c. 2005 Religion News Service
Churches in India Call Deadly New Delhi Bombings `Inhuman Act’
(RNS) Protestant and Roman Catholic church leaders in India have condemned the three bombings that killed 59 people in New Delhi as Indians prepared to celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali and the Muslim Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.
“This is a most inhuman act targeting innocent people,” Bishop D.K. Sahu, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India, said in a statement Monday (Oct. 31).
The NCCI is composed of 29 Protestant and Orthodox churches.
The bombs exploded Saturday at two New Delhi markets and near a bus on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year as Indians began to prepare for the celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which began Tuesday. Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday at the end of Ramadan, also falls this week, its timing dependent on a moon sighting.
Church of North India Bishop Karam Masih told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that the bombs were “an attempt to create disharmony and confusion” between religious communities.
India and Pakistan have long been at odds _ and sometimes at war _ over the disputed Kashmir, and Islamic separatists in Indian Kashmir have waged a 16-year insurgency.
But Indian nationalists said they believed the bombings were the work of Pakistan-based Islamic militants, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday there was a “foreign link” to the attacks _ a not-so-veiled reference to Pakistan.
New Delhi’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao said the bombings “must be condemned by all.”
In the United States, Hindu and Muslim organizations also condemned the bombings.
“Terrorism focusing on Hindus, even as they celebrate their most joyous festival extolling the victory of good over evil, adds a horrific dimension to this tragedy,” said Dr. Assem Shukla, a member of the Hindu American Foundation board of directors.
“The timing of this blast, as India and Pakistan move to peace and as Hindus and Muslims help each other after the massive earthquake earlier this month, shows the utter inhumanity of those terrorists.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also condemned the bombings, saying the cruelty and timing are “beyond comprehension. … No political cause can ever be served by such acts.”
“These actions will never bring relief to any grievance and will only serve to foster discord and misunderstandings between people of different faiths.”
_ David E. Anderson
Hindus in India and U.S. Celebrate Diwali, Festival of Lights
(RNS) Light and all it symbolizes _ hope, warmth, goodness, knowledge and the ability to see and be seen _ shine through the autumn celebration of Diwali.
From two Sanskrit words, “deepa” meaning “light” and “avali” meaning “row,” Diwali means “row of lights” and is often translated as the festival of lights. In India, where many religions, languages and landscapes converge, the festival falls at slightly different times of the year and may be associated with different beliefs and customs. In many regions, it coincides with the Indian New Year.
Generally, Diwali falls sometime in October or November and often involves five days of celebration. This year, Hindus began celebrating the festival Tuesday (Nov. 1) in India with a somewhat somber tone, remembering the 59 people killed in bombings in New Delhi on Saturday. Homes and temples were ablaze with clay diyas, or oil lamps, and strings of electric lights.
In some parts of the country, Diwali marks the marriage of Vishnu, the god of preservation, and Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. In others, it celebrates the victory of Rama, an incarnation of God, over the demon king Ravana. And in some places, it commemorates Krishna, another divine incarnation, who conquered the wicked spirit Narakaasur.
In the United States, Indians are a fast-growing subgroup of Asian-Americans. Diwali is an important link with India, to relatives who may still live there and a culture that may be hard to come by in the Indian diaspora.
The focus of Diwali differs, but often the first day is devoted to the goddess Lakshmi. The second day focuses on the triumph of good over evil; the third day is a tribute to Kali, the goddess of strength. The fourth day is a celebration of power, and the fifth, a festival of love.
Diwali is a time of family, friends, new clothing and spotless homes, sweet foods and fireworks, all of which bring good luck for the coming year.
_ Nancy Haught
Episcopal Report Says Alaska Drilling Would Violate Human Rights
WASHINGTON (RNS) A new report co-sponsored by the Episcopal Church says President Bush’s plan to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would endanger the human rights of the Gwich’in native people, who are overwhelmingly Episcopalians.
The report said the drilling plan _ currently under consideration by Congress _ would threaten a herd of porcupine caribou that are considered sacred by the Gwich’in and are a main source of food.
“International law requires the United States to protect the fundamental human rights of native groups like the Gwich’in to culture and religion, their own means of subsistence and health,” the report said.
Drilling opponents say the plan will disrupt the migration of the caribou, specifically the birthing grounds of the 120,000-member herd. The Gwich’in consider the birthing grounds “the sacred place where all life begins.”
Arctic drilling is central to Bush’s energy plan, which supporters say could be worth $2.5 billion in drilling leases. Bush has said the drilling can be done “with almost no impact on land or wildlife.”
