c. 2004 Religion News Service
House Approves Bill Preventing Court `Under God’ Rulings
Editors: Jayd Henricks is cq (both first and last name) in the 8th graph below.
(RNS) U.S. House approval Thursday (Sept. 23) of a bill that would prevent courts from ruling on whether “under God” belongs in the Pledge of Allegiance has prompted a quick response from groups concerned about religious freedom.
By a vote of 247-173, the House passed the legislation that could affect the Supreme Court as well as lower federal courts, the Associated Press reported. It would prohibit them from hearing cases involving the recitation of the pledge and prevent federal courts from striking the words “under God” from it.
The Baptist Joint Committee, a Washington-based group that advocates for church-state separation, issued a statement calling the Pledge Protection Act “a dangerous attack on our country’s religious freedom and our system of government.”
In June, the Supreme Court dismissed a case involving a dispute over the two words in the pledge when it determined that a California atheist had no standing to challenge the phrase. That decision reversed a lower court ruling from 2002 that found “under God” unconstitutional.
Other groups questioned the legal precedent the House’s legislation would set.
“The supporters of this bill have shown callous disregard for long-standing constitutional principles,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a statement. “The federal courts should be open to all Americans seeking protection of their constitutional rights.”
Supporters of the bill in conservative Christian circles took another view.
“We’re pleased to have the House pass this much-needed legislation,” said Jayd Henricks, director of congressional relations for the Family Research Council, in an interview. “We’re especially happy to see Congress use its constitutional power to put limits on the courts.”
Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, agreed.
“We need to send a strong message to the courts that they must stop trying to redefine our culture in ways the voters would never approve,” he said in a statement.
Consideration of the legislation in the Senate is not likely this year, but Henricks said his group considered it “a first step” in a process that could be taken up by the Senate next year.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Anti-Abortion Activists Try to Energize Voters
(RNS) A wide array of anti-abortion activists, including officials of many religious groups, gathered in Washington on Thursday (Sept. 23) to call on Americans to vote for candidates who oppose abortion in the upcoming election.
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, announced that his Staten Island, N.Y.-based group would spend $1 million to involve Catholic priests and lay people in political strategizing against abortion prior to the Nov. 2 election.
“What America will decide on Nov. 2 is what type of government it wants to be _ the type that claims authority over innocent human life, or the type that recognizes that there are rights no government can tamper with, and truths no court can change,” said Pavone, who hosted the news conference at the National Press Club.
Asked if he was specifically campaigning for President Bush’s re-election, Pavone said: “That’s the conclusion that many people can draw and certainly we want people to draw conclusions. … The message is more about abortion than about any particular candidate.”
He said the $1 million that will be spent on the Priests for Life campaign _ including media programs and ads, sermon samples and voter guides _ has already been raised through grass-roots fund-raising efforts.
Pavone and others said their efforts are aimed at local and regional elections as well as the national one.
Dozens of other speakers representing a range of religious, racial, ethnic and political persuasions took turns at the microphone to state their agreement that abortion should be a decisive issue as people go to the polls.
Several women spoke briefly of their personal experience with abortion. Carrie Gordon Earll addressed the issue on behalf of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“As a public service, society should sacrifice and change for women, not force women to sacrifice their children and their dignity in order to succeed,” said Earll.
Other participants included representatives of politically affiliated groups such as the Libertarians for Life and Democrats for Life and speakers of Protestant, Orthodox and Muslim faiths.
_ Adelle M. Banks
British Muslims Criticize Decision on Singer
LONDON (RNS) British Muslims say they are bewildered by U.S. authorities’ decision to refuse entry to the former singer Cat Stevens, a British citizen who became a Muslim in 1977 and is now known as Yusuf Islam.
Islam was flying from London’s Heathrow Airport to Dulles International Airport in Washington on Tuesday (Sept. 21) when United Airlines Flight 919 was diverted to Bangor, Maine, where he was taken off the aircraft.
Islam was refused entry because he was recently put on a security watch list. He is believed to have contributed funds to groups linked to terrorism. He last visited the United States in May.
The U.S. authorities’ decision was described as “a slap in the face of sanity” by Abdul Bari, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. “Yusuf Islam is a deeply respected and very popular British Muslim figure, and his detention by the U.S. authorities is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Bari met with Foreign Office Minister Douglas Alexander on Wednesday to raise the British Muslim community’s grave concerns about the treatment of Yusuf Islam. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was reported in the British media as telling Secretary of State Colin Powell that the action “should not have been taken.”
Spokesman Inayat Bunglawala of England’s Muslim Council said in an interview that Yusuf Islam was “a hugely popular figure” in Britain’s Muslim community and was “deeply respected.”
