c. 2000 Religion News Service
Teens Go Hungry to Fight Hunger
(RNS) More than half a million teen-agers across the country will go without food for more than a day in a nationwide effort to raise awareness about hunger later this month.
The World Vision 30 Hour Famine, now in its ninth year, kicks off Feb. 25 with more than 600,000 teens expected to participate.
“The theme for this year’s 30 Hour Famine is `Feed the Need,”’ said Debbie Diederich, director of the project. “Each year the number of youth and teen participants grows significantly. We all benefit from their commitment, and these kids should be acknowledged as an example for their peers.”
Youth groups, along with schools, churches, families and civic organizations, will coordinate food drives and participate in community service projects such as working in soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
Money raised from the event will go toward emergency relief projects in countries around the world, including Peru, the United States and Kenya. Last year, participating teen-agers raised $8 million for the project.
House Panel Agrees to `Charitable Choice’ Literacy Programs
(RNS) In the latest of a string of “charitable choice” programs, which allow religious groups to receive federal funding for delivering social services, a bill approved Wednesday (Feb. 16) by a House panel will no longer exclude religious groups from participating in a federally funded literacy program.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee approved changes to the $500 million Even Start family literacy program, allowing religious groups to help provide tutoring to preschoolers and literacy and job training to their parents. The program will also allow religious groups to display religious images and permit them to make hiring decisions based on religion.
“Trying to totally separate the faith of a society from any form of influence is ridiculous,” said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., sponsor of the changes to the bill. He said religious groups often already have the community resources needed to administer social programs.
But the legislation drew criticism from some who worried that involving religious groups in such programs gave them greater influence over children. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he thought the legislation jeopardized government safeguards for the separation of church and state.
“The courts have never allowed churches to get tax dollars to run educational programs,” said Lynn. “It is particularly appalling that a congressional committee thinks it is OK to fund programs that practice religious discrimination in hiring.”
David and Goliath: No Big Hero
(RNS) An Israeli neurologist says he knows the real reason the biblical King David triumphed over the Philistine giant Goliath, and it’s no giant act of heroism.
“It was a miracle that such a small and young shepherd could defeat Goliath in battle,” said Professor Vladimir Berginer on Thursday (Feb. 17). “But now I have found an explanation for it.”
Goliath _ who was about 10 feet tall, according to the Old Testament _ suffered from a pituitary gland disease known as acromegaly, said Berginer. He said he reached his conclusion after years of analyzing the biblical story.
“This is the only disease where sufferers can grow to such a height,” Berginer said.
He said an advanced form of the disease impaired Goliath’s vision so that the giant could not see David clearly, making it easy for David to surprise Goliath with a stone thrown to the head.
“I am sure that from time to time, Goliath did not see David because in the Bible it was written a few times that Goliath was very slow, but David ran,” said Berginer.
Berginer said the stone thrown by David damaged Goliath’s skull but was not his actual cause of death. Once Goliath was knocked unconscious, David was able to kill him with a sword.
Vatican Secretary of State Urges Return of Pinochet to Chile
(RNS) Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, said Thursday (Feb. 17) the Holy See has done everything possible to persuade British authorities to let former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet return to Chile.
The cardinal, who served as the Vatican’s envoy to Chile in the 1980s, said Pinochet’s is a “human and juridical case that concerns both the government of Chile and the Holy See.”
Speaking after a meeting at the Vatican with outgoing Chilean President Eduardo Frei, Sodano said Pinochet “has the right to return to Chile, to his homeland.”
Frei also had an audience of about 15 minutes with Pope John Paul II, who visited Chile in 1987. But he said they did not discuss the controversy over Pinochet, who has been held under house arrest in England for 16 months while first Spain and later Belgium, France and Switzerland sought his extradition to face charges of violating the human rights of their citizens.
Sodano, who is the Vatican’s top diplomat and ranks No. 2 behind the pope in the church hierarchy, said the Vatican has done everything “in accordance with our possibilities” to hasten Pinochet’s release.
“And we believe in the good sense of the British government, which has the key to the solution,” he said.
Sodano said Europe and Rome appreciate the efforts of Pinochet’s successors to carry forward a process of reconciliation in Chile. He said the Vatican had sought help for Pinochet from many countries, like South Africa, who “have lived through the same experience.”
