c. 2005 Religion News Service

Best Buy to Curb Violent Video Games, to Applause of Catholic Investors

(RNS) Christian Brothers Investment Services announced Thursday (May 19) that it has withdrawn a shareholder resolution on violent video games that it filed with Best Buy Co. Inc. because the retailer has established a policy to restrict the sales of such games to youths.

The New York-based consulting company, which fosters responsible Catholic financial decisions, said it was encouraged by the developments by the Minneapolis-based company to address video sales.

“We are pleased with the progress to date at the company and commend Best Buy for improving its business practices in this area,” said Julie Tanner, corporate advocacy director for Christian Brothers Investment Services, in a statement.

“We believe that Best Buy’s work here will diminish reputation risk and protect shareholder value.”

The policy prohibits sale of “mature” video and computer games with an M rating to customers younger than 17.

The investment company said Best Buy’s recently published policy includes a “mystery shopper” program that determines if cashiers are complying with company rules. The retailer’s Web site said these random audits are done at more than 100 stores each month.

Sue Busch, a Best Buy spokeswoman, said the policy has existed for at least a year but it was posted on the company’s Web site earlier this month (May).

“To promote employee compliance with this policy, Best Buy voluntarily developed and implemented a system in all stores providing for special prompts at cash registers when M-rated video or computer games are being purchased,” reads a statement on the company’s Web site.

“The prompts require the cashier to confirm the age of the customer before selling an M-rated video or computer game.”

The retailer said employees, who must sign an acknowledgment of the policy, will be disciplined and could be fired if they do not follow company rules about sales of video games.

The investment company worked with other Catholic organizations on the resolution, including Trinity Health, a Michigan-based consortium of Catholic hospitals and other facilities, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, N.Y., and the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Mich.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Professors Protest Choice of Bush as Speaker at Evangelical School

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) More than one-third of the faculty at Calvin College has joined students and alumni in protesting the choice of President Bush as the evangelical school’s commencement speaker Saturday (May 21).

About 100 of Calvin’s 300 faculty members have joined more than 750 alumni, students and staff in signing a letter of protest that will appear in a half-page ad in the Grand Rapids Press on Saturday.

Members of the group admit they are in the minority at the liberal arts college and in a region that traditionally supports Bush and his policies. They maintain the president, who has been open about his Christian faith, has not governed in accordance with biblical principles.

“By their deeds ye shall know them,” reads the paid advertisement, quoting the Bible. “Your deeds, Mr. President _ neglecting the needy to coddle the rich, desecrating the environment, and misleading the country into war _ do not exemplify the faith we live by.

“Moreover, many of your supporters are using religion as a weapon to divide our nation and advance a narrow partisan agenda. …We urge you not to use Calvin College as a platform to advance policies that violate the school’s religious principles.”

Calvin College professors Randal Jelks and Ruth Groenhout object to Bush’s appearance. They appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes” program Tuesday night (May 17).

A warm welcome from Alan Colmes, the left-leaning co-host on the national show, cooled quickly as partner Sean Hannity, known for his conservative views, lambasted Jelks and Groenhout for lending their names to a letter criticizing Bush and the White House for violating many “deeply held principles of Calvin College.”

Calvin communication arts and sciences department chair Randall Bytwerk says Bush and his speechwriters know better than to turn a ceremony of occasion into a partisan political event. Bytwerk reviewed Bush’s prior commencement talks and said none took a political tone.

He finds it unfortunate some staff have chosen to bring political tensions into play.

“They say they welcome his visit and promoting dialogue, but the way to do that is not to announce everything a person is doing wrong,” Bytwerk said. “This brouhaha makes a political event out of what was not a political event.”

_ Nate Reens

Physicans in Congress Push Alternative to Embryonic Stem Cell Research

WASHINGTON (RNS) With a congressional vote upcoming that would lift limits on embryonic stem cell research, five physicians from the House of Representatives are trying to counter what they consider widespread misconceptions about such research.

“Embryonic stem cell research has been hyped to the extreme in this city and in Hollywood,” said Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Md., a physician who argues that taxpayer money should not be used to support such an ethically charged issue.

At a Thursday (May 19) news conference, Weldon, joined by four other Republican congressmen who are doctors, offered umbilical cord blood cells and adult cells as viable moral alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. According to the congressmen, cord blood cells have more practical treatment potential than stem cells.

“There are no treatments or even promising human trials involving embryonic stem cells,” said Rep Tom Coburn, R-Okla., also a doctor. “Before we divert more of our limited resources on hypothetical promises, we owe the public a real debate based on science, not emotion.”

Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, all physicians, joined Coburn and Weldon at the news conference.

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which may be voted on as early as the week of May 23, would boost federal funding for stem cell research and increase the amount of cells available for study. In 2001, President Bush limited the number of cells that can be used to about two dozen stem cell lines.

As the physicians made their views known, religious voices also joined the debate, on opposite sides of the issue.

Roman Catholic Cardinal William H. Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore and chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, wrote a letter to Congress in which he called stem cell research “large scale destruction of innocent human life.”

“Government has no business forcing taxpayers to become complicit in the direct destruction of human life at any stage,” Keeler said. He added that the only policy change should be to end stem cell research altogether.

On the other hand, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish organization supports the new legislation.

“The Torah commands us to treat and cure the ill and to defeat disease wherever possible,” read a letter from the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, a New York City-based umbrella organization representing more than 1,000 synagogues.

“The potential to save and heal human lives is an integral part of valuing human life,” the letter continued, adding the Jewish tradition does not afford embryos outside of the womb the status of a full human being.

_ Helena Andrews

Ousted Jesuit Editor Welcomed at Santa Clara University

(RNS) The Rev. Tom Reese, forced to resign as editor of the Jesuit magazine America under Vatican pressure, said he will move to California to take a job at Santa Clara University.

Reese, a widely quoted commentator on church affairs, announced on May 6 that he would leave the New York magazine after seven years. Church leaders in Rome had pressured Reese to resign after he allowed dissenting views to be aired in the magazine.

Reese will take a yearlong sabbatical at the Jesuit school “with no university responsibilities” as he ponders his future, Santa Clara President Paul Locatelli said in a news release.

“It was important for him to come to a place where he felt welcome and would have the time to decide what he wanted to do next,” said Locatelli, also a Jesuit priest and a longtime friend of Reese.

Locatelli said Reese, a political scientist by training, has been offered a chance to travel to El Salvador with other Jesuits, or work with the school’s centers for Jesuit education or ethics.

“He can contribute to the campus in so many different ways,” Locatelli said. “I’m sure he wants to do a good deal of reading, writing and reflecting.”

In an e-mail, Reese said he would leave the magazine on May 31 and spend the month of June “vacationing on the beach” before he begins his sabbatical.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Quote of the Day: Internet Matchmaker Neil Clark Warren

(RNS) “We’re trying to reach the whole world _ people of all spiritual orientations, all political philosophies, all racial backgrounds. And if indeed, we have Focus on the Family on the top of our books, it is a killer. Because people do recognize them as occupying a very precise political position in this society and a very precise spiritual position.”

_ Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony, an Internet matchmaking service. Warren has distanced himself from Focus on the Family founder James Dobson by buying back the rights to three books the evangelical ministry published for him. Warren was quoted by USA Today.

MO/JL END RNS