c. 2000 Religion News Service
Christian-Muslim Violence Erupts in Nigeria, Indonesia
(RNS) Violence between Muslims and Christians has erupted in Nigeria and Indonesia again, leaving more than a dozen people dead.
In Nigeria, where religious violence has plagued the country for months, reports said a dozen people were killed in the northern city of Kaduna. Muslims and Christians have been fighting since February after the Muslim majority in the north announced it wanted to introduce Islamic Sharia laws.
The laws would impose Islamic codes on both the Christian minority and the Muslim majority, and Christians in the north say it would reduce them to second-class citizens. Thousands of people have been killed in the violence.
Witnesses on Tuesday (May 23) said the city had become a ghost town because of the violence and heavy military presence, while the government urged a return to calm, the Associated Press reported.
Government officials have tried to downplay the role of religion in the violence, saying the latest outbreak was caused by a scuffle between youths.
“It had nothing to do with religion,” said Information Minister Jerry Gana. “Some youths had some disagreement, but security forces have contained the situation.”
On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, at least three people were killed in the simmering religious unrest that has claimed thousands of lives in the past year.
According to reports, a police officer and two civilians were killed in the town of Poso, about 1,025 miles northeast of the capital of Jakarta. It was the second riot on the island in as many months.
The island lies near the Moluccas islands, where 26 people were killed last week in religious violence. The town of Poso is roughly evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
Muslim Leaders Testify for Bill to Ban `Secret Evidence’
(RNS) The House Judiciary Committee held hearings Tuesday (May 23) on a bill that would ban the use of “secret evidence” to detain prisoners without formally charging them, a bill that has been named a top priority by the American Muslim community.
As part of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, government investigators were given the power to detain suspects without ever formally charging them or notifying suspects or their lawyers of the charges if the evidence were deemed a threat to national security.
Muslim leaders say the law disproportionately targets Arab-Americans and Muslims, and civil libertarians say the law violates the constitutional right to due process. About 20 people are being held in secret evidence cases, and most of them are Muslim.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., and Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., would repeal the section of the 1996 law dealing with secret evidence.
“Secret evidence is a national embarrassment, and we need to take action,” Bonior said in testimony prepared for the committee. “The right to confront your accuser, to hear the evidence against you, and to secure a speedy trial are fundamental tenets of the American justice system.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is leading the charge against the secret evidence law, also questioned a witness who was testifying to keep the law intact. Steve Emerson, whom CAIR calls an “Islamophobe,” initially said Muslim terrorists were behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, and said Islam contains “genocide … as part of its religious doctrine.”
“The use of secret evidence makes American Muslims think twice before speaking out, engaging in politics, or otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights,” said a CAIR statement.
Christian Leaders Criticize Procter & Gamble for Dropping `Dr. Laura’
(RNS) Christian leaders have criticized Procter & Gamble for its decision to drop sponsorship of an upcoming television show featuring controversial talk-show host “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell and American Family Association President Don Wildmon said they considered the company’s decision an act of betrayal after they worked to dispel rumors that Procter & Gamble had ties to satanism.
Procter & Gamble dropped its support under pressure from gay activists who believe Schlessinger’s conservative views are anti-gay, reported Charisma News Service, a service offered by Charisma magazine.
“We’ve chosen not to be involved with a show that will require time and resources to deal with this kind of controversy,” a company spokesman said. “As we have studied it more closely, we’ve decided it isn’t possible to separate the broad range of Dr. Laura’s opinions from the specific (responsible parenting) focus of this program. … Stepping back, today there are lots of programming options, and we’ve decided there are better ones for us.”
Falwell, the former Moral Majority leader who helped try to squash satanist rumors regarding the company, was among those condemning the change.
“The television airwaves are rapidly embracing indoctrination, as honest debate is apparently no longer important,” said Falwell. “And P&G is allowing this ban on honest debate to occur. I would have thought _ after all they’ve been through _ they would have known better.”
Wildmon, who also worked to dispel the rumor, said: “Now this company that once called on conservative ministries for help has quickly caved to the pressure of radical homosexual-rights advocates and turned its back on a woman who believes that America needs to return to the moral principles on which (it) was founded.”
