c. 2000 Religion News Service
Indiana Legislators Vote for Posting Ten Commandments
(RNS) Indiana legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill Monday (Feb. 7) permitting schools and other government entities to post the Ten Commandments in their buildings.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 92-7 and sent it to the Senate, which already has approved a similar measure. One of the bills is expected to end up before Gov. Frank O’Bannon for final approval.
O’Bannon has said he would sign such a bill if it was constitutional.
The bill permits the commandments to be posted in schools, courthouses and other government property if they are on display with other documents of historical significance that have helped create or influenced the U.S. legal system, the Associated Press reported.
The legislation is part of a nationwide debate over the display of the commandments in public places. Supporters say America based its legal system on the commandments in the biblical Book of Exodus.
Opponents said during Senate debate of the Indiana legislation that such a law would violate the separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
But Rep. Dean Young, R-Hartford City, said Monday he expects to someday meet God face to face.
“Am I going to say to him or her, `Well, God, I thought it was unconstitutional?” said Young, who voted for the bill.
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union and its national counterpart, the American Civil Liberties Union, oppose the posting of the commandments in public buildings.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that putting the commandments in schools violates First Amendment protections against the government promoting religion.
French Call U.S. `Soft’ on Sects
(RNS) In a report issued Monday (Feb. 7), the French government called on nations worldwide to stop the growth of religious sects, and criticized the United States for offering too much religious freedom to “cults.”
“The confusion maintained across the Atlantic between religious freedom … and prevention, even repression, of punishable sectarian excesses does not make dialogue any easier,” said the report, issued by the Interministerial Mission for the Fight Against Sects.
The government report said U.S. criticism of the status of religious freedom in France was unfair. A U.S. State Department report last year questioned freedom of religion in several European countries, including France.
The U.S. report was critical of the French government’s view of the U.S.-based Church of Scientology. France does not recognize Scientology as a legitimate religion and is considering banning the group.
Though France and the United States have differing opinions on the matter of religious freedom, the issue does not create any real conflict, said a State Department official.
“We’re aware of the French government’s views on religion and it’s clear that we view issues of religious freedom differently,” said the spokesperson. “We deal with the French government on a whole range of issues and we don’t always see eye to eye, but we don’t let that interfere with our relationship.”
Monday’s report identified about 200 sects in France, singling out the Order of the Solar Temple sect as particularly dangerous. Solar Temple adherents were involved in at least three mass suicide incidents in the mid-1990s in Switzerland and Canada.
The report also called for legislation against anti-democratic sects, as well as those advocating racist ideas and violating human rights.
Mainline Protestants in California Urge Defeat of Marriage Initiative
(RNS) Mainline Protestant leaders in Southern California have called for the defeat of Proposition 22, the statewide”Limits on Marriage”ballot initiative that they said amounts to anti-gay legislation.
In a six-paragraph statement, local leaders of the Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ faiths voiced their opposition to the proposal, which would define marriage as only that joining a man and a woman.
The fiercely debated ballot initiative has been backed by Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and some Muslim officials in California.
Set for a March 7 vote, Proposition 22 _ also called the”Knight Initiative,”after its author, state Sen. Pete Knight, R-Palmdale _ is just 14 words long:”Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Supporters say the initiative upholding current law is necessary in the face of a recent Vermont Supreme Court decision paving the way for possible gay marriages in the state. Federal law requires all states to recognize marriages performed in other states.
Speaking at the Episcopal Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles, the liberal church leaders also detailed their support for both gay civil rights and possible homosexual marriages. All of their denominations are divided on the volatile issue of the role of gays in religious and secular life.”From a more positive perspective, one may find reasons to be supportive of the prospective benefits and protections of contracts of marriage or the equivalent of marriage between couples of the same gender, if and when this becomes a possibility,”the statement said.”While we do not speak officially for our denominations, we do believe we speak for many others in making this recommendation”that the ballot initiative be defeated.
Bishop Roy Sano of the United Methodist Church’s California-Pacific Conference said anti-gay marriage activists must not foster”a state that approaches hysteria and hatred”over the divisive issue.
Pentecostal Clergy to Go to Vatican
(RNS) In a dramatic symbol of recent advances in Catholic-Pentecostal relations, a Cleveland religious leader is taking 160 Protestant clergy on a pilgrimage to the Vatican.
Bishop J. Delano Ellis II, president of the Joint College of African-American Bishops and head of the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ, organized the trip to Rome that began Monday (Feb. 7) to help Pentecostal leaders gain a greater understanding of their Christian roots.
“One of the things that keeps us all estranged is that we don’t know each other,” said Ellis, who also is pastor of Pentecostal Church of Christ in Cleveland. “We can be courteous … and respect each other where we are.”
The Rev. Joseph T. Hilinski, ecumenical official of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, said Ellis’ effort is a significant step to improved relations.
“Coming from the Pentecostal spiritual experience, that is quite bold. In world Pentecostalism, there still has been some hesitation in speaking about tradition,” Hilinski said.
