c. 1997 Religion News Service

New Era founder sentenced to 12 years

(RNS) John G. Bennett Jr., whose Foundation for New Era Philanthropy turned out to be a fraud, was sentenced Monday (Sept. 22) to 12 years in prison in the biggest charity swindle in the nation’s history.

Bennett, 60, tearfully reading a 15-minute statement, accepted blame for his deeds, but reiterated his contention that he was delusional at the time and that he did not intend to defraud anyone.”I wish I could spend the rest of my life correcting the damage that has been done,”he declared.

Bennett will not get a chance for parole but can move to a halfway house after serving 11 years, the Associated Press reported.”This is a very sad day for someone who rose to such influence and promise,”said U.S. District Court Judge Edmund V. Ludwig, after hearing four days of testimony that included comments from Bennett about how he was more vision-oriented and less concerned about the financial details of New Era. Bennett also described his work as an effort aimed at”changing the world for the glory of God.” The judge said he gave Bennett a lighter sentence than federal guidelines advise _ the 19 1/2 to 24 1/2 years sought by prosecutors _ because of the years of charity work Bennett provided before founding New Era and his cooperation with authorities and restitution after it collapsed.

Christian colleges, city museums and wealthy philanthropists were duped by New Era in a swindle that promised to double donations in six months with money from anonymous benefactors, prosecutors said. But the unidentified donors did not exist and the Radner, Pa.-based foundation was shuffling money from new participants to older ones.

In all, New Era took $354 million from 500 nonprofit organizations, including more than 190 evangelical Christian ministries.”It’s a very severe sentence for a richly deserving defendant,”said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Goldberg.

In March, Bennett pleaded no contest to 82 counts of fraud and money-laundering.

Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a sponsor of a consortium of evangelical groups involved in the New Era situation, told Religion News Service that he is more pleased with settlement agreements that were reached by New Era’s creditors than the outcome of Bennett’s trial.”It’s hard to feel any joy in seeing a broken man, 60 years old, sentenced to 12 years,”said Nelson.”At the same time … what he did to the philanthropy community was terrible. It was a terrible mess.” In the end, the settlements _ including an unprecedented one reached last year that called for agencies that profited from New Era dealings to return money to those who lost funds through New Era _ will allow many of the creditors to receive about 85 percent of their claims, he said.

Official: Yeltsin to sign revised religion bill

(RNS) A senior Kremlin official was quoted Monday (Sept. 22) as saying President Boris Yeltsin would sign a revised version of a controversial bill that would limit religious expression in Russia.

The comments came as Vice President Al Gore noted U.S. opposition to the proposed legislation while in Moscow. Gore is in the Russian capital for meetings with Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin on a variety of issues.”I’ve tried very hard to explain exactly why we Americans feel so strongly about this,”Gore told reporters in Moscow, the Associated Press reported.

Yeltsin vetoed the original version of the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, which would give special status to the Russian Orthodox Church and, to a lesser degree, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, as”traditional”Russian religions.

The bill is widely viewed as seeking to protect the Orthodox church in particular from losing members to western Protestant, Roman Catholic and other religious groups. The bill would require such groups to prove they have operated officially for at least 15 years in Russia to enjoy full legal rights.

U.S. evangelicals, members of Congress and the White House, among others, have objected to the proposed legislation, calling it anti-democratic and a reminder of the former Soviet Union’s authoritarian approach toward religious groups.

The Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ruslan Orekhov, head of the Kremlin’s main judicial agency, as saying the revised version of the bill neither contradicts or interferes with international obligations, Reuters reported.

Yeltsin vetoed the original bill because, he said, it violated both the Russian constitution and international guarantees of religious freedom.

Orekhov said groups that can prove they have operated in Russia for more than 15 years have nothing to fear. He specifically mentioned Catholicism as one such faith.

The revised bill has been overwhelmingly approved by the Russian parliament’s lower house, and is expected to easily clear the upper chamber, perhaps within the week.

S. Baptist pastor sentenced, credited for homeless service

(RNS) A controversial Southern Baptist pastor known for his support of a boycott of the Walt Disney Co. was sentenced Friday (Sept. 19) to 1,500 hours of community service for violating city building codes by sheltering the homeless at his church in Buena Park, Calif.

However, the judge also credited the Rev. Wiley Drake with 1,500 hours of service for efforts to aid the homeless he had already performed.

Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, was convicted July 28 of four misdemeanor building-code violations. Drake, 53, runs his Here’s Hope Social Ministry Center from his church. One building offers nightly bedding for the poor and other homeless people live on the church parking lot in campers.

The presence for the past two years of more than 70 nightly dwellers at his church has displeased police and city officials. Drake also distributes food and clothing to poor neighbors, which the city does not challenge.

Orange County Judge Gregg Prickett made it clear in his courtroom Friday that Drake was not going to jail, a fate city prosecutors also wanted to avoid.

A court clerk for Prickett said the identical sentence and credit for community service means Drake, as an individual,”has nothing due to the court.” But Drake’s church _ convicted separately of the same four building violations as Drake _ was put on probation for three years. Church officials were ordered to report back to court Nov. 14 to report their progress toward clearing up the building code problems, including moving the campers off the property. Drake said Monday (Sept. 22) he is trying to help the homeless get into local motels and apartments.

Greg Palmer, the Buena Park city prosecutor who handled the case, said the city only wanted Drake to”comply with the law”regarding homeless shelters. The city views Drake as running a part-church/part-shelter, while Drake said he runs a church that just so”happens to shelter people.””As a church we are not going to be forced to become a homeless shelter,”Drake told Religion News Service after the sentencing.”We are not, we never have been, we never wanted to be. Our goal has always been to minister to people as a church.”

