c. 2000 Religion News Service

White House spokesman admits”apology is in order”for Baptist comment

(RNS) White House spokesman Joe Lockhart acknowledged Wednesday (Jan. 5) that”an apology is in order”after he made remarks linking the Southern Baptist Convention’s evangelistic efforts to organizations that”perpetuate ancient religious hatred.””I think an apology is in order, and I’ve already made it,”he said at a press briefing.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., called for a public apology by Lockhart in an interview Tuesday (Jan. 4) with Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news service.

Lott called Lockhart’s comments a”bad situation. It shows a shocking insensitivity to people of faith and the very least the president should do is demand that his press secretary publicly apologize to the Southern Baptists for making these remarks.” Lott, a Southern Baptist, is a member of Columbia Baptist Church in Fairfax, Va.

In response to a question at a Wednesday press briefing about Lott’s comments, Lockhart reiterated how he explained to reporters who called him about the issue last month that he”made a generalized statement that is missing some conditional words.””I think I made very clear, that certainly my intentions were not to create the impression that was created, and even more, didn’t want to create the impression that this was the president’s belief, because it’s certainly not his, and it’s not mine,”Lockhart continued.”But it was an unfortunate use of language that created the impression, and for that I took responsibility.” The Republican senator from Mississippi also criticized the president for not defending his own denomination.”Bill Clinton is supposedly a Southern Baptist and he knows very well that our missionary work is scriptural,”he added.”We are doing exactly what Jesus and his disciples did. When Southern Baptists minister, the effort is to help people by spreading the gospel message.” Lockhart’s original comments during a Dec. 16 press briefing also prompted Reps. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., and J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., to declare that Clinton should demand Lockhart’s resignation.

Lockhart added Wednesday that he took the letter from Watts”seriously”and contacted Watts’ office to offer an explanation.

The Southern Baptist Convention has been criticized in other circles, including by some Chicago religious leaders, for its efforts to evangelize non-Christians, particularly Muslims, Jews and Hindus.

Evangelist Billy Graham, also a Southern Baptist, was asked in a Jan. 2 interview about his feelings about the denomination’s conversion efforts.

Graham said he is”loyal”to the denomination, yet added:”But I have never targeted Muslims. I have never targeted Jews. I believe that we should declare the fact that God loves you, God’s willing to forgive you, God can change you, and Christ and his kingdom is open to anybody who repents and by faith receives him as lord and savior.”

Sixpence None the Richer, Velasquez among Grammy nominees

(RNS) Christian musicians Sixpence None the Richer and Jaci Velasquez have been nominated in best pop and best Latin pop performance categories for the upcoming Grammy Awards.”Kiss Me,”a song by the Sixpence None the Richer band, was nominated for Best Pop Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal.”Llegar A Ti,”a song by Velasquez, was nominated for Best Latin Pop Performance. An English version of the song, titled”Love Will Find You,”is featured in the motion picture soundtrack for”Music of the Heart.” The inspirational song”When You Believe,”sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, on the Prince of Egypt movie soundtrack was nominated in the category of Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

The winners of the Grammy Awards will be announced on Feb. 23 on CBS.

Nominees in the six categories relating to gospel music are:

Best Rock Gospel Album:”Underdog,”by Audio Adrenaline;”Choose Life,”by Big Tent Revival;”I Can See Clearly Now,”by Gospel Gangstaz;”Pray”by Rebecca St. James; and”Time”by Third Day.

Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album:”Anointed,”by Anointed;”Speechless,”by Steven Curtis Chapman;”The Gift of Christmas,”by Andrae Crouch;”Gloryland,”by The Dukes of Dixieland; and”The Prince of Egypt _ Nashville,”by various artists.

Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album:”A Glen Campbell Christmas,”by Glen Campbell;”Roy Clark Sings & Plays Gospel Greats,”by Roy Clark;”Kennedy Center Homecoming,”by Bill & Gloria Gaither and their Homecoming Friends;”Winding Through Life,”by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver; and”The Final Sessions,”by J.D. Sumner & the Stamps Quartet.

Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album:”Christmas with Shirley Caesar,”by Shirley Caesar;”Music in the Air,”by the Dixie Hummingbirds;”God Can & God Will”by Dottie Peoples;”Uncensored,”by Pop Winans & The Winanaires; and”Live in Detroit II,”by Vickie Winans.

Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album:”Mountain HighâÂ?¦Valley Low,”by Yolanda Adams;”Many Different Roads,”by Gladys Knight;”So Cool,”by Take 6;”We Got Next,”by Winans Phase 2; and”His Gift,”by CeCe Winans.

Best Gospel Choir or Chorus Album:”Any Day,”by Victory in Praise Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir, John P. Kee, choir director;”Emmanuel (God With Us), by Mississippi Mass Choir, David R. Curry, Jerry Smith and Dorcus Thigpen, choir directors;”High & Lifted Up”by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Carol Cymbala, choir director;”Hosanna! And They Sang the Word,”by Wilmington Chester Mass Choir, Derrick Clements, Claudine”Dee”King and Ernie Saunders, choir directors;”Let’s Make It Better,”by Inner City, Rev. John P. Kee, choir director.

