c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Following is a collection of news stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports).

Colorado’s Catholic bishops distance church from Christian Coalition

(RNS)-Colorado’s three Roman Catholic bishops have sent a letter to the 200 Catholic priests in the state saying that the Christian Coalition’s Catholic Alliance does not represent”the so-called Catholic position”on policy issues before the nation.”We must say as strongly as possible: the Catholic Alliance of the Christian Coalition does not represent the Catholic Church,”the letter said.”The Catholic Church addresses issues of morality, justice, peace and human dignity”through the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and its social-policy arm, the U.S. Catholic Conference, it added.

The letter was issued by Archbishop J. Francis Stafford of Denver, Bishop Richard C. Hanifen of Colorado Springs, and Bishop Arthur Tafoya of Pueblo.

They wrote that the church may agree with the Coalition on issues such as abortion, euthanasia and pornography,”but we sharply disagree on issues such as welfare reform, capital punishment and health care reform.” Mike Russell, the Christian Coalition’s spokesman, said the Colorado bishops’ letter was”much ado about nothing.”He said the Alliance”has never made claims to speak for the Catholic Church.” The Christian Coalition, the conservative political action group headed by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, announced last fall that it was forming the Catholic Alliance as a means of bringing Catholics into the Coalition.

The announcement created concern among some members of the Catholic hierarchy and a number of religious orders and other Catholic groups. At last November’s meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the question of how to respond to the Catholic Alliance was raised at a closed-door meeting of the prelates.

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., told that meeting the Christian Coalition was seeking”the formation of a Catholic-Christian voting bloc”that would be on a”collision course”with Catholic teaching on several issues such as welfare reform and the death penalty.”It must be made clear that the Catholic Alliance does not speak for the bishops,”Hubbard said. His remarks were later made public and widely circulated as part of a response to the formation of the Alliance.

Religious groups challenge Oregon suicide law

(RNS)-A wide array of Roman Catholic and Protestant religious groups has asked a federal appeals court to uphold an injunction blocking Oregon’s assisted suicide law from taking effect.”The Oregon initiative is a direct affront to the sanctity of human life, with deadly and irreversible consequences for the most vulnerable in our society and their families,”the groups said in a friend-of-the-court brief.

The brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. It was submitted by the U.S. Catholic Conference; state Catholic conferences in Oregon, Washington and California; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; the National Association of Evangelicals; the Christian Legal Society; and the Christian Medical and Dental Society.

In November 1994, voters in Oregon approved a ballot initiative that permits a terminally ill adult to obtain a doctor’s prescription for a lethal dosage of drugs for the express purpose of ending his or her life.

After the initiative was passed, a group of doctors, patients and others filed a lawsuit in federal court in Oregon to block implementation of the law. The court issued an injunction, and the state of Oregon has appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit.

The religious groups’ brief argued that the issue is,”without overstatement, unprecedented in our nation’s history and jurisprudence.”No state until now has ever exempted an entire class of citizens from laws that protect everyone from deadly self-inflicted harm,”it said.

The brief also argued that”suicide … is not a constitutionally protected act”and that a person”can no more `consent’ to ending his life than he can `consent’ to selling himself into slavery.” A ruling on the case is not expected for several months.

Mormon leaders urged to step down from secular business boards

(RNS)-Top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) are being told to resign from the boards of directors of secular and some church-owned business firms on which they serve.

The decision, which church spokesman Don LeFevre said affects 91 top officials known as”general authorities,”was announced by the 9.3 million-member denomination’s First Presidency, the three-member leadership team that includes president Gordon B. Hinckley.”The primary call of a General Authority is his ecclesiastical responsibility,”a statement released by the church said.”Except for family responsibilities, all others are secondary to this.” In the statement, the First Presidency said that the growth of the church in recent years has created more responsibilities and demanded more time of the general authorities in their oversight of the church.

Leaders are expected to resign from the boards of church-owned corporations such as the media conglomerate Bonneville International and the Deseret News, Salt Lake City’s afternoon newspaper, as well as secular firms.

One exception to the new rule, the statement said, is Deseret Management Corp., a holding company for church-owned firms. Deseret Management is owned by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hinckley serves as chairman, and other general authorities make up the holding company’s board of directors.

Lutherans number more than 60 million worldwide

(RNS)-The number of Lutherans around the world totaled 60.1 million in 1995, according to statistics released by the Lutheran World Federation. That represents an increase of 400,000 since 1994 and 1.6 million since since 1993.

According to the report by the Geneva-based federation, the 7.6 million-member Church of Sweden is the world’s largest Lutheran church, followed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 5.2 million members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has 4.6 million members.

The United States has a total of 8.4 million Lutherans in various Lutheran denominations.

Germany, which also has a number of Lutheran bodies, has a total of 14.3 million Lutherans, more than any other country.

New Zealand Reformed body breaks ties with U.S. group over women’s issue

(RNS)-The Reformed Churches of New Zealand has suspended its”fraternal ties”with the Christian Reformed Church in the United States because of the American denomination’s decision to permit local churches to ordain women to the ministry.

The decision is one step short of a complete breaking of relations between the New Zealand and U.S. conservative Reformed bodies, which both trace their heritage to the Netherlands.”Suspension means we won’t interact like sister churches, yet we’re giving a strong warning that our relationship will have to be terminated if there is no change,”said the Rev. Bruce Hoyt, stated clerk of the New Zealand church.

The decision to suspend relations stems from action taken by the Christian Reformed Church last summer that permitted the ordination of women at the local level. The church’s synod voted to allow local groups of churches to declare rules barring women’s ordination to be”inoperative.”

Scientologists win court case on copyrights and cyberspace

(RNS)-U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Washington, D.C., has ruled in favor of the Church of Scientology in a copyright case involving a longstanding critic of the controversial church.

Brinkema, in a Jan. 19 ruling, said that church critic Arnaldo Lerma, a former Scientologist who lives in Arlington, Va., violated copyright laws by posting large chunks of Scientology scripture on the Internet.

The texts, written by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the religion, described Hubbard’s theories of cleansing humans of spiritual traumas.”This is a significant decision not only for the Church of Scientology but for all other intellectual property owners who were concerned that Internet anarchy would wipe out individual creativity, free speech and other core values that make the Net exciting and useful,”said Leisa Goodman, a spokeswoman for the church.

Lerma, describing himself as”absolutely speechless,”said he did not know whether he would appeal the ruling.

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