c. 1999 Religion News Service

Progressive Baptists pass resolutions on crime, AIDS, schools

(RNS) The Progressive National Baptist Convention recently passed resolutions launching a campaign to end incarceration and killing of black youth, urging increased funding to fight AIDS in Africa, and supporting historically black colleges and universities.”The incarceration and killing of black youth has too long been an issue of catastrophic and critical concern that has been treated with benign neglect by black people in general and the black church in particular,”reads a resolution calling for a proactive movement to address the issue.

The resolution states that the predominantly African-American denomination will mobilize its 2 million members to lead black religious denominations, civil rights groups, political and fraternal groups, and educational institutions in the campaign.

The annual session of the denomination, which concluded Saturday (Aug. 7) in Washington, included the passage of several resolutions addressing domestic and foreign issues.

The denomination supports efforts to increase governmental and pastoral efforts to combat AIDS among African-Americans and urged the U.S. government to work with African governments and the United Nations to battle the disease in Africa, a resolution stated.

A resolution regarding black colleges and universities states that”these proud institutions continue to serve as anchors for African-American communities, but the lack of adequate funding threatens the future of many campus landmarks.” Other resolutions urged the lifting of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, eradicating slavery in Mauritania and Sudan, and supporting the new democracy in Nigeria.

The denomination also adopted a resolution reiterating its stance against the presence of the Confederate flag at the state capitol in South Carolina. Church officials plan to refrain from holding business meetings in South Carolina while the flag flies there. A midwinter board meeting scheduled for January 2000 and an evangelism crusade scheduled for April 2000 have been canceled and organizers hope to hold them in other cities.

Update: Discrimination suit against Nation of Islam dismissed

(RNS) A lawsuit that charged the Nation of Islam was discriminatory when it barred women from a public speech by leader Louis Farrakhan has been dismissed.

Judge Regina Quinlan of the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass., ruled Monday (Aug. 9) the Nation of Islam was protected by the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

Marceline Donaldson, a Cambridge antiques dealer, argued that her civil rights were violated when she was turned away in March 1994 from the city-owned Strand Theater in the Dorchester section of Boston.

Donaldson, who is black, had testified that”being turned away at the door by a black man was overwhelming.”Her husband, Robert Bennett, had been told he could enter to hear Farrakhan’s speech on black-on-black violence, but a Nation of Islam security guard barred Donaldson.

She sought unspecified damages from the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan and minister Don Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam mosque in Boston, which sponsored the event.”I feel vindicated,”Muhammad said after the decision, the Associated Press reported.

Hallmark Cards buys DaySpring Cards

(RNS) Hallmark Cards has purchased DaySpring Cards, a Christian company that was the only for-profit division of Cook Communications Ministries.

The financial terms of the agreement were not released.”Although Hallmark has created products for Christian consumers for decades, we are fortunate to acquire DaySpring because its product lines closely complement our current efforts,”said Don Fletcher, president of Hallmark’s North American personal expression business, in a statement.

DaySpring has about 400 employees and has its headquarters in Siloam Springs, Ark. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Hallmark.”This is certainly a mutually beneficial opportunity for DaySpring and Hallmark, but most importantly for the Christian consumer,”said James Barnett, who remains as president of DaySpring, in a statement.”DaySpring will continue to focus its efforts on creating product that mirrors consumer preferences in the Christian interest marketplace.” DaySpring, whose products feature a nondenominational evangelical Christian message, recorded sales of $52 million in the fiscal year ending in May. It was founded in 1971 and acquired by Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Cook Communications Ministries in 1986.

Teacher charged with 13 years of abuse; archdiocese role questioned

(RNS) Sheriff’s deputies in suburban New Orleans have arrested a Catholic grade school teacher on charges that over 13 years he sexually molested at least nine students, including one whose father went to officials of the Archdiocese of New Orleans a year ago in a vain attempt to get the teacher removed immediately.

