c. 2005 Religion News Service
Oregon Supreme Court Invalidates Same-Sex Marriages
(RNS) The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday (April 14) invalidated the marriages of 3,000 same-sex couples and refused to decide whether gays and lesbians should have the same rights and benefits as married couples.
The decision was a victory for social conservatives who backed Measure 36, the 2004 initiative that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.
“The people have preserved marriage, and the court has recognized that the licenses issued contrary to state law are invalid,” said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, which had lawyers arguing that side of the case. “It’s a great day for Oregon.”
Gay rights advocates can file a new lawsuit to seek to obtain equal benefits, but the process could take several years.
Basic Rights Oregon, a leading gay-rights organization, lamented the ruling but pledged to continue to fight politically and legally.
“We feel enormous sadness knowing that thousands of same-sex couples who recently celebrated their first anniversaries as married couples have had those marriages painfully revoked,” the group said in a statement, referring to the licenses that Multnomah County began issuing in March 2004.
The day before the state’s high court decision, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and a bipartisan coalition of state senators introduced legislation allowing civil unions for same-sex couples and outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians. The ruling now removes any pressure from the 2005 Legislature to act.
States across the country are debating similar issues. The Connecticut House of Representatives voted Wednesday to permit same-sex civil unions but amended the legislation to include a definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Earlier in April, Kansas became the 18th state to pass an amendment banning gay marriage.
_ Staff writers from The Oregonian and Adelle M. Banks
Episcopal Church Leaders `Voluntarily Withdraw’ From Anglican Meeting
(RNS) The Episcopal Church Executive Council has decided to “voluntarily withdraw” its official participants from a June global steering committee meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
“Representative consultation is an essential component of our life as a church,” reads a letter co-authored by the church’s Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. “We struggled to discern how best to respond to the request.”
The statement, sent to Anglican leaders, was issued Wednesday (April 13) at the close of a special session of the council in Mundelein, Ill. It came after primates, or chief bishops, of the worldwide Communion asked in February that the Episcopal Church voluntarily decline to participate in the Anglican Consultative Council until 2008.
After facing international criticism for the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, the Episcopal bishops in March placed a self-imposed moratorium on the election of any new bishops until mid-2006. At the same time, they agreed not to bless same-sex unions at least until the church gathers next year for its General Convention.
The Executive Council called the issue of participating in the June consultation in Nottingham, England, “a weighty matter,” given their concern about unity and dialogue.
“We are mindful that Christ has made us members of one body, and that no part can say to any other, `I have no need of you,”’ the statement reads. “At the same time we wish to express our openness to the concerns and beliefs of others. In the spirit of the Covenant Statement recently adopted by our House of Bishops, we voluntarily withdraw our members from official participation in the ACC as it meets in Nottingham.”
Even though Episcopalians will not be official participants, they will still attend the meeting “to be available for conversation and consultation.”
The Episcopal representatives are expected to officially rejoin the gatherings when the 77 million-member Anglican Communion holds its once-a-decade meeting in England in 2008.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Switchfoot to accompany this story.
Switchfoot, the Crabb Family Earn Top Gospel Music Honors
(RNS) The alternative rock band Switchfoot and the Crabb Family, a Southern gospel group, were among the big winners of the Gospel Music Association’s annual awards Wednesday (April 13) in Nashville, Tenn.
Switchfoot earned four Dove Awards as a group _ including artist of the year _ and an additional honor for lead songwriter Jonathan Foreman.
The Crabb Family won in several categories, including Southern gospel, traditional gospel and country, garnering four awards as a group and several others for individual family members.
“I love the fact that Switchfoot and the Crabb Family share top Dove Award honors this year because it powerfully reveals the variety of cultural expressions of the gospel through music,” said John W. Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association, in a statement. “These two groups could not be more different culturally and musically, and yet the message of the gospel is evident in both of them.”
Movie mogul Mel Gibson was among the Dove Awards recipients this year, honored when “The Passion of the Christ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” was named instrumental album of the year.
The 36th annual awards ceremony, officially called “The Annual GMA Music Awards,” was held at the Grand Ole Opry House. It will be televised in national syndication in June.
Winners in some key categories were:
Artist of the Year: Switchfoot
Male Vocalist of the Year: Jeremy Camp
Female Vocalist of the Year: Nicole C. Mullen
Group of the Year: Casting Crowns
Songwriter of the Year: Mark Hall
Song of the Year: “Who Am I” by Mark Hall
New Artist of the Year: Building 429
_ Adelle M. Banks
Conservative Christian Groups Mobilize to Stop Democratic Filibusters
(RNS) Conservative Christian groups are intensifying their effort to end the practice by Senate Democrats of using filibusters to defeat Republican judicial nominations.
The March death of Terri Schiavo, whose legal battle ended with Republican displeasure at the role of judges who refused to order her feeding tube reinserted, brought back into the spotlight an ongoing debate over what President Bush has referred to as “activism” in the judiciary.
