c. 2003 Religion News Service
Religious Liberty Group Seeks Religious Freedom With Security Measures
(RNS) Nations should not consider ensuring security and maintaining religious freedom to be mutually exclusive principles, the International Religious Liberty Association has declared in a new statement.
The association’s Group of Experts issued the seven-page document at its meeting in Leuven, Belgium, on June 11.
“Too frequently, responses to religion-based terrorism have involved efforts to enhance security at the expense of religious freedom,” read the “Guiding Principles and Recommendations on Security and Religious Freedom.”
“These responses have often proved counterproductive, and result in violations of international standards of human rights. Such violations, which diminish both security and religious freedom, must be opposed by governments, religious groups, people of faith, and all those who truly value human rights.”
The document was created by the association to help address reaction to “religion-based terrorism” such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Many countries are responding to the terror threat, and we want to make sure that religious freedom is not a casualty in all this,” said Jonathan Gallagher, deputy secretary general of the association, in a statement. “We believe that freedom of conscience is a vital asset to security _ and that to crack down on religious expression will only destabilize society, the opposite effect to what is planned.”
The document recommends that nations avoid measures such as widespread arrest and extended imprisonment without charge, saying they could be counterproductive. It also said national leaders responding to terrorism should impose sanctions for actions and not for beliefs or religious identity.
The statement also urged religious leaders to denounce religion-based terrorism that comes from within their own religious communities and work with public authorities to protect public safety and human rights.
The International Religious Liberty Association was organized in 1893 by leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and now includes a range of religious officials on its board of directors. Its Group of Experts includes church leaders, canon law experts and academics from a variety of faith communities.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bill Would Force Churches Not to Discriminate in Hiring
WASHINGTON (RNS) A foe of President Bush’s “faith-based initiative” on Wednesday (June 25) introduced a bill that would mandate that religious groups that receive federal money for social services cannot discriminate in hiring.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-Va., would overturn portions of an executive order issued by the president last December. That directive said any group that receives a government contract worth more than $10,000 could hire employees based on their religion.
Concerns about federally funded discrimination in hiring has stalled much of the president’s plan in Congress. On Tuesday, the White House outlined its positions in a policy paper sent to Capitol Hill.
“When they (religious groups) receive federal funds, they should retain their right to hire those individuals who are best able to further their organizations’ goals and mission,” the administration said.
Scott, who has vocally opposed Bush’s faith-based plan, called the “roll-back on civil rights protections unwarranted and unnecessary.”
Since 1972, civil rights law has allowed religious groups to hire only employees who share their beliefs. Critics of the president’s plan, however, argue that the provision does not extend to programs run with federal money.
The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said, “The president can dress his rhetoric with the language of compassion, but the simple fact remains that his executive order represents an assault on the Constitution.”
A White House spokesman did not immediately return phone calls for comment.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Conservatives Urge Gay Bishop’s Resignation
LONDON (RNS) Divisions within the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion have deepened following a Wednesday (Oct. 25) meeting in Oxford of 35 leading Anglicans from inside and outside England opposed to the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as suffragan bishop of Reading.
The meeting urged John, an open homosexual, to withdraw his acceptance of the appointment _ the only way it can now be stopped.
“This appointment flouts the mainstream Anglican teaching on human sexuality,” said the 35, led by Archbishop of the West Indies Drexel Gomez, and including the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, and Bishop James Stanton of Dallas.
“We believe that if he is consecrated, the unity of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion will be disrupted,” the group said in a statement.
In their statement, the bishops said the controversy over the church’s stance on homosexuality was “definitively settled” at the 1998 Lambeth Conference with its resolution rejecting homosexual practice as “incompatible with Scripture” while committing the church to listen to the experience of homosexuals and assuring them that they were loved by God and full members of the Body of Christ.
According to those opposed to John’s appointment, at least 22 parishes out of the 123 he will be responsible for as bishop of Reading would refuse to accept him as a bishop, as will others outside the diocese.
_ Robert Nowell
Pope to Spend Summer at Castelgandolfo Working on New Book
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II will spend the summer at his hilltop residence in the town of Castelgandolfo near Rome working on a new autobiographical book, the Vatican said.
The announcement late Wednesday (June 25) by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls appeared to rule out a papal trip to Mongolia with a stop in Russia that had been under consideration for late August.
Vatican officials said earlier this month the nine-hour flight to visit Mongolia’s 177 Catholics might be too tiring for John Paul. Russian Orthodox leaders dismissed any possibility of a meeting with Patriarch Alexey II if the pope were to stop in Kazan to return the icon of the Madonna of Kazan, given to him in 1993.
Navarro-Valls denied as “without foundation” reports the ailing 83-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff would undergo surgery during the summer on his arthritic right knee.
“The Holy Father, as planned, will leave on July 10 for Castelgandolfo where he has scheduled a series of activities for the coming months,” the spokesman said. “Among them, the pope plans to finish a book that he is writing on his pastoral and human experience as a bishop.”
