c. 2000 Religion News Service

Retired Bishop Signs on as Sex Columnist

(RNS) Bishop John Shelby Spong, the controversial former Episcopal bishop of Newark, N.J., has signed on as a sexuality columnist for a new Manhattan-based Web site that “covers sexuality from top to bottom.”

The New York Post, New York’s raciest tabloid, dubbed Spong “The Bishop of Cybersex” after the 69-year-old retired bishop signed on as a columnist for ThePosition.com, a start-up Web site that will launch next month.

Spong, who has questioned most orthodox Christian doctrine, retired from the Newark diocese after 21 years in January. He has been called a “godless bishop” by critics and has raised the ire of worldwide Anglicans by calling conservative African clerics “prehuman” after they refused to embrace homosexuals in church life.

ThePosition.com will be run by Jack Heidenry, a former Penthouse editor, and cover “sexuality from top to bottom,” according to the Post. Spong will write a monthly column on religion and sexuality for the site, which will also feature nude pictures and contributions by famed adult film star Candida Royale.

Spong, who is teaching at Harvard this year, told the Associated Press his column will be a serious exercise in bridging sex and faith. “I’m a little bit concerned that some people are treating this as some sort of salacious thing,” he said. “It’s an attempt to discuss sexuality in a serious way.”

Spong has long been an outspoken member of the Episcopal Church, openly challenging the church’s ban on ordaining non-celibate homosexuals and stating that Christianity must embrace gays and the larger issue of sexuality or face a certain institutional death.

Christian Student Group Reinstated After Gay Controversy

(RNS) A student-faculty review board at Tufts University has reinstated a Christian student group after it was kicked off campus because it denied a leadership post to a lesbian student.

The Tufts Christian Fellowship lost its university affiliation after it told student Julie Catalano, a lesbian, that she could not hold a leadership post at the Medford, Mass., school. The university announced Tuesday (May 16) that a review of the decision found the group had improperly lost its university sanction.

“We’re back on campus,” Curtis Chang, the group’s chaplain, told the Associated Press. “We’re delighted that Tufts has sought to uphold religious freedom and we’re looking forward to the fall to come back and worship Jesus on the campus and to share the love of God with the campus.”

The controversy erupted in April after the group _ affiliated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship _ told Catalano she could not help lead the group because she was a lesbian. The group said it believed sexual relations are reserved for married heterosexual couples.

Catalano filed a complaint, saying the anti-gay discrimination violated the school’s anti-discrimination policy. A student judicial panel agreed, and banned the group from campus facilities and from receiving student activity funds.

Chang vowed to fight the decision, saying the group never prohibited Catalano from attending meetings and was not “homophobic.” The issue was one of religious freedom, he said.

The school’s Committee on Student Life, made up of faculty and students, said the group was denied a hearing and has reinstated the group. The case now goes back to the student court, and the group is temporarily back on campus.

Catalano, who left the group earlier this year, could not be reached for comment.

Pope Says “Time Is Now Ripe” to Reveal Fatima Secret

(RNS) Pope John Paul II, speaking on the eve of his 80th birthday, said Wednesday (May 17) he believes “the time is now ripe” to reveal the third secret that an apparition of the Virgin Mary told three young shepherds at Fatima 83 years ago.

Addressing more than 40,000 Holy Year pilgrims from 32 countries at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the pope made no mention of his birthday but talked about his trip to the Portuguese shrine last weekend.

The Roman Catholic pontiff also called on all Christians to pray for peace in the world and issued an appeal for an end to the renewed conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea and in Sierra Leone.

In keeping with the “message of conversion and hope” that issued from Fatima, the pope said, “I invite all believers to pray assiduously for peace in the world.” Deploring the suffering of defenseless civilians, he appealed for an end to the conflicts in Africa and praised the work of aid organizations.

John Paul spoke about the “Third Secret of Fatima” for the first time since Cardinal Angelo Sodano disclosed to some 600,000 people attending the papal Mass at Fatima on Saturday (May 13) that it foretold a “time of tribulation” for Christianity and the attempt on the pope’s life on May 13, 1981.

Sodano acted on the pope’s instructions following the beatification of two of the shepherd children who saw the apparition of the Madonna in 1917. The third shepherd, now a 93-year-old cloistered nun, attended the Mass.

“Because it seems to me that the time is now ripe, I took the opportunity to make public the contents of the so-called third part of the secret,” John Paul said. “In the light of the apparition of Fatima, events of this often troubled historical period assume a singular eloquence. It is not difficult then to comprehend better how much mercy God has poured out on the church and on humanity through Mary.”

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is expected to issue the complete text of the prophecy along with a commentary on its significance before the end of May.

The pope called his pilgrimage to Fatima “a thanks to Mary for wanting to communicate to the church through these children and for the protection accorded to me during my pontificate.” He said it was to renew his thanks “symbolically” that he left at the shrine “the precious episcopal ring” that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the Polish primate, gave him a few days after he was elected pope in 1978.

To mark his 80th birthday, John Paul will lead a Mass in St. Peter’s Square Thursday (May 18) for some 3,000 priests taking part in Jubilee Holy Year celebrations. He will lunch with bishops, archbishops and cardinals and in the evening will attend a performance in his honor of Haydn’s “The Creation” by the London Symphony Orchestra, directed by James Levine.

17 Die in Clash Between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia

(RNS) At least 17 people died Wednesday (May 17) in an eastern Indonesian province after violence erupted between Christians and Muslims amid rumors that weapons had been illegally brought into the strife-torn province.

