c. 2003 Religion News Service
Poll Finds Gap Between Older and Younger Adults on Homosexuality, Sex
(RNS) Researchers say the gulf on moral issues is only getting larger between young people and older Americans, but experts say the gap is not necessarily permanent.
The Gallup Moral Views and Values survey shows a gulf of 41 percentage points between young people _ those between 18 and 24 _ and people over the age of 65 on whether premarital sex is morally acceptable. Sixty-nine percent of young people say it is acceptable, compared to only 28 percent of older Americans.
Similar gaps exist on homosexuality _ 55 percent of young people see it as morally acceptable, compared to 21 percent of older adults. A 20 percent gap was found on approval of cloning animals (38 percent of young people and 18 percent of older adults) and an 18 percent gap on approval of legalized abortion (43 percent of young people versus 25 percent of older people).
Both groups nearly agree on the morality of married people having affairs (only 7 percent of youth and 6 percent of older people saw it as acceptable) and suicide (12 percent of young adults and 14 percent of older adults).
Lovett Weems Jr., a former president at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., said in an e-mail newsletter that the gaps will likely inch closer over time.
“The attitudes of the young will change somewhat as they grow older,” Weems said. “However, the patterns will probably not change considerably. What we are seeing here is a cultural shift on several issues of sexuality and morality very much like what happened in previous years as the population as a whole shifted in its moral perceptions about divorce.”
Weems said both groups have something to learn from the other.
“The young help older persons question and clarify moral practices and positions taken for granted for lifetimes,” he said. “Older persons, as illustrated in the lower support among the older group for the death penalty, can offer the young a perspective gained from age that moral issues that may seem simple are often much more complex.”
The poll of more than 3,000 adults is conducted each May and started in 2001. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, but a margin of plus or minus 6 percentage points for respondents between the ages of 18 and 25.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Atlanta Archdiocese Plans Suit Against Church Claiming to be Catholic
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta plans to sue a small network of charismatic churches that are claiming to be Catholic but have no affiliation with either the archdiocese or the Vatican.
Archdiocesan attorney David Brown said he wants the “Capilla de la Fe” (Chapel of Faith) group of nine churches to “advise the public that they are not associated with the Roman Catholic Church,” according to the Georgia Bulletin archdiocesan newspaper.
Clergy with the Capilla de la Fe churches dress like Catholic priests and administer sacraments, including confessions. Last spring, one chapel posted a “Catholic Mission” sign on its lawn.
“We’ve attempted to work with their attorney on a cooperative basis. That has been unsuccessful so we’re going to court,” he told the newspaper. “What they’re doing in Atlanta is misrepresenting themselves to be associated with the Roman Catholic Church and they’re misleading these folks to make them believe they’re part of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and none of that is true.”
Archbishop John Donoghue, in a July 28 letter to parishioners, said, “This group is not in communion with our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, and they are not approved by me as archbishop of Atlanta.”
Church officials say immigrants often cannot distinguish between a genuine Roman Catholic church and an imposter. “The Hispanic community is not accustomed to question,” said Leonardo Jaramillo, a young adult minister with the Catholic Church’s Hispanic Apostolate. “If they see people dressed like a priest, they think that they are.”
The Georgia Bulletin referenced a question-and-answer article in the Spanish weekly Nuestro Seminario. Julio Cesar Freitas, identified as a bishop in Capilla de la Fe, told the weekly that his church is a “Catholic Church by the grace of God” and said, “Yes, we belong” to the Roman Catholic Church.
One parish identifies itself as part of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Pentecostal denomination. Freitas also said he belongs to “the Charismatic Church.”
But, in a Capilla de la Fe publication, “The Truth,” an article on the Catholic sex abuse scandal said, “Sincere people don’t stay in the Roman Catholic Church. Rather they leave it!” according to the Georgia Bulletin.
Monsignor Bill Hoffman, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Dalton,Ga., said “they have the freedom to do as they wish, but their intention to mislead the people by pretending to be Catholic bothers us.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Billy Graham Mourns Johnny Cash, Says `Like A Brother’
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham joined other friends and fans of Johnny Cash in paying tribute to the musician who died Friday (Sept. 12), calling him “deeply religious” and comparing him to a brother.
In a statement issued on the day of Cash’s death, Graham recalled his personal friendship with the country music legend.
“Johnny was a deeply religious man,” Billy Graham said. “He and June came to a number of our crusades over a period of many years. Ruth and I took a number of personal vacations with them at their home in Jamaica and in other places. They both were like a brother and sister to Ruth and me.”
In “Lamp Unto My Feet,” a 1997 book by Art Toalston, Cash was among 365 Christian leaders who discussed favorite Bible verses. His was Romans 8:13 in the New International Version: “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live ….”
Cash said of those words: “Years ago I claimed this Scripture as my own promise, and I feel there were many times a life-saving situation was realized by turning to this Scripture for counsel. In other words, the Scriptures, or God speaking through them, have saved my life. This Scripture, especially.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Marks 50th Anniversary
JERUSALEM (RNS) Thousands of participants from Israel and abroad this week gathered at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, to mark the institution’s 50th anniversary.
