c. 2000 Religion News Service

Charles Colson’s Civil Rights Reinstated By Florida Gov. Bush

(RNS) Former Watergate figure-turned-evangelical activist Charles Colson was given his civil rights back 25 years after he was sent to jail for his role in the Watergate coverup.

Colson, 68, was the special counsel to former President Richard Nixon and spent seven months in federal prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. After his release in 1975, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, an evangelical prison ministry based in Virginia.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush restored Colson’s civil rights _ including the right to vote, practice law and serve on a jury _ after his name and 21 others were sent to him by the state’s Parole Commission. Colson has a home in Naples.

“He certainly has served his time,” Bush said, according to the Associated Press. “The crime that he committed was a serious one, but I think it’s time to move on. I know him. He’s a great guy, he’s a great Floridian.”

There was no hearing in the case; felons can apply to the parole board to have their rights reinstated, and if approved, their names are sent to the governor and cabinet for approval.

Supreme Court to Hear Church-State Case Involving School Use

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal of a Christian youth group that was barred from using a New York public elementary school for after-school activities.

The nation’s highest court announced its decision Tuesday (Oct. 10).

The case, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, involves a religious children’s club that was prevented from renting space from a public school after its meetings were described as “too religious.”

The Rutherford Institute, a conservative Charlottesville, Va.-based legal group, sued on behalf of the club in 1997, arguing that the public school could not discriminate against religious youth groups if it allowed other youth groups in the community to meet in the school.

A federal court ruled in favor of the school, and an appellate court upheld the lower court ruling.

Rutherford lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the appellate decision countered the high court’s 1993 ruling in Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches School District. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that a school district should permit the showing of a Christian parenting film.

“Milford Central School has declared a kind of religious apartheid by which community groups that are secular may use community school facilities, but those deemed `too religious’ may not,” said John W. Whitehead, Rutherford Institute president, in a statement.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a Virginia Beach, Va., law organization founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that won the Lamb’s Chapel case, plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court supporting the Good News Club.

“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to clarify and reaffirm its earlier view that religious discrimination in a public forum will not be tolerated,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ, in a statement.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based religious liberty watchdog group, supports the current school policy because it protects young children from evangelism.

“Public schools have every right to limit the use of their facilities to protect children from outside groups,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “We believe the group does not have a constitutional right to evangelize on elementary school grounds right after classes end, and we hope the Supreme Court agrees.”

Georgia Library Repeals Policy Prohibiting Bible Distribution

(RNS) A Georgia library system has repealed its policy prohibiting the display and distribution of the Bible as part of a settlement agreement with the American Center for Law and Justice.

“It is clear that this policy was unconstitutional because the law states that if a library permits the display and distribution of other materials, it cannot legally exclude the Bible because the material is religious in nature,” said Stuart J. Roth, Southeast regional counsel for the ACLJ.

The law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson sued in February on behalf of James Flournoy of Luthersville, Ga., who sought to display and distribute small paperback New Testaments at the Manchester Public Library in Manchester, Ga.

According to the settlement agreement, completed Sept. 29, the library has decided to eliminate its display and distribution of non-library materials.

“In our view, the decision to close the forum to all materials sends the wrong signal to the community _ but it is an option that the library system is legally permitted to pursue,” Roth said.

As a result of the settlement, the lawsuit has been dismissed and the library system will pay $30,000 in legal fees to the ACLJ.

China Joins Global Debt Relief Campaign

(RNS) China’s foreign trade minister has announced Beijing will reduce or cancel about $1.2 billion in debt owed by some of the poorest countries in Africa.

Shi Guangsheng’s announcement came Wednesday (Oct. 11) in Beijing at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, a three-day gathering of Chinese officials and delegates from 44 African countries. The day before the forum, President Clinton signed a bill that gave permanent normal trade relations status to China, eliminating Washington’s annual review of the nation’s trade status.

Debt relief from Beijing would come during the next two years for “heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa,” Shi Guangsheng told Reuters news agency.

He did not specify which countries in Africa would receive debt relief, but a Foreign Ministry spokesman said African countries with no diplomatic ties to China would not be eligible for the debt reduction, United Press International reported.

Eight countries in Africa _ including Malawi and Liberia, who sent representatives to the Beijing forum _ have established diplomatic ties with Taiwan instead of China.

China’s announcement was “very welcome” and set a positive example for wealthy nations to follow, said Zimbabwe’s higher education and technology minister.

“It will translate into real savings for developing countries who can pour the money into health, education and infrastructure,” Herbert Murerwa said. “We hope other countries can emulate this.”

