c. 2006 Religion News Service
Carter Leads Baptists in Issuing New `Covenant’
(RNS) Former President Jimmy Carter, the nation’s most famous ex-Southern Baptist, has forged a “Baptist Covenant” with Baptist groups that do not embrace Southern Baptists’ conservative tilt.
Carter met with 17 Baptist leaders for four hours at the Carter Center in Atlanta on Monday (April 10) and urged the various churches to overcome racial, cultural and geographic differences to form a “genuine prophetic Baptist voice in these complex times.”
“The most common opinion about Baptists is we cannot get along together,” Carter said in a statement, adding that he has been “grieved by the divisions” within the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention.
Carter, a Sunday School teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. He has since called for greater cooperation among other Baptist groups.
“We should reach out to other traditional, or moderate, Baptists and form a partnership that would greatly strengthen what we do,” Carter said in a 2001 speech. “If there are other Baptists who don’t respond, forget them. Forget them, and move on as Christians and as Baptists, just following Jesus.”
The “North American Baptist Covenant” issued after this week’s meeting was signed by representatives of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Canadian Baptist Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA and historically black Baptist churches including the National Baptist Convention USA Inc. and the National Baptist Convention of America, among others.
“(Participants) reaffirmed their commitment to traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality,” the statement said.
“They specifically committed themselves to their obligations as Christians to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick and the marginalized, welcome the strangers among us and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.”
The group also voiced support for the Baptist World Alliance, a global umbrella group representing 80 million Baptist Christians. The Southern Baptist Convention withdrew its membership from the global alliance in 2004, citing a perceived “leftward drift” in the organization.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
German Catholics Protest MTV Plans for `Popetown’ Cartoon
(RNS) A television cartoon about a senile pope, sexy nuns and a trio of criminal cardinals conspiring to become the world’s richest people has caused widespread protests in Germany before it is even aired.
Although “Popetown” is not set to premiere on MTV until May 3, a trailer in which Jesus Christ has climbed down from the cross to watch TV _ still with his crown of thorns and a slogan (“Don’t just hang around. Have a laugh.”) in the background _ has already generated an intense backlash from German Catholics.
At the urging of the Central Committee for German Catholics, many Germans have e-mailed protests to MTV. Additionally, Stern magazine reported Tuesday (April 11) that dioceses in heavily-Catholic southern Germany are considering a lawsuit against MTV for disturbing the public peace.
MTV pulled the ad after the German Bishop’s Conference appealed to the German Advertising Board. It still plans to air the show.
Stefan Vesper, general secretary of the central committee said the issue is not just the offensive nature of the show. “The nature of the advertisement and its placement during the Easter season is intolerable,” he told the Berliner newspaper on Tuesday.
Joachim Herrmann, the head of the Christian Socialist Union political party in Bavaria also criticized the advertisement as “especially tasteless” in the Tagesspiegel (Daily Mirror) and questioned whether MTV would also air such a cartoon if it focused on the life of an imam.
In the show, the character Father Nicholas has to carry out the orders of a childlike pope who likes to travel by pogo stick. Meanwhile, a group of cardinals devises new money making schemes, including the sale of orphans into slavery.
The British cartoon was originally aired on BBC in 2004 until Catholic protests forced its withdrawal. A New Zealand attempt to air the show in 2005 also ended after Catholic protests.
_ Niels Sorrells
PETA Ad Claims Pope Opposes Animal Farming; Vatican Official Objects
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ad campaign depicts Pope Benedict XVI as an opponent of animal farming and an advocate for vegetarianism, but a Vatican official is challenging its accuracy.
The advertisement, which PETA is pushing to place in newspapers across Europe, juxtaposes a photo of the pontiff, smiling, with images of a goose being force-fed and hens that have been de-beaked. The advertisement quotes Benedict criticizing such practices and invites readers to “try delicious vegetarian meals” in bold print.
A PETA press release announcing the ad campaign describes Benedict “as the first pope ever to speak out against factory farming.” PETA’s Web site on Friday (April 14) depicted a photo of Benedict in papal garb with a large headline: “Pope Benedict’s XVI’s Easter Message.”
