c. 1999 Religion News Service

Psychological association reacts to critics of sex abuse study

(RNS) The American Psychological Association plans to consider potential consequences when it publishes future research after drawing criticism for a study that concluded that child sexual abuse may not cause serious long-term effects.

Last July, a study published in the APA’s Psychological Bulletin concluded that the way scientists classify sex between children and adults should depend on the age and”willingness”of the child, the Associated Press reported.

The study has been harshly criticized by groups such as the Christian Coalition and Family Research Council, who said it could be used to legitimize pedophilia.”We’ve never, ever had a reaction like this,”said Raymond Fowler, chief executive officer of the Washington-based organization.

Now the APA said it will consider the”social policy implications”of research it publishes. The organization of 159,000 clinicians, educators and researchers has been publishing journals for 106 years.

The study in question was a review of 59 studies involving college students who had been sexually abused before they turned 18. It concluded that lasting negative effects from sexual abuse were present in only a minority of women and were uncommon for men.

Child sexual abuse”does not cause intense harm on a pervasive basis regardless of gender in the college population,”the study said.

Co-author Bruce Rind, a psychology professor at Temple University, said researchers were trying to strike a balance between the complete neglect of child abuse before 1970 and what they viewed as exaggeration of the problem after 1980. Another author, Robert Bauserman, an AIDS prevention researcher in Maryland, said the article was written for scientists and he never expected it to be reported in the popular media.

Fowler said the APA should have been more careful in its consideration of how the study would be received. It could have been paired with an article with a different viewpoint or could have been published with an introduction detailing the APA’s stance against child abuse.

Robert Knight, senior director of cultural studies for the Family Research Council, believes the APA was forced to reconsider its action after pressure from a range of protesters.”We commend them for doing so and urge them to conduct whatever internal house-cleaning is necessary to prevent such future occurrences,”he said.

Dell chosen as delegate to major United Methodist meeting

(RNS) The Rev. Gregory Dell, a United Methodist minister who was convicted in March of breaking church rules by officiating at a same-sex union ceremony, has been elected as a delegate to the United Methodist Church’s top legislative body.

Dell, who was suspended from his pastoral duties effective July 5, is among the delegates chosen to represent the Northern Illinois Annual Conference at the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference, to be held May 2-12, 2000. The Rev. Larry Pickens, who served as defense counsel during the trial, also was elected as a delegate to the meeting, which will be held in Cleveland, the United Methodist News Service reported.

The annual conference, which met June 5-8 in De Kalb, Ill., elected a slate of delegates who support changing the denomination’s rules about homosexuality, said Linda Rhodes, communications director for the annual conference. Those rules include the banning of ceremonies celebrating same-sex unions by United Methodist ministers and churches.

Dell was eligible for election as a delegate because his suspension had not begun, but Northern Illinois Bishop C. Joseph Sprague said Dell could not be seated at the General Conference if his suspension is in effect next May.

World Council urges G-8 nations to act on debt relief for poor

(RNS) As officials of the eight leading industrialized countries prepare to meet in Germany next week (June 18), the World Council of Churches sharply criticized their proposals to aid debt-crippled nations but not cancel their debt as inadequate, and urged the wealthy nations to take more radical action.

In a statement Thursday (June 10), WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser and Sam Kobia, a WCC program director, renewed the organization’s call for debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations.

The statement also said the United States and the seven other leading nations, known as the G-8, bear primary responsibility for the debt burden that has incapacitated a number of poor countries, especially in Africa.

These leading countries and international financial institutions”initially encouraged irresponsible lending and then compounded the problem by raising interest rates,”the WCC said.”This resulted in indebted countries being caught in endless cycles of borrowing, losing control of their financial, economic and social affairs.” Representing nearly 500 million members from more than 100 countries, the World Council of Churches and other faith-based groups have rallied for debt forgiveness, casting the issue as a moral and humanitarian imperative.

Debtor governments have”been obliged to give priority to their debt repayments rather than spending on health, sanitation, clean water, education and other social needs,”said the WCC statement.”This has often led to the erosion of local democratic institutions and has built an environment for corruption.” Burdensome debt is one issue that will be addressed at the upcoming annual G-8 Summit in Cologne, Germany.

