c. 2006 Religion News Service

Blair Promises British Crackdown on `Glorification’ of Terrorism

LONDON (RNS) Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged that under a new law Britain’s police and courts will take tougher steps against demonstrators glorifying terrorism, including those carrying inflammatory placards like the ones waved during a protest of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

The Blair government has come under fire for the failure of police to arrest any of the Muslim demonstrators who during a march in London hoisted posters calling for a “massacre” and demanded, “Behead those who insult Islam.”

The prime minister stepped in with his new promise of firmer action after the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament, approved legislation Wednesday (Feb. 15) outlawing the “glorification” of terrorism such as the deaths of 52 people at the hands of four Muslim suicide bombers last July 7.

“The law … will allow us to take far stronger action against people who don’t just directly engage in terrorism but indirectly incite it,” Blair said.

He took direct aim at the demonstrators involved in the London protests over the 12 cartoons published in Danish and other European newspapers.

“The important thing,” Blair said, “is that the type of demonstration that we saw a couple of weeks ago, where I think there were placards and images that people in this country felt were totally offensive, the law will allow us to deal with those people and say, `Look, we have free speech in this country, but don’t abuse it.”’

The Blair administration introduced the glorification proposal in the wake of the London bombings as a key part of the prime minister’s package of measures targeting “preachers of hate.”

The “glorification” reference was removed by the House of Lords, the upper chamber, but was reinstated when the measure came back to the Commons for another vote on Wednesday. Blair won passage of the legislation by a 38-vote margin, despite claims by some that it could punish more innocent acts such as putting up posters of legendary revolutionist Che Guevara.

_ Al Webb

Study: Grants to Faith-Based Groups Increase; Total Funding Declines

(RNS) A newly released study of federal funding of faith-based groups shows a slight increase in the percentage of grants given to religious charities, but a decline in the total funding they received.

The study by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy looked at more than 28,000 grants awarded by nine federal agencies between 2002 and 2004. A White House official criticized its methodology, adding that it put President Bush’s faith-based initiative in a bad light.

Overall, researchers found that faith-based organizations received 11.6 percent of the grants in 2002. That figure grew to 12.8 percent in 2004. A total of 3,526 grants were made to 1,146 faith-based groups, accounting for about 17 percent of the total funds awarded during each of the three years studied.

But despite the increase in the portion of awards granted, the total dollar amount received declined from $670 million in 2002 to $626 million in 2004.

“Even with less money being allocated to these social service grant programs, faith-based organizations are getting their piece of the pie,” concluded Lisa M. Montiel and David J. Wright, co-authors of the report released by the Albany, N.Y.-based roundtable Tuesday (Feb. 14).

It did not include some of the new programs under Bush’s faith-based initiative, including prisoner re-entry programs, or money disbursed through federal block grants by state and local governments.

That brought harsh criticism from Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who called the findings “inaccurate” and “misleading.”

He said the report excluded significant grant programs, such as Department of Health and Human Services grants to religious charities of $300 million in Head Start dollars in 2003, a figure he said has grown through 2005.

“I think if you’re going to selectively choose programs this narrowly,which they did, you need to be fair about it and not just choose programs that cast the initiative in a bad light,” he said.

Towey said his office will announce its own research on “roughly three times” the number of grants that the roundtable study considered at a March 9 conference in Washington.

The roundtable is a project of the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Gays’ Right to Wed Argued in New Jersey Court

TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) As activists for both sides rallied outside, the lawyer for seven same-sex couples urged the New Jersey Supreme Court to declare they have a right to marry _ not just to form what they call second-class civil unions _ and to base that ruling on the state constitution.

The case, argued Wednesday (Feb. 15), could make New Jersey the second state after Massachusetts to allow same-sex couples to marry. It has drawn nationwide attention.

“This is a historic case for civil rights in New Jersey,” David Buckel, a lawyer with the gay rights organization Lambda Legal, told the justices.

A lawyer for the state countered with an argument that has carried the day in two lower courts: Only the Legislature can make such a radical change to the millennia-old definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Gay couples “have to take their claims to the legislative and executive branches and compete in the democratic process,” said Assistant Attorney General Patrick DeAlmeida.

