c. 1997 Religion News Service
Wife of prominent Baptist charged with arson
(RNS) The Rev. Henry J. Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA _ the nation’s largest black denomination _ is facing allegations of adultery after his wife was charged with setting fire to a Florida mansion he co-owns with another woman.
Deborah M. Lyons admitted she set fire to a $700,000 home on Tampa Bay’s waterfront after”coming to realize that her husband was sharing the home with another woman,”said Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department.
She has been charged with felony counts of burglary and arson in connection with the fire Sunday (July 6) that caused $30,000 in damage, Pasha said, and was released on bond, the Washington Post reported.
According to a clerk at the Pinellas County Courthouse, records show that Henry Lyons and Bernice V. Edwards purchased the house in March 1996.
The newspaper could not reach Lyons, his wife or Edwards for comment.
Pasha said Deborah Lyons stated she tore stuffing out of upholstered furniture, broke lamps and set several fires after discovering some of her husband’s clothing in the mansion.
Police said she then crashed her Mercedes into a palm tree near the house she shares with her husband as she was heading home.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that Deborah Lyons told sheriff’s deputies that she recently found a deed for the Tampa Bay house in her husband’s briefcase, listing him and Edwards as co-owners.
Despite her comments to the sheriff’s department, Deborah Lyons told the Times the incident was a misunderstanding.
She told the newspaper she had known about the Tampa Bay house, that it was used as a”national guest house,”and that Edwards and her husband were business partners.
She denied she suspected her husband of having an affair.”My husband has always been very above-board with me,”she told the Times.”I have no reason to doubt him at all.”
New Hong Kong leader pledges to preserve religious freedom
(RNS) The new leader of Hong Kong told the Lutheran World Federation _ holding the first international religious assembly in the territory since the former British colony was restored to Chinese control _ that he will preserve and protect religious freedom.
Tung Chee-hwa, a multimillionaire Hong Kong businessman chosen by Beijing to run the territory, Wednesday (July 9) assured the 900 delegates to the ninth assembly of the Lutheran World Federation that the provisions of Article 141 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, adopted in 1991, would be strictly adhered to.
Tung stressed that churches and church organizations would not suffer because of the change of sovereignty that took place July 1.
He told the Lutherans the denomination would be free to hold seminars and provide welfare and social services in the region, Reuters reported.”The Basic Law stipulates that the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) government shall not restrict religious beliefs, interfere in internal affairs of religious organizations or restrict religious activities that do not contravene the laws of Hong Kong,”Tung said.
Beijing has responded to the recent religious renewal in China by suppressing some religious groups as subversive and keeping a close watch on their activities. Some Christian leaders have been jailed.
Lutheran World Federation officials were skeptical about the strength of Article 141 before Tung’s address but have also expressed hope it would be adhered to.”From what the officials have said, in China and Mr. Tung, and what is in the Basic Law, I think there is a future for religious freedom,”said Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary.
The Lutheran assembly is its first in Asia and the first meeting of an international group in Hong Kong since the transfer. Hong Kong has five Lutheran churches with 40,000 members, the smallest membership ever to host an LWF assembly. On July 13 the LWF will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding.
Regular Baptists oppose Promise Keepers”inclusive character” (RNS) The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches passed a resolution at its recent annual conference opposing the”inclusive character”of the Promise Keepers men’s movement, which its members believe”minimizes”doctrinal differences to achieve unity among Christians.
The resolution was passed at the group’s meeting held June 21-25 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The statement noted that church members”rejoice whenever Christ is preached, and men are saved and grow in their faith,”but criticized aspects of the ministry.”We express our opposition to the inclusive character of Promise Keepers, which minimizes doctrine and denominational distinctions in an attempt to achieve unity and fellowship,”the resolution reads.”We voice our concern over the practice of using some speakers who are identified with denominations that are apostate or charismatic.” However, the resolution did not name specific individuals or groups.
Promise Keepers’ national spokesman Steve Chavis was not aware of the resolution but defended his organization’s philosophies.”We’re going to reach out to all men and our hope would be that all men would come to a saving faith in Christ and true discipleship,”Chavis said.”We never promote unity at the expense of truth. Rather, we promote biblical truth and biblical unity at the same time, a very difficult but important pursuit. Jesus really calls us to both.” The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches is a group of 1,426 fundamentalist churches. The independent congregations in the group voluntarily work together as a fellowship of churches.
At their conference, association members also passed a resolution on the Walt Disney Co., reaffirming their”opposition to all who encourage the support of the homosexual lifestyle, whether it be through media, entertainment or theme parks.”Days before the association met, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney for corporate policies that include offering benefits to partners of homosexual employees.
The conference also passed a resolution on reproductive technology that opposed human cloning and”the practice of introducing a third party into the marriage covenant,”such as a gestational surrogate or an anonymous donor of eggs or sperm.
Cathedral”ground zero”in Kenyan crackdown on dissent
(RNS) All Saints Anglican Cathedral was ground zero in Nairobi Monday (July 7) as the government of President Daniel arap Moi resorted to brute force to quell growing protests from the nation’s pro-reform movement.
