c. 1996 Religion News Service

Jews in China mark first communal Seder since end of World War II

(RNS)-For the first time since World War II, Jews in China were scheduled to come together to hold a communal Passover Seder, the Lubavitch News Service reported Wednesday.

The news service, the official news agency of the Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Jews, said it had sent two rabbinical students to Shanghai to conduct the service.

They brought with them 600 hundred pounds of matzoh, or unleavened bread, kosher meat, wine, prayer books and other provisions for the traditional Passover meal.”Passover is a time to transcend the limitations of time and space, so we will unite with Jews around the world in celebrating our redemption from Egypt 3,308 years ago,”said Eli Popack of Capetown, South Africa, one of the two rabbinical students.

Immediately after World War II, Shanghai had a Jewish population of 30,000 people, according to Lubavitch officials. Today there are fewer than 200. About 100 Jews are expected for the Wednesday evening (April 3) Seder, which is to be held at the Sofitel Hyland Hotel in Shanghai.

Dutch Roman Catholics begin petition drive for reform of church

(RNS)-Dutch Roman Catholics, following the lead of Catholics in Austria and Germany, have mounted a nationwide petition drive calling for reform of the church, including opening the ministry to women and making celibacy optional for clergy.

The Netherlands, which traditionally has had one of the most liberal Catholic churches, has 5.5 million Catholics.

Organizers of the drive said they were conducting the campaign in order to bring such issues as women’s ordination and priestly celibacy out into the open.”Of course we wish to collect as many signatures as possible,”Corrie Wolters, spokesman for the group, Kerk Hardop (The Church Aloud) told Ecumenical News International, the religion news agency based at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.”Our main aim, however, is to make people aware of these issues so that those who sign will be ready to state their opinion in public,”Wolters said.”Such a debate has been suppressed for such a long time by the leaders of the church.” Dutch bishops, in a statement, warned that the campaign could polarize the Dutch church.

Paper pulls”B.C.”comic strips because of religious content

(RNS)-The Los Angeles Times pulled the”B.C.”comic strip scheduled to run Palm Sunday (March 31) and may not run strips drawn for Good Friday (April 5) and Easter Sunday (April 6), according to reports.”We exercised our editorial judgment,”Ariel Remler, a spokeswoman for the newspaper told The Washington Times.”We’ve been running `B.C.’ by cartoonist Johnny Hart since 1968, but lately he’s been running cartoons with religious overtones.” The Palm Sunday cartoon shows one of the strip’s regular characters, Wiley, writing a poem,”The Suffering Prince”and making reference to a person being”cleansed by the blood of the lifeless knight.” The newspaper’s decision not to print the cartoon strip was sharply criticized by the Christian Coalition, the politically conservative advocacy group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.”The Los Angeles Times is enforcing a cruel double standard regarding the treatment of religion and people of faith,”said Ralph Reed, executive director of the Coalition.”The editors of the Times had no qualms running a political cartoon that insulted millions of people of faith by portraying Bob Dole as a crucified Christ and religious conservatives as his murders,”Reed said.

He was referring to a cartoon the newspaper ran last week by its in-house political cartoonist, Paul Conrad, which ran on the newspaper’s editorial page.”B.C.”appears in its comic section.

According to the Christian Coalition, the Los Angeles newspaper also refused to run a”B.C.”strip at Christmas. In that cartoon, a Christmas tree angel proclaimed the one-word message,”Behold.” The Times did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Update: Church again rebuffs biracial couple

(RNS)-An all-white Southern Baptist church in Thomasville, Ga., that last week backed off plans to exhume the body of a biracial baby from its cemetery, said Tuesday (April 2) it was not ready to grant the request of the infant’s parents to join the church or be married there.”He (church deacon Logan Lewis) said we had to wait a long time, let this all calm down and they could consider if that was possible,”church member Lila Wireman, the baby’s great-grandmother told the Associated Press. She had telephoned Lewis with her granddaughter Jamie Wireman’s request to join the church.”But he didn’t think so,”Lila Wireman added.

The Thomasville church has drawn criticism since church deacons said last week they wanted to remove Jamie Wireman’s baby from the church cemetery after they learned the baby’s father, 25-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, is black.

After the story made national headlines, deacons of the 200-member congregation decided to let the baby remain in the cemetery.

Wireman, 18, and Johnson have been living together for two years. Their baby, who was born March 18 without a completely formed skull, lived just 19 hours. She was buried in a plot in the church cemetery next to her maternal great-grandfather.

