c. 2004 Religion News Service
Sikh Official Declines Invitation to White House Event
(RNS) A top official of a Sikh organization has declined an invitation to a White House event because he would not have been able to bring a kirpan, or small dagger traditionally worn by Sikhs, into the event.
Kuldeep Singh, chairman of the World Sikh Council _ American Region, chose not to attend the Wednesday (Aug. 18) event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The event marked the 400th anniversary of the formal placement of a Sikh holy book on Sept. 1, 1604 in a Sikh place of worship in the South Asian region of Punjab.
“While we appreciate the White House arranging this event to honor the Sikh community, we cannot compromise on the principles of our faith,” said Tarunjit Singh, secretary-general of the World Sikh Council _ American Region, based in Columbus, Ohio. “The White House cannot honor our faith and at the same time deny us the practice of our faith.”
Tarunjit Singh told Religion News Service he discussed the matter with the White House’s Office of Public Liaison and was told that the kirpan would not be permitted due to security reasons.
“If they were to wear that at the security gate, they would be asked to remove it,” he said in an interview.
The World Sikh Council issued a statement describing the kirpan as an article of Sikh faith that “formally initiated Sikhs” are required to wear. The council said the kirpan “is symbolic of the Sikh pledge to resist oppression and injustice but never to use weapons to attack anyone or to initiate a confrontation.”
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, sent a letter to the council chairman, stating: “We stand in solidarity with you in the difficulties you experienced when the White House invited you to a ceremony celebrating this event and insisted that you arrive without the kirpan.”
Rajwant Singh, national chairman of the Washington-based Sikh Council on Religion and Education and an organizer of the event, said he intended to wear a “very small” kirpan on a necklace to meet the White House requirements.
“You can’t block yourself from dialogue at the same time you want to achieve goals,” he said.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Falwell Opens Law School at Liberty University
(RNS) The Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University will open its new law school to students Monday (Aug. 23).
Falwell said he hopes to train lawyers at the Lynchburg, Va., school to fight for the conservative perspective on such issues as abortion rights and gay marriage.
“We want to infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession,” he told the Associated Press. “We’ll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left.”
He said the school will be similar to Regent University in Virginia Beach, which was founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and has had a law school since 1986.
Classroom discussions will combine biblical teachings with the U.S. Constitution and focus on the connections between law, faith and morality, said Bruce Green, the law school dean.
Joe Conn, a spokesman for Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, questioned Falwell’s plans.
“When Falwell talks about using the legal system to advance his personal religious beliefs, I get a whiff of the Taliban,” he said.
ELCA Membership Dips Below 5 Million
(RNS) A 1 percent drop in membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has caused the church to dip below 5 million members for the first time in its history.
The ELCA lost 53,081 baptized members last year for a total of 4.98 million members. The number of Lutherans who were actively involved as “communing and contributing” members fell slightly to 2.34 million.
The Rev. Lowell Almen, secretary of the Chicago-based denomination, attributed the losses to “roll cleaning” in many churches, the disbanding of 36 churches, and the withdrawal of eight congregations (with a combined membership of 11,000) from the denomination.
“The statistical back door is far too large in our congregations,” he said. “Back-door losses muffle front-door gains. Too many members slip out the back door and disappear from membership in ELCA congregations each year.”
The loss could bump the ELCA out of the No. 6 spot on the list of the country’s 10 largest churches compiled by the National Council of Churches. Under the most recent ranking, the ELCA would switch spots with No. 7, the National Baptist Convention USA, with 5 million members.
Since 1990, the ELCA has lost about 250,000 members _ almost half of them in the last two years. The last reported membership gain was in 1991. Membership in most mainline Protestant churches has fallen steadily since the 1960s.
Almen said less than one-third _ 1.5 million _ of Lutherans are in church on an average Sunday, and the average number of baptized members in a typical ELCA congregation was 472, while the average “communing and contributing” membership stood at 223.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Gives Thanks for Pilgrimage to Lourdes; Shrine Faces Large Debt
(UNDATED) Pope John Paul II gave thanks Wednesday (Aug. 18) for the success of his pilgrimage to Lourdes, but the bishop who oversees the French shrine said it faces a $1.6 million deficit because pilgrims were so busy looking for good places for the papal Mass that they failed to make expected contributions.
Addressing some 3,500 people gathered in the courtyard of his country residence at Castelgandolfo south of Rome for his weekly general audience, the frail and ailing John Paul said he wanted to “give thanks” for being able to make the pilgrimage to the shrine to the Virgin Mary last weekend (Aug. 14-15).
