c. 2003 Religion News Service
Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop Named 2003 Religion Newsmaker
(RNS) Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of the Religion Newswriters Association.
His approval and consecration, and the ensuing threats of schism in the U.S. church and the wider Anglican Communion, also were cited as the top religion news story of 2003 _ a ranking shared with criticism of the Anglican bishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, who approved same-sex unions.
About a third of the 240 members of the Religion Newswriters Association took part in the annual survey. More than 80 percent of these selected Robinson as the top newsmaker.
The top 10 religion news stories were ranked as follows:
1. Turmoil mounts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion after Robinson’s approval and consecration, and Vancouver Bishop Michael Ingham’s action.
2. The pending war in Iraq split religious communities, with mostly mainline Protestant denominations opposing it and many evangelicals supporting it.
3. The definition of marriage becomes a key area of controversy after Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules gay couples have a right to civil marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a ban against homosexual sodomy.
4. A Ten Commandments monument is removed from Alabama’s State Judicial Building and the man who got it installed there, Roy Moore, is removed from his post as the state’s chief justice.
5. Roman Catholic Church efforts to implement plans combatting priestly sex abuse draw praise and criticism. Archbishop Sean O’Malley succeeds Cardinal Bernard Law as leader of the Boston Archdiocese.
6. Pope John Paul II marks the 25th anniversary of his election amid growing concerns about his health and debate over his eventual successor.
7. Slumping economy prompts budget cutbacks in many denominations.
8. Presbyterian Church (USA) keeps “fidelity and chastity” clause, maintaining its ban on non-celibate gay clergy. The denomination also elects first woman pastor as moderator.
9. The U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear a California case challenging the inclusion of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
10. The suspension of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod official David Benke of New York, for participating in a post-9/11 interfaith service, is overturned. Officials of Valparaiso University issued an apology to the denomination’s members after holding an interfaith service marking the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bush Affirms Marriage Amendment, But Leaves `Legal Arrangements’ To States
(RNS) President Bush said Tuesday (Dec. 16) that he could support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, but also said “whatever legal arrangements people want to make” should be permitted if approved at the state level.
“If necessary, I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that,” Bush told Diane Sawyer in an interview aired on ABC News’ “Primetime,” according to a transcript from the network.
“The position of this administration is that whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they’re allowed to make, so long as it’s embraced by the state.”
The president went on to criticize the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled in November that gay couples should have the right to civil marriage.
“The court, I thought, overreached its bounds as a court,” Bush told Sawyer. “It did the job of the legislature. It was a very activist court in making the decision it made.”
Overall, Bush said he thinks the matter of civil unions should be handled on the state level but he said an amendment may be necessary if “judicial rulings undermine the sanctity of marriage.”
The president told Sawyer “we’re all sinners” when she asked if gays are sinners.
“I also think it’s very important, on this subject, that the country be tolerant of people and understand people, but tolerance and belief in marriage aren’t mutually exclusive points of view,” he said.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said some of Bush’s comments worried him.
“While I’m encouraged President Bush says he supports a constitutional amendment honoring marriage between a man and a woman, I’m very concerned about his additional comments which seem to suggest the definition of marriage, which predates Western civilization and the United States Constitution, can be redefined at the state level,” he said in a statement issued by his conservative Christian organization.
Alliance for Marriage President Matt Daniels, whose organization has proposed a Federal Marriage Amendment, welcomed Bush’s comments.
“We are grateful to President Bush for saying that he may support a marriage amendment in response to the constitutional challenges to all state and federal marriage laws that are expected to follow from the recent Massachusetts court decision,” he said in a statement.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Eleven Episcopal Bishops Join Fledgling Conservative `Network’
(RNS) At least 11 Episcopal bishops have officially joined a fledgling “network” of conservative dioceses and parishes to oppose their church’s approval of an openly gay bishop.
The new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes will be headed by Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, and coordinated by the Washington-based American Anglican Council.
Organizers say the network already has the blessing of 16 of the 38 member churches in the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch.
“We’re not leaving, we’re not separating ourselves,” Duncan told The New York Times. “What we trust is going to happen is that the rest of the world and the rest of the Christian community are going to bring such pressure to bear on the whole of this church that it steps back from this event.”
Dioceses in the network include Pittsburgh; South Carolina; Florida; Albany, N.Y.; San Joaquin, Calif.; Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas; Quincy, Ill.; Springfield, Ill.; Western Kansas and Rio Grande, which includes parts of Texas and New Mexico. Two additional dioceses _ Central Florida and Southwest Florida _ are likely to join to bring the total number to 13.
