c. 1998 Religion News Service

Robertson says gays’ flags invite God’s wrath on Orlando

(RNS) Invoking the Bible, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has warned Orlando, Fla., it may face God’s wrath in the form of hurricanes for having allowed homosexual groups to fly rainbow flags from city light poles in connection with”Gay Days”at Walt Disney World.

Speaking on his”700 Club”TV show Monday (June 8), Robertson said”the Apostle Paul made it abundantly clear in the Book of Romans that the acceptance of homosexuality is the last step in the decline of Gentile civilization.” Robertson said accepting homosexuality will bring God’s wrath upon the United States and Orlando.”We’re not in any way, shape or form hating anybody. This is not a message of hate; this is a message of redemption,”he continued.”But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs. It’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor. It isn’t necessarily something we ought to open our arms to.” Robertson noted that the Orlando area is prone to”serious”hurricanes.”I don’t think I would be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you,”he said.

A spokesman for the city declined to comment on Robertson’s statements, but noted Orlando routinely allows various groups that pay the cost to display flags in connection with other events.

Less reticent was the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, a persistent critic of Robertson, who he says wants to impose his conservative Christian views on society at-large.

Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington watchdog agency on church-state separation issues, quipped sarcastically:”Donald had better duck. And politicians who take their marching orders from Pat Robertson ought to consider finding a new meteorologist.” Lynn _ whose group alerted news organizations to Robertson’s statements _ noted that in 1985 Robertson claimed his prayers had diverted a hurricane from hitting the Virginia Beach, Va., area, where Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network is headquartered.

Wisconsin court says religious schools can be part in voucher plan

(RNS) The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled a publicly funded school voucher program in Milwaukee may be expanded to include private religious schools.

In a 4-2 ruling Wednesday (June 10), the court, based in Madison, Wis., said adding private religious schools to the program that had been limited to private non-religious schools was constitutional.

The decision to expand the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program”places on equal footing options of public and private school choice and vests power in the hands of parents to choose where to direct the funds allocated for their children’s benefit,”Justice Donald Steinmetz wrote in the majority opinion.

The Milwaukee program, in operation since 1990, provides students from low-income homes with taxpayer funds not to exceed the cost of private school tuition, which in Milwaukee averages about $2,800 per student.

About 1,500 students have participated in the plan, but the court’s ruling is expected to expand that number ten-fold.

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, noting tax dollars have long been given to college students who attend religiously affiliated schools, praised the court ruling.”It’s only at the K-12 level that we discriminate against low-income families and restrict their ability to attend the school of their choice. Expanding this program to religious schools just makes common sense,”he said.

Kevin J. Hasson, president and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, agreed.”This decision is doubly good,”Hasson said.”It is good because parochial school kids and their parents are no longer second-class citizens. It is even better because it recognizes that people of faith do not need to be quarantined from public life generally.” However, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of American United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the ruling as forcing taxpayers to pay for the religious educations of others.

The ruling, he said”strikes at the heart of the First Amendment, ignores the language of the (Wisconsin) state constitution and overlooks every other court ruling on public funding of religion. Anyone concerned with church-state separation should be shocked and disappointed.” Phil Baum, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, called the ruling”a blow to public school systems … urgently in need of improvement. A voucher system commits the state not to changing public schools, but to abandoning them.” In January 1997, a lower court held that including religious schools in the Milwaukee program was unconstitutional. An appeals court later upheld that decision.

Lynn said Wednesday’s ruling would be further appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wisconsin is one of five states with school voucher plans in state courts. The others are Ohio, Arizona, Vermont and Maine, according to the Associated Press.

Papal envoy in Iraq scouting possible visit by John Paul

(RNS) A Vatican official has visited Iraq, reportedly to confer on the possibility of adding that nation to a possible millennium tour of the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II.

The Iraqi town of Ur was the traditional home of the prophet Abraham _ revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike _ before he set out with his family for the biblical land of Canaan. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray was scheduled to visit Ur on Thursday (June 11).

John Paul has expressed a desire to visit lands associated with the Bible in 2000 to mark the end of Christianity’s second millennium. The visit would include stops in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian self-rule areas and, possibly, Iraq.

