c. 1999 Religion News Service
Presidential candidates drawn into creationism vs. evolution debate
(RNS) Vice President Al Gore has become the latest presidential hopeful to become caught up in the controversy over the teaching of evolution and creationism in public schools.
Speaking through a spokesman, Gore said he thinks local school boards have the right to teach creationism, although he personally favored the teaching of evolution, Reuters news service reported Thursday (Aug. 26). The Democrat also said that when creationism is taught, it should be in the context of a religion class and not a science class.
Since the Kansas Board of Education voted in early August to delete virtually all mention of evolution from the state’s recommended science curriculum and standardized tests, presidential hopefuls have been asked their views on the matter.
Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush has said local schools should be allowed to teach both creationism and evolution as theories. Two other Republican hopefuls, Elizabeth Dole and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have largely confined their remarks to saying the issue is for local school boards to decide.
Republican Gary Bauer said Thursday that he rejected “the basic tenet” of evolution “that life arose spontaneously and there is no divine intelligence.” Steve Forbes, another GOP hopeful, has said science has overstated the case for evolution.
Creationism holds that God created the world and humans in accordance with the biblical account. Darwinian evolution holds that humans developed from lower life forms over time, mainly as a result of environmental adaptation and natural selection.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that teaching creationism in public schools improperly endorses a religious viewpoint. However, Gallup polls have found that about 44 percent of Americans hold to the biblical view of creation. About 40 percent ascribe to the view that evolution has been directed by a divine hand. Ten percent endorse a strictly secular view of evolution.
Muslims praise, Jews condemn Burger King decision
(RNS) American Muslim groups have praised a decision by Burger King to remove the company name from a restaurant in the West Bank city of Maale Adumim following the threat of a worldwide boycott of the fastfood chain by Arabs and Muslims.
American Jewish organizations condemned the decision as yielding to intimidation.
The Miami-based corporation Thursday (Aug. 26) said the restaurant at Maale Adumim mall would remain open but would no longer use the corporate brand. The restaurant is a franchise owned by an Israeli company.
“This shows that when American Muslims are united, and join hands with people of conscience in this country and around the world to stand up for international law, we can make a difference,” said Aly R. Abuzaakouk, Washington director of the American Muslim Council.
Muslim and Arab-American organizations argued that Maale Adumim is in territory that Israel occupied by force, making it illegal under international law for an American company to do business there.
They threatened to organize a worldwide Arab and Muslim boycott of Burger Kings unless the company pulled out of Maale Adumim, a city of about 27,000 residents some four miles east of Jerusalem.
Burger King said it was pulling the corporate name for “commercial reasons and in the best interests of hundreds of thousands of people” who work for the chain, the Associated Press reported. The company also said it had been misled by the franchise holder into believing the three-month-old restaurant was in undisputed Israeli territory.
In a statement, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said “although the company claims the decision was based on a problem in the franchise agreement, we are concerned that it will appear to be a concession to the threat of a boycott that emanated from several Arab American and Muslim American organizations.”
Interfaith delegation calls for prayer for Turkish people
(RNS) An interfaith delegation that met with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright concerning the recent major earthquake in Turkey has called on Americans to pray this weekend for the Turkish people.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, issued a statement after the meeting on Friday (Aug. 27).
“We appeal to our fellow Americans of faith and heart to devote today, Saturday and Sunday to prayer and humanitarian action in the mosques, synagogues and churches across the country as a sign of solidarity with the people of Turkey,” Schneier said.
He and other delegation members thanked Albright for the U.S. government’s role in responding to the crisis and learned of the details of the earthquake’s aftermath from Turkish Ambassador Baki Ilkin.
“Many of the relief organizations connected with our communities have responded with great generosity and compassion to this enormous disaster, reminding us once again of the vulnerability of human life,” Schneier said. “Lives can be shattered and snuffed out suddenly; tragedy gives no warning and takes no vacation.”
