c. 1999 Religion News Service

Magazine names greatest preachers of the 20th century

(RNS) Preaching, a bimonthly magazine, has named the greatest preachers of the 20th century, with the Rev. Billy Graham and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. among its top 10.

The No. 1 ranking was given to the late James S. Stewart, a Scottish preacher and New Testament professor who served a two-year term in the 1960s as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.”His books such as `Heralds of God’ … and `A Faith to Proclaim’ … have inspired tens of thousands of preachers to strive for greater effectiveness in their proclamation of God’s Word,”wrote Michael Duduit, the editor of the magazine.

The rest of the top 5 are, in order: evangelist Billy Graham; the late George Buttrick, an English-born Congregational preacher who served almost 30 years as pastor of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York; the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; and the late Harry Emerson Fosdick, a pastor of New York’s Riverside Church.

The rest of the top 10 are, in order: the late G. Campbell Morgan, an English-born minister who served in the United States and England and influenced evangelical preaching; the late William Edwin Sangster, an evangelical Methodist preacher who had the largest Sunday-evening congregation in London during World War II; John R.W. Stott, a popular evangelical preacher who is rector emeritus of All Souls Church in London and director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity; the late D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh preacher who served as pastor of Westminster Chapel in London from 1943 to 1968; and the late Clarence Macartney, who served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

Duduit said the preachers were labeled as”great”based on their influence on church and society and on their fellow preachers.

The”second ten,”in order are: Leslie Weatherhead; George W. Truett; R.G. Lee; Norman Vincent Peale; Peter Marshall; E. Stanley Jones; Donald Grey Barnhouse; Ralph Sockman; W.A. Criswell; and Gardner C. Taylor.

The list of top preachers was based on rankings by Preaching’s Board of Contributing Editors, who reviewed nominations from readers of the magazine.

Religious leaders urge U.S. to sign treaty banning landmines

(RNS) A group of some 30 U.S. religious leaders, representing Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim groups, has called on the United States to sign the international treaty banning landmines.”Someone steps on a landmine every 22 minutes,”the religious leaders said in a quarter-page advertisement in the Dec. 4 New York Times.”One light step and a landmine explodes, whether it is the boot of a soldier or the sandal of a child.” The sponsor of the ad, the Landmine Survivors Network, was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1997.

The anti-landmine campaign, drawing much of its support from grassroots people of faith, resulted in a treaty negotiated in Ottawa, Canada, in December 1997 and which went into force in March 1998. It has been signed by 136 nations.

The United States, citing what it said was the continuing need to maintain landmines along the border separating North and South Korea, has refused to sign the pact.

In the ad, in the form of an open letter to President Clinton, the religious appealed to Clinton to”reconsider U.S. landmine policy.”Your courage today will ensure that all may walk in safety into the next century,”it said.”Lead our country to stand among those whose choose life.” Among those signing the ad were the Rev. Andrew Young, the new president of the National Council of Churches; Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the American Hebrew Congregation, and Iman W. Deen Mohammed of the World Supreme Council of Mosques.

Other signers included the heads of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., the Episcopal Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Presbyterian Church USA, the Friends United Meeting, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, World Vision United States, Orthodox Church in America, and the United Church of Christ.

Colosseum becomes a symbol of life for foes of capital punishment

(RNS) With the blessing of Pope John Paul II, the ancient Colosseum, where Christians were thrown to the lions and gladiators fought to the death, has become a symbol of life for foes of capital punishment.

Starting Sunday (Dec. 12) and continuing throughout the year 2000, the amphitheater inaugurated by the Emperor Vespasian in 80 AD will be illuminated for 48 hours each time a death sentence is suspended or commuted or the death penalty is abolished anywhere in the world.

The project was inaugurated as the United States announced that 96 death row inmates have been executed in the country this year _ the largest number since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment in 1976.

The opening ceremony Sunday night marked the decision of Albania to do away with capital punishment. Forty spotlights placed inside the Colosseum cast a golden glow into the nighttime sky.

The pope, an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, commended the project, called”The Colosseum Illuminates Life,”earlier Sunday when he spoke to pilgrims from his study window above St. Peter’s Square after midday prayers.

Noting the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church teaches there are very few if any cases in which the death penalty can be justified, John Paul said Holy Year 2000 is the perfect occasion to”promote throughout the world more mature forms of respect for life and the dignity of every person.””I therefore renew my appeal to all leaders to reach an international consensus on the abolition of the death penalty,”he said.

