c. 1999 Religion News Service
Bernall may not have been student who said yes to gunman
(RNS) Cassie Bernall, the Columbine High School shooting victim held up as a martyr, may not have been the student who said yes when asked by one of the gunmen if she believed in God.
Val Schnurr, 19, said in the Tuesday (Sept. 28) edition of the Denver Post that she made that response after a shotgun blast knocked her out from under a library table where she had been hiding during the April attack.
Schnurr said that she pleaded”Oh my God, oh my God, don’t let me die”as she bled from her wounds. That, she said, prompted one of the student shooters to ask her if she believed in God and she replied yes.
Schnurr, who suffered nearly 36 shotgun wounds, said she crawled away as the gunman reloaded, the Associated Press reported.
Lauren Townsend, a friend who was hiding with Schnurr, was killed, along with Bernall, 10 other students and a teacher. The two teen-age gunmen killed themselves.
Police said a student who helped authorities retrace the events in the library got sick when he realized it was Schnurr’s table, not Bernall’s, that he was pointing out in describing the exchange between victim and gunman.
Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Davis said investigators have not placed a priority on figuring out who said yes.”We have conflicting witness statements from several kids who were in the library,”he said.”But this is not something we’re out to prove or disprove. It’s not really a part of the investigation we’re doing.” Schnurr, who now attends college, said she does not know whether Bernall was asked the same question in the final moments of her life.”I don’t want to be famous or deemed anything,”she said.”I said I believed in God out of respect for myself and respect for God. That’s it.” Bernall, whose story has received much publicity, has been held up as a role model for her turn toward God and away from the wrong crowd and experimentation with drugs and the occult.
Her mother, Misty Bernall, recently wrote a book titled”She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall.”
Eds: Embargoed until 6:30 p.m. EDT
Human Rights Watch faults Indian government for attacks on Christians
(RNS) The Indian government has been criticized by a leading international human rights group for allegedly failing to prevent increased attacks against Christians and exploiting the violence for political gain.
Human Rights Watch, in a report to be released Thursday (Sept. 30), accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the violence to whip up support in advance of upcoming national elections.”Christians are the new scapegoat in India’s political battles,”said Smita Narula, a Human Rights Watch researcher and author of the report.”Without immediate and decisive action by the government, communal tensions will continue to be exploited for political and economic gains.” In recent months, Christians have been targeted by Hindu extremists across India. One of the most publicized incidents occurred in January, when an Australian missionary and his two young sons died after their vehicle was set on fire.
More recently, a Catholic priest was killed and a Catholic nun was reportedly stripped and forced to drink urine. Between Dec. 25, 1998 and Jan. 3, more than 20 churches were burned or otherwise destroyed in the west Indian state of Gujarat.
Human Rights Watch said thousands of Christians have been forcibly converted to Hinduism in recent months.
Hindu activists say Christians inflame the situation by upsetting long-standing class relationships in local communities through their missionary efforts among India’s poorest groups.
The Human Rights Watch report noted that targeted Christians often are those involved in promoting health, literacy and economic independence among India’s tribal groups and”untouchables,”as the lowest rung of Hindus are called.
The report also said responsibility for increased violence against Christians falls upon groups associated with the BJP. It said those believed responsible for the attacks are rarely apprehended by government officials who prefer to look the other way.
A spokesman at the Embassy of India in Washington dismissed the report as”absolutely incorrect.”He said neither the government nor groups associated with BJP were responsible for the upswing in anti-Christian violence.
Religious leaders urge U.S. to pay its U.N. debt
(RNS) Nearly two dozen religious groups have sent a letter to President Clinton and congressional leaders urging Washington to pay the more than $1 billion in past dues owed by the United States to the United Nations.
The letter, dated Wednesday (Sept. 29), said the United Nations'”humanitarian work is irreplaceable, and if the U.N. did not exist, we would be laboring to create it.””We believe the United Nations helps secure justice and peace for each individual, each community and each generation in order to establish justice and peace for all,”it said.
Noting the United Nations’ current peacekeeping role in East Timor, the letter said,”How can we expect other member nations to contribute troops and supplies to a peacekeeping mission when they are still awaiting peacekeeping reimbursements that have gone unpaid due to the financial shortfall at the United Nations, a debt created by the United States?”As the world’s biggest debtor to the U.N., we are undermining our ability to promote democratic values and ensure universal human rights. Our ability to influence the world community erodes each day the debt remains unpaid.” Some members of Congress have held up paying the U.N. debt because they believe the world body should be more responsive to U.S. concerns, given the nation’s superpower status. Some members who are anti-abortion and anti-birth control do not want U.S. funds being spent on U.N. family planning programs.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said that a recent poll found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe the United States should pay its U.N. debt.
