c. 1999 Religion News Service

Methodists suspend funding for National Council of Churches

(RNS) The United Methodist Church, the largest member denomination of the National Council of Churches, has suspended its basic financial support of the ecumenical agency because of concern over the NCC’s debt and fiscal practices.

The decision, by the denomination’s Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, came after five hours of closed discussion during the commission’s Oct. 7-10 meeting in Daytona Beach, Fla.”We’re hopeful and expectant that this suspension will be very brief,”said Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

The Methodists, with some 8.2 million members, is one of the largest contributors to the NCC. In 1999, the NCC was expected to receive $670,000 from the United Methodist Church. So far, the council has been given $327,081.

The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the NCC, said the council was aware of the Methodist action and had already taken steps to meet the concerns expressed by the commission.

The commission is concerned about the size of the NCC debt, the lack of funds to cover the debt, the absence of a budget based on realistic income from member communions and the lack of data to address those issues.

The Rev. Bruce Robbins, the commission’s top executive, was scheduled to meet with Campbell and other top NCC executives Tuesday (Oct. 12) afternoon.

Robbins said the commission’s major concern is”whether the NCC is viable fiscally into the future, even with the plans put in place by the executive board.”The NCC will celebrate its 50th anniversary next month in Cleveland.

Last month the NCC’s board, looking at a $4 million deficit, adopted a financial recovery plan. The Methodist commission said it found the plan insufficient.

Robbins said the Methodists have expressed their concerns to NCC officials for over a year.”They have not been able to provide the answers needed by the United Methodist leadership,”Robbins said.

The Methodist unity commission also declined to consider a proposal that the denomination give $700,000 toward a $2 million pledge from NCC member communions that the council’s executive committee had adopted as part of the fiscal recovery plan.

Falwell, soon to meet with gays, booed for anti-gay stance

(RNS) Two weeks before he’s scheduled to host an anti-violence summit with gay leaders, the Rev. Jerry Falwell was booed by activists when he lectured conservative Christians about urging people to give up homosexuality.”Christian bigots out of our city!”cried Josh Trenter, who was taken away by police after allegedly tossing a blueberry pie during the”Come Out of Homosexuality”event Monday (Oct. 11) in San Francisco. Trenter and another member of a gay rights group were cited for battery and released.

Falwell appeared via satellite to speak to an audience of about 60 at the event sponsored by the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group, and Falwell.”God loves you and so do I,”said Falwell, the former leader of the now-defunct Moral Majority.”Just as people can come out of the closet, so can people choose to come out against a sinful lifestyle.” Allen Wildmon, a spokesman for the American Family Association and brother of its founder, Donald Wildmon, said the presentation aimed”to reach out to the homosexual community in a spirit of love.” The lecture was timed to counter publicity from National Coming Out Day, an annual event celebrating gay life, the Associated Press reported.

Falwell has announced plans to met with the Rev. Mel White, a gay minister and author of”Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America”on Oct. 23.

Falwell and 200 guests of his ministries are scheduled to meet with 200 of White’s guests at a forum at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where Falwell is chancellor.

White has ghost-written several books, including an autobiography of Falwell. He is now a leader of Soulforce Inc., an organization that seeks justice for lesbians and gays through nonviolent means.

Controversy erupts in Scotland over church paying pregnant 12-year-old

(RNS) A controversy has erupted in the British press over news that a 12-year-old schoolgirl is among beneficiaries of a program launched two years ago by Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning, archbishop of Glasgow, to provide practical help for women facing unexpected pregnancy.”Catholic Church pays for girl, 12, to keep baby”was the headline in the Daily Telegraph, and the story provided the front-page lead for two tabloids, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

The campaign manager of the Abortion Law Reform Association, Jane Roe, said she was”appalled”to learn what the Church was doing.”I would say Cardinal Winning has allowed his religious principles to totally override his common sense,”she added.

Another critic, Sarah Colborne of the National Abortion Campaign, said”Offering money to a child to keep her baby is bribery and removes choice.” According to the newspaper reports the girl’s parents are unemployed and her father contacted Winning’s program.

