c. 2004 Religion News Service

Interfaith Luncheon, Rally Show Faith Presence at Democratic Convention

BOSTON (RNS) Democrats are showing that they take faith seriously, hosting both a faith-based luncheon and an interfaith social justice rally at the Democratic National Convention.

The “People of Faith” luncheon Wednesday (July 28) featured a diverse group of speakers and guests representing various branches of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

“This is the first time in the history of the Democratic Party that we’ve made space and time to come together as people of faith,” said the Rev. Leah D. Daughtry, who in addition to being a minister is the chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee.

Luncheon speakers emphasized the connection between religious values of equality and justice and Democratic political action.

“Our party, the Democratic Party, provides a place for people who celebrate a relationship between our religious faith and our personal religious responsibility,” said Rabbi Joshua Plaut, the former executive director of the Center for Jewish History.

Later in the afternoon, the historic Old South Church in Boston was packed for an interfaith service and rally, called “Let Justice Roll,” which featured a Muslim call to prayer, the chanting of a psalm in Hebrew and Christian hymns.

Calling the so-called “God gap” between Republicans and Democrats “a trivialization conversation,” the Rev. James Forbes told the gathering that rather than Republicans being religious and Democrats being secular, the two groups simply understand their religiosity in different ways.

“In a family, personalities differ, and if it is one family, that family is stronger only as there is respect for the differing perspectives,” said Forbes in a rousing sermon that drew cheers and ovations from the audience.

“When God looks down, God says, well, they come from different places, but you shall know them by their fruits,” said Forbes, who is the pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Bishop Who Oversees Darfur Urges International Pressure

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Accusing the Khartoum government of failing to keep its promises, the Catholic bishop who oversees Darfur has called for intensified international pressure on Sudan to halt Arab militia attacks on African Sudanese.

“The international community must exert much more pressure than it is doing on Sudan because the Khartoum government continues to promise without keeping its word,” Bishop Antonio Menegazzo told the missionary news agency MISNA.

MISNA said it spoke by telephone Wednesday (July 28) to Menegazzo, a member of the Comboni missionary order who has worked in Sudan for more than 45 years.

As apostolic administrator of El Obeid, Menegazzo, 72, oversees an area of 900,000 square kilometers, including Darfur in western Sudan near the border with Chad. The population of 8.9 million includes 140,000 Catholics.

Attacks by the Arab Janjaweed militias to root out rebels in Darfur have forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes since February 2003 and killed at least 30,000. The government has not yet acted on promises to withdraw the militias.

“The situation is continuing to deteriorate” Menegazzo said. “The Janjaweed militias have not stopped attacking villages, burning houses and sacking the black Muslim population who live there.”

The bishop said that while the government is insisting that the displaced people return to their villages, “the conditions are not there. Only yesterday the Khartoum government asked more time to disarm the Janjaweed militiamen.”

Menegazzo said that local officials have tried to discourage visits by international delegations and were reluctant to cooperate with Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, who traveled to Darfur last week as the personal representative of Pope John Paul II. Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, coordinates Catholic aid worldwide.

But the bishop said locally based Catholic and Protestant aid groups, who are working together, had “fewer bureaucratic problems than international humanitarian agencies.”

At Nyala, where some 10,000 people have taken refuge, Cordes’ visit resulted in freer access for aid workers, Menegazzo said. “Officials of the Nyala parish told me of having easily distributed humanitarian aid, tents, soap, food and clothes to the displaced people in the refugee camp where the military usually makes access difficult,” he said.

Speaking at the Sunday (July 25) Angelus, the pope said that the world must not “remain indifferent” to the Darfur crisis. “I make a sorrowful appeal to political leaders and to international organizations not to forget these our brothers sorely tried,” he said.

_ Peggy Polk

Study: Strongly Religious Students Aren’t Uniformly Conservative

(RNS) Strongly religious college students have conservative views on sex, abortion, gay rights and drugs, but more liberal views on gun control and abortion, a new study says.

The study by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute polled nearly 3,700 college juniors at 46 schools across the country, and found that one-fifth of college students are “highly religious.” A similar percentage said they have little interest in religion.

Those two groups have widely divergent views on a number of social issues, the study found. While 80 percent of the least religious students said they felt casual sex was acceptable, only 7 percent of the most religious students felt the same way.

The least religious students were more than three times as likely to support legalized abortion, while highly religious students were more than twice as likely to support laws prohibiting homosexual relationships.

But while highly religious students tend to be more conservative than less religious students on certain issues, they can be more liberal on other issues, the study found.

Compared to those with little or no religious interests, a higher percentage of highly religious students supported federal controls on handguns sales (75 percent to 70 percent) and they also were more likely to support abolition of the death penalty (38 percent to 23 percent).

Gary White, associate university chaplain at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., said those statistics were all consistent with what he’s heard from students, with the exception of student support of gun control. He said Catholic students on campus tend to have more strongly held views than other students.

“When you have a strong, authoritative church body that has a very clear declaration on where it stands, they are more clear on the abortion issue or the death penalty issue,” White said. “The Protestants tend to have a little more freedom as far as their personal interpretation of these issues.”

College women reported higher levels of spirituality and religiousness in the study than did college men. Women reported more than 150 percent more commitment to religion and spirituality and half as much religious skepticism as men.

To determine their level of religiosity, students were asked whether they attended religious services, read sacred texts or joined a religious organization on campus.

_ Jonah D. King

Lutherans Sign Deal for `Davey and Goliath’ Children’s Books

(RNS) Davey and Goliath, the beloved feel-good animated series featuring a boy and his talking dog, will be resurrected this year in a new line of children’s books.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed a deal with Scholastic Children’s Books to produce two books and two coloring/activity books that could include stickers and an iron-on image for T-shirts.

The ELCA owns the rights to Davey and Goliath, and Scholastic is the world’s largest producer and distributor of children’s books.

“The ELCA’s agreement with Scholastic is another step in our renewed effort to bring Davey and Goliath’s message of God’s love for children to 21st century children and families,” said the Rev. Eric Shafer, the church’s communications director and an avid Davey and Goliath fan.

The stop-motion animated series (similar to claymation) was produced by Lutherans from 1960 to 1975. Shafer is spearheading a campaign to bring Davey and Goliath back to life.

“The stories and themes of the television shows are very positive and the emphasis on good family and community values makes them perfect for Scholastic,” said Craig Walker, vice president and editorial director of the New York-based publisher.

In addition, an animated “Davey and Goliath’s Snowboard Christmas” television special is scheduled to be ready by Christmas. Earlier this year, the ELCA signed an agreement with Animation Content LLC to help bring Davey and Goliath back to television.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Leader Bob Reccord

(RNS) “When was the last time you, one-on-one, introduced somebody to Jesus Christ yourself? We can’t expect the churches to do something we’re not doing.”

_ Bob Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, addressing pastors and missionaries at a leadership conference for state Baptist representatives in late July in Orlando, Fla. He was quoted by Baptist Press.

DEA/PH END RNS