c. 1998 Religion News Service

French Jehovah’s Witnesses ordered to pay millions in back taxes

(RNS) France is seeking to collect about $50 million in back taxes from its Jehovah’s Witnesses after lifting the movement’s tax-free status.

French tax agents _ in declaring Jehovah’s Witnesses a”sect”rather than a”worship association”_ want to collect taxes amounting to 60 percent of the individual donations made over the past four years by the group’s 200,000 members in France.

Future donations also would be taxed at a 60 percent rate, Reuters reported Tuesday (June 30).

In a statement, the leadership of France’s Jehovah’s Witnesses said the group would”fight this discriminatory decision in the courts. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, as far as taxes are concerned, ask to be treated in the same way as the other Christian religions.” Human Rights Without Frontiers, a religious rights organization based in Brussels, warned in its own statement that the tax status of other minority faiths in France also could be in jeopardy.”By taxing religious contributions of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the fiscal services of the French state threaten their freedom of worship with death and there is no reason for not attacking other so-called sects on the same ground, which would paralyze and destroy them,”said the organization.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses movement has operated in France since 1900. However, in 1996 a French parliamentary commission included the group in a list of religious sects and cults operating in France”which can disturb public order.”The commission compared sects to”associations of criminals.” The French tax administration, in applying a new law concerning individual donations by taxpayers to Jehovah’s Witnesses, noted the refusal of Jehovah’s Witnesses to serve in the armed forces and”defend the nation.” Jehovah’s Witnesses have often run afoul of governments because of their refusal to salute national flags, bear arms or participate in government affairs. They consider such activities expressions of Satan’s power over humankind.

French Jehovah’s Witnesses already pay taxes on the movement’s books and magazines sold.

Vatican official calls for religious education in Cuba

(RNS) A Vatican official, speaking at a packed Havana cathedral, has urged Cuba’s communist government to allow religious education in state schools.”Religious formation, in schools and in other areas of civil society, in no way contradicts the lay nature of the modern state,”said Cardinal Pio Laghi, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education. Laghi, the most senior Vatican official to visit Cuba since the January visit of Pope John Paul II, spoke Monday (June 29) before some 600 people who crowded into the cathedral in Havana’s central district.

Laghi’s comments drew sustained applause, Reuters reported. Some midlevel Cuban officials at the cathedral pointedly refrained from applauding at the remarks concerning religious education, although they did clap at the conclusion of his sermon.

During his visit, the pope repeatedly called for religious education, saying Christians were entitled to such.

Cuban President Fidel Castro nationalized Catholic schools and universities, along with other private schools, soon after the 1959 revolution that brought him to power. No religious classes have been allowed in the state-run schools since, and Castro has shown no signs of relenting, despite the Vatican’s urging.

However, the Roman Catholic Church is allowed to run its own catechism classes and has two seminaries for training priests.

Earlier in his visit to Cuba, Laghi said Catholic teachers should seek new avenues for informally teaching religion.”We should not be paralyzed by the restrictions of the current moment,”he told some 200 educators gathered at a Havana church.”While you still do not have access to schools and universities, choose other paths.”

Pope tightens oath required of Catholic theologians

(RNS) Pope John Paul II Tuesday (June 30) enshrined into church law an oath obliging Roman Catholic theologians who teach at church universities to accept such church teachings as the prohibitions against women priests, abortion, contraception and euthanasia.

The pope’s action came in a short Apostolic Letter titled”In Order to Defend the Faith,”in which he ordered the oath added to the church’s Code of Canon Law.

The pope said the change was needed to”defend the faith of the Catholic Church from errors that arise on the part of some faithful.” Reuters reported the 78-year-old pope’s action appeared to be another move on his part to insure that the conservative stamp he has placed on the church remains in place past the end of his pontificate.

The oath, which theologians must take prior to teaching in the name of the church, has existed since 1989. The oath includes a”profession of faith,”in which the theologian reads the Apostles Creed _ the basic recitation of Christian beliefs _ followed by an expression of belief in”divinely revealed truths”and everything”definitively proposed by the church regarding teachings on faith and morals.” The oath also includes a promise to”adhere with religious submission of will and intellect”to teachings of the pope and the church’s College of Bishops.

In an accompanying commentary to the Apostolic Letter, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees church doctrinal purity, said:”On questions of faith and morals, the only subject qualified to fulfill the office of teaching with binding authority for the faithful is the Supreme Pontiff and College of Bishops in communion with him.”

Guatemalan authorities seek men who briefly kidnapped missionaries

(RNS) Guatemalan troops and police freed a group of U.S. missionaries who were briefly held hostage by a gang of heavily armed men in the northern rainforests of the Central American nation.

Details about the incident were sketchy but authorities in Guatemala City said it appears the kidnappers had asked for $300,000 for the release of at least four American members of a missionary family that had lived near the border of Mexico for more than 20 years.

The six-hour ordeal concluded with a daring commando raid Monday (June 29) by a patrol that happened upon the hostages and their abductors.

The hostages are members of a Christian charitable organization called either the League of a New Way or the League of New Life, Reuters reported.

