c. 2005 Religion News Service
Conservatives Say California Gay Marriage Ruling Aids Amendments Drives
(RNS) Conservative activists say Monday’s (March 14) ruling by a San Francisco judge that overturned a statewide ban on gay marriage will ignite efforts to pass amendments to state and federal constitutions.
In his ruling, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said “no rational purpose exists” to exclude gays and lesbians from civil marriage. Kramer said a 2000 voter referendum that defined marriage between a man and a woman was unconstitutional.
“The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the courts: separate but equal,” Kramer wrote.
The case was brought by San Francisco officials and a dozen same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses. The couples were turned away last year after the state Supreme Court ordered the city to stop issuing licenses to gay couples. That same court will now likely hear an appeal of Kramer’s ruling.
Conservatives denounced the decision as another example of an “activist judge” bypassing the will of voters and legalizing gay marriage from the bench. Only constitutional amendments can stop such rulings, they said.
“This ruling, which flies in the face of common sense and millennia of human history, will pour gasoline on the fire ignited by the pro-marriage movement,” said Mat Staver, president of the Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel, which defended the California law.
The Traditional Values Coalition, based in Anaheim, Calif., said the ruling will bolster support for a state constitutional amendment that is pending action by the legislature in Sacramento.
At least a dozen states are considering state-level bans on gay marriage after 13 states passed constitutional bans last year. Courts in New York, New Jersey, Washington and Connecticut are considering legal challenges to allow gay marriage.
Gay activists savored the moment, but conceded their fight is far from over. “We have to melt hearts and open minds and that can’t be done in the courtroom,” Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told The New York Times. “That is done at P.T.A. meetings, Kiwanis clubs and neighborhood potlucks.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Focus on the Family Claims Victory in `SpongeBob’ Video Flap
(RNS) Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, is praising the removal of references to sexual orientation from materials accompanying a children’s video starring SpongeBob SquarePants and about 100 other television characters.
The organization, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., says earlier versions of a teacher’s guide for the video included lesson plans teaching children about discrimination against gays and lesbians. The We Are Family Foundation, based in New York City, produced the video, which was sent to 61,000 elementary schools last week.
“We can only assume The We Are Family Foundation removed those references after realizing the majority of American parents do not want such material to be foisted on their children,” said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, in Citizen Link, a Focus on the Family online newsletter.
Focus on the Family also claims links to gay and lesbian rights organizations, such as the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, were also removed from the Web site after James Dobson, founder of the conservative organization, complained about the video and the materials that went with it.
“We Are Family: A Musical Message for All,” is a video produced by Nile Rodgers, writer of the disco song by the same name. Rodgers is also the head of the “We are Family Foundation.” The video celebrates diversity.
Thirteen other companies collaborated to create the video and materials, including Nickelodeon, Scholastic Entertainment and FedEx, which shipped the videos for free.
Of particular concern to some conservative Christian groups was the teacher’s guide packaged with the video, created by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based human rights organization.
Caryl Stern, associate national director of the league, said the lesson plans referring to same-sex parents were edited out to shorten the guide.
She denied that changes were made under pressure by Dobson, saying, “Obviously, that wasn’t the reason”
Stern said the video celebrates American family values.
“We’re all people and we’re all God’s children,” she said.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Report: One in Seven Rural Americans Is Poor
WASHINGTON (RNS) As globalization and farm subsidies drive family farms out of business, people living in rural areas are more at risk for hunger, according to an annual report released Tuesday (March 15) by Bread for the World, an anti-poverty group.
One in seven rural Americans is poor, and almost one-third of those become “food insecure,” during the year, according to the Washington-based Christian advocacy and research group with a mission of ending hunger.
Worldwide, 75 percent of the 852 million hungry people live in rural areas.
“America’s rural communities and rural people around the world have one thing in common _ they are more likely to be hungry and poor than other people in their country,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Our report shows that people in rural areas are cut off from opportunity. Governments regard them as a low priority.”
Bread for the World set a millennial goal of cutting hunger in half by 2010, and is urging Congress to better fund nutrition and food assistance programs. The report also criticizes the farm subsidy system, which puts money “in the pockets of large landholders and agribusinesses, doing little to help struggling rural families.”
