c. 1996 Religion News Service

Muslim Arab-Americans favor Clinton by wide margin

(RNS) President Clinton holds a double-digit lead over Bob Dole among all Arab-Americans, with Muslim Arab-Americans favoring Clinton by a margin of more than 40 percentage points, according to the first-ever national survey of Arab-American voters.

The survey, released Thursday (Oct. 10), showed Clinton leading Dole 43.4 percent to 29.6 percent, with Reform Party candidate Ross Perot favored by 6.5 percent of the 400 Arab-Americans polled. Slightly more than 17 percent of those surveyed remain undecided.

Muslim Arab-Americans _ more likely to be recent immigrants than are Christian Arab-Americans _ back Clinton by a margin of 57.5 percent to 14.5 percent, according to the survey.

There are an estimated 3 million Arab-Americans, about 1.5 million of whom are registered voters. Nearly a third of all Arab-Americans are Muslims. Another third are Catholics, predominantly Maronite Catholics. Most of the rest belong to Orthodox churches, generally Antiochian Orthodox or Syrian Orthodox.

Clinton leads among Arab-Americans even though more of them, 42 percent, are registered as Republicans than Democrats, 36.5. More than 21 percent of Arab-Americans are independents or belong to another party.

Nearly one third of all Arab-Americans live in the northeast, while 27 percent live in the upper midwest _ two regions of the nation that could be pivotal to the outcome of the presidential election.

James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, which released the survey, said at a news conference that the prime issues of concern to Arab-Americans are education, crime, drugs, health care, the budget and taxes.

While Arab-Americans maintain an intense interest in the Middle East _ particularly the Palestinian-Israeli peace process _ Zogby said Arab-American domestic political concerns show them to be”very much in the mainstream”and not”singularly driven by Middle East issues.” Zogby said Clinton has done more than Dole to solicit Arab-American _ and particularly Muslim _ support. Zogby also said Arab-Americans fear Dole’s Middle East policies would be more tilted in favor of Israel than are Clinton’s, even though they often criticize the president for his handling of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

The survey, which has a margin of error of five percent, was sponsored by the Arab American Institute and the London-based Middle East Broadcasting Centre. It was conducted by John Zogby, a New York pollster and brother of James Zogby.

Court case could threaten religious property tax exemptions

(RNS) Church-state attorneys say a Maine property tax case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could threaten the tax exempt status of all nonprofit groups, including religious organizations.

The justices heard oral arguments Wednesday (Oct. 9) about whether state and local governments may impose property taxes on traditionally tax-exempt charities that”principally benefit”people from out of state.

At the center of the case is a Christian Science summer camp that draws 95 percent of its campers from states other than Maine. The Town of Harrison imposed $30,000 in property taxes on the camp, arguing that local taxpayers should not have to subsidize an organization that primarily serves people from outside Maine.

Lawyers for nonprofit groups warn that the case could have implications nationwide.”If the camp loses, then revenue-hungry states and municipalities will have nothing to stop them from taxing the real estate of all but the smallest and most parochial charities,”said Steven T. McFarland, director of the Annandale, Va.-based Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom in an interview Thursday (Oct. 10).

McFarland said the threat would not be limited to property taxes.”Choose any tax you want; it will be open season for the tax man,”he said.

McFarland’s organization filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to consider the religious liberty implications of the case. The brief was filed on behalf of several Christian organizations that could be adversely affected by the decision, including the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities, World Relief, the International Union of Gospel Missions, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission and the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability.

Marc Stern, a lawyer with the American Jewish Congress, called the Supreme Court case”a harbinger of a growing resistance to state tax exemptions”for religious organizations.

Stern cited a ballot initiative in Colorado next month that seeks to impose property taxes on most charitable institutions including religious groups.”There are lots of (tax exempt issues) percolating around the country that could have serious implications for religious groups,”Stern said in an interview.

Evangelical caucus says Methodist denomination `in crisis’

(RNS) Good News, an unofficial evangelical caucus within the United Methodist Church, has accused the mainline denomination of being in a”state of confusion about its identity and mission”and called on United Methodist bishops”to adhere to, in practice as well as in teaching,”the doctrinal standards of the church.

The group, based in Wilmore, Ky., called all United Methodists”to repentance and recommitment to our Lord’s commission to make disciples.” In a resolution written at a meeting in late September, Good News board members said that bishops who were”unable or unwilling”to uphold church doctrine should resign.

Leaders of the caucus said their”Resolution to a Church in Crisis”was prompted by the growing United Methodist debate over homosexuality.”It represents an accumulation of concerns, particularly the action of 1996 General Conference, the 15 bishops that openly challenged the church’s position on homosexuality and the continued push for the `Reconciling Congregation Movement’ at every level of the church,”said Good News President James Heidinger II in an interview Thursday (Oct. 10).

The Reconciling Congregation Movement describes itself as a network of United Methodist churches working to welcome people of all sexual orientations.