In an interview published in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Etchegaray said the pope would like to convene a meeting of Christians, Jews and Muslims at Mt. Sinai, traditionally believed to be in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

While in Iraq, Etchegaray also attended a conference of Iraqi Christians, 80 percent of whom are Chaldaean Catholics. Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic and Armenian Orthodox comprise most of the remaining 500,000 Christians remaining in Iraq.

The Iraqi Christian community, which traces its roots back to the first century, has lost some 250,000 members to emigration in the eight years since economic sanctions were levied against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait.

Christians arrested in Morocco for bringing in Bibles

(RNS) Four western Christians have been found guilty in Morocco of seeking to bring illegally into the Muslim nation about 100 Arabic-language Bibles .

Graham Hutt, a 51-year-old British writer and medical anthropologist who was among those convicted, said in an interview Wednesday (June 10) that the four were arrested in late May on customs violations after arriving in Midiq, Morocco, aboard his yacht.

After being detained for two days, the four were released after they were fined the equivalent of $42,000 each. Hutt’s yacht, valued at $250,000, and a $3,000 motorcycle were also impounded, along with the Bibles. Two month jail terms imposed on all four have been suspended.

The others arrested were Serge Dechoz of France and Kelly Viinikka and Antero Ylikangas, both of Canada.

Authorities also confiscated about”1,200 small New Testaments and 500 Bibles”in Dechoz’ home in Morocco, according to reports.

Hutt said the four are awaiting a court appeal of their convictions. They have not been allowed to leave the country.

According to the U.S. State Department, Morocco, while officially Muslim, tolerates Christian practice, most of which is confined to foreigners. A 1997 State Department report on religious freedom abroad notes that Islamic law and tradition call for strict punishment of any Muslim who attempts to convert out of Islam, and that any attempt to induce a Muslim to convert is illegal.

The report also noted the arrest of at least seven Moroccans in 1995 for”offenses related to their Christianity. In addition, a Salvadoran man and an American family were deported for evangelistic activities.” However, Hutt denied he or the others were engaged in missionary activity in any way. He did identify himself and the others as Christians.

He said they brought the Bibles to Morocco because”some Christians had asked for them,”although he declined to identify them.

Hutt also said it is not illegal to purchase Bibles in Morocco and that those arrested had made no attempt to hide the Bibles when they successfully cleared customs immediately upon their arrival in the North African nation. They were arrested the following day.

Christian activists in the United States were quick to defend the four.”The arrest and treatment of these four Christians shows flagrant disregard for the fundamental human right of religious freedom as guaranteed by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights,”said Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s religious freedom center in Washington.

John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va., said that if Moroccan courts do not overturn the fines against the four it”would not bode well for the future of religious expression in Morocco.”

Privately funded national school voucher program launched

(RNS) A group of business leaders has pledged to raise $200 million for a national program that would allow some 50,000 public school students from low-income homes to attend private religious or secular schools over the next four years.

Organizers of the Children’s Scholarship Fund said Tuesday (June 10) they had already secured commitments of $140 million. The effort is one of the largest private investments ever made on behalf of schoolchildren, according to The New York Times.

The program is larger than any of the other private voucher programs that have been started in recent years in more than three dozen cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio, Texas.

The New York program alone has received more than 40,000 applications for just 2,200 scholarships. The private voucher programs are seen as an indication of widespread dissatisfaction with the declining quality of inner-city public schools across the nation.

Children’s Scholarship Fund will ask parents to cover at least 25 percent of their children’s school tuition costs, while placing no limit on the amount of any one scholarship given.

Theodore J. Forstmann, chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace, and John T. Walton, the son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, have each contributed $50 million to the fund.

Quote of the day: the Rev. James M. Dunn.

(RNS)”In the face of the Boerne decision, the Free Exercise Clause is rendered meaningless and impotent and in need of some legislative Viagra.” _ The Rev. James M. Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, commenting Tuesday (June 9) on why he supports a congressional bill to replace the Religious Freedom Restoration Act overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Boerne vs. Flores case.

DEA END RNS