The satanist rumor first was heard in the 1960s, alleging that the Procter & Gamble logo was a satanic symbol and that the company was run by satanists. The company denied the rumor, but the urban legend has continued to resurface.
In the last two decades, Procter & Gamble has received 200,000 complaints about possible connections to satanism.
Paramount has said it plans to go ahead with the TV series that is scheduled to begin this fall.
United Methodist Congregation Sues Former Pastor
(RNS) A United Methodist church in Maryland has sued its former pastor, claiming that he took assets and left behind unpaid bills when he moved his megachurch out of the denomination.
The suit against the Rev. C. Anthony Muse, as well as former trustees and staff of the Resurrection Prayer Worship Center of the United Methodist Church, was announced Thursday (May 18) by Bishop Felton Edwin May, leader of the denomination’s Baltimore-Washington Conference.
“The congregation took this action with deep regret after many months of trying to obtain information from Rev. Muse and his followers about the finances of the church prior to his leaving,” May said in a statement. “He left behind massive liabilities and a pile of unpaid bills. The current trustees have reason to believe he took assets with him that belong to the congregation.”
Muse resigned as pastor of the church and as a clergyman of the denomination last November. The conference said he left behind an unfinished building with a $6 million indebtedness and $100,000 in other unpaid bills.
Muse told Religion News Service that he disputes the amount of unpaid bills as well as other charges in the lawsuit.
“This, in my opinion, is their attempt to use me as an example of what will happen to other pastors who are also thinking about doing the same thing,” he said, referring to other congregations that might leave the denomination.
He said the suit alleges that his congregation took choir robes, a piano and hymnbooks from the church in Brandywine, Md. Muse said those charges are false and that his congregation recently purchased choir robes and a piano. He said the congregation has a contemporary worship style and didn’t use hymnals.
“If I’m not going to be Methodist anymore, what am I going to steal hymnbooks for?” he asked.
He said his congregation has about 4,000 members and is meeting in a renovated grocery store building in Oxon Hill, Md., by having four services each Sunday.
In a similar matter, there has been a dispute between a now-independent megachurch that left the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In that case, a judge has ruled that the Rev. John A. Cherry and his From the Heart Church Ministries can temporarily keep assets, including two sanctuaries in Clinton and Temple Hills, Md.
Muse said, unlike Cherry, he moved his congregation out of the sanctuary where it met when it was affiliated with a denomination.
“Had I stayed there, they would have sued me for staying,” said Muse. “I left and they sue me for leaving. What are you going to do?”
May said the 300 members who remain at Resurrection Prayer Worship Center are under “great financial strain that is not their fault” and the suit was necessary to help them.
“The purpose of this legal action is to help the congregation get back what belongs to them,” May said.
Church of Scotland Rejects Raising Age Limit
(RNS) The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in a narrow 269 to 257 vote, has rejected a proposal to raise the age limit for accepting candidates for ordination to the ministry from the present 45 to 50.
The assembly also rejected a separate but related proposal to allow ministers who so wished to stay in their posts until they were 70. The church currently has a compulsory retirement age of 65.
The Rev. Alan Macgregor of Banff, Scotland, a supporter of the proposals, said that throughout the Western world people were living longer and in general staying healthy and active longer. Not letting anyone over 45 become a candidate for ordination, he said, was “poor stewardship” of the church’s God-given human resources.
He said the proposal would also “provide a workable and sustainable solution to the twin problems of fewer candidates and an increased number of ministerial vacancies.”
But the proposals were opposed by the denomination’s Board of Ministry, whose convener, the Rev. George Whyte, argued that ministers needed between five and 10 years after being called to their first charge to learn how to sustain the ministry, and added that each minister cost about $39,000 to train.
The number of vacant congregations has risen from 89 in 1994 to 151 at the end of April this year, according to figures presented to this year’s assembly. Last year only 17 of 47 applicants were accepted for training for the full-time ministry.
Quote of the Day: Jack Rosen, president, and Phil Baum, executive director, of the American Jewish Congress.
(RNS) “Surely, the Jewish world suffers from too little prayer, not too much.”
_ Rosen and Baum in a joint statement praising a decision by Israel’s Supreme Court to allow women to pray from the Torah at the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem. Jewish rules had prohibited women from praying at the wall and imposed penalties for doing so.
DEA END RNS
