c. 2000 Religion News Service
Campus Crusade President Bill Bright Has Cancer, Pulmonary Fibrosis
(RNS) Campus Crusade for Christ President Bill Bright is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer.
Bright, 79, underwent medical testing at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and received confirmation from his doctor he has pulmonary fibrosis of the lung. His wife, Vonette, announced her husband’s condition in a letter to Campus Crusade staff on Oct. 27, the ministry announced.
Earlier in the month, Bill Bright told his staff of his cancer condition and of the initial diagnosis of the lung disease.
He has been treated for four years for prostate cancer and doctors think he developed pulmonary fibrosis during that time. Pulmonary fibrosis is a buildup of scar tissue in the lung that results in the tissue permanently losing its ability to transport oxygen. The average life expectancy for those suffering from the condition is three to five years and there is no known cure.
Bright plans to turn over the presidency of Campus Crusade on Aug. 1, 2001 and continue as chairman of the board of directors.
In recent weeks he has traveled to Amsterdam, San Francisco and Philadelphia, but he plans to slow down soon.
“I’m here to do what God still has for me to do on this Earth and whenever that is finished, I am ready to be with him in heaven,” Bright told his staff. “There is still so much work to be done.”
Stephen Douglass, executive vice president of Campus Crusade, who was chosen in July as Bright’s successor, said: “We are saddened to learn of Dr. Bright’s recent diagnosis, but are certain that he will face this obstacle with the grace, courage and dignity that he has used to lead this ministry for nearly 50 years.”
Bill Bright, the winner of the 1996 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, and Vonette Bright co-founded Campus Crusade in 1951. It began as a ministry to college students, but now also includes more than 60 ministries involving families, inner cities, athletes, prisons, executives and the military.
NGOs Urge Clinton to `Deal With Legacy’ of Vietnam War
(RNS) Praising the “forward-looking spirit” of President Clinton’s upcoming visit to Vietnam, 20 American non-governmental organizations have sent the him a letter asking him to “deal with the legacy” of the Vietnam War during his visit.
“With the eyes of the world upon you, even a short statement of reconciliation on your part will have far-reaching positive impacts in Vietnamese society,” said the letter, signed by leaders from 20 groups, including the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, the Mennonite Central Committee and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
“To `close the past and open the future,’ as the Vietnamese say, one must first address the past and deal with the legacy of the war. Your visit offers an unparalleled opportunity to achieve this.”
The group called on Clinton to recognize Washington’s shared “burden of responsibility” for the legacies of the Vietnam War “since, for the most part, we have done little now to assist in Vietnam’s recovery.”
“One small yet significant step you could take would be to acknowledge the unintended suffering caused in both of our countries by the use of toxins such as Agent Orange during the war,” the group wrote.
“We ask that you pledge your cooperation with Vietnam in finding joint solutions to the legacies of war,” the letter added.
The letter also asked Clinton to take other steps such as canceling or reprogramming Vietnam’s debt to the United States to “indicate America’s seriousness in building a more equitable relationship with a former enemy,” and allocating flood relief to Vietnam “far exceeding the $350,000 the U.S. has contributed so far.”
The groups also asked Clinton to follow up on a $1.7 million donation to Vietnam for land mine removal.
“We urge you to follow up with a continuing commitment to help Vietnam clean up the massive amount of war explosives that still kill and maim children and rural families every week throughout Vietnam,” read the letter.
The groups told Clinton that when discussing Vietnam’s human rights record, “what you say is often less important than how you say it” in Vietnam.
“Given the history of relations between our two countries, we believe it would be counterproductive to take a heavy-handed, `America knows best’ approach to questions of human rights in Vietnam,” the group wrote.
Poll: American Jews Accept Intermarriage
(RNS) A majority of American Jews do not oppose marriages between Jews and non-Jews, a national survey by the American Jewish Committee has concluded.
Such interfaith marriages may account for as much as 50 percent of Jewish marriages in recent years, some estimates suggest, according to The New York Times.
Forty percent of respondents to the 2000 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion _ a telephone survey of 1,010 Jews _ said they were neutral about interfaith marriages, and 16 percent said such unions were positive.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they did not agree with the statement, “If would pain me if my child married a gentile,” while an even greater number _ 80 percent _ said they agreed that “intermarriage is inevitable in an open society.”
Thirty percent said they would be disappointed by an interfaith marriage in which the non-Jewish partner did not adopt Judaism.
Though 69 percent of respondents said Jews were obligated “to urge Jews to marry Jews,” just 12 percent of all respondents said they strongly disapproved of interfaith marriages.
A majority _ 64 percent _ of the roughly 100 Orthodox Jews surveyed expressed strong disapproval of marriages between Jews and non-Jews. That number dropped to 15 percent among the estimated 300 Conservative Jews surveyed, 3 percent among the estimated 300 Reform Jews surveyed, and 2 percent among the estimated 20 people who identified themselves as “just Jewish.”
