c. 2003 Religion News Service
Robertson Announces Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
(RNS) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson announced Thursday (Feb. 13) that he has prostate cancer.
“After extensive tests, it has been determined that the cancer does not appear to have metastasized beyond the prostate,” his Christian Broadcasting Network said in a brief statement.
Robertson announced his condition to his television audience.
Surgery to remove his prostate is scheduled for Monday.
“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, his doctors anticipate that Robertson, who will be 73 in March, will be returning to a full schedule within two weeks,” the Virginia Beach, Va.-based network said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Church-State Separationists Sue Prison Fellowship Program
(RNS) A prominent group advocating church-state separation has sued a Prison Fellowship program it believes is operating in Iowa in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed two suits Wednesday (Feb. 12) against Iowa correctional officials, Prison Fellowship and its ministry, InnerChange Freedom Initiative.
The program, the suits charge, offers significant incentives to inmates who subscribe to the “pervasively religious” pre-release program. Participants live in an “honor unit,” have keys to their cells and can use private bathrooms while nonparticipants live in a “lock-up unit” with public toilets.
Americans United also charges that religious aspects of the program are financed through government money, specifically profits from inmate telephone accounts. Plaintiffs in the cases include an inmate who is a client of Americans United and whose telephone account included deposits from the watchdog organization so they could communicate with him. Other plaintiffs include relatives of inmates who make similar deposits and do not agree with the evangelical teachings of InnerChange.
“The program is one of the most egregious violations of church-state separation I’ve ever seen,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “It is unconscionable for the government to give preferential treatment to prisoners based solely on their willingness to undergo religious conversion and indoctrination.”
His group also claims in the suits that the state is “financing religious discrimination in employment” because state funds pay a portion of the salary of InnerChange staffers.
Americans United, a vocal opponent of President Bush’s faith-based initiatives, hopes the suits could influence future government funding of religious activities. Bush, the former governor of Texas, was a supporter of the InnerChange program in a Texas prison.
In response to the suits, Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley issued a statement saying the programs have reduced prisoner recidivism and have advantages over secular programs.
“Contrary to the representation by the suits’ plaintiffs, the InnerChange Freedom Initiative in operation in Iowa in no way violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” said Earley. “In fact, federal law allows a state to include religious organizations as social service providers.”
Earley added that state money used by the program is solely for nonsectarian expenses and that private funds finance religious programming. Americans United charges that Iowa has not monitored the program to prevent state money from being used for religious purposes.
Americans United is seeking a court injunction prohibiting the continued operation of the program in Iowa and the return of state funds used by the ministry.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Mennonites Mull New Statement on Abortion
(RNS) The Mennonite Church USA will update its position on abortion for the first time in 23 years, calling the procedure “counter to biblical principles” but urging compassion for women who face difficult decisions.
The draft statement will likely undergo revisions before it faces a vote by delegates at a churchwide convention in Atlanta in July. George Stoltzfus, a staff member at the Anabaptist Center for Health Care Ethics, said the statement hopes to strike a middle ground.
“This statement speaks against abortion but at the same time doesn’t vilify the person who has had an abortion performed,” said Stoltzfus, a former physician who is helping craft the statement.
The document would combine statements made by the Mennonite Church in 1975 and the General Conference Mennonite Church in 1980. The two churches merged in 2001 to form the Mennonite Church USA.
In the preliminary draft, the church says that “the fetus in its earliest stages (and even if imperfect by human standards) shares humanity with those who created it,” according to the Mennonite Church USA News Service.
The church says that “abortion should not be used to interrupt unwanted pregnancies” and concedes that “we do not presume society will conform to biblical standards” on the morality of abortion.
Still up for debate is what the church will say about whether abortion should no longer be legal. The preliminary draft does not call for the church to advocate a reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
“Most of us agree that abortion is wrong, but where we differ is what to do about it,” said Ed Kauffman, a member of the church’s Constituency Leaders’ Council, which will consider the document before it heads to Atlanta.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Bishops Hail Passage of Human Cloning Ban
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applauded a party-line vote by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (Feb. 12) to ban all forms of human cloning.