More than 13,000 people were killed and more than 27,000 were injured in the Aug. 17 quake.
The other delegation members were Monsignor William P. Fay of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; Rev. Rodney I. Page of the National Council of Churches; Bishop George of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Imam Yusef Saleem of the Muslim American Society; Archbishop Herman Joseph Swaiko of the Orthodox Church in America; Rev. Vertanes Kalayjian of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Washington; and Diana Aviv of the United Jewish Communities.
Schneier’s foundation is an interreligious coalition of religious and business leaders that focuses on religious freedom and human rights.
World Council of Churches executive urges violence reduction
(RNS) The general secretary of the World Council of Churches is encouraging churches across the globe to do more to address the “generalized culture of violence.”
“Violence in the homes and on the streets, between ethnic and religious groups, within and between nations and societies, is the most powerful force destroying human community life,” said the Rev. Konrad Raiser, in a report in Geneva Thursday (Aug. 26) to the council’s Central Committee.
The global group plans to address the issue during “An Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence,” to be observed from 2001 to 2010.
Raiser said the council has addressed violence in the past but that renewed attention is needed.
“We are still deeply conditioned by thinking in the categories of the Cold War, based on the clear identification of an enemy and the confrontation of absolute good and evil,” he said.
Raiser said today’s violence “cannot be overcome by imposing superior power and enforcing obedience and submission, since violence is itself an expression of the war logic of power.”
The general secretary added that churches need to reflect on their possible role in contributing to violence.
He said churches need to “enter into a self-critical assessment of those theological, ecclesiological or cultural traditions which tend to justify violence in the name of defending order and enforcing obedience.”
Raiser also said there is a need for interfaith cooperation in the effort to combat violence.
“We as Christians have to be humble and listen to the wisdom of Eastern religions, especially Buddhism, which has had much to say on peace and non-violence,” he said.
The World Council of Churches, which is based in Geneva, is a fellowship of 336 member churches of the Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox faiths.
Arizona judge orders out-of-state abortion for 14-year-old
(RNS) A judge has ordered Arizona child welfare officials to transport a 14-year-old girl who is almost six-months pregnant to another state for an abortion.
The abortion must be performed outside Arizona because a new state law has basically eliminated abortions in most cases after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The girl is in her 24th week.
The abortion order was issued by Judge William Sargeant of Maricopa County Superior Court. Sargeant would not discuss the case or confirm the abortion order, reported the Associated Press, citing local newspaper reports.
The teen has been in Arizona’s child welfare system since the age of 5. She became a ward of the court after running away from group homes and foster parents repeatedly.
Francie Noyes, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jane Hull, said it is legal to take the teen out of state.
“The court is acting in the role of the parents,” Noyes said. “The people that are working in the girl’s best interests believe this is the best interests. The court agreed and did issue the order.”
American Life League President Judie Brown, issued a statement criticizing the planned abortion.
“What if this 14-year-old mother … should incur serious injury or perhaps die in this out-of-state abortion clinic?” asked Brown, whose organization is based in Stafford, Va. “Who will claim responsibility for this girl if something should go terribly wrong as it most assuredly will for her child?”
New president named for Baptist Women in Ministry
(RNS) Raye Nell Dyer, an ordained Baptist minister and hospital chaplain, has been named the new president of Baptist Women in Ministry.
Dyer, a chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., was elected at the group’s recent annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. She succeeds Becca Gurney, a former associate pastor in Austin, Texas, who served as president of the group for two years, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.
Most of the group’s 400 members are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but the denomination’s conservative leaders have opposed women’s ordination.
Quote of the Day: Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut on aging
(RNS) “Having adjusted to a lower energy level, I find, when I sit still and think about my life, I experience a kind of serenity that I did not formerly possess.”
Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, senior scholar at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, writing in his new book “The Price and Privilege of Growing Old” (CCAR Press).
IR END RNS
AP-NY-08-27-99 1722EDT