Italy, which abolished capital punishment in its post World War II constitution, was a leader in the unsuccessful campaign for a United Nations-backed universal moratorium on executions.

Taking part in the Colosseum project are the Italian Ministry of Culture, the city of Rome, Amnesty International, the Sant’Egidio Community of Catholic activists and Let No One Touch Cain, an organization that opposes the death penalty.

Falun Gong members charged for speaking about a colleague’s death

(RNS) A Hong Kong human rights group says four Falun Gong members in mainland China have been charged with”illegally providing intelligence overseas”for speaking out about the alleged beating death while in police custody of a colleague.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said Monday (Dec. 13) the four were charged for publicly disclosing information about the alleged fatal beating of Zhao Jinhua in October.

Chinese officials deny that Zhao was beaten while in custody, as Falun Gong members maintain, insisting he died of a heart attack. The charge against the four carries a prison sentence of more than ten years, the Associated Press reported.

The four _ Liu Jinling, Li Lanying, Chi Yunling and Chen Shihuan _ were arrested in early November, although they were not formally charged until last week, the Information Center said.

Announcement of the charges followed by a day a rally by more than 900 Falun Gong members in Hong Kong, where the movement remains legal despite its illegal status in mainland China.

The rally was denounced by Chinese officials, who said the group was using Hong Kong as a base to expand its activities within China proper. Although the former British colony has been reunited with China, Hong Kong remains semi-autonomous.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, also warned Falun Gong against acting”against the interest of China,”leading some Hong Kong religious activists to fear that city’s tradition of religious freedom could be threatened.

China considers Falun Gong _ a mix of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs combined with traditional Chinese”qigong”physical exercises and meditation _ a dangerous cult with a political agenda. Falun Gong insists it has no political agenda while continuing to agitate publicly for official recognition.

Since July, when the government outlawed the group, more than 35,000 Falun Gong members have been detained when they sought to demonstrate in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Officials say only 150 of that number have been formally charged and the rest have been sent home or to”re-education camps.” Supreme Court says Vermont can’t subsidize religious school students

(RNS) The nation’s highest court has again ruled that a state may help pay for students to attend private schools while denying the same aid to those who attend religious schools.

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday (Dec. 13) turned down an appeal from Vermont in which parents of religious-school students argued that their children’s freedom of religion was violated by denying them the same financial aid given to children who attend secular private schools.

The Vermont Supreme Court had ruled that state tuition payments for children attending religious schools would violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

In early November, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar appeal from parents of religious-school pupils in Maine.

As in the Maine case, the justices’ action set no legal precedent, the Associated Press said. Politically charged battles over vouchers, or public funding of private and parochial schools, still are being fought in several lower courts.

The nation’s highest court has one case dispute on its decision docket that could set precedent. In a Louisiana case, it is expected to say by summer whether religious schools can receive computers and other instructional materials paid for with taxpayer money under a federally funded program.

Vermont’s tuition-reimbursement program, which dates back 130 years, is aimed at high school students whose local school districts do not operate a public high school. State law allows such school districts to pay tuition for students to attend a public or private high school.

Trial of Catholic relief worker in Georgia postponed

(RNS) Prosecutors in the case of an American Catholic Relief Services worker facing charges of vehicular manslaughter have pushed back the trial date until at least the end of January, a defense lawyer said Dec. 10.

The delay angered aid worker Loren Wille’s Iowa family, which had been lobbying for his release from Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, where the fatal crash occurred five months ago.”It is very upsetting. I feel very let down,”said Margaret Wille, Loren Wille’s sister, in a telephone interview from Belle Plaine, Iowa.”We feel like we are being played around with like a toy on a string.” Margaret Wille visited her brother in October in his room in a private Tbilisi hospital where he was treated for crash-related injuries. At the time, she said she was assured by Georgian officials her brother would likely be released after November parliamentary elections.

She said the delay in her brother’s trial date underscores her conviction the charges are politically motivated. Shortly after the crash that claimed the life of Wille’s translator, provincial investigators equated Wille’s predicament with that of Georgy Makharadze, a Georgian diplomat convicted of killing a Washington, D.C., pedestrian while driving drunk in the U.S. capital. Makharadze is currently in a North Carolina prison.

New Georgian investigators assigned to the case this autumn have since denied any such link between Makharadze’s conviction and the charges faced by Wille. They claim Wille was simply negligent in his operation of the vehicle during a rainstorm on a country road in provincial Georgia.