On Tuesday, Wireman said she wanted to join the church, have a church wedding and buy two cemetery plots for herself and Johnson.

Lewis said he had not received the marriage request from Wireman but said he had talked with her about joining the church.”I said, `Mrs. Wireman, I don’t think it’s the appropriate time for this because I don’t think there is any repentance in their heart,'”Lewis said.

Update: Retired military officials call for land mine ban

(RNS)-A group of 13 retired generals and admirals, including Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of Operation Desert Storm, Wednesday (April 3) called for”a permanent and total international ban on the production, stockpiling, sale and use”of anti-personnel land mines.”We view such a ban as not only humane, but also militarily responsible,”the retired military officials said in a full-page ad in The New York Times.”Given the wide range of weaponry available to military forces today, anti-personnel land mines are not essential,”they said.”Thus, banning them would not undermine the military effectiveness or safety of our forces, nor those of other nations.” The newspaper ad was sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, the coordinating organization for the American anti-land mine campaign.

The retired military officials’ endorsement is expected to give a major boost to the land mines campaign waged by a host of religious, relief, and humanitarian groups. The campaign has won the support of Pope John Paul II, the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, the European Parliament, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others.

An estimated 26,000 people, mostly civilians, are killed or injured every year by anti-personnel land mines.

Last month, The New York Times reported that the Defense Department is re-thinking its opposition to the ban. In the past, the Pentagon has opposed a ban on land mines arguing that they are useful in certain situations, such as protecting borders or important installations such as power stations.

On Feb. 12, President Clinton signed a one-year moratorium on U.S. use of land mines. On April 26, a United Nations-sponsored conference will consider amending international laws governing the production, use, trade and stockpiling of anti-personnel land mines.

Religious, peace leaders urge U.S. pullout from Panama

(RNS)-Fifty leaders of religious and peace groups Wednesday (April 3) called on the U.S. government to reaffirm its commitment to withdraw military troops from Panama by Dec. 31, 1999.”The U.S. military presence in Panama has a long history (of) serving as a platform for intervention in the internal affairs not only of Panama, but of the whole region,”the leaders said in a letter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.”As long as U.S. military bases remain in Panama, they will embody and reinforce this (colonial) dependence and dominance and make possible intervention for political gain by future U.S. administrations,”the letter said.

The letter was initiated by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an umbrella agency of religious peace and pacifist groups based in Nyack, N.Y.

The Panama Canal Treaty, ratified by the Senate in 1978, requires the United States to remove all military troops and shut down U.S. military bases in Panama by Dec. 31, 1999.

Last September, however, the United States and Panamanian governments began exploratory talks about maintaining some U.S. bases in Panama beyond the year 2000. No agreement has yet been reached.

In the past, some U.S. officials have argued that the bases in Panama could be put to use for the war on the Latin American drug trade and to provide jungle combat training for U.S. troops.

Among the signers of the letter were Jo Becker, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church; Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit; the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society; the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Kara Newell, executive director of the American Friends Service Committee; former Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White; Nancy Small, director of Pax Christi USA; and Ruth Benn, director of the national office of the War Resisters League.

Update: Hindus won’t shelter mad cows in India

The radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) has denied press reports in India that it suggested sheltering British bovines suffering from mad cow disease.

But a spokesman for the organization told Reuter news agency Tuesday (April 2) that the group has instructed its members in London to build a shelter for homeless and sick cows. The British government has proposed slaughtering 4.7 million cows suspected of carrying the disease.”We have given directions to our unit in London that they should administer medical aid to cows that have gone mad … and to build a shelter for them,”the unidentified spokesman said.

The group denied a report in The Asian Age newspaper that the council had offered to care for the ailing cows if the British government paid an estimated $1.5 billion in shipping costs.”There has been a misunderstanding or a communication gap,”the spokesman told Reuter.”It is impossible to think that we could bring them here.” Eighty percent of India’s 920 million people are Hindus, who consider cows sacred. The slaughter of cows is banned in 9 of India’s 26 states.

Quote of the day: Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, in an interview with Baptist Press, the denomination’s official news agency, warned against the current campaign to legalize same-sex marriages:”The attempt to legalize and thus legitimate same-sex marriage is a dire threat to the sanctity of marriage and the family. … We should never underestimate the power of law in American society to legitimate behavior. Vast multitudes of Americans, unfortunately, equate what’s legal with what’s right. That’s a truly impoverished standard of morality but a very prevalent one in our country. Same-sex marriage in such a society would be an unmitigated moral, social and societal disaster.”

JC END ANDERSON