c. 2003 Religion News Service
Evangelist Franklin Graham Holds Talks With Sudan’s President
(RNS) Evangelist Franklin Graham discussed religious freedom and peace issues Monday (Dec. 8) with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir at a meeting in Khartoum.
Graham visited el-Bashir in the presidential palace during a three-day trip to the country that has been torn by civil war, his relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, announced.
“I hope as peace comes to your nation, that equality will come and that Christians will be able to worship as Muslims can,” Graham told el-Bashir during the 35-minute meeting. “Muslims and Christians can live together peaceably, and I believe that pleases God.”
The Sudanese president said religious freedom problems have been linked to the war.
“As soon as the war is over, the pressure against Christians will be over,” el-Bashir said, according to Graham’s organization. “We have to be sure that the freedom of religion of Christians is not less than the freedom of Islam.”
The two leaders took time for a bit of religious banter.
“I want freedom of religion because I would like to convert you _ we will try to make you a Muslim,” said el-Bashir, prompting laughter.
Graham retorted that after a peace agreement is in place, “I would like to come back to Khartoum and preach, because I would like to convert you.”
The evangelist also met with a delegation of the Southern People’s Liberation Movement, which has been in peace talks with the Sudanese government.
He was scheduled Tuesday to meet a cargo plane filled with tens of thousands of Christmas gift boxes for Sudanese children that had been donated by Americans through Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child program.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Boston Catholics to Mortgage Seminary, Cathedral to Settle Lawsuits
(RNS) The Archdiocese of Boston plans to mortgage its seminary and cathedral in order to help pay a $90 million settlement to sex abuse victims, according to The Boston Globe.
St. John’s Seminary in Brighton and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End will be mortgaged to help secure $97.5 million in immediate loans.
Church officials hope the sale of the archbishop’s mansion and insurance policies will ultimately cover the cost of the settlements, but the money was needed sooner than both the sale and insurance can be finalized.
“Both the cathedral and the seminary are important to the life of the archdiocese, and we would never imperil either institution,” the Rev. Christopher Coyne, a church spokesman, told The Globe.
Earlier this year, Archbishop Sean O’Malley agreed to settle with 540 victims for $85 million. An addition $3 million to $4 million will be used to settle with other victims who were not part of the omnibus settlement.
Bishop Richard Lennon, the vicar general, or chief administrative officer, of the archdiocese, said two commercial loans will total $75 million, along with $15 million borrowed from a retired clergy fund and $7.5 million borrowed from the church’s cemetery trust.
The commercial loans from Citizens Bank and Century Bank will be secured by the seminary; the cathedral will be used to secure the loan from the clergy retirement fund.
“The archdiocese is a good customer, and we’re pleased to be able to assist them and to turn this around so quickly for them,” said Thomas J. Hollister, president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts.
In addition, the archdiocese is expected to sell church property worth about $20 million _ which does not include parish assets _ to cover the carrying costs of the loans, counseling costs for victims, abuse prevention programs and future settlements, The Globe reported.
Poll: Religion Crucial to Casting Votes in 2004
(RNS) Nearly two-thirds of American voters say their religious beliefs will be an important factor when it comes time to cast their votes for president next year, according to a new Gallup Poll.
Sixty-four percent of registered voters say their “personal religious beliefs and faith” will help shape their vote for president, while 36 percent say it will not.
Pollsters detected a “gender gap” between women and men _ 44 percent of women said faith would be extremely or very important, compared to only 33 percent of men.
The Rev. Albert Winseman, religion and values editor for Gallup’s Tuesday Briefing report, said the gap presents opportunities and challenges for both parties.
“The challenge for the Democratic candidate _ whoever that may be _ will be to make a real connection between personal faith and public life, something that most of the Democratic candidates have not yet done,” he said.
President Bush, who has been open about his evangelical Christian faith, may have an advantage in areas that are traditional Republican territory _ rural areas and suburbs. Only 30 percent of urban voters said religion will dictate their votes, compared to 41 percent of suburban voters and 46 percent of rural voters.
“There are more registered voters in suburban areas than in rural or urban ones, elevating the importance of `soccer moms’ (and dads) whose faith is important to them as a key constituency for both Republicans and Democrats,” Winseman said.
The poll of 867 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
New Orleans to Host Baptists, Gays Same Weekend
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A pure accident of convention scheduling will usher 35,000 Baptists into New Orleans just as Southern Decadence weekend reaches the gaudy height of its public celebration of gay pride next year.
Both events are tied to Labor Day: Southern Decadence by custom and the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention by order of its constitution.
The church meeting, which features five days of singing, Bible study, preaching and some street witnessing by Baptists from throughout the country, begins Labor Day, Sept. 6, the climax of Southern Decadence weekend, which begins Sept. 1.
At a City Hall news conference to announce the meeting, Baptist pastors, hospitality industry officials and Mayor Ray Nagin indulged in some good-natured chuckling about the healthy effect 35,000 churchgoing conventioneers would have on the local economy _ even if they were not disposed to sample a full measure of the city’s night life.
No one mentioned Southern Decadence, the private five-day celebration that fills the French Quarter with gay entertainments, including a full measure of cross-dressing, feathered boas and deliberately outrageous displays of camp.
“I know I wasn’t aware of it, and I don’t think anyone else was, either,” said the Rev. C.S. Gordon of New Zion Baptist Church, a key local pastor who emceed the news conference.
No matter, he said when apprised of the coincidence. Delegates from the nation’s largest African-American denomination will meet in New Orleans as planned, and the event _ one of the year’s highlights for conventioneers _ probably will be like most others.
Last summer a handful of evangelical Christians opted for confrontation with Southern Decadence. They marched into the French Quarter during the festival to condemn the festival and seek converts, but without much apparent effect.
Although just as opposed doctrinally to homosexuality, representatives of the 7.5 million-member National Baptist Convention likely will seek a different path, Gordon said.
The street witnessing the members do largely occurs among the people of the city’s housing developments, he said.
As for entertainment venues, “I doubt our people would even be in many of the same places as those other folks,” he said.
_ Bruce Nolan
Louisville Seminary Gains $10 Million Grant for Institute
(RNS) Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has received a Lilly Endowment grant of more than $10 million to support its work to foster relations between church leaders and scholars through the Louisville Institute.
The grant will permit the institute to expand its grant-making work and its efforts to enhance collaboration between religious leaders and academics to aid church and society.
“The Louisville Institute supports scholar-teachers who care deeply about the well-being of the church and puts them face-to-face with some of the country’s best pastors,” said Craig Dykstra, vice president for religion of the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, in a statement.
“As these talented people work ever more closely together, new opportunities emerge for the renewal of America’s churches.”
Since 1990, the institute based at the seminary in Louisville, Ky., has made almost 1,000 grants totaling more than $16.5 million for clergy sabbaticals, research and collaborative projects.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Maj. Howard Smith of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office
(RNS) “That’s like robbing elderly people or little children. You can’t get much worse than stealing people’s donations at Christmastime.”
_ Maj. Howard Smith, spokesman for the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia, reacting to the theft of a Salvation Army bell ringer’s kettle from a local shopping center. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEA END RNS
