c. 1998 Religion News Service

Religious broadcaster Hagee sues Postal Service, claims censorship

(RNS) Texas pastor and religious broadcaster John Hagee has sued the U.S. Postal Service, claiming his ministry has been discriminated against by the service and its mailings have been”delayed, held and even censored.” The American Center for Law and Justice filed the suit Tuesday (March 24) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Global Evangelism Television, Hagee’s ministry based in San Antonio.

In the suit, Hagee’s ministry charges that from February through November 1997 it faced”discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious denial”of nonprofit mail rates, causing the ministry to experience increased costs. It seeks the court’s declaration that the Postal Service violated the ministry’s constitutional rights and should be prevented from further illegal discrimination.”This is a case of the government overstepping its authority and exercising hostility toward a religious organization,”Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, said in a statement.”In this case, the Postal Service became `Big Brother’ _ singling out a Christian ministry and subjecting it to blatant harassment, discrimination and even censorship.” Jeff Zelkowitz, an attorney for the Postal Service, said he had not seen the suit and could not comment on it specifically. He said the Postal Service determines who gets nonprofit rates based on statutes that were enacted by Congress in the 1990s.”Most of these types of questions are resolved within the agency,”he said.”Only a handful of these cases ever get to federal courts at all.” Sekulow said in an interview that the internal appeals process was tried and the ministry attempted to resolve the issues for a year before filing the suit.

In one instance, the suit charges, a postal supervisor decided that a ministry magazine ad for Hagee’s sermons on”The Winning Attitude”was unacceptable for nonprofit mailing rates after it”was determined to be a self-help presentation having nothing to do with religion.””His messages are very evangelistic,”Sekulow said in an interview with RNS.”It was just a complete miscue by the government.” Sekulow added that the Postal Service was engaged in a”pattern”of”invasive monitoring.” Other items the service deemed unacceptable included a reference to a”gospel cruise,”an announcement of a tour of Jerusalem, and ads for videos featuring Bible dramatizations and gospel music.

Sekulow said the ministry had to pay at least two or three times the amount they paid for nonprofit mailings when their publications were not accepted for the nonprofit rates.

Hagee, an author and pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, broadcasts daily and weekly radio and TV programs around the world.

Football star’s remarks may cost him fans, analyst’s job

(RNS) Football great Reggie White, star defenseman for the Green Bay Packers and an ordained minister, may have lost some fans and a chance at an analyst’s job at CBS Sports because of inflammatory remarks he made about race and gays before the Wisconsin Assembly.

In a one-hour speech on Wednesday (March 25), White left lawmakers shocked and stony-faced after offering his opinions on homosexuality, race and slavery, the Associated Press reported.

Initially, lawmakers cheered as White took to the podium and clapped enthusiastically as he described his attempts to improve the lives of those living in America’s inner cities.

But a few minutes into his speech, White said the United States had gotten away from God, in part by allowing homosexuality to”run rampant”and that the problems faced by gays should not be compared to those faced by blacks, the AP reported.”Homosexuality is a decision, it’s not a race,”White said.”People from all different ethnic backgrounds live in this lifestyle. But people from all different ethnic backgrounds also are liars and cheaters and malicious and back-stabbing.” White went on to say the reason blacks were enslaved in this country and American Indians were not is because the Indians”knew the territory, and … knew how to sneak up on people.” In an attempt to summarize the”gifts”each race brings to the human family, White, an African-American, said that blacks are good at worship and celebration _”If you go to a black church, you see people jumping up and down because they really get into it.”_ and that whites excel in organization _”You guys do a good job of building businesses … you know how to tap into money.” Leaving no group unscathed, White said,”Hispanics were gifted in family structure … and they can put 20, 30 people in one home.”Japanese and Asians are inventive and”can turn a television into a watch,”he said.”When you put all that together, guess what it makes: It forms a complete image of God.” Afterwards, White said his comments were not meant to stereotype but were about coming together as a society and taking guidance from God.”This is the first time I’ve been at a loss for words,”said Walter Kunicki, an assemblyman from Milwaukee.”You can still tell from the tension in the room that much of this was offensive.” Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen from Waukesha, who invited White to address the Assembly, called the remarks”disappointing.” A spokeswoman for CBS Sports declined to comment whether White’s remarks have hurt his chances for a studio analyst’s job for which he has auditioned.

But, said Leslie Ann Wade,”CBS doesn’t accept bias from any of its announcers of any kind.” In 1988, CBS fired football analyst Jimmy”The Greek”Snyder for saying that blacks had been”bred from slavery”to make better athletes.

First death under Oregon assisted-suicide law reported

(RNS) The death Tuesday (March 24) of a cancer-stricken grandmother is the first to be reported under Oregon’s new assisted-suicide law.

