c. 2005 Religion News Service
Black Religious Leaders Announce October `Millions More Movement’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Dozens of black religious leaders gathered Monday (May 2) to announce plans to bring African-American men, women and children to the nation’s capital for a massive Oct. 15 rally on the National Mall.
Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the “Million Man March” _ which brought nearly 2 million black men to Washington in 1995, according to organizers _ the “Millions More Movement” rally in October will have the theme “A Declaration for a Covenant With God.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow PUSH coalition, Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women and other religious leaders joined Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, convener of both the “Million Man March” and the “Millions More Movement.” The announcement was made at the National Press Club, in what organizers promoted as a show of African-American unity across religious and political lines.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, 2004 presidential candidate, said the U.S. needs strong black leaders rather than “leading blacks” chosen by powerful institutions.
“Black leaders are anointed by God,” Sharpton said.
Benjamin Chavis, former national executive director of the “Million Man” and “Million Family” marches, said the October rally will bring together people of different faiths.
“While we talk about different religions, there’s only one God,” Chavis said to the crowd of more than 100 _ including black Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups _ gathered Monday to support the march.
Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said in a statement read at the event that black men and women must join hands to fight for common causes.
“Let us come together as the whole family of God in the `Millions More Movement,”’ McKenzie said.
March demands emphasized by the speakers included preserving the Voting Rights Act, gender equity, workers’ rights, and united action to combat high rates of poverty and imprisonment in black communities.
Farrakhan said the conditions for black families in the U.S. amount to a “moral and spiritual death.”
“When we awaken we will call the whole world back to the worship of God and the brotherhood of humanity,” Farrakhan said.
“We have a mission that’s bigger than all of us.”
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Bishop Drops Charges Against Dean Accused of `Conduct Unbecoming’
LONDON (RNS) The Church of England has been spared a potentially embarrassing church trial after a bishop agreed to drop charges against the dean of his cathedral who was accused of drunkenness and “conduct unbecoming.”
Bishop John Packer of Ripon and Leeds agreed to drop all charges against the dean, the Very Rev. John Methuen, after Methuen agreed to leave the diocese. Methuen faced 21 charges of “conduct unbecoming the office and work of a clerk in holy orders” and one charge of “serious, persistent or continuous neglect of duty.”
Last September, Methuen was suspended from office with pay after his behavior was criticized as autocratic. Several lay officials resigned, beginning with the cathedral clerk, followed by the bursar, the next clerk and the organist.
There were also allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and of excessive drinking.
The trial before the diocesan court had been expected to last three weeks. The procedure is rarely used because it is rather expensive and cumbersome.
The last court hearing was in 1995, when the dean of Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Rev. Brandon Jackson, was acquitted of conduct unbecoming on a charge of adultery brought by a woman verger at the cathedral.
Methuen’s suspension has now been lifted, but he is on sabbatical leave until the end of the year, when he will leave the Yorkshire cathedral city.
_ Robert Nowell
New King James Version of Bible Tops Best-seller List
(RNS) For the first time since its original imprint in 1982, the New King James Version of the Bible is in the top spot of a publishing best-seller list thanks to an evangelical initiative called the Million Bible Challenge.
The challenge paired Thomas Nelson Inc., one of the country’s largest Bible publishers, with CBA _ the former Christian Booksellers Association _ to exclusively sell the New King James Version for $1 per copy at all CBA stores.
“From day one, our objective was to make it affordable and easy for people to spread the word of God to as many people as possible,” said Wayne Hastings, senior vice president and publisher of Nelson Bibles.
The campaign’s goal was to get the NKJV to more than 1 million people by the end of 2005. Two weeks after its March launch, Nelson sold more than 500,000 units.
According to the CBA best-seller list for May, based on March Bible sales in the United States and Canada, the New King James Version trumped the former top spot holder, the New International Version, which is now No. 2. The King James Version _ one of the original English translations written in 1611 _ is third.
“We never expected to reach such milestones so early into the project, but with each achievement there comes the satisfaction of knowing we are closer to reaching our ultimate goal _ to share the good news with those who may have never heard or read it before,” said Hastings.
The company’s Web site encouraged people to give the Bibles to “friends, family, co-workers, or even people they don’t know _ like the teen at the drive-through, the lady at the dry cleaners, or the person who checks you out at the grocery store.”
The New King James Version is an attempt to make the language of the King James Version more common, with fewer “thees” and “thous,” according to Georgetown University theology professor Anthony Tambasco.
“A very conservative Protestant community sees the King James Version as revered and its translation as a throwback to the past,” said Tambasco, adding that newer translations like the New International Version are usually popular because they use common language and are more readable.
_ Helena Andrews
Colorado Senator, Focus on the Family in Verbal Fight
(RNS) A Colorado senator has apologized for comparing Focus on the Family, a prominent conservative Christian ministry in his state, to the Antichrist.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he still thinks the ministry founded by James Dobson, is involved in un-Christian behavior after it targeted him in recent advertisements, reported The Gazette, a Colorado Springs newspaper.