Worldwide, religious and humanitarian groups have come together to urge debt cancellation under the banner of Jubilee 2000. Hundreds of groups, ranging from Catholic Relief Services to Bread for the World, are demanding debt relief for some 50 poor nations by the year 2000.

Mainstream musicians, including U2’s Bono and former Jane’s Addiction front-man and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell, have also joined in the campaign. Bono recently took part in an Internet online forum on Jubilee 2000. On Monday (June 14) Farrell will host a concert in Los Angeles to raise awareness of the issue.

Jackson joins effort to free Iranian Jews held on spy charges

(RNS) The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday (June 11) he would work to secure the release of 13 Iranian Jews imprisoned for allegedly spying for Israel and the United States.

Jackson, instrumental in the recent freeing of three American servicemen held by Yugoslavia, said he would contact”appropriate Iranian political and religious leadership”in an attempt to free the Iranian Jews on”humanitarian”grounds.

Jackson’s comments came one day after he met in Los Angeles with relatives of the men, who range in age from 16 to 48 and include rabbis, teachers and community leaders from the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan. Los Angeles is home to a large community of Iranian Jews who fled there after the 1979 takeover of Iran by Islamic fundamentalists.

Israeli and American officials have denied those arrested were in their employ. Iran has not released details of the charges.

Meanwhile, American Jewish leaders sought to mobilize support for those arrested in Iran, even as the head of that nation’s judiciary warned the 13 could face the death penalty.

The North American Boards of Rabbis urged rabbis across the nation to ask congregants at this week’s Sabbath services to petition members of Congress to publicly press for release of those arrested.

NABR’s president, Rabbi Marc Schneier of New York, called the charges”patently absurd”in a memo sent to the group’s 44 local affiliates across the nation.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have also called for release of the 13.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, who heads Iran’s legal system, said:”The laws (in Iran) have their own prescriptions, which at certain instances provide for the capital punishment of spies. … Justice would be done on all members of the (imprisoned) group, even if they should receive capital punishment.” Yazdi was quoted by the Islamic News Agency, the Associated Press reported.

He also rejected criticism by Israel and the United States of Iran’s action.”We interpret your unhappiness with us as proof of our intellectual maturity. You will be happy with us once we agree to (be) your slaves, but Iran is an independent country and will not surrender to you,”he said.

Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who lived there prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948. Tens of thousands left for Israel, whose existence is opposed by Iran’s fundamentalist Muslim regime.

Pope: Economic change must build”more human and more just”world

(RNS) Pope John Paul II received a hero’s welcome from Solidarity leaders and former communist officials as he celebrated his homeland’s decade of freedom with an unprecedented speech to the Polish parliament.”Oh, look what’s happened to us,”the pontiff exclaimed, stretching his hands out in a gesture of joy.

But at the same time, the pope used the occasion _ the first time in his papacy that he has addressed a national parliament _ to sharply underscore what he believes are the necessary links between political and economic development and spiritual and ethical development.”As we rejoice together at the positive changes taking place in Poland before our eyes, we cannot fail to recognize as well that in a free society, there also must be values which guarantee the supreme good of man in his totality,”he said.”Every economic change must help to build a world that is more human and more just,”he said.

John Paul was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation as he entered the packed chamber. Among those in the audience were Solidarity founder Lech Walesa and former communist leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.

The speech came on the seventh day of the pontiff’s 13-day trip to his homeland.

After his visit to parliament, John Paul met with local religious leaders, including Poland’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Menachem Joskowicz, who asked the pope to aid in removing a 26-foot cross from property bordering the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. John Paul’s reply to the rabbi was inaudible, the Associated Press reported.

Denver Seminary president Clyde McDowell dead at 49

(RNS) The president of Denver Seminary died Monday (June 7) after being diagnosed with a brain tumor last year.

The Rev. Clyde McDowell, the seminary’s fifth president, was 49.

McDowell had served as a pastor in Colorado, Minnesota and Massachusetts before taking on the seminary presidency in 1996.”His example of what it means to be a servant-leader called me and those around him to new levels in our own leadership,”said Randy MacFarland, vice president of training and mentoring at the seminary.

The Denver-based school is affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association of America and has about 550 students.

Quote of the day: former basketball star Bill Walton

(RNS)”Basketball has always been my life, the game my religion, the gym my church.” _ Former basketball star Bill Walton, writing in the introduction to John Fitzsimmons Mahoney’s book”The Tao of the Jump Shot.”

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