c. 2000 Religion News Service
AME Church Officials Seek Air Force Racism Investigation
(RNS) Officials of the African Methodist Episcopal Church have called for the U.S. Air Force to reinvestigate an alleged racist statement by a brigadier general concerning chaplains.
A special resolution concerning the matter was issued July 8 at the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference in Cincinnati.
The resolution refers to an alleged statement by Brig. Gen. Lorraine Potter, Air Force deputy chief of the Chaplain Service: “Black chaplains make good pastors and preachers, but are not good staff officers.”
A March investigative report by the inspector general of the Air Force determined that a formal complaint against Potter was “unsubstantiated.”
The AME Church resolution recommended a new investigation of the matter. It was signed by Bishop McKinley Young, the denomination’s chief ecumenical officer and the person in charge of endorsing chaplains, and Bishop William P. DeVeaux, president of the AME Council of Bishops.
“We further recommend that diversity training be implemented at all levels of the Air Force Chaplain Service,” the resolution continues. “And that accountability measures be instituted to insure that the doors of opportunity are open to minority chaplains within all commands and all levels of leadership including chiefs of the Chaplain Services.”
The Air Force does not plan to reopen its investigation, according to a statement responding to the resolution that was provided to Religion News Service Thursday (July 13).
“The allegations against Brig. Gen. Lorraine Potter were fully investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the Air Force,” the statement reads. “We are satisfied with its conclusion and consider the investigation closed.”
The Air Force added that the investigation “revealed a perception of institutional discrimination” toward black chaplains. On June 1, the Air Force chief of staff “directed a climate assessment” be conducted to address that perception.
“Such discrimination, if it exists, is clearly not in line with Air Force standards,” the statement reads.
The military service also will form a diversity task force including members of the chaplain corps.
“Together, these initiatives will focus Air Force leadership attention on issues of institutional bias based on race, ethnicity and gender and will recommend ways to address those issues,” it said.
The Air Force expects the efforts also will aid in addressing concerns about chaplain recruitment and promotion opportunities.
In other business at the AME convention, where the denomination’s first woman bishop was elected, bishops learned of their assignments for the next four years.
Following tradition, all four of the church’s new bishops were assigned to districts in Africa. The Rev. Vashti McKenzie, a Baltimore pastor and the first female bishop, will serve in the 18th Episcopal District, which includes the southern African countries of Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho and Botswana.
The Rev. Richard Norris of Philadelphia will go to the 14th Episcopal District, which includes Sierre Leone and other west African countries. The Rev. Gregory Ingram of Detroit will serve the 15th Episcopal District, which includes South Africa, and the Rev. Preston Williams of Atlanta will go to the 17th Episcopal District, which includes Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Episcopal Bishops Agree Not to Seek Rites for Non-Marital Relationships
(RNS) Episcopalian bishops gave their stamp of approval Thursday (July 13) to a sweeping statement that expresses the church’s “support” of “life-long committed relationships” other than marriage, but refused to ask for ceremonies to officially sanction them.
The church’s House of Bishops voted 119-19 to approve a compromise resolution intended to acknowledge same-sex relationships, but which stops far short of blessing them. On Tuesday (July 11), the church’s 832-member House of Deputies approved the same resolution.
The House of Deputies, comprised of lay and clergy members, rejected a provision that would have asked for special rites to bless life-long monogamous relationships. Some bishops had tried to resurrect that section, but the House of Bishops rejected it.
The resolution, which does not bear the weight of church law, is the first time the 2.5 million-member church has affirmed the value of relationships outside of marriage, either gay or straight. While not specifically mentioning same-sex unions, the resolution expresses the church’s support for relationships “characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication and holy love.”
Some progressive bishops said the church needs special ceremonies to “support” such relationships with liturgical rites, but bishops were hesitant to request them because the church is deeply divided on blessing same-sex unions.
“This would signal an enormous change in doctrine and it would tear us apart,” said Bishop Edward Little of northern Indiana. “Let us embrace each other in the wide middle where we all agree.”
Other bishops said the House of Bishops should have taken leadership on the issue and requested special rites, in hopes that the larger church would follow along.
“What is the danger of saying yes to the love of one person for another?” asked Bishop Chester Talton, suffragan bishop of Los Angeles.
The bishops did, however, approve a committee to further study the issue of same-sex unions in hopes that a “mind of the house” would emerge before the church meets again in 2003.
WCC General Secretary Hopes for New Global Poverty Policies
(RNS) Declaring that the United Nations’ efforts to wipe out poverty need a “radical renewal,” the general secretary of the World Council of Churches said he hoped the council could start a “new policy dialogue” with U.N. programs to end poverty worldwide.
