c. 1999 Religion News Service

Religious groups mobilize to help Turkish quake victims

(RNS) Religious and humanitarian aid organizations scrambled to help earthquake-ravaged Turkey as Istanbul’s major religious sites were reported undamaged by the major trembler that rocked the nation.

Groups ranging from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to the United Methodist Committee on Relief immediately established funds to channel donations to victims of the Tuesday (Aug. 17) earthquake, which left thousands dead and many more injured and homeless.

Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service and the American Jewish World Service also said they would forward donations to Turkey, as well as contributing from their own resources.

World Relief, the international assistance arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, was among the groups who sent staffers to the scene. Two World Relief staffers who had been working in Kosovo left for Turkey to coordinate the agency’s aid efforts.

International Aid, a pan-denominational Christian relief agency, said it would send”two, possibly three”40-foot sea containers of medical supplies and drugs as an”initial response.” The International Red Cross launched an initial appeal for $7 million to help quake victims. The United States and a number of other nations _ including Turkey’s archrival, Greece _ also sent aid and rescue workers.

Meanwhile, reports from Istanbul said the city’s major religious landmarks sustained no significant damage in the early-morning quake, which U.S. scientists initially said measured a massive 7.8 on the Richter scale.

The Ottoman-era Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the 1,500-year-old Christian church that is now a museum of Byzantine art, were reported to have no visible damage.

Also undamaged was the Phanar, the headquarters in Istanbul of the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Pope John Paul II sent a telegram to the Roman Catholic bishop of Izmit, where the trembler was centered, about 50 miles southeast of Istanbul, expressing his sorrow over the loss of life and devastation in Turkey.

First Muslim named U.S. ambassador

(RNS) Travel executive M. Osman Siddique has apparently become the first Muslim to be sworn in as a U.S. ambassador.

Siddique was sworn in Tuesday (Aug. 17) as ambassador to the Pacific island-nations of Fiji, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu. He said he expects to assume the post by Sept. 1.

Siddique, 49, born in Dacca, now in Bangladesh, is president and chief executive of ITI/Travelogue, a corporate travel management firm based in Arlington, Va. Siddique, who said he came to the United States in 1971 with”no money,”founded the firm in 1976.

David Patterson, the State Department’s deputy historian, said that as far as it can be determined, Siddique appears to be the first Muslim to be named a U.S. ambassador. Aly R. Abuzaakouk, director of the Washington-based American Muslim Council, said his research also showed Siddique’s appointment to be a first.

In addition, Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering said Siddique is the first native of South Asia to be named a U.S. ambassador.

While the American Muslim Council praised Siddique’s appointment as another step forward toward full acceptance of Muslims in the United States, Siddique downplayed his religious affiliation.”While I am delighted to be named, I do not think religion, race or ethnicity are important in the selection of this nation’s ambassadors,”he said.”But if I can leave a roadmap for other Muslims to follow, that’s fine.” Siddique, a graduate of Indiana University, was nominated for the post in May by President Clinton and later confirmed by the Senate.

Update: Pat Robertson blasts Mississippi ruling on Star of David

(RNS) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson Wednesday (Aug. 18) termed a Mississippi school decision to prevent a Jewish student from displaying a Star of David necklace”either ignorance or religious intolerance.””The decision by the Harrison County school board to suppress a heartfelt and legitimate public expression of faith is totally inappropriate,”said Robertson, president and founder of the Christian Coalition.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it will file suit in the case on behalf of the student. The ACLU’s Mississippi head said the lawsuit would probably be filed by Friday.

On Monday, Harrison County school officials in Gulfport, Miss., said 11th-grader Ryan Green could not wear a Star of David necklace outside his shirt because it might be mistaken for a gang symbol and prompt violence between gang members. School officials said Green could wear the six-pointed star, one of Judaism’s central symbols, beneath his shirt or not at all.

Local law enforcement officials backed the school board, saying some gang members sported symbols that incorporated the Star of David.”This young man simply wants to express his religious conviction by displaying this necklace,”Robertson said in a statement.”Today a school board may decide the Star of David is inappropriate, tomorrow a school board may decide a Christian icon is unacceptable.”

Lutherans poised to vote on Episcopal pact, debate economic justice

(RNS) Delegates to the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are preparing to vote on a deeply divisive unity pact with the Episcopal Church and a proposal setting the framework for the church’s involvement in secular economic policy issues.

