c. 2005 Religion News Service
Scalia Addresses Religion in Talks to Catholic Audiences
(RNS) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been speaking out about religion lately, telling fellow Catholics to be “fools for Christ” and explaining to college students that judges should look to tradition and historic understanding in deciding religion cases.
On Saturday (Jan. 22) Scalia gave an address to the Knights of Columbus Baton Rouge (La.) Council in commemoration of the group’s 100th anniversary.
“If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world,” Scalia said, according to The Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper.
The reference to “fools” echoed a biblical admonition by the Apostle Paul, who said if anyone considers himself wise by the world’s standards, he should become a fool for Christ.
According to the article, “Scalia praised `traditional Catholics’ who say the rosary, go on pilgrimages, kneel during the Eucharist and `follow religiously the teaching of the pope.”’ He also said one of his role models was St. Thomas More, the Catholic patron saint of lawyers.
On Tuesday night (Jan. 25), Scalia addressed faculty, students and friends of Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Speaking to a full ballroom, Scalia delivered the fifth annual Ave Maria Lecture. He focused on the religion clauses of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
To determine whether a law is in line with the amendment, courts have applied three tests: Does the law have a secular purpose? Is it religion-neutral? Does it prevent the state from entanglement in religious matters?
Such formulas are perfectly OK, said Scalia. “They are the means by which judicial arbitrariness is checked.” But they must be rooted in the Constitution, he said. And when the Constitution itself is unclear, jurists must default to “the settled practices that the text represents.”
But what happens when long-established practices are challenged?
Scalia cited a 1970 Supreme Court case involving tax exemptions for houses of worship in New York. “Such exemptions had been around forever,” said Scalia, but they don’t pass the three tests because the houses of worship had gotten what amounted to favored treatment.
Still, the court let the exemptions continue, pointing to long-standing history and tradition. “Those historic understandings are the raw data from which the rules should be constructed,” Scalia said.
The First Amendment principle about religious neutrality “needs fundamental readjusting” if not in accord with traditions laid out in matters such as the tax case, Scalia said.
_ Catherine O’Donnell and Lauren Etter
Evangelical Author to Begin Spirituality Column in Women’s Magazine
(RNS) Rick Warren, evangelical author of “The Purpose-Driven Life,” will begin a new, monthly magazine column in Ladies’ Home Journal.
The column, called “Purpose,” debuts in the February issue and will explore the spiritual lives of American women and their families.
“There is a growing spiritual hunger in our culture, and I admire this magazine for its foresight and commitment to address every aspect of a woman’s life, including the spiritual dimension,” said Warren.
Diane Salvatore, editor in chief of Ladies’ Home Journal, said the magazine became interested in having a spirituality column because of the popularity of a section called “Inner Life,” which addresses emotional issues and health.
Warren, in addition to being a best-selling author, is pastor of the California-based Saddleback Church, home to 20,000 members. He has been called America’s most influential spiritual leader.
“Rick Warren has clearly touched a chord in the country today, and is able to address, in a very down-to-earth and universal way, people’s yearning to enhance their experience of spirituality in their daily lives,” Salvatore said.
Another women’s magazine, Seventeen, geared toward a teenage audience, has recently added a section titled “Faith.” Featured in each issue are inspirational quotes, scripture verses and personal stories.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Democrats Convene Group to Develop `Faith Agenda’
WASHINGTON (RNS) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has convened a group of Democratic lawmakers to develop a “faith agenda” for the party, a Capitol Hill newspaper reported Monday (Jan. 31).
The “working group” of 15 to 25 members would help Democrats cast issues through a faith lens in a way that would help them speak to “faith-minded” voters, Roll Call reported.
“Our problem is not our programs,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. “It’s been our expressions and interpretations of those programs. We are people of faith.”
Pelosi, a Catholic from San Francisco, has been soliciting ideas on the proposal for two years from faith and political leaders, including former Clinton White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry. Pelosi said religious voters have been co-opted by Republicans.
“House Democrats are people of deep faith and share the values of faith communities,” Pelosi told the newspaper.
Pelosi’s group will have an uphill climb after exit polls from November’s presidential election showed the so-called “values voter” flocking to the GOP in record numbers. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has made similar overtures in recent weeks, attempting to moderate her party’s position on abortion in an effort to broaden support with swing voters.
“I knew that we had a problem two or three days after the election when I started looking at the exit polling,” Clyburn said. “I saw that our Catholic nominee for president lost the Catholic vote.”
There are 154 Catholics in the 109th Congress _ an all-time high _ including 87 Democrats and 67 Republicans. While Democrats hold their traditional lead among Catholics, Republicans are gaining, with two-thirds of new Catholic members coming from the GOP.
