c. 1996 Religion News Service
National Catholic Reporter faces $30 million libel suit for labor story
(RNS) Briggs & Stratton, the Milwaukee, Wis.-based manufacturer of lawn mower and other small engines, has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the independent National Catholic Reporter (NCR), alleging the newspaper defamed the company and some of its top officials.
The suit, filed June 14 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, stems from a Dec. 2, 1994, article and editorial in the Kansas City, Mo.-based newspaper about the company’s announced plans to move 2,000 jobs out of Milwaukee. Among other things, the article contended that the firm”illegally”was expanding its operations in Mexico.
The article, by staff writer Leslie Wirpsa, and the editorial, by Tom Fox, editor and associate publisher, also said that the company’s president, John Shiely, its director of public relations, George Thompson III, and its labor relations lawyer, Tom Krukowski, are all Roman Catholics and attended Roman Catholic universities.
The article then quoted union leaders as suggesting that the firm’s business practices were inconsistent with Roman Catholic social teaching, especially the U.S. Catholic bishops’ 1986 pastoral letter,”Economic Justice for All.” NCR is a 32-year-old publication specializing in coverage of the Roman Catholic Church and ethical and social issues. It has a circulation of about 50,000. NCR has no official connection to the Catholic Church.
In the suit, Briggs & Stratton alleged that the comments about the company’s business strategy contain”false and defamatory statements”and that the article’s references to the Catholicism of the company officials was an”invasion of privacy.” The attorney representing Briggs and Stratton in the suit could not be reached Friday (June 28).
Fox said in a statement that the lawsuit”is without merit. There is no libel. There is no defamation. We think it is an attempt by Briggs & Stratton to muzzle its critics and to intimidate the press.” He said the newspaper”made several efforts”to get the company’s side of the story before going to press.”We offered, before publication, to travel to Milwaukee on a moment’s notice to meet company officials at their convenience. They refused to speak to us,”Fox said in the statement.
After the article was published, Briggs & Stratton asked the newspaper to print a 3,000-word letter rebutting the story and editorial. Fox said the company demanded that the letter be printed”without any editing whatsoever.”We countered that we would publish a shorter letter in our paper, but that it had to deal only with the issues and charges contained in the article,”Fox said. Briggs & Stratton refused, he said.
No date has been set for a trial.
Walt Disney’s Eisner calls Southern Baptist resolution”extreme” (RNS) Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner has called the recent Southern Baptist Convention resolution about boycotting Disney theme parks and stores”extreme,”while Baptist officials continue to criticize the entertainment company’s”moral leadership.” Eisner, who is also Disney’s chief executive officer, offered his first quoted reaction to the resolution in a Los Angeles Daily News article on June 24, according to Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”We think they’re a very small group of the Southern Baptists that took a very extreme position, which we think is foolish,”Eisner said.”They seem to have been off on a tangent this year.” Bill Merrell, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee, challenged Eisner’s reaction.”Traditional family values are neither, as Mr. Eisner suggests, a `tangent’ or an `extreme,'”Merrell said.”Disney Company has been the trusted friend of families for decades. But that well-earned trust and the carefully nurtured image as a trustworthy provider of family entertainment is at risk.” On June 12, delegates to the annual meeting of the 15.6 million-member denomination overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Baptists to”boycott the Disney theme parks and stores if they continue this anti-Christian and anti-family trend.” The resolution cited the company’s decision to extend health-care benefits to partners of gay employees and”objectionable material”such as”Priest,”a film about a gay Roman Catholic cleric that was distributed by Miramax, a Disney subsidiary.
South Carolina council prompts”Sabbath of Support”for burned churches
(RNS) A South Carolina church council’s concept to make this weekend (June 28-30) a”Sabbath of Support”for burned and vandalized houses of worship has been adopted by interfaith and ecumenical councils across the country.
Efforts by the South Carolina Christian Action Council in Columbia, S.C., will begin with weekend observances in response to the series of fires, vandalism and other race-based hate crimes that have been directed against African-American churches and other houses of worship. The council also plans long-term projects to help with reconstruction.”This is the time when we will pray for those suffering from burning of houses of worship and call for efforts to overcome hatred, violence and racism,”said the Rev. L. Wayne Bryan, executive director of the council.
United Methodist Church officials have asked their churches across the globe to observe the special sabbath. Leaders of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ have asked their churches to hang a charred piece of lumber near the front door of the church so worshipers will have a visual reminder about suffering and solidarity. The Washington (State) Association of Churches plans to sponsor vigils Saturday (June 29) evening where representatives of one congregation will stand on the property of another house of worship to foster relationships between congregations.
In a related matter, the presidents of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, two Catholic umbrella groups of religious orders, have expressed sympathy to African-Americans whose churches have burned.”We Catholic religious of the U.S. take the occasion of this expression of our sorrow and outrage to call for a new and clear focus in this campaign year on remedying racial injustice and undoing the damage of the past wrongs of racism,”the organizations’ leaders said in a statement.
Selling Sin: Denver church markets its Hellhouse
(RNS) An Assembly of God congregation in Denver that attracted national media coverage for its controversial Halloween drama called”Hellhouse”is now marketing the production to other churches.
Hellhouse, taking its cue from a haunted house, offers a gory dramatization of an abortion, a teen suicide and a depiction of hell, complete with putrid smells. It is meant to frighten young people away from what the church considers sin.
The Rev. Keenan Roberts, youth pastor at Abundant Christian Life Center in the Denver suburb of Arvada and writer-director of Hellhouse, says the church is selling a how-to kit of the production for $149. For another $15, the church will throw in a compact disc of the audio sounds of Hellhouse.