A filibuster is when a minority group of senators prevents a vote on a motion or, as in recent years, confirmation of a judicial nominee by prolonging debate past the allotted time. Conservative religious groups are urging senators to pass what is being called “the nuclear option,” new rules that will end the use of the filibuster for judicial nominations.
“The use of the judicial filibuster is an obstructionist tactic designed to prevent full consideration of nominees, a move that violates the Constitution,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative organization that has launched a national campaign to stop the filibusters.
On April 24, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to join prominent Christian conservatives in a nationwide telecast as part of an event dubbed “Justice Sunday.” The New York Times reported Friday (April 15) that fliers for the telecast, organized by the Washington-based Family Research Council, portray Democrats as “against people of faith” for blocking Bush’s nominees.
That claim has irked Democrats.
“No party has a monopoly on faith, and for Sen. Frist to participate in this kind of telecast just throws more oil on the partisan flames,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told The Times.
Meanwhile, the People for the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) has established a Web site to advocate for maintaining the filibuster procedures as they stand.
The group argues that with a Republican majority in the Senate, Democrats need some recourse, such as the filibuster, to ensure that their voices are heard on controversial judicial nominees.
“America works best when no one party has absolute power,” a national television and print ad by the group reads.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Yale to Drop Connection With United Church of Christ
(RNS) As of July, Yale University will no longer maintain ties with the United Church of Christ (UCC), a decision that has earned the university a sharp rebuke by the UCC’s president and will end a historic relationship that dates back to the 1700s.
Yale’s decision “fails to honor our historic relationships in a meaningful or respectful way,” the Rev. John Thomas told the United Church News, the UCC news service.
Thomas was responding to a report in the April 12 New York Times that the university has decided it wants to make Battell Chapel a place of worship for a wider spectrum of religious faiths.
The change is significant because the university’s founding and history are closely tied to the denomination.
The New Haven, Conn., university, founded in 1701 by New England Congregationalists, was established as an institution to train Protestant clergy. The Congregationalists are among the “forebear denominations” of the 1.3 million-member UCC, which was formed in 1957. The Yale chapel formally affiliated with the UCC in 1961.
The congregation at the chapel _ now called the Church of Christ in Yale _ was formed in 1757 and conducts services in a stately, Gothic-style chapel built in the late 1870s. Among its leaders was the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., the anti-war activist and Yale chaplain during the 1960s.
Thomas, himself a 1975 graduate of Yale Divinity School, said he was puzzled by the decision in part because the UCC, one of the most liberal denominations in the United States, has long-standing ecumenical and interfaith commitments.
It is difficult, he said, “to understand how disaffiliation from the church will enhance Yale’s capacity to minister in a more meaningful way to its increasingly pluralistic constituency.”
The Times reported that the university, which has been examining ways to strengthen the campus’s spiritual life, determined it was better that the chapel have a broader mission and not be tied to one denomination. As it is, few students attend services there except to sing in the chapel choir.
“The university is actually returning to the founding purpose of the church, which was to meet the religious and spiritual needs of students in particular,” Martha Highsmith, the university’s deputy secretary, told The Times.
_ Chris Herlinger
Mormons Renew Pledge to Stop Baptizing Deceased Jews
(RNS) Seven years after its original vow to end the practice of baptizing deceased Jews by proxy, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has renewed its promise after the practice was discovered to have continued.
Church officials traveled to New York this week to consult with Jewish leaders on how to resolve the conflict, which arose when the former chairman of the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, Ernest Michel, notified the church that the practice was again a problem.
Baptizing by proxy is a tenet of Mormon theology in which church members research their genealogical histories and submit names of non-Mormon ancestors as candidates for baptism. The deceased relatives are then baptized posthumously by Mormons.
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Michel discovered that the church’s International Genealogical Index (IGI) includes as many as 20,000 Holocaust victims that have been baptized by proxy.
Many Jews believe it is insulting for a Christian denomination to perform a religious ritual on deceased Jews. The church counters that because the soul can either accept or reject the baptism in the afterlife, it is not a forced conversion, but Jewish leaders are still extremely uncomfortable with the practice.
The church is working with Jewish leaders to develop a rigorous system of identifying and removing Jewish names from the IGI.
In 1995, the church identified 380,000 Holocaust victims in the IGI and removed the names, pledging to help church members refrain from posthumously baptizing Jews who were not related to them.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Wiccan Loses Challenge on Leading Prayer at Supervisors’ Meetings
(RNS) A Wiccan who challenged a Virginia county board’s decision to exclude her from its list of religious leaders who offer prayers at government meetings has lost her case.
Cynthia Simpson, a member of the Reclaiming Tradition of Wicca and a resident of Chesterfield County, Va., argued that the county board of supervisors violated the Constitution when it determined she wasn’t eligible to be added to the list of leaders who might utter the prayers. Simpson was told by a county attorney that the board’s invocations have been “made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition,” which is not consistent with Wiccan prayers.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday (April 14) that “the Chesterfield policy of clergy selection may not encompass as much as Simpson would like,” but it is one that offers a range of religious leaders the opportunity to pray before meetings of the board of supervisors.
