c. 2003 Religion News Service

Bush Administration Seeks Supreme Court Review of Law on Online Porn

(RNS) The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a law that penalizes Web site operators who expose children to inappropriate material such as pornography.

The appeal, filed Aug. 11 by Solicitor General Theodore Olson, declares that a ruling earlier this year by the high court about pornography is not sufficient, The Associated Press reported. In that decision, the court ruled that Congress can require public libraries that receive federal money to equip computers with anti-pornography filters.

Children are “unprotected from the harmful effects of the enormous amount of pornography on the World Wide Web,” Olson argued.

An appellate court has twice overruled the broader law he is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider. The Philadelphia-based appeals court said the Child Online Protection Act restricts speech in an unconstitutional manner.

That law mandates that operators of commercial Web sites use some form of adults-only screening system or credit cards to prevent children from seeing material deemed harmful to them. Operators who do not comply could face jail time and fines.

Critics argue that the law violates the rights of adults to buy or see what they wish online. Olson said the main target of the law was commercial pornographers who use sexually explicit “teasers” to draw in consumers.

Ireland’s Anglican Primates Regret Threat to Unity

LONDON (RNS) Ireland’s two Anglican primates _ Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh and Archbishop John Neill of Dublin _ have issued a joint statement expressing regret at the threat to the Anglican Communion’s unity caused by reaction to the election of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

The two leaders also said they wanted to make a distinction between the Robinson election and the wider issue of how the church should deal with same-sex relationships.

At the Church of Ireland’s general synod this summer, Eames said in his presidential address that the House of Bishops hoped in due course to publish a discussion guide to facilitate study of the issue throughout the Church of Ireland.

“There are deeply held views on the issue of homosexuality in the Church of Ireland, and there are serious implications concerning the use of the Bible to be addressed,” the two archbishops said. “There are also many individuals with a real sense of hurt and alienation surrounding this whole issue. For all these reasons it is important that this study takes place, and not simply in response to events in the U.S.A.”

Meanwhile it has been confirmed that Bishop-elect Robinson will be visiting Ireland in October to speak at the annual retreat of the diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Robinson, who addressed last year’s retreat of the Irish diocese, which is linked with the diocese of New Hampshire, will be speaking on ministry.

He will also be visiting England in October when he will be one of the keynote speakers at a conference in Manchester organized by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement to look forward to the next Lambeth Conference, the gathering of all the bishops of the Anglican Communion held every 10 years. Another speaker at this “Halfway to Lambeth” conference will be Canadian Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, British Columbia, who aroused controversy earlier this year by issuing a rite for blessing same-sex relationships.

_ Robert Nowell

New Moderator for United Church of Canada

WOLFVILLE, Nova Scotia (RNS) The United Church of Canada has elected the Right Rev. Peter Short, a minister based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, as the new moderator of the 2.8 million-member church, Canada’s largest Protestant denomination.

Short’s Aug. 13 election came as the 400 delegates gathered for the church’s general council meeting also adopted a resolution urging the Canada’s federal government to endorse same-sex marriage throughout the country.

Short, 55, who likes to bake his own bread and make his own canoes, according to an official biography, has worked with native groups in the Northwest Territories and on sexual abuse issues. He defeated Brian Thorpe, who would have been the church’s first openly gay moderator.

He replaced the Rt. Rev. Marion Pardy, who led the church since 2000.

Calling himself “a recovering introvert” who loves to preach, Short said that with the help of the Holy Spirit and the church, “I will give my best.”

It took just 45 minutes for delegates to approve the motion endorsing Ottawa’s move to legalize same-sex marriage. However, it is now up to the 3,700 congregations across Canada and Bermuda to decide if they will marry gay couples.

Short hit the ground running on the same-sex issue, saying the church needs to hold on to its tradition, and that means staying open and inclusive.

“We are in turbulent times and in the midst of that we need to remember who we are and whose we are,” he said in a brief address to the council. “In tradition, we extend the franchise. We widen the circle. When we speak of inclusivity, we are speaking of our tradition. We are a people of our tradition. It makes us strong. It makes us wise.”

Speaking directly to gays and lesbians and their families in the church, Short said “there is sorrow in my heart that you have become an object in a debate. It is not good, it is not right, it is not fair, and it is not of our tradition that we objectify people in this way.”

Short has ministered on the Gaspe Coast for six years, in the Northwest Territories for seven years, and in Montreal for nine years.

The United Church is seen as one of the most liberal churches in Canada. In 1988, it underwent intense internal disputes over its decision to ordain homosexual ministers, triggering a large exodus of members. In 1992, it created a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions.

The church is facing legal disputes over its involvement in the residential school abuse crisis but is hoping to resolve the bulk of cases through pre-trial settlements. About 100 out of 800 claims have been settled out of court with the church, government and native groups.