Among the byproducts of remarkable advances in ecumenical relations since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s are a new emphasis on scriptural study in the Catholic Church and greater interest in church tradition on the part of Protestants. The more than 1,000-year period between the early church and the Reformation is becoming an increasing source of study and reflection among Protestants.
“The Pentecostal movement … is really considered the great-granddaughter of the Roman Catholic Church,” Ellis said.
He said the “Session 2000” Rome visit, which lasts until Feb. 15, is designed to give Pentecostal leaders a greater understanding of church history and is a sign of their desire to establish relations with the Catholic Church.
Scheduled events include a papal audience and lectures at the Pontifical North American College.
Ellis said there are still Pentecostals who view the Catholic Church as apostate, but others are seeking closer relations. In Cleveland, Ellis serves on the Church and the City Commission, a program initiated by Catholic Bishop Anthony Pilla to improve urban-suburban relations.
“We are buddies,” Ellis said of Pilla.
From the Catholic perspective, Hilinski said, there are concerns, particularly in South America, about Pentecostal groups that vilify Catholicism to win new members. However, he said, the church welcomes the opportunity to have a dialogue with other groups.
“Catholics believe the unity of the church is the work of the Holy Spirit,” Hilinski said.
Pentecostals and Catholics do not have to reach full theological agreement, but they can be friends, Ellis said.
Wisconsin Bible Club Students Sue Over Censored Mural
(RNS) Claiming religious discrimination and violation of their First Amendment rights, two members of a high school Bible club filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 3 against the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin.
Sharon Gernetzke, a senior, and Joseph Bezotte, a sophomore, both members of the Trojans Loving Christ Bible Club at Trempor High School in Kenosha, say the school discriminated against the club by censoring a mural painting.
The students say Trempor High School Principal Chester Pulaski stopped them from painting a cross on a mural that represented the group. The Bible club’s mural was part of a larger one on a school wall reserved for student clubs.
The lawsuit also alleges that Pulaski violated the students’ freedom of speech by refusing to allow them to distribute religious literature on campus during noninstructional times.
The school’s actions violate the federal Equal Access Act, the students claim, which requires public schools to provide the same treatment and opportunity to religious clubs as provided to secular clubs.
“Equal Access means equal treatment,” said the students’ attorney, Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based civil liberties education and legal defense fund. “Schools must treat all clubs equally and provide the same access to all clubs. Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
But Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Michael Johnson said the school has not violated any Equal Access laws and has treated the Bible club fairly.
“The Bible club has been allowed to hold meetings after school and they’ve been meeting regularly,” he said. “We don’t allow religious literature to be distributed during the school day, but they can pass out literature before school or after school. I read a copy of the lawsuit and I’m going to get counsel’s advice to see exactly what we need to do.”
North, South American Catholic Bishops Meet to Talk Solidarity
(RNS) Thirty-five top Roman Catholic bishops in North and South America will gather in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Feb. 21 for a three-day meeting to forge stronger bonds of solidarity between the well-off North and poorer South.
The key agenda at the event, called the Meeting of Catholic Bishops of America, will be reducing Third World debt. Pope John Paul II promoted that cause, called Jubilee 2000, at the inaugural conference of North and South American bishops two years ago in Rome.
“The new idea is that the bishops from North and South can learn … from each other,” said Monsignor Peter Shonenbach, general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a telephone interview from Ottawa.
“Bishops from the big, rich countries of Canada and the U.S. don’t just tell the Latin American bishops that all their countries need is money. It’s also felt that the spiritual values of Latin America may help us in our materialism.”
However, the bishops will discuss more effective ways that industrialized countries can promote justice by doing more to relieve the debt of Third World countries, Shonenbach said. “You can’t really cancel debt holus-bolus without looking at the implications.”
The meeting will also focus, to a lesser extent, on religious and social issues in Canada and Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, including a presentation on Canada’s native Indians, many of whom are Catholic.
Most of the 35 bishops attending the meeting are presidents of their episcopal conferences but other prominent church leaders, such as Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, also will attend.
Latin America is widely considered the most intensely Roman Catholic region in the world. In most countries, more than 80 percent of the population is Catholic. Brazil has the largest concentration of Catholics in the world.
Airport Terminal Not Ready for Pope
(RNS) An Israel Ben Gurion Airport terminal that was supposed to absorb tens of thousands of millennial pilgrims will apparently not be ready in time for Pope John Paul II’s visit here next month, Airport Authority officials have told reporters.
Officials said the terminal, which is to be complete by summer, was not originally intended to handle the flood of some 50,000 pilgrims who are expected to accompany the papal tour. It is still not clear exactly when the accompanying pilgrims, including a group of young Catholics, will arrive, on what airlines they will fly, or how their mass entry into the country will be processed by the Israeli authorities.
Quote of the Day: Canadian Anglican Archbishop Michael Peers
(RNS)“Bishops are not intercontinental ballistic missiles, manufactured on one continent and fired into another as an act of aggression.”
_ Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, criticizing the irregular consecrations of two American priests as bishops by the Anglican primates of Rwanda and Southeast Asia on Jan. 29 in Singapore.
DEA END RNS
