c. 2003 Religion News Service
Military Official Apologizes for Remarks Linking Terrorism to Faith
WASHINGTON (RNS) The top military official who drew criticism for his comments relating the war on terrorism to a religious battle has apologized.
“I am neither a zealot nor an extremist. Only a soldier who has an abiding faith,” said Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense, in a statement released Friday (Oct. 17). “I am not anti-Islam or any other religion. I support the free exercise of all religions. For those who have been offended by my statements, I offer a sincere apology.”
Boykin’s original comments were reported on NBC’s “Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” on Oct. 15. In one speech to a church group, he said the reason terrorists are trying to destroy the United States is “because we’re a Christian nation.”
In another church setting in January, he said of a Muslim fighter in Somalia who had said Americans would never get him because of Allah, his God: “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
Boykin said in his statement that his comments about the fighter in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu “were not referencing his worship of Allah but his worship of money and power.”
He said the focus of his discussions at churches was on the need for Americans to pray for military and governmental leaders.
“I do believe that radical extremists have tried to use Islam as a cause for attacks on America,” he said. “As I have stated before, they are not true followers of Islam. In my view they are simply terrorists, much like the so-called `Christians’ of the white supremacy groups.”
Groups concerned about Muslim, interfaith and church-state issues have harshly criticized Boykin, with some calling for his punishment or reassignment.
But Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group in Washington, offered a different view.
“The issue here is not whether everyone agrees with Boykin’s comments, but rather whether we will defend his right to exercise his freedom of speech,” Perkins said in a “Washington update” e-newsletter distributed Friday by the council.
“Eventually, liberal activists will have to face the fact that religious expression is not prohibited by the Constitution.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bishop-Elect Gene Robinson Predicts `Calm’ After Episcopal Storm
(RNS) The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop-elect in the Episcopal Church, predicted Sunday (Oct. 19) that the denomination will survive the debate over whether he should be consecrated.
“I’ve been here an hour and look! The roof’s still on,” he told a few dozen people gathered for a religious education meeting at Grace Episcopal Church in Manchester, N.H. “I think it will calm down when people see not a lot has changed.”
But his remarks, prompted by a questioner who thought he should reconsider becoming a bishop, included his thoughts about struggling with the decision, the Associated Press reported.
“I agonize about this all the time. This is one of the hardest things I’ll ever do,” said Robinson. “I do have this sense I’m supposed to go forward, and I do feel that’s coming from God and not my own ego. But I don’t know.”
Elected by New Hampshire Episcopalians in June and confirmed at the denomination’s General Convention in August, Robinson is scheduled to be consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire on Nov. 2.
At the end of an emergency summit, leaders of the Anglican Communion in London warned Oct. 16 that Robinson’s installation threatens to “tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level.”
A majority of conservative Episcopalians who met the week before in Dallas have threatened to form a “new alignment” due to their outrage over Robinson’s election and the church’s acceptance of same-sex union ceremonies.
“I don’t want anyone to leave the church, and I don’t like being thought of as the reason they leave the church,” Robinson said.
Priest Prevented From Giving Brain-Damaged Woman Final Communion
(RNS) A Roman Catholic priest was prevented from giving a brain-damaged Florida woman her final communion on Saturday (Oct. 18), days after her feeding tube was removed.
Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski joined the parents of Terri Schiavo in telling police officers guarding the hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., that they wanted to administer the Catholic rite of Viaticum, which is the last communion for a Catholic before he or she dies.
Officers told the family the rite would violate a physician’s order that nothing be put in the Schiavo’s mouth to prevent aspiration and choking, the Associated Press reported.
The retired priest told the police that he would use “a small piece of the wafer and dilute it with water before giving it to her. It’s a very important part of her faith.”
George Felos, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo’s husband, said in a statement that the priest administered “spiritual communion,” which is given to patients who cannot receive the communion wafer by mouth.
The Schiavo case had created controversy among groups concerned about end-of-life issues. After the feeding tube was disconnected Oct. 15, relatives and supporters who opposed orders by Terri Schiavo’s husband to halt her nourishment held a vigil outside the hospice.
Terri Schiavo had suffered brain damage in 1990 following a heart attack and feedings have kept her alive since that time. Physicians say she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery while her parents believe she has mental abilities and can be rehabilitated.
Two Florida courts rejected attempts by the parents to have the feeding tube reinserted. Terri Schiavo is expected to live for one to two weeks without food.
Her husband collected more than $1 million in medical malpractice claims against physicians who did not diagnose the chemical imbalance that led to the heart attack. Her parents allege that he did not say anything about his wife’s desires to not be kept alive artificially until he was in a position to inherit her medical trust fund.
Conservative Christian groups such as the Washington-based Family Research Council and Faith2Action, a Florida-based network, have urged Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene on behalf of the brain-damaged woman.
Women Join Voices to Speak for Mideast Peace
CLEVELAND _ An Israeli bomb struck Mal Nassar’s West Bank home in 2000. Not until last year could the Christian professor fix enough of the damage to move back.
Rawan Damen used to drive 10 minutes through her West Bank neighborhood to her university. Now, the trip takes the Muslim lecturer three hours on average, if there’s anything average about two cab rides and a walk through one of the well-armed checkpoints splitting her centuries-old homeland into 64 fragments.
Yehudit Keshet, a Jewish activist who lives in Israel, is better off. She has full citizenship, a statistically lower risk of violence and an economy that, though slumping, far surpasses that of the collapsing West Bank.
But the three women say that none of their groups _ Christians, Muslims or Jews _ will really be safe until they make peace with each other.
They blame the region’s soaring violence mostly on its strongest faction, the Israeli government, and an even stronger ally across the ocean.
So they’re visiting U.S. cities on a tour called “Jerusalem Women Speak,” sponsored by Partners for Peace, an American nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C. The women want America to coax Israel to free Palestinian territories it has ruled for 36 years with rising force.
President Bush has called for a Palestinian democracy and opposed a barrier inside the West Bank that some say is reminiscent of the Berlin Wall.
But the women say Bush has mixed his messages by lavishing arms on Israel, trying to hand-pick Palestinian leaders and starting wars elsewhere in the Mideast.
“When America targets other Arab countries, it gives the wrong message to Palestinians,” says Damen.
The activists say they try to pacify all factions at home, but the Palestinian militants are few and elusive.
They say most Palestinians and Israelis want peace.
“All religions believe in peace,” said Damen, 24.
Keshet, 60, says most Israelis are frightened and exploited by leaders “drunk on power.” She leads a group of volunteers monitoring Israeli checkpoints and says the guards are arbitrary and inconsistent, sowing fear and anger, not safety. She says 53 women denied passage to hospitals have given birth at the checkpoints, and 30 of the babies have died.
Reached for comment at an Israeli consulate in Philadelphia, Vice Consul Yoel Mester said, “We would have liked there to be no checkpoints or no need for checkpoints. We need them because of the war on terror. They make it more difficult for terrorists to operate.”
_ Grant Segall
Quote of the Day: The Rev. John L. McCullough of Church World Service
(RNS) “Misery is not part of God’s created design for the world. The presence and impact of poverty for the most part results from the actions of society. We make decisions that place some people in purple and fine linens, and decisions that leave others at the gate, covered with sores, and longing to satisfy their hunger.”
_ The Rev. John L. McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, preaching Oct. 12 at The Riverside Church in New York.
DEA END RNS