Contemporary Christian singer Rich Mullins dies

(RNS) Contemporary Christian singer Rich Mullins died Friday (Sept. 19) in an automobile accident.

Mullins, 41, was run over and killed by a tractor-trailer after being thrown from a sports utility vehicle that went out of control near Lostant, Ill. The accident occurred as Mullins and his drummer, Mitch McVicker, were driving to a benefit concert in Wichita, Kan., scheduled for Saturday night, the Associated Press reported.

McVicker was in critical condition Monday.

Mullins biggest hit was”Awesome God,”which he recorded in 1988 and has been sung in churches across America.

Other chart-topping songs by Mullins included”Sometimes by Step,””If I Stand,””Let Mercy Lead,”and”While the Nations Rage.” Born in Richmond, Ind., Mullins was a songwriter who collaborated with Amy Grant _ on her 1983 recording of”Sing Your Praise to the Lord”and other songs _ and had written for Debbie Boone.

John Sheldon Whale, theologian, professor, dies

(RNS) The Rev. John Sheldon Whale, a theologian and Congregationalist preacher who lectured widely in North American universities during the 1950s, has died from heart failure. He was 100.

The British-born Whale died Wednesday (Sept. 17) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

One of Whale’s best-known books was”Christian Doctrine,”published in 1941 and which remained in print for 50 years. The book grew out of his lecture series at Cambridge University. The series grew more and more popular, forcing Whale to continually move to larger auditoriums.

In the 1950s, Whale taught at several North American universities, including New Jersey’s Drew University, Minnesota’s St. Olaf College, the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago and Princeton University.

Whale also wrote”The Christian Faith,””The Protestant Tradition,””Victor and Victim: The Christian Doctrine of Redemption”and”Christian Reunion: Historic Divisions Reconsidered.”

Poll: 26 percent of Mormons are `born again’

(RNS) Evangelical pollster George Barna is finding born-again Christians in the most unlikely places.

According to Barna’s criteria, a new poll suggests that 26 percent of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members, or Mormons, are born-again Christians.

Barna classifies born-again Christians as anyone who agrees with the following:”I have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in my life today”and”I believe that after I die, I will go to heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus as my savior.” Many theologically conservative Christians consider some Mormon doctrines and practices unorthodox, such as baptizing the dead by proxy, considering the”Book of Mormon”the word of God on par with the Bible, and the belief that God has a physical body and that Jesus was his literal son.

Barna’s explanation for people being able to hold seeming contradictory beliefs:”In short, most Americans are not theologically savvy,”he said in the recent edition of his newsletter, The Barna Report.

Most Mormons, Catholics, and Protestants, Barna said, are”unable to describe the basic doctrinal views of their church. Consequently, it is quite possible for people from any of these groups to possess theological perspectives which are inherently contradictory.” The poll, which surveyed 6,242 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of less than 1 percent, found that 40 percent of all adults fit Barna’s definition of a born-again Christian.

Other denominations and their percentage of born-again believers: Roman Catholics, 23 percent; Episcopalians, 34 percent; Presbyterians, 43 percent; Methodists, 44 percent; Lutherans, 50 percent; Baptists 69 percent; and Assembly of God, 80 percent.

U.N. to send rights envoy to U.S. to probe death penalty use

(RNS) A United Nations human rights envoy is being sent to the United States to investigate capital punishment and possible deaths due to the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva said Friday (Sept. 19).

Although U.N. officials said the envoy, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, had been invited by the U.S. government to meet with a range of federal and state officials, the U.N. spokesman said last-minute hitches had arisen, Reuters reported.

Ndiaye is the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in the U.N’s Commission for Human Rights.

There have been 391 executions in the United States since 1976, when the death penalty was again legalized. Some 3,200 prisoners are on death row.

Mahony blesses site of new L.A. Catholic cathedral

(RNS) Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has blessed the 5.8-acre downtown site where a new Roman Catholic cathedral will be built.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, located near a busy L.A. freeway and costing more than $50 million, will seat 2,600 and is set to open Sept. 4, 2000. The 47,000-square-foot structure will include a conference center and cardinal’s residence.

Under blazing sunshine Sunday (Sept. 21), Mahony told a mostly Catholic audience of more than 12,000 that”both the people of God and the city of Los Angeles will finally have a cathedral church worthy of our times. … Today, all of you gathered here in this precious ground are witnesses to a unique, unfolding history.” Mahony had sought to build the new cathedral on the nearby site of the earthquake-damaged Cathedral of St. Vibiana. But historic building preservationists sued, blocking St. Vibiana’s demolition.

More than 50 Catholic Worker activists protested Sunday’s event, saying the cathedral’s projected cost, which will be privately funded, should be spent on the poor.

S. Baptist commission to air national radio program

(RNS) The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention plans to begin airing a national radio program early next year.”For Faith and Family”is set to begin broadcasting on Jan. 21, 1998, the eve of the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The 30-minute, live call-in program will feature Richard Land, commission president, and others speaking on timely issues. It is expected to air weekdays in selected markets across the country.”For years Southern Baptists have been asking when we were going to have a radio program to … deal with the moral issues we face as a nation,”said Land.”We are all excited that we will soon have such a program because of the generosity of Southern Baptists in investing a significant increase in financial resources in the ministry of the ERLC.” The commission received a boost in the percentage of funds it gains from the denomination’s budget, reported Baptist Press, the denomination’s official news service. The radio program was endorsed by the commission’s trustee board during a meeting held Sept. 15-17 in Nashville, Tenn.

Quote of the day:

(RNS)”I’m only giving up nine month’s earnings. It’s not that big a deal. I’m no more poorer than I was nine months ago and the world is a lot better off.” _ CNN founder Ted Turner, commenting of”Larry King Live”on his $1 billion gift over the next ten years to United Nations’ charities.

MJP END RNS