c. 2003 Religion News Service
Methodist Giving Gap Continues to Grow
(RNS) The United Methodist Church said giving for this year continues to drop _ down 5 percent, or about $3 million _ after church officials first noticed a looming deficit three months ago.
Church officials said spending on some programs will need to be cut unless parishioners are able to make up the difference by the end of the year. The 2003 budget is part of a four-year spending plan approved in 2000.
As of Oct. 1, the church had received $59.5 million, down from $62.6 million at the same point last year. The 5 percent lag is more severe than a 3.3 percent drop reported at the end of June.
Money from local churches is funneled through regional conferences to seven different accounts that fund most operations in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
“Income from our local churches and annual conferences has run consistently behind last year,” said Sandra Kelley Lackore, head of the Evanston, Ill.-based General Council on Finance and Administration. “Our agencies, our bishops and all of our directly funded entities are adjusting their spending plans.”
Lackore blamed the decline on rising health care costs and a sagging economy, including low returns on investments. The Methodists have ordered cutbacks at their communications, missions and social policy offices as a result of the lowered giving.
Only the fund that pays for administrative costs was up, about 1.4 percent, according to United Methodist News Service. The church’s largest fund, the World Service fund, is running low by about $2 million, or 5.7 percent.
Church officials say, however, that the bulk of the church’s money is usually received in the last quarter of the year.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Covington, Bridgeport Dioceses Agree to Abuse Settlements
(RNS) Two small Catholic dioceses have reached settlements in clergy sex abuse cases that together total more than $26 million.
The Diocese of Covington, Ky., agreed Saturday (Oct. 11) to pay $5.2 million to 27 victims in two separate settlements. On Thursday (Oct. 16), the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., reached a $21 million agreement with 40 alleged victims.
Both settlements involve priests who are no longer active in cases that date from the 1960s and 1970s. Lawyers in the Bridgeport settlement say the abuse continued into the early 1990s, when Cardinal Edward Egan of New York was bishop of Bridgeport.
“The pledge of the Diocese of Bridgeport remains firm that there is no priest or deacon or religious man or woman in active ministry in Fairfield County who poses a threat of any kind to a young person,” diocesan spokesman Joseph McAleer told the Associated Press.
In the Covington settlement, the diocese paid $4.4 million to 24 victims and $750,000 to three others. Earlier this year, the neighboring Archdiocese of Louisville agreed to pay $25.7 million to 243 victims.
“I am very pleased that we are able to take this important step, and I pray that it will be the beginning of healing and reconciliation with those who have been deeply hurt as children by priests,” Covington Bishop Roger Foys said in a statement.
In Bridgeport, where officials agreed to a $15 million settlement in 2001, the agreement involves 16 priests accused of child sexual abuse. The current bishop, William Lori, helped craft national sex abuse policies last year for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“This settlement represents vindication for all the survivors of clergy sex abuse and is an acknowledgment of their very personal ordeals,” Cindy Robinson, a victims’ attorney in the case, told the Associated Press.
Suit Over Campus Crusade’s `Jesus’ Film Settled
(RNS) A 2-year-old suit involving Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Jesus” film has been settled.
Film producer John Heyman claimed there were unauthorized changes made in a children’s version of the film, Christian Century reported. He said his reputation had been damaged by the changes and filed suit in New York City seeking damages and the restoration of all rights to him.
The “Jesus” film, which is based on the Gospel of Luke, first appeared in U.S. theaters in 1979, but has been used in various versions since that time as a tool for evangelism.
Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright, who died July 19, had worked with Heyman on widespread exposure of the movie.
“I heard from Bill before he died that the suit was settled,” said Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide, a family-oriented guide to movies and entertainment.
A staffer at the Jesus Film Project, a Campus Crusade affiliate in San Clemente, Calif., confirmed in mid-September that the settlement had been reached, but details were not made public, the magazine reported.
Heyman said in an e-mail: “My relationship with Campus Crusade could not be better and there are no outstanding disputes.”
