c. 1998 Religion News Service

Ford Foundation gives gay-oriented denomination $100,000 grant

(RNS) The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches, the nation’s largest gay-oriented religious denomination, has received a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for its work with so-called”at risk”young people.

The grant will be used to support the UFMCC’s flagship youth program in West Hollywood, Calif., which works with poor and troubled young people considered at risk for drug abuse, crime, dropping out of school or becoming unwed parents, and to replicate the program in two additional cities.

In addition to the West Hollywood youth program, the denomination also operates an alternative high school for gay and lesbian young people in Los Angeles.”This is a significant step forward in our relationship with the Ford Foundation and marks a historic milestone on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered youth,”said the Rev. Nancy Wilson, senior pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles.

In a separate but related development, a group of conservative religious and family policy organizations said they would take their advertising campaign on behalf of ministries that seek to change homosexuals to heterosexuals to television.

Two 60-second ads for the program have been produced by Coral Ridge Ministries of Florida.

The groups, including the Family Research Council, contend that religion can help homosexuals become heterosexual and that so-called”transforming”ministries offer”a message of compassion and hope.” The FRC sponsors an annual”National Coming out Homosexuality Day.”This year’s day is Oct. 11.

Michael Johnston, who described himself as a former homosexual with AIDS, told a Washington news conference,”The message from homosexual lobby groups is one of anger and despair. All they can say is `give up and give in'”to homosexuality.

But Equal Partners in the Faith, a national religious group that supports equal rights, criticized the release of the two commercials as part of a political crusade.”The forces behind these ads are manipulating religion to promote their own political agenda,”said the Rev. Ken Brooker Langston of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).”These ads are a cynical attempt to divide communities of faith, pit Americans against one another, and single out one group of people for religious and political discrimination.”

Christian Coalition election spending detailed

(RNS) The Christian Coalition says it will spend a reported $2.7 million to get religious conservatives to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 3 _ that is if supporters’ donations are sufficient.

If more is raised, the coalition said it will spend even more on its get-out-the-vote effort, according to the Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the organization’s proposed budget that was mailed to supporters.

According to the budget, more than $1 million would be spent on distributing 45 million copies of the coalition’s controversial voter guides, mostly through churches. Another $1 million would be spent on phone calls and other such efforts to make sure religious conservatives actually vote.

The guides note how members of Congress voted on issues deemed relevant by the coalition, but have been attacked by critics as violating churches’ tax-exempt status by involving them in partisan political activity. The coalition contends the guides are within the law.

The Federal Election Commission also has sued the coalition for allegedly spending thousands of dollars to illegally promote the candidacies of several Republicans, including former President Bush and House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. The coalition says it broke no law because it did not specifically urge a vote for or against any candidate.

Religious conservatives angry with President Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky are expected to vote in large numbers next month. The size of their turnout could be key to the makeup of the next House and Senate _ and whether Clinton is ultimately impeached or not.

Couple who refused care for dead son on religious grounds enters plea

(RNS) A couple whose 22-month-old hemophiliac son bled to death after they refused on religious grounds to get him medical treatment for a cut foot has pleaded no contest in Philadelphia to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

The parents, Dean and Susan Heilman, are members of Faith Tabernacle Congregation Church, which teaches healing comes through prayer and not traditional medicine. At least nine children of Faith Tabernacle members who were denied medical help for treatable illnesses have died since 1983, the Associated Press reported Thursday (Oct. 8).

The Heilman’s son, Dean Michael, cut his toe on glass playing in the family’s backyard in July 1997. Dean, 33, and Susan, 36, then bandaged their son’s foot, rocked their son and began to pray. When the child was weak and listless from blood loss the next morning, the parents asked their pastor to annoint the boy with oil rather than seek medical help.

Twenty-hours after the injury, Dean Michael stopped breathing, but the parents still did not call a doctor or attempt to revive him using cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The couple’s attorney, public defender Karl Schwartz, said the Heilmans agreed to plead no contest”to preserve their family and the sanctity of their family.” The Heilmans face a maximum of 17 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 7., at which time they reportedly will receive probation after having agreed to seek medical care for their other children, ages 2 and 5.

Vouchers dropped from D.C. appropriations bill

(RNS) A proposed voucher program that would have allowed some poor parents in the District of Columbia to receive federal funds to send their children to private schools, including religious schools, has been dropped from congressional spending legislation following a veto threat from President Clinton.

A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Richard K.Armey, R-Texas, the prime sponsor of the controversial voucher legislation, said the decision to drop the proposal from the bill providing $5.2 billion to run the nation’s capital did not mean Armey is giving up the fight for vouchers.

Instead, the spokeswoman said, Armey dropped the proposal”in the interest of getting things done”and with what she said was the realization Republicans”will have a bigger majority (in Congress) next year.”He (Armey) looks forward to leading the charge and succeeding then,”the spokeswoman said.

Quote of the day: America magazine

(RNS)”In the end, what most observers will remember is not what seems to be a workaday theatrical event, but the condemnation of a person’s art without even bothering to experience it. And this unwillingness to see for oneself, to give the benefit of the doubt and to remain open-minded until learning the facts is incompatible with the Christian desire to seek the truth. As such, this is perhaps the most deeply anti-Catholic act in this whole drama.” _ The Jesuit magazine America in an editorial in its issue dated Oct. 17, criticizing the protests of Terrence McNally’s play”Corpus Christi”by Catholic groups that have not seen the play.

DEA END RNS