c. 2008 Religion News Service

Religious freedom panel urges Bush to boycott Beijing games

WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal religious freedom watchdog panel has urged President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics unless “there is substantial improvement” in China’s treatment of Tibet.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said China must open “direct and concrete talks” with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism, before Bush attends the opening ceremonies.

If those talks do not occur, the nine-member commission called on Bush to first visit the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and urged Bush to request a meeting with Chinese political prisoners or dissidents during his visit.

“For too long, the Chinese have employed a `security’ approach to Tibetan Buddhism _ preferring repression, control of leadership decisions, castigation of the Dalai Lama and `patriotic education’ over freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion,” said the panel’s chair, Michael Cromartie.

“That approach is no longer viable; in fact, it is counterproductive.”

Tensions flared last month between Tibetans and Chinese forces after peaceful protests against Chinese control grew violent. On Sunday (April 6), the Dalai Lama called the recent violence the result of “pent-up physical and mental anguish of the Tibetans and the feelings of deep resentment against the suppression of the rights of Tibetan people.”

The idea of boycotting the opening ceremonies has been floated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. On Monday (April 7), White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters Bush still plans to attend.

The religious freedom panel called on China to end all “patriotic education” programs of Tibetan monks, allow open expressions of devotion to the Dalai Lama and repeal laws that say Beijing must approve new lamas.

“Religious freedom cannot be ensured without recognizing the authority of the Dalai Lama, his centrality to the beliefs of Tibetan Buddhists, and their steadfast loyalty to his leadership despite severe restrictions,” Cromartie said.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Hagee responds to `extremist’ slam

(RNS) The Rev. John Hagee on Monday (April 7) defended himself against accusations from the leader of the nation’s largest Jewish movement that he is an “extremist” who does not deserve support from U.S. Jews.

Speaking on a conference call from Israel, Hagee said that statements accusing him of making critical comments about the Catholic Church and being insensitive to Muslims were taken out of context.

The criticism came from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, in a speech last Wednesday (April 2) in Cincinnati.

“It saddens me that Rabbi Yoffie failed to exhibit the very (sensitivity) of which he spoke,” said Hagee.

Yoffie also charged that Hagee’s vision of Israel “rejects a two-state solution, rejects the possibility of a democratic Israel, and supports the permanent occupation of all Arabs now controlled by Israel.”

Hagee responded, saying, “Israel is not a vassal state of the U.S. They are a free and independent democracy whose citizens should determine their own destiny.”

He said that his lobby group, Christians United for Israel, does not attempt to force U.S. policy on Israel and only asks the government “not to press Israel to make concessions that she does not wish herself to make. We do not … seek to tell the Israelis what to do.”

Hagee, a San Antonio megachurch pastor and influential evangelical leader, angered some Catholics last year with his book, “Jerusalem Countdown” _ a book that some groups said linked the Catholic Church with the Nazi Holocaust.

Hagee has denied claims that he described Catholicism as a “a false cult” and a “apostate church.”

“I am deeply disappointed that Rabbi Yoffie could repeat this false charge without even bothering to check his facts. Had he done so, he would have found that I had never called the Catholic Church these names.”

_ Jonathan Rubin

New Orleans plans to downsize Catholic churches

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Archbishop Alfred Hughes is asking his Catholic flock, including those far from the flood zone, to prepare for a reorganization of Catholic life befitting a church deeply damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

In a letter read from nearly 140 pulpits at weekend Masses, Hughes characterized the 215-year-old Archdiocese of New Orleans as a “missionary diocese” after Hurricane Katrina. He said “all sectors will share in some of the sacrifices involved” in a massive restructuring plan to be unveiled Wednesday (April 9).

Hughes offered no hint of which churches might be affected, but said one new parish will be created, some will be merged, some closed and others reduced to mission status.

No more Catholic schools will reopen “at this time,” he said.

At the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church on SAturday, a representative of the Holy Cross fathers told parishioners that his religious order must leave the congregation it founded 129 years ago because it no longer has the priests to staff it.

“We do not have the vocations we used to have,” the Rev. Tom Chambers told about 75 older parishioners. “If we could have stayed, we would have stayed.”

Sacred Heart’s 84-year-old church, rectory and former school flooded badly after Hurricane Katrina. None has reopened since, and parishioners who returned to the city were asked to worship at a nearby parish.

Across the archdiocese, about two dozen churches are in similar situations: They are open in name only, their damaged church and school buildings shuttered and their parishioners attending designated neighboring parishes until the permanent recovery plan is announced.

Last fall, church planners asked pastors and their lay advisory councils to measure the health of their parishes and to consider their futures for the next few years in the context of their larger neighborhoods.

The archdiocese must chart a course through a post-Katrina landscape, with 20 percent of the region’s 491,000 Catholics still gone, some neighborhoods thinly populated and $120 million in uninsured flood losses to churches, schools and other buildings.

Moreover, archdiocesan officials said the church now must come to grips with a steadily dwindling corps of priests; church officials said they expect during the next five years to lose 18 priests from a corps of 136.

“We will move forward together with fewer priests, fewer churches, fewer schools, but, hopefully, with a greater evangelizing spirits,” Hughes said in his letter.

_ Bruce Nolan

NCC projects big costs due to global warming

(RNS) Global warming will force faith organizations to significantly increase spending on humanitarian efforts _ including refugee resettlement, feeding the hungry and disaster relief _ according to a new study by the National Council of Churches.

More financial resources and volunteer services will be needed due to global climate change, which is expected to increase the lack of food, shelter and water available, especially among the poor, the study said.

“Individuals or communities living in poverty in developing countries tend to rely on their surroundings more for their day-to-day needs,” said Tyler Edgar, associate director of the NCC’s Climate and Energy Campaign. “These people are more likely to go down to a local river or stream to bring water for their family. With climate change, those systems are extremely vulnerable.”

The report “Climate and Church: How Global Climate Change Will Impact Core Church Ministries” uses data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to quantify the financial effects of global climate change on church ministry efforts.

The NCC’s Church World Service and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, for example, will need to increase funding six-fold to support nearly 83,000 additional refugees coming to the U.S.

Also, in order to maintain current service levels, churches will need to double their spending on food security in developing countries and increase funding for hurricane disaster and relief by more than 40 percent, the study said.

The current trend indicates that over the next 30 years, more than half of all hurricanes will be category four or five. Faith communities will need to provide not only financial resources, but temporary shelters, meals, home and church repair volunteers, counseling, and medical aid.

“Our churches contributed over $150 million to Katrina relief alone. In the aftermath, we decided we had to do some hard financial planning for future humanitarian efforts.” said NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon. “If we, as churches, are to fulfill our call to minister to those in need, we have to wake up to the implications of global warming.”

_ Brittani Hamm

Quote of the Day: Author Michael Eric Dyson

(RNS) “What I find striking is that many white brothers and sisters miss the fact that there would be no black church if the white church wasn’t political and racist in refusing to worship with us.”

_ Baptist minister and Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, in an interview with USA Today. Dyson’s new book is “April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America.”

KRE/CM END RNS