c. 1997 Religion News Service

Richard Rehm case sent back to local conference for investigation

(RNS) There was a new twist this week in the tangled case of the Rev. Richard Rehm, pastor of one the largest congregations in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and a source of controversy for his views on salvation as well as on homosexuality.

A closed-door meeting Monday (May 5) of the denomination’s Regional Synod of the Great Lakes ordered Rehm’s local conference of churches _ the Muskegon Classis _ to investigate a charge of”gross sexual misconduct”against Rehm. Last year, the Muskegon body had found there was insufficient evidence to merit a church trial on the charge.

Rehm has denied the charge, which was first filed in May 1996 by a former employee at the church. After the Muskegon body refused to proceed with the case, the employee appealed to the regional group.

In interviews with reporters before the regional synod meeting in Holland, Mich., Rehm also said the Reformed Church in America has no jurisdiction over him since his congregation, the 2,800-member Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Mich., declared its independence from the denomination last July 4. Rehm also resigned from the ministry of the RCA at that time.

Two weeks later after the church declared its independence, the Muskegon Classis formally rebuked Rehm for holding heretical views and said it”holds him in disrepute before Christ, the Church and the world.” Rehm has been a center of controversy in the 306,000-member RCA since 1995 because of his views that salvation is possible for those who do not believe in Jesus, and for allowing a predominantly gay congregation to meet in his church.

Since the church announced it was leaving the denomination, the congregation and the classis have been in delicate negotiations over whether it will be allowed to secede with its property. But when the appeal was filed, the classis put the separation agreement on hold.

The Rev. Steve Smallegan said the executive committee of the Muskegon Classis would meet Tuesday (May 13) to decide its next step.

Rehm’s lawyer, Roger W. Boer, in a statement released after the regional synod’s action, said he had advised Rehm and the congregation to have nothing to do with the classis.”It is clear that the classis agenda is calculated to discredit both Christ Community Church and its pastor,”Boer said.”Recent history shows that both the regional synod and classis are not interested in healing but wish to pursue discord and unrest.”

Worldwide Church of God accepted into NAE

(RNS) National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) board members have voted to accept as a member the Worldwide Church of God, a once fringe group that has revamped its doctrine and moved into the evangelical Christian mainstream.

Headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., the Worldwide Church of God was founded by the late Herbert W. Armstrong in 1933 who taught that the Trinity was a pagan doctrine. The church also demanded 10 percent of its members’ income in tithing and celebrated Saturday as the Sabbath. Anglo-Saxon whites were considered the descendants of the ancient lost tribes of Israel.

In recent years, after Armstrong’s death, those beliefs and practices as well as others have gradually been abandoned. That has cost the church about half its 90,000 members in the United States and one-third of its revenue, forcing the sale of much of its property.”I respect (current church Pastor General) Joseph Tkach and the leadership of the Worldwide Church of God who did not rest in the refuge of their historically held doctrines, but sought the truth through careful study of the scriptures _ even at significant cost to the denomination,”NAE President Don Argue said in a Wednesday (May 7) statement.

NAE board members conducted a mail vote on the church’s application following a presentation by Tkach to the NAE in early March.

Church membership today stands at about 50,000 in the United States and 73,000 worldwide. Worldwide Church of God is the NAE’s 49th denominational member.

Former fashion model becomes a nun

(RNS) It wasn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk, but former model Antonella Moccia turned a few heads Friday (May 9) when she traded her designer clothes for a nun’s habit.

The 30-year-old former top model became Sister Elisabetta after declaring her initial religious vows before Pope John Paul II.”I discovered the beauty in the world of fashion and now I want to live with Jesus Christ,”Moccia said of her decision as she joined the Sisters of the Holy Spirit order in Frascati, outside Rome and near the papal summer residence.

The Vatican was clearly elated by the decision of this attractive woman to commit her life to Christ, as it offered the Roman Catholic Church an opportunity to illustrate what it says are the limits of money, success and glamour.

Moccia made her vows on the final day of a congress of 250 delegates from European religious orders meeting at the Vatican. A video of her life in the fashion world was shown to some 5,000 people on hand and aired live on Italian television.

Afterward a clearly emotional Moccia stood on the stage of the Vatican auditorium and briefly discussed her commitment to Jesus and the new life she looked forward to. The pope entered the hall after her testimony but witnessed her religious vows, along with those of other nuns and five priests.

Moccia’s friends were quoted in Italian newspapers as saying her decision to enter religious life was in part a result of the death of her father three years ago. Afterward, she became involved in helping the poor. Friends say she stopped wearing makeup and expensive clothes, and began leading a more modest lifestyle.

Although she had long considered herself a devout Catholic, Moccia said she was inspired by the impoverished people who led dignified lives and were committed to Jesus.”The fashion world has given me so much,”she said,”but now I have found something more rich than fashion _ serving Jesus Christ and the poor.”

