c. 19). Nearby stood a towering Christmas tree and a larger-than-life-size creche, which will be unveiled on Christmas Eve.

“The feast of Christmas, perhaps the most dear to popular tradition, is very rich in symbols tied to different cultures,” the pope said. He called the creche, which portrays the Nativity, “the most important” of them.

But, noting that Christmas presents are usually hung on the tree or piled at its foot, the pope said that the tree can be seen as a symbol of Christ’s coming as the “supreme gift of God to humanity.”

“The message of the Christmas tree is therefore that life remains always green if you make a gift,” he said, “not so much of material things but of yourself in friendship and sincere affection, in fraternal help and pardon, in time shared and in listening to one another.”

The pope’s defense of the symbols of Christmas took on added meaning in Italy, which is gripped by controversy over attempts by some school districts to de-Christianize Christmas celebrations in deference to Muslim students.

A school in Treviso, near Venice, proposed replacing the Nativity play with “Little Red Riding Hood” and another in Como suggested that children substitute the word “virtue” for Jesus, which rhyme in Italian, when they sing Christmas carols.

The Constitutional Court resolved another controversy Friday by deciding that the crucifix may remain in public school classrooms.

_ Peggy Polk

Minority Religious Groups Call for Removal of Commandments

(RNS) Arguing the Ten Commandments are a Judeo-Christian rather than universal code of morality, an alliance representing millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to remove a controversial monument from government property.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) made its position official this month (December) by filing a brief in a case in which the plaintiff aims to purge the Texas State Capitol grounds of a 6-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument. The Supreme Court in October agreed to review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of keeping the monument. The court will also hear a similar case from Kentucky. Decisions in both cases are expected sometime in 2005.

In submitting its brief with signatories from such groups as the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, the HAF said it was weighing in on behalf of millions of religious minorities.

“The brief makes it clear that the co-signatories regard the Ten Commandments with utmost respect,” said Suhag Shukla, legal counsel for the HAF. “But the overtly religious monument is a blow to pluralism, and its prominent presence on Texas Capitol grounds implies political and social exclusion of Hindus, Jains and Buddhists alike. The district and appellate courts failed to consider the effect of the monument on those adhering to non-Judeo-Christian faiths.”

The place of the Ten Commandments on government property has for years generated heated debate. The issue came to a head last year when the top justice of Alabama, Roy Moore, lost his job in a bid to keep a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse rotunda.

Now as the issue moves into the hands of nation’s highest court, those outside the Judeo-Christian tradition are taking a higher-profile role. The American Humanist Association, representing some 7,000 non-theists, has also filed a brief urging that the Texas monument be removed.

The HAF brief argues that the Commandments are irreconcilable with beliefs of Jains and Buddhists, who recognize no “creator/controller God.” What’s more, the second commandment bans the worship of idols or graven images, a notion anathema to Hindus, who consecrate images in worship.

“The courts below (Federal Court of Appeals) completely ignored the effect of the Ten Commandments monument on non-Judeo-Christians,” the brief said, “whose beliefs regarding the nature of God and the relationship between man and God differ greatly from those enshrined in the monument and for whom the monument is clearly and unavoidably `sectarian.”’

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Public School Critics Get Scant Support From State Baptist Conventions

(RNS) Only one state convention affiliated with Southern Baptists passed a resolution this fall criticizing public schools, but leaders of an effort to move Christians away from public education say they will continue to press their cause.

A resolution passed at the annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention urged that state’s Southern Baptists “to give serious consideration to the inherent dangers of the secular educational philosophies” within public schools. It urged them to consider “the importance of systematically training ourselves and our children in the ways of authentic, biblical Christianity.”

Roger Moran, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, said he wrote and introduced the resolution out of concern that a large percentage of children leave the evangelical church at age 18 never to return. He told Religion News Service that he believes the public schools play a role in young people not sticking with the faith into which they were baptized.

“They’re gone just about before the water dries,” he said.

Ray Moore, founder and director of Exodus Mandate, a Columbia, S.C., organization that encourages education in Christian home schools and private schools, said he is hopeful that the discussions that occurred this year at national and state conventions of Southern Baptists will lead to concrete action in the future.

“We frankly didn’t really expect it to pass anywhere,” he said. “We are at the point where we’re trying to get a discussion and a debate going and every time we bring it up and lose, we gain hundreds of converts.”

He said a related resolution was submitted to a total of 11 state conventions, but in most cases it never reached the floor for consideration.

In June, the resolutions committee for the annual national meeting of Southern Baptists in Indianapolis chose not to recommend a resolution to convention attendees that would have rejected their involvement in public education. A supporter of the resolution made an unsuccessful attempt to amend another resolution to address his concerns.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Sikh Protests Close Play in England

LONDON (RNS) Protests against a play depicting rape and murder in a Sikh temple erupted into violence Saturday (Dec. 18), ending the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s performance after 20 minutes and causing future performances to be canceled.

There were broken windows, three arrests and minor injuries to three of the 85 police at the scene, authorities said.

The play, “Behzti,” the Punjabi word for “dishonor,” opened Dec. 9 and was scheduled to run until Dec. 30, with all tickets sold out. It was written by a young Sikh woman, Gupreet Kaur Bhatti, and is her second work for the stage. Her first, “Behsharam” (“Shameless”), depicted a dysfunctional Sikh family and also attracted full houses and controversy _ though not on the scale of “Behzti.”

Describing “Behzti” as “a black comedy,” the Birmingham Repertory Theatre outlines the plot as follows: “Past her prime, Min joyfully spends her life caring for her sick, foul-mouthed mother Balbir. Today, for the first time in years, they’re off out. Min’s hoping to wish someone special a happy birthday, but Balbir’s got greater ambitions for her daughter.”

Mother and daughter head to the local Sikh temple. When Balbir encounters old friends, a past trauma rears its ugly head. Min’s and Balbir’s illusions are about to be shattered as they become cruelly immersed in a world of desperate aspiration and dangerous deals.

The theater consulted the local Sikh community over the production and included in the program a statement by critics of the play. Local Sikh leaders said they would have been content if the setting had been moved from a gurdwara (Sikh temple) to a community center, but the theater and the author rejected this proposal.

Writing in the program, the playwright praises Sikhism, but says it often fails to live up to its ideals.

“Clearly the fallibility of human nature means that the simple Sikh principles of equality, compassion and modesty are sometimes discarded in favor of outward appearance, wealth and the quest for power,” said Bhatti.

“I feel that distortion in practice must be confronted and our great ideals must be restored. … I believe that drama should be provocative and relevant. I wrote `Behzti’ because I passionately oppose injustice and hypocrisy.”

Other religious leaders have joined Birmingham’s Sikhs in protesting.

“Such a deliberate, even if fictional violation of the sacred space of the Sikh religion demeans the sacred places of every religion,” said Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham. “People of all faiths, therefore, will be offended by this presentation.”

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Former Sen. Bob Dole

(RNS) “Washington is a town where power is relentlessly pursued, yet even here we acknowledge a higher power to which we must call for an answer. This is most emphatically a time to heal.”

_ Former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., speaking at a Common Legacy Breakfast Summit in Washington in mid-December that was co-sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation. Quoted by The Washington Times, Dole had joined other political and religious speakers in talking about resolving hatred to gain world peace.

MO/PH RNS END