The woman, who was in her 80s and whose name has not been released, died shortly after swallowing a lethal dose of barbituates washed down by a glass of brandy, said Oregon Compassion in Dying, an assisted-suicide advocacy group, according to news reports.

However, the state would not confirm the case, citing privacy provisions in the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

The Portland woman, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago, was given less than two months to live by doctors, according to a tape recording she made that was made public by the woman’s family.

Under the Oregon law, terminally ill adults may request a lethal dose of drugs if the patient is of sound mind and is judged by doctors to have less than six months to live.”I am deeply saddened at this news,”said Roman Catholic Archbishop John G. Vlazny of Portland, according to The New York Times.”The suicide of this elderly woman can only bring anguish to those who have resisted the public-policy initiatives that changed the law in Oregon.” The Catholic Church in Oregon led a statewide fight against the initial ballot measure in 1994, when assisted suicide passed by a narrow margin. In 1997, it was put back to another vote by the state legislature and overwhelmingly passed the second time.”I cannot comfortably see myself living out two more months like this,”the woman said in the audiotape made two days before she died, according to the Associated Press.”I will be relieved of all the stress I have.” Others may have killed themselves under the new law, but details may be kept quiet. The state said it will not release a report on how the law is working until they have recorded at least 10 deaths.

Religious legal experts ask Congress for `focused’ religious freedom law

(RNS) An interfaith panel of religious legal experts Thursday (March 26) asked Congress for”focused”and”appropriate”legislation to block what they consider to be the overreaching of government into religious practices.”What is needed is a mechanism to force negotiations, to compel public officials to move beyond a mentality of `this is the way we do things _ we don’t make exceptions’ and to force a recognition in these days of omnipresent government that not everything government regulates or undertakes is equally weighty or that there is only one way to do things,”said Marc D. Stern, co-director of the American Jewish Congress’ Commission on Law and Social Action.

Stern made his comments in testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee holding hearings on the impact of last year’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the Religious Freedom Restoration Action. The act required that governments show a”compelling”reason for interfering with religious practices before commiting such interference.

The subcommittee, in an earlier hearing, heard from witnesses who said the use of zoning laws, civil rights regulations and other governmental mechanisms had been used to restrict religious expression.

Stern was joined by representatives of Roman Catholic, Muslim, Mormon and Protestant legal experts in urging Congress to pass legislation that would restore the”compelling”need standard.

Stern said such legislation should require governmental authorities to take a”second look approach”at religious observances before seeking to restrict them.

No legislation has yet been introduced in Congress although Stern said a number of the religious groups are working together on a draft proposal for congressional consideration.”The freedom to practice one’s religion is a fundamental right,”said Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., chairman of the subcommittee and a likely sponsor of any legislation on the issue.”We in Congress should work to ensure that this basic right is not relegated to second-class status,”he added.”I look forward to working successfully in the Congress to preserve full protection for our `first freedom’ _ the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference.”

Update: Bishops in Algeria seek pardons for Islamic militants

(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishops of Algeria have petitioned the government there to pardon eight Islamic fundamentalists sentenced to death Monday (March 23) for killing a bishop and his bodyguard in 1996.

In a statement Wednesday, the bishops said they are seeking the pardons because of the”radical severity of the judgment”and because the family and friends of the murdered bishop, the Rev. Henri-Pierre Claverie,”seek pardon and mercy,”The New York Times reported.

On Aug. 1, 1996, Claverie and Mohamed Pouchikhi, his bodyguard, were killed in a bomb blast in Oran as they were returning from a memorial ceremony for seven French monks killed by the Armed Islamic Group, the most radical of Muslim rebel groups fighting to topple Algeria’s military regime.

Update: Turkish government aims to curb Islamic radicals

(RNS) The government of Turkey proposed a series of laws Wednesday (March 25) to curb Islamic radicalism under continued pressure from its staunchly secular military.

The proposed legislation would restrict the building of mosques, order harsher punishment for those violating the secular dress code and make it easier to close radical Islamic institutions, the Associated Press reported.

The draft legislation would increase jail terms and fines for people wearing turbans and other religious garb _ except for headscarves _ in public.

The Turkish parliament is expected to pass the bills after the country’s five largest labor and trade confederations on Wednesday joined the military’s call to fight the Islamic radicals.

Quote of the day: President Clinton

(RNS)”The international community, together with nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy, as well. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their right name: genocide. We cannot change the past. But we can and must do everything in our power to help you build a future.” _ President Clinton, speaking March 25 to the people of Rwanda at the airport in Kilgali, on the 1994 genocide that killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

DEA END RNS