c. 1998 Religion News Service
Clinton meets with religious leaders who will visit China
(RNS) President Clinton met Monday (Feb. 2) with three religious leaders scheduled to visit China to investigate allegations of religious persecution there against Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and others.
The three religious leaders _ Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J.; the Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation _ are set to leave Sunday (Feb. 8) for a three-week visit to China.
Following their White House meeting with Clinton and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, the religious leaders said the president spoke of the importance of their China visit to improved relations between Beijing and Washington.
But they also played down expectations that their visit will lead to a breakthrough in religious freedom in China, where the government closely controls religious expression by insisting it adhere to officially sanctioned forms. The religious leaders also declined to provide details of just how they will go about investigating religious freedom in China.”I think we’re looking forward to this without the expectation we’re going to change the world,”said McCarrick, chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ international policy committee.
McCarrick said he and his colleagues would tell Chinese officials about”the concerns of religious people in the United States with regards to freedom of religion”in China.
The visit is an outgrowth of last year’s Washington summit between Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The two leaders agreed then on the visit, although details were not worked out until recently.
The visit has been billed as the first high-level mission of U.S. religious leaders to go to China to check on reports that Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and others suffer widespread and official religious persecution. The religious leaders will meet with Chinese government officials and representatives of China’s Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Taoist communities.
They will also spend four days in Tibet, which has been forcefully occupied by China since 1951. The exiled Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders say the Chinese have sought to systematically eradicate Tibetan Buddhist practice. In Hong Kong, they will also meet with that city’s small Jewish community.
Although the mission was arranged by the White House and State Department, Argue noted that the three religious leaders are officially going on their own and not as U.S. government representatives to preserve their independence.
Texas parole board rejects clemency for killer turned Christian
(RNS) Despite appeals from Pope John Paul II, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and leaders of mainline Protestant denominations, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday (Feb. 2) refused to recommend that Gov. George W. Bush grant convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker clemency.
The board, with two abstentions, voted 16-0 to reject the clemency appeal.
Tucker, a former teen-age prostitute, drug user and rock band groupie, was convicted for her part in what is said to have been a drug-inspired 1983 murder in which two people were left dead.
She is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night (Feb. 3) unless Bush grants a 30-day reprieve.
Her case has drawn widespread interest, in part because of her gender and in part because of the calls from the theologically conservative religious community that her life be spared because while in prison she had become a born-again Christian.
On Monday, the Rutherford Institute _ the conservative legal advocacy group which is leading the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against President Clinton _ announced it has asked the president and Roman Catholic Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York to use their personal influence to intervene in the case on behalf of Tucker.”It is time for American leaders to take a courageous stand for the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death,”said John Whitehead, Rutherford Institute president.”Punishment must be characterized by love,”he said.”Obviously, love which exercises no discipline is not love at all. But execution declares the person hopeless and states that neither human skill nor the grace of God can do anything for him or her.” On Monday, the Vatican said the pope, an outspoken advocate of abolishing the death penalty, had asked the Holy See’s ambassador to Washington to relay an appeal for sparing Tucker’s life to Bush.
Last week, leaders of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) along with the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council Churches, also appealed for clemency. Robertson, one of the strongest supporters of clemency for Tucker, has featured the case on his”700 Club”broadcast.
Dobson says gambling commission efforts being undermined
(RNS) James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family and a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, says the efforts of the bipartisan panel are being undermined by supporters of legal gaming.”The president and the Congress have asked us to investigate and report on six specific aspects of the gambling industry and provided $5 million to accomplish the task,”the nationally known radio psychologist said in a statement.”However, if the present effort to thwart the commission’s work continues, we will have little to say to the nation in our final report in 1999.” Dobson’s Jan. 30 statement cited the panel’s visit to Atlantic City in late January as what he said was an example of how the panel was being undermined.”Rather than hearing from knowledgeable people representing both sides of the issue,”he said,”we were subjected to a barrage of enthusiastic speeches from state and local officials and others beholden to the gambling industry.” He said of the 23 witnesses who spoke to the commission, only two were mildly critical.”Consequently, the commission learned little about Atlantic City or what gambling has done to the local economy or to families living there,”Dobson said.