China plans to gradually increase assistance to African countries, China’s trade minister told the Associated Press, and spur Chinese businesses to invest in Africa by offering credit incentives.

Beijing also plans to send more academics to colleges in Africa and make more scholarships available to African students (especially postgraduate students) who want to study in China.

The United States has committed to paying more than $900 million in debt relief, but this year’s installment of the package is currently stalled on Capitol Hill, frustrating Clinton and religious leaders, who support the policy.

Pope Calls for End to `Spiral of Violence’ in Middle East

(RNS) Hours after his top-ranking officials received former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II called Wednesday (Oct. 11) for an end to the new “spiral of violence” that is claiming lives and damaging holy sites in the Middle East.

“It is with deep distress,” the pope said at his weekly general audience,“that we are watching the grave tension in the Middle East as it is once again shaken by events that have caused numerous victims and also have not spared some holy sites.

“In the face of such a dramatic situation, I cannot but exhort everyone to put an end without delay to this spiral of violence,” John Paul said. The pope asked “all believers to pray to God that the peoples and those responsible for the region will be able to resume dialogue and thus rediscover the joy of feeling like sons of God, their common father.”

On Tuesday (Oct. 10), at the start of an emergency tour of European capitals, Nobel peace laureate Peres, now Israeli minister of regional cooperation, met in the Vatican with John Paul’s secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and with his foreign minister, Msgr. Jean-Louis Tauran.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said “there was an exchange of opinions on the dramatic situation in the Middle East.”

“The Vatican,” Navarro-Valls said, “reiterated the priority of ending the armed conflict and the urgency of resuming dialogue in full respect of the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples and of the accords that so far have been signed.”

Peres met also with Italian state leaders before flying on to Berlin, Paris and London. At a news conference earlier, the Israeli minister described the conflict in his country as being both political and religious. “I think the pope, by visiting Israel, provided an example of how religions can meet,” Peres said.

The Vatican favors special international status for the city of Jerusalem because of the city’s importance to all three major monotheistic religions. The Holy See has diplomatic relations both with the state of Israel and with the representatives of the Palestinian people.

In Spirit of Yom Kippur, Schlessinger Apologizes to Gays and Lesbians

(RNS) Two days after Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holy day of atonement, embattled TV and radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger issued a printed apology Wednesday (Oct. 11) to gays and lesbians, asking for forgiveness if her on-air comments have offended the gay community.

“I deeply regret the hurt this situation has caused the gay and lesbian community, wrote Schlessinger, host of Paramount Television’s new syndicated “Dr. Laura” talk show, in a four-paragraph letter covering the back page of Daily Variety, an entertainment trade newspaper.

Some advertisers have been persuaded to stay away from the show by gay and lesbian activist groups that have targeted Schlessinger because she has described homosexuality with words including “deviant” and “biological errors” on her separately run, national radio call-in advice show.

“I have told parents consistently that all people are made in the image of (God) and that familial love is more important than any differences between them,” wrote Schlessinger. “While I express my opinions from the perspective of an Orthodox Jew and a staunch defender of the traditional family, in talking about gays and lesbians, some of my words have been poorly chosen. Many people perceive them as hate speech. This fact has been personally and professionally devastating to me as well as to many others.”

While the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation dismissed Schlessinger’s apology as too little, too late, Rabbi Denise Eger, of the predominantly gay and lesbian (Reform) Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, Calif., described Schlessinger’s contrition as a first step.

“This is a first step, but in Jewish tradition, `Teshuvah,’ repentance, is more than mere words,” Eger told Religion News Service. “It demands action; it demands remorse. The proof of her true commitment to her apology and whether her words are heartfelt and whether she has made repentance will be in her actions and deeds in the coming weeks and months.”

While Eger added that Schlessinger’s public apology appeared to be “strategically timed at Yom Kippur,” the rabbi added, “I will take on faith that she says she is a religious person. If she is a real religious person, then let’s see some real action.”

Quote of the Day: Leaders of the Reform movement

(RNS) “Suddenly, as we begin a New Year that we had prayed would bring peace to Israel and her neighbors, it is as if the last seven years have been set aside, and we are once again bogged down in accusations and recriminations, in violence and in fear.”

Leaders of the Reform Jewish movement, writing in a statement titled “Those Who Reject Peace Invite Violence,” issued Tuesday (Oct. 10) in reaction to violence in the Middle East. The statement came from leaders of eight groups, including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism and the North American Federation of Temple Brotherhoods.

KRE END RNS