Roseann Reddy, coordinator of Winning’s program, said that according to her father the girl would have been”devastated”if she had had to get rid of the baby.”She was under a lot of pressure but was adamant,”she added.”The parents wanted to support the girl but could not afford the baby clothes, and that is where we step in. A pregnancy can mean getting into debt for the cost of a cot and a pram.” So far mothers of some 200 babies have benefited from the program aimed at helping unwed mothers keep their babies rather than have an abortion.

Vatican gives cautious OK to some forms of biotechnology

(RNS) The Vatican, which strongly opposes test tube fertilization and human cloning, gave its cautious approval Tuesday (Oct. 12) to other forms of biotechnology that seek to improve the human condition.”Bioengineering is a good if it seeks to cure but an evil if it violates the personality of man to the point of eugenicism and the construction of human beings to use them as an organ factory,”said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Sgreccia and the Rev. Angelo Serra, former professor of genetics at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, spoke at a news conference called to present two books in the field by the academy:”Human Genome, Human Person and the Society of the Future”and”Animal and Vegetable Biotechnology.””The problems posed by the application of genetics to man depend on the ends pursued and the magnitude of the risk that the human subject undergoes,”Sgreccia said in outlining the academy’s position.

Sgreccia said that while, in theory, the church could accept the fabrication of human organs, it condemns any form of human cloning because this”contradicts the dignity of the person in reference to the means used and to the end for which it is effectuated.” The technique, he said,”infringes the respect for the dignity of procreation, which is the fruit of the spiritual and physical union between man and woman.”This is also the basis of church opposition to test tube fertilization.

Cloning also carries the risk of eugenicism, manipulation to improve the hereditary qualities of a race or breed, which the church considers morally wrong because it”infringes the principle of equality and non-discrimination,”he said.

The church condones both pre- and post-natal genetic diagnosis provided that it respects the life of the mother and the unborn child and is aimed at improving the health of one or both of them or selecting the least risky technique, the prelates said.

But it opposes the genetic diagnosis of an embryo before it is implanted in the womb on the grounds that this is a form of discrimination and leads to the destruction of imperfect embryos.”The forced sterilization of the past has today given way to a sort of eugenicism,”Serra said.

Biotechnology applied to plants and animals is”acceptable and necessary,”Sgreccia said, as a means to fight hunger in the world. But he called it”obligatory to verify the risk”that the techniques may carry and to inform consumers if their food has been genetically modified.”People must be able to know that a determined product has been engineered,”he said.

Sgreccia said care also must be taken that patenting of genes does not serve to widen the gap between prosperous and poor nations.

Castro allows Cuban Jews to move to Israel

(RNS) Cuban strongman Fidel Castro, long known as a fervent anti-Zionist, has allowed hundreds of Cuban Jews to move to Israel.

Some 400 mostly young Cuban Jews _ members of the island nation’s 1,500-member Jewish community _ secretly emigrated to Israel over the past two years, according to reports. In Israel, the presence of the Cubans was kept under wraps so as not to jeopardize the chances of additional Jews leaving Cuba.

Canada provided the visas that allowed the Cuban Jews to travel through Europe on their way to Israel, according to reports. About 200 Jews still in Cuba are expected to emigrate to Israel.

Israel Radio, a government station, said Monday (Oct. 11) that Margarita Zapata, the Jewish granddaughter of the Mexican revolutionary hero Emilio Zapata, used her personal relationship with Castro to facilitate the effort over a six-year period.

Cuban Jews, like most Cubans, are desperately poor and have subsisted with the aid of donations from Canadian and other Jewish communities. Most Cuban Jews are descendants from Polish and Russian Jews who emigrated to the Caribbean island to escape anti-Semitism.

When Castro came to power, some 15,000 Jews lived in Cuba. Most soon left for the United States and elsewhere because they did not support Castro’s communist policies.

