c. 2005 Religion News Service
`Justice Sunday’ Event On Judicial Nominees Called `Just-Us’ Sunday
(RNS) A “Justice Sunday” simulcast event Sunday (April 24) featuring prominent religious conservatives has drawn criticism from liberal groups.
The national simulcast is organized by the Family Research Council to draw attention to Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees, or as the Washington-based group calls it, “the filibuster against people of faith.” The event is expected to involve more than 100 churches across the country.
It will feature such speakers as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and will be picked up by Christian broadcast outlets across the country. The inclusion of Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who is to appear via video, has boosted the level of opposition to the event.
“Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and to engage values voters in the all-important issue of reining in our out-of-control courts and putting a halt to the use of filibusters against people of faith,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a statement about the event.
A filibuster occurs when a minority group of senators prevents a vote on a motion or a confirmation of a judicial nominee by prolonging debate.
As of Wednesday (April 20), organizers said 114 churches had signed up to link to the event, which will be held at a Louisville, Ky., church.
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, was among those questioning the way the event has been promoted.
“This campaign, which they are calling `Justice Sunday,’ should properly be called `Just-Us’ Sunday,” Edgar said in a statement. “It serves to further polarize our nation, and it disenfranchises and demonizes good people of faith who hold political beliefs that differ from theirs.”
Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director J. Brent Walker also questioned the event.
“It is a shameful abuse of religion to suggest that God has taken up sides in the debate,” he said in a statement.
Amber Hildebrand, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Family Research Council, said some may misunderstand the intent of the event.
“I think they’re interpreting our slogan as saying that Democrats are not people of faith, but that’s not what we’re saying at all,” she said. Rather, some of the people President Bush has nominated for judicial posts “are of strong faith.”
She said organizers want to see votes for nominees be taken rather than blocked. “At least, these judicial nominees will know whether they’re in or out instead of just hanging around,” she said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Reform and Conservative Rabbis Say Gays Have Right to Festival in Israel
JERUSALEM (RNS) Rabbis representing the Reform, Conservative/Masorti and Reconstructionist movements in Israel announced Tuesday (April 19) that they support the right of gay and lesbians to hold a controversial festival in Jerusalem in August.
Slated to take place August 18-28, the International WorldPride festival _ which will include a parade in downtown Jerusalem _ has been denounced by leading Orthodox Jewish clerics in Israel, along with Muslim and Christian clerics in Israel and abroad. Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have launched a petition campaign to prevent the event from taking place.
The non-Orthodox rabbis said they felt compelled to back the event to counter the “intolerance” and “homophobia” of some of their colleagues.
“We reject and condemn in the strongest possible terms the attempts to block this event articulated by some clergy of various faiths, in particular … statements that denigrate the full humanity of GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transexual) individuals,” said Rabbi Amy Klein, director of the Midrasha of the Reconstructionist movement in Israel.
Jerusalem, Klein said, “is not the province of one faith tradition, or of one wing of a faith tradition.”
Reform Rabbi Na’amah Kelman-Ezrachi, the first woman rabbi ordained in Israel, said that “it is incumbent to welcome the WorldPride parade and conference and to march with it.”
While Ehud Bandel, who heads the Conservative/Masorti movement in Israel, said he had come “to show solidarity and support” for the gay and lesbian community’s “right” to hold a festival, he stressed that “we are not endorsing” the event.
Noa Sattath, chairperson of the Jerusalem Open House, tried to allay fears that parade participants would march through the streets of Jerusalem _ which has a population largely religious and extremely conservative _ in revealing clothing.
Sattath said organizers are asking potential marchers “to come and make a significant statement about tolerance, not to have a wild party.”
Sattath pointed out that participants in Jerusalem’s three previous, locally produced gay and lesbian parades wore T-shirts and jeans out of respect for the city’s unique religious sensibilities.
_ Michele Chabin
George Younce, Gospel Singer, Won Fame in Cathedral Quartet
(RNS) George Younce, a two-time Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame inductee and founding member of the Cathedral Quartet, died Monday at Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio.
Stow, 75 and an Ohio resident, whose signature songs include “This Old House” and “Thanks To Calvary,” was inducted into the GMA Hall of Fame twice in 1999 _ as a member of the Cathedrals and as an individual.