A click leads readers to an article about PETA’s new ad highlighting comments Benedict made before he was named pope.
A senior Vatican official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, rejected PETA’s ad as a distortion.
“These comments that (PETA) is quoting are not part of Pope Benedict’s magisterium,” the official said.
The advertisement quotes a lengthy passage from “God and the World,” a book-length interview Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, gave to the German journalist Peter Seewald in 2000.
“Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or that hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship that comes across in the Bible,” Benedict said.
“We’re not trying to cast it as part of his magisterium, we’re trying to cast it as his view, and it certainly is part of his view,” said Bruce Friedrich, a PETA spokesman.
Friedrich said PETA is currently in negotiations with newspapers in predominantly Catholic Italy and Benedict’s homeland of Germany to carry the ad after Easter. There are also plans to place the ad in U.S. publications.
Since he took office, the Vatican has pushed to distance Benedict from many comments he made as the Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, such as an interview he gave to the French daily Le Figaro questioning Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Comedy Central Censors Animated Muhammad Image, Allows Defecating Jesus
(RNS) An image of the Prophet Muhammad scheduled to be shown on the controversial cartoon show “South Park” Wednesday (April 12) was censored by Comedy Central, but the network did show an animated Jesus defecating on an American flag.
The decision marks the third time in recent show history that the network interfered with a “South Park” episode dealing with religion. Comedy Central also pulled reruns of episodes dealing with Scientology as well as a show depicting a menstruating statue of the Virgin Mary.
Comedy Central issued a single-sentence statement regarding the Muhammad episode: “In light of recent world events we feel we made the right decision.”
“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have not responded publicly to the decision.
In the censored episode, the second of a two-part series called “Cartoon Wars,” Americans went into a panic, literally burying their heads in sand because the Fox animated series “Family Guy” threatened to show an image of Muhammad on an episode, prompting terrorist threats.
Any image of Muhammad is prohibited by Islam, and an unflattering depiction of Muhammad in Danish editorial cartoons last fall sparked massive protests and some violence worldwide.
At the end of “Cartoon Wars,” Kyle Broflovski, the 8-year-old hero of “South Park,” convinced the president of Fox to show Muhammad as a defense of free speech. The plot had the “Family Guy” episode with the Muhammad image airing, causing terrorists to retaliate with a cartoon depicting Jesus Christ defecating uncontrollably on bystanders and an American flag.
But all that “South Park” viewers watching Comedy Central at home saw was this message, written out over a black screen: “Comedy Central has refused to air an image of Muhammad on their network.”
The image of a defecating Jesus, however, was uncensored.
Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said, “We welcome their responsible decision making,” but urged that respect should be given to all of the prophets, including Christ.
Charmaine Yoest, vice president of the Judeo-Christian advocacy group Family Research Council, was upset that one religious figure was satirized while another was spared.
“It’s outrageous that they would show that kind of disrespect,” said Yoest, “and it only adds insult to injury that Comedy Central is so sensitive to the feelings of Muslims without seeming to care one little bit with how Christians would react.”
_ Piet Levy
Gallup Analysis: Church of Christ Members Have Highest Attendance Rate
(RNS) A new analysis by the Gallup Organization finds that Church of Christ members and Mormons are most likely to attend worship services often.
Pollsters found that 68 percent of Church of Christ members said they attend services at least once a week or almost every week, followed by 67 percent of Mormons who said they followed the same practice.
The Princeton, N.J.-based research organization, which released its results Friday (April 14), analyzed worship attendance by looking at more than 11,000 Gallup Poll interviews conducted between 2002 and 2005.
It found that denominations known for conservative or evangelical theology have higher reported attendance than those that traditionally considered mainline denominations. For example, 60 percent of Southern Baptists reported attending church at least once a week or almost every week compared to 44 percent of Methodists.
The research also showed that Catholics are close to the average percentage of people who worship once a week or almost every week _ 44 percent. Forty-five percent of Catholics reported such attendance in the interviews between 2002 and 2005.
That demonstrates a shift in attendance patterns from decades ago. Gallup data from 1971 showed that 57 percent of Catholics said they had attended church “within the last seven days,” compared to 37 percent of Protestants.
