c. 2006 Religion News Service
Dobson Steps Down from Ted Haggard’s Counseling Team
(RNS) Focus on the Family founder James Dobson has stepped down from the team of counselors working with the Rev. Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals who resigned after a scandal involving a male escort and drug use.
Dobson said Tuesday (Nov. 7) he doesn’t “have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility.” He said Haggard would be “better served by someone whose energies and attention are not tugged in quite so many directions.”
“All of us at Focus on the Family will continue to pray for Ted and Gayle and their children,” Dobson said in a statement. “I certainly hope to speak with him _ friend to friend _ as he moves foward.”
Both Dobson and Haggard, who was removed as pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church, have their headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
In a Nov. 5 letter to his congregation, Haggard said Dobson would be involved in his “oversight” by three pastors as he worked for the “restoration” of his marriage and family.
“Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage and my family.”
Still working with Haggard are Jack Hayford, president of the Los Angeles-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, and Tommy Barnett, senior pastor of Phoenix First Assembly of God in Arizona and the host of an annual school for pastors.
Dobson has been outspoken about Haggard’s circumstance since it was revealed last week. At first, he said “it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation.” A day later, he said he was “heartsick” about the allegations and vowed to remain Haggard’s friend.
_ Adelle M. Banks and Kevin Eckstrom
Ellison Elected as First Muslim in Congress
WASHINGTON (RNS) Keith Ellison, a convert to Islam and Democrat from Minneapolis, on Tuesday (Nov. 7) became the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
Ellison, 43, beat two other candidates to take Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ellison received 56 percent of the vote.
“We received a lot of Muslim support because I think it’s natural for people to want to see themselves reflected in the government of our society,” Ellison said Wednesday. “My election offers them the ability to be much more involved in the government of our society and I think that’s a good thing.”
U.S. Muslim groups cheered Ellison’s historic election and said they hope it means their voices will be heard in the halls of power.
“(This is) certainly a historic event, and it speaks to the better part of America,” said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, which sought to mobilize U.S. Muslims to vote in the midterm elections.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who campaigned for Ellison, said Ellison’s principles appeal to people of all faiths and “that’s why he won and why he deserved to win.”
“Keith’s religion informs his values, (but) America’s interest informs his vote,” Jackson said.
_ Keith Roshangar
Seven States Approve, Arizona Rejects, Gay Marriage Measures
WASHINGTON (RNS) Arizona on Tuesday (Nov. 7) became the first state to reject a ban on gay marriage, but voters in seven other states passed similar initiatives.
Voters in Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin voted to define marriage in their state constitutions as a union between a man and a woman. Colorado also voted down an initiative that would have extended marriage legal rights to same-sex couples.
Matt Daniels, president of Alliance for Marriage, called the results a “continental sweeping victory for marriage.”
“We’ve seen for years that the American public is vehemently in favor of protecting marriage,” Daniels said.
Before Tuesday’s voting, all 20 states that had considered banning gay marriage had approved the constitutional amendments. By the narrow margin of 51 percent to 49 percent, Arizona voters became the first to buck that trend.
Tuesday’s votes bring the number of constitutional amendments banning gay marriage to 27. Only Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry.
Daniels said Tuesday’s results, which saw Democrats taking control of the House and poised to capture the Senate, show banning gay marriage is not strictly an issue favored by conservative Republicans.
“The issue of marriage is bigger than either party,” he said. “(Voters) threw Republicans out and voted for our cause.”
But the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said the bans against same-sex marriage passed Tuesday with significantly lower margins than in previous elections.
“It’s clear that fear-mongering around same-sex marriage by the GOP and the extreme Christian right is fizzling out,” said Matt Foreman, the group’s executive director. “It doesn’t have the juice it had just two years ago.”
After October’s New Jersey Supreme Court ruling giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as married couples, experts predicted the court’s move would spur more opponents of gay marriage to November polls.
The most significant rejection of gay marriage came from Tennessee, with a margin of 82 percent to 18 percent.
