman Catholic Church to give full recognition to the human dignity of lesbians and gays.
“I believe that some homosexual persons exist everywhere and suffer a great deal because they are objects of discrimination,” Gaillot said.
“Instead, we (the church) must help them by recognizing their dignity as do parents who suddenly discover they have a homosexual child and nevertheless attribute to them the dignity of a person.”
Gaillot spoke to reporters in the lobby of the hotel where the conference was held Monday.
But he abided by the papal ruling and did not attend the conference, which was organized in connection with the controversial World Pride Week taking place in Rome.
The prelate also canceled his participation in an ecumenical service Sunday (July 2) in a Waldensian church. A Protestant sect concentrated mainly in Italy, the Waldensians are staunchly independent and have refused to take part in Holy Year celebrations because the Roman Catholic Church has linked them to criticism of the granting of indulgences, a practice condemned in the Reformation of the 16th century.
The ban on Gaillot’s participation in the conference was the second major step the Vatican has taken to restrain the liberal prelate.
Disciplining him for his activist role in behalf of migrants and other minorities, the Valtican in 1995 suspended Gaillot from his diocese of Evreux in Normandy and has since appointed another bishop in his place.
Gaillot said earlier that the ruling against his participation in the conference came directly from the pope.
John Paul instructed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, to relay it to the apostolic nuncio in Paris, Archbishop Mario Tagliaferri, who, in turn, telephoned Bishop Louis Marie Bille of Lyon, president of the French Episcopal. Bille reached Gaillot in Rome on Sunday (June 2), the eve of the conference.
The Vatican strongly opposed the holding of World Pride Week in Rome during church celebrations of the Jubilee Holy Year. Some 300,000 lesbians and homosexuals are expected to attend the events.
Maria Grazia Cuchinotta, a star of the Oscar-winning film “Il Postino,”
(The Postman) and one of Italy’s most popular actresses, cut a rainbow-colored ribbon Saturday to open the festivities.
Right-wing groups are strenuously protesting the organizers’ application for permission to conclude World Pride Week next Saturday with a Mardi Gras-style parade past the ancient Colosseum.
“The Colosseum for Gays? Only with lions in it,” read a banner carried by members of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova in a protest march through the historic center of Rome. Others displayed Celtic crosses and Nazi swastikas.
The Roman Catholic Church draws a distinction between a homosexual orientation, which it condones, and homosexual acts, which it condemns.
John Paul has strongly attacked same sex marriages and adoptions as a threat to the traditional family.
Gaillot said the papal ban on his participation only drew more attention to the issue of the church’s view of homosexuality.
“The pope has done me a service because he asked me not to speak,” Gaillot told reporters. “And if you are here today it is thanks to the pope. He asked me not to speak in public, but I am speaking with the press.”
Vermont Gay Couples Enter Into Legal `Civil Unions’
(RNS) While the issue of same-sex unions continues to divide many religious groups, gay couples in Vermont took advantage of a new state law and entered into “civil unions” this weekend, a legal arrangement that gives same-sex couples most of the rights and benefits of marriage.
The law officially went into effect on Saturday (July 1), and almost immediately, about two dozen gay couples across the state went to their town clerks offices to apply for a civil union license.
The law is the result of a controversial state Supreme Court decision last year that said denying gay couples of the benefits of marriage was unconstitutional discrimination. The court directed the legislature to fix the problem, and earlier this year the legislature approved the bill in a closely watched vote.
Under the arrangement, gay couples can pay a $20 fee and receive a civil union license that gives homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals in such areas as inheritance and medical decision-making. It does not, however, provide federal benefits such as tax breaks and immigration rights.
Conservative religious groups have denounced the law, saying the state government was mandating a social experiment that most state voters do not support. Supporters, however, were ebullient with the new program.
“Twenty-seven-and-a-half years, that’s a long engagement,” said Kathleen Farnham, who was a plaintiff with her partner of 27 years, Holly Puterbaugh, in the lawsuit that resulted in the court ruling, according to The New York Times. “It’s nice after all this time to say Holly’s my spouse.”
U.S. Jewish Groups Denounce Convictions of Iranian Jewish Spies
(RNS) Demanding stricter sanctions against Iran, Jewish leaders have denounced a verdict handed down Saturday (July 1) that sentences 10 Iranian Jews to prison terms as long as 13 years for spying on Israel.
“The gross injustice occurring in Iran deserves the strongest international response,” declared United Jewish Communities, a coalition of United Jewish Appeal, the United Israel Appeal and the Council of Jewish Federations. “Such flagrant violations of international norms of justice and human rights cannot be tolerated.”
On Saturday (July 1), a closed court in Iran found 10 Jews guilty of espionage, sentencing them to prison terms that ranged from four to 13 years. The court also convicted two Muslims of aiding the spy ring.
The court’s decision brought to a close a case that began more than a year ago when Iran arrested and imprisoned 13 Jews on charges of releasing classified information to Israel. The men faced lengthy prison sentences _ possibly the death penalty _ if convicted.
The court’s decision not to impose the death penalty is “the direct result of the concerted intercession by nations around the world who made it plain they hold Iran internationally accountable for any death sentences that might be imposed,” said the American Jewish Congress.