The lawyer hired by CRS to represent the 54-year-old Wille said he was mystified by the delay. “Either you have the evidence or you don’t,”said Ivan Khokhlov, in a telephone interview from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.”This just indicates that the authorities continue to consider this a political case.” Khokhlov said police investigators and prosecutors delayed court proceedings until at least Jan. 21 to give themselves time to consider the findings of an Austrian tire expert hired by Wille’s team. The expert found that the vehicle Wille was driving had a defective front tire but that the accident was caused by a cable or rod in the roadway. Khokhlov said police investigators had previously examined the tire as evidence.

Update: Iraq unwilling but pope still hopes to visit Ur of the Chaldees

(RNS) Despite Iraq’s rejection of a visit by Pope John Paul II for security reasons, the Roman Catholic pontiff has not given up all hope of making a Holy Year pilgrimage to Ur of the Chaldees, church sources said.

The sources indicated the announcement Friday (Dec. 10) that Iraqi authorities were unable to organize the visit because of the”abnormal conditions”caused by the United Nations economic embargo and no-fly zone might not be the last word on the trip.

Reports from Baghdad spoke of a postponement rather than a cancellation.”The Holy Father wanted to make this trip to Ur of the Chaldees, but now the circumstances in that country do not permit it,”the Rev. Georges Cottier, a theologian in the papal household who works closely with the pope, said.”The pope is very resigned to Providence,”Cottier told the Italian news agency Adnkronos.”Evidently the designs of Providence in this moment are otherwise, but the pontiff still has this sincere desire.” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced without comment Friday that Iraqi authorities had informed the Vatican Secretariat of State”that the abnormal conditions that the embargo and no-fly zone, as well as the situation existing in the region, have thrown the country into do not permit adequate organization of a visit by the Holy Father to Ur of the Chaldees in Iraq.” John Paul had hoped to travel to Iraq on the first leg of a pilgrimage that also would take him to biblical sites in Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria in March.

Chaldean Patriarch Raphael Bidawid, speaking in Baghdad, said late Friday the pope’s pilgrimage to the site 240 miles south of Baghdad, believed to be the birthplace of the Old Testament Patriarch Abraham, is”only postponed”for the present.”The Holy Year is long, and we are only at the start of the millennium,”he said in an interview with the Vatican’s missionary news agency, Fides.”We are deeply pained by yet another delay in the visit, but here in Iraq the situation changes from day to day.” Bidawid said the biggest obstacle was the no-fly zone imposed by the United States and Britain to protect Kurds and Shi’ites north of the 36th parallel and south of the 33rd parallel. Ur is located in the southern zone.

The patriarch noted that some months ago U.S. and British planes attacked alleged Iraqi anti-air batteries near Ur.

Iraqi Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Nizar Hamdoun said Iraq would welcome a future papal visit, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday from Baghdad.”We asked the Vatican to postpone the visit because of the present situation in the region and, in particular, the no-fly zone,”he said.

A Vatican advance team, which visited Iraq in late November, had hoped to arrange for the pope to fly directly to Baghdad instead of landing in Amman, the capital of Jordan, and driving to the Iraqi capital, and to travel to Ur by helicopter.

Turkish rally backing Islamic dress is ended by police

(RNS) Turkish police broke up a rally Sunday (Dec. 12) by thousands of people who tried to form a human chain to protest a ban on head scarves and other Islamic religious dress at schools and public offices.

Some 150 people were arrested in the Istanbul demonstration, Turkish media said.

The demonstrators sought to join hands across the Bosporus bridge that links the European and Asian sides of the city. But riot police with dogs moved in to break up the demonstration as armored personnel carriers stood by and police helicopters flew over, the Associated Press reported.

No injuries were reported.

In the eastern city of Erzurum, police arrested 25 university students in a similar demonstration.

Turkey’s officially secular government regards head scarves worn by observant Muslim women as a political statement in favor of Islamic rule. Last week, a high court ruled that a university had the right to bar a female student who wears an Islamic head scarf from classes.

Quote of the day: Mohammed Hamdan, U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official in Saudi Arabia

(RNS)”It is a little bit tricky. When we do ads and things on local television, we are just very careful … Don’t talk about religion. Don’t talk about anything. Just talk about children.” _ Mohammed Hamdan, a U.N. Children’s Find (UNICEF) official in Saudi Arabia, talking about his agency’s effort to sell Christmas cards for fund-raising purposes in Saudi Arabia, where public expressions of any religion other than Islam are illegal.

DEA END RNS