c. 1998 Religion News Service

Clinton chooses team of spiritual advisers

(RNS) President Clinton, who has confessed to having”sinned”in his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, has chosen a team of spiritual advisers _ including evangelist and sociologist Tony Campolo and the Rev. Gordon McDonald _ to meet and pray with him weekly as he seeks to reform his ways.

Both Campolo, a Baptist from Eastern College, St. David’s, Pa., and McDonald, senior pastor at the nondenominational Grace Chapel in Lexington, Mass., are friends of Clinton from the early years of his White House tenure.

The New York Times, which first reported Clinton’s choice of the two to be spiritual advisers, said both men were defensive about whether they were being used by the president for political damage control rather than genuine religious purposes.”There are those who will say that Mr. Gordon and I are being used and manipulated,”Campolo said in a statement.”Should this be true, it would not be the first time that Christians have been taken in.”But we would rather be men of faith who believe that God is working in the life of the president than to join that army of cynics, many of whom are religious leaders who cannot accept a plea for forgiveness at face value.” McDonald, the Times noted, has faced his own major sin _ an extramarital affair _ and sought redemption. He has written a book,”Rebuilding Your Broken World,”about his experience and Clinton told the pastor he has read the book twice.”I bring an understanding of what it is like to face the public scrutiny when one has sinned,”McDonald said in a sermon at Grace Chapel Sunday (Sept. 13).”I have gone through and continue to go through, the breaking process … I am in a position to talk the language of repentance and what it takes to find a deeper and more purposeful walk with God in the midst of a personal tragedy.” The White House did not announce but did confirm the arrangement, the Times said.

A third minister said to be a member of the team has not been publicly identified.

Scientology wins Internet case in Sweden

(RNS) The Church of Scientology has won another court case in its efforts to keep church materials it considers private off the Internet.

In Sweden on Monday (Sept. 14), a Stockholm court ordered a man to stop circulating a copyrighted church training manual via the Internet and told him to pay the church more than $150,000 to cover court costs and fines.

Warren McShane, president of the Scientology-related Religious Technology Center, called the ruling”a major victory for copyright owners all over the world.” He noted that the Stockholm ruling follows a recent California decision in which another Internet posting of Scientology materials copyrighted by RTC also was ruled illegal.

In the Swedish case, the defendant, Zenon Panoussis, obtained a copy of the training manual and sent it to the Swedish Parliament. Under Swedish law, parliament is allowed to permit public access to any document filed with it.

After U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the Swedish law conflicted with international copyright standards, Stockholm stopped the Swedish practice of making public documents submitted to parliament. But the situation was further complicated when a top Swedish court overturned that decision.

Despite the confused legal circumstances, the court ruled against Panoussis, who reportedly has never been a member of the Church of Scientology and is believed to now reside in the Netherlands, according to the Associated Press.

Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has a controversial history. Critics regard it as a cult and business scheme. Supporters call it an applied religious philosophy that holds the key to spiritual well-being.

In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service in 1993 deemed Scientology to be a religion for tax purposes.

The church is currently embroiled in conflict in Germany, where some government officials have sought to crack down on the group because they consider it a threat to society.

U.N. rights official: China will sign political rights pact

(RNS) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said Tuesday (Sept. 15) China has agreed to sign an international agreement guaranteeing political freedoms.

But Robinson said it would take more than”just words”to prevent rights abuses and that China continues to have”very serious”human rights problems.”I have heard China express to me directly at the highest levels its commitment to protection and promotion of human rights, and over the coming months I want to see steps being taken,”Robinson said at a news conference wrapping up a visit to the country.

Robinson’s office said her 10-day visit was aimed at building trust with Beijing, Reuters said.

Robinson also said she raised questions of religious freedom and the rights of women and labor as well as specific human rights cases, including that of a young Tibetan boy arrested in 1995 after being named by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second highest position in Tibetan Buddhism.

She said she also raised the issue of dissidents who were jailed for their roles in in the June 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square _ one of the most sensitive human rights issues in China. But she said she was stonewalled when she raised the issue.

Update: dissident Irish cleric `ordains’ woman as `Catholic’ priest

(RNS) A dissident Irish cleric, recently excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, has”ordained”a woman to be a priest within his ministry.

The status of the ordination, however, is questionable.”It is not the body that is being ordained, but the soul,”the Rev. Pat Buckley said in the ceremony declaring 67-year-old hermit Frances Meigh a priest.”Gender is irrelevant.” However, Catholic Church officials said Buckley had no authority to ordain anyone.

Buckley has become something of a cult figure in Ireland because of his frequent clashes with church authorities, including his ministry to remarry divorcees. In April, the was excommunicated by the Vatican after rebel Bishop Michael Cox ordained him a”bishop”_ an ordination also of uncertain legitimacy.

Cox, who has a following as a faith healer, was made a priest and then a bishop by leaders of a conservative wing of the church in Ireland that refuses to accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and continues to insist on celebrating the Mass in Latin, the Associated Press reported.

Meigh has been a volunteer at Mother Teresa’s mission in Calcutta and currently paints icons while living as a hermit at a northern England monastery.

She said she was”quite content”with her decision to defy the Vatican by being ordained and said her new title would be”very Rev. Mother Frances.” The Vatican had no immediate comment on Monday’s (Sept. 14) ceremony.

Quote of the day: Billy Graham

(RNS)”Governor Wallace stands as a shining example of what a conversion to Christ can do in a man’s life. It is my prayer that God will bless his family and friends, and all the people of Alabama, especially the African-Americans who have lived to witness the power of God in a person’s life.” _ Evangelist Billy Graham on the Sunday (Sept. 14) death of one-time segregationist Gov. George Wallace who, by the time of his death, had disavowed the segregation he once championed. Graham was present in 1983 when Wallace made a commitment to Jesus Christ.

IR END RNS