c. 2005 Religion News Service
Episcopalians See `Genuine Holiness’ in Gay Relationships
(RNS) Leaders of the Episcopal Church on Tuesday (June 21) stood by their decision to ordain an openly gay bishop and to bless same-sex unions, with a report arguing that there is a “genuine holiness” among gays and lesbians.
A 130-page report was drafted by seven U.S. theologians and presented to the Anglican Consultative Council, a global steering committee of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion that is meeting in Nottingham, England.
In February, senior Anglican bishops asked the U.S. and Canadian churches to “voluntarily withdraw” their delegates to the ACC meeting and instead explain their rationale for blessing gay unions and allowing openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson to serve in New Hampshire.
The U.S. report said the Bible does not speak of homosexual “faithful and committed lifelong unions,” and argued that committed gay relationships can be “open to God’s blessing and holy purposes.”
“This growing awareness of holiness in same-sex relationships has caused the Episcopal Church to face some difficult questions that we did not always want to face,” the report said.
The report, which was approved by Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, said banning gay unions would reinforce “discrimination, oppression and violence” against gays and lesbians. It also said the church benefits from elevating “marginalized persons” into leadership posts.
The report urged other members of the Anglican Communion to respect more progressive notions of sexuality. “No one culture, no one period of history, has a monopoly of insight into the truth of the Gospel,” the report said.
A similar report by the Anglican Church of Canada, which has come under international criticism for blessing gay unions in a Vancouver-based diocese, said the church is “in the midst of a conversation” on gay issues.
The three U.S. representatives to the ACC meeting _ one bishop, one priest and a laywoman _ are at the meeting but have agreed not to participate. Griswold invited five other people to present the U.S. church’s position.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for current and historic photos of Graham to accompany the following story.
Graham Promises to Avoid Politics During New York Crusade
NEW YORK (RNS) Billy Graham promised in a Tuesday (June 21) news conference to avoid politics during his New York crusade, saying that in the past “many times I went too far” in mixing politics and religion.
“At my age, I have only one message,” said Graham, 86, referring to the gospel message he plans to preach in New York’s Flushing Meadows Park Friday (June 24) through Sunday.
Graham began his career outspoken on many social and political issues, particularly communism, which he vehemently opposed. But Graham has steadily backed away from the political arena. In recent years he has confined himself to comments against racism and poverty.
“If I get up and talk about some political issue, it divides the audience,” Graham said. “What I want is a united audience to hear only the gospel. Many times I went too far talking about such issues.”
He has maintained friendships with presidents of both political parties, and praised both the Clinton and Bush families in his remarks.
He was also careful not to criticize other Christian leaders who are more politically outspoken.
During an interview with Larry King last week, Graham voiced his continued opposition to abortion and gay marriage but said that he was “not getting into it.” He said he also regretted that he talked politics too much with President Nixon.
Graham said he sees his New York crusade as an opportunity to reach across political and ethnic divides in one of the most diverse cities in the world. “I know that the problems of the world are there,” said Graham.
Graham is holding a three-day crusade that he says will be his last in America. He has been invited to London but said he doesn’t know whether he will be able to accept because of declining health.
_ Jason Anthony
House Asks Air Force Academy for Study on Religious Climate
WASHINGTON (RNS) After a fractious debate in which Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., accused Democrats of “demonizing Christians,” the House of Representatives decided in a voice vote Monday (June 20) to require the Air Force to study the religious climate at the Air Force Academy.
The sharp exchange broke out as lawmakers considered an amendment by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., to a military spending bill. In his proposed amendment, Obey noted “coercive and abusive religious proselytizing” at the Air Force Academy.
Arguing the academy is already investigating allegations that faculty and staff have promoted evangelical Christianity, Republican lawmakers said Obey’s amendment was unnecessary. Hostettler then accused Democrats of waging a “long war on Christianity in America.”
In remarks he later required to be struck from the record, Hostettler added, “Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians.”
“I think his outburst … is perhaps a perfect example of why we need to pass the language in my amendment,” Obey said.
Lawmakers agreed in a voice vote to approve an alternate amendment, proposed by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. The provision requires the Air Force to develop recommendations to “maintain a positive climate of religious freedom and tolerance” at the academy. It asserts that “the military must be a place where there is freedom for religious expression for all faiths” and does not mention allegations of inappropriate proselytizing.
The defense spending bill is still pending approval by the Senate, where the amendment on the Air Force may or may not survive debate.
The Air Force has been criticized for reports that the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., fosters a culture in which those who aren’t evangelical Christians are harassed. The academy’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, has acknowledged a problem, but on Monday (June 20) it was announced that he will be leaving the academy to become president of his alma mater, the Citadel.
_ Nancy Glass
Zimbabwe’s Bishops Condemn `Gross Injustice’ of Cleanup Campaign
(RNS) Zimbabwe’s Roman Catholic bishops have issued a pastoral letter condemning what they call the “gross injustice done to the poor” in the government’s demolition of shanty homes and flea markets.
