c. 1998 Religion News Service

Christianity Today editorializes against death penalty

(RNS) Christianity Today, a leading evangelical magazine, has, for the first time, come out against capital punishment.”However we learn to apply … biblical themes of reconciliation and the abhorrence of vengeance in the public sphere, it seems clear that the death penalty has outlived its usefulness,”the magazine concluded in an editorial in its April 6 issue.”It has not made the United States a safer country or a more equitable one.” The two-page, unsigned editorial cited reasons why the death penalty is”unfair and discriminatory,”does not deter murders and fails to console the survivors of murder victims.

Richard Kauffman, an associate editor of the magazine, said the editorial was sparked in part by the controversial execution of pickax murderer Karla Faye Tucker. Tucker, who was executed Feb. 3, admitted her guilt but became a devout Christian while in prison.”It was definitely a turning point for our editorializing,”Kauffman said of Tucker.

There has not been resounding agreement with the editorial, either inside or outside the magazine.”The editorial team here is not all on the same wavelength”on the death penalty, Kauffman said.

The internal dissension was noted in the editorial.”Not all evangelicals (indeed, not all evangelicals who edit Christianity Today) agree on how to apply Jesus’ teaching of nonresistance to public policy,”the editorial said.”But it seems clear that the gospel demands that in ministry, Christians work more for reconciliation than for retribution, and that in public life we work against the spirit of revenge so cruelly displayed by the crowds outside many sites of execution.” Kauffman said reaction to the editorial has been swift _ and negative.”We’re getting more letters than usual in relation to an editorial and most of them are negative,”he said.”It’s just an indication of where the evangelical community is on the issue.” Although the magazine saw the Tucker case as”a teachable moment,”he said,”I think the conversation surrounding Karla Faye Tucker was a selective opposition.” Prominent Christian leaders, including religious broadcasters Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, had supported Tucker and urged clemency in her case.

U.S. priest says Cuban government orders him out of his parishes

(RNS) Cuba’s only resident Roman Catholic priest from the United States said Sunday (April 12) he has been ordered to leave the two parishes in which he works in the provincial town of Santa Clara.”This is speculation, but my own opinion is simply that the pope’s visit (in January) was so successful and humiliating for the hard-core communists that they have to do something to show they are in charge,”the Rev. Patrick Sullivan, a priest in the Capuchin Fanciscan order, told Reuters.

He said he had been ordered to leave the parishes and live in Havana until his residence visa runs out in 1999. But Sullivan said he would leave the country by the end of the week because”if I stay any longer, it will bring some reprisals from the government against the Catholic Church.” Sullivan said activities that may have angered the communists included his contacts with foreign media, an interview in a U.S. newspaper last year that included criticism of the lack of political pluralism in Cuba, and the distribution of and teaching about the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Sullivan’s expulsion comes at a delicate time for church-state relations in Cuba, following the January visit of Pope John Paul II. Since then, the church has taken a low profile so as not to antagonize authorities and to continue its quiet effort to win improvements for church life.

U.S. church delegation calls for lifting of Iraq sanctions

(RNS) A delegation of U.S. church officials, led by the Rev. Rodney Page, director of Church World Service, the relief arm of the National Council of Churches, has called for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq.”I have been to Cuba, North Korea, Haiti and many other places in the world but haven’t seen such suffering and malnutrition,”Page told the Associated Press in Baghdad.”The sanctions hit the children, the poor, the old and the sick,”he added.”It is not the government leaders (who suffer).” Page made his comments on Good Friday (April 10). The delegation was in Iraq over the Easter holiday to deliver $100,000 in medicine and surgical supplies for Iraqi hospitals.

The United Nations imposed sweeping trade sanctions against Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Page called the sanctions inhumane and unjust.

Gay protesters disrupt Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon

(RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey had his Easter sermon disrupted by members of the militant gay rights group OutRage!, who were protesting Carey’s refusal to support demands for gay marriage and a reduction in Britain’s homosexual age of consent from the present 18 to 16, the same age as for heterosexuals.

The leader of the group, Peter Tatchell, 46, was arrested and charged under the 1860 Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act with”riotous or violent”behavior in church. He will appear before magistrates in Canterbury on May 15.

Tatchell, backed by some half dozen supporters, climbed into the pulpit at Canterbury Cathedral as Carey was beginning his sermon and accused the archbishop of supporting discrimination against lesbians and gays.”This is not Christian teaching,”he said before being led away by cathedral stewards and police.”By opposing homosexual equality, Dr. Carey is proclaiming himself a greater moral authority than Jesus Christ.” Before continuing his sermon, Carey told the congregation of some 2,000:”This has happened before, and it will doubtless happen again. Let’s go back to the service.” Previous protests by OutRage! have included disrupting a meeting of Anglican bishops at Lambeth Palace and interrupting a press conference at Church House, the Church of England’s administrative headquarters.

It also seems likely the group will seek to disrupt this summer’s Lambeth meeting, a worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops, where the issue of gay rights in the church is expected to be high on the agenda.

In his prepared sermon, Carey warned of the”destructive potential of memory”in such trouble spots as Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Rwanda.

At the same time, he said, memories can also reveal”our own precious capacity to love and be loved.””We belittle the traditions from the past at our peril for by doing so we can lose out on many of those lessons our ancestors learned, often at great cost,”he said, adding that a”truly healthy”society needs to be”open to change and transformation while always being firmly rooted in the past.”

For protection against mugging, firm markets crucifix with built-in alarm (RNS) In England, where one in three clergy say they been attacked in the course of their religious work, a British firm says help is on the way.

Avon Silversmiths says it is ready to begin marketing a necklace-style crucifix with a built-in alarm.”It looks like an ordinary crucifix, but one tug will set it off _ and its loud,”designer Tony McCarthy told the Independent, a London newspaper, on Sunday (April 12).

Quote of the day: Pope John Paul II

(RNS)”I wish to invite you to thank God for the positive results reached in recent days in Northern Ireland. They allow those dear populations, tested for so long, to look to the future with greater confidence. Let us pray to God that each one, listening to his own conscience, has the courage to perform responsible and concrete gestures which will allow all to walk the road of peace together, avoiding anything that could lead back to hatred and violence.” _ Pope John Paul II speaking Monday (April 13) on the recently concluded peace agreement in the Northern Ireland.

MJP END RNS