“I thank the Virgin for the climate of profound meditation and intense prayer of this encounter,” he said. “I recall with emotion the so numerous crowd and, in the first row among them, the sick come to seek comfort and hope from Our Lady. May all the young people present also keep the memory of this pilgrimage and find there the force to become men and women free in Christ.”
The 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff expressed gratitude to the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jacques Perrier, “for his warm welcome and with him all the bishops present and all those who have contributed to the success of this my trip” and to President Jacques Chirac and French authorities “for their welcome and willingness.”
Perrier said Tuesday, however, that his diocese would have to appeal for donations because pilgrims gave only 200,000 euros ($246,000) to help meet the cost of the papal visit, leaving Lourdes 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million) in the red.
“To fill the deficit of 1.3 million euros that was produced we will make a new appeal for offerings because the Sanctuary of Lourdes does not have the means. If then there is need, we will ask for a loan,” Perrier told a news conference. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted him from Paris.
Organizers had hoped that pilgrims would donate at least 10 euros ($12.30) each as they waited to go through security checks before entering the grounds for the outdoor papal Mass on Sunday. There was no collection at the Mass.
“The arrangements to collect offerings did not function because we counted on entrance to the sanctuary being very slow, which would have permitted us to solicit the pilgrims to make offerings,” Perrier said.
“Instead access was very fluid because the pilgrims were in a hurry to find good places for the Mass.”
Perrier said that 300,000 pilgrims were present at Lourdes for the papal visit and about 200,000 attended the Mass rather than the 300,000 reported Sunday.
_ Peggy Polk
Man Sentenced to 20 Months in Botched Exorcism
(RNS) A man who performed a fatal exorcism on an 8-year-old autistic boy was sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday (Aug. 17) and ordered not to do any more exorcisms by a judge in Milwaukee.
Ray Hemphill was charged with lying on the chest of Terrance Cottrell Jr. while trying to expel “demons” during a ceremony at a storefront church on Aug. 22, 2003, according to the Associated Press.
Hemphill was an elder at the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, where Cottrell and his mother, Patricia Cooper, had been attending services.
Three women, including Cooper, held the boy down while Hemphill lay on top of him in the botched ritual. “He would still be here today if I never would have taken him to that church,” Cooper said after the trial, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Hemphill was convicted of physical abuse of a child recklessly causing great bodily harm by a jury last month. His lawyers argued the boy died of an overdose of medication; an autopsy ruled he died by suffocation.
“It was your unreasonable and reckless conduct that caused this child to die,” Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean DiMotto said at the sentencing.
DiMotto also sentenced Hemphill to seven years of extended supervision and ordered him to pay $1,200 in fines, the Associated Press reported. She said he may not attempt other exorcisms for 10 years without formal training.
“The community cannot risk another child being hurt, much less killed, in a religious ritual,” she said.
English Church: Expose Pets to Prayer Before Bringing to Church
LONDON (RNS) Reminding parishioners that the evening service one Sunday in September will be the annual pet service, at which “all (controlled) pets will be welcome,” an English parish suggested prayer for the animals.
“Why not start training your pet now with daily prayers to get it used to the atmosphere in church?” the Oxfordshire parish said in its bulletin.
It said the training might be good for the pets’ owners as well.
One of the parish’s three clergy, the Rev. Elisabeth Lakey, said she has been praying with her dog Shane for the past five years.
“I say evening prayer on Wednesdays in church,” she told the Church Times, “and Shane started sitting on a kneeler beside me. I would pat him to reassure him that he only had to be still for another few minutes while I said my prayers. Now he finds his own place in church.”
But at last year’s pet service Shane nearly caused trouble when he started taking too much interest in some hamsters.
“I had to hold on tight to his lead,” said Lakey.
She told Religion News Service that pets needed to be under control and not running free. That meant that most cats would be able to attend only in cat-baskets, while anyone bringing a pet boa constrictor would need to make sure it was well fed so that it did not make a grab for somebody else’s pet mouse.
Several years ago one of north London’s best-known Roman Catholic parishes _ the Olivetan Benedictine priory of Christ the King _ was known among fellow clergy as the only parish to concelebrate with a dog.
That was because the German shepherd belonging to the prior and parish priest, the late Dom Edmund Jones, would follow him into the church when he celebrated Mass and lie down below the altar steps, keeping an eye on the congregation.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Evelyn Husband, Widow of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander
(RNS) “I love my country, and I love God. And I don’t want to raise my children in a city that no longer honors the Bible.”
_ Evelyn Husband, widow of space shuttle Columbia commander Rick Husband, voicing her support for a Bible display at a Houston courthouse that has been declared unconstitutional. She was quoted by the Houston Chronicle.
DEA/PH END RNS
