c. 1999 Religion News Service
Milosevic indictment stirs religious divide over Kosovo
(RNS) A Reform Jewish group has praised the indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal, saying”the pursuit of justice is too urgent to wait.”Meanwhile, a group aligned with conservative Christians has labeled the indictment”ill-timed.” The two reactions underscored the differences within the American religious community over the NATO bombing campaign against Serb-dominated Yugoslavia because of its actions in Kosovo.
While some groups _ particularly Jewish and Muslim ones _ have urged the United States and its NATO allies to press the offensive against Belgrade, others _ including some conservative and mainline Protestants _ have said the bombing has done more harm than good.
On Thursday (May 27), a U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague formally indicted Milosevic and four other senior Yugoslav officials on charges of crimes against humanity for ordering the deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Albanian Kosovars and the murders of at least 340 more.
In a statement, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism praised that action, saying”just as the Jewish community called for the apprehension and prosecution of war criminals responsible for genocidal activity from Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia, we must hold Milosevic and his henchmen accountable for their crimes, ensuring that the world recognizes the horrors that continue to occur in Kosovo.” The human rights group Human Rights Watch backed the Reform agency.”It’s about time Milosevic was indicted,”Human Rights Watch executive director Holly Carter said.”This indictment is particularly important because it shows that no political leader _ even if still in office _ is immune from persecution for atrocities.” Taking a different view, the Family Research Council, a Washington public policy agency associated with religious broadcaster James C. Dobson, said the Milosevic indictment, while justified, is likely to further rally Serb support to his side.
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, the council’s national security and foreign affairs spokesman, said the”likely effect”of the indictment is to further complicate efforts to mediate a cease-fire in Kosovo.”The timing of the indictment suggests that political rivalry between the U.N. and NATO may have played a part.” Cleveland ruling renews debate on school-voucher programs
(RNS) Groups on both sides of the controversial school-voucher debate claimed victory Thursday (May 27) in connection with an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that struck down Cleveland’s school voucher program on a technicality.
Voucher opponents said they won the round by toppling the nation’s second largest program to use tax dollars to fund tuition at private and religious schools on a 5-2 vote.
But supporters of school vouchers rallied around the court’s statement that the program did not violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
Justice Paul Pfeifer, writing for the majority, said state legislators had violated Ohio’s”single subject”law by attaching the voucher program to another bill. Pfeifer also wrote that the program”does not have the primary effect of advancing religion and does not excessively entangle government with religion.” Groups such as the National Education Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and People for the American Way have argued that vouchers diminish public school education by diverting funds and students to private schools.
Religious individuals and groups, seeking funding for parochial schools, have numbered among the most steadfast supporters of school vouchers.
Thursday’s ruling makes Ohio the third state to strike down a voucher program. The others are Maine and Pennsylvania.
In April, Florida became the first to adopt a statewide voucher program for students from failing schools. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court recently upheld a similar program for low-income students in Milwaukee.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft released a statement pledging his continued support for the Cleveland program.”I have supported the Cleveland scholarship program as a pilot project and do not believe it should be terminated due to a procedural flaw in legislation,”Taft said.
However, with a legislative recess set for July, lawmakers would have to move quickly to assure funding for next year. Opponents, including the 108,000-member Ohio Education Association, have vowed to fight any attempt to reintroduce the voucher program.
Judge upholds San Francisco’s domestic partners law
(RNS) The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative public-interest law firm created by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, says it will appeal a federal court decision affirming San Francisco’s domestic partners law.
The ACLJ, based in Virginia Beach, Va., filed the 1997 suit against San Francisco on behalf of a firm denied a city contract because it refused to go along with the law, which says unmarried heterosexual or homosexual partners are entitled to the same work benefits as married heterosexual couples.
The suit challenged the law by claiming the city could not impose its definition of”family”on those who disagreed. Thursday (May 27), U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin rejected the claim.
Jay Sekulow, ACLJ chief counsel, said the suit would now be appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He also criticized Wilkin’s decision, saying it”changes corporate America by creating a culture shift that legitimatizes same-sex relationships. The ordinance redefines the institution of marriage and conflicts with the moral values of most Americans.” The ACLJ has also challenged domestic partner laws in Boston, New York and Santa Barbara, Calif.
Mistrial declared in case of Bible-preaching police officer
(RNS) A wrongful-dismissal lawsuit filed by a former North Carolina police officer who preached the Bible and distributed religious pamphlets during traffic stops ended in a mistrial Thursday (May 27).
U.S. District Judge Richard Vorhees declared a mistrial despite an earlier jury ruling in favor of former officer Brad Hicks. The judge issued his ruling as the jury was about to announce damages.
Vorhees agreed with city attorneys that Hick’s lawyer had introduced new material in his closing argument, requiring a mistrial.
Hicks contended the city of Newton, N.C., violated his constitutional right to share his religious beliefs when it fired him.
An earlier trial ended in a hung jury, the Associated Press reported.”This is not so much of a legal battle as a spiritual battle,”said Robert Jenkins, Hicks’ lawyer.”He feels spiritually defeated.” Jenkins said his client would likely continue to press his case.
Feed the Children official investigated for stealing donations
(RNS) The director of Feed the Children’s Nashville, Tenn., distribution center resigned Friday (May 28) after a local television station aired videotape of him and fellow employees taking home what authorities say were donations meant for the poor.
WTVF-TV videotaped Steve Highfill and about six administrative workers taking boxes of donations from the warehouse of the worldwide Christian charity. On Monday (May 24), a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation raid of the employees’ homes turned up shoes, videos, blankets, food and other items that may have been intended as donations. Agents confiscated boxes and bags of name-brand clothing.
