c. 2000 Religion News Service
Falwell Sues White House, FBI
(RNS) In a lawsuit filed last week against the White House and the FBI, religious broadcaster Jerry Falwell claims he was denied access to information about him contained in a”secret”Justice Department database about religious and antiabortion leaders.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Falwell claims the information about him is used for smear tactics. He said he tried to use the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the database last summer after learning of its existence from the conservative Washington group Judicial Watch.
Falwell contends that restricting his access to the information about him violates the Privacy Act, which declares the government cannot keep a file on an individual without a lawful reason.
But that’s not necessarily the case, according to Meredith E. Cabe, an associate counsel to President Clinton, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (Jan. 25).”FOIA does not establish a statutory right to the records Dr. Falwell has requested from the White House, if such records exist,”she wrote in a letter responding to Falwell’s request.
According to the FBI, no information relating to Falwell’s request was found in a search of the agency’s automated records _ which date back to 1958.
Falwell’s lawsuit was also filed on behalf of several organizations he established or is connected with, including Liberty University, the Moral Majority and the Old-Time Gospel Hour.
Ideological Battle Heats Up Over Roadside Memorials
(RNS) An ideological battle is heating up in Oregon between supporters and critics of roadside memorials for victims of automobile accidents.
While Christians have placed religious memorials at the side of public roads to honor those who have died, some activists have begun posting signs with black crosses and a red slash through them.
There have been disputes across the country about whether crosses and other memorials are appropriate at accident sites. Different states have passed laws allowing them and prohibiting them.
In Oregon, transportation workers recently started removing religious memorials after people complained that they did not belong on public property.
Republican state Sen. Marilyn Shannon has kicked off a campaign to declare the legality of religious memorials and the transportation committee of the Legislature is considering developing a bill to make them legal, the Associated Press reported.
Opponents of religious memorials left one of the placards bearing a black cross on Shannon’s lawn. It includes the Satanic”666″mark painted in red.”You know what I think? I think they are in the minority, and this is a temper tantrum,”responded Shannon.”I knew all along that this was about the atheists not wanting to see crosses on a public right of way.” State workers also are removing the anonymous placards that appear to oppose the religious memorials.
The identity of the posters of the black cross placards has been a mystery.
In an unsigned letter to the Statesman-Journal newspaper of Salem, someone wrote that dozens of the signs were mounted to protest the religious memorials.”In order to sleep at night, we had to do our part in the battle,”the note said.”We truly hope wisdom will prevail.” Supporters of religious memorials say they are offended by the placards placed by opponents.”It’s pretty sick that it could turn into something like this,”said Jeremy Haddock, the survivor of a traffic accident in which his two best friends were killed about two years ago.”I put up a cross not just because I’m Christian, but because it is a universal symbol for what I feel.” Dave Fidanque of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said the state will have to permit placards posted by atheists on the state’s roadsides if it opts to permit religious memorials.”Once you open the door, you open the door to all kinds of memorials,”he said.”You might not be very happy with what happens down the road.”
Update: Innocent Pleas in Case of Murdered Guatemalan Bishop
(RNS) Three Guatemalan army officers accused of the 1998 killing of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi, the crusading human rights prelate, have told a judge they are innocent and labeled their arrests a witch hunt against the military.
Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, his father, retired Col. Disrael Lima Estrada, and Obdulio Villanueva, former army intelligence officer, are being held for allegedly taking part in the slaying of Gerardi just days after the bishop presided over the public release of a report blaming the military for most of the deaths and human rights abuses committed during the 36-year Guatemalan civil war.”There are a lot of people who think the army should pay for everything,”Lima Oliva told reporters after his appearance at the pre-trial hearing, Reuters reported Tuesday (Jan. 25).”We are all innocent.” Gerardi’s murder, which human rights groups and the United Nations have blamed on the military, raised fears among many Guatemalans that the fragile peace accords that ended the long and violent civil war could come unraveled.
The weekend arrests of the three were the first indication the military may have had a hand in the killing. In the past, prosecutors have put forward a number of theories about the murder, including that it was committed by common criminals, related to a homosexual love affair among clergymen and to a ring of church robbers.
Baptist Women’s Group Gets New Leader
(RNS) The Woman’s Missionary Union has unanimously elected Wanda Lee of Columbus, Ga., its national president, to serve as the organization’s seventh executive director.
Lee’s election came on Saturday (Jan. 22) during a meeting of the WMU executive board in Birmingham, Ala.
She succeeds Dellanna O’Brien, and will officially become head of the 111-year-old organization on March 1.
Free Church of Scotland Splits _ Again
(RNS) The tiny Free Church of Scotland _ the conservative evangelical group sometimes called”the wee frees”that remained after the bulk of the Free Church entered into series of unions that led to the present Church of Scotland in 1929 _ has finally split over the decades-old case of Professor Donald Macleod.
Fifteen of the Free Kirk’s (church) 115 ministers have left the denomination along with a number of elders and members.
Macleod, now principal of the Free Church college in Edinburgh, was the editor of the church’s monthly magazine. He was regarded by some as having dangerously liberal views.
Following a visit to Australia in 1984 and 1985, Macleod was accused of becoming involved in an adulterous relationship. But a church committee twice found the charges unsubstantiated, as did the denomination’s 1995 general assembly. Later, however, four other women came forward with complaints that he had sexually molested them and and he had to stand trial in 1996.
But, not only was he found not guilty of indecent assault, the church official who heard the case concluded the women had all lied when giving evidence in order to further the ends of Macleod’s enemies within the Free Church.
Despite calls by the church’s general assembly for the dissidents to disband, they have now been suspended and will stand trial at May’s general assembly.
The 15 ministers reacted by announcing they were walking out and, with their followers, said they now constitute the”true Free Church.” The Free Church has 115 ministers serving 120 congregations, mainly in the Western Isles and the western Highlands. It has 6,000 communicants and another 10,000 adherents. It is known, among other things, for its strict observance of the Sabbath.
Baha’i Leader Ruhiyyih Rabbani Dead at 89
(RNS) Ruhiyyih Rabbani, widow of Shoghi Effendi, the late leader of the Baha’i Faith, died Wednesday (Jan. 19) in Haifa, Israel, after a long illness. She was 89.
Rabbani became a leading member of the Baha’i faith following her husband’s death in 1957. Born Mary Sutherland Maxwell in New York in 1910, Rabbani married Shoghi Effendi _ the great-grandson of the religion’s founder _ in 1937. Through her devotion and service to the Baha’i community she eventually earned recognition as a”Hand of the Cause,”a position created by the founder of the Baha’i Faith and bestowed to only a few exemplary members.
She was one of nine people selected to lead the Baha’i community as custodians of the Baha’i World Center until the election of the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body, in 1963.
Rabbani helped establish the World Wide Fund for Nature’s”Religion and Conservation”initiative in 1988, and in 1996 she was honored by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s highest legislative body, for her study of the effect of development on the Amazon Basin’s environment and indigenous cultures.
A writer, film producer and lecturer, Rabbani wrote a biography of her husband,”The Priceless Pearl,”that has appeared in many editions and has been translated into several languages.
Her funeral was held Sunday (Jan. 23) in Haifa, Israel.
Quote of the day: Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, president of Barry University, Miami Shores, Fla.
(RNS)”I am very hopeful that the process can continue and that we will find a way to bring healing and reconciliation and some closure to this very human concern.” _ Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, president of the Roman Catholic Barry University on the use of her home as a neutral site for a meeting between 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy caught in the middle of an international custody battle, and his grandmothers. O’Laughlin was quoted by the Associated Press on Jan. 25.
DEAEND RNS
