c. 2005 Religion News Service
Eds: Mariam in 5th graph below is cq
Evangelicals Work on Broader Agenda, Debate Global Warming
WASHINGTON (RNS) Global warming and other environmental problems have emerged as the most controversial issues within a national coalition trying to broaden the agenda of evangelical Christians.
At a Capitol Hill forum on Thursday (March 10), the National Association of Evangelicals formally unveiled a document, “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility,” that addresses a range of topics _ from abortion and family issues to religious freedom, racial reconciliation and “care for God’s earth.”
The document was approved by the association’s board in October and has been signed by more than 80 evangelical leaders. But some who embraced the overall plan are now raising questions about its environmental emphasis.
“There are great sentiments about broad issues, about bringing evangelicals together, particularly whites and blacks,” said Tom Minnery _ vice president of public policy for the conservative, Colorado-based Focus on the Family _ in an interview. “The movement to preserve marriage characterizes evangelicalism. The issue of global warming does not characterize evangelicalism.”
Mariam M. Bell, national director of public policy for Prison Fellowship’s Wilberforce Forum, agreed, saying Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, an influential conservative, questioned where the discussion is headed.
“He is concerned that this could possibly be co-opted, this whole wonderful initiative, by the environmental left,” she said in an interview.
Ron Sider, one of the principal authors of the document, said association leaders have received mostly positive responses to the overall document and are addressing environmental issues along with other topics.
“They’re not in any way making that their central crusade,” said Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, a more moderate group. “What’s happening is you’re getting a more biblically balanced agenda, which is exactly what the document calls for.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Jewish Democrat from Connecticut, addressed the crowd of more than 120 by urging their advocacy on reduction of global warming, a topic of legislation he has co-sponsored.
“I hope you will join us in this effort to not only cultivate but better protect the earth or once more we will lose the garden for ourselves and for generations to come,” he said, referring to the Garden of Eden.
Other forum speakers said the document highlights the need to move beyond a focus on political parties and to concentrate in a new way on issues such as race relations.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Oregon Reports 37 Patients Committed Doctor-Assisted Suicide in 2004
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Thirty-seven Oregonians died by doctor-assisted suicide last year, a slight decrease from 42 the year before, according to a new state report.
During the seven-year history of Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act, assisted-suicide has accounted for 208 deaths _ roughly one in 1,000 deaths in the state.
In 2004, 40 doctors wrote a total of 60 prescriptions for lethal doses of barbiturates. The prescription total fell from 68 the year before _ the first decrease in prescriptions since doctor-assisted suicide became legal in Oregon.
The new numbers, released Thursday (March 10) by the Oregon Department of Human Services, are unremarkable in light of previous annual reports. But they are unlikely to defuse one of the most passionately debated issues in American medicine.
They also highlight the stakes for both sides in the Bush administration’s legal challenge to the Oregon law. That case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed last month to review a federal appeals court’s ruling in Oregon’s favor.
The Bush administration argues that doctors who assist suicides under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act can be prosecuted for violating federal anti-drug laws. The Roman Catholic Church has also opposed the Oregon law.
Of the 60 Oregonians who received a prescription for a lethal dose of medication last year, 35 died after taking the drug. Two other patients died last year after taking a drug prescribed for them the year before. Of the 25 recipients who did not ingest the medication, 13 died from their illnesses. The other 12 remained alive on Dec. 31, 2004.
The seven-year total of 208 cases remains lower than proponents expected and opponents feared in 1997 when Oregon became the only state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide.
Under the Death With Dignity Act, it is legal for a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who requests it orally and in writing, with two witnesses. Another doctor must confirm the patient has a life expectancy of less than six months. By law, the patient must swallow the drug; it cannot be administered by a doctor.
The state report is based on information filed by participating doctors and pharmacies, death certificates and follow-up interviews with the doctors.
A recent case of failed doctor-assisted suicide in an Estacada, Ore., man highlights the controversy over the Oregon law. The man, a 42-year-old cancer patient, took a supposedly lethal dose Jan. 30 but woke up nearly three days later and died of natural causes Feb. 15. Because that case occurred this year, it is not in the 2004 annual report.
