c. 2003 Religion News Service
Church-State Group Criticizes White House Official’s Pagan Comment
(RNS) Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the White House official in charge of the president’s faith-based initiative to apologize for a comment he made about pagans.
Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, participated in an online interactive “Ask the White House” chat on Nov. 26 and responded to a question about his opinion on whether pagan faith-based groups should be given equal consideration for funding.
“I haven’t run into a pagan faith-based group yet, much less a pagan group that cares for the poor!” Towey responded, according to a White House transcript.
“Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can’t be used to promote ideology, the fringe groups lose interest. Helping the poor is tough work and only those with loving hearts seem drawn to it.”
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, asked Towey to apologize to the nation’s Wiccans and other pagans.
“Your reply is problematic for several reasons,” he wrote in a letter delivered to Towey on Tuesday (Dec. 2).
“Most troublingly, it implies that the Bush administration intends to discriminate against certain faith-(based) groups from the outset. This is a curious stand for you to take, as you have repeatedly insisted that the administration will not play favorites among religious groups under the faith-based initiative.”
White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said in response, “The president has made it clear that the issue isn’t whether an organization believes in God or not but whether the program works _ are addicts recovering, the homeless finding housing, etc. The focus isn’t on religion but on results.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
One-Third of State Baptist Conventions Affirm Traditional Marriage
(RNS) More than a third of state Baptist conventions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention affirmed marriage as the union between a man and a woman during their fall meetings.
Seventeen of the 41 regional organizations made statements about the issue, which has been a major topic of discussion in light of recent court decisions concerning gay relationships, the denomination announced.
Resolutions supporting traditional definitions of families and sometimes specifically opposing same-sex “marriage” were passed by messengers, or delegates, to meetings in Louisiana, Maryland/Delaware, Michigan, New England, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
In addition, nine state conventions voiced support for the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. The constitutional amendment would declare that marriage is between a man and a woman and would prohibit gay marriage.
The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, one of the groups favoring such an amendment, also criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for striking down a Texas law that declared sodomy was a criminal act.
Around the same time that the fall conventions occurred, an eight-member panel of Southern Baptist leaders released a “Kansas City Declaration on Marriage” that reaffirmed the Southern Baptist faith statement’s pronouncement that “marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.”
The statement cited the Supreme Court decision as one of several events that have threatened to undermine the definition of marriage in Western culture.
“We reject the claim that homosexual unions should be granted equivalent moral status to heterosexual monogamous marriage, regardless of the terminology used to describe those unions,” states the four-page declaration.
The panel that developed the statement included Richard Land, president of the denomination’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.; and Daniel Heimbach, professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
It was released in mid-November after a meeting at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
_ Adelle M. Banks
PETA Under Fire for `Immaculate Conception’ Ad in Providence
(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, R.I., said a new animal rights ad featuring the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken is “disturbing” and asked that it be removed from a downtown billboard.
The ad, sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), features the phrase “Go Vegetarian. It’s an Immaculate Conception.” A cross is drawn inside the “o” in “Go.”
“This use of one of the most sacred images of the Christian faith trivializes not only the Mother of Jesus but also the very cause PETA strives to advance,” Bishop Robert Mulvee said in a statement.
Catholics will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in which they believe the mother of Jesus was conceived without sin, on Monday (Dec. 8).
“It is my fervent hope that they will abandon the use of this offensive campaign and show as much sensitivity to the faith of millions as they do to the plight of animals,” Mulvee said.
PETA director Bruce Friedrich, a Catholic, said the ad debuted in Providence because the state has the nation’s highest percentage of Catholics. The ad will also appear in a half-dozen other cities before Christmas.
Friedrich, who has also come under fire for past campaigns that linked animal slaughter with the Holocaust, said what is really offensive is the “horrific abuse” of animals on commercial farms.