According to Roberts, the church has already sold 40 of the kits, following promotional mailing to 100,000 churches and pastors.”God allowed this to happen for his glory and honor,”Roberts said.”And we needed to cultivate it and share something with such a radical impact. We want to shake other cities like we did Denver.” Last year’s production drew 5,000 people over five nights. The church charged $5 per person and put its production costs at $8,000.
Critics of the show said it preached a distorted view of Christianity, wallowing in hellfire, damnation and bigotry instead of showing the love and compassion of Jesus.
But Roberts said the show, which ends with a depiction of the glories of heaven, had to be tough to show the penalty of sin.
Two regional Methodist groups say they welcome gays and lesbians
(RNS) Despite the reaffirmation of the United Methodist Church’s teaching that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, two regional Methodist bodies have adopted resolutions welcoming gays and lesbians into their churches.
The Wisconsin and the Oregon-Idaho conferences adopted resolutions during their annual meetings earlier this month formally becoming”reconciling”conferences committed to accepting persons of all sexual orientation and to working toward the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church.
The action, according to a leading gay-rights supporter, stands in sharp contrast with actions taken by the 8.6 million-member denomination’s General Conference that met in Denver in April. The General Conference voted to uphold church policy declaring homosexuality”incompatible with Christian teaching.””While the General Conference attempted to perpetuate the illusion that the church is of one mind _ that United Methodists unequivocally find homosexuality immoral _ an every growing number of congregations and conferences across the country are moving to welcome lesbians and gays,”said the Rev. Mark Bowman, national coordinator of the Reconciling Congregation Program.
The program is a network of churches, conferences and agencies that officially express their acceptance of gays and lesbians.
One conference, the Desert Southwest conference, defeated a motion to become a reconciling conference by eight votes. Two others _ the California-Pacific and New England conferences _ established processes to allow votes on the issue next year. Four conferences are already members of the network.
In other actions related to gays and lesbians during the June round of annual conference meetings, the Missouri East conference agreed to study becoming a reconciling conference during the coming year at the local and district level, and the North Georgia conference urged its delegation in the U.S. Congress to adopt legislation that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace.
Retired banker named interim coordinator of moderate Baptist group
(RNS) A retired Atlanta banker has been chosen as interim coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship because a search committee has not completed its work to replace the moderate Baptist group’s retiring coordinator.
Tommy Boland, 61, retired chairman of Wachovia Bank of Georgia, will replace Cecil Sherman, reported the Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service. Sherman, the fellowship’s first coordinator, retires June 30.
A search committee had hoped to have a candidate for the new coordinator by its general assembly, which opened Thursday (June 27) in Richmond, Va. The job had been offered to Houston pastor Daniel Vestal, who turned it down, saying he did not”believe it is God’s will for me to be the coordinator.” Boland, a member of an Alpharetta, Ga., church, is a member of the group’s Coordinating Council.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed in 1991 to oppose the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention that began in the 1980s.
Sherman was honored Wednesday (June 26) for his work with moderate Baptists in general and the fellowship in particular. He told a crowd of about 700 that he is thankful now that circumstances led to the creation of the fellowship.”I don’t know how we’d have ever gotten together if we hadn’t lost in the SBC,”he said.”I’m sort of grateful for things I used to dread.” He said the moderates’ fight against conservatives has”led to friendships and it led to rethinking Baptist ideas and a new commitment to missions at a level that I never thought I would know.”
Southern Baptist mission board denounces Kuwaiti Christian sentencing
(RNS) The Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board Thursday (June 27) condemned a Kuwaiti Islamic court’s decision finding a convert to Christianity guilty of apostasy.
In its May 29 decision, the court also said the Christian, Robert Hussein, should be put to death, but the court does not have the power to officially impose the death sentence. Hussein is reportedly in hiding.
Foreign Mission Board President Jerry Rankin called the ruling a”miscarriage of justice.””We find it ironic that the very freedoms American soldiers sought to protect in the Gulf War are being violated through this ruthless act of intimidation by those who most benefited from our involvement in the war,”Rankin said.
The trial arose when Hussein’s estranged wife began divorce proceedings because of the conversion. In February, the court ruled that Hussein should lose custody of their two children, four homes he owned, his contracting business and about $4 million in assets and inheritance. It gave him until May to repent of his conversion to Christianity. He refused, prompting the May 29 ruling.
Catholic archbishop sees devil worship taking root in Kenya
(RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima of the archdiocese of Nyeri says that devil worshiping is taking place in Kenya”because people have allowed wrongdoing to become a standard way of life.” Kirima headed Kenya’s Devil Worship Probe Committee appointed two years ago by President Daniel arap Moi after Kenyan churches complained that devil worshiping cults were springing up in the country.
In an interview with the All Africa Press Service, an agency of the ecumenical Africa Church Information Service based in Nairobi, Kenya, Kirima said the investigation”allowed me to find some answers to my personal questions on the matter,”but he refused to discuss the probe’s findings until they are released by the government.
Kirima said doing good is the antidote to the problem of devil worship.”We are preaching this doctrine everywhere,”he said.”Be kind, be upright, love your neighbor.”
Quote of the Day: Evangelist Billy Graham
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham spoke at his recent Minneapolis crusade about the importance of marriage and the two-parent family:”One reason that our homes are disintegrating and in such trouble is because we are not following God’s laws and regulations concerning marriage. We have so many families in America today that need the father or mother that has gone. They need a two-parent family _ that’s the way God created marriage. You stay together for the children alone, if that’s all it is.”
MJP END RNS