But church officials concede that ongoing legal claims over physical and sexual abuse suffered by natives at the schools make it difficult to restore ties to the aboriginal community.

Delegates also approved groundbreaking policies on improving relations with Muslims and Jews.

_ Ron Csillag

AP Poll Finds Sentiment Against Same-Sex Marriage

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than half of adult respondents in an Associated Press poll released Tuesday (Aug. 19) said the issue may affect their vote in the next presidential election. A majority also said they would support a law or constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The issue became a subject of national debate in June when the Supreme Court threw out a Texas anti-sodomy law as unconstitutional.

The poll, conducted by International Communications Research of Media, Pa., and reported by the AP, showed that a small majority of respondents, 52 percent, would support a law prohibiting same-sex marriage. Fifty-four percent said they would favor a constitutional amendment defining marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman.

More than half of those polled also opposed civil unions between people of the same sex.

A substantial constituency, 40 percent, expressed a willingness to accept laws allowing civil unions, the AP said. A similar number, 42 percent, said they would oppose any laws or amendments that would make gay marriage impossible.

More than half of those surveyed also said the issue could influence the way they vote in the next presidential election. Forty-four percent said they weren’t as apt to vote for someone who favored civil unions between gay people, and 49 percent said they felt the same way about candidates who support gay marriage. Only about 10 percent said they would more likely vote for a candidate who backed the unions.

Four of the Democratic front-runners for the 2004 presidential election, including Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, have said they’d back civil ceremonies. But all six leading candidates have voiced opposition to gay marriage, a position also held by the president.

The Democratic candidates have said they would oppose banning gay marriage, but President Bush has said he’d support defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The poll surveyed 1,028 adults between Aug. 8 and 12. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_ Emily Dagostino

Closing Arguments Heard in Russian Baptist Seminarian Smuggling Case

MOSCOW (RNS) Appealing for wisdom and justice, lawyers for a Harvard Divinity School student charged with smuggling $48,000 in cash into Russia made closing arguments Wednesday (Aug. 20) in a case being closely watched by thousands of American evangelicals.

“We’re not talking about some kind of dirty money,” Anatoly Pchelintsev told the court. “It was collected by Russian believers in America to help the poor and needy here.”

His client, Andrew Okhotin, 28, a part-time Baptist youth pastor in Massachusetts, is accused of trying to bring the cash through Moscow’s main international airport without declaring it to customs officials.

Although the law calls for a penalty of up to five years in prison, the prosecutor Wednesday asked the judge to give Okhotin a suspended sentence with one year probation. She made no mention of the seized $48,000 and refused to answer questions afterward.

During the late March incident, Okhotin says he duly filled out a customs declaration, which customs inspectors ignored, choosing instead to demand bribes of first $10,000 and then $5,000.

Speaking softly in his own defense as his mother, brother and an observer from the U.S. Embassy looked on, Okhotin said, “I thank God that I am not before this criminal court charged with murder or some other crime … but rather because I took charitable donations into this country.”

A significant part of the three-hour proceeding was devoted to reading into the record dozens of faxed and mailed appeals for justice from hundreds of evangelical Christians, Okhotin’s professors and a letter from eight U.S. congressmen. At one point, a smiling Judge Igor Yakovlev asked, “Okhotin, how did you get to be so popular?”

Okhotin’s case resonates deeply in Christian circles not only because they view him as the victim of venal customs officials but also because his father, Vladimir Okhotin, was convicted in 1984 for his leadership role in the underground Baptist church and sentenced to 21/2 years in a Soviet labor camp. Vladimir Okhotin was later notified by the government that he had been rehabilitated. The family emigrated to the United States in 1989.

Pchelintsev argued that Okhotin’s experience as a child is a driving force in his fund-raising work for Russian Baptists, for whom the $48,000 is intended. “He knows the hardship of the camps. He knows what a verdict is,” the lawyer said.

The issue of corruption came up only obliquely in Wednesday’s session but is chronicled in detail in Okhotin’s pre-trial testimony. After Wednesday’s court session, the prosecutor, Alla Tomas, declined to comment on the defense attorneys’ complaints that no effort has been made to investigate Okhotin’s charge that customs officials twice solicited bribes during his 12-hour detention.

A verdict could come as early as Friday.

_ Frank Brown

Quote of the Day: Anita Roddick, founder and CEO of The Body Shop

(RNS) “I’m in awe of liberation theology; that is where my heart is. I follow the great spiritual leaders like Jesus and Buddha who actually get their hands dirty.”

_ Anita Roddick, founder and chief executive officer of The Body Shop, which sells skin care products that are environmentally and socially sensitive. A Catholic, Roddick commented about the relevance of her faith to Sojourners magazine.

DEA END RNS