c. 2005 Religion News Service

Senate May Call Dobson to Share Info on Miers Nomination

WASHINGTON (RNS) James Dobson, the influential head of Colorado-based Focus on the Family, has said he knows information about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that “I probably shouldn’t know.” Now senators say they want the same information, and could subpoena him to find out.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he may call Dobson to testify about what confidential information he was given by the White House that makes him support Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court. He also wants to know if Miers made promises about how she would vote on the high court.

“If Dr. Dobson knows something that he shouldn’t know or something that I ought to know, I’m going to find out,” Specter said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.

Dobson has acknowledged he talked with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove about Miers. On his daily radio program, Dobson said “when you know some of the things that I know that I probably shouldn’t know, you will understand why I have said with fear and trepidation that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice.”

Specter and the panel’s leading Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, both said they would consider calling Dobson as a witness. Specter said he wants to know if any “back room deals” were made to get Miers on the high court.

Dobson’s office declined to comment, but said Dobson would be speaking about the issue on his radio talk show on Wednesday and Thursday.

Many conservatives have said Miers, the White House counsel, is not as qualified and tested as other potential nominees for the high court. Now some groups are also upset at the White House for pushing Miers’ evangelical faith as part of her qualifications.

“While we share Miss Miers’ evangelical faith, we find the continual emphasis on it by her supporters to be inappropriate and patronizing,” said Jan LaRue, chief counsel for the Washington-based Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group. “It offends the Constitution.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Ecumenical Leaders Seek Meeting with Annan to Discuss Iraq

(RNS) Leaders of seven international ecumenical councils have sent a letter of “pastoral concern” to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, seeking a meeting to discuss the war in Iraq, efforts to reduce global poverty, the Darfur crisis and U.N. reform.

The letter grows out of meetings the seven leaders _ general secretaries of groups in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East _ held in late September in New York and Washington in the wake of the U.N.’s 60th anniversary World Summit.

“We wish to express to you at this particular time … our solidarity and support for all that you have been endeavoring to do to enable the United Nations to better serve the peoples of this globe in justice and equality,” the leaders told Annan.

They told Annan they were “deeply concerned about the war in Iraq” and said they continue to believe “the most effective opportunity in that deeply complex situation is an international force” that would supplant the American-led coalition currently occupying Iraq.

“We would be extremely supportive of you bringing together an international meeting to discuss such a possibility,” the Christian leaders said.

In August 2003, a massive truck bomb exploded at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including the head of the mission. Since then, the international organization, which also opposed the Bush administration’s decision to wage pre-emptive war in Iraq, has played a much smaller role in Iraq. It is, however, playing a key part in overseeing the Saturday (Oct. 15) referendum on the proposed Iraqi constitution.

The leaders told Annan they would work with the U.N. leader “to ensure that the suffering and the necessity for action in Darfur are kept before the world community in such a way as to inspire and compel active response.”

Signing the Sept. 26 letter were the general secretaries of the All Africa Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the Caribbean Conference of Churches, the Latin American Council of Churches, the Middle East Council of Churches, the Canadian Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches USA.

_ David E. Anderson

Methodist Survey shows Sexual Harassment a Problem in its Ranks

WASHINGTON (RNS) Sexual harassment is a pernicious problem in the United Methodist Church, according to a survey of church pastors, bishops and laity.

In the survey, 67.3 percent of respondents said they had experienced or observed harassment. Sixty percent of the alleged harassment was committed by persons of the laity, compared to 35 percent by clergy. About 47 percent said they reported the harassment, according to United Methodist News Service.

The Rev. Gail Murphy-Geiss of Colorado presented preliminary results of the study during the United Methodist Church’s Commission on the Status and Role of Women Sept. 15-17 annual meeting in Cambridge, Mass.

Of the 1,300 people who responded to the survey 72 percent were clergy, 51.3 percent students, 50.6 percent church employees and 38.9 percent laity.

Although the United Methodist church has policies on sexual harassment, some respondents said victims were not taken seriously when they reported the abuses.

“A parishioner harassed me for three years … ” one respondent wrote in the survey. “I called my D.S. (district superintendent) to let him know. My D.S. said if I went to the police, I would never work again.”

“It took 20 years of complaints from seminary students before this pastor was investigated and removed,” said another respondent.

More than half of the alleged incidents occurred on church properties, according to respondents. The incidents included unsolicited physical touching, unsought letters or e-mails of a sexual nature and attempted or actual sexual assault or rape.

Several women said they did not know how and where to report, according to the study.

“Sometimes you have to endure the hassle,” one respondent wrote in the survey.

_ Kabuika Kamunga

Survey: Black College Students Most Religious of Groups on Campus

(RNS) African-American college students show greater religiosity and spiritual commitment than their peers, a new study has found.

Black students scored highest on seven of 12 categories measuring religious and spiritual commitment in a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The survey asked 112,232 students at 236 colleges and universities across the nation to respond to questions measuring spirituality, religious commitment, charitable involvement and a variety of similar topics.

White students scored lowest among six ethnic groups in five of the 12 scales, including an ethic of caring, charitable involvement and spiritual quest. African-Americans are also more likely than whites to believe in God, pray and attend religious services frequently.

“The reality is that religion has been a very strong part of African-American culture and community for many years. It’s not surprising to find these numbers given the strong role of religion within their community,” Alexander W. Astin, co-principal investigator for the study, said in an interview.

Of the ethnic groups surveyed, Latinos demonstrated the lowest levels of religious engagement, while Asian Americans topped the charts for religious skepticism and came in last for spirituality, equanimity and religious commitment.

By contrast, Native Hawaiians showed the highest numbers for charitable involvement, spirituality, ecumenical worldview and religious struggle.

Women generally scored higher than men in the 12 categories, showing significantly higher levels of charitable involvement and religious commitment.

“While women’s higher levels of spirituality and religiousness might be expected, we were surprised that some of these differences aren’t more pronounced,” Astin said.

Men scored higher than women only in religious skepticism.

Seventy-six percent of participants in the survey were white, 8 percent African-American, 7 percent Asian American, 5 percent Latino, 2 percent American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

In an earlier study, the institute reported four in five students have an interest in spirituality, three in four are searching for meaning or purpose in life, and three-quarters believe in God.

_ Jason Kane

Quote of the Day: Church member Kaycia Key, on Supreme Court Nominee

(RNS)“Let’s just say she makes a joyful noise unto the Lord.”

_ Kaycia Key, wife of the pastor at Valley View Church, where Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers served as an active member and Sunday school teacher. Key said she expects the nominee to continue practicing her evangelical faith. She was quoted in The Washington Post.

MO/JL END RNS