For just over an hour, the seven justices listened to the arguments and questioned both lawyers. As usual, the court reserved decision, and did not say when it would decide.

It was a day of high-stakes litigation poker, with neither side hedging its bets. Buckel insisted on full marriage equality for same-sex couples. DeAlmeida was equally insistent that only the Legislature can grant it, staking his entire case on that argument.

As the legal battle raged inside the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, about 100 gay rights advocates brandished signs supporting their cause and sang “We Shall Overcome” and “America the Beautiful.”

“I think in a couple of decades, people are going to look back and say `What was the problem?”’ said A. Tobias Grace, editor of Out in Jersey magazine.

John Tomicki, executive director of the League of American Families and chairman of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, led a group of about 50 opponents to gay marriage that stood praying outside.

He called marriage between a man and a woman a “sacred cornerstone” of modern society.

_ Robert Schwaneberg

Poll Shows `Ten Commandments Judge’ Fading in Ala. Race

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (RNS) A new Alabama poll shows the candidate known as “the Ten Commandments Judge” is far behind in his bid to become governor.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has opened a 2-to-1 lead over ousted Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore in the race for the Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination later this year, the results of a new statewide poll suggest.

The Mobile Register-University of South Alabama survey of registered likely GOP primary voters showed Riley with 56 percent to Moore’s 28 percent, a wider margin than similar Register-USA polls have reflected in the past and the first time the governor has cracked the all-important 50 percent barrier.

The results continue Riley’s upward trend since 2003, when voters drubbed his billion-dollar tax plan at the ballot box, just as Moore’s political star was burning arguably at its brightest over his efforts to display the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building.

“Unless Riley really messes up something _ given relatively good economic times, given the lack of scandal, given the fact that all of the tax business is in the past _ it’s hard for me to imagine how Riley could blow it,” said University of South Alabama political scientist Keith Nicholls, who directed the poll. Nicholls, however, did add the caveat that “it’s still early” and that Moore could become increasingly competitive if he can raise more money.

The Riley campaign declined comment on the results.

Moore spokesman J. Holland said the former chief justice is receiving a “tremendous” response from Alabamians. “We are confident,” he said. “It’s not about polls and politics _ it’s about principle and people. The people of this state will send a clear message to the politicians and special interests in Montgomery.”

Party primaries are June 6, with the general election to follow in November.

_ Bill Barrow

To Honor Presidents Day, More Than 1,300 Churches to Pray

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 1,300 churches have pledged to pray for America’s leaders Sunday (Feb. 19), according to organizers of Presidential Prayer Sunday.

Organized by the Presidential Prayer Team, a nonpartisan group based in Tucson, Ariz., the congregations will pray for the president and members of the government to “use God’s wisdom” and follow “God’s will.” No specific legislation or policy will be the focus, organizers say.

The event was “born out of church leaders saying, `How can we take Presidents Day and use it to mobilize our congregation to pray for our leaders and our president?”’ said Prayer Team CEO John Lind, referring to Monday’s national holiday.

“I want people in the church services to experience a specific service that’s dedicated to praying for the president and nation and armed forces,” Lind said, “and I want them to be able to take the experience and do it on a daily basis.”

Participating churches can use materials offered by organizers to conduct activities. Materials include a bulletin insert, suggested music, a scriptural theme, notes for Sunday school teachers, sermon ideas and an inspirational two-minute video.

Cyndi Saunders, organizer of the event at Change Point Church in Anchorage, Alaska, said she likes that the event was conceived as nonpartisan. “It’s really more about praying for whoever the president is and the leadership.”

_ Enette Ngoei

Quote of the Day: Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church

(RNS) “Only a church liberated from its self-captivity, a church in creative dialogue with its environment, a church courageously facing the problems of its times, can become a living source of God’s empowering, transforming and healing grace.”

_ Catholicos Aram I, primate of the Lebanon-based Armenian Apostolic Church and moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, speaking Wednesday (Feb. 15) at the council’s Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

MO/PH END RNS