c. 2003 Religion News Service

Poll: Religious Right Members Most Likely to Favor War in Iraq

(RNS) Americans who identify with the religious right are most likely to favor military action in Iraq, a new Gallup poll reveals.

Seventy percent of adults polled who said they were a member of the religious right said they favored such action by the military, while 26 percent said they were opposed to war. The national average in the poll taken Feb. 17-19 was 59 percent in favor and 38 percent opposed.

Sixty percent or more of respondents in other categories related to religious interest supported military action. For example, 64 percent of those who said they were born again or evangelical, 63 percent of those who attend church almost every week, and 62 percent of those who said religion was “fairly important” spoke in favor of such action.

While 70 percent of those who consider themselves members of the religious right favored a military conflict, 56 percent of those who do not consider themselves in that category said they favored it.

Forty-nine percent of those who said religion is “not very important” in their lives said they favored a war while 60 percent who said religion is “very important” support military action.

The findings are based on telephone interviews with 1,002 adults nationwide. The poll of that number of respondents has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The same poll also examined the relationship between religion and political party identification. It found that 38 percent or more of the following categories of people identified with the Republican Party: those who consider themselves born again or evangelical, attend church almost every week or more often, or attended church in the week before the poll was taken, and who are members of the religious right.

Thirty-six percent of those who attend church at least once a week and the same percentage of those who say religion is very important said they identified with the Democratic Party.

Less than 25 percent of those who are not members of a church or synagogue, never attend church and who say religion is not very important identified themselves as Republicans.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Kennedy Blasts Bush on Iraq at Methodist Meeting

WASHINGTON (RNS) Sen. Edward Kennedy told activists from President Bush’s own denomination that the president has squandered international good will by planning war against Saddam Hussein while ignoring the greater threat in North Korea.

Kennedy, long the standard bearer of the Senate’s left wing, said a war against Iraq is “unnecessary” and will only serve to “inflame” the Arab world and make Americans less safe at home and abroad.

“Al-Qaida, not Iraq, is the most imminent threat to our national security,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday (March 4). “Our citizens are asked to protect themselves from Osama (bin Laden) with plastic sheeting and duct tape, while the administration prepares to send our armed forces to war with Iraq. Those priorities are wrong.”

Kennedy addressed the annual meeting here of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society. The head of the agency, Jim Winkler, has been sharply critical of Bush’s foreign policy and has met with European leaders to plot opposition to an Iraq war.

The Methodists also heard from Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, another Bush critic who recently launched a bid to challenge Bush for the White House in 2004.

Kennedy, who last fall voted not to give Bush authority to wage war against Iraq, criticized Bush’s “chip-on-the-shoulder, my-way-or-the-highway policy” that has made the United States into a bully on the “world school yard.” Kennedy said Bush’s willingness to go it alone will make rebuilding Iraq harder, and more expensive for American taxpayers.

Kennedy also rebuked Bush for seemingly ignoring the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. “Something is gravely wrong at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue if we rush to war with a country that poses no nuclear threat, but won’t even talk to one that brandishes its nuclear power right now.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

U.S. Missionary Killed, Another Injured, in Philippines Bombing

(RNS) A Southern Baptist missionary was killed and another injured on Tuesday (March 4) when a bomb exploded outside an airport terminal in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people.

Missionary William P. Hyde, 59, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was killed when he arrived at the airport in Davao to pick up Barbara and Mark Stevens, also a missionary family, and their children.

Barbara Stevens, 33, was slightly injured in the attack, and her 10-month-old son, Nathan, was hit by shrapnel. Her husband and daughter escaped injury.

“I just heard it explode to my side,” Barbara Stevens told the Associated Press from the hospital. “I was carrying my infant son so I grabbed my daughter and picked her up and ran away. I was afraid there could be more bombs.”

Hyde and his wife, who have two grown sons, were first appointed as missionaries by the Southern Baptists’ International Mission Board in 1978. Hyde worked in church and leadership development, according to a church news release. Stevens and her husband, who worked as a church planter, were appointed in 2000.

“Our hearts go out to these families and their coworkers,” said Larry Cox, a spokesman for the missions agency. “We are moving quickly to assist the missionaries affected by this tragedy.”