“Chesterfield not only sought but achieved diversity,” wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III. “Its first-come, first-serve system led to prayers being given by a wide cross-section of the county’s religious leaders.”
Wiccans, who call themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, say their religion is based on respect for nature and the cycle of the seasons.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based religious liberty watchdog group, called the ruling a “flawed decision.” It joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia in defending Simpson in the case.
“It would be best if government officials stayed out of religious matters entirely, but if some religious leaders are allowed to lead prayers at board meetings, all traditions ought to be included,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, in a statement.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Dates, Location Set for Graham’s New York City Crusade
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham’s “last New York City evangelistic crusade” will be held June 24-26 in Flushing Meadows Park, organizers announced Monday (April 18).
Original plans had called for the crusade to be held the week of June 20 at Madison Square Garden, but the location was changed due to the high number of churches expected to participate.
“I am delighted by the decision to move the crusade meetings to Flushing Meadows,” Graham said in a statement. “It is the site of two world’s fairs _ now the whole world is there. I’m told that the surrounding neighborhood is the most international community in the country, with 130 language groups within walking distance of the park.”
Organizers of the crusade said more than 1,000 churches are participating in pre-crusade preparations, prompting their decision to relocate to a large outdoor location.
“After good faith discussions with park officials, it became obvious that Flushing Meadows Park is the best option throughout the city to accommodate the anticipated crowds,” said Art Bailey, crusade director, in a statement.
The Rev. A.R. Bernard, crusade chair, agreed.
“Through this crusade we want to gather as many individuals as possible to hear Mr. Graham’s gospel message of hope and forgiveness, and to direct the local churches to follow up everyone who responds to his invitation to make a commitment to Christ,” Bernard, pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., said in a statement.
Graham held crusades last year in Kansas City, Mo., in October and in Pasadena, Calif., in November.
The New York crusade is expected to involve churches from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Woman Nominated to Lead Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
(RNS) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has nominated the Rev. Sharon Watkins to serve as its next president. If formally elected in July, she will become one of the first women to lead a major mainline Protestant denomination.
The Disciples General Board unanimously nominated Watkins on Sunday (April 17) to serve as the Disciples’ next general minister and president. The 770,000-member denomination, based in Indianapolis, Ind., will formally elect its president at a general assembly July 23-27.
“I believe the church is blessed to have a leader like Sharon emerge,” said the Rev. Chris Hobgood, current Disciples president, in a statement Monday (April 18.)
“Because she calls on God before she does anything else, the faithful leadership she will give will stand this church in very good stead,” Hobgood said.
Watkins, 50, will leave her position as senior minister of the Disciples Christian Church of Bartlesville, Okla., to take on her new role.
Watkins said in a statement Monday (April 18) she is honored by the chance to lead the church during a period of change and new opportunities.
“As a life-long Disciple, I know our church has a unique, God-given mission for these times,” said Watkins, who has also held leadership roles at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Okla.
Several smaller denominations have had women in their top administrative positions.
In 1988, the Church of the Brethren, a 135,000-member denomination, elected Elaine Sollenberger as its conference moderator, the top elected position. Both candidates for the next conference moderator are women, said spokeswoman Cheryl Brumbaugh Cafford.
It is not believed that any mainline denomination larger than the Christian Church has had a woman in the top position. In the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, for example, the highest position a woman has held is diocesan bishop.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Chief Rabbi says Viagra OK for Passover
JERUSALEM (RNS) Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi has ruled that Viagra, used to treat erectile dysfunction, may be consumed during the Passover holiday, which begins Saturday night (April 23).
The Jerusalem Post reported that Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu issued the ruling in response to a question posed by Rabbi Menahem Burstein, a fertility expert who heads the Puah Institute for Fertility and Medicine.
Until now, most rabbinic authorities have banned the use of Viagra on Passover, on the grounds that its coating contains “hametz,” or leaven. Jews are prohibited from consuming any products made from leaven during the holiday, which celebrates the ancient Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
Eliahu’s ruling said that men who need Viagra can consume it on Passover if they place the pills into specially made empty capsules made from kosher gelatin, thereby bypassing the pills’ hametz coating.
Religious Jews scrupulously avoid products containing hametz, including such items as shampoos and cosmetics. However, Jewish law permits the use of hametz-bearing medications for life-threatening conditions. Viagra does not meet this criteria.
Israel absorbs the costs of fertility treatments through the birth of the second child. More in-vitro fertilization treatments take place in Israel than in any other country.
The Post stated that “in Israel, a three-pill prescription for Viagra is issued every minute on average.”
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Week: Pope Benedict XVI
(RNS) “Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me _ a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.”
_ Pope Benedict XVI, who prior to Tuesday was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany.
DH/PH END RNS