“After being relentlessly attacked in telephone calls, e-mails, newspapers and radio stations all across Colorado, having my faith questioned, and having my wife’s business picketed as part of these attacks, I spoke about Jim Dobson … and his efforts and used the term `the Antichrist,”’ said Salazar in a Wednesday (April 27) statement.
“I regret having used that term. I meant to say this approach was un-Christian, meaning self-serving and selfish.”
Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family’s vice president of government and public policy, said the ministry questions how Salazar is representing Coloradans.
“He’s using overheated rhetoric to draw attention away from his broken campaign promises,” Minnery said in a Wednesday statement. “He told the voters of Colorado, when he was trying to win their votes, that he supported up-or-down votes for judicial nominees; now, he’s backing his party’s filibusters.”
Focus officials said the protest at Salazar’s family Dairy Queen was organized by a Denver church, not their ministry.
American Indian Church Leader Wants His Peyote Returned
(RNS) An American Indian church leader in Utah who had thousands of peyote buttons seized by county officials has filed a federal law suit Wednesday (April 27) to get his peyote back.
James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney of the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church in Benjamin, Utah, claims Utah County officials violated his civil rights by illegally searching his six-acre property and seizing thousands of peyote buttons.
Mooney was charged in 2000 with giving the hallucinogenic cactus to members of his church who were not of American Indian ethnicity.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled last June that people of other ethnicities _ like Mooney, who is part American Indian _ are also allowed to use peyote in American Indian church rituals under a federal religious freedom law.
“It’s a chilling effect to people’s right to assembly and practice religion,” Randall Marshall, Mooney’s attorney, told The Associated Press. “This is ultimately about religious freedom.”
Mooney wants the county to return an estimated 18,000 peyote buttons he says they took in an October 2000 search. He told The Associated Press the peyote is valued at about $350 per 1,000 buttons. He is also seeking monetary damages and attorney’s fees.
County officials have said they only seized 12,000 buttons, The Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed April 19 to hear another case concerning use of a hallucinogenic substance in religious rituals.
The Bush administration is seeking to stop a New Mexico Christian group, “O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal,” from drinking Brazilian hoasca tea during religious ceremonies.
In November 2004, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found, under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government could not intervene to prohibit the Brazil-based group’s approximately 130 members in the U.S. from using the tea.
The U.S. government is seeking to have the ruling overturned on the grounds that importing the tea from Brazil amounts to narcotics trafficking.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Islamic Satellite Will Impact Moon Sightings, Holiday Observances
(RNS) An Islamic satellite is expected to go into orbit by the end of the year to help determine the exact timing of a “new moon” to begin the holy month of Ramadan.
Ali Jama, the mufti of Egypt and head of the Islamic Supreme Committee of the Islamic Satellite, told the Emirates News Agency that “the satellite would solve many problems like crescent sighting due to differences over the lunar months, a fact which prompted Arab and Muslim countries to support the project.”
Muslims rely on sighting of the new moon to determine the beginning of each month. Particularly during the holy month of Ramadan, when a precise declaration of the sighting of the moon determines when the daily fasts begin, moonsighting is a central practice in Islam worldwide.
Different countries, however, have different standards of determining that the new moon is visible. In an attempt to universalize the procedure for moon sightings, the $8 million satellite was approved by committee members from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
In the United States, said Muslim calendar expert Imad Ahmad, Muslims of different nationalities often disagree about how to determine the visibility of the new moon.
Many American Muslims contact families or imams in Muslim countries as their basis of accepting a moonsighting. Others rely on methods from simple naked-eye visibility to scientific calculations.
The satellite, Ahmad said, will impact the debate in America, where a group known as the Fiqah Council _ made up of religious authorities around the country _ currently teleconferences to agree on an official new moon date.
“This will be introduced as an alternative, and there will be a debate over whether to accept this alternative or stay with their existing methods,” Ahmad said.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Religious Groups Critique Bush’s Social Security Plans
WASHINGTON (RNS) More than a dozen churches and Jewish groups have issued a veiled critique of President Bush’s Social Security proposals, saying financial security for older Americans should not be jeopardized by the “vagaries” of “economic cycles.”
The joint statement from mainline Protestant, Catholic and Reform Jewish groups did not endorse or condemn specific proposals, but hinted that Bush’s plan would be too expensive and too risky.
“Security for the elderly, survivors and persons with disabilities should not be left to the vagaries of fragile family support systems, voluntary charity or economic cycles,” the statement said.
Without naming specific proposals, the statement said “costs and benefits should be distributed progressively,” indicating support for raising the current $90,000 cap on income that is subject to Social Security taxes.
It also said future generations should not be “unfairly burdened by this generation’s debt,” signaling disapproval of the massive borrowing that would be required to implement Bush’s plan to create private investment accounts that are tied to the stock market.
Kay Bengston, director of domestic policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the coalition remains open to ideas or a combination of proposals, but opposes Bush’s plan for private accounts.