There are about 7,000 Gwich’in who live in 15 villages in northeastern Alaska and Canada. The report said the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires the U.S. to protect native rights and culture, which includes the caribou herd.
Episcopal Bishop Mark MacDonald, whose Alaska diocese includes a dozen Gwich’in parishes, said the dominant culture “seems incapable of understanding the massive violation” that drilling would be for the Gwich’in.
“We believe, even based on the most optimistic of scenarios, that this would be the equivalent of de facto ethnic cleansing,” MacDonald said. “It would make their way of life unsustainable.”
The report, released Tuesday (Oct. 25), was produced jointly by the Episcopal Church, the Gwich’in Steering Committee and the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University in Washington.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Mormons to Remove Missionaries From Venezuela
(RNS) More than 200 Mormon missionaries are pulling out of Venezuela.
Michael Purdy, a Salt Lake City spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a statement that the church has experienced problems renewing visas and obtaining new visas for their U.S. missionaries in Venezuela.
“Consequently, it has been decided to reassign missionaries from the United States serving in Venezuela to other Spanish-speaking missions in Latin America, the U.S. and Canada, where such missionaries are needed,” Purdy said.
The announced withdrawl comes two weeks after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered New Tribes Mission, an evangelical Christian group based in Florida, to leave the country. Chavez accused the group of having ties to the CIA and abusing indigenous peoples.
New Tribes Mission, which has worked in Venezuela for 59 years, strongly denies the claims and has requested discussions with Chavez to resolve the dispute.
The Venezuelan government temporarily suspended foreign missionary permits in August after television broadcaster Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach, Va., called for Chavez’s assassination.
Chavez ousted New Tribes Mission a few days after Robertson criticized him again, charging the Venezuelan with seeking atomic materials from Iran and having ties to Osama bin Laden. But Venezuela has officially dismissed any connection between Robertson’s statements and the New Tribes decision.
_ Jason Kane
U.S. House Passes Housing Bill Opposed by Church Groups
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. House has approved a controversial measure that would deny new federal housing funds to any nonprofit group _ including churches _ that have engaged in voter registration or get-out-the-vote activities.
The Republican-backed provision, attached to the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, passed the House Wednesday (Oct. 26) in a 331-90 vote. A host of Democrats and church-based groups said the measure was unconstitutional.
A move to strip the voting-related provisions from the larger housing bill was also defeated, largely along party lines, 220-200.
“It is unacceptable to force a poisoned choice on these entities: to help fill critical housing needs or to exercise their basic civic responsibilities,” said Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The bill denies money from the new Affordable Housing Fund to any group that had engaged in nonpartisan voter activities in the previous 12 months. It also prohibits any voter activity after a grant has been awarded.
Opponents said the bill unfairly targets black churches because they are most likely to work on low-income housing and are also involved in voter registration campaigns, and have members who tend to vote Democratic.
The bill also denies funding to organizations who don’t list housing as their “primary purpose.” Catholic Charities USA, for example, said that it would make most churches ineligible because housing is only a portion of their ministries.
The provision was drafted by the conservative Republican Study Committee, which was concerned that federal housing funds would be directed to housing activists with close ties to the Democratic party. Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican and chairman of the RSC, was unavailable for comment.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where Crowley said her organization will work to defeat the voting provisions.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Condemns Human Trafficking
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI condemned human trafficking on Friday (Oct. 28), underscoring the role smugglers play in funneling unknowing immigrant women into foreign prostitution rings.
Benedict described trafficking as a “scourge” that preys upon the vulnerability of immigrant women in search of better economic conditions.
“It becomes easy for the trafficker to offer his own `services’ to the victims,” Benedict said, adding that immigrant women “often do not even vaguely suspect what awaits them.”
“There are women and girls who are destined to be exploited almost like slaves in their work, and not infrequently in the sex industry too,” he said.
According to a recent study by the International Labor Organization, people subjected to the sex trade account for 11 percent of the 12.3 million victims of forced labor worldwide.
“Indeed it often happens that the migrant woman becomes the principal source of income for her family,” Benedict said.
Noting the large number of trafficked women who perform menial and domestic work, Benedict called on his faithful “to dedicate themselves to assuring just treatment for migrant women out of respect for their femininity in recognition of their equal rights.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Bulgaria Denies Entry to Founder of Unification Church
(RNS) Bulgaria barred the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and leader of the Unification Church, from entering the country for a lecture on world peace and a “symbolic” wedding of a group of couples.