Theologian Carl F.H. Henry Honored
(RNS) The Christian Council of Colleges and Universities has named Carl F.H. Henry the recipient of its annual Mark O. Hatfield Leadership Award, awarded to a journalist “who can bring a biblical perspective to the issues of the day.”
“Few people in the 20th century have done more to articulate the importance of a coherent Christian world and life view than Carl F.H. Henry,” said David S. Dockery, president of Union University, who presented the award to Henry.
Henry earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Wheaton College before completing a master of divinity degree and a theology degree at Northern Baptist Seminary. He earned a doctoral degree in philosophy at Boston University.
He served as a professor and then dean of the Fuller Theological Seminary, then became founding editor of Christianity Today. An author and editor, Henry has also served as president of the American Theological Society and the Evangelical Theological Society.
Vatican Rejects Israeli Protest Over Agreement Signed With the PLO
(RNS) The Vatican has rejected an Israeli charge that an agreement signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization interferes with Israeli-PLO peace talks.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the accord signed Tuesday (Feb. 15) “has nothing to do with the peace process as such but regulates the presence and activity of the Catholic Church in the territories of the Palestinian Authority.”
Navarro-Valls issued the statement after Eyton Bentsur, secretary general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, summoned the Vatican’s envoy, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, to the ministry in Jerusalem to hear a formal protest.
The Foreign Ministry also issued a communique expressing “deep irritation” over the agreement’s call for an internationally guaranteed “special statute” for Jerusalem to safeguard free access for Jews, Christians and Muslims and preserve the status quo. It said this represents “interference” in the peace talks.
“This accord only repeats what has been established by the pertinent United Nations institutions and by recent agreements between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities,” Navarro-Valls said. “As regards the city of Jerusalem, the accord does not enter into territorial questions or questions of sovereignty regarding the two interested parties, Israeli and Palestinian.
“The text signed this morning in the Vatican refers to the universal religious and cultural dimension of the most sacred parts of the city, recognized by the international community,” he said.
The dispute erupted only weeks before Pope John Paul II’s scheduled visit to the Holy Land March 20-26, but Israeli officials said it would have no effect on the pope’s spiritual pilgrimage.
Episcopal Dioceses Make History in Choosing African-American Bishops
(RNS) Two Episcopal dioceses have made history in choosing new leaders _ one the first black bishop in the South, and the other the first black bishop in the 164-year history of the Michigan diocese.
The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina elected the Rev. Michael B. Curry, 46, a Baltimore minister, to preside over the 45,000-member diocese. Chosen on Feb. 11 from a field of six candidates during the diocese’s 184th annual convention in Pinehurst, N.C., Curry will succeed the retiring Bishop Robert Johnson Jr.
Curry has served as rector of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Baltimore since 1988, and previously served as rector at St. Simon of Cyrene Episcopal Church Lincoln Heights in Cincinnati as well as St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.
He received a master of divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School in 1978 after earning a bachelor’s degree from Hobart College in 1975. He has also studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, Wake Forest University, the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary’s Seminary, and the Institute of Christian-Jewish Studies.
The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan consecrated on Feb. 5 the Rev. Wendell Gibbs, 45, as the new leader of its 97 congregations. Gibbs, who succeeds Bishop R. Stewart Wood Jr., is the first black bishop in the history of the diocese.
Gibbs has served as rector of St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Cincinnati since 1993. Previously he served as rector of a four-point parish in the state of New York, and as an associate rector at Grace Church in Utica, N.Y.
He was pastor of Emmanuel Church in Rockford, Ill., for two years after graduating in 1987 with a master of divinity degree from Seabury-Western Seminary in Evanston, Ill. Gibbs earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Towson State University in 1977.
Quote of the Day: Ted Turner, Time Warner vice chairman
(RNS) “Almost every religion talks about a savior coming. When you look in the mirror in the morning, when you’re putting on your lipstick or shaving, you’re looking at the savior. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.”
_ Time Warner Vice Chairman Ted Turner in an interview in the Thursday (Feb. 17) edition of USA Today.
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