Authorities have charged Brian Matherne, 44, with nearly 400 counts of various sex abuse statutes. They said Matherne, a teacher and coach at Sacred Heart School in Norco, La., about 20 miles from New Orleans, molested grade school boys on trips to a nearby fishing and hunting camp. The incidents began in the mid-1980s and continued until just three weeks ago, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s office said.

Matherne was jailed in lieu of $1.5 million bond and has not made a statement.

The father of one young man, now 24 years old, said he told New Orleans Bishop Gregory Aymond last year his troubled son, then in psychological therapy, had recently said Matherne molested him 13 years ago. The father said he asked Aymond several times to remove Matherne immediately.

But archdiocesan officials determined they could take no action against Matherne without first talking with the young man, who for months after his father’s visit with Aymond remained unwilling to make his claim public.

Don Richard, an archdiocesan attorney, said the fact that the father’s claim was secondhand, the fact that the alleged victim was an adult unwilling to come forward on his own, and Matherne’s”exemplary”record all dictated the archdiocese’s cautious approach.

Nonetheless, with the facts of the complaint unchanged for months, the archdiocese fired Matherne in May, as reports began to circulate around the small town that the young man had gone directly to law enforcement with his complaint. His story led to a three-month investigation that uncovered nine victims, with the possibility that more may surface, the sheriff’s office said.

Sudan missionaries report attacks by Islamic fundamentalists

(RNS) Islamic fundamentalists have staged systematic attacks on Catholics celebrating Sunday Mass in Khartoum, Sudan, and authorities have done nothing to stop them, missionaries reported Monday (Aug. 9).

The report came from the Missionary Service News Agency, operated by the Comboni Missionary Fathers of Verona, who have been active in Sudan for more than a century. It was distributed by the Vatican press office.

The agency said that when the fundamentalists staged a violent attack on a service in the parish of Dorushab in North Khartoum on Sunday (Aug. 8), authorities responded by taking parish members into custody.

The agency also reported that on July 30, authorities expelled without explanation a Canadian missionary, the Rev. Gilles Poirier, 57, who had worked in Sudan since 1992 and was known for”his missionary zeal in behalf of the poor of his parish.” Ansar As-Sunna, a fundamentalist sect of Saudi Arabian origin, has mounted”a campaign of systematic disturbances”on Catholics in Dorushab Parish as they celebrate Mass in the ruins of a Catholic school destroyed by Sudanese police two years ago, the agency said.”The holy liturgy was interrupted by the Ansar As-Sunna with insults, blasphemy, striking out with sticks and throwing bricks,”the agency quoted a witness as saying.

The agency said leaders of the Catholic community have repeatedly complained to authorities, who have ignored their protests.”Yesterday, the action of the forces of order was scandalous to say the least,”the witness said.”The police intervened and detained some young boys of the parish. One of them was accused of disturbing public order.” Poirier, priest of the parish of the Holy Martyrs of Uganda in the city of Ellat Mayor, 22 kilometers south of the center of Khartoum, was called July 15 to the Department of Immigration and told he was being expelled from Sudan.

Authorities gave no reason for the action to Poirier or to church leaders in Khartoum; Archbishop Dino Broggi, the apostolic nuncio; or Canadian authorities, who filed protests, the agency said

Regent University law school dean resigns, continues work for Robertson

(RNS) The dean of Regent University School of Law has resigned to become chief executive officer of CENCO Refining Co. in Los Angeles.

J. Nelson Happy will work full time for CENCO, which is principally owned by a charitable trust established by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. Happy also will work on other projects for Robertson, who is chancellor and founder of Regent, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based Christian graduate school.

Happy, who has been dean since 1993, helped the law school gain full accreditation by the American Bar Association in 1996.

Quote of the Day: Beth Cottrill, a United Methodist from West Virginia

(RNS)”A youth proposal on violence says hope for the world. Everyone suffers when a youth or a child is hurt, killed or shot. It hits us all very personally, and I’m glad we have decided to do something about it.” _ Beth Cottrill of Charleston, W.Va., a participant in CONVO ’99, a meeting in early August of United Methodist youth in Knoxville, Tenn., where they adopted measures aimed at reducing violence and supporting peace and justice.

DEA END RNS