The weeklong meeting of 1,039 voting members, as delegates are called, opened Monday (Aug. 16) with worship and a plea from the 5.2 million-member denomination’s presiding bishop that the church put faith before fear as it faces the future.”Fear and weakness, yes,”said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop.”I have brought them here along with my canvas bag and my giant binder.”But he said the Holy Spirit”helps us in our weakness”and”keeps us from falling back into fear.” Anderson also made a plea that the denomination adopt two proposals for closer unity with two other Protestant denominations _ the tiny Moravian Church and the larger Episcopal Church. The latter proposal has sharply divided the nation’s fourth largest Protestant denomination and showed no sign of abating during the assembly.

The proposal for closer ties with the Episcopal Church hinges on Lutheran acceptance of the idea of the”historic episcopate”_ the notion of an unbroken line of bishops stretching back to the time of the apostles and existing as a sign of the unity and continuity of the church’s proclamation. Some non-American Lutheran churches as well as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have it but a number of U.S. Lutherans deeply oppose it.”We do not not need to adopt the polities and policies of another church to claim our oneness in Christ,”the Rev. Norman Wahl, of Rochester, Minn., told the assembly. Wahl said the proposal would elevate the office of bishop in a manner contrary to the”genius of the Reformation, which is the priesthood of all believers.” But the Rev. Nancy Curtis, of New Haven, Ind., said episcopate is a”sign that is thoroughly Lutheran, a part of our heritage long before the Reformation.” A vote on the proposal is scheduled for Thursday but, because of the deep divisions, could be put off until Friday as leaders search for a compromise.

The economics statement, described as a way to”assess economic life today in light of the moral imperative to seek sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all,”calls on Lutherans to work for”economic justice”for all.”The tears of farmers in South Dakota, finance leaders who shared a sense of captivity to the global economy, despairing workers downsized out of their livelihood _ those and others were very present as we worked on this statement,”the Rev. Karen Bloomquist, ELCA director for studies, said in urging its adoption. A vote on the statement is scheduled for Friday.

University of Mobile to sell its Nicaraguan campus

(RNS) The University of Mobile, a Southern Baptist-affiliated school in Alabama, has reached an agreement to sell its controversial Nicaraguan campus.

The agreement with Ave Maria Institute of Ypsilanti, Mich., calls for the transfer of ownership to take place on July 1, 2000.

The Alabama university announced July 30 that it agreed to sell its remaining assets in Nicaragua to the small Catholic liberal arts school. The price of the sale was not disclosed.

The University of Mobile will continue to operate the campus during the 1999-2000 academic year.”We are delighted to announce that we have secured an arrangement to provide for a successor institution,”Mark Foley, president of the University of Mobile, said in a statement.

Ave Maria Institute also has agreed to underwrite operations of the Nicaraguan campus during the upcoming academic year. The Mobile Register reported that Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan, the chairman of Ave Maria’s board, has personally agreed to underwrite up to $1 million in losses by the Nicaraguan campus during that time period.

Tensions surrounding the Nicaraguan campus and its financial management led to the resignation of Foley’s predecessor.

California court upholds refusal to post Ten Commandments

(RNS) A California appeals court Tuesday (Aug. 17) upheld a school district’s refusal to post the Ten Commandments on the fence of a ball field.

In 1995, the Downey High School sought ads to cover the expense of new uniforms. Edward DiLoreto, chief executive of a local engineering firm, paid $400 and had a sign designed with the Ten Commandments under a caption that read”meditate on these principles to live by.” The school, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, refused to display the sign, the Associated Press reported.

The Downey Unified School District received an opinion from then-Attorney General Dan Lungren that the display would be legal, but decided to remove all ads from the fence in 1996 and concluded the fund-raiser.

The conservative Individual Rights Foundation sued on DiLoreto’s behalf, claiming the district violated freedom of religion and free speech.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s ruling against DiLoreto.

Quote of the day: Phil Baum, American Jewish Congress executive director

(RNS)”The world is flat. The sun revolves around the earth. Illness is caused by an imbalance of bodily humors. There’s room for all of that in Kansas classrooms.” _ Phil Baum, American Jewish Congress executive director, in a statement criticizing the recent decision by the Kansas Board of Education to limit the teaching of evolution in state’s public school science classes.

DEA END RNS