c. 2007 Religion News Service

Watchdog Panel Urges Monitoring Iraq on Religious Freedom

WASHINGTON (RNS) For the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein, ongoing sectarian violence has earned Iraq a place among the world’s worst violators of religious freedoms, a federal watchdog panel said Wednesday (May 2).

Iraq was included with seven other countries, including Afghanistan, on a Watch List published in the 2007 report of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom. The list names countries that “require close monitoring” because their governments commit or tolerate religious persecution.

“Despite ongoing efforts to stabilize the country … successive Iraqi governments have not curbed the growing scope and severity of human rights abuses,” the report read.

Since the 2003 U.S. invasion, violence between the country’s Sunni and Shiite Muslims and between Muslims and non-Muslims has become a daily occurrence. The Shiite-dominated government has recently been accused of collaboration with death squads targeting Sunnis.

The watch list is the commission’s second, lesser tier of religious rights abusers. The worst are recommended for designation as “Countries of Particular Concern” to the State Department, status carrying the possibility of sanctions or other punitive action by the U.S. government. Eleven countries received that recommendation in Wednesday’s report.

A footnote in the report said three of the commission’s nine voting members felt Iraq should have received the more severe designation this year. Those three members were all appointed to the commission by Democrats; five of the remaining six were Republican appointees.

The 2007 report suggests the commission “may designate Iraq as a (Country of Particular Concern) next year if improvements are not made by the Iraqi government.”

But Commissioner Nina Shea, one of the Republican appointees, said the commission could change Iraq’s designation sooner. “We’re not going to be sitting on our hands about Iraq over the next year,” she said at a news conference.

Afghanistan under the Taliban and Iraq under Hussein were both listed as Countries of Particular Concern by the State Department before the U.S. invasions in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

The State Department’s current list of Countries of Particular Concern includes Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

The countries recommended by the panel as Countries of Particular Concern this year include Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The panel’s Watch List includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq and Nigeria.

_ Charles O’Toole

Canadian Bishops Say No to Gay Marriage _ for the Moment

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s Anglican bishops have essentially rejected the blessing of same-sex marriages but acknowledge there will be further votes on the issue when the church’s governing body meets next month.

The bishops issued an unexpected pastoral statement Tuesday (May 1) on the church’s Web site. The statement is based on a draft proposal they discussed in Niagara Falls, Ontario, last month at a meeting attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Not all bishops “can conceive of condoning or blessing same-sex unions,” the statement said. The “doctrine and discipline of our church does not clearly permit further action.”

The statement will be sent to delegates of the church’s General Synod, which meets in Winnipeg June 19-25.

“Where we are today _ not in June, but as of today _ our doctrine and discipline does not allow the blessing of same-sex unions,” Archdeacon Paul Feheley told Canadian Press. “So we’re acknowledging that’s where we are, understanding that that could change in June.”

Of the 41 active bishops in Canada, Feheley said a “substantial majority” voted for the statement. Only one Canadian diocese, New Westminister near Vancouver, continues to bless same-sex unions, he added, even though Canada allows civil marriage for same-sex couples.

The missive says it is “a Gospel imperative to pray with the whole people of God, no matter their circumstance,” and offers examples of “possible pastoral responses” to same-sex couples. For instance, a parish, with its bishop’s knowledge and permission, could pray with a civilly married same-sex couple and celebrate the Eucharist with them.

The bishops also say that no child should be denied baptism solely on the basis of the sexual orientation or marital status of the parents, and that no baptized Christian will be denied Communion or Confirmation for being in “a committed homosexual relationship or because of their marital status.”

Conservative bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion have expressed concern over steps taken by Canadian Anglicans and U.S. Episcopalians to bless same-sex unions. The U.S. church is facing a Sept. 30 deadline to promise to stop blessing same-sex unions or face unspecified “consequences.”

Also on Tuesday, Shawn Sanford Beck, an Anglican priest in Saskatchewan, quit rather than stop blessing same-sex marriages, as he was instructed to do by his bishop.

In an open letter in February, Beck called a church moratorium on the blessing of homosexual marriages “theologically problematic and fundamentally unjust.”

_ Ron Csillag

Report: States, Kids Need Congress to Step Up

WASHINGTON (RNS) State-level efforts to expand children’s health insurance may fail without substantial federal funding, according to a new report released Tuesday (May 1).

The report by Georgetown University’s Center on Children and Families found that since January 2006, 29 states and the District of Columbia either have passed or are considering plans to enroll more children in health insurance.

But those initiatives depend on money from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federal program up for renewal this year.

“If Congress drops the ball at this moment, it could lead to chaos,” the Rev. Cory Sparks said at a media briefing on the report. Sparks spoke on behalf of an interfaith coalition, PICO National Network, which co-sponsored the briefing.

Though Congress has proposed increasing the program’s budget by $50 billion over five years, the Bush administration has requested only one-tenth that amount for the same period. Federal spending for the program totaled just under $5.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2006.

Advocates say the program needs more money so states can enroll all eligible children. In 2005, more than 8 million children were uninsured, although most of them were eligible for federally funded health insurance, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.

The children’s health insurance program pays for health coverage for an additional 6 million children nationwide, through block grants matched by state money. It targets uninsured children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Under current law, states have broad flexibility to administer federal money for the insurance program; 18 states permit children from families earning more than twice the federal poverty level _ $34,340 for a family of three _ to receive coverage through the plan.

But the Bush administration proposal would restrict eligibility to children whose families earn less than that amount.

Bush’s proposal reflects some conservatives’ concern that the children’s health insurance program could provide a “back-door” approach to federally funded universal health care.

_ Charles O’Toole

Black Church Scholar Robert M. Franklin To Lead Morehouse College

(RNS) Black church scholar Robert M. Franklin has been named president of Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Franklin, 53, professor of social ethics at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, will begin his new position on July 2, succeeding current president Walter E. Massey, who is retiring.

Franklin served as president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of African-American theological schools in Atlanta, from 1997 to 2002. Morehouse is a historically black college for men whose alumni include the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin himself.

“In selecting Dr. Franklin, great consideration was given to the strength of his moral and spiritual character, his experience as an educational and administrative leader, and his ability to attract funds and friends to the college,” said Willie J. Davis, chairman of Morehouse’s board of trustees, in a statement released Monday (April 30).

Franklin recently authored the book, “Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities,” which called on black churches, colleges and families to combat gaps in education, health and income between blacks and whites.

“At a time of social crisis in African-American communities and throughout the nation, the educational mission of Morehouse is more urgent than ever before,” Franklin said in a statement.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Actor Kirk Douglas

(RNS) “When the time comes for me to be upstairs waiting for St. Peter to see me, I expect Jack to find me and bring me to meet the big man.”

_ Actor Kirk Douglas, eulogizing Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, at his funeral Tuesday in Washington. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

KRE/LF END RNS