c. 2006 Religion News Service

Forum Concludes: Action on Hunger Issue Could Overcome Partisan Divisions

WASHINGTON (RNS) A ranking official of the U.N. food program urged Americans on Tuesday (Sept. 19) to unite behind the transcendant issue of world hunger.

“Why is it that when there is so much need, when we are called upon by our faith to be our brother’s keeper, our sister’s keeper, we are not stepping up to the plate?” said Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Program.

“I don’t have the answers to that question except to say we need to redouble our efforts.”

Sisulu, along with former Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, addressed a small group at the Library of Congress as part of the 4th Annual Capps-Emerson Forum for Bipartisan Bridge Building.

The yearly talks, presented by the Faith & Politics Institute, honor the late Reps. Walter Capps, D-Calif., and Bill Emerson, R-Mo., and are hosted by their widows, Reps. Lois Capps and Jo Ann Emerson, who were elected to fill their husbands’ seats.

Sisulu, a former ambassador from South Africa to the United States, said about 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger each day, of which 300 million are children.

Hall, who formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., noted the disturbing persistence of hunger in the U.S., even as the country struggles with obesity.

As of 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 7.4 million adults and 3.3 million children lived in households experiencing hunger because food was unaffordable.

“The amount of poverty in our country is staggering _ in the richest country in the world,” Hall said. “Why is that?”

_ Rebecca U. Cho

Speaking in Tongues Resurfaces as Southern Baptist Controversy

(RNS) The practice of speaking in tongues is again brewing controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Last year, the denomination’s International Mission Board adopted a policy that forbids considering missionary candidates who use a “private prayer language.”

Now, an Arlington, Texas, pastor and trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has written to Southern Baptist President Frank Page to request that the issues of “spiritual gifts, private prayer language and speaking in tongues” be addressed in the denomination’s statement of faith.

The Rev. Dwight McKissic previously discussed the issue in a chapel sermon at the seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and criticized the mission board policy.

“I pray in tongues in my private prayer life and I’m not ashamed of that,” he said on Aug. 29. “I’m thankful for that.”

Traditionally, Southern Baptists have opposed Pentecostal practices, including speaking in tongues, but some pastors and churches have embraced a more charismatic worship style.

Seminary officials opted not to post the sermon on its Web site.

“While Southwestern does not instruct its chapel speakers about what they can or cannot say, neither do we feel that there is wisdom in posting materials online which could place us in a position of appearing to be critical of actions of the Board of Trustees of a sister agency,” they wrote.

McKissic, the co-founder of “Not on My Watch,” a group of African-American clergy who oppose same-sex marriage, said in his Sept. 15 letter to Page and the Southern Baptist Executive Committee that he thinks there’s a “lack of consensus and clarity” in the denomination about speaking in tongues.

“I believe that we could unify our convention by acknowledging in the context of the Baptist Faith and Message that Baptist scholars and lay people have diverse viewpoints and they are all within the boundaries of acceptable evangelical scholarship,” he wrote.

Kenyn Cureton, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, said Page could either request a committee study or leave it to McKissic, or others, to propose a resolution at next June’s denominational meeting.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Anti-Abortion Bill Introduced Without Contraceptives Provision

WASHINGTON (RNS) For the second time in a week, a Democratic lawmaker has introduced legislation aimed at reducing abortions in the U.S. _ this time without government funding of contraceptives.

The Pregnant Women Support Act, which has been endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was introduced Wednesday (Sept. 20) by Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., a Baptist.

The bill would expand health care coverage for pregnant women, make adoption tax credits permanent and provide grants for low-income parents attending college, among other measures.

The proposal is part of anti-abortion advocates’ “95-10 initiative,” which aims to reduce abortions by 95 percent in 10 years.

“This initiative provides the kind of support, information and options that should be readily available to pregnant women in any society that truly believes in the sanctity of life,” Davis said in a statement.

Deirdre McQuade, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-life Activities, said, “Everyone can agree that no woman should choose abortion due to economic duress.”

Catholic bishops did not endorse a bill introduced last week (Sept. 14) by two Catholic lawmakers, Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., because it increased government funding for contraceptives.

Because there is limited time for Congress to act on the newly introduced bills before November elections, the two measures are seen by some as part of a broad, if symbolic, Democratic appeal to religious communities and anti-abortion advocates.

_ Daniel Burke

Catholics to Fast in Solidarity With Muslims During Ramadan

WASHINGTON (RNS) In response to the pope’s controversial remarks about Islam and as a gesture of solidarity with the Muslim population, a national Catholic peace movement has proposed fasting alongside Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.

Throughout Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset as part of self-purification, worship and contemplation. This year, Ramadan starts on Saturday (Sept. 23) or Sunday (Sept. 24), depending on the sighting of the moon.

David Robinson, executive director of Pax Christi USA, made the announcement during a press conference with the Muslim American Society, which claims to be America’s largest Muslim grassroots organization.

“We in Pax Christi will enter into the discipline of the Ramadan fast as an effort to better and more deeply prepare a space in our own spirits to dialogue with our Muslim neighbors,” Robinson said.

Christian-Muslim relations have been strained ever since Pope Benedict XVI’s Sept. 12 speech in which he quoted a 14th-century emperor who described the teachings of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman.”

Pax Christi reaches more than half a million Catholics in the U.S. Its leaders, along with leaders of the Muslim American Society, stressed the need for continued, deepened dialogue between the two faiths.

“The (pope’s) apology is sufficient,” said Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of MAS Freedom Foundation, “but we need to move beyond the apology and look at how we can continue to be on the road his predecessor set in terms of an increased dialogue of civilizations rather than a clash of civilizations.”

Pax Christi members will be encouraged to participate in Ramadan fasting and will be given materials to understand the role of Ramadan within Islamic tradition.

_ Chansin Bird

Quote of the Day: Willow Creek Community Church Pastor Bill Hybels

(RNS) “I’m not an arm waver and a clapper and a dancer. Music doesn’t do that to me, although it stirs me inside.”

_ The Rev. Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, a South Barrington, Ill.-based megachurch, speaking about how he chooses to stand, eyes closed in contemplation, while others in his sanctuary sway and wave their arms in praise. He was quoted by the Chicago Tribune.

KRE/JL END RNS