Clyburn told Roll Call that most Democrats “may not wear their religion on their sleeves” but said the party must “go on the offense on these issues” in an attempt to attract swing and moderate voters.
Methodists to Spend $25 Million on Ads to Boost Membership
(RNS) Hoping to capitalize on a $20 million ad campaign that raised name recognition of the United Methodist Church, the denomination will now spend an additional $25 million on advertising to fill church pews with new members.
The second phase of the “Igniting Ministries” campaign will use television ads pegged to Christmas, Easter and the start of the school year in late summer to target adults ages 25-54.
Church officials said that between 2001 and 2004, the Methodists’ “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” campaign boosted first-time attendance at Methodist churches by 19 percent and increased long-term attendance by 9 percent in 160 test markets.
They said the Methodists became the second-most recognized American church and name recognition among the 25-54 set rose from 3 percent to 19 percent. Officials said they hope the church’s brand identity will now translate into more members.
“How they grow will vary,” said Pittsburgh Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of United Methodist Communications. “… Some will grow in numbers. All will grow in service to their community and to the world.”
Part of the campaign includes training for local churches to learn welcoming techniques, as well as matching grants to help churches buy local TV and billboard advertising.
The Methodists, like most other mainline Protestant churches, have been steadily losing members since the 1960s. The church now has 8.2 million members in the United States and about 10 million around the world.
In 2003, the church battled the Reuters media company to display a 30-second video clip on that company’s 11-screen electronic billboard in the heart of Times Square. After initially rejecting the ad for its religious content, Reuters eventually agreed to accept the ad on its billboard.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Calls for `Emotional and Sexual Maturity’ in Seminaries
VATICAN CITY (RNS) As U.S. bishops met with Vatican officials to review policy on sexually abusive priests, Pope John Paul II urged seminaries Tuesday (Feb. 1) to examine the “emotional and sexual maturity” of all candidates for the priesthood _ including their attitudes toward celibacy.
The pope, who is recovering from the flu, canceled a scheduled audience with members of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education but sent a message containing the admonition to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the congregation.
The Vatican announced earlier that a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops would meet Monday and Tuesday with Vatican officials “to examine the norms of cases of accusations of sexual abuse of minors.”
The U.S. bishops adopted the rules in 2002 after a scandal of abusive priests rocked the American church. The Vatican, however, feared that the “one strike” policy of removing priests after a single offense might be too harsh and approved the norms only for a two-year trial period, which ends in March.
There was no immediate report on the outcome of the talks.
In his message to the Congregation for Catholic Education, the pope said seminary education must take account of four dimensions in the formation of a priest, “human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral.”
“In the light of present social and cultural changes, it can be useful at times that educators avail themselves of the work of competent specialists to help seminarians understand more basically the needs of the priesthood, recognizing in celibacy a gift of love to the Lord and to brothers,” the pope said.
“Already at the moment of admission of youths to the seminary their suitability to celibate life must be carefully checked so as to arrive, before ordination, at a moral certainty about their emotional and sexual maturity,” he said.
The Vatican Congregations for Catholic Education and for the Clergy were reported some time ago to be working on a document on seminaries, which will deal with the problem of weeding out homosexuals from candidates for the priesthood.
_ Peggy Polk
Pastors Unveil New `Black Contract With America on Moral Values’
LOS ANGELES (RNS) A nationally known African-American pastor launched a coalition Tuesday (Feb. 1) that hopes to redefine the politics of black churches, shifting loyalties from liberal to biblical values.
Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Lanham, Md., introduced the High Impact Leadership Coalition at a press conference here, then held a summit for pastors to discuss his vision for integrating faith and politics. It was the first of seven such conferences scheduled throughout the country this year.
Jackson also unveiled the “Black Contract With America on Moral Values,” a broad agenda that addresses problems in urban communities. The contract includes protecting traditional marriage, creating wealth for minorities and providing health care for the poor.
In the past, the African-American church has been known as morally conservative and politically liberal, Jackson said. But the old monikers of conservative and liberal and “left” versus “right” do not change lives anymore, Jackson said.
“What we really need to do is say, `Let’s start from the Bible and create an environment where folks talk about Bible values,”’ Jackson said. “And people from both the Democratic side and the Republican side can come together and have something to say together.”
Jackson’s new coalition is already controversial, in part because Jackson said he _ like many other black ministers _ supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Jackson’s coalition got a nod of support from the Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder of the Traditional Values Coalition.
But Sylvia Rhue, a lesbian who is director of Equal Partners in Faith and a board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, crashed the press conference Tuesday. Rhue said black pastors are aligning with Bush to procure money through Bush’s “faith-based initiative” and said black Americans are not unanimous in opposing gay marriage.
“I think this is the culture of the purchased pulpit,” she said of the black conservative movement.
