c. 2004 Religion News Service
Jews Angered by Presbyterian Meeting With Hezbollah Leaders
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA), already under fire from Jewish groups for considering financial divestment from Israel, has stirred anger again for sending a delegation to the Middle East that met with Hezbollah, a Lebanese guerrilla group that the United States characterizes as terrorist.
A 24-member delegation of a church advisory panel on Sunday (Oct. 17) visited the Khiam refugee camp in southern Lebanon and met with leaders of Hezbollah, which runs the camp. The delegation also met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and planned to meet with unnamed Israeli officials.
At the camp, Hezbollah’s commander in southern Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, said Hezbollah is seeking dialogue with Americans. “Hezbollah, which represents the will of a people and a nation, does not have any problem with the American people,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
The visit was planned two years ago to allow the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to see the situation firsthand. It was not related to the church’s vote in July to launch a study of divestment, a church spokesman said.
Still, Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, called the visit “disturbing” and “irresponsible.” The U.S. State Department has considered Hezbollah a terrorist group since the 1980s.
“It is outrageous that, rather than seeking out moderate voices working for positive change in the Middle East, the Presbyterian leaders decided to seek out the leader of a terrorist organization,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
The delegation received special funding more than a year ago from the church’s General Assembly Council, which acts as a board of directors, in order to hold their first-ever meeting in the Middle East.
Jerry Van Marter, a church spokesman, said it was clear the visit would not “improve” the strained relations between Jews and Presbyterians, but said the church wanted to take into account all views in the Middle East.
“It would be a mistake to confuse conversations with any group as an endorsement of their views or tactics,” Van Marter said.
The two-week visit included stops in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Van Marter said the group had plans to meet with Israeli officials, but said, “That is up to the Israeli government who they meet with.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Oregon Pupil Allowed to Pass Out Faith-Based `Candy Cane’ Card
(RNS) The candy cane Christmas card case _ in which an Oregon kindergartner’s religious cards provoked federal litigation over the First Amendment _ has ended in a settlement.
But the kindergartner’s lawyers and the Gresham-Barlow School District still dispute what happened in the first place and what last week’s settlement in U.S. District Court means.
Lawyers for the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 7-year-old Justin Cortez, said the settlement spells out precisely how the Gresham-Barlow School District in suburban Portland will, in the future, avoid violating students’ right to religious expression. Justin will be allowed to bring candy canes attached to a religious message into his first-grade classroom this year.
But Gresham-Barlow Superintendent Ken Noah said the settlement merely “describes exactly what we did in this case, and says we’ll do that in the future.”
“We settled for doing what we did,” Noah said.
The case started last year, before a holiday party at the North Gresham Grade School where students were allowed to exchange cards and gifts. Justin had signed cards that included candy cane ornaments and a story called “The Meaning of the Candy Cane.”
“Many years ago, a candy maker wanted to make a candy that symbolized the true meaning of Christmas _ Jesus,” the card said. “The hard candy was shaped like a `J’ to represent Jesus’ name. The color white stands for the pureness of Jesus. The color red represents the blood Jesus sheds for us.”
Julie Cortez said that after she left the bag of cards at school, she got a call from the teacher and principal saying that under the First Amendment, the school was prohibited from distributing cards that promote a religious viewpoint.
Cortez contends that the school was violating another part of the First Amendment, which says government can’t prevent students’ free expression of religion. She called the ACLJ, a constitutional-law group in Washington, D.C., that was founded by the Christian evangelist Pat Robertson.
But Noah said that though school officials declined to distribute a “religious tract,” they did offer to make the cards available to students in the classroom _ the action required by last week’s settlement.
“This was a lawsuit that never should have been filed, and was filed to get publicity for American Center for Law and Justice,” Noah said. “Had they investigated this case thoroughly, they never would have brought this action.”
Stuart Roth, ACLJ’s senior counsel, and Julie Cortez say Noah is wrong. “That was never offered at the time; I would have been satisfied with that,” Cortez said.
Roth said his group doesn’t seek cases based on their potential for publicity, and that the school district didn’t mention this version of events in discussions before the lawsuit was filed.
Under the settlement, students wouldn’t be able to hand the cards directly to their classmates, Roth said. But the teacher will let the class know they are on a table in the room, and the students can pick them up if they like.
Courts are often less willing to allow student-led religious expression among younger students, Roth said. Some judges have reasoned that young students “can’t differentiate speech from other students and speech from the teacher. … Cases have gone both ways,” he said. “I think it’s a fair compromise.”
Julie Cortez said she is ecstatic about the settlement and her son is excited to pass out the same cards to his friends in first grade.