The Jesus Film Project reports that the movie, dubbed into 800 languages, has been seen by more than 5 billion people.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Conservative Christians Cheer Supreme Court’s Revisit of Porn Law
WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative Christian groups are hailing the Supreme Court’s decision to once again consider the constitutionality of protecting children from online pornography.
The justices decided Tuesday (Oct. 14) to hear arguments concerning the Child Online Pornography Act.
“The court revisits this case at a time when pornography is more available than ever to young people who use the Internet,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, in a statement. “In taking this case, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to ensure that there are constitutional safeguards in place to protect kids from the proliferation of online porn.”
Pat Trueman, a senior adviser for the Family Research Council, also cheered the high court’s consideration of the issue.
“Pornographers are shamelessly enticing our children with free `teaser’ pornographic images,” Trueman said in a statement. “There is no logical or legal reason not to hold pornography peddlers liable for providing minors with material they cannot legally possess.”
In 1997, the court struck down Congress’ first comprehensive effort to penalize people who make it too simple for children to find online pornographic material. The current case will determine whether a subsequent law prevents too much material from being seen by adults, the Associated Press reported. The court also will determine whether the government can mandate an adult-only screening system to prevent children using computers from viewing harmful material.
The Child Online Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1998, has been rejected twice at the appellate level. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has represented explicit Web sites, booksellers and others, challenged the law as an unconstitutional barrier to free speech.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Canadian Suing Government Says Driver’s License Photos Are Devil’s Work
TORONTO (RNS) An Ontario man is taking the provincial government to court over his belief that digital driver’s license photos are the work of the devil.
Clutching a Bible and quoting from the Book of Revelation, George Bothwell, 57, told a news conference Wednesday (Oct. 15) that allowing digital photographs of his face to be stored in a government database will brand him with “the mark of the beast.”
“The Bible says that he who worships the beast or receives his image shall drink the wine of the wrath of God,” said Bothwell, quoting several ominous-sounding passages by heart.
While acknowledging that the prophecy was written two millennia ago when there was no vocabulary to describe 21st century technology, Bothwell believes “the God of the Bible wants individual freedom. This system enforces external control over people. This technology will allow central control over people’s behavior, which the Bible warns us against.”
Trouble is, Bothwell is a farmer who needs a driver’s license to operate equipment on his organic farm and liquid manure spreading business in Owen Sound, northwest of Toronto.
He wants Ontario’s ministry of transport to issue him a religious exemption from having to have his picture taken.
The ministry does allow for a religious exemption provided certain beliefs are held by a “congregation” to which the complainant belongs, and whose leader can vouch for the beliefs in writing.
Bothwell’s lawyer, Clay Ruby, has filed an application for a judicial review in Superior Court, and says his client is far from being a religious flake.
“I don’t think that anyone will dismiss him as a wingnut, because these views are widely held,” said Ruby. “George doesn’t have a congregation; he doesn’t have a religious leader other than Jesus Christ, whom, as he points out, is not about to write a letter of support for him to the Ontario government.”
Bothwell began driving in 1962. When the province introduced photo cards in 1986, he was allowed to provide a Polaroid, which he still has on the license he carries in his wallet. But in 1997, after the Ministry of Transportation introduced one-piece licenses with digitized photographs, Bothwell refused to have his picture taken and spent the next several years trying to get an exemption.
A ministry spokesman said none of Ontario’s 8.3 million drivers has ever been granted a religious exemption from having a photograph taken for a license.
_ Ron Csillag
Quote of the Day: Dissident Catholic Theologian Hans Kung
(RNS) “For the Catholic Church, this papacy was a disaster despite some positive aspects. Don’t be fooled by the Masses at big papal events. During this papacy, millions have fled the church or quietly turned inward.”
_ Hans Kung, a dissident Swiss theologian, reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s election (Oct. 16) in the Swiss weekly Sonntagszeitung. He was quoted by The New York Times.
DEA END RNS
