c. 1999 Religion News Service
New money and organizational woes hit Christian Coalition
(RNS) The Christian Coalition’s financial and organizational woes appear to have deepened.
The coalition, once the religious right’s standard-bearer, has been sued by its direct-mail fund-raiser for nonpayment of bills and has lost its Washington lobbying chief.
A suit filed in Alexandria, Va., by the direct-mail firm, Stephen Winchell & Associates, charged the coalition with nonpayment of about $400,000 _ even though the company said it helped the coalition raise $7 million.
Meanwhile, Randy Tate, the coalition’s chief Washington lobbyist and its one-time executive director, has resigned.
Coalition founder Pat Robertson told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that his organization was”quite a mess.”However, coalition spokesman Chris Freund said Thursday (Dec. 2) that the coalition was not in danger of shutting down.”Obviously we have some financial and other issues to deal with. But, again, we’re quite confident we can. We’re looking forward to the new year,”Freund said.
With Tate’s departure, the Virginian-Pilot quoted unnamed coalition sources as saying,”there is almost no one in a senior position at the national headquarters today who was there a year ago.” Tate, a one-time Washington state congressman, stepped down as the coalition’s executive director and shifted to Washington lobbying duties in June as part of a coalition reorganization. That reorganization followed an Internal Revenue Service decision to deny the coalition tax-exempt status.
Freund said the coalition’s current debt was about $2 million, which he called”manageable.””We have vendors we owe some money to, but we’re working out repayment schedules,”he said.
The coalition was founded by Robertson in 1989 following his unsuccessful bid to gain the Republican presidential nomination. It gained prominence under the direction of Ralph Reed, who left in 1997 to become a political campaign adviser. It has floundered ever since.
Recently, the coalition announced it would leave its longtime base in Chesapeake, Va., and relocate to northern Virginia just outside Washington, D.C.
Catholics allege bias in House chaplain choice
(RNS) The normally non-controversial post of chaplain to the House of Representatives has become decidedly controversial. Catholics say a priest who appeared the frontrunner for the post did not get the job simply because he is Roman Catholic.
An 18-member House committee screened almost 50 candidates for the job, which has become vacant with the retirement of the Rev. James Ford, a Lutheran who held the post for 21 years. In secret balloting, the committee named its three top contenders _ the first being the Rev. Timothy J. O’Brien, a Catholic priest and Marquette University political science professor.
However, House Republican leaders selected the Rev. Charles Parker Wright, who came in third in the balloting. Wright, a Presbyterian minister long associated with Washington’s National Prayer Breakfast, also trailed the Rev. Robert Dvorak, an official with the Evangelical Covenant Church.
This week, several Democratic House members said they believe Wright was selected because the GOP leadership either wanted to placate the mostly Protestant religious right or was simply uncomfortable having a Catholic in the post.
The House chaplain opens House sessions and performs other ceremonial duties. He _ the chaplain has always been a Protestant male in the 210-year history of the position _ also counsels House members and their families, if they seek him out.
Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., a member of the selection committee, said she was angered by the House Republican decision.”As a member of the House and a member of the committee and as a Catholic, I’m offended and resentful,”she said.
O’Brien told the New York Times that he believed that if he had belonged to”any mainline Protestant denomination”he would have won the job.”I hope and pray that the 1960 presidential election (of Catholic John F. Kennedy) did do away with the idea of Catholics as not being fully American. I’m not convinced that the prejudicial view is gone and I do believe that if I were not a Catholic priest I would be the House chaplain,”he said.
Peter Jeffries, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, said Hastert favored Wright because he felt he was the candidate who”would jell the best with the members and their families.” Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, told the Associated Press that her boss chose Wright because”he was looking for (someone) who the members were going to feel most comfortable with.” In a statement, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said:”To say that most members of the House would be more comfortable with a Protestant minister than with a Catholic priest … is to say that Catholic priests need not apply for the post.” NIH issues draft guidelines on stem-cell research
(RNS) The National Institutes of Health has issued draft guidelines for the controversial study of stem cells derived from human embryos, research scientists believe has the potential to advance treatment of numerous diseases.”The purpose of these draft guidelines is to recommend procedures to help ensure that NIH-funded research in this area is conducted in an ethical and legal manner,”a summary of the guidelines states.
The current language in the guidelines state that the early human embryos from which the stem cells are derived must be from frozen embryos that remain as the result of infertility treatment.”It is essential that the donation of early human embryos in excess of clinical need is voluntary,”the guidelines read.”No inducements, monetary or otherwise, should have been offered for the donation of early human embryos for research purposes.” The guidelines also address using stem cells from fetal tissue.
They note that NIH funding will not be available for certain kinds of stem-cell research, including studies involving human cloning, creation of a human embryo or combination with an animal embryo. Funds will not be used for the derivation of stem cells from early human embryos; they must be received from a third party who has followed the guidelines.
Organizations such as the American Life League and U.S. Catholic bishop that have traditionally opposed abortion criticized the guidelines.