Konrad Raiser said policies to end global poverty need revamping because “we have lost confidence, if we ever had it, in a strategy that holds on to continuing growth in the hope that there will be a trickle-down (benefit for the poor and marginalized),” he told Ecumenical News International, adding that “there is empirical evidence that it doesn’t.”
“Should we not turn the whole approach around, and make poverty eradication the principal objective, and see what that implies for economic policies?” he asked.
Raiser also criticized U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for “implicitly accepting” the authority of three international financial institutions controlled by the wealthiest nations in the world _ the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Annan and the three groups co-authored a report on world poverty released in June during a special U.N. general assembly in Geneva.
“Of course the secretary-general must solicit the support of international financial institutions to implement any programs for an effective fight against poverty, but not at the price of implicitly accepting their authority,” said Raiser.
Cat Stevens Denied Entry to Israel
(RNS) Former British pop musician Yousef al-Islam was not allowed to enter Israel because he allegedly supports a Palestinian organization that opposes an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, an Israeli spokesman said.
Al-Islam _ known as Cat Stevens before his conversion to Islam in 1977 _ had traveled from Germany to Israel on Wednesday (July 12) to show his support for the Palestinian cause, Reuters reported.
Al-Islam was held for several hours at an Israeli airport before being sent back to Germany, said Israeli government spokesman Moshe Fogel.
“He knew before he got on the plane that he didn’t have permission to come into the country,” Fogel said.
Al-Islam _ who rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as “Moonshadow” and “Peacetrain” and now performs only for his mosque _ had given money to Hamas, said Fogel. That organization has been blamed for a number of attacks in which Israelis have been harmed or killed.
“He didn’t seem like he was coming here for summer tourism,” said Fogel. “Any country has the right to prevent … terror within its own borders.”
Al-Islam’s religion was not a factor in Israel’s decision to deny him entry to the country, said Fogel.
“Israel has had numerous visits by celebrities who have turned to Islam,” he noted. “They have been received with open arms and enjoyed their stay.”
Indiana Man Pleads Guilty to Starting 26 Church Fires
(RNS) An Indiana man has pleaded guilty to setting 26 church fires over a period of five years that ended in 1999.
Jay Scott Ballinger, 38, entered his guilty plea in federal court in Indianapolis, the Justice Department said Tuesday (July 11). It recommended that he receive a prison sentence of more than 42 years.
Ballinger “frequently expressed his hostility toward organized Christianity, signed individuals he met to contracts with the devil and termed himself a missionary of Lucifer,” a Justice Department release stated.
He pleaded guilty to starting fires at churches in Alabama, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee, the Associated Press reported.
The Justice Department said most of the fires began early in the morning or late at night at rural churches in isolated locations. In most cases, it said, Ballinger broke a side or back window of the church, poured gasoline into the building and used a lighter to set the fire.
His plea “represents the largest number of fires charged to any single defendant” since President Clinton created the National Church Arson Task Force in June 1996, said James Johnson, co-chair of the task force and undersecretary for enforcement at the Treasury Department.
Ballinger’s plea follows a nationwide investigation involving the task force and the FBI, the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office and local and state fire investigators across the country.
Afghan Women Can Resume Working, Taliban Decides
(RNS) Afghanistan’s ultraconservative Taliban militia agreed Wednesday (July 12) to revoke an order that prohibited women from working for foreign relief agencies, a U.N. representative told the Associated Press.
Afghanistan will quietly “return to normal,” said Eric de Mul, the U.N. coordinator for Afghanistan, who helped negotiate the issue. “Afghan women can return to work.”
Women in Afghanistan were ordered to stop working with international humanitarian groups July 6 when the Taliban’s minister for vice and virtue, Mullah Mohammed Turabi, issued a letter warning aid groups _ including the United Nations _ that they should no longer hire Afghan women.
Women have lived under strict controls in Aghanistan since the Taliban militia seized control of Kabul, the Afghan capital, in 1996. The group, which controls about 90 percent of Aghanistan, barred women from the work force and from schools.
The strict laws have increased the number of children and women _ often widows _ begging for food and money on the street, according to the United Nations. The group estimates that about 28,000 widows live in Kabul, where some 750,000 people depend on international aid for survival.
Quote of the Day: Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va.
(RNS) “It’s one thing when you talk about religion imposing itself on the state. Here you have the state imposing itself on religion. That is unfortunate in a city that has long been a symbol of tolerance.”
_ Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on the District of Columbia, who says a D.C. bill mandating health insurance coverage of contraceptives will not be passed unless it includes an exemption for Catholic employers. He was quoted in the Thursday (July 13) edition of The Washington Post.
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