“The Ministry of the Interior finds the presence of Sun Myung Moon in Bulgaria undesirable,” the government said in a Wednesday (Oct. 26) news release, according to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
A private meeting of members of the Unification Church at a Sofia hotel on Thursday went on without Moon, according to Bulgarian media reports.
Reports that Moon was to visit Bulgaria set off a flurry of protests from both Christian groups and one of the country’s nationalist political parties.
Bulgaria’s religion law requires all religious groups, with the exception of the officially recognized Bulgarian Orthodox Church, to apply for court registration before being allowed to operate. The Unification Church was denied permission to register in 1992 and 1994, according to ENI.
_ David E. Anderson
Israel, Jewish Groups Praise Syria’s Cancellation of TV Series
JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish organizations and Israeli government officials have welcomed a Jordanian government decision to discontinue broadcasts of a Syrian-made TV series they say is virulently anti-Semitic.
The government ordered a private Jordanian satellite TV station to discontinue broadcasts of “Al-Shatat” (“The Diaspora”), a 30-episode series, according to a statement released by the Embassy of Jordan in Washington. The action was taken, the embassy said, due to concerns that the series could inspire “hate.”
The Anti-Defamation League, which sent a letter to the Jordanian government Oct. 24 expressing its concerns about the program’s content, lauded the government’s action.
“We thank the Jordanian government for their quick response in working to forestall the broadcast of this incendiary series during the holy month of Ramadan, when it could have had a potential audience of millions,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director. “Once again, the Jordanian government has demonstrated its commitment to fighting hatred and incitement in the region.”
The series was produced by a Syrian company at the request of the Lebanon-based satellite network Al-Manar. The network is owned by Hezbollah, which the U.S. government categorizes as a terrorist organization.
The program, which purports to depict Zionist history, first aired on Al-Manar two years ago. It is based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which promotes the idea of a global Jewish conspiracy to rule the world.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, thanked Jordan for its “decisive and expeditious” handling of the matter.
_ Michele Chabin
Pastor Electrocuted During Baptism
(RNS) A Baptist pastor was electrocuted after grabbing a microphone while submerged in the waters of a baptistry.
The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, died Sunday (Oct. 30). Microphones have long been used at the church due to the large size of the congregation, which regularly exceeds 600 worshippers on Sundays, according to Blair Browning, a spokesman for the church.
The baptismal candidate had not stepped into the waters and was not injured, Browning said.
Lake was taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital, where he died around 11:30 a.m., the church’s Web site said.
About 800 people gathered for the morning service. The church, co-founded by worship leader and songwriter David Crowder, serves a large congregation of Baylor University students. Attendance Sunday was greater than usual because of homecoming weekend at the university.
Browning, a longtime friend of Lake, said the community is in mourning.
“Not only did we lose our pastor but we’ve lost our friend,” a statement on the church’s Web site said. “We are confident that Kyle is in heaven today because of his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior.”
Lake, who had served as a pastor at the church since 1997, is survived by a wife, daughter and twin sons, Browning said. Lake was the author of two books, “Understanding God’s Will” and “Understanding Prayer.”
About 1,000 people congregated at the church for a memorial service Sunday night, Browning said.
_ Jason Kane
Institute Warned School District Not to Adopt Intelligent Design
(RNS) The Discovery Institute, a leading proponent of intelligent design, says it warned a Pennsylvania school district now in court that it shouldn’t institute a policy on the controversial concept because it could be found “somehow unconstitutional.”
Mark Ryland, director of the Discovery Institute’s Washington office, said that he met with Dover Area School District representatives before the district implemented a curriculum change on intelligent design. He said that he “advised them not to institute the policy” but that they “didn’t listen to me,” according to a transcript of a forum he attended in Washington on Oct. 21.
Ryland’s appearance at the American Enterprise Institute event occurred the same day that Dover Superintendent Richard Nilsen testified in Harrisburg, Pa., at a landmark federal trial on the district’s policy. It requires that a four-paragraph statement on intelligent design be read to ninth-grade students at the start of a science unit on evolution.
With Nilsen on the stand, lawyers representing parents opposed to the policy unveiled an e-mail the superintendent received last August from the district’s lawyer, Stephen Russell. Russell said the district would have a difficult time winning a case because of the appearance that the policy “was initiated for religious reasons.”
So far, the plaintiffs’ legal fees exceed $1 million, said Witold Walczak, a lawyer for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is helping to present the case against the district.
