c. 2003 Religion News Service

Southern Baptist Execs Oppose City’s Proposed Gay Rights Ordinance

(RNS) Southern Baptist Convention executives, opposed to a proposed Nashville, Tenn., ordinance that would increase homosexual rights, say they could change their plans to hold their annual meeting in that city in 2005.

Jack Wilkerson, vice president for business and finance of the denomination’s Executive Committee, wrote to the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau in light of a final city council vote set for Jan. 21, the denomination announced through its news service. At that meeting, the council is expected to consider adding the words “sexual orientation” to a nondiscrimination clause in the city’s law dealing with fair housing and employment.

“We have, in past years, convened the Southern Baptist Convention in cities where every lifestyle is embraced as `normal,”’ he wrote, “but our constituents are telling us today that they do not want to meet in cities where our meeting has to constantly deal with these issues.”

The proposed change, which would add sexual orientation to the list of protected classes of people, has passed two of three required readings. It does not include an exemption for religious organizations _ such as the denomination’s Executive Committee and LifeWay Christian Resources based in Nashville _ but a council member has said he would like to add such an exemption before the final vote.

The denomination previously canceled a contract with a Howard Johnson hotel in St. Louis _ the city where its annual meeting was held last June _ when the hotel planned to host a “Beat Me in St. Louis” conference sponsored by a group that endorses sadomasochism.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Christian Candy Canes Land Students in Court Against School

(RNS) Six Massachusetts high school students have filed suit against their school, arguing that a prohibition on distributing religious materials violates their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression.