Yad Vashem, whose name, “memorial,” was inspired by the biblical book of Isaiah (chapter 56), houses a museum, a library, a children’s wing,and an extensive archive where scholars from around the world conduct research. Virtually every head of state who visits Israel lays a wreath at the site of the eternal flame.
One of the first Holocaust centers to be established after the Second World War, Yad Vashem’s exhibitions, while moving, lacked the luster of the newer Holocaust museums built elsewhere. In order to attract younger visitors for whom the Holocaust is merely history, the museum embarked on a $30 million renovation that will be completed at the end of this jubilee year.
Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, said the national museum is now more relevant than ever.
“With the passage of time, as the generation of Holocaust survivors grows older, the legacy of the Holocaust is being … passed on to the next generation,” Shalev noted. “At the same time, a large sector of the public in Israel and worldwide is showing a renewed and growing interest in the Holocaust. The shifting of generations requires us to transmit the memory of the Holocaust using modern, innovative tools available through the information and communication technologies of the new millennium.”
Yad Vashem’s jubilee year will be marked by the theme: “Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future” and will include numerous special activities and projects.
Among them, the “Eternal Fund for Preserving and Perpetuating the Memory of the Holocaust” will be established in order to ensure the perpetuation of the memory of the Holocaust and preserve Yad Vashem’s ability to fulfill this mission.
_ Michele Chabin
Muslim Inmates Lose Court Bid for Religiously Approved Meats
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) New Jersey State Prison does not have to provide its Muslim inmates with meals containing meat prepared according to Islamic dietary law, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The judges agreed with state Department of Corrections officials that it would cost too much to serve “halal” meat to more than 200 inmates at the maximum security prison in Trenton, and the Muslim prisoners have many other opportunities to practice their religion.
Other religious inmates, including Jews, are served special meals to conform to their beliefs. But because all those meals are vegetarian, the prison is not discriminating against Muslims by serving them meatless meals, the court said.
Prisoners’ rights advocates and Islamic groups said the decision issued earlier this month by a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hurts devout Muslim prisoners around New Jersey who have been seeking meals with halal meat. Although the case was brought by two inmates in the Trenton prison, the ruling effectively covers the entire state system, lawyers on both sides said.
Magdy Hagag, president of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, said he was disappointed by the ruling because the inmates were making a “very legitimate request” for something that wouldn’t cost much.
“We’re in America, where we have tolerated so many special requests for so many religious groups,” Hagag said. “With a state budget of billions of dollars, which we all contribute to … I’m not buying the financial argument.”
Halal is a Muslim dietary law similar to kosher regulations for Jews. Its complex strictures require slaughtered animals to be free of disease and contamination, raised with natural feed and without use of hormones, and killed by a Muslim who recites a prayer. Pork is prohibited.
Three years ago, inmates Ishmon Stallworth and James Williams claimed in their lawsuit that New Jersey State Prison’s refusal to serve halal meals violated their right to practice Islam, while the prison gave special consideration to Jewish inmates.
They argued that the prison spends more than $3,600 a year to meet the kosher needs of each of four Jewish inmates but wouldn’t spent an estimated $280 to feed each of its 225 Muslim prisoners halal meals.
_ Jonathan Schuppe
Thirteen Convicted in Slayings of Missionary, Sons
(RNS) Thirteen men were convicted in an Indian court Monday (Sept. 15) in the 1999 murders of an Australian missionary and his two young sons, who were were burned to death by a mob.
Judge Mahendranath Patnaik made the decision in a Bhubaneshwar, India, court after a 2 1/2 year-trial. He is scheduled to determine sentences on Sept. 22, the Associated Press reported.
In January 1999, Graham Stewart Staines and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, died when a mob burned their vehicle while they slept outside a church in Manoharpur, a tribal village located in the Orissa state in eastern India.
The murders were part of a series of attacks against Christian institutions and missionaries blamed on right-wing Hindus who complained that poor Hindus were under pressure to convert.
“We are 100 percent satisfied,” said prosecutor Sudhakar Rao after the verdict was announced in a packed and tightly guarded courthouse. “It is the triumph of truth.”
Bana Mohanty, a defense lawyer, said the men would appeal.
A 14th defendant was acquitted while those found guilty could receive the death penalty.
John Staines, the missionary’s brother in Australia, hoped those convicted would be spared capital punishment.
“We have forgiven them in Christ’s name. I think these men have to face up to what they’ve done,” he said. By the same token, I don’t want to see them put to death over it.”
Quote of the Day: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
(RNS) “This month millions of families will not share in the pride of sending their children off to school. This is a disheartening reality in a world where education is the right of every child. And it is a major impediment to any effort to reduce poverty. The more children we leave out of school today, the more adults we leave behind a few years down the road. We need some new math.”
_ Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, basing her statement on recent household surveys that indicate some 123 million children are not in school.
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