_ Catherine Trevison
Father of Beheaded Businessman Buoyed by Letters From Muslims
WASHINGTON (RNS) The father of Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old businessman beheaded in Iraq by Islamic militants, said Wednesday (Oct. 20) that letters of condolence and apology from Muslims have helped him grieve his loss.
“The letters said that what happened to my son was a misrepresentation of Islam,” Michael Berg said, adding that he believes that is the case. Terror suspect Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for the beheading.
Michael Berg made the comment at a Washington news conference publicizing the Iraq Photo Project, which sends photos to Iraq of ordinary Americans holding handwritten signs apologizing for the United States’ invasion and occupation. Many signs are in Arabic and some offer prayers for peace.
Berg, who lives in West Chester, Pa., has joined that effort. His son was beheaded in May shortly after revelations of American abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Berg added that just as the murder of his son is not an accurate reflection of Islam, the prison scandal does not represent Christianity in the United States.
“My son Nick will never come home,” he said. “And 20,000 Iraqis will never go home.”
At the news conference, Michael Berg wore anti-war buttons around his neck and carried a sign that read, “I am sorry and ashamed for the tremendous loss my government has caused the Iraqi people.”
Michael Berg’s photograph is one of more than 400 Americans that are compiled in a CD the Fellowship of Reconciliation is distributing to Al-Jazeera and other news media in Iraq.
Berg said his photo project is a way to “restore to the Iraqi people their belief in the goodness of people.”
The Fellowship of Reconciliation, based in Nyack, N.Y., was formed in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I when a German Lutheran and an English Quaker decided to work together for peace.
The Christian organization evolved into an interfaith fellowship of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and other faiths that work for peace, disarmament, and racial and economic justice.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is not a newcomer to Iraq. Its photo project is part of an Iraq Program that began during the Gulf War in 1990, when the organization sent medicine and water purifiers to the Iraqi people.
_ Wangui Njuguna
Poll: Most American Muslims Support Kerry, not Bush
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush’s standing among American Muslims has eroded since the 2000 election, with a majority now aligning themselves with Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry, according to a recent survey.
The Zogby International poll, released Tuesday (Oct. 19), showed that 68 percent of those polled said they would vote for Kerry and 7 percent for Bush in a three-way race including independent Ralph Nader.
The survey, called the 2004 American Muslim Poll, was sponsored by Georgetown University’s Project MAPS _ Muslims in the American Public Square. In a 2001 Project MAPS/Zogby poll, 42 percent of Muslim Americans polled said they had voted for Bush in the 2000 election, with 31 percent for Gore.
“The results of our poll are some of the most striking this election season,” said John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, in a statement. “The shift by American Muslims away from the president _ and the Republicans _ is dramatic, and the truest example of a backlash we’ve seen. This is virtually unprecedented.”
Forty percent of the 1,846 Muslims polled identified their political ideology as moderate, while 19 percent called themselves liberal and 16 percent conservative, according to Zogby International.
The U.S. war in Iraq and its consequences for the nation’s security and future terrorism drew disapproval from American Muslims, according to the poll.
Seventy-nine percent of those polled said they did not think the war in Iraq has been worth its costs, while 15 percent said it was worth going into war.
The poll also reflected disapproval for the reasons the United States went to war in Iraq. Thirty-nine percent said the main reason for the U.S. war was to control oil, with 16 percent pointing to a desire to dominate the region, and 16 percent to a goal of protecting Israel. Only 5 percent said they believed the war was waged to free the Iraqi people from oppression.
_ Itir Yakar
`Jesus’ Film Available on Internet in Hundreds of Languages
(RNS) Twenty-five years after its theatrical release, the film “Jesus” has made its Internet debut. It can be viewed in more than 300 languages at http://www.JesusFilm.org.
The two-hour film is a biblical account of the life of Christ. It was produced by Campus Crusade for Christ and was released in theaters in 1979.
“To our knowledge, a film has never been freely available on the Internet in so many different languages,” said Jim Green, executive director of The JESUS Film Project, which oversees the film.
The JESUS Film Project is part of Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the largest Christian ministries in the world. The film is also available on VHS and DVD.
_ Wangui Njuguna
Quote of the Day: United Methodist Bishop Kenneth Carder
(RNS) “A Christian who assumes the role of God’s press secretary announcing God’s endorsement of a particular candidate should be considered an imposter. Claiming such unmistakable certainty about God’s thinking reflects a dangerous humility deficit that results in godless actions in the name of God. That is the worst kind of profanity.”
_ Retired United Methodist Bishop Kenneth Carder, in a commentary distributed by United Methodist News Service. Carder is the former bishop of Mississippi and Nashville, Tenn., and now teaches at Duke University Divinity School.
MO/PH END RNS