_ Rebecca U. Cho
Letters Rescued From Bay Now Saved From eBay
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) A fisherman who found a bag of 300 letters to God floating in the ocean off Atlantic City will give most of them to the daughter of the dead minister for whom they were intended.
Bill Lacovara, an insurance adjuster, said he plans to give the letters to Vanessa Cooper, the daughter of Rev. Grady Cooper, a former associate pastor of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Jersey City who died nearly two years ago.
Lacovara found the letters in a shopping bag in the surf under a pier in October.
About 150 of the letters were too damaged by the water to be legible. He placed the remaining ones up for auction on eBay, but canceled the auction after more than 25 people pushed the price past $550.
He said he and his family have received many hostile letters and phone calls from people upset that the letters were put up for auction, and said it never was his intention to profit from them.
“I apologize to anyone who was insulted,” he said. “It was never my intention to offend anyone. I was looking at these more like antiques.”
Lacovara said he heard from individuals and churches across the country who were interested in obtaining the letters so their own congregations could pray over them.
Many of the letters were addressed to the Rev. Cooper, but many more simply said “Altar.” According to the text of several of the letters, they were intended to be placed on a church’s altar and prayed over by the minister, the congregation or both.
It’s still not clear how the letters, some dating to 1973 and most unopened, ended up in the ocean. Lacovara speculated that someone cleaning out Cooper’s former home found the letters and, instead of tossing them in the garbage, set them out to sea as a sort of final tribute to the authors.
Vanessa Cooper could not be located for comment. Lacovara said he will probably ask her to meet him next week on the beach by Atlantic City’s Steel Pier _ the same spot where he found the letters.
_ Wayne Parry
Pro-evolution State School Board Candidates Win in Ohio
CLEVELAND (RNS) Ohio’s scientists laid down their test tubes and flexed some political muscle Tuesday (Nov. 7) as four pro-evolution candidates they backed were on their way to capturing or retaining seats on the state Board of Education.
In the race that drew national attention, Tom Sawyer, a former Akron mayor and 16-year congressman, was beating incumbent Deborah Owens Fink nearly 2-to-1 for a board seat.
“I believe the state Board of Education should have a far stronger voice than it had,” Sawyer said Tuesday night.
State board races are nonpartisan, but Owens Fink fell victim to a strong Democratic turnout and an opponent who is a former teacher and state legislator who once was chairman of the Ohio House Education Committee.
“In reality, it’s a very, very Democratic area and a tough place to be a Republican,” she said.
Like the bitter school board battles in Kansas last summer, the Ohio board races produced high drama. Voters were treated to the unusual sight of Kenneth Miller, a nationally renowned biologist, stumping like a ward heeler for pro-evolution candidates, and Pastor Ernie Sanders, an evangelical radio host, blasting Sawyer as a merchant of sin.
Sawyer was recruited to run for the seat by Help Ohio Public Education, a group of scientists angered by the board’s flirtation with intelligent design, which courts have barred from science class.
“We were looking first and foremost to raise public awareness, and these numbers were much higher than past years,” said Patricia Princehouse, co-founder of HOPE.
Three other HOPE-backed candidates appeared headed for victory Tuesday, but the group’s biggest target was Owens Fink, who was one of the most prominent advocates of a model lesson for 10th grade biology teachers that called for a “critical analysis” of the theory that life on Earth descended from common ancestors.
_ Scott Stephens
Quote of the Day: Baptist Center for Ethics
(RNS) “Several months ago, we asked … if Southern Baptists, who make up a large percentage of Tennessee voters, would vote for an African-American Baptist. The answer is a resounding and regrettable `no.’ … The voting booth may well be the second most segregated place in the South, behind the Sunday morning church.”
_ The Baptist Center for Ethics, lamenting the defeat of Senate candidate Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn. The Nashville-based center cited exit polls showing that white evangelicals voted 2-to-1 for Ford’s opponent, Bob Corker.
KRE/RB END RNS
