c. 1998 Religion News Service

Kosovo Muslim leader urges swift international intervention

(RNS) The religious leader of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian Muslims Tuesday (Aug. 4) urged quick intervention by the United States and other NATO nations to end an offensive by Serbian-led Yugoslav government forces.

Speaking in Washington, Grand Mufti Rexhep Boja said the government forces have”killed thousands”and forced”hundreds of thousands”of Kosovo Albanians to flee their home towns and villages.”Aggression is taking place. I appeal to the United States to help the people who are facing attacks and genocide,”Boja said.

Reports from Kosovo Tuesday underscored the urgency of Boja’s comments. A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces are attempting to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of non-Serbs just as they did in Bosnia.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant republic in what remains of the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians, who are predominantly Muslim,outnumber the mostly Orthodox Christian Serbs nine to one in Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanian rebels want Kosovo to become independent. The current Yugoslav offensive is an attempt to reverse rebel military gains.

Monday, the United States announced that NATO had formulated military plans to resolve the Kosovo crisis, although no immediate intervention is anticipated, according to reports.

However, Boja said NATO intervention should come soon”to end the suffering of the people.”Asked how long Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians can hold out, he replied:”We do not know. Every day is a question.” Boja was in Washington to attend a conference of international Muslim leaders sponsored by the Islamic Supreme Council of America that is expected to attract about 3,000. The weekend conference opens Friday (Aug. 7).

Other than attending a dinner with other conference presenters and several members of Congress, Boja said he had no meetings scheduled with American officials during his visit.

Jews ask for removal of crosses at Auschwitz

(RNS) Jewish groups in Israel and the United States are demanding the removal of some 50 crosses placed by Polish Catholics outside the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

The Jewish groups say the crosses are an attempt to Christianize a place where more than 1 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Catholics say they, too, should be allowed to memorialize the members of their faith who died at Auschwitz, which is near the Polish town of Oswiecim.

Directors of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Israel’s national museum and memorial for the estimated 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, said Monday (Aug. 3) the erection of the crosses at Auschwitz was a”provocative act”by Catholic extremists.

The Israeli officials also said the crosses violated an international accord about the Auschwitz site under which it was agreed that no religious, ideological or political symbols would be erected there.

In the United States, the Anti-Defamation League called the placing of the crosses”greatly offensive.” Said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, also noting past attempts to end Catholic-Jewish arguments over Auschwitz,”This gesture is particularly provocative given the efforts by Jews and Poles to resolve the future of this site in a respectful and cooperative manner.” A Catholic workers’ group last week erected the crosses, some of which are about 10-feet-tall.”We want the entire escarpment to teem with crosses,”said Kazimierz Switon, who was identified by Reuters as a”radical Catholic.” In 1988, a 22-foot-tall cross was placed in the garden of a former Catholic convent at Auschwitz to mark a 1979 visit by Pope John Paul II. The convent was closed following Jewish protests.

NCC sends first `direct flight’ relief shipment to Cuba in two years

(RNS) The National Council of Churches has sent $143,200 in medical and other supplies to Cuba on its first”direct flight”relief shipment in two years.”After long pressing for the restrictions on direct flights (from the United States) to Cuba to be lifted for humanitarian supplies, we are grateful that we can avoid the extra expense and time to get these supplies to the people where they are needed,”said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the NCC.

President Clinton lifted the restriction on direct flights of humanitarian supplies between the United States and Cuba this spring as he came under increasing political pressure following Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba in January. John Paul had called for an end to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba _ a step the United States has refused to take.

The shipment, which left the United States July 31 included 17 pallets and 10 cartons of hospital supplies, 2,000 health kits and 5,000 lightweight blankets. It will go to two medical clinics in Havana that the NCC and its relief arm, Church World Service, have targeted in an effort to improve their capacity for care.

Methodist pastor starts `blatantly … liberal’ radio talk show

(RNS) The Rev. Toni Cook, saying she is”sick and tired of the religious right telling the world they have the only religious point of view”has started her own”blatantly, unapologetically liberal”radio talk show.

Cook, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church on Capitol Hill in Denver, said the show and its guests will take up such issues as abortion, gay rights and other social topics. “`Liberal’ is wonderful word,”Cook said.”It means liberating spirit.” The show, scheduled to begin this month, will air at noon on Sundays, right after Cook finishes the service at St. Paul’s.

While acknowledging the show will be unabashedly liberal, Cook said she wants to give”a loving, holistic view of religion, to show that religious people aren’t bigots.” Officials at station KRRF, which will air the program, said they wanted a”different approach”to the usual talk shows, which in recent years have been dominated by conservative hosts.”I think it’s smart to have this show just as people are driving home from church,”said Karen Rhoades, executive producer at the station.

Cook said Jose Cabezon, a Buddhist on the staff of the Iliff School of Theology, will be among her first guests.

Tennessee Methodist church reverses decision to withhold money

(RNS) East End United Methodist Church in Savannah, Tenn., has reversed a June decision to withhold some $17,000 earmarked for denominational missions because of the congregation’s displeasure over the Methodist stand on homosexuality.

The initial decision to withhold the funds came June 21, following a vote by the Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference to affirm the denomination’s stand on homosexuality.

That position is that sexually active homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Leaders of the 455-member church said the denomination’s stand wasn’t strong enough in its opposition to homosexuality.

The church’s reversal came after talks with conference officials.”When they came to better understand the actual action of the annual conference, they saw the situation from a different perspective,”said the Rev. Tom Smith, superintendent of the conference’s Pulaski District, which includes the Savannah congregation.

A number of United Methodist churches have said they are or are considering withholding funds from the denomination as a result of the acquittal of the Rev. Jimmy Creech of Lincoln, Neb., on charges he violated church rules by performing a same-sex union ceremony last year.

Quote of the Day: Los Angeles pastor Erwin McManus

(RNS)”When somebody got really broken we’d send them to a psychiatrist. We’d give Jesus the easy stuff and Freud the hard stuff. … And it’s because the church has lost the power to heal.” _ Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic, one of the largest urban churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, speaking at a missions conference in Glorieta, N.M., in late July. His remarks were reported by Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

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