The renewed fighting in Ambon, the capital of the Moluccas province, is the latest clash between Muslims and Christians in Indonesian provinces, Reuters reported. Fighting between the two groups has claimed at least a thousand lives since first breaking out in Ambon in January 1999.

Officials in Ambon said they are uncertain how the violence began and an investigation is under way.

The violent outbreak came days after about 600 Muslim paramilitaries from Java arrived in the province, joining at least 1,000 fighters already there. About 3,000 more troops from Java are expected to arrive in the Moluccas to wage a jihad, or holy war, but military authorities in the Moluccas chastised officials in Java for allowing the paramilitaries to depart.

“The authorities in Java should have blocked them because if we send them home now, it will create a new problem,” said Captain Sutarno, of the Moluccas military command’s information office.

So far none of the Muslim fighters has been implicated in the religious violence, said Sutarno, but he noted “there is growing public suspicion of them.”

China Cracks Down on Unauthorized Religious Groups

(RNS) Chinese officials have shut down independent churches and arrested at least 10 leaders of underground Christian groups in southern China, according to a report released Wednesday (May 17) by an international advocacy group.

“These arrests are part of a downward turn in China’s record on religious freedom,” said Mervyn Thomas, executive director of the group Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “At a time when China is under close scrutiny, it is disturbing to see authorities embarking on such an overt campaign of intimidation and persecution of religious believers.”

The England-based Christian advocacy group said the arrests in Guangdong province were part of a crackdown that began in October when Chinese officials in the provincial community of Huadu destroyed a popular underground Christian church led by minister Li Dexian, who has been imprisoned 14 times since then.

One official at the Religious Affairs Bureau in Guangdong conceded that religious groups in the province were under investigation, the Associated Press reported. Officials with the Religious Affairs Bureau in Beijing said they were unaware of any arrests and did not comment.

Though freedom of religion is guaranteed in China’s constitution, the nation’s Communist Party is atheist and prohibits worship in places other than state-sanctioned organizations. Still, a number of people worship in independent churches or secretly in private homes.

Communist leaders fear unauthorized religious groups _ such as Christians and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement _ could pose a threat to state power. Articles in the official Guangming Daily newspaper have suggested that foreign powers could manipulate religion to heighten separatist opinions, particularly in regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang, where a number of indigenous Buddhist and Muslim people reside.

Justice Department Files Religious Discrimination Suit Against Newark

(RNS) The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the city of Newark, N.J., on Tuesday (May 16), claiming a city police department policy prohibiting beards discriminates against Muslims.

“Employers have a duty to accommodate reasonably the religious observances, practices and beliefs of employees,” said Bill Lann Lee, the Justice Department’s acting assistant attorney general for civil rights.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of all of Newark’s Muslim police officers who wear beards, seeks damages for current and past officers victimized by the policy.

The lawsuit stems from a case in which Kevin Rhodes and Anthony Kerr, two Muslim police officers, complained to the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission that they were threatened with termination because they did not shave their beards as police department policy required. To do so, the two men contended, would have violated their Islamic beliefs.

Because the department’s policy allows medical exemptions but excludes those that are religious in nature, the ban discriminates against the Islamic faith, Kerr and Rhodes said.

The city had maintained that the purpose of the ban on beards was to help the department present a “professional and dignified image to the public.” But seven months ago, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the two officers, the Newark director of police announced the department would revise its rules in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling.

Since then, the department has given the city a revised policy for review and has not disciplined any bearded officers, the department said in a statement Tuesday (May 16).

A similar federal case in New York, in which a Muslim police officer claimed the State Park Police violated his civil rights when they suspended him for wearing a beard, has also been resolved. Officer Muhammad Ali will receive $25,700 in back wages and will be rehired as a ranger, attorneys announced Tuesday (May 16). The State Park Police have also agreed to specify in its regulations that officers can seek religious exemptions to the agency’s ban on beards.

New York did not admit to any wrongdoing, said New York Assistant Attorney General Bonnie Garone, adding that Ali could have sought a religious exemption under the previous regulations.

Presbyterian Seminary President Resigns After Sexual Abuse Charges

(RNS) The president of the San Francisco Theological Seminary resigned from his post May 1 and four days later was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse in a church trial.

The Rev. Donald W. McCullough, president of the Presbyterian Church (USA)-affiliated school for six years, faces a sentencing hearing May 22. He could be rebuked, suspended or lose his clergy credentials.

The church defines sexual abuse as sexual contact involving “force, threats, coercion, intimidation or misuse of office or position.”

According to the church, McCullough was involved with two adult women while he was pastor of a San Diego church from 1980 to 1994 and after he was elected president of the school in 1994.

McCullough, in a letter to seminary trustees, said he was stepping down because of “inappropriate conduct” that occurred before he was installed as president.

The school’s trustees issued a short statement thanking McCullough for his six years of “exemplary service” but said, “The board determined, with Donald, that it was no longer possible for him to continue as president.”

Church officials said McCullough’s tenure at the school was successful, with several of the school’s deteriorating buildings brought back to life because of a $11.5 million campaign spearheaded by him.

Quote of the Day: Hugh Delahanty, editor in chief of Modern Maturity magazine

(RNS) “They’re not a lot of Scrooge McDucks out there.”

_ Hugh Delahanty, editor in chief of Modern Maturity magazine, commenting on a survey finding Americans would like to be wealthy but believe wealth promotes insensitivity to others.

DEA END RNS