The six students at Westfield High School were suspended after passing out candy canes with Christian messages on Dec. 19. The students had been told the day before that they could not distribute materials that are not school-related. The messages includes a prayer for salvation and explained that the J-shape of the candy stands for Jesus and that the red stripes symbolize his blood, which Christians believe was shed for human salvation. “We really don’t want to come across as sue-happy Christians,” student Stephen Grabowski told The Boston Globe. “This is nothing against the school, but the policy needs to be changed.” The students want their suspensions rescinded, the school’s actions declared unconstitutional and the ability to distribute materials while their suit is pending. The six students are members of the school’s Bible Club and are represented by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel. The students were ordered on Jan. 2 to serve one day of in-school suspension. Schools Superintendent Thomas McDowell said the case had nothing to do with religion but rather in following school policy. “In following Jesus’ example it shows us there are times when you need to go against authority, and that is mostly when it comes to preaching the gospel,” Grabowski, 16, told The Globe. Spanish Bishops Censure Catholic Theologian for Book About Jesus MADRID (RNS) Spain’s bishops have condemned a Roman Catholic theologian who wrote a book about Jesus they say is “incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The censure of Juan Jose Tamayo Acosta, a Madrid university professor and vocal critic of the Opus Dei movement, appears to be deepening the divide between conservatives and reformers in the Spanish church. Spanish news reports said the action was taken with the blessing of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger following a three-year investigation of the theologian’s work by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In a statement, the Spanish bishops’ conference said Tamayo’s book, “Dios y Jesus” (God and Jesus), presents Jesus “as a mere man, negating the real and historical character of the resurrection.” The bishops said the book _ which seeks to present together Jesus’ religious perspective with an emphasis on his devotion to liberty _ is little more than a rehash of the teaching postulated by the 4th century heretic Arius, who presented Jesus as a human agent of God. “The author’s contribution is nothing but a repetition of the old Arian error; the conclusions are incompatible with the Catholic faith,” the statement said. The bishops also said “the author lacks the canonical mission to teach theology” and criticized his op-ed pieces in the Spanish media in which he is identified as a Catholic theologian. Last year, Tamayo bitingly criticized the canonization of Opus Dei’s Spanish founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, which he said was “bad news for those of us who strive for a plural, tolerant, and critical Christianity.” Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic lay order that promotes traditional Christian values, has a strong following in overwhelmingly Catholic Spain and in Latin America. Tamayo, a staunch advocate of Liberation Theology, has also written press articles linking senior Vatican clergy to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile. In an interview with Religion News Service, Tamayo denied his book went against Catholic teaching. He accused the bishops’ conference of “twisting the text, and even altering the words” to come to their conclusions. “I feel like one of those people who are shadowed by a private detective to see if they’ve been unfaithful,” he said. “When they saw after three years that I was clean, because I am a believing Christian, they decided they had to come up with something for their wasted time.” But the conservative newspaper ABC quoted sources in the bishops conference as saying that in writing the book, Tamayo has “closed the door of dialogue” between reformers and the church hierarchy. Tamayo is a professor at the public University of Carlos III in Madrid, and has lectured at Christian colleges in Spain, Latin America and the United States. _ Jerome Socolovsky Pope Offers a Thought for the Day by Cell Phone VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican took a giant step into the electronic age Wednesday (Jan. 15) _ with a major reservation. Italians can now receive a papal “thought-for-the-day” on their cell phones, but they still have to go to church to make their confessions. The Italian TIM cell phone firm is now offering a daily thought from Pope John Paul II to Italian clients who can send and receive text messages, and plans are under way for wider dissemination of the service, developed by the international ACOTEL wireless service provider. For a charge of .15 euros (about 16 cents) a day, TIM will transmit a brief excerpt from a papal message, speech or teaching chosen by the Vatican Press Office. It is also offering the press office’s daily news bulletins by text or by Web-accessible messaging to accredited journalists. The developments fit in with the strong endorsement the pope and his Pontifical Council for Social Communications have given in recent years to the use of the Internet to spread the Gospel. But another Vatican office, the venerable Apostolic Penitentiary, told bishops late last year they must not accept online or telephone confessions. Penitents must confess in person in a church, face-to-face with a priest, it said. The penitentiary, which dates from the 12th century, is an internal tribunal that issues decisions on questions of conscience, absolutions, dispensions and commutations and acts on nondoctrinal matters pertaining to indulgences. In a note published in the Official Bulletin of the Archbishopric of Coria-Caceres in Spain, the penitentiary also discouraged use of the Internet or fax to communicate matters touching on confessions and other matters the church holds confidential. Warning that e-mail and other electronic communications “might degenerate into the violation of the very constitutive and inherent elements of the sacrament of penance,” the note asked bishops to instruct priests to “use only epistolary means in communications with the Apostolic Penitentiary on all matters covered by the sacramental seal, the secrecy of conscience and other prudential reasons.” _ Peggy Polk British Government Pledges $50,000 to Aid Muslim Hajj LONDON (RNS) The British government, seeking to develop winning partnerships to battle religious fanaticism in the Middle East, has pledged nearly $50,000 worth of support for the Muslim hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, that begins next week. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s office said that for the duration of the weeklong pilgrimage, the Foreign Office will send two Muslim members from its staff along with eight volunteer doctors and a pair of Muslim counselors. Some 22,000 British Muslims are expected to journey to Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, and Straw said closer links between the government and the nation’s Muslim communities are “more important than ever before.” The gesture comes as Britain continues its buildup of forces for a possible war against Iraq _ military action that has been condemned in advance by numerous Islamic nations. Straw told the Regents Park Mosque in London that closer ties between the government and Muslims “offers the best defense against the fanatics who abuse true Islam and would like nothing better than to sow the seeds of suspicion and mistrust between faiths.” He praised what he described as the “moderate majority” of British Muslims who live peacefully, tolerantly and with good sense alongside the nation’s predominantly Christian population as well as those of other faiths. This will mark the fourth year that the British government has sent an official delegation to the hajj. Those making the pilgrimage include a team of doctors fluent in Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and Gujarati. The Foreign Office said that to house the U.K. delegation, Saudi Arabia has set up a small office near the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine in Mecca that is the center of the Islamic world. Straw praised the Saudi authorities for the work they have put into making the hajj the success that it is. “I am grateful for their support,” he said, “and I hope the Saudi government will continue to allow the thousands of British nationals who have traveled to Mecca for the hajj in previous years to do so again.” _ Al Webb Scottish Churches Unity Proposal Published LONDON (RNS) The latest proposals for a union of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland and the (Anglican] Scottish Episcopal Church, along with the United Reformed Church in Scotland and the Methodist Church in Scotland, have been made public. Although the proposals involve Presbyterians accepting episcopacy into their system and Episcopalians accepting presbyterianism, they begin with a common understanding of ministry, starting with the ministry of all the baptized. The work of the Scottish Church Initiative for Union, the proposals have been revised in the light of consultation within the four churches over the last 21/2 years. Under the proposals existing congregations would be grouped into maxi-parishes, each covering a small town or equivalent urban or rural area, with maxi-parishes in turn being grouped into regions, each roughly the same as a diocese or presbytery. Each region would elect a bishop, serving with and through a regional council, and the chief focus of authority of the proposed united church would be a national council meeting annually. Bishops would be elected for a term of office yet to be fixed. The proposals would also extend the office of elder to the other churches involved in the plan. It views the eldership as something already existing in all four churches, even if not formally recognized in some of them. “All the participating churches recognize in their present life that there is in every local congregation a group of Christians who are mature in faith and who share with the minister of Word and Sacrament in the leadership and pastoral care of the congregation. Some are called elders, meeting together in the kirk (church) session, some pastoral visitors, some class leaders, some members of the vestry, some stewards. “How these people are chosen, what authority they have, how that is recognized, and for how long they remain in office varies between the church traditions, and even within one church. What is clear is that these people, separately and corporately, make a vital contribution to the life and witness of the church.” The four churches involved now must approve these proposals in general and then set up a new group with the task of preparing a formal basis and plan of union. The plan will be discussed at this year’s meetings of the governing bodies of the participating churches. The last time the work of the Scottish Church Initiative for Union came before the Church of Scotland’s general assembly was in May 2000, when a counter-proposal to withdraw from the talks was narrowly defeated. _ Robert Nowell Quote of the Day: The Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. (RNS) “The designers and architects can make the memorial so bland, mundane and secular to reduce its spiritual power. And they can certainly turn their backs on St. Paul’s Chapel and any kind of restored St. Nicholas (Greek Orthodox Church). They can isolate the site from the church and in so doing attempt to keep God out. But God is always going to be there.” _ The Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel in New York near Ground Zero, on memorial plans for the former World Trade Center site. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by falling rubble, while St. Paul’s became a resting place for rescue workers. He was quoted by The New York Times. DEA END RNS