Among other things he had put money into financing Muslim schools in London, the spokesman said.
His detention and deportation from the United States was “so bizarre” that one could only wonder how many other Muslims were included on the watch list, Bunglawala added.
_ Robert Nowell
Turkey Backs Away From Outlawing Adultery
(RNS) Turkey’s prime minister announced Thursday (Sept. 23) that he would drop a provision criminalizing adultery from a proposed penal reform bill, clearing the way for Turkey’s bid for European Union membership, Turkish media reported.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen that the proposed Turkish penal code would be reconsidered in an emergency meeting Sunday without the adultery clause, Turkish television NTV reported.
The clause, which calls for prison sentences for spouses convicted of adultery, has caused fierce debate in Turkey and Europe.
Erdogan’s decision is expected to be well received in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, even though adultery is against Islamic principles. Turkey is a secular democracy and has been the EU’s seventh biggest export destination and the 13th biggest exporter to the EU since 1999.
“There are no more obstacles on the table now,” said Verheugen, referring to Turkey’s EU membership bid, according to an Associated Press report.
Since its election in 2002, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Muslim roots, has implemented economic, social and judicial reforms to meet the Copenhagen criteria, requirements Turkey must meet before accession negotiations can begin.
Verheugen is scheduled to issue a progress report on Turkey on Oct. 6 that will have a crucial effect on the EU’s scheduled decision in December whether to begin accession talks with Turkey.
Erdogan’s reform package also included clauses to bring Turkish judicial standards on par with European ones, especially on issues such as rape and so-called honor killings.
Swaggart Apologizes for Anti-Gay Slur
(RNS) In the face of public backlash and concerns that have reached Canadian broadcasters, Baton Rouge, La. televangelist Jimmy Swaggart said he regrets telling his congregation at a recent televised worship service that if a gay man ever looks at him romantically, “I’m going to kill him and tell God he died.”
“It was a tongue-in-cheek statement best left unsaid. I won’t make it anymore,” Swaggart said in an interview Tuesday (Sept. 21).
A Toronto television station’s broadcast of the service produced a complaint before the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a private, self-regulating industry group that enforces broadcast standards, said Ann Mainville-Neeson, the group’s executive director.
Audio clips purporting to be of the Sept. 12 Swaggart service have begun circulating on gay-oriented Web sites.
“I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry,” Swaggart says to audience laughter on one Internet link. “And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died.”
Swaggart said Tuesday he was talking too loosely about killing, using it casually as a figure of speech. “I’ve said it about other people, including other preachers,” he said.
Gay advocacy groups say such language encourages violence against gay men and lesbians.
Swaggart said he did not see his remarks in that light. “Good gracious alive, it would be a long stretch of the imagination to come up with that,” he said.
Even so, he said, “I was unwise in making the statement. All of us have made statements we wish we hadn’t made. That was one for me.”
_ Bruce Nolan
Evangelicals to Discuss Response to Islam
(RNS) Coming together for their first world summit on evangelism in 15 years, 1,700 Christians will gather Sept. 29-Oct. 5 in Thailand to find faith-spreading strategies for a world transformed since 1989.
The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization will tackle 31 challenges to evangelism, ranging from poverty to AIDS and a rise in religious nationalism. With a goal of reaching a world made tense by Sept. 11 and its aftermath, these leaders will brainstorm how best to engage non-believers in these uneasy times.
The question “is not `How do we convert Muslims?”’ said Roger Parrott, president of Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., and chairman of the meeting. “It’s `What is the evangelical response to the Muslim community?’ Until the evangelical community can get the right posture toward the Muslim world, I don’t think God is going to bless anything we do in evangelism.”
Participants speaking 58 languages are coming from 130 countries to Thailand, a largely Buddhist nation, which Parrott said was chosen largely for its convenient location for the developing world. About half of those in attendance come from Western Europe and North America. The other half are from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. For the Lausanne Committee, the meeting marks the fourth summit since 1974.
Once gathered, this assembly of mostly evangelical missionaries, pastors and academics will grapple in small groups with the issues laid before them. Among the topics are how to work with nontraditional families, residents of new urban slums and people who learn via spoken words and pictures.
At the conclusion, groups proposing new pathways will present their suggestions at a plenary session. From there, strategies will be translated and circulated to as many churches as possible worldwide.
“This is not about position papers,” Parrot said. “It’s about concrete action plans.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Quote of the Day: Rabbi Avi Shafran
(RNS) “There is no relationship other than the most subtle and insubstantial one between what the Kabbalah Centre is selling, and I use the word `selling’ very pointedly, and authentic Kabbalah.”
_ Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox umbrella organization.
MO/PH END RNS