John Paul reportedly has been working on the book for about a year. He published “Gift and Mystery” about his vocation as a priest in 1996 to mark the 50th anniversary of his ordination and “Roman Triptych,” a poetic meditation, earlier this year.
Vatican officials noted the papal villa at Castelgandolfo in the Alban Hills, 25 miles south of Rome, has an outdoor swimming pool, which he will be able to use for physical therapy.
The villa, built by Pope Urban VIII in 1628 on a crater overlooking Lake Albano, also has a dairy farm, formal gardens and the Vatican’s astronomical observatory on its extensive grounds.
The announcement of the pope’s summer plans coincided with publication of his message for the 24th annual World Day of Tourism, which will be marked under United Nations auspices on Sept. 27.
In the four-page message, John Paul underlined the potential of tourism to developing countries as “an effective instrument for the reduction of poverty, promotion of personal and social growth of individuals and peoples and the consolidation of participation and cooperation between nations, cultures and religions.”
“Traveling we get to know different places and situations and take account of how great are the differences between rich countries and poor countries,” the pope said. “Everywhere, but first of all in developing countries, it is hard for the visitor and the tourist to avoid coming in contact with the sad reality of poverty and hunger.”
Vatican officials rejected a suggestion during a news conference on the document that the pope, who this week made his 101st trip outside Italy, was the world’s No. 1 tourist.
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, said John Paul could be described as “a pilgrim or a traveler” but not as a tourist.
_ Peggy Polk
Study Reports Mixed Results on Charitable Giving
(RNS) Charitable giving reached a historic level of $240 billion last year despite the slow economy, according to Giving USA, a report released by the American Association of Fundraising Counsel.
The study, which was conducted by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, found a growth of 1 percent in charitable giving since 2001. When adjusted for inflation, however, giving in 2002 dropped by half a percent. But given the economic slump, philanthropists were pleased to see levels of charitable giving holding steady.
“Donors have strong commitments to charity,” Leo P. Arnoult, the chair of the AAFRC Trust, said in a statement. “Given the economic difficulties and other uncertainties of 2002, growth in giving is proof of our nation’s philanthropic resilience.”
About 70 percent of American households donate money to charity in a given year, John J. Glier of the AAFRC said.
Donations by individuals and corporations increased in 2002, while grants from foundations declined.
Although the study’s results may offer some hope to many charity groups that reported facing economic hardship, they also show evidence of a sharp decline in giving over the last decade.
During the economic boom between 1996 and 2001, donations to charity showed increases between 11 percent and 15 percent for five consecutive years. The sustained increases dropped off in 2001, when giving increased by a mere 4.5 percent, followed a further decline to 1 percent in 2002.
But experts see last year’s tentative rise in giving as a hopeful sign.
“Given the continuing soft economy, and all the fear in 2002 about terrorism and the uncertainty about the brewing war in Iraq and declining stock market, it could have been much worse,” Arnoult told the Associated Press.
_ Alexandra Alter
Air Force Captain Settles Religious Accommodation Suit With Military
(RNS) An Air Force captain has settled a suit with the military service after he charged that he was punished for requesting accommodation of his religious beliefs.
Capt. Ryan Berry, who served on missile combat crews, filed suit in August 2002 after a commander rejected his request for accommodation of his belief that a married Catholic man should avoid situations where he had to spend 24-48 hours in a small underground bunker with a woman.
Berry believed it was inappropriate for him to be in a situation where inappropriate intimacy could be developed with a woman who was not his wife.
His suit alleged that the Air Force terminated the accommodation after previously agreeing to it. It also alleged that the Air Force no longer ordered him to perform missile alert duties and placed negative material in his military records.
The settlement, approved June 16 by a District of Columbia federal judge, calls for the removal of material in Berry’s records that he considered derogatory. The document also states that the settlement does not amount to a finding that the Air Force violated his rights or was involved in wrongful conduct. The Air Force agreed to pay $5,000 of Berry’s legal fees.
The leader of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which defended Berry, said he was pleased Berry now has a clear record.
“This was a particularly disturbing case because Capt. Berry was punished simply for asking for a religious accommodation,” said Kevin J. Hasson, president of the Becket Fund, which is based in Washington. “There’s an important lesson here for everyone in the Pentagon: handle requests for religious accommodation with respect and sensitivity for the constitutional rights of members of the armed services.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Former National Council of Churches official Charles Kimball
(RNS) “Sincerity isn’t the issue, or commitment to one’s faith. It is just that the region is at a pivotal and volatile juncture, and it is arguably not the time for groups coming in, like someone with a lighted match into a room full of explosives, wearing Jesus on their sleeves.”
_ Charles Kimball, a Baptist minister and former director of the National Council of Churches’ Middle East office, speaking to Time magazine about evangelical missionaries traveling to predominantly Muslim countries.
DEA END RNS