c. 1996 Religion News Service

Protestant, Jewish leaders back Clinton abortion veto

(RNS)-More than two dozen top Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian and humanist leaders Tuesday (April 30) voiced their support for President Clinton’s veto of legislation banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure.”We fully support the president’s action in standing with women and their families who face tragic, untenable pregnancies,”the 28 religious leaders said in an open letter to members of Congress.

The statement was the latest salvo in a high-stakes battle for public opinion between opponents and supporters of legal abortion that has been waged since Congress passed, and Clinton vetoed, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The bill would outlaw a rarely used procedure, known as intact dilation and extraction, in which a fetus is partially removed through the birth canal, an incision is cut in the base of the skull and then the brain is drained, causing the skull to collapse. It is generally used in situations where the life of the mother is threatened or the fetus is badly deformed and not expected to live.

On April 16, the eight U.S. Roman Catholic cardinals and Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, criticized Clinton for the veto, calling his act”beyond comprehension for those who hold human life sacred.” Monday’s statement was a direct response to the cardinals.”We know that some religious leaders have criticized the president for that veto based on their sincere religious beliefs that human life is sacred,”the 28 Protestant, Jewish and other religious leaders said.”You (members of Congress) should know that we, too, hold human life sacred, yet we respectfully disagree with this legislation.”In the case of severe fetal anomalies or threats to the life and health of the mother, people of faith are called to cherish the life of the mothers and others who are affected-the husband or partner, the children already living, and others-and to have compassion for a fetus who, if born, would inevitably suffer or die,”the letter said.

The religious leaders said they were convinced”that each woman who is faced with such difficult moral decisions must be free to decide how to respond, in consultation with her doctor, her family, and her God.” Among the signers of the letter were: Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church; the Rev. James Andrews, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; the Rev. Paul Sherry, president of the United Church of Christ; the Rev. John Buehrens, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association; Nan Rich, president of the National Council of Jewish Women; and Edd Doerr, president of the American Humanist Association.

In a separate but related development, the bishops’ conference made public an April 29 letter from Pilla to Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., in which Pilla urged Schroeder and Clinton to reconsider their opposition to the legislation.

Schroeder, a member of the United Church of Christ, is a leading supporter of abortion rights in the House. She had written Pilla after the cardinals’ statement to explain her support for the veto.

Pilla, in response, told Schroeder the controversial procedure”cannot be clearly distinguished from infanticide.” Neither the House nor the Senate has scheduled a vote to override Clinton’s veto. The bill passed the House by a large enough margin to override the veto but in the Senate the bill did not receive enough votes for an override.

Jewish group hails Methodist statement on Christian-Jewish relations

(RNS)-The American Jewish Committee has hailed a new statement on Christian-Jewish relations adopted by the United Methodist Church, saying the statement should serve as a model for other Christian denominations.

The statement,”Building New Bridges of Hope,”was adopted April 26 in the final hours of the United Methodist Church’s 10-day General Conference.

Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee and a columnist for Religion News Service, called the Methodist statement”a remarkable achievement.” In the statement, the Methodists repudiated the notion that Christianity has taken the place of Judaism in God’s favor.”While church tradition has taught that Judaism has been superseded by Christianity as the `new Israel,’ we do not believe that earlier covenantal relationships have been invalidated or that God has abandoned Jewish partners in covenant,”the statement says.

Rudin said the new statement”forcefully and unequivocally”addresses all of the critical issues in Christian-Jewish relations.”It has set a high standard that, hopefully, other Christian denominations and groups will emulate.”

Conversion costs coach job at Indiana Catholic high school

(RNS)-Jody Martinez, a Roman Catholic turned Baptist, has been asked to resign as a teacher and coach of the varsity basketball team at St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend, Ind., because of his conversion.

Bishop John D’Arcy of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, asked for and received Martinez’s resignation last week, saying that the coach’s leaving the Catholic church in 1991 when he married a Baptist woman was”in opposition to what we hold dear and to what we hold as coming from God.”For him (Martinez) to continue to teach here would be a counter-witness against the mission of our church,”the AP quoted D’Arcy.

Although many non-Catholics teach in Catholic high schools in the diocese, the bishop said the Martinez case was different because Martinez rejected Catholicism.

Nearly all of the 860 students at the high school walked out of classes last Friday (April 26), the day Martinez resigned as basketball coach, to protest the forced resignation, the AP said. Martinez will continue teaching until the end of the year.

In a statement released Monday (April 29), Martinez said he had not intended the resignation to become a public issue.”I never intended to hurt the credibility of his decision,”he said of the bishop.”I pray that this issue is finished and people can go on with their lives.”

