c. 2005 Religion News Service
Major Faith Groups Praise Decision to Ban Juvenile Executions
WASHINGTON (RNS) A U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday (March 1) banning execution of juvenile offenders is finding strong support among some national religious groups.
The 5-4 decision in Roper v. Simmons will remove about 70 individuals from death row who were convicted of murders committed before they turned 18. Prosecutors will also be prevented from seeking the death penalty for future cases of juvenile capital crime.
The Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, domestic policy committee chair for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that the conference has taken a stance for decades against the death penalty for all offenders.
“This ruling affirms the position held by a broad cross section of religious denominations,” DiMarzio said.
Jane Wishner, chair of the commission on social action of Reform Judaism, cited studies showing the death penalty is ineffective in deterring crime.
“Today’s ruling will ensure that juveniles, who are unable to make mature distinctions between right and wrong, are punished for their crimes in a manner that allows for redemption and rehabilitation,” Wishner said in a statement.
The United Church of Christ also weighed in with a statement supporting the decision. The Rev. Sala Gonzales Nolan, a UCC spokesman, said all human beings should have a chance at redemption and “vengeance does not belong to us.”
The Supreme Court found differences between juveniles and adults, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion statement.
In addition to lacking maturity, “juveniles are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative differences and outside pressures, including peer pressure,” Kennedy wrote.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor dissented, saying 17-year-olds convicted of murder may deserve the death penalty. The Supreme Court banned executions for criminals under age 16 in 1988.
Some religious groups opposed the ruling, which overturns the practice of juvenile executions in 19 U.S. states.
A conservative religious rights organization, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund, objected to the consideration given by members of the Supreme Court to international opinion opposing capital punishment for juveniles.
“There’s a difference between studying foreign law and incorporating it into our jurisprudence on a seek-and-destroy mission against our values,” said Benjamin Bull, chief counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
NCC Cautions Against `Aggressive’ Evangelism in Wake of Tsunami
(RNS) The National Council of Churches is considering “high profile” discussions with evangelical groups to caution them against “aggressive and inappropriate evangelism” in the wake of the South Asia tsunami.
The Rev. Shanta Premawardhana, the NCC’s director of interfaith relations, said one of the greatest threats to churches working the devastated area are groups “who don’t know the difference between aid and evangelism.”
Premawardhana, a native of Sri Lanka, issued his warning on Saturday (Feb. 26) in an 11-page guideline for churches working in the region. He urged caution in trying to use relief efforts as a pretext for winning souls.
“Since we cannot prevent them from sending missionaries, we might as well help them to understand what we in the ecumenical movement have learned in the past century about doing Christian mission in the context of religious plurality,” he said in the document.
The NCC is a New York-based umbrella group for 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox denominations. Generally speaking, its member churches shun aggressive proselytizing.
Premawardhana, a Baptist, said the Christian minority in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other countries continues to battle the lingering effects of “missiological mistakes” during the colonial era and the “exclusive theologies most missionaries espoused.”
Some of that continues, he said, singling out a recent plan _ since dropped _ by Virginia-based World Help to have U.S. Christians adopt Muslim children who were orphaned in the Dec. 26 disaster. The idea caused “serious problems” for local churches, he said.
Premawardhana urged U.S. churches to channel their relief efforts through partner churches in the region, in relationships that are long-lasting and are not characterized solely by American financial donations.
“While evangelism is important and necessary, it is best left to local Christians,” he said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Sen. Clinton Promotes Aid to Palestinian Authority to Increase Security.
WASHINGTON (RNS) Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), addressing more than 1,000 Jewish leaders and students, said Tuesday (March 1) she supports giving financial aid to the Palestinian Authority to promote security.
“We have to provide some support. Who else will provide it?” said Clinton at the annual Jewish Council for Public Affairs Plenum.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also urged Arab states to provide economic support to the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking on a stage flanked by American and Israeli flags, Clinton encouraged plans for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory.
“It’s important we recognize the risks and challenges Prime Minister Sharon and his government are taking with disengagement,” she said.
Turning to domestic policy, Clinton spoke strongly against President Bush’s 2006 budget.
Clinton said the budget provisions _ such as cuts to Medicaid _ would hurt “50 million of our most vulnerable citizens, half of whom are children.”
Addressing faith-based initiatives championed by Bush, Clinton said federal grants to religious organizations will not “miraculously” meet increasing human need.
“Americans are very generous,” Clinton said. “They give to synagogues, to churches.” Yet charitable giving cannot replace programs providing health care and housing, she said.
Other highlights of the three-day plenum, which ended Tuesday, included a forum on the federal marriage amendment and a debate on Middle East peace among diplomats from Egypt, Israel and the United States.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Quakers Nominate Japanese Anti-Nuclear Group for Nobel Peace Prize
(RNS) The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker relief and humanitarian service organization, has nominated a Japanese group of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
“We must try to look with the eyes of Hibakusha,” said AFSC general secretary Mary Ellen McNish in the nomination letter. “Only with that vision might we overcome our denial of the atrocity of nuclear weapons and demand that governments eliminate rather than develop and spread them.”
The Japanese group, Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of those known as Hibakusha _ survivors of the American atomic bombing at the end of World War II of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll.
Aug. 6 will mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Nagasaki was bombed two days later. There were the first and only use of atomic weapons in war.
Founded in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons along with the care and compensation of Hibakusha by the Japanese government.
Over the years, the AFSC said, the group has helped build the worldwide nuclear abolition movement and has testified at numerous United Nations sessions on nuclear test bans, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
In its letter, the AFSC noted that the world enters “this new century with some 30,000 nuclear weapons spread across the world.”
The AFSC is a faith-based organization working for peace and justice in 22 countries. In 1947, the AFSC and the British Friends Service Council accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends for its relief and reconciliation work in Europe at the end of World War II.
Previous winners of the Nobel Prize are among those eligible to make nominations for the prize. Winners are announced in October.
_ David E. Anderson
Quote of the Day: Lutheran Pastor Michael Clark
(RNS) “I don’t know what to feel other than pain, agony. They didn’t teach me how to deal with anything like this at the seminary.”
_ Lutheran pastor Michael Clark, of Wichita, Kans., on the arrest of his congregation’s president, Dennis Rader, the alleged “BTK serial killer,” who is charged with torturing and killing 10 people. Clark was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
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