Heidinger said United Methodist support for the movement”is creating a real crisis of conscience for evangelical pastors”who oppose the ordination of gays and same-sex marriages.

Good News board member Mark Tooley said in an interview that he and other board members”ideally hope the resolution will help the United Methodist leadership realize how out of touch they are theologically and politically with the majority of United Methodists.”Tooley directs UMAction, a separate organization affiliated with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

Baptist conference addresses religious right, ecumenism, gay rights

(RNS) The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, celebrating its 60th anniversary, heard speakers challenge the religious right, call for greater interfaith cooperation and question the need for laws that would abridge gay rights.

The religious liberty organization, a coalition including 10 national Baptist groups, held its conference in Washington, D.C., from Oct. 6 to 8.

John Buchanan, a former U.S. representative from Alabama, urged”mainstream”Christians to counter the message of the religious right, reported the Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.”I would rather be in the lion’s den with Daniel or the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego than in the tender mercies of the Christian Coalition,”said Buchanan, a Republican who was defeated in 1980 after being opposed by the Moral Majority, a precursor of the Christian Coalition.

Author and evangelist Tony Campolo of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., also criticized the efforts by religious right proponents to impose their views about homosexuality through law.”I can’t understand why Christians across this land are mobilized to pass referendums to deny gays and lesbians rights every human being (is) entitled to,”said Campolo.

Campolo said he personally has a”guilty conscience”about homosexuality and told the story of a gay high school classmate who committed suicide after being abused in a locker room while Campolo and others stood by.

Rabbi A. James Rudin, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, recommended that his organization and the Baptist committee develop a”theology of pluralism”to guarantee that people will continue to have religious freedom.”A theology of pluralism means to plumb the depths of our relations and to build a sturdy theological basis for what we have practiced in America for 200 years,”said Rudin, who also is a columnist for Religion News Service.

The Baptist Joint Committee named former President Jimmy Carter and journalist Bill Moyers recipients of its J.M. Dawson Religious Liberty Award, which recognizes individual contributions in demonstrating Christian commitment in public life and defending the separation of church and state. The award is named for the agency’s first executive director.

Eugene Stockwell, missionary and ecumenical leader, dies at 73

(RNS) Eugene Stockwell, an attorney who answered a call to become a missionary in the early 1950s and became a leader of the worldwide ecumenical movement, died Tuesday (Oct. 8) at his his home in Atlanta. He was 73.

His wife, Margaret, said the cause of death was cancer.

At the time of his death, Stockwell and his wife were at home on leave from their posts as short-term missionaries in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the United Methodist Church’s Board of Global Ministries.”In addition to his leadership skills, Gene radiated personal warmth and sustained friendliness _ gifts for which he was much appreciated in Latin America, where he ministered during several periods,”said the Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council Council of Churches in Geneva.

Stockwell served as director of the WCC’s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism.”Gene deeply believed that mission was a proclamation of God’s reign, of the hope for the whole creation,”said Jean Stromberg, director of the U.S. Office of the WCC and a longtime colleague of Stockwell.”For him, mission was not just an affirmation; it was a way of life.” It wasn’t always so.

Stockwell, born Sept. 28, 1923, in Boston, was the son of the late B. Foster Stockwell, onetime president of Union Theological Seminary in Buenos Aires, and Vera Lucille Loudon Stockwell, who taught church history and music and served as the seminary’s librarian.

He attended high school in Argentina and then graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1943, headed for a law career. He graduated from Columbia Law School in New York and was admitted to the New York State and Federal Bar in 1948.

But after a brief stint at a New York law firm, Stockwell entered Union Theological Seminary in New York. He earned a master of divinity degree in 1952 and became a missionary with the United Methodist Church, serving in Uruguay and Argentina.

From 1972 to 1983, Stockwell led the Division of Overseas Ministries of the National Council of Churches. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter named him to the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. He also served as an adviser to the United Nations’ Conference on Agrarian Reform in Rural Development.

Stockwell is survived by his wife and four children _ a daughter, Martha Stockwell-Goering of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; and three sons, William J., of Lexington, Va.; Robert F., of Atlanta; and Richard R., of Columbia, S.C.

Quote of the day: Roman Catholic theologian Sister Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham University in New York

(RNS) Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a Roman Catholic theologian at Fordham University ended her term as president of the Catholic Theological Society in June. In her last presidential address, Johnson spoke of the cosmos as”an astonishing image of God,”and said that in the ongoing destruction of the Earth,”one of the `books’ that teaches about God is being ruined”and requires a turn, or conversion:”As we turn, we will be looking for thought patterns that will transform our species-centeredness and enable us to grant not just instrumental worth, but intrinsic value to the natural world. … If nature with its own inherent value before God be the new poor, then our compassion is called into play. Solidarity with victims, option for the poor and action on behalf of justice widen out from human beings to embrace life systems and other species to ensure vibrant communion in life for all.”

MJP END RNS