In addition to the NCC, groups that signed the letter included American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S., Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs/Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mennonite Central Committee, NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, Presbyterian Church (USA), Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Seventh-day Adventists General Conference, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
Iraqi scholars question pope’s motives for wanting to visit Iraq
(RNS) Seven prominent Iraqi scholars have criticized Pope John Paul II’s proposed visit to Iraq as an attempt to acquit the West of crimes against Arabs and to rally support for Israel.
The pope hopes to visit Ur, now part of Iraq and traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham, as part of a Middle East tour timed to coincide with the millennium. John Paul also hopes to visit sites in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Palestinian Authority territory associated with the life of Jesus, the early Christian church and Judeo-Christian tradition.
No firm dates have been set for what is expected to be more than one papal trip to the Middle East. Reports have said John Paul would visit Iraq first, probably in December.
While previous statements distributed by the official Iraqi News Service have been favorable toward the proposed trip, a letter signed by the scholars and released Tuesday (Sept. 28) said the pope should not expect a warm greeting if he does visit Iraq.
The scholars are among a group of intellectuals that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has appointed to write an official version of Iraq’s history, the Associated Press reported.
The letter reportedly said the scholars fear the pope wants to persuade Christians to forgive Jews for what was described as their”atrocities,”including Jesus’ death. The letter also voiced concern that the pope might seek to rally world opinion behind Israel.
The scholars said that if the Roman Catholic leader does visit Iraq, he should strongly criticize the ongoing economic embargo against Iraq in place since that nation’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The pope has repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted, saying it only causes hardship for Iraq’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
The United States has urged the pope not to visit Iraq out of concern the visit would hand Saddam a public relations triumph. The Washington Post reported Wednesday (Sept. 29) that unnamed”European diplomats”are seeking a compromise that would have the pope meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, a Christian, instead of with Saddam, a Muslim.
Bulgarian Orthodox quit European church council
(RNS) In a further sign of strain between Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has announced it is withdrawing from the Conference of European Churches, one of Europe’s main interchurch bodies with more than 120 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican members.
The withdrawal, effective Dec. 28, was announced at a meeting of the CEC’s central committee, held Sept. 21-26 in Nyborg, Denmark.
No reason was given for the withdrawal, said Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency. Last year the Bulgarian church, which claims 87 percent of the country’s 9 million people, also withdrew from the World Council of Churches.
In 1997, the Georgian Orthodox Church withdrew from both the WCC and the CEC.
In recent years, Orthodox churches have voiced increasing concern about the activities of ecumenical organizations such as the World Council, the CEC and the U.S. National Council of Churches. The Orthodox churches see such bodies as dominated by Protestants and overly influenced by liberal theological and social trends.
CEC leaders said they hoped for further discussion on the issue prior to the resignation becoming effective that might convince the Bulgarian church to change its position.
In other action at the meeting, the executive committee issued a statement warning that 10 years after the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the disappearance of the Berlin Wall, new divisions are emerging that threaten the security of Europe.
While some old political divisions, such as the occupation of Cyprus, remain, it said problems were emerging along”cultural, military and economic lines, sometimes between or within countries.” In particular, the church leaders expressed concern about a decline in social indicators in the Soviet Union and several other former Eastern bloc nations, including a fall in life expectancy, a rise in poverty, the resurgence of diseases such as tuberculosis, and a decline in the economic security and political role of women.
Update: New York museum sues city over exhibit controversy
(RNS) The Brooklyn Museum of Art sued New York City Tuesday (Sept. 28), accusing the city’s mayor of violating the First Amendment by threatening to withdraw city funds from the museum because he finds artwork in an impending exhibit insulting to religion.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has been particularly concerned that the exhibit, called”Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection,”includes a portrait of the Virgin Mary accented with elephant dung.”This litigation is not just about the Brooklyn Museum of Art,”said Robert S. Rudin, chairman of the museum’s board.”It is being undertaken in the interests of all public institutions _ museums, universities and libraries _ that are dedicated to the free exchange of ideas and information, and in the interests of the people they serve.” City officials immediately ordered that the next payment of city funds to the museum _ $497,554 _ be canceled.”The mayor was not surprised by the level of arrogance shown by the board of the museum,”Deputy Mayor Joseph J. Lhota told The New York Times.
City officials said the city would not take more drastic steps to stop the exhibit from going forward as scheduled on Saturday.
