c. 2004 Religion News Service
Editors: Carman in 8th graf is CQ
Paul Crouch Did Not Have Homosexual Encounter, Religious Network Says
(RNS) Trinity Broadcasting Network has denied allegations that its president, Paul Crouch, was involved in a homosexual encounter and says he will remain at the helm of his California ministry.
The Los Angeles Times published a story Sunday (Sept. 12) about legal wranglings involving Crouch and accuser Enoch Lonnie Ford since the late 1990s. Ford met Crouch at a drug treatment center affiliated with the network in 1991 and later worked for the ministry.
After Ford threatened to sue the network, claiming that he had been unfairly fired, Crouch reached a $425,000 settlement with Ford in which the man agreed not to discuss his claim of a 1996 sexual encounter with Crouch.
The Orange County, Calif.-based ministry issued a statement Sunday in response to the article, calling the accuser “a convicted felon and longtime drug abuser” and saying ministry funds were not used to pay the settlement.
“The importance of the settlement does not rest on the money paid, but rather on Dr. Crouch’s vehement denial of the allegations made against him as well as the agreement of the accuser to keep confidential and refrain from repeating his false claims and accusations,” the ministry said.
The Times quoted Sandi Mahlow, a Tustin, Calif., housewife and close friend of Ford, who defended him.
“Lonnie had a lot of bad traits; one thing he isn’t, and that’s a liar,” she said.
In a follow-up story Tuesday, the newspaper reported that the ministry has received unsolicited support from Christian leaders, including Doug Wead, who served as an adviser to former President George H.W. Bush; author Josh McDowell; and singers Pat Boone and Carman.
“We prepared for the worst and prayed for the best,” aware that the allegations would surface during the weekend, said Paul Crouch Jr., eldest son of the religious broadcaster and a network executive.
“So far our prayers are being answered. Most of the e-mails and calls have been very positive.”
Israel Promises to Resolve Visa Dispute With Vatican
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz told Vatican officials Tuesday (Sept. 14) that he has acted to resolve a long-standing dispute over the issuing of visas for religious personnel to enter Israel.
Poraz discussed the question with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, at a meeting in the Vatican before driving to the hill town of Castelgandolfo south of Rome for an audience with Pope John Paul II in his country residence.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement that Poraz and Sodano restricted their talk to matters within the competence of the interior minister because the Vatican’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the general situation in the Middle East was “well known.” The Vatican urges negotiations instead of warfare.
“In particular, there was talk of the system of entrance visas in Israel for religious personnel of the Catholic Church,” Navarro-Valls said. The church has repeatedly accused Israeli officials of withholding visas from priests, nuns and members of religious orders assigned to work in the Holy Land.
“The minister offered assurance of having given the instructions necessary for a satisfactory solution,” the spokesman said.
Navarro-Valls said they also examined progress in negotiations under way in Jerusalem on the financial status of ecclesiastical institutions in Israel, including their tax liability. The talks resumed recently after a long interruption and will continue in October.
_ Peggy Polk
`Ten Commandments’ Judge Tells Congress to Curb Judicial Power
WASHINGTON _ Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice known for his public display of the Ten Commandments, made his case Monday (Sept. 13) for a law that would forbid federal judges from ruling on cases about government displays of religion.
Moore spoke to a House subcommittee and was backed by Reps. Spencer Bachus and Robert Aderholt, both Republicans from Alabama. It was the second congressional hearing on the subject since June, but supporters said Monday that although they’ve asked, no votes are scheduled.
The bill would remove the ability of people to go to federal court to challenge instances when government and religion appear to intersect in an official way.
While Moore argued that such acknowledgments are “at the very basis of the First Amendment” and should not be subject to constitutional review, two law professors urged Congress to reject the proposal as an attack on the independence of the courts.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., called it a “reactionary piece of legislation” with an ironic title. The proposed “Constitution Restoration Act” would do the opposite, Berman argued, because it “makes a mockery” of the founding principle of government that each branch keep a check on the others.
Moore, who lost his job after defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building, said he’s in Washington to educate members of Congress.
“I’m not here pushing a personal agenda,” Moore said after his testimony Monday night. “My case is over in regards to the Ten Commandments.”