At the forum, called “Science Wars,” Ryland said he met with the Dover officials and with Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian firm that the district hired to defend it in the federal trial on the policy.
“From the start, we just disagreed that this was a good place, a good time and place to have this battle, which is risky, in the sense that there’s a potential for rulings that this is somehow unconstitutional,” Ryland said.
In his e-mail to Nilsen, Russell voiced similar reservations: “My concern for Dover is that in the last several years, there has been a lot of discussion, newsprint, etc., for putting religion back in the schools. In my mind, this would add weight to a lawsuit seeking to enjoin whatever the practice might be.”
The Dover trial in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg is the first federal case concerning intelligent design in a public school science curriculum.
_ Bill Sulon
As Ramadan Ends, Muslims Give to the Poor
(RNS) With the holy month of Ramadan ending this week, Muslims are digging deep into their pockets in order to give “zakat,” or charity, to the poor.
Due to recent natural disasters close to home and around the world, Muslims have many places to offer their charity _ either to those who lost their homes because of hurricanes Katrina, Rita or Wilma, or to the millions of people left homeless because of the earthquakes in Pakistan.
“In Ramadan, Muslims place greater importance on helping others and sharing. This is the month where Muslims try and grab last-minute rewards from God by giving charity,” says Alla Ahmed, an imam from Egypt who is visiting the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Concord, N.Y., to give lectures about Islam.
Zakat is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, the others being fasting (Sawm), belief in one God (the Shahada), daily prayers (the Salah), and performing pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj).
According to Tahir Kukiqi, imam of the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, there are three different forms of charity.
Zakat Al Fitr is an obligatory charity that must be given during Ramadan.
Zakat Al Mehr is also an obligatory charity that can be given any time during the year.
“This is 2.5 percent of one’s savings that have matured over the past 12 months,” explained Kukiqi. “It can be given during any time of the year but Muslims choose to pay it during Ramadan because the rewards from God are doubled.”
Muslims also offer Sadaqah, a voluntary charity that, depending on one’s income, can be as simple as a meal or given as gifts to other people or charities.
“Zakat is a personal religious obligation. Muslims believe that every poor person has a right in our wealth, therefore we must give zakat,” said Tarek Moustafa, a New Springville, N.Y., resident who visits Masjid Al-Noor for his daily prayers. “If we do not, we are denying the poor their wealth.”
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast during the daylight hours and refrain from any form of food, liquids, tobacco, gum and sexual relations.
Eid al-Fitr _ the holiday marking the end of Ramadan _ is expected to begin Thursday or Friday, its timing dependent on a moon sighting.
_ Hafsa Amin
Practicing What He Preaches, Pastor Faces Fear and Jumps From Plane
NORTHAMPTON, Mass (RNS) Taking a leap of faith, the Rev. Thomas N. Rice overcame a lifelong fear of heights, jumping from a Cessna 206 cargo plane with only an instructor, a parachute and his trust in God by his side.
“Ooh, it was so much fun. I think I’m alive,” said Rice, patting his arms and legs Friday (Oct. 28) after planting his feet on solid ground.
A few friends, church members and his parents, Elisabeth J. and William N. Rice of Northampton, watched as Rice, 54, made the leap. He is a pastor at First Baptist Church of Agawam.
For Rice, the anticipation leading up to the dive may have been as harrowing. The jump was rescheduled four times due to rainy weather. At one point, Rice wondered if that was a sign from God.
Realizing the doubts were merely fears, Rice set the jump for Friday rather than risk another rainy weekend.
Although it was overcast still, the plane climbed to 9,500 feet and Rice and instructor David Strickland, owner of Airborne Adventures Skydiving School in Northampton, leaped from the six-seater plane.
“We actually went through two cloud layers,” said Strickland, who is also an ordained minister. “He was closer to God than ever before.”
The inspiration behind Rice’s jump came from church member Edwin L. Damon, 86, who prodded him after a sermon on why Christians should have faith in God despite their fears.
_ Bea O’Quinn Dewberry
Quote of the Week: Pop Singer Madonna
(RNS) “I woke up one day and thought, `My God, I’m about to have a baby; how am I going to teach my child what the meaning of life is when I don’t know myself?’ If she asks why she’s here and who is God or why are people suffering, I want to have answers. And I want to ask those questions, too.”
_ Pop singer Madonna in an interview with USA Today about how the birth of her daughter affected her thinking about spiritual matters.
END RNS