The average cow in Europe receives $2.50 per day in government subsidies, according to the report, while three-fourths of Africans live on less than $2 per day.
The colorful 126-page report answers questions about the world’s poor, who they are and why they go hungry. It also outlines rural poverty and hunger in the United States.
Groups that helped sponsor the 15th annual report include the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Christian Children’s Fund and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger Program.
_ Andrea James
Prominent Catholics Offer Support for Brain-Damaged Woman
(RNS) A Catholic cardinal and movie mogul Mel Gibson are among those joining supporters of Terri Schiavo as the brain-damaged woman awaits the court-ordered removal of her feeding tube on Friday (March 18).
Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia urged that care continue for Schiavo, a Florida woman who was a parishioner in his archdiocese and a graduate of one of its high schools.
“It is a tragic situation that has grave implications for the future treatment of those who are vulnerable and reliant upon someone else to provide their sustenance and decide the level of medical care they receive,” Rigali said in a statement issued Monday (March 14).
“This evil, if permitted, will end the life of one woman and place all of us in peril.”
He asked Catholics in his archdiocese to join him in prayer for Schiavo, her family and those caring for her.
Bob and Mary Schindler, her parents, are fighting a legal battle with her husband, Michael Schiavo, to keep her alive.
Gibson, a Catholic layman, weighed in on the controversy with a March 11 statement for a weekend rally that was held on Schiavo’s behalf. In the statement he said he fully supported efforts by Schiavo’s parents to save her “from a cruel starvation.”
“Terri’s husband should sign the care of his wife over to her parents so she can be properly cared for,” said the actor and director known most recently for his “The Passion of the Christ” movie.
An official of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life also has urged that Schiavo’s feeding tube not be removed. Bishop Elio Sgreccia said the academy’s silence on the matter might have been “interpreted as approval.” Wire services reported that he told Vatican Radio the academy took the unusual step of intervening in a specific case because Schiavo’s case “goes beyond the individual situation because of its exemplary character.”
In this country, conservative Christian groups who have rallied for Schiavo continued to urge supporters to contact state and federal representatives about pending legislation related to her case.
_ Adelle M. Banks
State Department Says More Time Needed on Religious Freedom Concerns
WASHINGTON (RNS) The State Department said it will not meet a Tuesday (March 15) deadline to take action against three nations that were labeled “countries of particular concern” for violations of religious freedom.
A State Department official said the agency needs more time to consider possible action against Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea, which were cited last September by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell for “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
“The administration has been actively engaged with these three governments for improvements in religious freedom,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “We’ve informed Congress that additional time will be needed to finalize actions required” by law.
The 1998 law that created the department’s Office of International Religious Freedom mandated a response within three months, with a possible three-month extension. That deadline for imposing sanctions or other responses was Tuesday.
The official said there will not be any public announcements until a final decision is reached, but hinted that progress was being made.
Last year was the first time the Saudis, a key American ally in the Persian Gulf, were formally put on notice for religious freedom violations. Countries that returned to the list included China, Burma, North Korea, Iran and Sudan.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent watchdog group chartered by Congress in 1998, cautioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice against further delay.
“We are concerned that the deadline has now passed for a second time and we haven’t seen any serious movement” commission spokeswoman Anne Johnson said. “We would hope they would use this further extension to take some serious policy actions.”
On March 11, 15 senators urged swift action against the Saudis. In a letter spearheaded by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the lawmakers said Saudi Arabia “professes to be an ally in this war (yet) continues to openly support religious extremism throughout the world.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Former Hostage Ashley Smith of Duluth, Ga.
(RNS) “You got out of that courthouse with police everywhere, and you don’t think that’s a miracle? You don’t think you’re supposed to be sitting right here in front of me. … Your miracle could be that you need to be caught for this. If you go to prison, then you need to share the word of God with all the prisoners there.”
_ Former hostage Ashley Smith, 26, of Duluth, Ga., recounting her words to Brian Gene Nichols, who was wanted for the shooting deaths of a judge and three others at an Atlanta courthouse on Friday (March 11). She was quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
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