He is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court his dismissal as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Legal experts said several similar legislative proposals have been introduced but never adopted by Congress over the years. They referred to them as “court stripping,” or removing the power of the federal judiciary to decide certain types of constitutional issues.
Moore disagreed.
“I’m not trying to interfere with the independence of the federal judiciary,” he said. “Acknowledgment of God is just not within the jurisdiction of the federal courts.”
_ Mary Orndorff
Half of Americans Say Separation of Church and State Has Gone Too Far
(RNS) About half of Americans consider freedom of religion to be a top legal guarantee but a similar percentage think separation of church and state has become too severe or is not necessary in this country, a new survey indicates.
Asked which legal guarantee other than freedom of speech is most important, 52 percent of Americans cited freedom of religion, reported the Council for America’s First Freedom. The Richmond, Va.-based nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to promoting religious liberty, released the results of its first commissioned survey Tuesday (Sept. 14).
Nineteen percent of respondents chose freedom of the press, 16 percent said right to bear arms and 10 percent said freedom of assembly.
Asked how they regard the separation of church and state, 49 percent said it was important to keep religion and government separated. Another 29 percent said church-state separation has become “too severe and needs to be less strictly interpreted” while 20 percent said “there is really no need to separate church and state” in the country today.
Eighty-three percent of respondents said they would not support legislation creating an “official religion” in the United States and 37 percent said religious differences were the primary root cause of armed conflict around the globe.
Stephen Elliott, executive director of the council, said in a statement that the survey prompted mixed feelings for him.
“The results are at the same time heartening and disquieting,” he said. “They show a public that holds religious liberty as among our most prized freedoms, yet, in an apparent contradiction, is ambivalent about the constitutional tenet that keeps church and state separate.”
The telephone survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corp., which polled 500 men and 500 women during the week of Aug. 9. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Information suitable for a graphic below:
Other than Freedom of Speech, Most Important Legal Guarantee
Freedom of religion: 52 percent
Freedom of the press: 19 percent
Right to bear arms: 16 percent
Freedom of assembly: 10 percent
Views on Separation of Church and State
Has become too severe: 29 percent
Important to keep religion, government separate: 49 percent
No need to separate church, state today: 20 percent
_ Adelle M. Banks
Public Perception of Charities Continues to Lag
(RNS) Three years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks unleashed a wave of charitable donations, a new poll shows that Americans continue to have questions about how charities spend their resources.
The survey, by the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service, found that just 15 percent of Americans have a “great deal” of confidence in charitable organizations, down from 18 percent last October.
Overall, 65 percent of the 1,417 people surveyed have confidence in charities, while 31 percent have doubts. That figure is up slightly from 62 percent last January.
What concerns officials is that the 15 percent of people with a “great deal” of confidence remains fair below the 25 percent who had “a lot” of confidence in a similar survey conducted just before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Paul Light, who conducted the survey, said charities have been unable to rebound from allegations that they spend too much money on overhead and compensation and not enough on direct services.
“Just 41 percent of Americans who expressed a great deal of confidence in charitable organizations said these organizations did a very good job spending money wisely, suggesting that even the sector’s strongest supporters have come to expect some level of waste as part of helping people,” he said in his Monday (Sept. 13) report.
Light said more people expressed confidence in the military and the U.S. Supreme Court, while charities came out ahead of organized labor, television news, big business, Congress and health-maintenance organizations.
“To the extent organizations are known by the company they keep, charitable organizations have ample cause to worry,” he said.
Experts say the wasteful perception has been fueled by resistance from some charities to embrace stricter regulations on audits and financial accountability. Charities say the reforms are restrictive and would take money away from actual services.
“While the strong majority of charities appear to be doing a good job, I’m discouraged that the more we dig, the more problems we find,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who plans to introduce legislation to increase oversight, told The New York Times.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Kristeen Bruun of Milwaukee
(RNS) “Wal-Mart does not have greeters at the door because the management is theologically committed to a culture of hospitality. They have them because they have figured out that people who feel welcome come back more often and spend more. I’d like to see us do at least as well as Wal-Mart in the hospitality department.”
_ Kristeen Bruun, a parishioner of Gesu (Jesuit) parish in Milwaukee, writing in the Sept. 20 edition of America magazine about the need for Catholic churches to be more welcoming to visitors.
MO/PH END RNS
