c. 2004 Religion News Service

Christian Leaders Call for Separation of Church and Politics

(RNS) A dozen Christian leaders from various theological perspectives have issued a statement urging the U.S. presidential candidates to “respect the integrity of all houses of worship.”

The statement, called “Playing Politics With Church,” was spearheaded by Wake Forest University Divinity School professor James Dunn and Baptist sociologist Tony Campolo.

“It is proper for church leaders to address social issues, but it is improper, and even illegal, for them to get their churches to endorse candidates or align their churches with a specific political party,” the statement reads.

It calls on church leaders “to stand vigilant against entanglement in partisan politics.”

Dunn told Religion News Service that news coverage of the Bush-Cheney campaign’s attempts to collect church directories sparked the joint statement.

“I think they crossed the line when they started collecting church directories for the campaign,” said Dunn, a professor of Christianity and public policy at the divinity school in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Other signatories included George Hunter, professor of evangelism and church growth at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.; Walter Shurden, executive director at Mercer University’s Center for Baptist Studies in Macon, Ga.; and Paul Raushenbush, associate dean of religious life at Princeton University in New Jersey.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Lutheran World Relief Receives $500,000 Gift From eBay Founders

(RNS) Lutheran World Relief has accepted a $500,000 gift from the founders of eBay to help address the Sudanese humanitarian crisis.

The funding from the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund at Peninsula Community Foundation of Menlo Park, Calif., has already been put to use in Western Sudan, Lutheran World Relief President Kathryn Wolford said in an announcement.

“Through the Omidyars’ generous gift, we already are providing life-saving assistance, including water, sanitation and shelter to vulnerable persons displaced by the conflict,” she said.

The relief agency is working with its partners, Action by Churches Together and Caritas Internationalis, to raise $17.5 million for their work in the affected region to assist people who have been forced from their homes by raids of militia in the past year.

Its plans for assistance include providing shelter for hundreds of thousands of homeless people, helping with camp construction for refugees, providing additional food for displaced children, and offering counseling and protection for women who have been raped or suffered other violence.

In a separate but related matter, the Union for Reform Judaism announced it has created a Sudan Relief Fund to address the needs of victims in the Darfur region.

The Reform movement is part of the Save Darfur Coalition, a network of more than 70 faith-based and humanitarian groups that has designated Aug. 25 as a national Interfaith Day of Conscience to draw attention to the slaughter and other violence that has occurred in the war-torn region.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Mother Appeals After Allergic Daughter’s Communion Is Ruled Invalid

(RNS) A New Jersey girl who used a rice-based wafer for her First Communion ceremony because she is allergic to wheat has been told the sacrament was invalid, and now her mother has appealed the case to the Vatican.

Haley Waldman, 8, used the substitute wafer in May because she is allergic to wheat gluten, which the church requires in Communion wafers because the bread Jesus used at the Last Supper was wheat-based.

When the Diocese of Trenton heard about the ceremony, Bishop John Smith said the sacrament was “invalid” because rice wafers cannot be used for Communion.

Now her mother, Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman, has petitioned Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to grant exceptions that would allow her daughter to participate in Communion.

“This is a church rule, not God’s will, and it can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of the people, while staying true to the traditions of our faith,” Perry-Waldman said in the letter, according to the Associated Press.

Haley and her mother have celiac sprue disease, a condition that forbids even the smallest amount of wheat, rye or barley in foods. Celiac patients suffer from severe indigestion, osteoporosis, organ disorders and internal hemorrhaging and are at greater risk for gastrointestinal cancer.

The pastor of Haley’s church in Manasquan, N.J., said a gluten-free host would be unacceptable. Another local priest who was not identified offered to perform the ceremony using a rice-based wafer.

Perry-Waldman turned down an offer from the Trenton Diocese to use a low-gluten wafer and wine. She told the Philadelphia Inquirer that children should not drink alcohol, and even small amounts of gluten can trigger illness.

“I don’t know that the divinity of Christ depended on wheat,” she said.

Ratzinger, in a 1995 ruling, frowned on using non-gluten wafers but said some substitutes may be valid “provided that they contain the amount of gluten sufficient to obtain the confection of bread” and there is “no addition of foreign materials.”

In 2001, the family of a 5-year-old girl with celiac disease left the Catholic Church in Massachusetts after authorities would not allow a substitute wafer. “It’s a major frustration that someone who wants to follow their religion is restricted from doing so because some churches will not allow it,” Elaine Monarch, director of the Celiac Disease Foundation, told the Associated Press.

Archbishop of Armagh: Religious Life a `Radical’ Challenge to Modernity

LONDON (RNS) Religious life offers a radical challenge to the contemporary lifestyles of the modern world, Roman Catholic Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, Ireland, said Sunday (Aug. 15).

Brady made his comments at the blessing of Dom Augustine McGregor as abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Mellifont.

“Your view of poverty challenges the dehumanizing culture of profit for the sake of profit,” Brady said of the monastic life. “Your whole lifestyle questions the frantic search for possessions as a road to happiness. By holding all you have in common, you affirm the obligation to contribute to the common good by taxation, support of neighbors, and participation in voluntary organizations.

“You radically challenge the greed which erodes solidarity with the poor and militates against the just distribution of goods and services. This challenge is badly needed in an Ireland where the gap between rich and poor now stands as the second largest in the world _ after that of the United States of America: a severe indictment of our failure to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth.”

Monks’ commitment to chastity also offers a radical critique of the widely held view that men and women of any age cannot be happy while remaining chaste, Brady said.

“In a world ravaged by irresponsible, selfish behavior, and obsessed with the here and now, your consecrated lifestyle stands in witness to the positive love of God and points to the existence of another world, a world that will never end,” he said.

Similarly, he said monks’ loving obedience challenged “the arrogance and pride of those who act as if there is no accountability to each other or to God, in this life or in the life to come,” and their commitment to hospitality offered a radical challenge to the disintegration of community life.

“You remind us that in every human person, whatever their color, creed, or place of origin, there is another Christ, worthy of respect and dignity and of our welcome,” Brady said.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Leroy Martin of Punta Gorda, Fla.

(RNS) “I guess it is at a time like this when you realize the significance of spiritual values when everything else has blown away.”

_ The Rev. Leroy Martin of Punta Gorda, Fla., whose town was hit by Hurricane Charley. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

DEA/PH END RNS