c. 2008 Religion News Service
Student apologizes for swiping Obama’s prayer
JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli yeshiva student has apologized for removing a personal prayer that Sen. Barack Obama inserted into the Western Wall during a visit to Israel last week.
“I’m sorry. It was a kind of prank,” the student, identified only by the Hebrew initial “Aleph,” told reporters Sunday (July 27). “I hope (Obama) wasn’t hurt. We all believe he will take the presidency.”
The daily newspaper Ma’ariv faces legal sanctions after it published the contents of the note, written on King David Hotel stationery.
Obama reportedly wrote, “Lord _ protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”
The note has since been handed over to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation that manages the holy site, which reinserted it into one of the wall’s crevices.
The removal of the note, known as a “kvitel,” deeply upset religious Jews around the world, who consider the Western Wall, and the prayers placed between its ancient stones, sacrosanct.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the religious leader in charge of the Western Wall complex, said the removal of Obama’s prayer was a “sacrilegious action” that “deserves sharp condemnation and represents a desecration of the holy site.”
The rabbi said that notes placed in the wall are removed twice a year, on the eve of the Rosh Hashana and Passover holidays, and placed “in a special repository for religious items, under supervision to keep them hidden from human eyes.”
Prayers placed in the Western Wall “are between the person and his Maker. Heaven forbid that one should read them or use them in any way,” Rabinowitz said.
The custom of placing notes between the stones of the Western Wall is ancient and is used as a means of expression by a person praying to his creator, Rabinowitz said.
_ Michele Chabin
Soldiers coerced at Baptist church, watchdog group says
WASHINGTON (RNS) A church-state watchdog group has asked the Pentagon to investigate a Missouri Army base that sends trainees to a fundamentalist Baptist church on off days.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused commanders at Ford Leonard Wood of supporting an event which the group says “promotes Baptist church proselytism.”
“I think that, in itself, it is wrong to have this kind of collaboration between the military and the particular church, using the military as a recruitment tool not for military service, but for Christian membership,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the group’s executive director.
The Lebanon, Mo., church has hosted the event for Fort Leonard Wood trainees since 1971. Before the evening church service, attendees can go bowling and make calls to friends and family on cell phones provided by the church.
Americans United alleges that soldiers are “coerced” into attending the event, where they are forced to sit through a church service and asked to accept Jesus as their savior.
The Army contends the program is voluntary and makes no secret of its Baptist affiliation. The program, formerly known as the “Free Day Away,” was recently renamed “The Tabernacle Baptist Church Retreat.” A previous investigation by the base’s inspector general concluded that the event did not violate soldiers’ rights.
“Do we say only Baptists can go? Absolutely not _ anyone can go,” said Mike Alley, a spokesman for the base.
Since April, trainees have been required to sign a waiver stating that they’re aware of the event’s religious affiliation, said Chaplain (Col.) Roger Heath.
“It’s just one of those things that’s an option for them to do, and it’s at no cost to the government, so it’s really a blessing for those guys to do that,” Heath said. “And if they don’t want to go, then they don’t have to.”
The number of off days a trainee receives depends on his or her training program, but some soldiers receive as few as one or two during their stay at the base. According to Americans United, soldiers who elect to stay at the base must continue to participate in training exercises and do not get the day off.
Tabernacle Baptist advertises the event on its Web site as the “largest ministry to the U.S. military in the United States” and declined to comment. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, the Rev. Don Ball said the goal is not to win converts for his church.
“I would never want to violate a person’s religious freedoms. If I do that, that gives someone the right to violate mine,” Ball said.
_ Tim Murphy
Dallas pastor C.A.W. Clark Sr. dead at 93
(RNS) The Rev. C.A.W. Clark Sr., a Baptist minister described as “one of the great black preachers of the 20th century,” died Sunday (July 27) at the age of 93.
Born Caesar Arthur Walter Clark, he served as pastor of Good Street Baptist Church in Dallas for more than 50 years.
“This is the passing of an era. We won’t see his likes again,” the Rev. Gerald Britt Jr., a vice president at Central Dallas Ministries, told The Dallas Morning News. “He was a master of the pulpit. He influenced generations of preachers.”
Clark, a native of Shreveport, La., was ordained in 1933 and served his first pastorate at the age of 19 at the Israelite Baptist Church in Longstreet, La., according to his church’s Web site. He became pastor of Good Street Baptist Church in 1950.
“Everybody who know anything about black Baptist life is familiar with C.A.W. Clark,” said Cleophus LaRue, author of “The Heart of Black Preaching,” in a 2006 interview with the Dallas newspaper. “He was regarded as one of the great black preachers in the 20th century.”
Ebony magazine listed him among 15 of the country’s greatest black preachers in 1993. It cited one minister describing Clark, then age 78, as “the most sought-after revival preacher there is.”
A preaching forum during the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention, USA, is named for Clark and is designed to help veteran ministers encourage younger preachers, said Yvonne Drayton, spokeswoman for the denomination.
His Dallas congregation was one of that city’s first black megachurches, The Dallas Morning News reported. In 1956, it welcomed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose father was a friend of Clark’s.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Church hosts drive-through prayer ministry
MT. MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (RNS) Hold the pickles, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, buns, burgers and french fries.
The only item on the menu in the Cathedral of Faith Church of God in Christ parking lot is prayers.
On Saturday (July 26), the church held its second drive-through prayer service, and dozens of people lined up for a few minutes of soul-searching. Volunteers held up signs that said, “Pull over for Prayer!”
Customers didn’t even have to get out of their cars. Those who pulled in filled out a form saying what they wanted to pray about and drove over to the other side of the church. Patrons rolled down their windows, and the Rev. Chris Martin or another minister held their hands and prayed while the cars idled.
Gail Liddell of Flint said she saw the signs and made a snap decision to pull in and pray for her 21-year-old daughter.
“She’s in boot camp in the (U.S.) Army. She’s stationed in South Carolina, where it’s, like, 100 degrees,” Liddell said. “She fainted three times from heat exhaustion, but this is something she really wanted to do.”
Sharon Hill of Flint said someone approached her as she was leaving a grocery store, and she decided to stop at the church.
“My (31-year-old) brother had a heart attack, and he just got out of the hospital,” Hill said, adding that she’s been lax about going to church and she wants to start attending again.
Martin said jobs, personal finances and health were the most frequent topics people asked to pray about.
“Taking the church to the people, to the streets, is what this is all about,” Martin said. “Praying inside the church and having services is nice, but the real problems are out here.”
_ Joe Lawlor
Quote of the Day: Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric
(RNS) “In world affairs today, the rule should not be the argument of force but the force of argument.”
_ Mustafa Ceric, grand mufti of Bosnia, who will participate in an interfaith conference of Christian and Muslim scholars at Yale Divinity School this week (through July 31). He was quoted by Reuters.
KRE/PH END RNS