Jackson, who is a registered Democrat, said his church receives no money from the federal government. “I’m a free man, I’m my own man, but most importantly I’m God’s man,” Jackson said. “And I’m taking a stand that I believe will rally churches, Christians and long-term I think will save America.”
_ Marshall Allen
Time Magazine Highlights `25 Most Influential Evangelicals’
(RNS) Time magazine released for the first time a list of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” in time for President Bush’s State of the Union Address on Wednesday (Feb. 2) and the National Prayer Breakfast the following morning.
Among those named is Douglas Coe, 76, head of the Washington-based Fellowship Foundation, which convenes the breakfast. The annual event gives invited religious leaders a chance to speak to politicians and diplomats, and Coe also coordinates hundreds of other events for prayer and conversation with national and international officials.
Others chosen for the distinction exert influence in a variety of positions, from the Rev. Tim LaHaye, 78, author of the “Left Behind” series of novels about end times, to Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., 46, known for his opposition to abortion and gay rights.
Left off the list are the Rev. Jerry Falwell and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, evangelical leaders who are often in the news.
“Instead, we focus on those whose influence is on the rise or who have carved out a singular role for themselves,” said Steve Koepp, deputy managing editor of Time.
Several of those named played a role in persuading the 78 percent of white evangelical Christians who voted for Bush, according to Time.
Michael Gerson, 40, a White House speechwriter, and the Rev. Richard Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and founder of the New York-based religious journal First Things, are largely responsible for shaping the religious message that characterizes much of Bush’s public talks, the Time article reported.
The cover of Time, on newsstands Monday (Jan. 31), displays a cross with the faces of many of those named and asks, “What Does Bush Owe Them?” and “Do the Democrats Need More Religion?”
Others mentioned in the list include Mark Noll, an evangelical scholar at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.; Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the wildly popular “Purpose Driven Life” book series; evangelist Billy Graham and son Franklin Graham; and Diane Knippers, an Episcopal laywoman who heads the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative think tank.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Salvation Army, Snubbed by Target, Surpasses Kettle Collection Goal
(RNS) Predictions of shortfall have turned to windfall for a Salvation Army that had to manage without a single collection kettle at a Target store last year.
The now-infamous decision of Target to stop providing space in 2004 for traditional bell ringers seems to have actually helped the charity take in a record-setting $95.3 million from other locations.
“From September through Christmas Eve, all I did was talk about Target with the media,” said national spokesman Maj. George Hood. “We logged about 1,500 interviews on that topic. … The American public loves this red kettle, there’s just no question about it, and when they felt it was in jeopardy,” they supported the cause.
Prior to 2004, the Army had counted on kettles placed at Target stores to generate about $9 million between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. But last year, Target announced it would no longer grant the Army an exception to its no-solicitation policy. To help fill the projected revenue gap, Wal-Mart, Big Lots and other retailers trumpeted their support for the kettle drive. The result: a $1.5 million increase over the sum raised in 2003.
Dollars raised in the kettle drive support local Salvation Army relief efforts, from sheltering disaster victims to feeding the hungry and helping the poor pay utility bills. Last year’s donations included $1.4 million raised online, up $500,000 from 2003, Hood said. But the vast majority of new donations seem to have come in the form of old-fashioned coin drops into red metal kettles.
The lesson for retailers considering adjustments to their kettle policy? Said Hood, “Be very careful.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Solution to Wardrobe Malfunction: Change the Channel
WASHINGTON (RNS) For families who want to avoid racy language and wardrobe malfunctions at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, a Christian television network has a solution: change the channel.
Direct satellite network Sky Angel will beam a half-hour “alternative” halftime show to satellite dishes nationwide.
The show, to be hosted by Sportsweek’s Tom McGough and former Pittsburgh Steeler Robin Cole, will feature Christian testimonies from sports stars including NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon, former Chicago Cub soon-to-be Baltimore Oriole Sammy Sosa and the Houston Rockets’ Dikembe Mutombo.
“After last year’s halftime show incident, we understand people’s desire for an alternative for their families and church members,” said Kathleen Johnson, Sky Angel’s vice president of programming, in a statement.
It will air on Sky Angel’s special events channel, Angel Two, on Feb. 6.
_ Andrea James
Quote of the Week: Hala Dahroug, of Cairo
(RNS) “Being unveiled doesn’t necessarily mean you are more intellectual or smarter. I meet unveiled girls who’ve got nothing in their brains, and I meet veiled ones who care about the world. The important thing here is freedom of expression and the freedom to practice whatever rituals you believe in. Women should choose to wear it or not.”
_ Cairo resident Hala Dahroug, 33, who stopped wearing a tradition Muslim veil at age 20. She was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