During the raid, one soldier was wounded and one of the Americans also may have been injured. The kidnappers got away.”We still don’t have any more information but I believe the hunt goes on (for the kidnappers),”a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said.

There were conflicting details about the incident. Newspapers reported the four U.S. hostages and eight co-workers were freed while their kidnappers attempted to get them to cross a river near the Guatemala-Mexico border.

The missionaries’ specific identities also remained unclear. Angel Conte, chief of the National Civilian Police, said they were members of the Stoltzfus family.

Diplomatic sources said the missionaries may be part of a large family that has lived on a remote farm in northern Guatemala since the 1970s, doing missionary work and providing health services for Indians in the region.

Tennessee Pentecostal woman sues employer over pants requirement

(RNS) A Pentecostal woman in Gallatin, Tenn., who says wearing pants contradicts her faith, is suing to regain her machine operator job after being fired for wearing a dress to work.

Charlene McCormick believes she was fired in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. She is seeking back pay and unspecified damages.”We believe you have to dress holy and look holy and walk daily with God,”said McCormick, a member of a Pentecostal Holiness denomination.”We believe (wearing pants is) a sin, and the Bible says it’s an abomination.” The lawsuit, filed recently in federal court in Nashville, states that McCormick was working for TAD Staffing Services employment agency in April 1996 when she was told to begin working as a machine operator at the Robert Bosch Corp. plant in Hendersonville.

After working in that capacity for a few days, her supervisor sent her home, saying her dress posed a safety hazard because it might get caught in the machinery, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (June 30).

McCormick was assigned to another job in a different department of the plant. But the personnel director saw her wearing a dress and told the temporary agency to fire her, the lawsuit charges.

A spokeswoman for Robert Bosch Corp., which is based in Broadview, Ill., said the company does not comment on pending lawsuits.

Seattle jury rejects church officials’ claims of police misconduct

(RNS) A Seattle jury has rejected the claims of police misconduct brought by three leaders and a member of a church who say they were wrongly charged with child rape and molestation.

After deliberating for five days, the jury found Monday (June 29) that the town of Wenatchee, in central Washington, along with its police officials and members of the Douglas County sheriff’s department, did not violate the civil rights of the four people.”It’s a verdict,”said Pastor Robert”Roby”Roberson after the decision was announced.”It doesn’t mean it’s the end. It doesn’t mean they’re right.” His wife Connie also was disappointed with the jury’s findings, the Associated Press reported.”We lived the injustice,”she said tearfully.”We know the truth.” The Robersons and two others said they were falsely accused of child sex abuse from 1994 to 1995. The other two plaintiffs were Honnah Sims, a Sunday-school teacher at Roberson’s Pentecostal church, and parishioner Donna Rodriguez.

The four said overzealous investigators urged children to falsely accuse them of molestation and child rape. They and their families had sought a maximum of $60 million in damages.

Douglas County Sheriff Dan LaRoche said the verdict permits police to continue investigation of molestation and sex abuse cases without fearing lawsuits.”When your livelihood is threatened for doing your job, and your family’s jeopardized, that’s pretty hard to take,”LaRoche said.

A total of 28 people were charged with molestation or child rape during the Wenatchee sex rings investigation. The Robersons and Sims were acquitted and charges against Rodriguez were dismissed. Fourteen of the 28 pleaded guilty and five were convicted. Charges against six others, including Rodriguez, were dismissed or reduced.

Disability group urges congregations to be more accessible

(RNS) The National Organization on Disability has announced a campaign that aims to commit 2,000 U.S. religious congregations to welcoming people with disabilities by the year 2000.

Organizers of the”Accessible Congregations Campaign”hope houses of worship will pledge to accept people with disabilities as valued members of congregations and will remove barriers to their full participation and encourage their involvement in worship services and leadership.”True religious access is about opening hearts, minds and doors to millions of Americans with disabilities who seek a full life of faith,”said Ginny Thornburgh, director of the Washington-based organization’s Religion and Disability Program.”We are encouraging commitment, not perfection, from congregations.” Her organization commissioned a survey in 1994 that found that seven in 10 people with disabilities consider their faith to be”very important.” Close to 60 national and regional groups have endorsed the campaign, including the National Council of Churches Committee on Disabilities, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Council for Jews with Special Needs Inc.”Installing ramps, increasing the number of accessible parking spaces, providing sign language interpreters and enlarging print materials are only some of the steps congregations can take to widen their hospitality,”said the Rev. Harold Wilke, director of The Healing Community, a religious organization in Claremont, Calif., devoted to the inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream life.

Quote of the day: Actor Peter Coyote

(RNS)”The idea of absolute freedom is a fiction. It’s based on the idea of an independent self. But in fact there’s no such thing. There’s no self without other people. There’s no self without sunlight. Theres no self without dew. And water. … And you can take it from there to the whole universe. So the idea of behaving in a way that doesn’t acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it’s indulgence.” _ Actor Peter Coyote, a Zen Buddhist, quoted in the July-August 1998 issue of”New Age”magazine.

IR END RNS