While the Cultural Institutions Group, composed of 33 city museums and arts groups, criticized Giuliani’s protests, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America voiced its support for the mayor.”Displaying a religious symbol splattered with dung is deeply offensive and can hardly be said to have any redeeming social or artistic value,”said Mandell Ganchrow, president of the Orthodox Union, the country’s largest association of Orthodox Jewish synagogues.”Today the offense is perpetrated against a Christian symbol. Tomorrow it might be a Jewish ritual item, and then of another faith.” The painting, called”The Holy Virgin Mary,”has a clump of elephant dung on one breast. It was created by British artist Chris Ofili, who is a Roman Catholic.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in Washington Wednesday (Sept. 29) that New York City should not threaten the museum even if the exhibit contains”arguably”anti-religious art.
Lynn pointed out that publicly funded museums are full of pro-religious art, but that”no one is arguing, not even church-state separationists, that pro-religious art should be taken out of museums.”
Vatican warns hospital to halt sterilizations
(RNS) An Arkansas hospital affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church that has permitted outside doctors to sterilize women in its care has been warned by the Vatican to adhere to a ban on artificial birth control.
The operations were performed at Columbia Doctors Hospital in Little Rock before it was purchased by the church-affiliated St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center.
St. Vincent halted sterilizations and abortions at the hospital but said last summer it needed to resume sterilizations to qualify for some health maintenance organization plans.
The center announced an end to the arrangement on Tuesday (Sept. 28), the Associated Press reported.”We went into this thing knowing there was a possibility that we would be asked to discontinue the agreement,”said Scott Mosley, St. Vincent spokesman.”That’s what’s happened.” The sterilization procedure is called tubal ligation, in which a surgeon cuts, burns or ties a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent passage of eggs.
The Catholic Church teaches that artificial conception, including elective sterilization, is morally wrong. It permits natural family planning methods if married couples have a serious reason to limit the number of children they have.
World’s religions to discuss their role in the next millennium
(RNS) Representatives of some 20 of the world’s religions will meet at the Vatican during October to discuss closer collaboration between believers to further justice and peace in the next millennium.
At least 235 clergy and laity from 48 countries _ including Israel, Algeria, Iran and India _ will attend the Inter-Religious Assembly called for Oct. 24-29 by the Vatican’s Central Committee for the Great Jubilee 2000.
The theme of the meeting is”On the Eve of the Third Millennium: Collaboration Between Different Religions.””In an epoch in which an encounter between religions seems more like clash, we need a clear effort for dialogue like this,”Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the jubilee committee, told a Vatican news conference Wednesday (Sept. 29).
Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, which is organizing the assembly, said no religious group had refused an invitation to attend, but that the Russian Orthodox Church had not yet responded.
Relations between the Vatican and Orthodox leaders in Moscow have been strained by disputes over church property and Moscow’s fears that Roman Catholics are trying to win converts among the Orthodox.”We are waiting for a response,”Fitzgerald said.”There has been no refusal, but the situation is a bit difficult. We hope someone will come.” Fitzgerald said some of those invited were concerned that they might be asked to join in interreligious prayer. He noted that did not happen at a similar interfaith gathering at Assisi, Italy, in 1986 and said it will not occur at next month’s meeting.
Those attending will include Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Tibetan Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, Jains, Shintoists, Confucians, Baha’is and practitioners of traditional religions from India, Africa and North America. Practitioners of the Japanese religions of Tenrikyo, Miochikai, Rissho Kosei-Kai and Ennokyo will also attend.
Christian faiths to attend include the Greek, Armenian, Romanian and Assyrian Orthodox; and the Valdesian, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Mennonite and evangelical churches. The World Council of Churches also will be represented.
The participants will make a pilgrimage to the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi, birthplace of St. Francis, on Oct. 27, the anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s historic meeting there in 1986 with representatives of all the world’s major religions to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
The goal of next month’s assembly is to agree on a joint declaration on the role of religion in the next millennium.”There are some major problems and challenges in the world which, for their solution, require the cooperation of all believers,”Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said.”Foremost among these are questions related to justice and peace.” Arinze said the assembly would discuss such issues as discrimination because of race, religion, language, social status or sex; the refusal of the rich to practice solidarity with the poor; injustice toward women and children; and”the modern scourges”of AIDS and drug abuse.”Believers in the various religions cannot remain unconcerned in the face of such major challenges and problems. They are convinced that the highest ideals of their religions oblige them to join hands to find lasting solutions,”he said.
Quote of the day: Evangelist Billy Graham
(RNS)”You’ll see a height of ecstasy. My wife is a believer and so am I, and we’ve had many such times.” Evangelist Billy Graham, speaking at Harvard University’s Memorial Church Sunday (Sept. 26) about how sexual intercourse is more pleasurable with”the love of Christ when you come to your marriage bed.”He was quoted in The Crimson, the university’s daily newspaper.
IR END RNS