c. 2004 Religion News Service
Reagan’s Daughter Sues Salvation Army Over Speaking Engagement
(RNS) Patti Davis, the daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan, has filed suit against the Salvation Army, claiming her views supporting stem cell research led to a canceled speaking engagement.
In a suit filed earlier this month (October) in New York State Supreme Court, Davis and her talent agency, Greater Talent Network, charged that plans for her to speak at a Santa Rosa, Calif., event were changed because her views differed from those of the evangelical Christian charity. They seek $7,500 _ half the $15,000 fee she was to be paid _ and additional punitive damages of as much as $22,500, court documents show.
Davis supports embryonic stem cell research that some hope may someday cure ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted her famous father who died in June. Opponents disapprove of the research because it involves the destruction of embryos.
A lawyer handling the issue for the Salvation Army said more general reasons led to the plans being dropped, and that a contract was never signed by both parties. A denominational official said the Army has not taken a stand on stem cell research.
“The lawsuit is totally without merit and the claim is without any foundation,” said Michael G. Watters, a member of the Salvation Army Santa Rosa Corps Advisory Board and a lawyer who volunteered to represent the organization on the matter.
He said organizers of the major annual fund raiser decided that Davis was not a good fit for them after reviewing a tape of her that was provided by her agent.
“They decided that she wasn’t our cup of tea,” Watters told Religion News Service.
The chosen speaker instead is Charles Plumb, who was a prisoner of war with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Maj. George Hood, national community relations secretary for the Salvation Army’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va., said the organization doesn’t have a formal position on stem cell research.
“We’re not endorsing stem cell research as an organization and we certainly are not against stem cell research at this point,” he said in an interview. “At this point in our history, it’s a personal, private decision that we ask all of our constituents to make on their own.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
France Continues to Grapple With Charges of Anti-Semitism
PARIS (RNS) France’s struggle to overcome charges of anti-Semitism has received more setbacks in recent weeks as a prominent journalist accused Israel of being a racist state and a far-right politician minimized the scope of the Holocaust.
On Monday (Oct. 18), Alain Menarges, information director for the state-funded Radio France International, was forced to step down after describing Israel as a racist state. Menarges’ statements on France’s LCI TV _ along with separate radio remarks that Jews had created “the first ghetto” in Venice _ drew protests from Radio France’s own reporters and from the French Foreign Ministry.
But Menarges remained unapologetic, telling France’s Liberation newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that his remarks were taken out of context, and that he was the victim of a conservative Jewish lobby that could not tolerate having Israel criticized.
Menarges’ remarks came at a sensitive time for the French government.
Foreign Minister Michel Barnier left Sunday for a three-day trip to Israel aimed at shoring up bilateral ties frayed over Israeli charges of anti-Semitism in France, and of Paris’ perceived support for the Palestinian cause.
The French political establishment has already been roiled by separate remarks by Bruno Gollnisch, second in command of the far-right National Front party.
Last month Gollnisch, a university professor, cast doubt on the dimensions of the Holocaust, telling reporters the number of Jews that died in Nazi concentration camps was smaller than reported.
The National Front’s leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, sparked outrage in 1987 when he described the Holocaust as a “detail” in history.
Le Pen placed second in the first round of French presidential elections in 2002. He was trounced by President Jacques Chirac in the second round, in a virtual referendum against extremism.
On Friday, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben suggested that the state might press charges against Gollnisch for “negation of crimes against humanity.”
France has long battled allegations of latent anti-Semitism, and some critics say it has yet to come to grips with its World War II-era past, when the collaborationist Vichy government was in power.
Since 2000, however, friction between Muslims and Jews has been largely blamed for a sharp spike in attacks against the country’s 600,000-strong Jewish community.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo to accompany the following story.
Worldwide Church Campaign Focusing on Reducing Poverty
(RNS) A worldwide campaign of evangelical Christian churches and relief organizations has been launched to urge governments to reduce the levels of poverty by half by the year 2015.
The Micah Challenge anti-poverty campaign was formally announced Friday (Oct. 15) at the United Nations by Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa.
“How can we claim to follow Jesus if we are not prepared to work to achieve his gospel good news for the poor?” Ndungane asked in a statement.
World Evangelical Alliance, an Edmonds, Wash.-based umbrella group of churches in more than 100 countries, and an additional network of 260 Christian relief and development agencies are leading the campaign. National related efforts are being created in the United Kingdom, Australia, Peru, Canada, Bangladesh, India and Zambia.
Their efforts aim to hold United Nations members to their pledge to reduce by half the proportion of people who live on less than a dollar a day between the years 1990 and 2015.
“Christians can play a vital role in helping global leaders meet their commitments,” Ndungane said. “When Christians work with one another, united across nationalities and races, across rich and poor, across men, women and children, we have an enormously powerful and influential voice. We must speak loud and clear.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
CeCe Winans, Donnie McClurkin Among Hall of Fame Inductees
(RNS) Contemporary gospel artists CeCe Winans and Donnie McClurkin are among the new inductees to the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame & Museum.
They and several other honorees will be inducted at a ceremony on Saturday (Oct. 23) in Detroit.
Winans, a Grammy Award winner, has recorded several albums that reached gold and platinum status. McClurkin, also a Grammy Award winner, is known for his song “We Fall Down.”
Other inductees are the Rev. Milton Biggham, who served as musical director for the movie “The Preacher’s Wife”; Anna Crockett Ford, who published the Church of God in Christ’s standard hymnal; Albert J. Lewis Jr., founder of the World Gospel Music Association of Newark, N.J.; Bill Moss & the Celestials, who first gained fame in the 1950s; Joseph Niles, a Barbados resident who has made significant contributions to Caribbean gospel music; and the O’Neal Twins, a celebrated gospel duo known for songs such as “Jesus on the Mainline” and “Jesus Dropped the Charges.”
The hall of fame and museum, which was founded in 1995 and added “international” to its name in 2003, now receives nominations for inductees from gospel music fans in several countries. Nominees must have been involved in gospel music activities for 25 years or more.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Councilman Jacques Wigginton of Urban County, Ky.
(RNS) “People want the perfect candidate. They expect you to be all things to all people. What people need, they don’t need me, they need Jesus.”
_ Urban County, Ky., Councilman Jacques Wigginton, explaining why he paid for a billboard that said “Elect Jesus Christ Savior” as part of his re-election campaign. He was quoted by the Lexington Herald Leader.
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