_ Don Colburn
Survey Shows Israelis Strongly Oppose Sharing or Giving Up Western Wall
JERUSALEM (RNS) A recent survey shows the vast majority of Jewish Israelis are not prepared to relinquish even partial control of the Western Wall to Palestinians.
Ninety-one percent of the 496 Jewish Israelis polled by the Dahaf Institute, a leading Israeli pollster, said their government should never hand over the wall to the Palestinians. Only 6 percent said they contemplated the possibility of joint Israeli-Palestinian control of the wall. The survey was released Wednesday (March 9).
The Western or Wailing Wall, a remnant of the Second Temple that enclosed the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, is located in the Old City of Jerusalem in the eastern part of the city. The Palestinians, who also revere the mount, which they call Haram al-Sharif, want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future Palestinian state.
A smaller majority of those polled _ 53 percent _ said that Israel alone should control Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, believed to be the place where Jacob’s wife Rachel died in childbirth and was buried. Fifty-one percent said they want Israel alone to control the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the place Jews and Muslims believe the biblical patriarch Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather, was buried.
Although both West Bank cities are run by the Palestinian Authority, Israel maintains security control over the shrines.
_ Michele Chabin
Irish Bishop Apologizes for Using Sunday Collections to Pay Abuse Claims
(RNS) An Irish bishop has apologized to his diocese for dipping into Sunday collections to help pay for sex abuse claims.
The siphoning off of 3 percent of church collections in the Diocese of Derry was disclosed by the BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight last month. After the report, a letter from Bishop Seamus Hegarty was read at all Masses in the diocese explaining what had gone wrong.
The diocese had taken the collections at Sunday Masses for the Stewardship Trust, a fund set up by the Irish bishops to pay compensation to victims of sex abuse and to set up and run a Child Protection Office.
“For that I apologize,” said Hegarty, referring to the fact that churchgoers were not fully informed. “You have a right to know where your money goes. Furthermore, I am sorry for giving the impression of presuming on your generosity and consent.”
The bishop promised to return the collected money to the parishes.
In the United States, most dioceses have relied on insurance to cover big-ticket abuse settlements, although some have sold property to help foot the bill. The scandal-scarred Archdiocese of Boston, for example, sold the archbishop’s mansion and 43 surrounding acres to help cover an $85 million settlement. Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley has vowed not to use parishioners’ offerings to settle the cases.
_ Robert Nowell
Christians Protest Bush Agenda, Aim to Expand Definitions of `Values’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Hundreds of Christians assembled Friday (March 11) for a weekend gathering attempting to protest and broaden the values agenda of President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress.
The four-day Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice was sponsored in part by the left-leaning National Council of Churches, an organization of more than 30 denominations.
“One of the things that the planners felt very strongly about is that the issues we’re talking about _ poverty, the environment, HIV/AIDS in Africa, Sudan _ all those issues are moral issues too,” said the Rev. Leslie Tune, a spokeswoman for the National Council of Churches. “We want our people to know how to advocate for policies based on those issues as moral values.”
Through a series of workshops, the conference planners said they hoped attendees, who paid $135 each, would become less intimidated about approaching lawmakers and demand policies that reflect Christian teachings regarding the poor, Tune said.
The conference was scheduled to end Monday with a noon rally, co-hosted by the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, to let Congress know that many people of faith are unhappy about the national budget.
“This budget does not reflect our values,” Tune said. “We feel that it favors wealthy people and corporations over poor children, elderly _ just about everybody else.”
_ Andrea James
Quote of the Day: Imam Mohamed Magid of Sterling, Va.
(RNS) “This does not help the Iraqis, it does not help Islam and it does not help the children of Iraq looking for a future.”
_ Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, a Sunni Muslim mosque in Sterling, Va., reacting to the bombing at a Shiite mosque Thursday (March 10) in northern Iraq. He was quoted by The Washington Times.
MO/JL RNS END