Agents removed one box that read”Merry Christmas to me”on the top, according to the Associated Press.
The television broadcast concluded a four-month investigation into the charity’s distribution center. It showed Feed the Children executives, staff and their relatives carting boxes of goods from the warehouse to their cars.
Highfill told WTVF-TV that he saw no impropriety in allowing workers to take donations home.
Larry Jones, the charity’s president and founder, disagreed, saying that organization policy clearly forbids employees from taking donations.”Feed the Children is shocked and saddened at this information. The video surveillance weighs heavy on my heart,”said Jones.
Friday’s resignation came one day after Jones announced that his longtime friend and colleague, Don Richardson, would replace Highfill pending the investigation by authorities and an internal probe.
Feed the Children receives some $150 million in cash and another $150 million in goods every year. The Nashville facility is one of the organization’s two U.S. distribution centers. Police and charity authorities remain unclear on the amount and worth of the goods they believe were stolen.
Man charged in pope shooting acquitted on murder charge
(RNS) A Turkish man who gained notoriety for allegedly scheming to assassinate Pope John Paul II was acquitted in Istanbul Friday (May 28) of conspiring to kill a newspaper editor in 1973.
Oral Celik had been accused of”providing a gun and planning and taking part in the murder”of Abdi Ipekci, the liberal editor of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. A panel of judges ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict Celik, the Associated Press said.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the main suspect in the killing, is currently serving a life sentence in an Italian prison for attempting to kill the pope in 1981. In his trial, Agca accused Celik of collaborating in the murder of the newspaper editor and the failed assassination of the pope. However, an Italian court acquitted Celik of any involvement in the papal assassination attempt.
Celik was returned to Turkey from Switzerland in 1996 after serving a four-year prison sentence there for drug smuggling.
Troops remove controversial crosses near Auschwitz
(RNS) Polish Army troops Friday (May 28) removed some 300 crosses and a wooden hut erected by militant Catholics from a lot bordering the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp.
By removing the crosses _ some crudely handmade, others varnished with inscribed plaques _ the Polish government and Roman Catholic Church hoped to end a controversy that has strained relations with Israel and Jewish groups worldwide for more than a year.
A militant Polish Catholic activist had encouraged his followers to erect the crosses to protest attempts by Jews to have a larger 26-foot cross removed from outside the former death camp. The activist, Kazimierz Switon, was detained Thursday after he placed explosive devices near the crosses to protect them. Police detonated the explosives.
The crosses were removed at dawn and placed in a Franciscan friars’ cloister near Oswiecim, a city 210 miles southwest of Warsaw where Auschwitz is located, a joint government and church statement said.
A new law created protected zones 100 yards wide around former Nazi camps in Poland, giving the government greater authority over the area.
A larger cross, erected over a decade ago to commemorate 152 Polish Catholics killed at Auschwitz by the Nazis, was left standing, the Associated Press reported. Jewish groups have called for years for removal of the cross, first used in a 1979 Mass by Polish-born Pope John Paul II.
The groups say it can be seen from inside Auschwitz and insults the memory of the more than 1 million Jews killed at Auschwitz and the nearby sister facility of Birkenau during World War II.
But conservative Catholics led by Switon insisted Poland had the right to honor its Holocaust victims with a cross. The campaign had anti-Semitic tones, with Switon complaining Jews had too much influence in Poland.
In the United States, the American Jewish Committee commended the Polish government for taken the action Friday.”These developments bode well for all peoples who are committed to preserving the dignity and memory of the victims who perished at Auschwitz, and to improving relations between Poles and Jews,”the AJC said in a statement.
Russian court rejects bid to ban Pentecostal church
(RNS) A Russian court has rejected a move to ban a Pentecostal church under a controversial religion law.
Prosecutors in the far eastern port city of Magadan had accused the chief pastor of the Word of Life Pentecostalist Church of hypnotizing congregants to extort donations.
They tried to ban the congregation under a religion law that gives courts the right to outlaw groups found to be inciting hatred or intolerant behavior. The law has been used against several groups recently.
Congregants said local authorities, media and private citizens had harassed them so much that more than 400 of them applied for asylum in the United States at the end of January.
However, a Magadan court ruled Monday (May 24) that the prosecutors’ allegations had no legal basis, said Anatoly Pchelintsev, a lawyer working with the Slavic Center for Law and Justice in Moscow, which monitors religious rights violations in Russia.
The court also said the prosecutors had violated the congregation’s rights by illegally videotaping church services and attempting to forge court documents, the Associated Press reported.
The prosecutor was expected to appeal the ruling. If the court’s decision is not reversed, the congregants are expected to withdraw their appeal for asylum in the United States.
The religion law, passed in 1997, recognizes Russian Orthodox Christianity as the nation’s leading faith and pledges to respect Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. But other denominations face a host of restrictions and have to prove they’ve had a presence in Russia for at least 15 years before they’re permitted full legal status.
Quote of the day: Calvert County (Md.) Commissioners President Linda L. Kelley
(RNS)”This is a churchgoing community, and no one in Annapolis or Washington, D.C., is going to tell us when and where we can pray.” _ Calvert County (Md.) Commissioners President Linda L. Kelley, commenting to the Washington Post on why students and parents at Wednesday’s (May 26) Northern High School graduation ceremony recited the Lord’s Prayer, despite a school district agreement to substitute a moment of silence for the invocation said at past graduations.
IR END RNS