Conservative United Methodists warn support for gays could split church

(RNS) Good News, the conservative caucus within the United Methodist Church, is warning that recent developments in the denomination on the explosive issue of homosexuality could lead to a schism in the nation’s second largest Protestant denomination.”We are seeing today a growing, unabashed campaign to force upon us an unbiblical standard that claims homosexual practice is acceptable, even good, for United Methodism, and that same-sex unions should be approved,”James Heidinger II, the president of the caucus, said in a letter the group plans to distribute to”several hundred thousand”church members.

If the campaign is successful, Heidinger said,”It would split our church.” United Methodists have fought over homosexuality since 1972, when for the first time a United Methodist pastor publicly announced he was gay. Good News and other conservative groups have succeeded in writing into church law prohibitions against the ordination of homosexuals and barring the use of church funds to promote acceptance of homosexuality. They have also prompted the church to declare homosexuality”incompatible”with Christian teaching.

The Good News letter was a response to the statement”In All Things Charity”issued in January by 15 prominent United Methodist clergy and seminary professors declaring they did not believe homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

That statement pledged to work for acceptance of the ordination of gays and lesbians and affirmed”appropriate liturgical support for covenantal commitments between same-gendered couples.””We are concerned that many United Methodists leaders speak as if change in our United Methodist standards on homosexuality is inevitable, likening it to the civil and women’s right struggles,”Heidinger said.

Daschle to offer late-term abortion bill

(RNS) New legislation to outlaw late-term abortions is being drafted by Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle.

Daschle’s bill would reportedly ban all abortions after the point at which a fetus can live outside the womb, which is generally between 23 and 28 weeks, the Associated Press reported Thursday (May 8). However, the bill would grant exceptions to protect a woman’s life or”grievous injury”to her physical health.

Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, reportedly offered his bill as a compromise measure. Another pending late-term abortion bill, this one in the House of Representatives, grants exceptions only in cases where the mother’s life is in danger and only bans the procedure opponents call”partial-birth”abortions.”Grievous injury”is defined as a”severely debilitating disease or impairment specifically caused by the pregnancy”or the”inability to provide necessary treatment for a life-threatening condition.”A doctor would have to certify the need for a late-term abortion in accordance with the bill’s provisions.

Violators would face a mandatory $100,000 fine and temporary lose their medical license for the first offense. A second offense could bring fines of up to $250,000 and a lifetime license revocation.

Despite the bill being considered a compromise, anti-abortion activists appeared to reject Daschle’s proposals out-of-hand.

Douglas Johnson, of the National Right to Life Committee, said Daschle’s bill”empowers abortion doctors to perform abortions either before or after viability with complete legal immunity from Congress.” Johnson said a fetus could be delivered prematurely, allowing it to survive while ending the potentially dangerous pregnancy.

Amy Awards cites RNS columnist and Dallas professor

(RNS) Religion News Service columnist Samuel K. Atchison has won third prize in the 1996 Amy Writing Awards competition, which rewards writers for work that applies biblical truths to contemporary issues and appears in secular publications.

Janet E. Smith, an associate philosophy professor at the University of Dallas, won the $10,000 first prize for her article”The Christian View of Sex: A Time for Apologetics, Not Apologies,”which appears in the May 1996 issue of”The Family in America”magazine.

The $5,000-second prize was won by Ann Clark for”Pilot’s Story Offers Lenten Lesson,”which appeared in the Bloomsburg, Penn., Press-Enterprise.

Atchison, who lives in Trenton and is a Protestant chaplain in the New Jersey state prison system, won $4,000 for his column”How Shall We Overcome Sin?”which appeared in several publications.

A total of 15 writers were cited by the Amy award judges.

Black church expert James Melvin Washington dies

(RNS) James Melvin Washington, an expert on African-American religious history, has died from a stroke at age 49. He died Saturday (May 3).

Washington, who taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York, was an ordained Baptist minister. He was the editor of”Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African-Americans”and”Testament of Hope: The Essential Speeches and Writings of Martin Luther King Jr.” The Rev. Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of the Harvard Divinity School, told the New York Times that Washington’s”most extraordinary quality as a historian was his ability to capture the way people have lived out their faith in everyday life.” Before joining the Union Theological Seminary faculty, Washington taught at Yale Divinity School. Over the years he also taught and lectured at Princeton and Columbia Universities, Haverford and Oberlin Colleges and elsewhere.

Quote of the Day: Nobel laureate and writer Elie Wiesel

(RNS) Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who has written and lectured extensively about the Nazi persecution of Jews and others, commented Thursday (May 8) while in Denver on a United States government report that says Switzerland, officially neutral during World War II, provided currency and weapons in return for Nazi gold. He said:”To be neutral is one thing, but to have one’s neutrality being used by an enemy of humankind is terrible.”

END RNS