Mormon Temple Means Constitutionality Lawsuit in Boston Suburb

(RNS) Nearly a year after residents of a suburban Boston neighborhood first filed a lawsuit in protest of a Mormon temple being constructed in their area, a federal appeals court has heard their arguments.

At issue is a Massachusetts zoning law, the Dover Amendment, which largely exempts religious institutions from zoning restrictions.

Attorneys for the residents of the upscale Belmont neighborhood say that the law violates the Constitution by giving an unfair advantage to religious groups.”If an atheist group wanted to build the same thing the Mormons wanted to, they couldn’t do it,”Mark White, an attorney for the three residents who filed the suit, told the Associated Press on Monday (Jan. 3) after the arguments.

Neighbors whose property abuts the site say the 69,000-square-foot building, which will feature a 139-foot-tall steeple, will tower over the quiet suburb.”This temple building is not only much larger than the houses around it, but it also sits on the highest point in town,”said Charles Counselman, one of the residents.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) defends its ongoing construction of the temple, even as the neighbors demand the structure, 80 percent complete, be torn down.

The church maintains that most Mormons only attend a temple ceremony _ including marriage, baptism, and”endowment,”in which members accept the church’s religious doctrines _ once in their lives.

Last June, a federal judge denied the neighbors’ claims, prompting them to file the appeal. No immediate decision is expected in the appeal.

The Roman Catholic church, American Jewish Congress, and several Protestant churches filed briefs in support of the Mormon church’s position.

Pope appeals for an end to”bloody”conflict in the Moluccas

(RNS) -Pope John Paul II appealed today for an end to the”bloody”ethnic and religious conflict between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas.

Addressing some 7,000 pilgrims who attended his first general audience of the year 2000, John Paul said he hoped the Christmas message of peace”might resonate with intensity in places tried by calamity or by war.” The pope said he was thinking particularly of the Moluccas _ the Indonesian province of Ambon _”where conflict of an ethnic and religious character, which has afflicted these Indonesian islands for some time, has again broken out in bloody clashes in recent weeks.” Indonesia has dispatched soldiers to the former Spice Islands in the Malay Archipelago to quell the clashes that reportedly claimed more than 700 lives in just over a week and prompted thousands of people to take shelter in public buildings and police and military camps.

John Paul said he prayed that the Christmas message might”break the chain of vendettas, heal the wounds of hate and _ removing once and for all the temptation to violence _ spur Christians and Muslims to recognize themselves as members of a single human family and to rebuild between them harmonious relations in justice and pardon.”

Domino’s Pizza Allows Beards Worn by Staff for Religious Reasons

(RNS) Domino’s Pizza Inc., has changed its policy forbidding employees from wearing beards as part of a Jan. 4 settlement with a Sikh man who said religious tenets prohibited him from shaving.

Prabhjot S. Kohli, of Catonsville, Md., sued the pizza company in 1988, claiming a franchise refused to hire him as a manager trainee in Baltimore because he would not shave his beard. Kohli said to do so would violate the religious tenets of Sikhism, a religion that originated in northern India.

Under the new appearance standard policy adopted by Domino’s, new employees restricted from shaving by”a tenet of their bona fide religious beliefs”must wear a beard net”or other beard restraint acceptable to the company.” Kohli, an employee with the Maryland State Highway Administration, received $5,000 in legal fees in the settlement agreement, The Washington Post reported. Also under terms of the agreement, Maryland’s Human Relations Commission dropped on Jan. 3 religious discrimination charges it filed against Domino’s in 1990 in connection with the case.

Spanish-language Bible tops 1 million in sales

(RNS) Less than a year after its launch, the Nueva Version Internacional (NVI) _ a Spanish-language Bible produced by the International Bible Society (IBS) _ has topped the 1 million mark in sales in the United States and Latin America.”The NVI activity this first year has soared beyond our greatest expectations,”said Dean Merrill, vice president for IBS-U.S. Publishing, which owns the copyright to NVI.”We had no idea that so many pastors, church members and evangelistic organizations would embrace it so readily, both in the U.S. and throughout Latin America.” Spanish follows Chinese and English as the world’s third most-spoken language. The United States has the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, with nearly 30 million Hispanics. Almost half of that number speak both Spanish and English.

An official ceremony celebrating the release of the NVI was held in Los Angeles in February 1999. Similar ceremonies are planned for the year 2000 in other cities throughout the United States, including Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and Albuquerque.

Quote of the Day: Rev. Don Connell of Weatherford, Texas

(RNS)”The question is, why gold teeth? Why not perfect health? We just feel God is touching and saying, `Have a little gold.’ It’s a sign.” The Rev. Don Connell, pastor of New Life Community Church in Weatherford, Texas, where dozens of churchgoers have reported that gold teeth, bridges, plates and crowns have appeared in their mouths after attending a revival at his church. He was quoted in the Tuesday (Jan. 4) edition of USA Today.

DEA END RNS