The NIH is accepting comments on the draft guidelines until Jan. 31. The stem-cell research will not be funded by the NIH until final guidelines are published and an oversight process is determined.
Update: Vatican reports misunderstanding is blocking papal trip to Iraq
(RNS) An apparent misunderstanding between the Vatican and the government of Saddam Hussein is blocking plans for Pope John Paul II to make a pilgrimage to Iraq, a high Vatican official has disclosed.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, told reporters Wednesday (Dec. 1) that the Vatican has no idea of what is behind the misunderstanding but hopes that it soon will be resolved.
Sodano, who was meeting with ambassadors at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, also said that the controversy over construction of a mosque close to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth will not affect the pope’s plan to travel to the Holy Land in late March. The trip is”in every way independent,”he said.
John Paul was expected to travel to Iraq in early December to visit Ur of the Chaldees, birthplace of the Patriarch Abraham, but objections to the visit by the United States and Britain on political grounds and the hostility of a group of Iraqi intellectuals close to the Saddam regime halted planning for the trip.
Vatican sources said Islamic fundamentalists, who claim Abraham as a fellow Muslim because he was named 69 times in the Koran, now oppose a papal visit. The patriarch, who lived 2,500 years before the birth of Muhammad, is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.”I believe that there can be misunderstandings in international relations just as between people,”Sodano said.”The Holy See is working to dissipate similar incomprehensions, both on one side and the other.
But, he said,”We really don’t yet know the basic relations for this perplexity of the Iraqi government on giving a definitive green light to the papal trip.” Sodano said there are no longer”difficulties”from Washington about the pilgrimage, which the pope has said will be purely religious, and the United Nations hopes that it will build”bridges to dialogue.” John Paul is an outspoken opponent of economic boycotts and has repeatedly called for an end to the sanctions the United Nations imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War.
Update: Florida puts”Choose Life”license plate on hold
(RNS) Florida officials have stopped production of the controversial”Choose Life”license plate until a lawsuit against it is resolved.
Supporters say the plate _ featuring a crayon drawing of two children _ is merely a statement in favor of adoption, but opponents believe it is a political statement against abortion.”We’re not doing anything at this point because of pending litigation,”said Jon Whitney, general counsel for the Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.
Former Democratic state Rep. Barry Silver, along with the National Organization for Women, has sought an injunction against the plate in court, the Associated Press reported.
The tag was approved earlier this year by state legislators and Gov. Jeb Bush signed off on it on Nov. 23.
Baptist World Alliance to meet in Lebanon
(RNS) The Baptist World Alliance has chosen Beirut, Lebanon, as the site of its 2001 annual meeting.
The alliance announced its plans after Denton Lotz, the group’s general secretary, met with President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss in late November.
Lotz discussed the religious freedom of the minority Baptist community with the officials. There are 22 churches and 2,000 members of the Lebanese Baptist Convention.
Lotz praised the new government and the Lebanese people for the harmony they have fostered after years of civil war.”It is our prayer that this unity and harmony in living together could be a model for other countries, avoiding the tragedy of the clash of civilization,”he said.
Court reinstates sexual harassment suit against California Jesuits
(RNS) A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reinstated a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former seminarian against the California Province of the Society of Jesuits.
The three-judge 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously Wednesday (Dec. 1) that constitutional guarantees of religious freedom do not protect religious groups from such suits.”There is no danger that, by allowing this suit to proceed, we will thrust the secular courts into the constitutionally untenable position of passing judgment on questions of religious faith or doctrine,”Judge William Fletcher wrote in his opinion.
The suit was filed by John Bollard, now 33, who said that after he entered the Jesuits’ Berkeley, Calif., seminary in 1988 he was given unwanted homosexual pornography and invited to gay bars by a dozen priests in the 5 1/2 years he attended the seminary.
Update: China disputes number of Falun Gong members detained
(RNS) China Thursday (Dec. 2) denied it has detained more than 35,000 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in Beijing in recent months, as had been reported by a Hong Kong-based human rights group.
Instead, said officials, the figure represented the number of times Falun Gong members were stopped by police, and likely includes individuals stopped repeatedly.
Those stopped were told to leave a Falun Gong demonstration in Beijing, or were forcibly removed, said Qian Xiaoqian, a spokesman for China’s State Council, or ruling cabinet.
Qian also said that 150 Falun Gong members have been arrested since July, when the movement that combines Buddhist and Taoist elements with traditional Chinese qigong meditation and physical exercises was made illegal.
Chinese officials consider Falun Gong a dangerous cult that threatens to undermine the government. Falun Gong, which reportedly has hundreds of thousands, if not millions of members in China, says it has no political agenda.
Quote of the day: Abbot Thomas Keating
(RNS)”When we are converted to a new way of life, to service or a particular ministry, we often experience a wonderful gift of freedom and a radical change of direction.” _ Abbot Thomas Keating of Snowmass, Colo., in his book”The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation”(Paulist Press).
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