The honor coincided with the announcement by Younce and Glen Payne, the two charter members of the Cathedrals, that the quartet would retire at the end of the year after 31 years as one of gospel music’s most popular acts. Payne died two months before the group’s final concert in December 1999.
Younce continued his solo career and collaborated with other artists. He kept demonstrating his ability to captivate a crowd with his powerful bass vocals and flawless comic timing on Bill Gaither’s Homecoming video and concert series.
“He was one of those once-in-a-lifetime spirits,” Gaither said by phone from his headquarters in Alexandria, Ind. “He always left the room lighter because of his presence and his spirit. Probably the greatest bass singer of all time, but that’s kind of incidental when you consider his impact on people’s lives. He was bigger than life.”
After the Cathedrals retired, Younce formed a new group, the Old Friends Quartet, with his son-in-law, Ernie Haase, who had been the Cathedrals tenor through the 1990s, and two other Homecoming regulars, Wayne Pritchard and Jake Hess. Hess died Jan. 4, 2004.
Younce, who had a history of heart and kidney problems, collapsed during the taping of a Gaither Homecoming concert at Carnegie Hall in April 2002. He stepped back from performing because of health problems until July 19, 2003, when he appeared with Haase’s new group, Signature Sound Quartet, at two concerts at Hudson High School in Hudson, Ohio.
In a letter to fans after the show, he said, “For me, there’s nothing like … four-part male harmony … singing your heart out and lighting up the faces of a crowd … shaking hands, hugging necks, sharing a laugh. And there’s nothing like doing what you know God has called you to do and doing it to the best of your ability and his glory.”
_ Alana Baranick
Anti-Hunger Group Enlists Latino Church Leaders
PASADENA, Calif. (RNS) A religious lobbying group is targeting Latino church leaders to urge them to take political action to end hunger in America.
Bread for the World is a Washington-based Christian group that mobilizes about 250,000 people annually to influence legislation, according to the organization’s leaders. In 2003, more than 36 million Americans lived in households where lack of food is a problem, including 13.3 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The outreach to Latinos is a new initiative for the organization. There are about 35 million Latinos in the United States, according to the 2000 Census. The group is rapidly growing and represents a strong political force, said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World.
On Friday (April 15), Bread for the World representatives met at Fuller Theological Seminary with about two dozen Latino church leaders who represent about 1,000 congregations nationally. There, they discussed how the Catholic, mainline Protestant and evangelical congregations could take action to address the problem of hunger.
The meeting was one of several with Southern California Latino Christian leaders that Bread for the World scheduled during the weekend.
The Rev. Rene Molina, pastor general of the 4,500-member Iglesias de Restauracion in Los Angeles, said his church has food programs, but has not engaged in the kind of political organizing suggested by Bread for the World.
“Coming here allows us to see the big picture, to work at a different level,” Molina said through an interpreter after the meeting. “Not just to give a piece of bread to somebody, but to enable laws that would provide long-term help to people.”
Bread for the World’s lobbying efforts include letter-writing campaigns. The organization provided the Latino leaders with a sample letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., supporting the Hunger Free Communities Act, which Beckmann said is scheduled to be introduced soon to lawmakers.
The Hunger Free Communities Act would lessen the number of hungry Americans by half by 2010 and end the problem by 2015, Beckmann said. The proposed legislation also protects national nutrition programs from budget cuts.
Juan Martinez, director of Hispanic Church Studies at Fuller, said Bread for the World’s outreach represents one of the first times that Latino leaders have been taken seriously. Historically, Latinos in America have felt they have no voice, Martinez said.
_ Marshall Allen
Quote of the Day: Jan Love, Chief Executive of United Methodist Women’s Division
(RNS) “Since the rape, I have meditated frequently on what it means to love my enemies, to do good to those who have hurt me. I often ponder the full meaning of forgiveness and what consequences it has for my life and that of my attackers.”
_ Jan Love, chief executive of the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, speaking to division directors at their April 8-11 spring meeting in Stamford, Conn. Love, who recalled a rape during a 1979 trip to Jamaica for an ecumenical meeting, was quoted by United Methodist News Service.
MO/DH END RNS