“It will serve as a lifeboat for orthodox dioceses and parishes who feel abandoned and betrayed by (the Episcopal Church) as well as for those faithful Episcopalians enduring harassment and intimidation …,” said the Rev. David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council.
The group will have its formal kickoff Jan. 19-20 in Plano, Texas, where some 2,700 conservative dissidents gathered in October to protest the election, approval and consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
A statement of belief on the group’s Web site says, “We are … called to oppose all such actions that subvert the truth of the gospel and the unity of the church that flows from it.”
Episcopal Church officials, meanwhile, have proposed a system that allows conservative parishes to seek “pastoral care” from like-minded bishops, although local bishops would retain ultimate control and oversight.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
French President Backs Ban on Religious Symbols in Schools
PARIS (RNS) French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday (Dec. 17) called for a ban on the wearing of Muslim veils and the display of large crucifixes and other “conspicuous” religious symbols in French public schools.
“I believe the wearing of clothing or signs that conspicuously display religious affiliation must be prohibited from public schools and high schools,” Chirac said in long-anticipated remarks at the Elysee presidential palace.
“Discrete signs _ such as a cross, the sign of David, or the Hand of Fatma _ will be allowed,” the French President added. “But conspicuous signs, which are obvious, which immediately indicate religious affiliation cannot be admitted.”
Chirac said he hoped a law banning the symbols would be in place next year.
The French president’s remarks fall in line with those aired by a majority of leftist and conservative lawmakers, along with a report made public last week by a special presidential commission on secularity.
Chirac did not back the commission’s other recommendations to make the Muslim Aid-el-Kebir and the Jewish Yom Kippur national holidays _ in part, he said, because French students already had enough vacations. But, he said, non-Christians should informally be allowed their religious day off.
Chirac also vowed his government would fight against discrimination facing France’s ethnic immigrant population, including the estimated 6 million Muslims living in France.
“I understand the feeling of disarray, of incomprehension, sometimes of revolt of these young French of immigrant origin, whose employment applications are thrown away because of their names, and who are too often confronted with discrimination when they seek housing or even seek entry to leisure establishments,” Chirac said.
The president’s positions were widely expected, shaped by the president’s previous remarks on religion and those of top members of his Union for a Popular Movement Party. France’s conservative Le Figaro newspaper headlined its Wednesday edition with “Secularity: Chirac for a law and against national holidays.”
A poll published Wednesday in Le Parisien newspaper found 69 percent of French supported a law on religious accessories, a 14 percent increase from a similar poll published by the newspaper just three weeks ago.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Religious Leaders Urge Dialogue as Path to Peace, Unity
(RNS) Religious communities around the globe should strive to overcome violence and create a more peaceful world though self-examination and interfaith scholarship, said leaders of world religions meeting this week in Seville, Spain.
In a Dec. 16 statement, participants at an interfaith conference agreed that while religious beliefs have sometimes led to political hostility, scholars and spiritual leaders from different traditions can and should collaborate to “develop the loftiest values about human life and dignity, hospitality to the `other,’ and the ultimate vision for human flourishing.”
The Dec. 14-17 conference, which drew representatives from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim communities, was an effort of the new Jerusalem-based Elijah Academy think tank.
After hearing scholarly presentations on the conference theme “Religion, Society and the Other,” the Elijah Academy members discussed how religion can be used to decrease political hostility.
The attendees resolved to continue and expand their fledgling interfaith scholarship efforts, which they described as having “an enriching and enobling effect” that encourages “the best in our traditions to surface.”
Religious leaders at the meeting included: Dharma Master Hsin-Tao of the Museum of World Religions in Taiwan; Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal Church (USA); Sri Sri Ravi Sankar of India; Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar of Israel; and Dr. Abdurrahman Wahid, former president of Indonesia and leader of a major Indonesian Muslim organization.
_ Christina Denny
Quote of the Day: Brian McDermott, Rector of Georgetown University’s Jesuit Community
(RNS) “We’re in a time when boundaries have been violated in so many terrible ways by priests _ this is another dimension. It’s really hard for me to see who has a right to see these things.”
_ The Rev. Brian McDermott, rector of Georgetown University’s Jesuit community, speaking of a priest’s diary of private conversations with Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband’s assassination. Those diaries were shown to reporters last month.
KRE END RNS
