c. 1996 Religion News Service

Children’s Sabbath to be marked across the nation

(RNS) In Alaska, members of Fairbanks Lutheran Church will pray for each child in their community by name. In Florida, sixth-graders at the Hebrew School of Temple Judea in West Palm Beach will raise money for a shelter for abused children. In Forest City, Ark., 80 congregations from six denominations will join in an interfaith worship service.

These are a few of the estimated 20,000 religious congregations that will mark the 5th annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths this weekend (Oct. 18-20).

“Children’s Sabbath is a way of setting aside a time when people of faith can ask, `What can I do for children?”’ said Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Children’s Defense Fund and the main initiator of Children’s Sabbaths.

“People of faith are beginning to stand up to the plate on behalf of children,” she added.

Throughout the weekend, churches, synagogues and mosques will hold special services, educational programs and outreach activities.

This year’s observance is closely related to the June 1 “Stand for Children” demonstration in Washington, sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund in an effort to encourage public policy to reduce child poverty, make streets and schools safer, and improve access to health care for children.

“At a time when this country has shamelessly dismantled the safety net for our children and is pushing over 1 million more children into poverty, the religious community must redouble its efforts to stand up for children and join with the community at large to build a movement so powerful that no child is left behind,” Edelman said.

The Children’s Sabbath also will be used to direct attention to the upcoming presidential election, although Edelman said she is “wary of the attempt to tie God to any particular ideological agenda.”

“We have to go out and vote,” she said. “But we have to ask, does my faith square with efforts” to cut programs for the poor. “Democracy is not a spectator sport and we have to ask if the people we’re voting for really care about children.”

Edelman said that at the grassroots level, there “is one overarching concern the fear of violence” against children. She noted that every day in the United States 13 children are homocide victims and 15 are killed by firearms.

Other concerns are to strengthen parents and parenting.

“The key is to give children a healthy start, a safe start, a moral start,” Edelman said. “And the religious community is a key part of it all.”

Supreme Court considers `bubble zone’ for abortion protesters

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday (Oct. 16) about whether anti-abortion protesters can be required to stay at least 15 feet away from women entering abortion clinics.

At issue in the case, Schenck vs. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, is the constitutionality of a court order that imposed a 15-foot “bubble zone” around abortion clinics and clients. Under the court order, “sidewalk counselors” attempting to persuade women not to have abortions must stay at least 15 feet away from clinic entrances and driveways and must immediately back off if the women say they do not want to be bothered.

A federal appeals court upheld the bubble zone, ruling that the First Amendment does not protect “coercive or obstructionist conduct.”

Jay Sekulow, attorney for the protesters, urged the justices to overturn the zone as a violation of free speech.

“It is essential that pro-life citizens are permitted to address the issue of abortion in the public arena without the fear of censorship,” said Sekulow.

The U.S. Constitution “protects speech you may not agree with or speech you don’t want to hear,” added Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which is located on the campus of Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

However, Lucinda M. Finley, attorney for the Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, told the justices that the activities of the protesters went beyond free speech. She said the zone was legitimate to stop “illegal harassment, intimidation, obstruction and trespass” at abortion clinics, the Associated Press reported.

Kathleen Cleaver, a lawyer for the conservative Family Research Council which opposes the bubble zones, said the court’s ruling in the case, expected sometime before July, is “crucial” for the anti-abortion movement.

“A victory … is crucial to show that the First Amendment is not a promise only for the politically correct, and that the rights of … pro-life Americans are not trashed.”

Arthur O. Van Eck, National Council of Churches “Bible man,” retires

(RNS) Some people get a watch and a pat on the back when they retire. But the Rev. Arthur O. Van Eck’s retirement present was 10,000 copies of the Bible, even if he can’t take them home with him.

The 10,000 Bibles are the first printing of the New Revised Standard Version Common Bible, the newest edition of the NRSV. Four years in the making, it is called the Common Bible because it has been officially endorsed for use by Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Van Eck, 71, retired from his post as director of Bible Translation and Utilization at the National Council of Churches with the publication of the Common Bible.

He calls the Common Bible a “scriptural bridge” that is “unique in offering a single approved text arranged in such a way that it can be used throughout the church.”

The sometimes delicate negotiations that led to the Bible’s approval by the diverse bodies representing the three major strands of Christianity were largely in Van Eck’s hands.

Van Eck, an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America, also played a key role in bringing the NRSV the fruit of a 16-year effort by a 30-member committee of Bible scholars to publication in 1990.

“When I hold a copy of the NRSV in my hands, I often think of the tremendous job that Arthur van Eck has done to launch this translation,” said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the NCC. “He was the chief administrator at a critical period in this great translation and publishing effort, a role to which he brought the dedication, keen insight and sense of diplomacy that have characterized his entire career.”

Van Eck, already known as an expert in Christian education, joined the NCC in 1982 and was its director of Education for Christian Life and Mission, staffing the Committee on the Uniform Series, the 124-year-old committee that develops the Uniform Lesson series, the most widely used form of Bible study among Protestant churches.

Before joining the NCC, Van Eck served for two decades on the national staff of the Reformed Church in America, working in the areas of Christian education and family ministries.

Judge indicates cash settlement in Scientology case

(RNS) The Church of Scientology is claiming “total victory” after a federal judge indicated she will likely award the church $2,500 in its lawsuit against a former member who posted copyrighted Scientology texts on the Internet.

In a written ruling filed Oct. 4, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said she intends to instruct former Scientologist Arnaldo Lerma to pay the church $2,500 in damages for violating copyright law by distributing secret Scientology materials over the Internet, the Associated Press reported.

Brinkema originally ruled in the church’s favor in January in a case that was closely watched by the computer industry.

Lerma had argued that putting the texts on international computer bulletin boards was “fair use” of the material. However, in her written ruling, Brinkema said if that were the case, then “cyberbandits” would be allowed to “cover their tracks” for all types of copyright infringements.

In designating the modest award, Brinkema noted that Lerma is “suffering financial hardship.”

Scientology officials were still pleased by the ruling.

“It’s a win on every score,” said Church of Scientology International President Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch. “Our copyrights were validated, our right to enforce them was upheld, the infringements were found to be just that, the defendant and his arguments were totally discredited, and our copyrights are safe from abuse on the Internet just as they are in bookstores and newsstands,” said Jentzsch.

The Church of Scientology was founded in 1955 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Quote of the day: author and former judge Robert H. Bork

(RNS) In his new book, “Slouching Towards Gomorrah” (Regan Books), former judge Robert H. Bork discusses what he sees as a decline in American culture in light of modern liberalism that asserted itself fully during the 1960s.

In a chapter entitled “The Trouble in Religion,” Bork explains why he believes the nation has nothing to fear from religious conservatives entering the political realm:

“The fear of religion in the public arena is all too typical of Americans, and particularly the intellectual class, today. Religious conservatives cannot `impose’ their ideas on society except by the usual democratic methods of trying to build majorities and passing legislation. In that they are no different from any other group of people with ideas of what morality requires. All legislation `imposes’ a morality of one sort or another, and, therefore … all law would seem to be antithetical to pluralism.”

MJP END RNS

AP-NY-10-16-96 1748EDT