c. 1998 Religion News Service
Two religious leaders say they’re praying for Clinton
(RNS) Two religious leaders, American Baptist author Tony Campolo and Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, have said they are praying for President Clinton, who has been accused of alleged sexual misconduct with a White House intern.
Speaking in separate interviews, the men reacted to news reports about the scandal swirling around the president.
Campolo, a professor of sociology at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., is one of the president’s spiritual advisers.
He said he plans to stick by the president no matter what comes of the latest allegations against him.”I know the president is somebody who is a caring father, a loving husband and somebody who is concerned about the poor and the oppressed,”Campolo told Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.
The sociologist worried that other ministers might distance themselves from Clinton out of concern for their own reputations.”I follow a man who really didn’t give a hoot about his reputation,”Campolo said.”As a matter of fact, I think Jesus had the worst reputation in Jerusalem.” Campolo, who was interviewed in Winston-Salem, N.C., learned of the allegations when he spoke to his wife by telephone.”If the worst is true, I’ll be a heartbroken person because he’s my friend,”said Campolo, who said he had prayed for Clinton, the young woman in question and the nation.
Meanwhile, McCartney responded to the president’s situation while attending a Promise Keepers’ regional clergy conference in Denver.”We need to pray for all involved,”said McCartney.”I don’t know what happened. It’s not important that I know what happened. Only God knows.” He added that such allegations”can be very painful for him (Clinton) and his family, I know.” McCartney acknowledged in recent months that he had had an extramarital liaison and described himself as someone who was for many years not a good husband and father.
In a related development, the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church, the Washington, D.C., church Clinton attends with his wife, Hillary, said on a TV news program that he knows the Clintons as”good people”and cautioned against making judgments before all the facts are known.”What is most important to me is for the country not to react in a hysterical way about this and to keep a broad sense of all of the ethical values that may be at stake here and definitely not to rush to judgment,”Wogaman said on”Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,”which airs on PBS stations across the country throughout the weekend.
Wogaman added that he doesn’t assume the allegations are true.”I know that there has been a concerted effort to damage this presidency,”he said on the program.”Much of it is politically motivated. There is a kind of seepage of corrupt, mean-spiritedness in our society that affects all of these things.”
Former Christian Coalition finance official gets probation
(RNS) The Christian Coalition’s former chief finance official has received probation for embezzling more than $40,000 from the political group.
Jeanne K. DelliCarpini, 43, also received a suspended six-year prison sentence Thursday (Jan. 22) from Circuit Court Judge S. Bernard Goodwyn in Chesapeake, Va. She had admitted to the embezzlement, pleading guilty in September to one embezzlement count, The Washington Post reported.”I don’t have an excuse,”DelliCarpini told the judge before she received her sentence.”What I did was wrong.” She testified that she stole the money because she was in an abusive marriage and she was being pressured by her husband to pay off their credit card debt.
DelliCarpini said she wrote eight checks totaling $40,346.27 from coalition accounts between November 1996 and March 1997. She said she told coalition officials the next month about the checks and voiced her intention to pay back the money.
School of Americas protesters get jail terms
(RNS) A federal judge has convicted 22 protesters, including some ministers, of criminal trespass for participating in one of the largest demonstrations yet against the School of the Americas, a U.S. Army training facility.
The school, which critics call the School of Assassins, has been a target of faith-based groups for more than a decade. Critics charge the school is responsible for training Latin American military officers in torture and other military techniques they say violate human rights.
The criminal trespass cases grew out of a Nov. 16 demonstration that brought more than 2,000 demonstrators to the school at Ft. Benning, near Columbus, Ga.
The protest marked the anniversary of the killing in 1989 of six Jesuit priests by an army unit in El Salvador. Students of the school have included former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and reputed Salvadoran death squad organizer Roberto D’Aubuisson.
During the protest, military police detained more than 600 people who had entered the base, some carrying mock coffins. The 22 were protesters who had previously been banned from the base because of their participation in earlier protests.”We are going to come back in greater numbers until the school of death, that school of horrors … is shut down forever,”the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest who has led the effort to have the school shut down, said following the Wednesday (Jan. 21) sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Robert Elliott gave each of the convicted 22 protesters a six-month prison sentence and fines of $3,000.
