c. 2003 Religion News Service

Senators, Religious Leaders Speak for Proposed Federal Marriage Amendment

WASHINGTON (RNS) Three senators joined a range of religious leaders Wednesday (Sept. 17) in declaring their support for a proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.

“In my view, it is incontestable that marriage is a valuable thing,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol.

“The formal definition of marriage as we’ve understood it for so many years is the union of a man and a woman in holy matrimony.”

Sessions and Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., took part in the conference held by Alliance for Marriage, which has campaigned for several years for a constitutional amendment that would codify that definition.

“Gays and lesbians have a right to live as they choose,” said Matt Daniels, president of the alliance, which is based in Merrifield, Va. “But they don’t have a right to redefine marriage for our entire society.”

Religious leaders from a variety of racial, ethnic and denominational backgrounds added their voices to the cause a week after the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops gave their “general support” to a proposed amendment.

“ … we are all convinced that protecting the legal status of marriage _ and in the process protecting the understanding and values that society has held for millennia _ is a necessary condition for the renewal of a marriage-based culture in the United States,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, director of the Washington office of Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox Jewish movement.

Fred Estrada, a representative of the Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia, called marriage a “bedrock” of families and churches.

“What is clear to us is that when marriage is tampered with or not taken seriously, chaos and social consequences abound,” he said.

Sayyid Syeed, executive director of the Islamic Society of North America, said his organization as well as the African-American Muslim movement are represented on the alliance’s board of advisers.

“… it is noteworthy to recall that three years ago, the Alliance for Marriage stood alone in launching the campaign for the Federal Marriage Amendment on the national stage,” he said. “Today, we are seeing many groups and leaders around the country now following the lead of our coalition.”

The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based group supporting gay rights, has opposed the proposed amendment, which would prevent same-sex couples from having the rights of civil marriage.

“Civil marriage is entirely separate from religious marriage,” said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch in a statement released on the day the Catholic bishops’ statement was announced. “Same-sex couples are simply seeking the same rights and protections under the law that most Americans take for granted.”

Sessions said he disagrees with those who think the amendment is not necessary.

“It is appropriate for the American people to answer this question,” he said. “If the American people do not answer it, it may be answered by courts with lifetime appointments, unaccountable to the people and who may be out of step with what the American people think and value.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Church-State Groups Criticize Church Service Featuring Clinton, Davis

(RNS) Two groups concerned about church-state separation have criticized a Los Angeles church service in which former President Clinton declared his opposition to a recall election that could oust California Gov. Gray Davis.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has requested that the Internal Revenue Service review the tax-exempt status of First African Methodist Episcopal Church on the basis of news reports of the Sunday (Sept. 14) worship service.

“I believe any fair-minded person would conclude that this event, coming just three weeks before the scheduled recall election, was designed to influence voters to retain Davis in office,” wrote the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog group in a Tuesday letter to the director of the IRS’ division dealing with exempt organizations.

The date of the election, originally scheduled for Oct. 7, is in question due to ongoing legal appeals.

Tim Harms, an IRS spokesman, said the request will follow the standard procedure, where specialists review inquiries and determine if an investigation is warranted.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, also criticized the speeches by Clinton and Davis at the service.

“Whenever a pulpit or house of worship is used as the backdrop to endorse a candidate for public office of any party or any partisan political cause, the Interfaith Alliance says that it is not only an inappropriate use of religion, it is plain wrong,” said Gaddy, whose Washington-based organization lobbies for religious freedom and interfaith understanding.

The Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, pastor of First AME Church, said of the critics: “They would do well to listen to the tape of the whole proceedings and … demonstrate where we crossed the line. President Clinton was saying that the recall effort was wrong. That did not cross the line.”

Murray said that in his own remarks he said “we are his posse,” referring to his friendship with the governor and his wife, who “helped us to feed some 3,000 people at Christmastime with turkeys and foodstuffs.”

He said his church has been open to Republican guests as well.

“We have tried to walk the line between … the separation of church and state … and I think we’ve done a fairly good job,” he said. “We’ll be open for criticism, of course.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

British Aid Groups Chastise Lagging Effort on Infant, Maternal Mortality

LONDON (RNS) Urgent action by governments and agencies throughout the world is needed if targets of reducing child deaths and maternal mortality are to be met, according to a coalition of religious aid agencies and other nongovernmental organizations in a report published Sept. 18.

The report comes on the heels of the collapse of World Trade Organization talks aimed at reducing subsidies to farmers in industrialized nations. It called on Western governments to increase development aid and to abandon trade subsidies and protectionism in agriculture and textiles, while allowing developing countries the flexibility to protect their own infant industries and such vulnerable sectors as small farmers.

The coalition _ the Grow Up Free from Poverty Coalition _ includes Christian Aid, CAFOD, Save the Children, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the Mothers’ Union, the National Council of Hindu Temples and the United Reformed Church.