Among the lowest percentage of service attenders between 2002 and 2005 were Episcopalians, with about a third reporting regular attendance, and Jews, with 15 percent reporting regular synagogue attendance.
The breakdown for some specific denominations was as follows:
Church of Christ: 68 percent
Mormon: 67 percent
Pentecostal: 65 percent
Southern Baptist: 60 percent
Nondenominational Protestant: 54 percent
Catholic: 45 percent
Methodist: 44 percent
Presbyterian: 44 percent
Lutheran: 43 percent
Episcopal: 32 percent
Jewish: 15 percent.
_ Adelle M. Banks
EU Word Usage Guidelines Would Discourage `Islamic Terrorism’
LONDON (RNS) The European Union, worried about offending Muslim sensibilities, is compiling new word usage guidelines that would discourage “Islamic terrorism,” “Islamist,” “fundamentalist” and “jihad” to describe acts of terrorism and murder.
What the diplomats in Brussels hope to have down on paper by June for its officials and politicians is a set of guidelines aimed at making it clear that nowhere in the Islamic religion is there justification for outrages such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, and the more recent terrorist bombings in Madrid and London.
“Certainly `Islamic terrorism’ is something we will not use,” an unnamed EU official in Berlin told the Reuters news agency. Instead, he said, the preferred reference will be to “terrorists who abusively invoke religion.”
Omar Faruk, a Muslim lawyer who advises the British government on EU issues, told journalists the phrase “Islamic terrorism” is a contradiction in itself: “Those words cannot sit side by side. Islam is actually very much against any form of terrorism. … Islam in itself means peace.”
“Jihad” in the pejorative sense used by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to mean warfare against infidels is also on the list. “Jihad means something for you and me, it means something else for a Muslim,” the EU official in Berlin said.
“Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself,” he insisted.
The new lexicon will not be legally binding _ a loophole that could weaken its impact across the 25-nation organization.
The idea, the official in Berlin said, “is to help us understand what we are saying and try to avoid making mistakes. It’s for the self-guidance of EU institutions and member states.”
The lexicon has received a lukewarm reception from British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government. A Home Office spokesman said, “We believe there is a balance to be struck between raising awareness of the impact that language can have and not letting extremism go unchallenged.”
_ Al Webb
Archbishop of Canterbury Rails Against `The Da Vinci Code’
LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says society’s cynical fascination with conspiracy theories such as those suggested in “The Da Vinci Code” is aimed at undermining the truth of Christianity.
In his Easter Sunday (April 17) sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Williams cited Dan Brown’s novel, which already has sold more than 40 million copies, and the newly released Coptic text of an alleged “Gospel of Judas” as “the stuff of our imagination these days.”
These implications of conspiracies and cover-ups, he said, leave biblical texts treated “as if they were unconvincing press releases from some official source whose intention is to conceal the real story.”
It is almost as if “we would prefer to believe something like this (`The Da Vinci Code’) instead of the prosaic reality,” said Williams, the de facto head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Regardless of what cynics choose to believe, Williams said the Bible “is not the authorized code of a society managed by priests and preachers for their private purposes, but the set of human words through which the call of God is still uniquely immediate to human beings today.”
An underlying theme of “The Da Vinci Code” is that the church through the centuries has sought to protect its power by suppressing the truth about Christ _ that he married Mary Magdalene and they had a child, and that their descendants became kings of France. This bloodline, Brown’s novel says, was the true Holy Grail.
“The Gospel of Judas” that has been publicized by National Geographic purports to be a papyrus document that originated more than two centuries after the death of Christ. It depicts history’s most infamous traitor as a benevolent figure helping Jesus to save mankind.
“We are instantly fascinated by the suggestion of conspiracies and cover-ups,” Williams said. “This has become so much the stuff of our imagination these days that it is only natural, it seems to expect it when we turn to ancient texts, especially biblical texts.”
“Anything that looks like the official version is automatically suspect,” Williams said. “Someone is trying to stop you finding out what `really’ happened, because what really happened could upset or challenge the power of officialdom.”
_ Al Webb
Opus Dei Apologizes for Cartoons that Showed Muhammad in Hell
ROME (RNS) The conservative Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei has apologized for the publication of a cartoon depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in hell in a magazine operated by members of the group.