“I can’t say at this moment that we should do this, this and this, but we should not do private accounts that are carved out of the Social Security tax at this time,” she said in an interview. “It would hurt low-income people dramatically.”
But, Bengston said, the group supports changes that would extend the program’s solvency and ability to deliver the benefits promised to millions of American workers.
“So much is up in the air, but that does not mean you should do nothing,” she said. “It’s not a crisis, but the sooner you begin to react to this, the less painful it will be.”
Signers include the Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Quakers, the National Council of Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodists, Reform Jews, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Methodist Bishops Say Win for Gay Pastor Does Not Affect Rules
(RNS) The bishops of the United Methodist Church said the legal victory for a defrocked lesbian minister “does not in any way” change the church’s sexuality standards for its clergy.
The bishops, meeting outside Washington, D.C., for a semiannual meeting, said Monday (May 2) that the Rev. Irene “Beth” Stroud won because of a legal technicality, not because church rules against “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy are wrong.
Stroud, who was defrocked last December for being an open lesbian in a long-term relationship, was reinstated Friday (April 29) by an appeals court of the church’s Northeastern Jurisdiction.
Stroud was the associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia and remains a paid member of the staff at the church.
In an 8-1 decision, the panel sustained the guilty verdict against Stroud but threw out the sentence because of due process errors, and because the church’s use of “practicing homosexual” had not been clearly defined.
“The decision of the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals does not in any way reverse the standards in our Book of Discipline,” the bishops said, referring to the church constitution.
One year ago, the bishops issued a similar statement after an openly gay pastor from Washington state, the Rev. Karen Dammann, was acquitted in a similar case. That not-guilty verdict led the church to tighten language regarding gay clergy last year.
The church has 30 days to appeal the case to its highest court. The bishop urged all Methodists to “join us in patience and prayer for a just and fair outcome.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Prominent Southern Baptist Pulpits in Transition
(RNS) Two former presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention are in the midst of transitions that will lead to retirement.
Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., announced that he would retire from his pastorate next year.
“In no way am I retiring from the gospel ministry,” he said in a statement Sunday (May 1). “I plan to devote whatever remaining time the Lord Jesus gives me to a ministry of Bible preaching, teaching and writing, and a ministry to preachers as he opens doors of opportunity.”
Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church of Orlando, Fla., announced last spring that he thought his church should seek a “co-pastor” who would work with him and eventually become the congregation’s senior pastor. On Sunday, the chairman of the search team announced that the candidate for that position is David Uth, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in West Monroe, La.
Vines served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1988 to 1990 and was known for his leadership in the denomination’s conservative resurgence. His church’s pastors’ conferences have been a prominent national event and he intends to serve as pastor until the conclusion of the next one in February 2006.
Vines is also known for his controversial comments about the Muslim Prophet Muhammad at his denomination’s pastors’ conference in 2002, in which he called the founder of Islam a “demon-possessed pedophile.”
Henry served as president of the denomination from 1994 to 1996. He previously served on the Southern Baptist Convention Peace Committee that sought to resolve some of the controversies between moderate and more conservative members of the denomination in the 1980s.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Associated Church Press Names `Best in Class,’ Other Winners
(RNS) The Alabama Baptist newspaper, the Mennonite Weekly Review and U.S. Catholic magazine were among the top winners in the “Best in Class” categories of the annual Associated Church Press awards.
The Alabama Baptist won an Award of Excellence in the regional newspaper category. The Mennonite Weekly Review won the same honor in the national or international newspaper category. U.S. Catholic was similarly honored in the category of denominational general interest magazine.
The awards were presented April 26 during the organization’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
Other top “Best in Class” winners were:
Special-interest magazine: Horizons
Ecumenical Magazine: Sojourners
Journal: Touchstone
Newsletter: Vital Theology
News Service: Presbyterian News Service
Independent Web site or E-zine: Cafe _ Stirring the Spirit Within
Religion News Service was honored several times, including a second-place “Best in Class” win in the news service category.
RNS Senior Correspondent Adelle M. Banks won an Award of Excellence for a news story on Christian teens who admit to music piracy and an Award of Merit for a biographical profile of George Beverly Shea, a longtime singer with evangelist Billy Graham’s crusades.
RNS National Correspondent Kevin Eckstrom won an Award of Excellence for his coverage of the United Methodist General Conference last spring.
The Associated Church Press is believed to be the oldest religious press association in North America.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Week: John Mason, fiance of the `Runaway Bride’
(RNS) “Just because we haven’t walked down the aisle, just because we haven’t stood in front of 500 people and said our `I do’s,’ my commitment before God to her was the day I bought that ring and put it on her finger, and I’m not backing down from that.”
_ John Mason, fiance of Jennifer Wilbanks, who ran away from her Duluth, Ga., home four days before their planned wedding. Mason, quoted from an interview with Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes” show, said the couple still plan to marry.
END RNS
