c. 1996 Religion News Service

Grahams to receive Gold Medal on National Day of Prayer

(RNS)-Evangelist Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth, are scheduled to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on May 2, the National Day of Prayer.

The joint meeting of Congress will be held at 2 p.m. in the Capitol Rotunda to honor the Grahams, said Jack Cox, press secretary for Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. Attendance will be by invitation only, he said.

President Bill Clinton signed a bill in February authorizing the award, after it was passed by both houses of Congress. Taylor introduced the bill to the House of Representatives.

A. Larry Ross, spokesman for Billy Graham, said the evangelist and his wife were”overwhelmed”by the honor, which is one of the nation’s most distinguished recognitions.”We feel we don’t deserve it,”Graham said, upon first learning of the honor.”There are so many religious leaders that deserve it far more. We are deeply grateful for all the congressmen and senators who have had a part in it and to President Clinton for participating in it.” Both of the Grahams have been plagued by health problems in the past year. Most recently, Ruth Graham has been hospitalized with bacterial spinal meningitis.”We’re confident that her condition is improving and it appears likely that she’ll be able to attend,”said Cox.”That’s just something we’ll have to wait and see.” Since the 18th century, the medal has been bestowed about 100 times and is reserved for those whose achievements have had a significant effect on American culture and history. In 1995, the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidic sect, was posthumously awarded the medal.

Denver disc jockeys suspended after playing anthem in mosque

(RNS)-Three Denver radio personalities have been suspended without pay by their station after they played the”Star-Spangled Banner”at a local mosque where Muslim basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf sometimes prays.

The Denver Nuggets’ Abdul-Rauf last week was suspended by the National Basketball Association for refusing on religious grounds to stand during the pre-game playing of the national anthem, which he called a symbol of oppression. He changed his mind after missing one game, saying he would stand and silently pray.

The three station KBPI disc jockeys-Joey Teehan, Dean Meyers and Roger Beatty-walked into the Colorado Muslim Society’s mosque Tuesday (March 20) and began playing the anthem on a bugle and trumpet. Teehan wore a turban and an Abdul-Rauf T-shirt. The stunt was broadcast live.

Mosque officials reported the incident to the Federal Communications Commission. Mohamad Jodeh, the society’s president, said mosque attorneys were exploring all available legal remedies.”Music in a mosque is a defilement,”Jodeh said in an interview.”Just taking the trio off the air is not enough.” At a news conference Thursday (March 21), Christian and Muslim religious leaders said the three disc jockeys should be prosecuted for trespassing and committing a hate crime.

Abdul-Rauf converted to Islam at the Colorado Muslim Society mosque and still attends prayer services there on occasion, Jodeh said.

Jack Evans, KBPI’s operations manager, apologized for the stunt. In a statement, he said the”ill-conceived attempt at humor”showed”extremely poor judgment.”He also said the stunt had not been authorized by the station and that the three disc jockeys had been suspended indefinitely.

Official sees Methodism disappearing in Britain

(RNS)-If present trends continue, the British Methodist Church could vanish from Great Britain early in the next century, according to the Rev. Peter Barber, Methodist Connectional Church Membership Secretary in London.

Barber, writing in the English denomination’s publication, Methodist Recorder, said that in the past three years, membership in Britain’s Methodist church is down by 6.8 percent, attendance at worship down by 9.6 percent, and the number of young people under the age of 26 involved in the church down by 19 percent.

He called the figures”an institutional time bomb.””The one option which is not open to us is to carry on hoping against hope that things will improve,”he wrote.

At the same time, Barber noted that forecasts based on similar statistics of decline in the 1950s indicated that the Methodist Church would have disappeared by now.

There are about 1.2 million Methodists in Britain, the home of Methodism, which began in the early 18th century as a reform movement within the Anglican church.

Christian ecumenical leader urges broader view of Islam

(RNS)-The Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), says Christians in the West need to take a broader, more”differentiated”view of Islam.”Islam is a multi-faceted phenomenon, with spiritual, artistic and cultural expressions-and political expressions,”Raiser told Ecumenical News International, the WCC-based news agency.”But in the West it is mostly the extreme political expressions that are being seen.”This only reveals our lack of … knowledge of the Arab world,”he said.

Raiser made his comments after visiting Christian leaders in Egypt and Syria.

He said that while the threat of terrorism in the region cannot be ignored, Western Christians too often equate Islam with terrorism.

Raiser said that Islam is undergoing a renewal in its cultural and spiritual life as well as in politics. Christians must understand that renewal within the context of threats posed to Muslim culture by Western culture, he said.”The emphasis of Western culture on material values has left deep traces in the Muslim world, and is destructive to many of the very basic religious commitments of the Muslim community,”he said.”Therefore you can understand that there has been a reaction against the further spread of this `global culture’ of Western origin.”

Update: Tammy Faye Messner diagnosed with cancer

(RNS)-Tammy Faye Messner, former wife of television evangelist Jim Bakker, has been diagnosed with cancer that has spread to her colon, the Associated Press reported Thursday (March 21).

The report came one day after Messner’s husband, Roe Messner, was sentenced to 27 months in prison on bankruptcy fraud.”This development with Mrs. Messner was rather sudden, unexpected,”said Steve Joseph, a lawyer for Roe Messner.”They had to do a very fast surgery,”Joseph added. He did not say when the surgery was done or when the cancer diagnosis was made.

Joseph said Mrs. Messner will be”undergoing very aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy over the next six to eight weeks.”He said the prognosis for her recovery was good.

Messner, 60, a building contractor, built the Heritage USA religious theme park in South Carolina for evangelist Jim Bakker. He was convicted of five counts of bankruptcy fraud last Nov. 22 stemming from financial difficulties in the late 1980s that came in the wake of the collapse of Bakker’s religious empire.

Quote of the day: Beverly LaHaye, president of Concerned Women for America

(RNS)-Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington, has made opposition to proposals coming from United Nations-sponsored international meetings among its top public policy priorities. On Thursday (March 21), Beverly LaHaye, the group’s president, warned about the forthcoming June 3-14 U.N. Conference on Human Settlements which is expected to discuss ways to alleviate global homelessness and urban crowding in Third World cities:”The goal of this (U.N.) conference is to globally implement a left-wing concept called `sustainable development.’ Sustainable development is a radical economic-environmental agenda that limits the amount of food, energy, or general resources that citizens of a nation can consume. Rather than consume what a nation’s natural resources and economy will allow, `rich’ nations would be permitted to consume only what was needed to sustain life-which will be determined by the U.N. This philosophy directly opposes American free market principles.”

MJP END RNS