c. 1999 Religion News Service
China cracks down on meditation sect
(RNS) Thousands of members of Falun Gong, the meditation sect that has bedeviled Chinese authorities for months, besieged government offices in at least six cities Wednesday (July 21) to protest a government crackdown on the group.
Witnesses and human rights groups said police rounded up or detained more than a thousand members of the group.
The sect was developed out of qigong, a form of martial arts based on a theory of inner energy and using breathing exercises and meditation designed to heal.
The protests came after police launched a crackdown on the group on Monday, arresting some 70 leaders and seizing literature and busts of its leader, Li Hongzhi, who now lives in the United States.
Tensions between the government and the sect have been high since April, when 10,000 members of the group staged a silent protest outside the government’s leadership compound in Beijing _ a protest whose size took the communist leaders by surprise.
On Wednesday, a similar demonstration in Beijing was broken up by police. Scores, and possibly hundreds, of people, most of them middle-aged women, were detained, the Associated Press reported.
Some 10,000 members protested at government headquarters in Guangdong, while in Shanghai a few hundred members engaged in a silent protest. In the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, some 1,000 members protested outside city hall. Police forced them onto buses and took them to unknown destinations, Reuters reported.
Police and government officials have declined to comment on the demonstrations or on their response.
Interfaith coalition urges passage of hate crimes legislation
(RNS) Twenty-five religious groups have sent a letter to U.S. senators urging them to pass the proposed Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”Although 40 states and the District of Columbia now provide enhanced penalties for hate crimes, significant gaps still exist in protecting all Americans from bias-motivated crimes,”the supporting groups wrote.
They say the act would strengthen existing law by extending the protection of hate crime law to people who are victimized based on their sexual orientation, gender or disability. The act also would remove some jurisdictional impediments and increase federal lawyers’ ability to prosecute hate-based violence.”While we believe that state and local governments should continue to have the primary responsibility for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes, an expanded federal role is necessary to ensure an adequate and fair response in all cases,”the supporters wrote in a letter dated Monday (July 19).
The groups cited several recent incidents they believe support the need for the legislation _ the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a black man, in Jasper, Texas; the beating death of Matthew Shepard, a gay man, in Laramie, Wyo.; and the arsons in June at three synagogues in Sacramento, Calif.”The time has come to move beyond dialogue into action!”they urged.
The signatories included Washington offices or networks of the National Council of Churches, the Disciples of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; the Episcopal Church; the Anti-Defamation League; the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
Rabbi David Saperstein, executive director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, supported the interfaith coalition’s action.”As people of faith we are charged with the responsibility of protecting and cherishing all lives,”he said.”The passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act will be an important step in healing the wounds that hate violence inflicts on our communities.” The proposed law, which is expected to be considered as an amendment to an appropriations bill, has been opposed by groups representing conservative Christians such as the Family Research Council and the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Opponents argue that it would violate equal protection by creating a special class of victims and would threaten the religious liberty of those who preach homosexuality is a sin.
Civil rights group cancels S.C. meeting in flag protest
(RNS) The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has canceled its upcoming national meeting in Charleston, S.C., in protest of lawmakers’ refusal to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol.
The prominent civil rights group announced its decision Tuesday (July 20), just four days before about 2,500 delegates were scheduled to arrive in Charleston.”We will urge every organization and corporation who loves justice to join this effort to push America back from the brink of senseless tribalism,”said Martin Luther King III, president of the SCLC, from the steps of the Statehouse in Columbia.
The city could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the decision, said Lanneau Siegling, former chairman of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Others also are protesting the flag’s presence, the Associated Press reported.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church has decided to move its statewide youth conference for next year from Columbia to Charlotte, N.C. Bishop John Hurst Adams said the 700 people will change meeting sites”because North Carolina flies no Confederate flag on their Statehouse.” The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted earlier this month to boycott South Carolina because of the flag issue.”We cannot at this point in history resurrect ghosts of the past and allow the resurgence of racism, discrimination and the politics of resentment that the Confederate flag reclaims,”said King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
He urged Gov. Jim Hodges to”come forth and stand up”on getting the flag removed.
Hodges’ spokeswoman Nina Brook said the governor has attempted to move the flag from the Capitol dome to a monument on the grounds of the Statehouse. But each time, flag supporters in the General Assembly rally in its favor and the flag remains where it is.
Former minister gets 15 years for attacking Mormon sites
(RNS) A former Church of Christ minister was sentenced Tuesday (July 20) to 15 years in prison for burning or vandalizing four Mormon houses of worship, including one where his ex-lover was the organist.
Prosecutors said Walter Grassie, 50, went on a rampage because he was angry when organist Sharlene Jensen broke off their affair after eight years in 1998, saying her Mormon faith does not allow her to get a divorce.
Before being led from an Albuquerque, N.M., courtroom, Grassie also was ordered to pay almost $3 million in restitution to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Associated Press reported.
He was convicted of burning a house of worship in Roswell, N.M., and spraying graffiti, destroying furniture and splashing paint at three others.
Prosecutors said his actions were a violent reaction to Jensen, her family and Mormons in general. His lawyers argued that Grassie was”poisoned by love.”A judge granted Grassie’s attorneys’ request that he be sent to a prison hospital for treatment.
Official says polygamy decree in Russian region is unconstitutional
(RNS) A decree allowing polygamy in a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia is unconstitutional and must be revoked, Russia’s justice department said Wednesday (July 21).
On Tuesday, the president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, issued a decree that men could legally take up to four wives, a move he said was in accord with traditional Islamic law.
But Justice Minister Pavel Krasheninnikov said marital legislation falls under federal, not local, jurisdiction and ordered the decree rescinded, according to the Associated Press.
But Aushev _ who has only one wife _ defended his decree, saying a man should be entitled to take more than one wife, especially when the couple has been unable to have children or bears only girls. Without a male heir, a man’s life is wasted, he said, the AP reported.
Quote of the day: the Rev. Elder Troy Perry of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
(RNS)”After 30 years, if we’re not mature enough to hear from someone who disagrees with us theologically, then there’s something wrong with us.” _ The Rev. Elder Troy Perry, founder and moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, speaking about the speech from former Southern Baptist Convention president Jimmy Allen during the recent international meeting of Perry’s mostly gay denomination. He was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
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