c. 1997 Religion News Service
“Holiday Season of Conscience”urged to end sweatshop abuses
(RNS) Charles Kernaghan, the man who forced Kathie Lee Gifford to stop sweatshop production of her clothing line, wants Americans”to shop with a conscience”next Christmas by buying from companies that have joined a campaign to end sweatshop working conditions.
At a meeting Tuesday (April 29) with labor, religious and human rights groups, Kernaghan called for a”Holiday Season of Conscience”to increase Christmas shoppers’ support for the White House Accord to Address Sweatshop Abuses, expected to be approved by President Clinton in October.
The accord includes a code of conduct for companies producing clothes and toys for U.S. consumers, requires factories to monitor wages and working conditions, and establishes a nonprofit association to increase the number of companies committed to not using sweatshops.
Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, has called for a Sept. 27″Day of Conscience”in the nation’s capital to highlight the progress made toward closing sweatshops worldwide.
For the Christmas campaign, the National Labor Committee will advertise in papers across the country and organize community activities in shopping areas to educate consumers.
Kernaghan cited the example of a $19.99 Disney 101 Dalmations outfit that women in Haiti sew for less than 30 cents an hour.
Nike, Reebok, L.L. Bean and Liz Claiborne are among the U.S. companies that negotiated the anti-sweatshop agreement with groups such as the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, the National Consumer League and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for International Human Rights.
The White House convened the task force in 1995 after Kernaghan exposed the conditions under which workers in Central American clothing plants produced Gifford’s and other clothing lines.
Lynda Clarizio of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, who helped negotiate the accord, supported Kernaghan’s proposals for conscientious shopping. She said the task force, which reports to the White House in six months, welcomes input from other groups.
Anglican bishops take another look at policy towards homosexuals
(RNS) The debate over homosexuality, which has rocked the Episcopal Church in the United States, is roiling Anglican churches around the world as well. Anglican bishops in Canada, Brazil and England are taking a second look at their policies toward homosexual church members.
In England, a retired Anglican bishop who vocally supported a celibacy requirement for gay clergy in 1991 has taken the boldest stance, calling for the Church of England to sanction gay marriages and allow homosexuals to enjoy the”spiritual blessing”of a sexual relationship.”A public Christian act (marriage) should not be refused, if desired, because to do so would be to fall back into the old condemnation of such relationships on principle,”said the Rev. John Baker, former bishop of Salisbury.
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said Baker’s views are a significant departure from the church’s current stance. He said there would be no sudden change in the church’s position, but it would continue to review the issue.
Canadian bishops recently completed a six-year review of 1979 guidelines outlining the church’s policy toward gay and lesbian members, studying biblical teachings and talking to members of the homosexual community to redefine their stance on homosexuality.
The bishops decided April 18 to retain the 1979 guidelines in principle, but to”express them in a wider context of theological understanding and pastoral sensitivity.”The guidelines allow non-practicing homosexuals to be ordained, but do not accept homosexual marriages.
Brazilian bishops also have encouraged Anglicans to accept homosexuals, calling for”dialogue, prudence and pastoral concern for people with a homosexual orientation in the faith community.” The bishops said that although the Bible condemns homosexuality in some passages, it is still a revelation carrying the interpretation of its authors who were influenced by their culture and era.
Turkey cracks down on Muslim schools, religious attire
(RNS) Turkey’s prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, in a move that could jeopardize his relationship with other Muslims in the governing coalition, has begun carrying out measures to keep Turkey secular.
News agencies Tuesday (April 29) reported authorities had closed 12 unlicensed Koran study schools in various cities, and 12 other unlicensed courses had stopped operating to avoid prosecution. A governor in eastern Turkey also ordered authorities to investigate 33 other Koran study schools.”Unlicensed courses will be shut down. The licensed ones will be controlled to ensure that they provide education that conforms,”governor Ahmet Kayhan said.
Some authorities also have arrested Muslims for wearing cloaks and turbans.
Erbakan agreed Saturday (April 26) to demands by the country’s military that call for shutting down Islamic secondary schools, restricting the radical Islamic media and banning Islamic-style clothing except for officially appointed clerics.
Members of Erbakan’s Welfare Party say they will fight the plan and oppose it in Parliament, the Associated Press reported.
The military has used its influence to keep Turkey a secular state, and has accused radical Islamic groups of using unlicensed Koran study courses to instill anti-secularist ideas in children.
Although Turkey is predominantly Muslim, Erbakan’s coalition last year became the first government in modern history to be led by Muslims. Since his installation, Erbakan has initiated changes including modifying government working hours to comply with Muslim holidays and trying to allow female civil servants to wear Islamic head coverings.
Episcopal church in Rwanda names new bishops
(RNS) The Episcopal Church of Rwanda has elected bishops to fill four dioceses left vacant as a result of the genocide that swept across the country in 1994.
The dioceses were left leaderless because the bishops fled the country and refused to return after being implicated in the slaughter that took more than 500,000 Rwandese lives.”The province has struggled for two years to sort out its leadership,”Bishop Ken Barham told the London-based Anglican Communion News Service.”But it has now made a big move forward.” Last October, after again ordering the bishops to return, the Anglican Consultative Council declared the diocese vacant and called for new elections.
Update: Algerian villagers fight back against Islamic radicals
(RNS) Algerian villagers, in response to a series of massacres by a militant Islamic group, banded together to repel attackers in several incidents Thursday (April 24), according to reports by the independent newspaper El Watan.
Villagers in the Medea and Blida districts, both near the Algerian capital, fortified their defenses after attacks earlier this month claimed the lives of hundreds of villagers. The Islamic group used agricultural tools to hack villagers to death in two separate incidents.
Residents of one village used”iron bars, clubs, old-fashioned hunting rifles and kitchen knives”to barricade village entrances and repel the Islamic group. A nearby village also deterred attackers by scaring them away with loud sirens they had installed around the village.
A third attack that night was also foiled. Invaders looted food shops but were unable to break into residents’ barricaded homes. The men chanted verses from the Koran and shouted”Allahu akbar”(God is great), threatening villagers they would return to punish them.
El Watan said with a legislative elections scheduled for June 5, the state should take strong, decisive action to counter the violence.
Quote of the day: Baptist ethicist Foy Valentine
(RNS) Southern Baptist ethicist Foy Valentine, writing in the current issue of Christian Ethics Today on what he called the”engagement agenda”that is the Christian’s calling:”The early Christians made great headway against overwhelming odds because they confronted the world not with a superior system of speculative philosophy but with a consistently and uniformly better way of life.”
DEA END RNS
