c. 1997 Religion News Service
Religious leaders urge Congress to oppose physician-assisted suicide
(RNS) Religious leaders from across the theological spectrum Thursday (March 6) urged Congress to take steps to prevent the spread of physician-assisted suicide. “There are alternative solutions to the problems which assisted suicide purports to solve _ solutions which do not demean human life or place pressure on helpless patients to end their lives,”said Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston at a congressional subcommittee hearing on the ethical, legal and social implications of assisted suicide.
The hearing, sponsored by the House Commerce Subcommittee on Health and Environment, focused on the”Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997,”a bill that would prohibit federally funded health programs from participating in assisted suicide.
Law, chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was among several witnesses urging passage of the bill.”Federal health programs are designed to support and enhance life, not to destroy it,”he said.
Rabbi A. James Rudin, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee and a columnist for RNS, expressed concern that any measures legalizing assisted suicide would not be practiced equally.”In the real medical world, the first people who will be assisted in ending their lives will be the poor, those without family or friends, the elderly, the disabled and uninsured patients who cannot pay for their medical treatments,”he said.
Rudin is a founding member of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, which has taken a unanimous public position against the legalization of assisted suicide.
Other religious leaders presenting testimony included the Rev. David L. Adams, executive director of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Rev. Stanley Harakas of the Greek Orthodox Church.
But Cornelius Baker, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, urged Congress not to interfere with the terminally ill who”seek to die a good and graceful death in the company of a caring physician and loved ones.” According to Baker,”The act of dying for a terminally ill person is a uniquely private and many times painful experience to which the government should not place additional burden or hardship. Restricting physician and other medical care that is federally supported would do so.”
Jewish leader wants $150 million to aid non-Orthodox in Israel
(RNS) The chancellor of Conservative Judaism’s flagship seminary has suggested that as much as $150 million in U.S. Jewish charitable donations be specifically earmarked for non-Orthodox institutions in Israel in retaliation for Orthodox attempts to legally monopolize conversions in the Jewish state.”What I have in mind is an unprecedented effort to change the religious landscape of Israel by massive funding from America of the cause of religious pluralism,”said Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, who heads the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
Schorsch’s suggestion marks the latest round in an ongoing dispute between Israel’s Orthodox establishment and non-Orthodox Jewish religious movements based in the United States. Orthodox political parties have introduced legislation that would outlaw all non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism in Israel, where they largely control Jewish religious life. The bill would not affect conversions performed outside Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who needs Orthodox political backing to maintain his ruling coalition, has announced his support for the legislation. That has angered Schorsch and other U.S. Conservative and Reform leaders who view the bill and Netanyahu’s stand as insulting.
Conservative and Reform Jews account for about 90 percent of religiously affiliated American Jews, but their numbers are small, although growing, in Israel.
In a memo sent to Jewish leaders and the media, Schorsch suggested that”a sum of $100-$150 million”be taken”off the top”of the $750 million raised annually by local Jewish federation groups and sent directly to Israel’s Conservative and Reform movements to bolster their outreach programs.
Schorsch, the 1.5 million-member Conservative movement’s most visible leader, said his intent”is to level the playing field in Israel as quickly as possible.” Jewish federations are non-religious communal groups encompassing all Jews. They raise charitable funds primarily for social service and community outreach programs. Conservative and Reform Jews account for the bulk of the federation donors.
A large percentage of the federations’ income _ $277 million during the 1995-96 fiscal year _ is voluntarily sent to Israel to support various programs operated by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.
Shira Dicker, a spokeswoman for Schorsch, said Thursday (March 6) the chancellor is not suggesting that Jewish Agency funds be withheld.
Frank Strauss, a spokesman for the Council of Jewish Federation, the national umbrella agency for some 189 local federations, said it’s up to individual federations to decide whether they want to adopt Schorsch’s suggestion.
In his memo, Schorsch was also indirectly critical of Netanyahu.
Without naming the prime minister, Schorsch said”if Israel is to remain the epicenter of the Jewish world, then its government must come to recognize the responsibilities that come with that sacred role. To allow debate and promote legislation that discredits the beliefs and practices of the vast majority of synagogue-affiliated Jews in America is to abdicate that responsibility.”
Scalia urges Catholic universities to maintain character
(RNS) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia urged Roman Catholic universities Wednesday (March 5) to maintain their Catholic character by”requiring a moral and virtuous lifestyle”from faculty members and students.
In a speech at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., Scalia, a Catholic, said church-run schools must never lose touch with their religious mission.”Requiring a moral and virtuous lifestyle that is increasingly different from the surrounding society will cause Catholic universities to lose promising faculty members and promising students,”Scalia told an audience of 700 at the Catholic university.”But the alternative is to lose their Catholic character.” In a program commemorating the university’s 1861 charter, Scalia said that Catholic universities must hold fast to their beliefs and make morality part of their curriculum, the Associated Press reported.
The justice, who received his undergraduate degree from Catholic-run Georgetown University, criticized his alma mater for losing its religious mission. When Scalia stepped down from his position on Georgetown’s board of advisers, he said the university had more courses in Judaism than in Catholicism.
At Seton Hall, Scalia encouraged Catholic students and universities to take the lead in researching issues such as the development of the human fetus, methods of natural family planning and medical ethics.
Spain’s king to be recognized for promoting peace
(RNS) Spain’s King Juan Carlos I will be presented the”World Statesman Award”next month by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interreligious organization that promotes worldwide religious freedom, tolerance and human rights.
Juan Carlos was selected for his”unique leadership in strengthening the democratic foundation of Spain’s political, social and economic life,”and for promoting religious tolerance by bringing together Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the foundation.
The award will be presented during at a formal dinner in New York April 10.
Past recipients include Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, former Secretary of State of the Vatican; Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic; Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the United Kingdom; and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.
The Appeal of Conscience Foundation was established in 1965.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Tom Choi, Los Angeles United Methodist Church
(RNS) _ The Los Angeles Time asked three religious leaders to comment on the recent flap surrounding singer Pat Boone and his promotion of a new album through dressing in clothes associated with the heavy-metal music scene. The Rev. Tom Choi of Los Angeles United Methodist Church compared Boone’s critics to the biblical Pharisees:”It would probably shock them (the critics) to know that Christian leaders such as Luther and Wesley _ like Boone _ set the `vile’ music of their day to Christian lyrics to be relevant and meaningful to those who felt distanced from the church.”
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