c. 2003 Religion News Service

Michigan Retailer Reaches Settlement With Christian Employee

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) After firing a cake decorator who refused to work on a Sunday, one of Michigan’s largest retailers pledged to improve the way it accommodates employees’ religious practices.

Meijer, Inc., with 157 stores in the Midwest, settled a lawsuit by agreeing to train supervisors to avoid religious discrimination and make shift swaps a possible remedy. If conflicts arise, personnel managers will try to solve them _ not an employee’s immediate boss.

Meijer is making significant changes after having “inadequate” procedures to assist employees whose religious beliefs clash with their work schedule, said attorney Adele Rapport of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, known as the EEOC.

The EEOC sued Meijer on behalf of Debra Kerkstra of Allegan, a member of the Christian Reformed Church who was fired in 2001 after refusing to work a Sunday at a store in Plainwell. Kerkstra will receive $22,000 under the agreement.

“Sunday is the Lord’s day, a day of rest and worship,” she said.

Kerkstra said she lined up a replacement, but the store refused to allow the switch. That employee ended up working Kerkstra’s shift when she failed to report.

“I was forced to choose between my job and my religion. I chose my religion and lost my job,” said Kerkstra, who worked only one Sunday during 12 months at the store.

In a similar case in suburban Detroit, a meat cutter sued Meijer after he was fired for failing to work on a Sunday. The company recently settled Pavle Doroslavac’s complaint out of court.

Companies must try to accommodate the religious practices of workers as a result of a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But a day off is not automatic if finding a substitute or paying overtime creates a hardship for an employer.

Asked if the government’s lawsuit embarrassed the company, Meijer spokesman John Zimmerman said: “Sometimes, you just need to try a little harder.”

“By law you can’t discriminate,” he added. “But keep in mind we are a retailer. We have union contracts. We have business needs. We’re juggling several things at once. We need to concentrate more and juggle them better.”

After 15 years as a 24-hour business, only two lawsuits over religion and work is a “pretty good track record,” Zimmerman said.

_ Ed White

Mennonites Approve New Statement on Abortion

(RNS) The nation’s largest Mennonite denomination approved a new policy statement on abortion that expresses the church’s opposition to the procedure but does not call for it to be illegal.

The Mennonite Church USA, at its recent assembly in Atlanta, approved the statement 687-160 on July 5. It combines 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.

“Human life is a gift from God to be valued and protected,” the six-page statement says. “We oppose abortion because it runs counter to biblical principles.”

The statement clearly says that human life begins at conception and that “the fetus in its earliest stages … shares humanity with those who conceived it.” The statement said the fetus is “not just a piece of tissue to be discarded at will.”

The church warned against using abortion as a type of birth control or to limit family size. Christians were urged to provide “viable alternatives” to abortion and to be willing to serve as adoptive parents.

The statement said abortion can be permissible in “the most exceptional of circumstances,” such as saving the life of the mother. The church cautioned, however, that “what the law permits is not necessarily moral behavior for the Christian.”

Still, the church pledged to “act with compassion toward those who choose to have an abortion” and promised to not be “judgmental of those with unwanted pregnancies.”

The statement discourages attempts to criminalize abortion. Delegates defeated, 486-356, an amendment that would have urged the church to work toward overturning the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The final statement says “banning all abortions would not stop abortions from happening.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Mother Teresa’s Order Moves to Copyright Name and Logo

(RNS) In keeping with Mother Teresa’s will, the nuns of her Calcutta-based order are seeking to copyright her name and the order’s logo to prevent other organizations from exploiting her fame for commercial interests.

Mother Teresa, who died in Calcutta in 1997 at the age of 87, is regarded by many as a hero for her work among India’s poor and sick. Her order applied to the Indian patents office after receiving word that several organizations, including banks and business schools, were seeking to use the Nobel peace laureate’s name, Reuters reported.

“In her lifetime, Mother Teresa expressed on a number of occasions her wish that her name not be used by any other individuals or organizations without her permission, and after her death, the permission of her successor,” Sister Nirmala, the head of the order, said in a statement.

The Missionaries of Charity, which Mother Teresa founded in 1950, is also seeking a patent for its logo _ a cross in an oval surrounded by rosary beads.