“The one ray of hope, and one lesson we might learn is that even the rigid and ruthless fundamentalist government of Iran cannot be indifferent to concerted world opinion,” said the group, criticizing the U.S. government’s decision earlier this year to end sanctions against Iranian imports of pistachio nuts, caviar and rugs.
“The olive branch extended some weeks ago by Secretary of State (Madeleine) Albright on behalf of the United States must be completely withdrawn,” the Jewish Congress declared. “It is inconceivable that there be economic concessions to Iran while these sentences remain in place.”
In Los Angeles, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, where about 35,000 Iranian Jews live, maintained the defendants’ innocence.
“The judicial process in Iran is badly flawed: a fair and impartial trial would have proved their innocence,” said John R. Fishel, president of the group. “As America celebrates the anniversary of its own freedom and protection of individual liberties, it is sobering to remember that for innocent individuals in many parts of the world these human rights remain unprotected.”
Report: Black Clergy Must Take Lead on Sex Education
(RNS) African-American clergy should take the lead in tackling sex education issues facing African-American congregations, a national survey of about 400 African-American clergy and laity has concluded.
“This research has shown that the black church is indeed ready for a discourse on sexuality and that it is looking for our religious leaders to take the lead in this discourse,” declared a report released by the Black Church Initiative, a program of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice that encourages examination of sexuality issues affecting African-American churches. “Our clergy training programs must heed this signal. Our Christian education programs in our local churches must heed this signal.”
About 80 percent of those who responded to the survey said they believed African-American churches should incorporate sex education and information about reproductive choices into their education programs. Such programs should promote abstinence (though not exclusively), the respondents indicated, and be led by pastors or ministers, Christian educators and trained “outside persons.”
Though respondents said teen pregnancy, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and a lack of religiously based sexuality education topped the list of major problems facing African-American churches, they “did not support the idea of distributing reproductive choice materials,” the report found.
Indiana County Displays 10 Commandments to Courthouse Under New Law
(RNS) About 300 people gathered Saturday (July 1) on the steps of an Indiana county courthouse to watch officials unveil a plaque inscribed with the Ten Commandments _ the first such exhibit to benefit from a new Indiana law permitting government agencies to display the Ten Commandments.
The Orange County courthouse plaque was displayed inside a glass case and flanked on either side by the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. State law mandates that other historical documents must accompany displays of the Ten Commandments.
“I’m real pleased,” State Rep. Jerry Denbo, who sponsored the legislation, told the Associated Press. “We wanted to set the tone for the rest of the nation.”
If the exhibit draws complaints, the Indiana Civil Liberties Union will likely file a lawsuit, said Kenneth Falk, an attorney who works with the group. The group has already launched a legal challenge to a proposed monument of the Ten Commandments (inscribed with the Bill of Rights and the preamble to the U.S. Constitution) on the lawn of the Statehouse. Such a display, they contend, would amount to state establishment of religion and thus violate the U.S. Constitution.
In April, a Ten Commandments display at a North Carolina county courthouse prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit challenging the display’s legality. But in May, a judge allowed the exhibit to remain after commissioners promised to incorporate it into a showcase of documents from history.
In a separate but related matter, a nonbinding measure to promote display of the national motto “In God We Trust” in Colorado public schools is expected to be approved Thursday (July 6) by the state’s board of education. Critics say the move is an attempt to include religion in Colorado classrooms.
Ten Christian Refugee Survivors Found in Indonesia
(RNS) Three days after a boat carrying hundreds of Christian refugees sank during a violent storm about 1,500 miles northeast of Indonesia’s capital, searchers on Sunday (July 2) found nearly a dozen survivors clinging to debris in shark-infested waters.
The survivors, four women and six men ages 12 to 29, were rescued near Karakelong island about 120 miles north of Manado, the capital of Sulawesi island.
Their boat was on a 200-mile voyage from Halmahera (the main island of North Maluku province) to Manado when it sank with nearly 500 people aboard. The boat was licensed to carry only 290 passengers, the ship’s agent told the Associated Press.
About 290 of the boat’s 492 passengers were fleeing religious fighting in Duma, a predominantly Christian village in Maluku provinces where more than 100 people were killed June 19 during a raid by Muslims.
The provinces (known as the Spice Islands during the Dutch colonial era),have been plagued by 18 months of clashes between Christians and Muslims that have claimed some 2,500 lives on both sides. The violence prompted the Indonesian government to declare a state of civil emergency in the region on June 26.
Survivors of the boat wreck were being treated for dehydration and exhaustion on a nearby island before heading to Manado, officials said. Four warships and three maritime patrol aircraft have been dispatched to the area where they were found, but officials expressed little hope of locating other survivors of the boat wreck, particularly since the boat lacked enough life jackets for its passengers.
Quote of the Day: Walter Phillip McRae, a Presbyterian Church (USA) elder from North Carolina.
“For some, the (Confederate) flag is a symbol of all that is bad and is the epitome of racism. But on the other end of the scale, it serves as a testimony to the courage and bravery of someone’s great-great-great-granddaddy who lies buried in some cornfield in Pennsylvania or somewhere.”
_ Walter Phillip McRae, a Presbyterian Church (USA) elder from North Carolina, speaking out against a resolution urging South Carolina and Georgia to remove the Confederate flag from their state Capitols. The resolution passed the church’s General Assembly meeting on Friday (June 30).
DEA END RNS
