c. 2003 Religion News Service
Hare Krishnas, in Bankruptcy, Seek Abuse Claims Information
(RNS) Officials of the Hare Krishna movement are seeking to contact people with abuse claims against it as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
Eleven temples affiliated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness published legal notices April 30 in international publications and Web sites to find students who may have been abused in Krishna boarding schools in the 1970s and 1980s.
The society filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2002 after being sued for $400 million by dozens of plaintiffs with claims of sexual, emotional and physical abuse at schools affiliated with the movement.
“The suit threatens to close places of worship and punish innocent families that had nothing to do with these allegations,” said Anuttama Dasa, spokesman for ISKCON, in a statement.
“Through Chapter 11, we hope to balance the legitimate needs of any of our young people that may have been abused while protecting the rights of our members and families to maintain a place of worship.”
The reorganization plan includes a process for compensating youth who may have been abused but who chose not to sue.
ISKCON represents the North American expression of the ancient Vaishnava tradition, a monotheistic faith within Hindu culture.
_ Adelle M. Banks
First American Muslim Television Channel in Development
(RNS) The first-ever television channel offering programming about American Muslims is expected to debut in summer 2004, developers have announced.
“Bridges TV” is a project of Muzzammil S. Hassan and Omar S. Amanat, New York businessmen who hope to tap into a large market of American Muslims and others who are curious about Islam.
Hassan and Amanat said they plan to offer news and talk shows, children’s programming and movies on the network to a population that they estimate to be as large as 8 million Muslims in America. Other surveys have estimated numbers ranging from 2.5 million to 6 million.
The channel also will feature “wholesome sitcoms” that depict American Muslim family life. The organizers say they hope these sitcoms will be akin to “The Cosby Show,” which portrayed a positive African-American family role model.
Amanat is helping to spearhead this effort after the sale of Tradescape, the Internet brokerage firm he founded. He says even as he was succeeding in business, there were some who maintained misconceptions about him because he is Muslim.
“I realized that the only way to undo misconceptions was to create our own media forum from which our stories and culture would be shared with the world,” said Amanat, who said Bridges TV will look to cultural market successes such as Telemundo and Black Entertainment Television.
Bridges TV has raised $1 million in seed capital over the past year. Next, the network will need to secure 10,000 paying monthly members in order for cable and satellite companies to agree to support the channel. In the one month since they began soliciting members, 1,000 have signed up.
“An American Muslim television channel is the greatest need of our times,” said Amanat. “The viability of this project depends on American Muslims.”
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Vatican Diplomat to Head Problem-Plagued Dublin Archdiocese
LONDON (RNS) The Vatican announced Monday that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, 58, a veteran Vatican diplomat currently serving as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, will be the next head of the abuse-scarred Archdiocese of Dublin.
Martin, 58, has been appointed coadjutor to 77-year-old Cardinal Desmond Connell. This means that when Connell retires, Martin will automatically succeed him.
Dublin-born Martin is seen in Ireland as a clean pair of hands, untouched by the scandals over pedophile priests that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland over the past decade. Connell was criticized for his handling of cases in the Dublin archdiocese, though a meeting in January with victims of child abuse by priests led to their withdrawing calls for his resignation.
One of those who met the cardinal on that occasion, Marie Collins, welcomed Martin’s appointment as “very hopeful.”
Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, Martin acknowledged the harm caused by the abuse scandal. Acknowledging there are “many who are estranged from the church,” Martin said: “I am aware that there are those for whom meaning and hope were lost in their lives through the actions of church personnel. Their hurt is all the greater if they feel betrayed by someone they had turned to in trust.”
Meanwhile the Irish Times reported that a number of senior priests of the archdiocese have criticized the lack of consultation over his appointment. According to the report, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, the papal envoy in Ireland, sounded out only the archdiocese’s 16 deans. The newspaper quoted one senior priest as saying it was “quite outrageous” that parish priests had not been consulted.
_ Robert Nowell
Update: Dead Farmer Linked to Church Poisonings
(RNS) Police are focusing on a potato farmer who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as a possible suspect in the arsenic poisoning case at a Lutheran church in New Sweden, Maine.
Worshippers returned to Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church on Sunday (May 4), one week after more than a dozen people were sent to local hospitals after drinking arsenic-laced coffee. One man, Walter Reid Morrill, died of arsenic poisoning.
The church was standing room only, with extensive media present alongside Gov. John Baldacci and New England Bishop Margaret Payne presiding. “We’re here to just stand with you, pray with you,” Baldacci told the congregation.