Reports say the bomb exploded in a backpack near a shelter where people were gathered to escape a rain storm. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Filipino officials have already blamed Muslim militants.

“The president condemns the bombing in the Philippines this morning,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “We are working closely with the Philippine government, which has fought valiantly in the war on terror.”

This was the first American missionary death this year, after a string of deaths last year. On Dec. 30, three Southern Baptist missionaries were killed during a raid on a church-run hospital in Yemen. In November, a missionary was shot and killed in an ambush outside a clinic in Lebanon, and several adults were killed in an attack at a Presbyterian hospital and school earlier in the year.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Archbishop of Canterbury Endorses `Fair Trade’ Movement

LONDON (RNS) Newly entrhoned Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in his first public appearance since last week’s enthronement ceremony, used the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake race at Canterbury Cathedral to strongly endorse the “fair trade” movement.

The “fair trade” movement, which is becoming increasingly popular on both sides of the Atlantic, aims to help small Third World producers of such goods as coffee, to get a fair price for their products.

Williams noted that he has been a strong supporter of the movement for many years. “It is a way of showing that consumers can make a difference by being ethical consumers,” he added.

Among the 11 clergy taking part in the pancake race were Bishop of Dover Stephen Venner and Archdeacon of Canterbury Patrick Evans. But the joint winners were two parish priests: the Rev. David Hayes and the Rev. Peter Cornish.

Also participating in the pancake race _ in which racers must flip pancakes while running _ was TV chef Michael Barry, a Muslim.

Also present were Denise Sutherland, a banana farmer from St. Vincent in the Caribbean, and the director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb, who said sales of Fairtrade food had risen by more than 90 percent in the last two years. Fairtrade products include coffee, tea, bananas, chocolate, cocoa, biscuits, honey, sugar, fruit juice and fresh fruit. Criteria for cotton, rice, nuts, seeds and wine to be marketed under the Fairtrade label are currently being worked out.

The movement began in 1986 when coffee farmers in southern Mexico asked a Dutch development organization for “trade not aid,” and two years later the first Fairtrade label was launched. There are now 17 national organizations under the umbrella of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International which lays down internationally agreed criteria. The UK Fairtrade Foundation was set up by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange, and the World Development Movement.

_ Robert Nowell

Catholic, Jewish Delegations Join in Condemning Suicide Bombings

VATICAN CITY (RNS) – High-level Catholic and Jewish delegations have joined in a statement condemning suicide bombings and calling terrorism carried out in the name of God “sacrilegious.”

The statement, which also upheld the sanctity of human life and urged respect for family values, was issued Monday (March 3) by members of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, who met Feb. 23-27 in Villa Cavalletti at Grottaferrata near Rome.

It was the first time an Israeli delegation has met with Catholic officials for interfaith dialogue.

“The discussions, held in a warm and friendly atmosphere, centered on the subject of how to further peace, harmony and religious values in contemporary societies,” the joint statement said. It said the dialogue respected the “different religious identities” and excluded “any intention of converting.”

In a clear reference to suicide bombings by Palestinian extremists, the statement said, “Taking any human life, including one’s own, even in the name of God, is sacrilegious.”

“No religious leader can condone terrorism anywhere in the world,” they said. “It is a profanation of religion to declare oneself a terrorist in the name of God, to do violence to others in his name. Terrorist violence everywhere in the world is a contradiction of faith in God.”

The statement said that the Catholic and Jewish officials agreed that “every believer, particularly religious leaders, should cooperate in protecting human life.”

Upholding the institution of the family, they called the traditional family unit “the basis for a wholesome society,” adding: “We cannot agree to alternative models of couples’ union and of the family.”

The delegations were led by Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, an Argentine prelate who is church librarian and archivist, and Rabbi Shar Yishuv Cohen. Members included the Rev. Georges Cottier, the papal theologian, and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican’s envoy to Israel and Palestine.

_ Peggy Polk

Quote of the Day: the Rev. Bill Devine, chaplain for the 7th Marine Regiment

(RNS) “I know this doesn’t necessarily mean that God will be in their lives forever. But their experiences over here will change them, and if that includes bringing God more into the picture, so much the better.”

_ The Rev. Bill Devine, chaplain for the 7th Marine Regiment stationed in Kuwait, discussing battlefield conversions. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

DEA END RNS