Cuba severed ties with Israel in 1973 and became a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service said Castro allowed the emigration to Israel in an apparent effort to gain the Jewish state’s aid in ending the American economic boycott of Cuba.

Chinese continue efforts to crush Falun Gong

(RNS) China has reportedly continued its crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group with the arrest of six key members. A seventh member was reportedly beaten to death by police.

China has sought to crush support for the movement since April, when some 10,000 Falun Gong members surprised government officials by turning out in Beijing for a demonstration demanding official recognition for the group.

Falun Gong _ which combines”qigon”breathing and physical exercises with elements of Buddhism and Taoism _ is said to have as many as several million adherents in China.

An official Chinese newspaper reported Tuesday (Oct. 12) that six leaders of the group had been arrested for organizing illegal assemblies and publishing books and Internet articles about the movement. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in recent months and others have been pressured into renouncing their ties to the movement.

Monday, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said a Falun Gong member had been beaten to death while in police custody in Shandong province.

The Chinese government closely controls all religious activities and considers all unauthorized worship or similar expressions of faith to be illegal. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and others are among those that the U.S. State Department says have suffered religious persecution as a result of Beijing’s policies.

Court rejects new attempt to create public schools for Hasidic Jews

(RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday (Oct. 12) refused to let New York officials argue on behalf of a Hasidic Jewish community’s effort to create a special public school district for its disabled children.

The New York case was one of three the court dealt with Tuesday. In each case, the court came down on the side of those who favor less government support for religious groups.

On a 6-3 vote, the court decided not to hear the state’s argument that its third attempt at creating the district did not breach the constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state. Four votes were required for the court to hear the arguments.

Since 1989, New York lawmakers have sought to create a special school district to serve disabled children in Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic community northwest of New York City. Kiryas Joel is a highly insular community inhabited solely by members of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic group.

The special district would provide public-funded services to the disabled children similar to those received by other disabled children.

The state has argued that forcing the town’s disabled children to attend public schools with non-Satmar youngsters is highly traumatizing. Kiryas Joel’s children who are not disabled attend private schools in the community. Three separate state efforts to create the special district have now been rejected in the courts.

In other action Tuesday, the court also refused to let Pennsylvania exempt religious publications and items from sales taxes. Acting without comment, the court’s action set no legal precedent, according to the Associated Press, but does leave other states with similar tax laws vulnerable to legal action.

The Pennsylvania law had been challenged by the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Pennsylvania courts had upheld the state’s tax exemption.

In addition, the court, also without comment, allowed Maine to continue to subsidize the private _ but not religious _ school educations of children living in rural areas where public education is not available.

The high court’s decision was in line with earlier decisions by Maine’s top court and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case had been appealed to the Supreme Court by a group of parents who want public aid for their children who attend parochial schools.

Richard Hamm re-elected Disciples president

(RNS) The Rev. Richard L. Hamm was re-elected Sunday (Oct. 10) to a six-year term as general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Hamm, of Indianapolis, was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Disciples General Assembly, which is meeting through Tuesday in Cincinnati.

In an address following his re-election, Hamm urged denomination members to focus more on inviting people to the Lord’s Supper, or communion.”You have heard me name the three marks of a faithful church _ a deep Christian spirituality, true community and a passion for justice,”he said, Disciples News Service reported.”If we are not manifesting these three marks in our congregational life, we are just `playing’ church and neither God nor the stranger will honor our invitations.” Before taking the national leadership role, Hamm served as regional minister of the denomination in Tennessee. He has pastored churches in Indiana, Missouri and Kansas.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), founded in the early 1800s, has nearly 900,000 members in North America.

Quote of the day: Writer and law professor Stephen Carter

(RNS)”Too many pastors and preachers adjust their preaching in order to fill seats. We are called to live Christian lives. As long as we are doing what Christ wants, we can stop worrying about the numbers.” _ Stephen Carter, author and Yale University law professor, urging fellow Episcopalians to stop worrying about membership numbers at a late September conference in New York on Episcopal identity.

DEA END RNS