“For those of us who are Roman Catholic, Mary embodies compassion,” he said. “In the world, there is no more ungodly, un-Christian, immoral sacrilegious practice than what is done to animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.”
The billboard has already been vandalized, with the word “shame” spray-painted in the bottom left corner, according to the Providence Journal. Friedrich said the billboard would be repaired and not be removed.
“It’s gross, to be quite frank with you,” Providence Mayor Rolland Grant told the newspaper. “I find it totally offensive.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Cameroon Pastor Elected President of All Africa Conference of Churches
(RNS) A Presbyterian pastor from Cameroon was elected president of the All Africa Conference of Churches and urged African Christians to confront their governments over abuse and injustice.
The Rev. Nyansako-Ni-Nku was elected to the five-year post on Nov. 27 during the AACC’s assembly in Yaounde, Cameroon. He succeeds the Rev. Kwesi Dickson of Ghana as president.
“I belong to the theology that you have to identify the demons and name them by name,” Nku said after his election. “That is very risky. We who are called to ministry must realize the call to discipleship has its costs.”
Nku is currently the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and second vice president of the Federation of Protestant Churches and Missions in Cameroon. The AACC’s top leader is General Secretary Mvume Dandala, a South African Methodist who was elected in September.
Nku said African churches have been too reluctant to confront exploitation, poverty and the “massive looting of resources.”
“There is such a paralyzing fear for people to criticize their governments because of the consequences,” he said. “The only salvation for the people is to listen to the church. The church has to have high morals and to raise strong ethical issues.”
Nku began his career as a journalist and broadcaster and pursued theology studies in the United States. He is a veteran of the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
India’s Christian Leaders Hail Pope’s Rejection of Caste System
NEW DELHI (RNS) Indian Christian leaders have hailed the critique of Pope John Paul II of the caste system practiced among Hindus in India.
John Paul told Roman Catholic bishops from India making their ad limina visit to the Vatican to reject divisions based on caste.
“At all times, you must continue to make certain that special attention is given to those belonging to the lowest castes, especially the Dalits,” he exhorted the bishops. Dalits are Hindus at the bottom of the Indian caste structure.
“Customs that reinforce caste division should be sensitively reformed so they may become an expression of the solidarity of the whole Christian community,” John Paul said.
Archbishop James Masilamony Arul Das of Madras and Mylapore welcomed the pontiff’s statement. “This will strengthen our struggle against the inhuman practices followed in the name of religion in India,” he said.
Bishop A.M. Chinnappa, chairman of the bishops conference’s panel that deals with castes, said the church would focus its energies on eradicating the tyranny of castes in India. “We commit ourselves to bring justice to lower caste members who have been suffering for generations,” he said.
John Dayal, the national vice president of the All India Catholic Union, said the pope’s remarks “come not a day too late. Caste is ravaging India and tearing apart the peace that leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India, strove so hard to build.”
The 90-year-old union is Asia’s largest organization of the laity.
John Paul’s statement comes in the wake of large numbers of conversions by Dalits to Christianity.
“Extremists using versions of Hindu ideology will strive to keep the caste system in place,” said the Rev. Dr. Ipe Joseph, general secretary of National Council of Churches in India. “The church in India has not been able to stand up fiercely to defend our faith. Many church leaders are not actively fighting this caste system.”
The bishops conference has acknowledged caste-based practices are still found in the church. Of the 164 bishops in India, only seven are Dalits. In some regions segregation is still practiced in worship.
_ Joshua Newton
Quote of the Day: Professor Emeritus John Dominic Crossan
(RNS) “Let’s not continue the relentless denigration of Mary Magdalene by reducing her only importance to a sexual connection with Jesus. She’s not important because she was Mrs. Jesus. That’s like saying Hillary Rodham Clinton is only important because she’s married to Bill Clinton. Both women are important in their own right.”
_ John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago, discussing the debate over whether Mary Magdalene could have been Jesus’ wife. He was quoted by Newsweek.
DEA END RNS