The blood-splattered sanctuary was symbolic of the day in Kenya when police used tear gas, truncheons, rubber bullets and live ammunition to break up demonstrations calling for democratic reform.
It was reported by the Reuters and Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that as many as 10 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the first days of the crackdown in Nairobi and six other towns.
In the latest development Wednesday (July 9), Kenyan officials closed the 19,000-student University of Nairobi after clashes with hundreds of students supporting the demands for constitutional changes.
The reformers want to change laws they say favor the 73-year-old Moi and his ruling party, Kenya Africa National Union, ahead of elections that must take place by year’s end.
They want to repeal repressive laws the British colonial authorities had introduced to clamp down on Kenya’s independence movement, and which they say the government uses to justify officially sanctioned violence against pro-reform parties. The laws restrict freedom of assembly, allow for detention without trial and control freedom of association.
The government blamed the July 7 clashes on”agents of violence”and said it had warned the reformers their rallies would be illegal because they had not applied for permits required for political gatherings. The unrest, escalating since 1991, had pushed Moi to agree to pluralistic politics.
While heavily armed police patrolled Nairobi and other communities July 9, opposition parties, human rights groups and other bodies under the umbrella National Convention Executive Committee (NCE) called for further protests and appealed to international donors to withhold aid to Kenya until the government agrees to constitutional reforms.
Pro-reform advocates sought refuge in All Saints Anglican Cathedral after police broke up several rallies.
Police threw tear gas canisters inside the church and then moved in wielding truncheons. Timothy Njoya, an outspoken cleric belonging to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, a leader of the July 7 protest, was beaten senseless and left bleeding profusely from a head wound. He was last reported in intensive care.
Peter Njoka, provost of All Saints, was leading a prayer service when the police stormed the cathedral. He called the police action”the height of moral degradation.”This is hardly the action of a government that professes Christianity,”he said.
British Reformed denomination gives OK to gay clergy
(RNS) In what is believed to be a precedent-setting event in a mainstream British denomination, practicing homosexuals may become ministers in the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom (URC).
The approval came Tuesday as delegates at the URC General Assembly, meeting in Portsmouth, England, adopted Motion 19 by a 324 to 189 vote. After discussing a package of motions developed by an official task force that studied human sexuality for two years, the denomination voted to accept practicing homosexuals as ministers upon the request of local churches.
The resolution also provides that candidates for the URC ministry cannot be rejected for training purely on the grounds of being in a homosexual relationship.
Despite the convincing approval, opponents held some hope the decision could be reversed because of an earlier motion passed by the assembly calling for further study on human sexuality. Officials said the package of motions is designed to leave the unity of the church intact and provide more time for study.
URC Deputy General Secretary John Waller told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, some members might leave the church over the decision.”It’s usually not a good idea to leave a church over a single issue,”he said.”Differing views will continue to be respected.” The 102,000-member URC is the biggest representative in England of the Reformed Protestant tradition. Earlier, the General Assembly had heard that just 48 of 513 local churches surveyed would accept a homosexual minister.
Former Cult Awareness Network director loses Scientology suit
(RNS) The former director of the Cult Awareness Network has lost her defamation suit against the Church of Scientology.
Cynthia Kisser sued the church for calling her a”long-time advocate of forcible restraint and assault conducted under the guise of `deprogramming'”in its Freedom magazine several years ago.
The July 1 federal court decision was cheered by Scientologists.”The jury said, `Hey, there’s a preponderance of evidence to show this,'”said Church of Scientology President Heber Jentzsch.”The Church of Scientology took the initiative to stop religious terrorism in the streets of America.” Kisser is waiting for an Illinois Supreme Court to decide if she may continue with a case against the church for malicious prosecution since the Church of Scientology has filed more than 20 suits against CAN in the last few years.”I think the Church of Scientology does try to silence its critics,”Kisser’s attorney, John Beal, told the Chicago Tribune.”The two means it uses are aggressive press campaigns and litigation.” Last December, the Cult Awareness Network’s identity _ its logo, name, telephone number and post office box _ was sold to a lawyer who is a Scientologist. CAN filed for bankruptcy more than a year ago after the Barrington, Ill.-based organization was ordered to pay more than $1 million in a lawsuit in which it was found liable for depriving a conservative Pentecostal man of his civil rights.
In a separate Scientology matter, a court in Bonn, Germany, ruled Wednesday (July 9) that Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats had the right to exclude members of the Church of Scientology from its party. The court rejected Scientologists’ contention the party had infringed upon their religious freedom by keeping them out.
Quote of the Day: Lutheran minister Grace Olson
(RNS) The Rev. Grace Olson, a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was quoted in USA Today about her past experience as a bishop’s assistant, who visited churches in search of potential pastors. Olson said some congregations thought a woman pastor would not suit them. “`I wouldn’t mind a woman,'”Olson recalled being told,”`but how will it look in my daughter’s wedding pictures?'”
MJP END RNS