Published in the March issue of the Italian monthly Studi Cattolici, the cartoon depicts a scene inspired by Dante’s Inferno, in which the prophet appears in hell with his body sliced in half.
“Making a joke about Dante putting Mohammed (sp) in hell is a serious error,” Opus Dei spokesman Manuel Sanchez Hurtado said in a statement released Saturday (April 15).
Studi Cattolici, or “Catholic Studies,” is directed by Cesare Cavalleri, an Opus Dei “numerary,” a rank given to members who live in Opus Dei centers and give their salary to the organization. The magazine is also printed by the publishing house that has exclusive rights in Italy for the works of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei.
In his statement, Hurtado said Opus Dei was “not responsible” for editorial decisions made by Studi Cattolici. He said an apology was necessary, however, in light of recent violence over the publication of similar cartoons by a Danish newspaper.
He also expressed concern that the presence of Opus Dei members on the magazine’s staff had created “confusion.” Opus Dei routinely distances itself from the activities of its members, claiming that the organization seeks to “sanctify” professional life rather than supervise it. The organization also refuses to disclose the names of its members, leading many of its critics to accuse the group of secrecy.
The group figures heavily in the novel “The Da Vinci Code,” which depicts the group as a conspiratorial force within Roman Catholicism.
In his statement, Hurtado cited the book as an example of disrespect for religion, akin to the Muhammad cartoons.
“The cartoon’s publication is further framed by the current debate in many countries regarding the false and unjust depiction of the Christian faith in The Da Vinci Code,” he said. “The issue at stake here is how to make compatible freedom of expression, a free market and respect for religious beliefs.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Gay Parents Make Presence Known at White House Easter Egg Roll
WASHINGTON (RNS) About 100 families headed by gay and lesbian parents made their presence known at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll Monday (April 17), as anti-gay protesters picketed outside.
The families headed by gays wore rainbow-colored leis draped around their necks.
“This isn’t about argument or protest,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition, which organized the families and also invited bisexual and transgender parents to take part. “We want them to be seen participating at a great American tradition.”
The 128-year-old White House event, with an estimated attendance exceeding 10,000 this year, opened with a welcoming speech by First Lady Laura Bush. On a wet and chilly day, President Bush blew a whistle to start festivities that included live entertainment, costumed characters and Easter egg hunting, dyeing and rolling. As for the presence of homosexual parents, Laura Bush’s office released a statement last week saying all families were welcome.
Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, said the families’ unified appearance amounted to a “political movement” and could dampen the event. A few of the families at the Egg Roll Monday expressed similar concerns.
“I’m trying to be fairly tolerant,” said Alan Peterson, at the event with his wife Beth and his children, Daniel and Emily. “If it’s a loving family unit, I shouldn’t object. But I’m not a big fan of the lifestyle, and I prefer not to have my nose rubbed in it.”
Participant Jill Gravetz argued that the presence of gays was not a big deal.
“Who cares? Families are families,” she said.
Outside the White House, a small handful of protesters, self-proclaimed Bible believers, held up signs that read “Homo Sex Is Sin” and “Gay Genes Are a Fairy Tale.”
Dominic Russoli, one of the gay parents participating with his partner Rolf and his 6-year-old son Cyrus in the Egg Roll, said the anti-gay protests are a part of “what makes America great.”
“They have every right to voice their opinion … ” Russoli said, adding, “We’re here to have a nice day. We’re like every American family. We pay taxes and take our kids to school.”
Jeff Lutes, executive director of the gay rights organization Soulforce, said that the presence of the protesters would not dissuade the cause,
“We are just as committed to families as those who oppose us,” Lutes said.
_ Piet Levy
Quote of the Week: Former President George H.W. Bush
(RNS) “When my soul was troubled, it was Billy I reached out to for advice, for comfort and for prayer. You could say Bill has been the conscience of our nation and sometimes of the world.”
_ Former President George H.W. Bush, speaking in College Station, Texas, as he awarded the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service to evangelist Billy Graham. He was quoted by the Houston Chronicle.
MO/RB END RNS
