c. 2003 Religion News Service
N.M. Family Sues After Priest Predicts Hell During Funeral
(RNS) A New Mexico family has sued a priest and archdiocese over a funeral Mass in which a priest allegedly said their relative was a “lukewarm” Catholic who was headed to hell.
Attorneys for the family of Ben Martinez said Tuesday (July 15) they filed a lawsuit in June against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Rev. Scott Mansfield, one of its priests, the Reuters news agency reported.
According to court documents, Mansfield said at Martinez’s funeral last year that the former town councilman was “lukewarm in his faith,” “living in sin,” and that “the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell.”
About 200 people attended the funeral at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Chama after he died at the age of 80 on June 17, 2002.
Family members said he was a practicing Catholic throughout his life but was too ill to attend church during the year before he died.
Nine members of Martinez’s family seek damages for severe emotional and physical suffering.
“If you are Catholic and a representative of your church says your father is going to hell, that’s perhaps the most devastating thing someone can say to you,” said Kathleen Kentish-Lucero, a lawyer representing the family.
A church official said Mansfield has moved to another parish, outside Albuquerque, on a routine transfer.
“We deny the allegations and Father Mansfield denies the plaintiff’s allegations,” said Celine Baca Radigan, communications director for the archdiocese.
UCC Expresses Solidarity with Transgender Persons
(RNS) The United Church of Christ, which in 1972 was the first U.S. denomination to ordain an openly gay clergyman, passed two resolutions on Tuesday (July 15) expressing support for transgender persons.
During the church’s General Synod meeting in Minneapolis, delegates said transgender persons should be protected from hate crimes and called on congregations to “encourage the participation and ministry of transgender persons in the life of the church.”
“Christian transgender people have sometimes experienced rejection and non-acceptance within some expressions of the United Church of Christ … and are in need of a welcoming Christian community where they are valued as Christian people,” one resolution said.
The 1.4 million-member church has “several” transgender clergy, according to a news release but until now had no official position on transgender people. The church affirmed gays and lesbians in 1985 and bisexuals in 1991.
Three years ago, the Cleveland-based UCC established a $500,000 scholarship fund for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender seminarians. Officials of the UCC Biblical Witness Fellowship, a conservative group within the denomination, criticized the fund at the time as legitimizing “the sins of sexual license.”
But the Rev. Pat Conover, a transgender minister in the UCC for 37 years, welcomed the move: “It feels so good to finally feel fully at home.”
The resolution, which was sponsored by churches in the Northern California-Nevada Conference, said God created some people who are “sometimes dramatically or subtly a complex mix of male and female in their bodies.”
The statement directed church departments to increase ministry to transgender persons and lobby for civil rights for transgender persons. It also established a task force to report back in two years on the church’s progress on the issue.
“Transgender people know God loves them,” said Lisa Alston, a delegate from Fayetteville, Ga., who chaired a committee that debated the resolution. “It is time for the UCC to say we love them, too.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Appeals Court: Pa. High School Wrongly Barred Bible Club
(RNS) A Pennsylvania high school wrongly barred a student Bible club from meeting during an activity period before the start of classes, an appellate court ruled Tuesday (July 15).
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the decision after Melissa Donovan, a senior at Punxsutawney Area High School, claimed the school district would not permit FISH, her Bible study group, to meet after school started at 8 a.m., the Associated Press reported.
School officials were wrong to prevent the club from meeting during an in-school “activity period” from 8:15 to 8:54 a.m., during which other student groups were permitted to gather, the three-judge panel ruled.
“FISH is a group that discusses current issues from a biblical perspective, and school officials denied the club equal access to meet on school premises during the activity period solely because of the club’s religious nature,” Judge Ruggero John Aldisert wrote.
Donovan graduated in the spring, which rendered part of her suit moot. But the court said her constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were violated so she may be due attorney fees and damages.
School representatives could not be reached for comment immediately. The district had argued that permitting the group to meet during the school day would amount to an inappropriate government endorsement of religion. Aldisert disagreed, saying the meetings were voluntary and did not involve teachers.
The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization that sued the district with Donovan, welcomed the decision.
“The court’s strongly worded opinion should send a message to school districts throughout the country to think twice before excluding religious students,” John W. Whitehead, the institute’s president, said in a statement.
Appeals Court Rejects Branch Davidians’ Request For Damages
(RNS) An appellate court has ruled against survivors of Branch Davidians who sought to collect damages for the deadly Waco, Texas, confrontation in 1993 between their relatives and government agents.
On Monday (July 14), a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected, without dissent, the contentions that a lower-court judge who ruled against the survivors was biased, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Judge Walter Smith rejected their suit in September 2000, agreeing with the government that agents had not used excessive force in the assault with tear gas on the compound.
“We conclude that appellants’ allegations do not reflect conduct that would cause a reasonable observer to question Judge Smith’s impartiality,” wrote Chief 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones.
The Davidians argued that Smith’s comments on and off the bench indicated “preconceptions” and “deep-seated antagonism” about the group, whose beliefs featured severe hostility against the government.
About 80 Branch Davidian members, including leader David Koresh, were killed in 1993 when government agents stormed their compound after a standoff that had lasted for weeks.
Belarus Protestants Rally Against Government Discrimination
MOSCOW (RNS) Protestant leaders in the Belarus capital of Minsk are hoping that an unprecedented mass prayer rally will put a stop to what they see as a campaign of harassment across the former Soviet country, a leading Pentecostal activist said Thursday (July 17).
The rally on Sunday, attended in rainy weather by about 5,000 mostly charismatic Christians, was sparked by a national television broadcast last month that labeled Pentecostals as members of a sect, and questioned their place in the overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian country where only 5 percent are Protestants.
“Everybody prayed about this and prayed that the government would change the way it treats Protestants,” said Dina Shavtsova, a lawyer and activist, in a telephone interview from Minsk.
The June 21 broadcast on Belarus’ main state-run television news show, Panorama, was by a commentator who had earlier accused Pentecostals of being “Satanic vermin” and “enemies of the people” who practice human sacrifice during religious ceremonies.
The two-hour prayer service included readings from a public appeal to Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’ hard-line president sometimes described as Europe’s last dictator. Demonstrators complained of how the government impedes home prayer meetings, outdoor baptisms and the acquiring of property to build new churches.
“It is especially worrisome that these things are happening more and more frequently … and give the distinct impression that the government is trying to hinder the growth of the evangelical churches,” the statement reads.
Of particular concern to Protestants and members of other religious minorities is a new school textbook used throughout the country of 10 million for a mandatory course called “Man, Society, Government.” The book’s authors warn that many Christian faiths _ except the Orthodox and Catholics _ produce fanatics who can destabilize society.
While Protestant groups have earlier taken their complaints to court, Sunday’s prayer service was the first large-scale show of strength and solidarity.
“People were really charged up to pray because we had declared a fast for the three days before,” said Shavtsova, adding it was unlike anything she has witnessed in Minsk. “I’m used to going to prayer services outdoors because we just don’t have enough church space. But this time, you could feel that it was a special atmosphere.”
_ Frank Brown
Quote of the Day: Divinity School Professor Charles Bellinger
(RNS) “Studying the pathological forms of religion is not studying genuine faith. Violence is actually a revolt against authentic religious faith. If you are committing murder, you reveal you are not in a genuine relationship with God.”
_ Charles Bellinger, author of “The Genealogy of Violence: Reflections on Creation, Freedom and Evil,” and professor of theology and ethics at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. He was quoted by USA Today.
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