c. 1998 Religion News Service
Update: Graham says more about Clinton, moral leadership
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham on Tuesday (March 17) gave his lengthiest public assessment thus far on President Clinton and issues of moral leadership in an op-ed piece written for The New York Times.”I have known President Clinton as a personal friend for many years,”Graham wrote.”I hope and pray, for his sake, the sake of his family and the sake of our nation, that he is not guilty of the things he is alleged to have done.” Graham urged prayer for Clinton and others involved in the current allegations of sexual misconduct that have been leveled against the president.”I know this issue cannot be resolved in a few paragraphs, or by television sound bites, which seldom allow time for balanced discussion and thoughtful reflection,”Graham wrote.”We must not be tempted, however, to divorce character from leadership. That would be tragic.” Graham’s written comments follow his televised interview March 5 on NBC’s”Today”show in which he was asked about the allegations concerning Clinton.”Certainly I forgive him because I know the frailty of human nature and I know how hard it is _ and especially a strong, vigorous young man like he is,”Graham said in the interview.”And he has such a tremendous personality, that I think the ladies just go wild over him.” Former Reagan education secretary William Bennett criticized Graham the next day on the same TV show and in a Wall Street Journal column, continuing his denunciation of Americans who refuse to make judgments about allegations against Clinton.
In his column in The Times, Graham said he believes there is not”an impenetrable fire wall between what we do privately and what we do publicly.”Rather, he said, leaders have greater influence when they are highly visible.”The question is asked, `Why can’t we just ignore personal character, as long as a person does the job?'”Graham wrote.”Simply stated, it is because the stakes are too high and the impact on society too far-reaching.”
Catholic University names new president
(RNS) The Rev. David M. O’Connell, an associate vice president and academic dean at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., has been named the new president at Catholic University of America in Washington.”This will be a St. Patrick’s Day that I’ll never forget,”O’Connell said Tuesday (March 17) at a Washington news conference at which his selection for the post was announced.
At 42, O’Connell, a Philadelphia native and Catholic University alumni, is the second youngest president in the 111-year-old institution’s history. An expert in canon law, O’Connell will officially take over as the 14th Catholic University president Sept. 1.
O’Connell will replace Brother Patrick Ellis, 69, who has been president for six years and announced his coming retirement last year.
Catholic University, situated on a 144-acre campus in northeast Washington and with an enrollment of about 6,200 men and women, is the national university of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and the only institution of higher learning established by the U.S. Catholic bishops. Its seminary prepares men for the Catholic priesthood.
O’Connell, a priest since 1982, took note of the”creative tension”stemming from the institution’s”unique”dual identity as a modern university and exemplar of Catholic education.
Invoking Pope John Paul II’s”Ex Corde Ecclesiae,”a blueprint for the relationship between Catholic educational institutions and church teaching, O’Connell said he hoped to bring to Catholic University”a sense of the truth … which is God.” O’Connell has been at St. John’s, the nation’s largest Catholic university, since 1991. He has also served as interim academic vice president at Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y., and earlier held academic posts at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northhampton, Pa., and Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Pa.
He has served as a tribunal judge for canon law cases in the dioceses of Scranton and Harrisburg, Pa., and Birmingham, Ala. He has written 19 articles published in the”Encyclopedia of the Vatican and the Papacy.”
Court order leads to agnostics’ Eagle Scout nominations
(RNS) With the help of a court order, two agnostic teen-agers in California have been nominated to become Eagle Scouts _ the highest honor in Scouting.
In what appears to be unprecedented action, the Boy Scout Council in conservative Orange County voted Sunday (March 15) to recommend Eagle badges to 16-year-old twins Michael and William Randall.
They were expelled in 1991 for refusing to take an oath to God. Seven years later, they have been recommended for the highest honor in Scouting, The Washington Post reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the Randalls in their lawsuit, and the Boy Scout Council said it was the first time Eagle Scout honors were recommended under a court order for Scouts who would not swear their”duty to God”as required in the Boy Scout’s pledge.
Attorney James G. Randall said his sons were”excited and delirious”when they learned they had gained the recommendation by a unanimous vote.
Michael Randall said he and his brother attempted to put the Boy Scout Law into practice during their lengthy court fight.”It talks about being brave, and bravery means that a Scout personally knows that what he is doing is right, even in the face of adversity,”Michael Randall said.”Being trustworthy also comes into play, because how could we profess a belief in a god or gods if we don’t have a belief?” After being expelled from Scouting for refusing to take the oath, the twins were reinstated in 1992 when a court ruled the council had violated their civil rights. When the boys applied to become Eagle Scouts last year, the council refused to consider their application. Their father and the ACLU returned to court and the council was ordered to act on the applications by Sunday.
George Davidson, a New York lawyer who represents the Orange County Boy Scouts, said the council had no option but to recommend approval. The group”made it clear that the court’s injunction prevented it from evaluating these boys’ duty to God, which is a main element of the Boy Scout pledge.” The recommendations must be considered by officials at the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas. Applications are usually approved in four to six weeks.
Survey finds gambling, homelessness linked
(RNS) Seventy percent of clients surveyed at the nation’s rescue missions believe easy access to gambling makes it hard for them to put their lives back together and 18 percent said gambling was a cause of their homelessness.
Those were among the findings of a nationwide survey of more than 1,100 rescue mission clients by the International Union of Gospel Missions.
The survey also found 37 percent of the men and women surveyed continue to gamble occasionally or play the lottery despite their homeless status. The survey found 82 percent of clients had played the lottery or gambled while steadily employed. That number dropped to 23 percent as they became homeless.”Make no mistake about it,”the Rev. Stephen Burger, the IUGM’s executive director, said in a statement.”The man or woman stumbling into our mission, addicted to gambling, is just as sick as the person addicted to alcohol or drugs. The addiction may be different, but the shattering of the human spirit is the same.” Burger condemned casinos and state lotteries for”creating a new generation of homeless addicts.” The survey results were released Thursday (March 12), four days before a meeting of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.
The IUGM, based in North Kansas City, Mo., is an association of about 250 rescue missions across the country. They provide shelter, emergency food, and rehabilitation programs for those who are addicted.
Poll: few Britons know what millennium commemorates
(RNS) Fewer than one Briton in six is aware of what the coming millennium commemorates, according to a Gallup Poll conducted for the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London.
Just 15 percent of those asked what event the forthcoming millennium in the year 2000 commemorates could say it marked the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. In addition, 37 percent of the sample said they did not know, 18 percent mentioned the coming of a new century and 17 percent said it merely marked the year 2000.
The poll also revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the $1.2 billion in government funds being spent on building the Millennium Dome on the site of a former gasworks at Greenwich.
The government project was initiated by the previous Conservative government but now enjoys the enthusiastic backing of the present Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is meant to be Great Britain’s primary focus for the marking of the millennium.
Fifty-nine percent of the sample thought the money should be spent on the National Health Service and 25 percent said it shouls be spent on education. Only 2 percent thought the money should go to building the dome.
The margin of error for the poll was not available.
Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist pastor Alan Day of Edmond, Okla.
(RNS)”Our contemporary denominational reform, I believe, is not complete with a mere reaffirmation of the Scripture and its authority. There must be reform of our preaching or the gains of the past 20 years will be lost. … If there ever was a time, and I think there was, when Southern Baptist preaching was God-centered, I don’t think it’s today.” _ Alan Day, pastor of First Baptist Church, Edmond, Okla., speaking at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary March 10 in Louisville, Ky., on the state of Southern Baptist preaching, according to Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
DEA END RNS