Supporters of legal gambling were not immediately available to respond to Dobson’s charges.
WoW inspirational award winners feted
(RNS) The WoW 1998 Inspirational Awards were awarded at a star-studded event Sunday (Feb. 1), honoring Christian people and organizations for their roles in music, publishing, Hollywood and sports.
The presentations were broadcast live on cable TV’s Inspirational Network from Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Va. More than 2,000 people attended the ceremony, which was held for the first time as a joint project of the network and the WoW music project that features the contemporary Christian music industry’s top 30 artists.
In addition to the presentation of awards by secular celebrities such as John Schneider, Pat Boone, Austin O’Brien and Evander Holyfield, the two-hour program featured musical performances by Christian artists such as Bob Carlisle, Third Day, Point of Grace and Steven Curtis Chapman.
The winners, in 12 categories, were chosen by a”viewer’s choice”form of voting, with ballots distributed to stores, published in Christian magazines and displayed on the Web site of the Inspirational Network. The winners are:
Radio Ministry Impact of the Year:”Focus on the Family”with James Dobson.
Television Ministry Impact of the Year:”In Touch”with Charles Stanley.
Contemporary Christian Album of the Year:”Signs of Life”by Steven Curtis Chapman (Sparrow).
Fiction Book of the Year:”The Oath”by Frank Peretti (Word).
Children’s Product of the Year:”Veggie Tales”by Phil Vischer (Big Idea/Everland Entertainment)
Christian Rock/Alternative Album of the Year:”Much Afraid”by Jars of Clay (Essential).
Sports Figure of the Year: Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers.
Black Gospel Album of the Year:”Under the Influence”by Anointed (Myrrh).
Bible Translation of the Year:”NIV Student Bible”(Zondervan).
Nonfiction Book of the Year:”Just As I Am”by Billy Graham (HarperCollins).
Southern Gospel Album of the Year:”Southern Classics, Vol. II”by Gaither Vocal Band (Spring Hill).
Performing Artists of the Year: Jars of Clay.
In addition to the 12 categories, several special awards were presented. World Vision, a Christian relief organization, received the Friendship Award. Martha Williamson, executive producer of”Touched By an Angel”and”Promised Land,”two TV series on CBS, was awarded the Hollywood Impact Award. Thomas Nelson Publishers received the Service Award. Evangelist Billy Graham received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Report: Atheist O’Hair left almost $100,000 in gold coins
(RNS) When atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair, her son, Jon Murray, and adopted daughter disappeared in 1995, they left behind almost $100,000 in gold coins, according to a Texas newspaper.
On Monday (Feb. 2), the Associated Press citing a San Antonio-Express News story in its Sunday’s editions, said the existence of the coins came to light when the Internal Revenue Service published a legal notice stating it had seized the Canadian Maple Leaf coins being held by a San Antonio rare coin dealer.
The dealer, Cory Ticknor, said through his attorney that Murray bought $600,000 in gold coins shortly before the trio disappeared but did not take possession of all of them when the trio disappeared.
A two-year search for O’Hair has come up empty.
O’Hair, one of the nation’s most famous and most militant atheists, is best known for bringing the 1963 case that resulted in the banning of recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.
Quote of the day: Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J.
(RNS)”As religious leaders we cannot remain silent as hundred of innocent civilians are killed on a weekly basis. … We believe that our government has a humanitarian and moral obligation to support and encourage all efforts to bring peace, stability and reconciliation to all sides in the Algerian conflict.” _ Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., chairman of the international policy committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference in a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urging greater U.S. attention to ending the five years of massacre in Algeria.
DEA END RNS