Many organizations, such as the Dehli-based Mother Teresa Institute of Management, have already dropped her name from their companies’ titles in response to the order’s wishes, Sister Nirmala told the BBC.

Mother Teresa is expected to be beatified, or declared blessed in a step toward sainthood, by the Roman Catholic Church later this year.

U.S. Catholics Increase Contributions, but Vatican Ends 2002 in the Red

VATICAN CITY (RNS) U.S. Catholics, the leading contributors to Vatican expenses, increased their offerings in 2002 despite the pedophilia scandals that have left some U.S. dioceses in dire financial straits, the Vatican said Thursday (July 10).

Vatican financial officers told a news conference that the Vatican ended 2002 more than $15 million in the red, mainly because of the continuing world economic crisis. A surprise increase in contributions worldwide, however, helped to offset the deficit in part.

Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, said that U.S. Catholics remained the biggest contributors, followed by Germans and Italians. Total contributions totaled about $96.5 million.

The prelate said contributions were up globally, and in spite of the scandals over pedophile priests that broke out in Boston in January 2002 and spread throughout the country, “there was also an increase in the offerings by the United States.”

“I don’t remember how much it was, but there was an increase,” Sebastiani said of the U.S. contributions to the Vatican. He said exact figures would be contained in a report to bishops and religious institutions throughout the world.

The contributions come from dioceses, foundations, associations, other Catholic organizations and individuals and are distinct from the “Peter’s Pence” collections taken in congregations once a year for papal charities and Vatican expenses. The Peter’s Pence contributions rose by about 1.8 percent to about $52 million, officials said.

The Vatican’s deficit for 2002 was $15.3 million _ the second straight deficit year following eight years of surplus. The 2001 deficit was just over $3 million.

“In 2002 the world economy entered a phase in which the symptoms of a crisis that began in the last part of 2000 became accentuated, and the end is not yet in sight,” he said.

The Vatican suffered worst in its financial activities, he said. It lost $50.9 million through fluctuations in exchange rates for a total loss of $64 million against income of $45.7 million.

Although the Vatican maintained “strict control” over institutional expenses _ cutting spending by its embassies and public service expenses in particular _ it had a deficit of $22.8 million in that sector, the cardinal said, which was lower than the $37 million deficit in 2001.

Institutional activity includes the work of the Secretariat of State, congregations, councils, tribunals, the Synod of Bishops and other Vatican offices, which generate no income.

Ivan Ruggiero, chief accountant for the prefecture, estimated the Vatican’s property holdings at about $790 million, but noted that this is only a book value as it is impossible to put a price on such holdings as St. Peter’s Basilica and Michelangelo’s Pieta.

_ Peggy Polk

British Bank Offers No-Interest Mortgages for Muslims

LONDON (RNS) One of Britain’s High Street banks has become the first to offer its customers Islamic mortgages _ a method of borrowing money to buy a house without violating Islamic laws against paying interest.

The bank, HSBC, is also offering its Muslim customers current accounts that conform to Shariah law, in which customers are not paid interest on the balance, but neither can the customer be charged interest on an overdraft.

Overdrafts are, strictly speaking, ruled out, but if a customer inadvertently goes into the red, a management charge will be levied.

Until this year’s budget, Islamic mortgages suffered from the drawback of attracting stamp duty _ levied on the sale of a property _ twice over. But this was lifted in April by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

Under the HSBC scheme the bank buys the property and leases it back to the customer over an agreed term, usually 25 years. The customer makes monthly payments made up of rent and an installment of the purchase price. The bank owns the property until the customer has made the final payment.

The home finance scheme and the Islamic bank accounts will initially be available starting Monday (July 14) at four of the bank’s branches. The bank hopes to expand the program to 25 branches by mid-September.

The bank, which is advised by Islamic scholars from Pakistan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, estimated that 100,000 Muslim homes _ 70 percent of all Muslim homes _ are currently financed by conventional mortgages that violate Islamic law.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Executive Richard Land

(RNS) “I would say that Pat Robertson is way out on his own, in a leaking life raft, on this one.”

_ Richard Land, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, responding to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson’s support of Liberian President Charles Taylor. Land was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE END RNS