c. 1996 Religion News Service
Jewish National Fund rejects money from Messianic Jews
(RNS)-After a outcry from its regional offices and several major donors, the Jewish National Fund, which raises money for reforestation and other land-related projects in Israel, reversed its decision to accept a $50,000 donation from two organizations that seek to convert Jews to Christianity.
The New York-based JNF said in a statement that it should not have originally accepted the donation offered earlier this year by the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. The money would have underwritten the planting of a 10,000-tree forest in Israel.”The Jewish National Fund, in response to a strong outpouring of protest from longtime friends and supporters, including its lay and National Rabbinic Council leadership, acknowledges that it made a mistake,”the statement said.
JNF had originally agreed to accept the donation with the understanding that the word”messianic”would not be used in connection with the tree-planting project.
A number of Jewish groups had also voiced dismay with the JNF for taking money from organizations they believe seek to convert Jews to Christianity by persuading them to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Messianic Jews believe one can believe in Jesus and remain a Jew by virtue of culture or ethnicity.
Joel Chernoff, general secretary of the Philadelphia-based Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, said Tuesday (May 21) that his organization still hoped to work with JNF.”I understand we’re shaking up the status quo and that for some segments of the Jewish people that will be threatening,”he said in an interview.
The MJAA is a membership organization that furthers Messianic Jewish causes. Chernoff said it has 2,700 members. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations is a congregational organization with 65 members.
Historic Washington church can be sold, court rules
(RNS)-The Washington State Supreme Court has blocked enforcement of Seattle’s Landmark Preservation Ordinance against a Methodist church that wanted to raise money by selling its 87-year-old property.
In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the Seattle preservation ordinance would impair the First United Methodist Church of Seattle’s constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
Dissenting justices argued that the ruling was premature, since the ordinance had not yet been enacted and was not ripe for enforcement against the church, which owns a half block of property in downtown Seattle.
But in an opinion written by Chief Justice Barbara Durham, the majority held that the state and federal constitutions guarantee that”if United Methodist decides to sell its property in order to respond to the needs of its congregation, it has a right to do so without landmark restrictions creating administrative or financial burdens.” The ruling, issued May 9, is the second major court decision this year to weigh the constitutionality of laws requiring the historic preservation of old churches.
In a decision in January, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the constitutionality of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires governments to demonstrate they have a”compelling interest”in enforcing any law that may infringe on religious rights.
RFRA was not an issue in the Washington case, which involved a church property in Seattle first built in 1909.
In 1985, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Board designated the property as an historic landmark. The designation barred the church from making any alterations without city approval-except for those that might be”necessitated by changes in the liturgy.” The church appealed the designation to a city hearing board, claiming that it needed to sell the building to raise money for its religious activities. The landmark designation would add to the church’s costs of renovating or selling the structure, which was deteriorating, the church claimed.
When the board refused to revoke the designation, First United Methodist sued in state court. A Washington court of appeal upheld the ordinance, but allowed the church to make alterations to the building, so long as any changes were”primarily for religious purposes.” The state Supreme Court vacated that decision. The First Amendment requires governments to show they have a”compelling interest”in enforcing laws that impinge on religious rights, the court ruled.
After the city conceded that landmark preservation was not a compelling governmental interest, the court ruled that the enforcement strategy recommended by the court of appeal would violate the church’s free exercise rights by allowing city officials to weigh the religious interests furthered by church plans to renovate or sell the property.”The free exercise clause prevents government from engaging in landmark preservation when it has a coercive effect on religion,”wrote Durham,”United Methodist has demonstrated that the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance … severely burdens free exercise of religion because it impedes United Methodist from selling its property and using the proceeds to advance its religious mission.” Victims of Uruguay’s `dirty war’ remembered
(RNS)-Led by human rights advocates, labor organizers and Catholic Church officials, about 50,000 Uruguayans marched through the streets of Montevideo Monday night (May 20) in a silent procession demanding to know the fate of people who disappeared during the 1970s “dirty war” of the military rulers of that time against leftist groups.
Demonstrators carried black-and-white portraits of more than 100 victims and placed flowers on the base of the Monument to Liberty, the Reuters news agency reported.
The date chosen for the protest marks the 20th anniversary of the killing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of two Uruguayan lawmakers who were human-rights leaders.
The military ruled Uruguay from 1973 to 1984. After democracy was restored the government granted amnesty to members of the military who took part in the repression.
Earlier date for Shroud of Turin?
(RNS)-Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio studying the Shroud of Turin said Tuesday (May 21) that the 14-foot linen cloth some believe to be the burial garment of Jesus may have been woven at the time of his death-not during the Middle Ages.
Revealing their findings at a meeting of the American Association of Microbiology, the team of Texas researchers said a microscopic layer of bacteria and fungi may have skewed the results of carbon dating of the shroud and other ancient fabrics by hundreds and perhaps thousands of years.”This is going to produce a big, big revolution,”Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes, a pediatrician and archaeologist who took part in the study, told the Associated Press.
Others were unconvinced.”We’ve been through this before,”said Paul Damon of the University of Arizona, defending conventional methods of carbon-dating that have found the shroud was woven between 1260 and 1390.
The shroud is enshrined in Italy’s Royal Chapel of Turin. The Vatican has never declared it a holy relic.
Catholic fired for refusing to do abortion-related work
LONDON (RNS)-A Roman Catholic environmental worker who was fired when he refused to test samples from clinical waste incinerators he believed were burning aborted human fetuses has lost his claim for unfair dismissal before a Manchester, England, industrial tribunal.
Stephen Clark, 31, lost his job at Greater Manchester Scientific Services after he refused to carry out on-site tests on emissions from clinical waste plants and laboratory tests on air samples from the plants. He had worked for the company for seven years.”As a Catholic it is against my belief, in the sanctity of human life, to undertake work of this nature,”he told the tribunal.”There is an exact analogy between what I was being required to do and the situation at Auschwitz.”
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Joseph O’Hare, president of Fordham University.
Speaking to more than 3,600 students at commencement ceremonies May 18 in New York, O’Hare addressed the issue of pluralism and academic freedom:”Is there not a special contribution that the Catholic tradition of relating faith and reason can make to the culture wars we are told threaten to tear American society apart? At stake is the soul of America, yet our society can seem hopelessly polarized by religion. Too often the voices who speak in this debate are voices from the extreme, who substitute accusation for analysis, who seek not to disagree with their adversaries but to excommunicate them, who suggest that religious passion cannot be compromised by the civility required for public discourse. … We must continue to renew on our campuses a more confident spirit of Catholic humanism. We should be more imaginative and positive in developing a Catholic vision of the human person and human relationships.”
MJP END RNS
