c. 1996 Religion News Service
House passes bill to make food donations for hungry easier
(RNS) The House on Friday (July 12) passed legislation designed to make it easier for corporations to donate food to soup kitchens, food pantries and other groups helping the hungry and homeless.
The legislation, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, was named in honor of the late Rep. Bill Emerson, a Missouri Republican and longtime champion of helping to feed the hungry. Emerson died June 28.
The unanimous voice vote was taken just an hour before the House gathered in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for a memorial service for Emerson.
The bill would, if enacted, establish a uniform national law to protect organizations and individuals from liability when they donate food in good faith to help the hungry.”A business should not have to hire a legal team to interpret numerous state laws so that it feels comfortable in contributing to the hungry,”said Rep. Pat Danner, D-Mo., chief architect of the legislation.
She noted that because of the maze of liability laws, companies were refusing to donate excess food to charities.
She cited as an example Project Hunger, the annual summer food drive in Kansas City, which ran out of food because corporate suppliers did not donate as expected.”This year,”she said,”the contributions were only one-third of the amount collected last year.” Danner said the federal government has estimated that some 14 billion pounds of food are discarded each year by businesses.
During the brief debate on the proposed legislation, Danner praised Emerson as”a student of the Scripture and a tireless advocate in the war against hunger.”Three of the most important interests in Bill Emerson’s life were family, religion and feeding the hungry,”she said. “I know that all here will agree with me that there is no more fitting tribute memory than the passage of this legislation that will provide, by some estimates, 50 million pounds of food annually to the hungry.”
Democrats include abortion”conscience plank”in party platform draft
(RNS) While reaffirming their commitment to abortion rights, Democrats have included in their draft party platform a”conscience plank”that acknowledges that Democrats have differences of opinion over abortion.
The draft platform, written by party leaders meeting in Kansas City, Mo., calls abortion a”fundamental constitutional liberty.” However, the draft also states that Democrats respect”the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue.” Rep. Tony Hall of Ohio, who opposes abortion, said Thursday (June 11) that the plank shows”the Democratic Party is a party of inclusion … and we welcome all our members to participate at every level.”Hall said the party has”sent a signal to the millions of pro-life Democrats that our support is welcome,”the Associated Press reported.
Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, who chaired the platform drafting committee, told The Washington Post that the plank shows”clearly where the Democratic Party is, and it is … a pro-choice inclusive party.” The Democrats’ handling of the abortion issue stands in stark contrast to how the Republicans have handled what they call”tolerance”language on abortion for their party platform. As with the Democrats, the Republican leadership hopes to show that party members can disagree on an important issue and still be welcome.
However, religious conservatives in the Republican Party have objected to singling out the abortion plank, saying that would weaken the GOP’s firm anti-abortion stance. They have also noted that differences of opinion among Republicans also exist on other issues, such as term limits.
As a result, Republicans have been unable to agree on specific language for a tolerance clause.
The Democratic platform draft will be further revised and then sent to the party’s separate platform committee ahead of next month’s Democratic convention in Chicago.
Baptist World Alliance council offers support for Hong Kong Baptists
(RNS) The Baptist World Alliance general council offered its prayer and support to Hong Kong Baptists as they await the transition to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.”We are here to celebrate with our Baptist brothers and sisters in Hong Kong our love and appreciation for them and our solidarity with Hong Kong Baptists as they revert back to the People’s Republic of China,”said Denton Lotz, Baptist World Alliance general secretary. Lotz spoke on behalf of the 500 Baptists from across the globe who met in Hong Kong July 3-9.
Hong Kong Baptists said they were confident about their future, which they expect to be full of change, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”We face a new era and there are numerous challenges for individual Christians and churches,”said Cecil Chan, president of the Hong Kong Baptist Convention.”There are 1.2 billion people in China who share our culture and in less than 360 days, the barrier to spread the Gospel in China will be removed.” Hong Kong Baptist pastors and singing groups have visited churches in China to promote understanding and cooperation. Hong Kong Baptists, who speak mostly Cantonese, are being encouraged to learn Mandarin, the predominant language in China.
In addition to encouraging Hong Kong Baptists, the general council also addressed the issue of worldwide persecution of Christians.
The council passed a resolution about the large numbers of Christians who have been subjected to persecution, imprisonment and martyrdom.
The resolution called Christians around the world to”fervent prayer for the constant protection and power of the Holy Spirit in the daily lives of all believers everywhere who may be vulnerable to persecution.”
Christian communicators choose van den Heuvel as president
(RNS) The Rev. Albert van den Heuvel, a Dutch clergymen and longtime activist in the international ecumenical movement, has been chosen the new president of the World Association for Christian Communicators.
The Geneva-based group is made up of more than 800 members from more than 100 countries.
Van den Heuvel, 64, was secretary of the youth department of the World Council of Churches from 1958 to 1960 and head of the WCC’s department of communications from 1960 to 1967. Since then he has held positions in the Dutch broadcasting industry.
In an interview with Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, van den Heuvel, one of the founders of the WAAC in 1968 said that he regretted that conservative Christians in the United States who have used the mass media in very influential and political ways were not members of the mainline and more liberal WACC. He did not name any specific groups.”It’s not that I am eager to have this sort of thinking incorporated into the WACC, but it is a shame that these groups choose to set themselves apart,”he said.”Freedom of speech is a central principle within the WACC, something which is not exactly common in those conservative circles,”he said.”For new ways of thinking to develop, we believe that each side needs the other.” Van den Heuvel also said that people today”are searching for the roots of their moral, beliefs and the way they give meaning to life”but noted that his theological generation came”from a time when it was `not done’ to talk about them.””People of my generation,”he said,”have to learn once more to say loudly and clearly what they believe and clearly what they believe in _ not to strike at the other but to make real conversation possible.”
Quote of the day: Roman Catholic Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane on the minimum wage.
(RNS) On Tuesday (July 9), the Senate passed legislation phasing in a 90-cents per hour increase in the minimum wage. The House had earlier passed similar legislation but minor differences in the bills must be worked out before it become law. Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s domestic policy committee, hailed the Senate vote as a modest step toward economic justice:”As pastors, we bishops see the tragic human and social consequences on individuals, their families, and society when workers cannot support dignified lives by their own labor. The minimum wage needs to be raised to help restore its purchasing power, not just for the goods and services one can buy but for the self-esteem and self-worth its affords. … It is not all we want it to be; farmworkers, for example, become subject to the youth subminimum wage for the first time. Still, we hope that the bill moves quickly to the president for his signature. America and her workers need this raise and need it now.”
MJP END RNS