Baptist denomination board meets, pastors keep supporting Lyons
(RNS) The National Baptist Convention, USA, ended its recent winter board meeting with some pastors continuing to voice support for their embattled president, the Rev. Henry J. Lyons.
The few pastors willing to be interviewed at the meeting, which ended Thursday (Jan. 22), had nothing but praise for Lyons. In addition, the Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke to the board about his support of Lyons and the need for denominational unity, pastors said in interviews.
On Wednesday, there was a voice vote of moral support for Lyons.”The convention’s in much prayer with Dr. Lyons,”said the Rev. Mark Napoleon, a New Orleans pastor.”Any actions should be done in-house instead of out of house. The federal government cannot dictate to the convention who our president should be.” Lyons is under investigation by federal and state authorities concerning financial irregularities. The denomination also has been embroiled in controversy stemming from allegations of personal misconduct by Lyons.
Last July, Lyons’ wife, Deborah, was charged with setting fire to a home he co-owned with a female church official. Since then, Deborah Lyons has pleaded guilty to arson.
Henry Lyons also has been criticized for not distributing funds he received from the Anti-Defamation League/National Urban League Rebuild the Churches Fund. At the ADL’s request, Lyons returned $214,500 to the ADL after distributing $30,000 to burned churches from a total donation of $244,500.
Jackson, a longtime friend of Lyons, told delegates to the board meeting that he supported a legal defense fund for the convention president, but did not think convention funds should be used to pay Lyons’ legal bills resulting from state and federal probes.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that Lyons told the board that he had not used convention funds for his legal defense. It also reported that Grady Irvin, Lyons’ lawyer, met this month with U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington, who are investigating Lyons’ financial relationship with Nigeria.
Federal and state agents have contacted ADL officials, whom the newspaper quoted as saying”we’ve given up”on trying to get explanations from the denomination about the failure to distribute money to the burned churches.
The newspaper quoted Irvin from a tape recording of the board meeting _ which was for sale at the convention _ speaking about the ADL donations for burned churches:”The minute the ADL said, `We want our money,’ guess what? The president (Lyons) wrote them a check. Then they wanted a whole lot of explanation. I ain’t got to explain nothing to them.”
Baptist aid arrives in North Korea
(RNS) Some 114 tons of aid, including 70,000 children’s coats donated by Southern Baptists, have arrived in famine-stricken North Korea, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has announced.
The aid, borne on what Southern Baptist officials called the largest air cargo plane made, arrived in Pyongyang _ North Korea’s capital _ on Jan. 18.
According to Baptist Press, the denomination’s official news agency, the coats were distributed to children under 12 who are weakened and malnourished and at risk because of the extended famine.
North Korean officials said they feared the children would freeze to death during the country’s bitter winter.”The coats and medicines we are bringing will literally save these children’s lives,”said Bill Cashion, the IMB consultant for human needs.
In a separate development, a United Methodist delegation to North Korea said it was able to share worship with the small Christian community in the communist nation but were unable to visit relief operations and food distribution centers.
But the delegation did meet with Eric Weingartner, the liaison between the United Nations World Food Program, which is heading up the North Korean relief effort, and religious and non-governmental organizations shipping relief supplies into the country.”He (Weingartner) has every reason to believe the distribution is going well,”said the Rev. Randolph Nugent, general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s Board of Global Ministries, which put together the five-member delegation.
Quote of the Day: Los Angeles talk-show host Dennis Prager
(RNS)”I have no expectations from God and I don’t expect favorable answers to petitionary prayer. I don’t see God as a celestial butler, and I don’t believe God gives unconditional love.” _ Los Angeles talk-show host Dennis Prager, in an interview with The Washington Times about his new book”Happiness Is a Serious Problem,”responding to a question about whether people should expect answers to prayer.
MJP END RNS
