c. 1997 Religion News Service
Non-profits object to scope of Senate committee subpoenas
(RNS) Several non-profit groups that have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate committee investigating campaign finance _ including the Christian Coalition and Americans United for Separation of Church and State _ are complaining the requests impinge on their free-speech rights and that the information being subpoenaed is unrelated to the committee’s work.
James Bopp Jr., an attorney for the Coalition and the National Right to Life Committee, called the requests for information a fishing expedition”of the broadest possible kind.””Both National Right to Life and the Christian Coalition look at it the same way,”he said.”That is, that the subpoenas are incredibly intrusive in seeking documents regarding the educational, lobbying and legitimate political activities of the organizations.” Bopp said the requests include detailed information that would disclose”highly privileged and confidential strategy”of the groups.”Both organizations have told the Senate committee that they will produce documents that it is lawful for the committee to request,”Bopp said.”But they have also told the committee that they intend to object to certain of the requests that impinge on free speech and association rights and privacy rights of the organizations involved.” The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, is equally concerned the subpoenas.”This is a world-class fishing expedition, seemingly simply because we in a very public way have exposed the wrongdoing of others,”he said.”I think to that extent, it really has a chilling effect on groups and, down the road, individuals who believe they have a role in reporting misconduct of … officials.” Arne Owens, spokesman for the Christian Coalition, voiced similar sentiments.”One concern we have that surrounds this whole issue is that there is an attempt … to regulate and possibly silence the voice of our supporters,”he said.
Representatives of the three groups deny any wrongdoing.
A total of 26 nonprofit advocacy groups were subpoenaed, including the Heritage Foundation, the Teamsters and the National Education Association.
Bopp said he is especially troubled by Republicans on the committee targeting groups they consider liberal, while Democrats target groups they deem conservative.”They are really engaging in a partisan investigation trying to intimidate and harass organizations that they just simply disagree with regarding matters of public policy,”Bopp said.
Catholic Bishops praise Lutheran statement
(RNS) The National Conference of Catholic Bishops says it is delighted that the nation’s largest Lutheran body has given its stamp of approval to a proposed statement that declares Catholics and Lutherans teach the same doctrine of justification _ the way people are saved.”This action represents a moment for rejoicing for the whole ecumenical movement as well as our two churches,”said Bishop Alexander Brunet of Helena, Mont., chair of the NCCB’s committee on interreligious and ecumenical affairs.
On Tuesday (Aug. 19), delegates to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Churchwide Assembly voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, the doctrine which concerns how sinful human beings are made right with God.
Historically, Lutherans have insisted justification is a free gift from God while Catholics have said good works are part of the process.
The new statement, which has not yet been approved by the Vatican or the vast majority of Lutheran World Federation members, describes good works as”an appropriate response to God’s loving embrace, not something that makes the embrace possible.”Besides the ELCA, only the Church of Sweden has endorsed the proposed statement.
Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican’s Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the Lutheran World Federation assembly in Hong Kong last month that he hopes that by 2000 _ and perhaps as early as 1998 _ the Vatican will give its approval to the statement as well.
The statement also declares that the condemnations the Lutherans hurled at Roman Catholics during the 16th century no longer apply to current Catholic teaching on the issue.
Courts take differing view in two religious schools cases
(RNS) Courts in Minnesota and Wisconsin have issued rulings in two separate cases on public aid to religious schools.
In Wisconsin, the State Court of Appeals ruled Friday (Aug. 22) that the voucher system used by parents in Milwaukee to send their children to private schools, including religious schools, is unconstitutional.
The ruling upheld a decision by a U.S. District Court in January that said the voucher plan violated the state’s constitution because it clearly represented government assistance to religion and as such was a violation of the separation of church and state. Friday’s appeals court ruling agreed with that decision.”This is the third straight defeat for vouchers in (Wisconsin) state courts,”said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups sponsoring the lawsuit against the voucher plan.”In baseball, three strikes means you’re out. This ruling says it’s time for voucher supporters to get off the playing field.” In Minnesota, however, a federal appeals court said in a ruling issued on Thursday (Aug. 21) that a school district may operate a one-room elementary school for members of a Christian sect that opposes the use of computers and other modern technology.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court erred last year in ruling the school unconstitutional.
The sect, the Christian Brethren, sometimes known as Plymouth Brethren, oppose computers, television, radios, films, audio and video recordings and other technology, the Associated Press reported.
To accommodate several Brethren families in Vesta, Minn., officials of the the Wabasso School District agreed in 1993 to reopen a closed one-room Vesta elementary school for about 20 Brethren children. Officials have testified the curriculum taught at the school _ by a public school teacher _ is the same as at the district’s other elementary school but without the hi-tech equipment.
The officials also said no religious instruction takes place and no religious artifacts are present.
But the two-member majority of the panel said the lower court erred in finding the establishment of the school amounted to government sponsorship of religion.
United Church in Canada affirms Jewish roots of faith
(RNS) The United Church in Canada, meeting in Camrose, Alberta, voted Tuesday (Aug. 19) to affirm a document on Jewish relations stating, in part, that God’s covenant with the Jews did not end with the birth of Christianity.
The document,”Bearing Faithful Witness: United Church-Jewish Relations Today,”which has been authorized for study throughout the church, emphasizes Jesus’ Jewish roots and respect for the continued development of Jewish tradition.”We feel it (the document) invites us and provides us an opportunity for better understanding our Jewish brothers and sisters who are closely related to us in our respective faith traditions,”Alison Norberg, a member of the committee that recommended approval of the document, told church commissioners.”It also forces us to look penitently at our Christian tradition, our Christian use of power and our anti-Judaism,”said Norberg.
But the document, which offers”guidelines for … relationship with Jews and Judaism”and officially repudiates anti-Semitism both within the church and the wider society, is not without its critics,
Lynn Bradley of the London, Ontario, conference expressed her concern that the document will put”Jesus Christ on the shelf … I think we need to understand our own faith and that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.”
Methodist bishop re-elected to head church in Kenya
(RNS) Presiding Bishop Zablon Nthamburi has been re-elected to a second five-year term as head of Kenya’s 600,000-member Methodist Church.
Nthamburi said his solid election Aug. 8 was a result, in part, of a strong desire on behalf of Kenyans to seek some sort of stability in the troubled region.”People feel we are in transition, so they wanted things to continue with a second tenure for me as presiding bishop,”Nthamburi told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
The east African nation has been embroiled in political turmoil and violence over the rule of President Daniel arap Moi, 73 and in power since 1978. Moi has promised to move Kenya toward democratic reforms, but has come under fire from the international community for continued corruption within his government and his unwillingness to institute reforms. Multi-party national elections are scheduled for sometime later this year, but a firm date has yet to be set.
Meanwhile, a Kenyan court Thursday (Aug. 21) charged 62 suspects _ including a mosque prayer leader and the head of an unregistered political party _ with robbery and violence during a raid on a police station that began a week of attacks around the port city of Mombasa, The New York Times reported.
But Nthamburi remains hopeful about Kenya’s future.”I am quite optimistic that we in Kenya are on the verge of critical reforms that will usher in a new era as far as our political and economic affairs are concerned,”he said.”We may not get everything we want overnight, but I doubt anybody can reverse the trend now. If you stand against the current, it will wash you away.”
Quote of the Day: Jessica Kent, religion major at Wake Forest University (RNS) Jessica Kent, a senior religion major at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., commented on her school’s plan to focus on a”Year of Religion in American Life”in the coming academic year:”We have to explore what other people believe to be the truth in order to really understand what we believe to be the truth.”
END RNS