Update: French priest withdraws support for `revisionist’ Holocaust book

(RNS)-After being criticized by church officials and others, a popular French Roman Catholic priest has withdrawn his support for a book that contends Israel exaggerated the number of Jewish deaths in the Holocaust to justify its becoming a nation.

Abbe Pierre, a popular advocate of the poor, said Tuesday (April 30) that he”in no way intend(ed) to question the horrible reality of the Holocaust and the millions of Jews exterminated simply because they were Jews,”the Associated Press reported.”I firmly condemn all those who for diverse reasons want to deny, falsify or render banal the Holocaust, which will forever remain a permanent stain of shame on the history of our continent,”he said.

Earlier, the 83-year-old priest, a former member of the French parliament, had defended philosopher Roger Garaudy’s”Founding Myths of Israeli Politics”as a work of”astounding and brilliant erudition and scrupulous methodology.”Garaudy, a former Catholic who has converted to Islam, said Israel has used the”myth”of the Holocaust to justify its mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs.

The book has been widely attacked as anti-Semitic and a revisionist view of the history of the Holocaust. Prior to the priest’s flip-flop-his third change of heart about the book since it was published in January-the French bishops’ conference issued a statement in which it said”the French church does not support the positions taken by Abbe Pierre”and”regretted and deplored”his support for the book.

Several French human-rights organizations and Jewish groups also criticized the priest.

Church of Scotland may scrap `God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ over language

(RNS)-A committee at work on updating the hymnal of The Church of Scotland will ask the denomination’s Governing Assembly to drop the Christmas carol”God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”because the song’s language excludes half the church-women.

The song is one of 200 hymns and carols in the church’s present hymnbook that the committee will ask the assembly to exclude from the new hymnal because of either”obtuse or outdated theology”or”exclusivity or obscure language.” The hymn committee said it was recommending dropping”God Rest You Merry Gentlemen”on both counts, the AP reported Monday (April 29).

According to the hymn committee, the use of the word of”gentlemen”slighted women.

Nigerian church leaders ask support for transition to democracy

(RNS)-A delegation of Nigerian church leaders visiting the United States said Monday (April 29) they want international support in their struggle to move the African nation from military rule to democracy.

But the church leaders said they oppose the use of general economic sanctions on Nigeria as a means of pressuring the Nigerian military to move toward democracy.”Once you put (on) sanctions, who are the people who will suffer?”asked His Eminence Sunday Mbang, prelate of the Methodist Church in Nigeria.”Not the rulers, but the common people.” Mbang and three other Nigerian church leaders are visiting the United States and Canada on behalf of the Christian Association of Nigeria, a 20-year-old coalition of Protestant and Roman Catholic organizations.

Mbang made his comments after meeting with leaders of the National Council of Churches.

Instead of general economic sanctions, Mbang said the international community should encourage Nigeria’s military regime, led by Gen. Sani Abacha, to hold free and fair elections as soon as possible.

Any economic pressure, the church leaders said, should target the leaders of the regime.

Nigeria has come under increasing international criticism since the Nov. 10, 1995, executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a noted human-rights activist, and 10 other dissidents.

In early March, the United States listed Nigeria as a major human-rights violator, and the Clinton administration has asked other nations to ban new investment in Nigeria.

Pope names Bishop Francis George as archbishop of Portland, Ore.

(RNS)-Pope John Paul II has named Bishop Francis E. George of Yakima, Wash., to be archbishop of Portland, Ore., Apostolic Pro-Nuncio Agostino Cacciavillan announced Tuesday (April 30).

George, 59, succeeds Archbishop William J. Levada, who earlier was moved by John Paul to head the archdiocese of San Francisco.

The Portland diocese, currently celebrating its 150th anniversary, has 269,744 Catholics in a total population of 2.6 million.

George, a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, was ordained to the priesthood in 1963.

Quote of the Day: Avram Davis, co-director of Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish meditation center, on mystical enlightenment

(RNS)-Avram Davis, co-director of Chochmat HaLev (Wisdom of the Heart), a Jewish meditation and spirituality center in Berkeley, Calif., writing in his new book”The Way of Flame”(HarperSanFrancisco):”(A) mixture of social responsibility and mystical achievement is characteristic of the Torah path. A person’s enlightenment cannot be measured outside of his or her relationship with friends, lovers, peers, children and community. There is an old expression: `If you want to know the spiritual attainment of your teacher, ask their spouse’-in other words, ask someone who sees them with their hair down.”

LJB END ANDERSON