c. 2008 Religion News Service
Hindus evicted from N.H. monastery
(RNS) A New Hampshire sheriff removed a group of Hindu divinity students, priests and children from what had been their monastery in Epping, N.H., on Friday (Jan. 4), according to one of their lawyers.
The eviction followed a foreclosure sale on the 100-acre property. But the former residents are now embracing a new vow: to recover their facility, known as Saraswati Mandiram, in court.
“Saraswati Mandiram is a tranquil, spiritual retreat that we have nurtured with love and dedication,” said head priest Pandit Ramsamooj in a prepared statement. “Now all of that stands to be destroyed because of predatory and illegal lending practices.”
The New Hampshire Supreme Court is expected to hear the case of the only Hindu institution in northern New England versus G&G LLC, a Virginia-based lender.
G&G contends the monastery defaulted on a loan, and lost the property in a foreclosure sale to the lender’s sister entity, G&G Epping LLC.
According to a December brief filed by Saraswati Mandiram attorney Joshua Gordon, the monastery received approval from G&G LLC in 2003 to borrow up to $2.4 million for improvements. Though the monastery needed only $1.2 million at the time, it later tapped its credit line with G&G to make payments after a damaging 2004 fire, according to the brief.
G&G soon thereafter charged the monastery with default and moved to foreclose.
“It’s easy to allege fraud,” said Chris Hilson, an attorney for G&G. “But the former borrowers haven’t made any payment on the loan since October or November of 2005.”
The Maryland-based Hindu American Foundation joined the monastery’s legal team in December. The group said the monastery “plays a central role in the practice or preservation of Hinduism” in the tri-state region of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine as well as neighboring Massachusetts.
“Especially in light of the problems in the mortgage industry today, alleged fraudulent lending practices imposed on a house of worship is compelling,” said Suhag Shukla, the Foundation’s legal counsel, in a prepared statement. “We hope sincerely that the court will take into account the severe repercussions that the loss of the only Hindu institution in the tri-state area would have on thousands of Hindus residing in the area.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Bishops take bets on Ohio State-LSU bowl game
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The Good Book states the battle is not always to the strong, nor the race always to the swift.
Episcopal bishops in Louisiana and Ohio nonetheless are betting on the power and speed of their opposing LSU Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes, inviting their flocks to join in _ with proceeds going to Hurricane Katrina relief.
Episcopal Bishop Thomas Breidenthal of Southern Ohio has offered to put up $250 for every Ohio State touchdown and $100 for every field goal in Monday’s (Jan. 7) Bowl Championship Series game. He is inviting more than 25,000 Episcopalians in his diocese to make similar pledges.
Breidenthal’s call went out to 82 Episcopal congregations, including those in Columbus, Ohio State’s hometown. Diocesan spokeswoman Richelle Thompson said the invitation will be widened to target Buckeye Episcopalians wherever they might be found.
In response, New Orleans Bishop Charles Jenkins has called on Tiger fans to pledge similar dollars for LSU points. That announcement will go out from 54 Episcopal pulpits Sunday (Jan. 6), but the call to ante up pledges is already posted on the Louisiana diocese Web site.
The bishops said all the money will go to Katrina relief, administered by Jenkins’ diocese in southeastern Louisiana. The Louisiana diocese raises money to buy goods and relief services in metropolitan New Orleans.
“St. Paul tells us we are called to outdo each other in doing good,” said Breidenthal. “Competition is sanctified when it does good things for communities and brings people together.”
In reality, the idea for the challenge came from a Breidenthal aide “who’s a big Buckeye fan,” Thompson said.
“Clearly, the Buckeyes are going to win. This is just going to make it a little easier for Louisiana to bear,” she said. “If you want smack, we’ll just leave it at that.”
_ Bruce Nolan
Orthodox Jews rally against plan to divide Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (RNS) Orthodox Jewish groups in Israel and the U.S. are intensifying their efforts to prevent the re-division of Jerusalem ahead of President Bush’s upcoming nine-day visit to the Middle East.
The groups’ campaign, launched just prior to November’s Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Md., is taking on new urgency because they fear Bush will pressure Israel for immediate concessions.
At Annapolis, Bush asked Israel for assurances that it was prepared to relinquish most of the territory it captured during the 1967 Middle East War. Prior to the war, the eastern half of Jerusalem was ruled by Jordan, which prohibited Jews from visiting their holy places.
The Palestinians foresee a capital in East Jerusalem, which contains the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, among numerous other holy sites.
“We cannot remain silent after the publication of the decrees of a tired prime minister and his shameful surrender to every American and/or Arab state,” the Judea, Samaria (West Bank), and Gaza Council of Rabbis said in a Thursday (Jan. 3) prepared statement.
The group is planning a protest at the entrance of Har Homa, a rapidly expanding Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, on the day Bush arrives.
On Wednesday, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America urged Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “to serve the cause of the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world, past _ present _ and future generations.”
Even so, the Union and other American organizations denounced what they called incendiary remarks by Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, a Chabad rabbi and right-wing political activist, who called Olmert a “terrible traitor who gives these (Palestinian) Nazis weapons, who gives money, who frees their murderous terrorists.”
Not all Jewish groups are against territorial compromise, however.
“The Jewish community in the U.S. cannot at this moment make things difficult for Israel, and it mustn’t tell the Israeli government not to compromise on the issue of Jerusalem,” Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, told the Israeli Haaretz newspaper on Dec. 22.
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Day: Julie Roe, Huckabee supporter from Iowa
(RNS) “I would tell them about Mike Huckabee and they would say, `Who’s Mike Huckleberry?”’
_ Julie Roe, talking about her early days campaigning for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee among her church friends in Iowa. Huckabee won the Iowa GOP caucuses on Thursday. She was quoted by The Washington Post.
KRE/RB END RNS
