c. 2006 Religion News Service
Muslims Collect Money to Rebuild Burned Churches
(RNS) A group of American Muslims is using compassion to counter the violent reactions of fellow Muslims who were angered by Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial remarks about Islam.
The Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Thursday (Sept. 21) that it will deliver $5,000 in seed money to help repair six churches in the Palestinian Territories that were damaged by Muslims who were infuriated by the pope’s speech.
“We’re still waiting for a detailed report from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association to find out the full cost of the damage,” said CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier, announcing the campaign with Catholic officials in St. Petersburg, Fla. “But the response has been received well.”
The Rev. Robert Gibbons, vicar general for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, is accepting the donation on behalf of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a New York church agency that offers humanitarian and pastoral support to churches in the Middle East and around the world.
“I’m very impressed that (CAIR) would make this statement to Christians that Muslims don’t condone this violence,” Gibbons said.
On Sept. 12, the pope cited a Byzantine emperor who had called the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s teachings “evil and inhuman.” Several churches were burned as a result.
Bedier said “these churches were protected under Islam. We were upset to see them attacked.”
Bedier said the idea to collect money for the restoration originated from individuals within the Tampa-area Muslim community who were concerned about increased Muslim-Christian friction. CAIR leaders said the campaign would soon go national.
“Of course, we’re very excited,” said the Rev. Guido Gockel, the assistant secretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. “In a world where there is so much division, it’s good to see a little solidarity.”
_ Keith Roshangar
Amendment on Chaplains Prompts Religious Opposition
WASHINGTON (RNS) The National Association of Evangelicals and a separate coalition of other religious groups have opposed proposed language about chaplains that is part of a defense spending bill.
In two separate letters to House and Senate members, the groups have criticized language passed by the House in May that permits military chaplains to pray “according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience.”
Some conservative Christian groups have supported the language; House and Senate members have been conferring on the bill since Sept. 7.
NAE President Ted Haggard wrote in a letter on Tuesday (Sept. 19) that the amendment is “unnecessary and likely counterproductive.” The coalition, which included the Interfaith Alliance, Jewish organizations, mainline Protestants and Unitarians, earlier called it “unnecessary and unwise.”
Both Haggard and the coalition spoke of the need for “inclusive” prayers in multifaith settings.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., on Tuesday said conferees are divided about appropriate language, and said the entire Congress should consider the issue early next year.
Warner said the Pentagon wants the provision dropped. It noted in a memo to Congress that “this provision could marginalize chaplains who, in exercising their conscience, generate discomfort at mandatory formations.”
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, differed with Warner and noted that Warner declared in his floor speech that he is active in the Episcopal Church.
“His obstructive actions would allow military chaplains to continue to be punished for making similar statements of faith in a public setting,” Perkins said in his “Washington Update” e-newsletter.
Focus on the Family, in a recent “action alert,” urged calls to senators to seek its adoption. Observers following the bill have predicted that a vote won’t occur until at least next week (the last week of September).
_ Adelle M. Banks
Diocese in Illinois Becomes Eighth to Seek Alternate Leader
(RNS) The Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, Ill., has asked to be placed under the oversight of someone other than the denomination’s incoming leader, joining seven dioceses that have made similar requests.
At odds with the 2.1-million member Episcopal Church over homosexuality and the authority of Scripture, the Quincy diocese held a special synod Sept. 16 to further distance itself from the national church.
Since Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected in June as the denomination’s next presiding bishop, seven other diocese have asked for “alternative primatial oversight,” which would put them under the guidance of a different prelate. Jefferts Schori will be installed in November.
The diocese of Quincy, which is based in Peoria Ill., has 2,200 members and is one of three Episcopal dioceses that does not ordain women. In a statement released after the decision, diocesan leaders said their decision was based on Jefferts Schori’s support of an openly gay bishop and same-sex unions.
“Quincy and the other dioceses are unwilling to accept the leadership of the controversial (Jefferts) Schori …” the diocesan statement read.
A vast majority of delegates to the Episcopal Church’s national meeting in June elected Jefferts Schori to become the denomination’s top pastor. She is the first woman prelate in the history of Anglicanism.
_ Daniel Burke
Nuns Remember Sister Slain in Somalia
BELMONT, Mich. (RNS) Before she died on Sunday (Sept. 17) in Somalia, Sister Leonella Sgorbati forgave her attackers, exhibiting the deep faith that binds members of the Consolata Missionary Sisters.
Her final act, 42 years after joining the Catholic religious order, may be the most telling of Sgorbati’s strength and compassion, according to nuns who live in West Michigan and worked with the 65-year-old sister.
“There are some people you will never forget in life, and Sister Leonella was one of them,” said Sister Mercedes Verjan, who is part of the Consolata order that has a convent near here. “Her sense of integrity, enthusiasm, courage and desire left a definite imprint on me.
“I admire her even more for forgiving the ones who killed her.”
Sgorbati died Sunday in an attack on the streets of Mogadishu, where she trained nurses to care for the sick and wounded. Sgorbati was shot at least twice while walking from the nursing school she ran to the village where she lived.
Some have tied the nun’s ambush and slaying to recent remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI that angered Muslims. The pope quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor that characterized the prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman.”
Sgorbati never served in Michigan, but nuns in the order of about 900 sisters across the globe often crossed paths with her during mission work.
“We are all in the same family and we have lost one of our sisters,” said Sister Zelia Cordeiro, the provincial supervisor for Michigan. “We have to care for each other just as she knew and cared for those around her in Mogadishu.”
_ Nate Reens
Conservatives Want NBC to Drop Madonna’s Crucifixion Scene
(RNS) Religious leaders and conservative activists have asked NBC to cancel its upcoming Madonna special or reconsider its decision to show the crucifixion scene in the pop star’s November prime-time special.
In the controversial scene of her “Confessions” tour, Madonna sings while attached to a suspended, mirrored cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
“I write to ask you to cancel this program which makes a mockery of the crucifixion of Christ,” Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, wrote to NBC chairman Robert Wright.
Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League, thinks NBC should not air the entire Madonna concert.
“If it does air the `Mock Crucifixion,’ it will send a message to the 85 percent of the American population that is Christian that their sensibilities count less than Muslims,” he wrote to Wright on Wednesday (Sept. 20).
Several leaders referred to Muslims and the global furor that erupted earlier this year when European newspapers printed controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. In February, NBC chose not to show the cartoons.
“The entertainment elite are so very bothered over America’s image in the Muslim world, but what about in the Christian world, some 2 billion people?” the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, said in a statement. “I must wonder if NBC would approve of Madonna’s mocking a major event in the life of Muhammad?”
In a statement, NBC officials said they are “awaiting delivery of the special, and once we see it in its entirety we will make a final decision.”
_ Chansin Bird
Quote of the Day: National Baptist Convention, USA, President William Shaw
(RNS) “The devil has long since concluded that he’s not really going to be able to defeat the Lord in open matters of conflict … so he infiltrates from the inside. Our people have been misfed and misled.”
_ The Rev William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, speaking during his denomination’s recent annual meeting in Dallas. Quoted by the Associated Baptist Press, he criticized “prosperity gospel” and said the gospel message should be based on biblical truth and not emotional experiences.
KRE/JL END RNS