Two state troopers stood guard by the coffee urn as Payne and others sipped coffee after worship services.
Police say longtime church member Daniel Bondeson was found dead Friday (May 2) after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They have not ruled the death a suicide, and an autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
According to the Associated Press, police have some evidence linking Bondeson to the poisonings, but have not elaborated on what it may be. Bondeson, 53, was a former member of the church council but was not at the church last Sunday when the coffee was poisoned.
Police were combing Bondeson’s rural farmhouse and focusing their attention on a backyard shed, according to the Boston Globe.
“I just can’t grasp the thought that in his right mind he would have harmed any of these people,” church member Wendell Spooner told the Associated Press.
Eight patients remain in stable condition at Cary Medical Center, and three victims are in serious condition, three in critical condition and one in unknown condition at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Religious Groups Urge House to Pass Charity Bill
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious groups that do not agree on whether the government should give money to churches for social services say they are united behind a bill that would boost donations to charitable groups.
Nearly 50 people signed a recent letter to members of the House, urging them to pass the Charity, Aid, Recovery and Empowerment Act, which would provide $10.6 billion in tax incentives for charitable giving and a $1.3 billion increase in money for social services.
“The CARE Act offers a critical opportunity, at a time when public and media attention is riveted on events abroad, to come together and address the continuing pain of poverty and unmet human needs here at home,” said the letter, drafted by Search for Common Ground, a Washington conflict resolution group.
The Senate approved the bill on April 9. The House has not acted on the legislation. Two years ago, the House passed a larger bill that would have allowed religious groups to receive government funding, but that bill died in the Senate because of discrimination and church-state concerns.
“We acknowledge that people of goodwill _ including the signers of this letter _ have honest disagreements over the rules for government funding of non-governmental organizations, including faith-based groups,” the April 28 letter said. “The increase in resources promised by the CARE Act is urgently needed.”
At least four of the signers _ Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action; the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State; and Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention _ are members of a committee that is searching for ways that religious groups can help combat poverty and other social problems.
Other signers included officials from the American Jewish Committee, the Salvation Army, Mennonite Central Committee, Lutheran Services of America and several mainline Protestant denominations.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Christian Artist Velasquez Declares She’s Still Faithful After Movie
(RNS) Contemporary Christian musician Jaci Velasquez has issued an online explanation of her role in the movie “Chasing Papi” after receiving criticism for playing one of three women who discover they are all dating the same man.
“To put your minds at rest, no I haven’t left my personal faith in God, and I don’t ever intend to,” Velasquez wrote recently on http://www.jacivelasquez.com.
The 20th Century Fox movie, which features a scene in which Velasquez and the two other women wear lingerie, has received criticism in conservative Christian circles.
“Don’t let Jaci’s starring role mislead your family,” advised “Plugged In,” a media review Web site of Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based ministry. “Chase teens and tweens away from `Papi.”’
Velasquez wrote that the decision to make her Hollywood debut was “a very thoughtful, prayerful one” and she consulted with her family and pastor before making the step.
“I feel like I was able by the grace and power of God to be a witness to co-workers during the filming of the movie,” she wrote. “I am grateful for the production company, because they allowed me to change and edit several scenes that I was uncomfortable doing because of my beliefs.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Adventists Sue Ugandan University Over Sabbath Dispute
(RNS) Seventh-day Adventist university students in Uganda recently filed suit over a dispute about taking exams on their Sabbath.
The students at Makerere University in the capital city of Kampala decided not to appear for exams on a Saturday in January and were later asked to repeat an entire year of schooling, Seventh-day Adventist Church officials said. Their request to take the exams at an alternate time was denied.
The case is being considered in the Constitutional Court after it was filed by three students. The church is helping to finance the lawsuit, which claims their freedoms of belief and conscience were not respected.
“We hate to go that route,” said Jonathan Gallagher, a spokesperson for the International Religious Liberty Association for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“We try and resolve these things in the spirit of kindness and cooperation. This is kind of like the end of the road.”
The university’s public relations office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gallagher said there have been times when relations between the church and Ugandan officials have concluded without an official protest.
“In defense of the Ugandan government, they did change the date of the general election last year because of pressure from the church,” he said.
The election, originally scheduled for a Saturday, was moved to a Thursday.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Singer James Brown
(RNS) “My music wasn’t written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It’s written by God and me. They go `a one and a two and up.’ We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that’s where we got them.”
_ Singer James Brown, known as the Godfather of Soul, in an interview with USA Today.
DEA END RNS