Republicans on the committee approved a bill sponsored by Reps. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., that prohibits all human cloning. The same bill cleared the House last year but never saw a vote in the Senate.
“The Judiciary Committee should be commended for approving a real ban on human cloning, and for rejecting amendments to authorize the most grotesque application of human cloning _ mass producing human embryos to destroy them for experimentation,” said Cathy Cleaver, spokeswoman for the bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat.
The bill now moves to the full House. President Bush has promised to sign a bill that imposes a comprehensive ban on all human cloning.
There are two competing cloning bills in the Senate. One bill, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., mirrors the Weldon bill and would ban all forms of human cloning. A competing bill, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would allow “therapeutic cloning” for scientific research but would ban reproductive cloning.
Cleaver said the Feinstein-Hatch bill is ineffective because it still allows human clones to be created only to be destroyed in the research process. Defenders say therapeutic cloning could hold cures for some medical diseases.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
All Anglican Dioceses Agree to Compensate Aboriginals
VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ All 30 dioceses in the Anglican Church of Canada have now ratified an agreement to contribute $17 million to compensate native Indians for abuse they received in the residential school system.
In votes held across the country in the past two months, every Anglican diocese accepted a formula that will see the Anglican Church pay 30 percent of compensation to the schools’ sex-assault victims, with the federal government paying 70 percent. The Anglican Church of Canada _ which ran 26 of the country’s 80 boarding schools, most of which were in Western Canada _ is the first denomination in the country to go so far to heal the wounds caused by the defunct schools, which the federal government started in the 1850s to integrate natives into white culture.
“I’m very pleased with the ways dioceses have responded so quickly and positively to the agreement. It shows the strength of the Anglican family in Canada,” said Jim Boyles, general secretary of the national Anglican Church.
Delegates in several Anglican dioceses voted unanimously for the agreement, which will see the Anglican Church’s contribution to sex-abuse claims capped at $17 million.
“Everybody is a bit surprised these votes passed unanimously across the country. But we’re glad to see it,” said Neale Adams, spokesman for Bishop Michael Ingham and the Vancouver-area diocese.
A tentative date of March 11 has been set for the formal signing by Archbishop Michael Peers, the Anglican primate, and federal Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale, who is in charge of resolving residential school issues. More than 8,000 native Indian lawsuits have been launched against the federal government, which financed the schools, and the Anglican, Catholic, United and Presbyterian churches that operated them on behalf of the government until the 1970s.
The agreement was intended to move litigation over residential schools out of the courts and into a form of alternate dispute resolution.
_ Douglas Todd
UK Census Finds Nearly Three-Quarters Say They’re Christian
LONDON (RNS) Nearly three-quarters of the people of the United Kingdom _ which covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland _ describe themselves as Christian, according to the census carried out in 2001.
It was the first national census since they began in 1801 to ask people about their religion. However, no distinction was made between different denominations as far as the United Kingdom as a whole was concerned, whereas respondents in Scotland and in Northern Ireland were able to specify their denominational allegiance.
The census showed that 71.6 percent described themselves as Christians, 15.5 percent said they had no religion, and 7.3 percent declined to answer the question.
As for non-Christians, 2.7 percent _ or more than 1.5 million people _ said they were Muslim, 1 percent Hindu, 0.5 percent Jewish, 0.6 percent Sikh and 0.3 percent Buddhist.
Other religions made up 0.3 percent of the population.
Encouraged by a campaign on the Internet, 390,000 people _ 0.7 percent of the population _ put their religion down as Jedi. Statistically they have been included among those who said they had no religion.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of Day: Tax-Law Professor Susan Pace Hamill of Alabama
(RNS) “How could we, in a free society of a bunch of Christians, have the worst, most unjust tax structure that you could ever have dreamed up?”
_ Susan Pace Hamill, an Alabama tax-law professor who has set off a revolt by some church leaders over Alabama’s tax code after spending a sabbatical at Samford University’s divinity school. She was quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
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