It used as its benchmark the Millennium Development Goals adopted at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, which include reducing the number of children dying in the first five years of their life by two-thirds by the year 2015 and reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths.

However, the report found that without increased aid, some African countries would need another 150 years to reach these targets.

It cited figures showing the mortality rate for children under five was 150 per thousand in Africa compared to 34 per thousand in the Americas and a mere 18 per thousand in Europe. There were also wide variations between different countries in the same region, with Mauritius having a child mortality rate of 21 per thousand compared to Niger’s 335.

In all countries, both developed and developing, the report said, governments should allocate an adequate proportion of their resources to basic health services: “Health and finance ministries need to work together to ensure that all people, including children and women seeking maternal health care, have access to effective basic health services,” the report said.

_ Robert Nowell

Interfaith Families Express How They Connect to Judaism

(RNS) The Jewish community is still buzzing over the figures from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001, which showed that the intermarriage rate is either 47 percent or 54 percent, depending on how it is calculated.

Either way, the intermarriage rate is high, and many Jews worry about companion statistics showing that only one-third of intermarried couples raise Jewish children, and children of intermarried parents are more likely to intermarry themselves.

An essay contest from InterfaithFamily.com, however, shows that many interfaith families are choosing Judaism. In the writers’ words, say IFF organizers, lays hope for preserving and encouraging a vibrant Jewish identity among intermarried people.

The contest, which announced its winners Sept. 12, accepted 130 entries for consideration. The works were judged in categories including “Raising Jewish Children,” “Loving Jewish Grandchildren,” “Claiming My Jewish Roots” and “Engaging in Jewish Life.”

The winning essays had titles like, “I Am Not a Crisis,” “`On the Doorposts of Our House,” and, in a special category for essays by authors under age 15, “Keeping the Interfaith, for My Dad.”

Essays reveal that interfaith families juggle feelings of wanting to remain true to two heritages while recognizing that Judaism is a tradition that is in need of special preservation.

First-prize winner Gary Goldhammer, in the “Raising Jewish Children” category, wrote a letter to his deceased father describing how proud he would be of his 4-year-old granddaughter’s Jewish identity.

“She is a Jew, Dad. I want you to know that. She has taught me that you don’t get Judaism from a book _ you get Judaism from your soul,” Goldhammer, who is married to a Lutheran woman, wrote.

The grand prize winner, an essay called “Hadassah,” tells of a woman who was raised Catholic and identified herself as Catholic until she attended a bar mitzvah and heard Hebrew prayers for the first time.

“And it was then, for the first time, that I felt my heart stand at attention. I did not read or speak Hebrew, and I had no intellectual understanding of what was being said. But it felt almost as if someone had called me by my true name,” wrote Andi Rosenthal.

There is much to learn from the essays, says Edmund Case, president and publisher of IFF, chiefly that more interfaith families will make Jewish choices if they feel welcomed into Jewish life.

“We need to have a real change in attitudes. Traditionally, `kol yisrael areivim zeh la’zeh’ _ every Jew is responsible for every other Jew. To strengthen the Jewish community by increasing the participation of interfaith families, we need to add that every Jew should also be responsible to be aware of and sensitive to, and to take advantage of, every opportunity to invite interfaith families into Jewish life,” wrote Case in an analysis of the essays.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

House Passes Tax Cuts to Foster Charitable Giving

(RNS) The House has passed tax cuts totaling more than $12 billion to encourage charitable donations.

Passage of the measure, in a 408-13 vote on Sept. 17 marks the latest juncture in legislative consideration of a portion of President Bush’s faith-based initiative.

The largest of the tax breaks gives new incentives to charity-conscious taxpayers who can’t deduct charitable donations from their taxes because they don’t itemize deductions. For two years, taxpayers using the standard deduction could deduct as much as $250 in donations to charity, the Associated Press reported.

Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., said the new deduction will reward those who regularly make small donations to their churches and other local charities.

“They want to give, but they also want to have money to pay the bills,” Ford said. “This bill is one way we can empower people to give more to charity, for it empowers those whose compassion runs deep, especially those who do not have deep pockets.”

Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., affirmed the bill’s language that encourages companies to increase their donations to religious organizations.

“Many of our nation’s largest foundations have a bias against giving to the community of faith,” he said. “Let’s hope that the public, let’s hope that shareholders demand a change.”

Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., predicted the tax breaks will encourage $45 billion to $50 billion in additional donations to charity over the next decade.

He said lawmakers have yet to schedule a meeting to develop a compromise between House and Senate bills, but he said he expected the bill will be finished and sent to the president later this year.

The Senate version, called the Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment Act or the CARE bill, provides $10.6 billion in tax incentives for charitable giving and a $1.3 million increase in funds for social services.

Quote of the Day: King Abdullah II of Jordan

(RNS) “The evil that occurred on Sept. 11 two years ago left scars on the whole world, but none as great as the false idea that Islam encourages violence.”

_ King Abdullah II of Jordan, in an editorial in the Sept. 14 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

DEA END RNS