c. 2005 Religion News Service
Church Groups Declare Victory in Preserving Food Stamp Funding
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious groups are claiming victory in the fight to preserve funding for food stamps after a key Senate panel voted to keep $574 million for the program.
The Senate Agriculture Committee rejected proposed cuts that Bread for the World, an ecumenical anti-hunger group, said would have removed 300,000 people from the program.
The victory may only be partial, however, because a similar $1 billion measure to cut funding is pending before the House. Church groups hope the Senate action pushes House leaders to maintain the funding in their proposals.
“With hunger on the rise and the forces of nature exposing poverty anew, we will continue to challenge our political leaders to drop any further plans to cut this vital and proven program,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, Bread for the World’s president.
Congress is looking to cut at least $35 billion, and as much as $50 billion,from next year’s budget. Other programs in the sights include Medicaid (health care for poor Americans) and student loans.
Religious groups, particularly mainline Protestant churches, which have made the 2006 budget their top domestic priority, have lobbied hard to maintain the food stamp funding. Those groups thanked Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican who chairs the Agriculture Committee, for keeping it in place.
“This is a victory, the first of many in which we hope that Congress will reorder our national priorities and protect our most vulnerable citizens,” the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of the anti-poverty Call to Renewal campaign, said Wednesday (Oct. 19).
The measure now heads to the Senate Budget Committee, then to the Senate floor.
The New York Times reported Thursday (Oct. 20) that House leaders have postponed a vote on their budget-cutting bill in order to round up support. The high cost of recovery from Hurricane Katrina has put pressure on Congress to reign in government spending.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Nearly All of Western Oregon’s 400,000 Catholics Named in Lawsuit
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) All but about 280 of the nearly 400,000 Roman Catholic parishioners in Western Oregon are part of a class-action lawsuit that will determine who owns parish churches, schools and cemeteries within the Archdiocese of Portland.
The parishioners and parishes were named in the rare defendant class action in July because of the archdiocese’s argument that they _ not the archdiocese _ are the true owners of an estimated $500 million to $600 million in parish property.
Parishioners had until Oct. 3 to bail out of the suit, and about 280 filed the necessary paperwork.
The ownership question is crucial to the 15-month-old bankruptcy of the Portland archdiocese, and is being closely watched for legal ramifications involving church properties nationwide. If the parishes and parishioners are found to be the true owners, the property becomes off-limits to priest sexual-abuse claimants who are suing the archdiocese for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
If the archdiocese is found to be the owner, the parish property becomes fair game for paying off claims.
No matter what the outcome, individual parishioners won’t be on the hook for paying the archdiocese’s debts. Their status as defendants simply gives them an opportunity to have their say in the case.
One who remains part of the class action told a judge at a recent hearing that she wasn’t happy about it. “Innocent parishioners in reality have no choice about being part of this class action,” said Julie Bryan Maack, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Oswego.
_ Steve Woodward
FBI Investigates Toppling of Altar During Mass
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS) Four young people who disrupted a Catholic Mass Oct. 2 are being investigated by the FBI. One suspect is alleged to have toppled a portion of a 100-year-old marble altar while another preached against idolatry.
“What we’re looking at is the possibility that there may have been a civil rights violation,” said supervisory agent Michael A. Ponzo of the FBI’S Huntsville office.
A federal violation could trigger stiffer penalties than the initial charge of criminal mischief.
The Annunciation of the Lord Church in Decatur, Ala., did not ask the FBI to investigate, said the Rev. Joe Culotta, but agreed to cooperate. Church members who witnessed the incident were interviewed by agents before and after the 11 a.m. Mass on Sunday (Oct. 16).
Meanwhile, Morgan County District Attorney Bob Burrell has said a grand jury may consider a state law that tacks on tougher sentences for crimes motivated by the victim’s religion.
“Is it or is it not a hate crime? It depends on what the motivation was of the people who did this. A lot of that doesn’t come out until trial,” said Mark Potok, who monitors hate crime figures nationwide for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Something like this is more in a gray area,” Potok said. “The people might be mentally ill. They might have a personal beef. They might hate the church or the religion.
“If the members of the church are attacked because of their religion then it qualifies as a hate crime.”
Culotta said he thought the incident was more a result of ignorance than hate. Of the five individuals who entered the church, three stayed at the back. “Only two were active,” he said.
Adam Turgeon, 27, toppled a portion of the altar while Lisa Marie Wagner, 26, addressed the congregation. Turgeon and Wagner had been living in Hartselle, Ala., in recent weeks with Val Loughman, 20, and his wife, Emily, 21, who were also arrested.
The four were charged with first-degree criminal mischief, a felony that can carry a sentence of one to 10 years in prison. Decatur police did not charge another woman who had accompanied the four.
_ Challen Stephens
U.S. Commission Protests Arrest of Afghan Editor for `Insulting Islam’ (RNS) The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is protesting the Oct. 1 arrest of a journalist in Afghanistan on charges of blasphemy and “insulting Islam.”
Afghanistan’s attorney general ordered the arrest of Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the women’s rights magazine Haqooq-i-Zan, after the journalist questioned the use of traditional Islamic punishments such as amputation and public stoning.
Officials detained Nasab, 50, after the religious advisor to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai filed a complaint against him. The editor faces a 15-year jail sentence for speaking out against Islamic, or Sharia, law, and allegedly stands in violation of a 2004 press law banning publication of “matters contrary to the principles of Islam or offensive to other religions and sects.”
The U.S. commission monitors the status of religious freedom abroad and offers policy recommendations to the U.S. government. It has criticized Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution for not providing ample protection against “unjust accusations of religious crimes.” It is urging the U.S. government to become involved in the Nasab trial.
“The Commission has warned in the past that because of undemocratic provisions in that country’s new constitution and in other laws, this very kind of incident could occur,” Michael Cromartie, chairman, said in a statement. “Clearly, even today in Afghanistan, protections for human rights and democracy remain under threat from state-sponsored religious extremism.”
_ Jason Kane
Greek Orthodox Honor Gorbachev with Human Rights Award
(RNS) Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will be honored by Greek Orthodox Americans with their annual Athenagoras Human Rights Award at a banquet in New York on Saturday (Oct. 22).
The Nobel Peace Prize winner will receive the award from the Order of St. Andrew, a lay group within the church. Previous winners include former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Mother Teresa and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
The award is named after the late Patriarch Athenagoras, who served as the Greek Orthodox archbishop in the Americas before he was named the Ecumenical Patriarch, or spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians, in 1948.
Gorbachev is credited with dismantling the Iron Curtain and opening the Soviet bloc to the West. Gorbachev, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, will receive the honorary title of Archon Great Orator from the current Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew.
The current leader of the U.S. church, Archbishop Demetrios, will act on Bartholomew’s behalf.
Demetrios will bestow the honorary title of archon to 41 other men, including former CIA director George Tenet, and Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: The Rev. David Carrico of West Virginia
(RNS) “I see (the vote) as a message that the homosexual issue deserves careful and continued consideration. It is a deep concern for our denomination.”
_ The Rev. David Carrico, executive minister of the West Virginia Baptist Convention, commenting about a 391-325 vote at his group’s annual meeting on Thursday (Oct. 19) that rejected a proposal to split from the American Baptist Churches USA over its stance on homosexuality. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
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