Eighty percent of Orthodox Jews said they believed rabbis should not officiate at interfaith marriages, though fewer than 20 percent of other respondents held the same opinion.
Fifty percent of all respondents said they believed that opposing marriages between Jews and non-Jews is racist, but a nearly equal number _ 47 percent _ did not agree.
“I think in the wake of widespread intermarriage, you see a shift in attitudes,” David Singer, research director for the American Jewish Committee, told the Times. “The taboo is broken. The result is that you see a process of accommodation coming to the fore.”
The AJC opposes intermarriage. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.
Indian Christian Leaders Ask Probe of Hindu Fundamentalists
(RNS) Christian church leaders in India are asking the Indian government to investigate any link between Hindu fundamentalist groups and anti-Christian attacks across India with the “same zeal” it has shown toward Muslim involvement in the attacks.
Authorities have created “too much publicity” in blaming the Muslim group Deendar Anjuman for dozens of anti-Christian bomb attacks in southern India earlier this year while doing little to determine whether Hindu fundamentalist groups linked to the coalition government’s main partner are responsible for some anti-Christian violence, one church official told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service.
“There is a strong perception in the church that the government has not shown the same zeal it has shown in pursuing the Anjuman case in investigating most of the attacks in Gujarat and northern states,” said Donald D’Souza, deputy secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in India.
Indian police have claimed the bomb attacks were carried out by Anjuman in order to “discredit” Hindu groups, who many Christians suspect are responsible for a number of anti-Christian attacks.
Hindu groups deny the charges and have demanded an apology from Christians, Ecumenical News reported.
Christians in India have suffered some 50 attacks this year, and more than 300 attacks since 1998.
Patriarch Pleads for Peace, Palestinian Rights
(RNS) Jerusalem’s Latin (Catholic) Patriarch Michel Sabbah made a plea for Palestinian rights and an end to the current round of Israeli-Palestinian violence in a homily before Vatican worshippers Tuesday (Oct. 31).
Sabbah, a native of the city of Nazareth, presided over a millennium service honoring Mary, the mother of Jesus.
“In these difficult days, in the midst of the actual conflict, we say that the Palestinian people should regain their freedom and justice, which are part of their legitimate rights. The Israeli people should also have their justice and security,” said Sabbah. “Both of them are linked together. The peace of one of them is the peace of the other. And the deprivation of peace or justice to one of them is a deprivation of peace and justice for the other.”
Howard Courtney, Foursquare Gospel Leader, Dead at 88
(RNS) The Rev. Howard P. Courtney, a patriarch of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, died Sunday (Oct. 29) after a lengthy illness, the Los Angeles-based church announced.
Courtney, 88, of Glendale, Calif., served as general supervisor of the denomination in the 1940s and from 1953 to 1974. He was vice president for 30 years, beginning in 1950.
Courtney also was known for his contribution to the modern Pentecostal movement across the globe. He was a leader of the Pentecostal World Conference and the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America and represented the Foursquare denomination in the National Association of Evangelicals and other interdenominational agencies.
“Dr. Courtney was one of the greatest personalities and preachers of our Foursquare family,” said ICFG President Paul Risser. “The contribution he made to our church and the body of Christ at large was beyond measure. We owe so much of our growth and success to him.”
When the denomination held its convention in May, Risser announced the formation of a Foursquare Hall of Honor and Courtney was inducted as one of its original members.
The denomination has 3.3 million members worldwide, including more than 238,000 in the United States.
Paul Nelson, Director of Worship of ELCA, Dead at 49
(RNS) The Rev. Paul R. Nelson, director for worship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died Saturday (Oct. 28) after a lengthy illness, the church announced.
Nelson, 49, had held the post since 1993 and was instrumental in the development of worship resources specific to particular ethnic and racial groups, such as the Spanish-language hymnal “Libro de Liturgia y Cantico” (“Book of Liturgy and Song”) and the African-American hymnal “This Far By Faith.”
He also directed planning for services celebrating the full communion of the ELCA with Reformed and Moravian denominations.
“Paul Nelson served our church with grace, style and a deep passion for worship,” said the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, executive director of the ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries. “I will remember his humility, humor and vast knowledge of the church and worship.”
Nelson, a native of Fargo, N.D., previously served as a pastor in churches in Indiana and Wisconsin. He contributed scholarly articles to books and journals on theology and liturgy and was a speaker and lecturer at liturgy seminars and church conferences.
Quote of the Day: Retired Sen. Robert Stafford, R-Vt.
(RNS) “Love is one of the great forces in our society and especially in our state of Vermont. Even if a same-sex couple unites in love, what harm does that do to anybody or any society?”
_ Retired Sen. Robert Stafford, R-Vt., calling for civility in the wake of discontent from critics of a state law approved earlier this year that permits civil unions for homosexual couples. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
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