c. 1998 Religion News Service

Update: Thousands of Christians demonstrate in India

(RNS) Thousands of Christians gathered in cities across India on Friday (Dec. 4) to protest what they said was a lack of action by the government to protect Christians from violence by militant Hindu nationalists.”Organizing a peace rally has become imperative in the light of growing violence against Christians,”said Roman Catholic Bishop Stanley Fernandes at the rally in Ahmedabad. Some 15,000 people, mainly schoolchildren, marched in the city in the western state of Gujarat where much of the anti-Christian violence has taken place, Reuters reported.

Many schools, colleges and other institutions run by Christians were closed and some Christians working in hospitals wore black badges as a sign of protest.

The Christians say the government has not done enough to stop the escalating number of violent attacks against priests, nuns and other church members.”The government should denounce all attempts to threaten people … the government should take urgent steps to stop the mythology of hate which projects minorities as aliens in their motherland,”said John Dayal of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, one of the organizers of the protest.

In New Delhi, some 20,000 people joined the protest, Reuters reported, and a delegation led by Roman Catholic Archbishop Alan de Lastic submitted a memorandum to parliament and the government urging action on behalf of the Christians.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as telling the delegation he would ensure justice for the harassed Christians.”Only lunatics can indulge in such activities,”he said.

The Christian human rights group said 90 cases of rape, Bible-burning and church vandalism have been reported so far in 1998, most of them in Gujarat.”Those who want to malign our religion say that Christians are foreigners,”de Lastic said.”How can they say that when Christians have been here for 2,000 years?” Some of the tension between Christians and militant Hindus comes from Christian proselytism among India’s lower castes and many low-caste Indians have converted to the casteless religion of Christianity seeking better lives but stirring the rancor of Hindus.”Those who say conversion is forceful … they don’t want them (low caste Indians) to be liberated,”de Lustic said.

Poll: Majority of”60 Minutes”viewers approve assisted suicide

(RNS) More than half of those who watched Dr. Jack Kevorkian help end the life of a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease say they agree that doctors should help dying patients commit suicide.

But the same poll of 1,158 adults _ taken by CBS News after the airing of the”60 Minutes”episode featuring Kevorkian _ showed a 49 percent disapproval rating of Kevorkian and only 43 percent approve.

According to the poll, reported by the Washington Times, 52 percent of those who watched the televised assisted suicide said they would allow doctors to help the dying take their own lives. That compares with just 37 percent of non-viewers.

And 77 percent said they found it understandable that Kevorkian’s patient, Thomas Youk,”wanted Dr. Kevorkian to end his life.” Asked about punishment for Kevorkian, who has been indicted for murder over the incident, 39 percent said he should not be punished for doing so, 27 percent said he should be charged with a”lesser”crime and 19 percent said they believed murder is the appropriate charge.

Abortion rate remains at lowest level in two decades

(RNS) The U.S. abortion rate held steady in 1996 _ the most recent year for which figures are available _ at its lowest level in two decades, the government said Thursday (Dec. 3).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 20 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, the same rate as in 1995.

States reported 1,221,585 abortions in 1996, an increase of less than 1 percent from the year before, the Associated Press reported. It was the first time the number of abortions has not declined since 1990, when the total was more than 1.4 million.

Abortion rates climbed steadily between 1973, when the procedure was legalized, until 1980, when they reached 25 per 1,000 women. They leveled off through 1992, when they began falling again.

Religious rights issue raised in drunk driving death

(RNS) The case of a Jehovah’s Witness who was seriously injured when she was hit by a car and died after refusing a blood transfusion has resulted in murder charges against the alleged drunken driver of the car.

A jury in Pomona, Calif., is considering whether the driver, Keith Cook, is responsible for the death of the victim or whether her religious beliefs are to blame.”The key issue here is choice and responsibility,”said Charles Unger, Cook’s attorney.”People are free to have their religious choice and freedom, but when it has consequences for someone else, that is where the line is drawn.” According to relatives of the victim, Jadine Russell, she told emergency workers at least 10 times that she did not want blood. She was so adamant that she roused herself and tried to pull out an intravenous line.

But prosecutors said that Cook’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and he resisted friends’ effort to take away his keys.”He realized the dangers of drinking, but he didn’t really care,”said prosecutor Larry Larson. And he argued that Russell may not have lived even with the blood transfusion.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe there is a biblical basis to refusing transfusions of other people’s blood.

Quote of the day: Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

(RNS)”All of us at some time confront conflicts between rights and duties, between choices that are evil and less evil, and one hardly exhausts moral imagination by labeling every untruth and every deception an outrage.” _ Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill, current chairman of the House Judiciary Committee which is holding hearings on the possible impeachment of President Clinton for lying, in his 1987 minority report on the Iran-Contra hearings where Oliver North was accused of lying to Congress.

DEA END RNS