Four weeks after the government campaign began, the bishops said in their Monday (June 20) letter, “The Cry of the Poor,” “countless numbers of men, women with babies, children of school age, the old and the sick, continue to sleep in the open air at winter temperatures near to freezing. … We condemn the gross injustice done to the poor.”
Also on Monday, the United Nations said it was sending a special envoy to Zimbabwe to investigate the campaign, dubbed “Operation Restore Order.”
“President Robert Mugabe … has agreed that the special envoy of the secretary-general should visit the country as soon as possible to study the scope of the recent eviction of illegal dwellers, informal traders and squatters, and the humanitarian impact it has had on the affected population,” said Stephane Dujarric, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s spokesman, in a statement.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called the campaign a “tragedy, crime, horror that the government of Zimbabwe is perpetrating on its people.”
“It really is obscene what’s going on there _ where the government destroys homes and businesses of Zimbabwe’s poor in some perverse, misguided move to respond to political opposition or to respond to economic factors,” Reuters quoted the State Department spokesman as saying.
An estimated 200,000 people have been left homeless by the cleanup campaign, and thousands of informal businesses and flea market stalls have been flattened and their goods confiscated.
In their pastoral letter, Zimbabwe’s Catholic bishops suggested the cleanup campaign might have political motivations.
They said the government “should promote the common good of all members of society _ not the good of an elite group.”
The bishops also said the God-given dignity of the people was “gravely violated by the ruthless manner in which Operation Restore Order was conducted.”
_ David E. Anderson
Pennsylvania Legislative Panel Hears Debate on Creation Theory
(RNS) A Pennsylvania legislative panel is considering legislation to allow schools to include the theory of intelligent design when discussing evolution.
“Let it be taught alongside” evolution, subcommittee Chairman Rep. Samuel E. Rohrer, R-Berks County, said near the end of a Monday (June 20) hearing before the House subcommittee on basic education.
The panel took no action, but is expected to discuss the issue next month.
Intelligent design surfaced as an issue last year when the Dover Area School District in York County required that it be taught in science class.
The Dover school board’s decision, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, prompted lawsuits by opponents and led to the proposal in the House.
The bill “would open the door to the teaching of a controversial theological assertion based in creationism,” said Janice Rael, president of the Delaware Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
She called on lawmakers to reject the measure “in order to preserve the integrity of our public school system and prevent unnecessary politicization of state education” by religious fundamentalists.
Rael called intelligent design the “antithesis of science.” She said proponents were trying to inject science in their cause to get around a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said, “The belief that a supernatural creator was responsible for the creation of human kind is a religious viewpoint, and cannot be taught in public schools along with the scientific theory of evolution.”
However, Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, said the issue of intelligent design “is not a religious argument,” but one that contends “simply that some parts of nature are best explained as the result of purposeful activity.”
Larry Frankel, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, called intelligent design “the latest alias for creationism” that “should be recognized for what it really is _ a faith-based explanation of the origin of life.”
Samuel S. Chen, a student at Emmaus High School, said he wants fellow students to have an opportunity to hear views other than those of teachers who discuss evolution.
“If evolution is indeed a scientific fact, why don’t the evolutionists simply produce the evidence to answer the questions and doubts posed by intelligent design?” he said.
_ Bill Sulon
Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines Dies at 76 After Long Illness
(RNS) Cardinal Jaime Sin, the former archbishop of Manila who led “people power” campaigns that ousted two presidents of the Philippines without bloodshed, died early Tuesday (June 21) at the age of 76.
Sin had suffered for years from diabetes and kidney problems and was unable to attend the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI on April 19. His spokesman, the Rev. Jun Sescon, said he was admitted to Cardinal Santos Memorial Medical Center in San Juan on Sunday night with a high fever and died of multiple organ failure.
Benedict said in a telegram to Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Manila that he was “deeply saddened” by Sin’s death. “Recalling with gratitude his infallible commitment to the promotion of the dignity, common good and unity of the Philippine people, I join with you in prayer,” he said.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whom Sin helped bring to power, declared four days of national mourning. Flags on public buildings flew at half-staff, and large crowds gathered outside the Manila Cathedral where his body lay in state.
Born Aug. 31, 1928, the 14th of 16 children of a Chinese merchant and a Filipino woman, Sin was the youngest member of the College of Cardinals when he was elevated to cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1976 at the age of 47.
Sin was the driving force behind the mass protest movements that ended the corrupt and repressive regime of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and led to the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada, a former movie star, on charges of bribery and corruption in 2000 and his ouster in 2001.
Arroyo, who succeeded Estrada, called Sin “a blessed man who never failed to unite Filipinos during the most crucial battles against tyranny and evil.”
“My duty is to put Christ in politics. Politics without Christ is the greatest scourge of our nation,” Sin said at his retirement ceremony in 2003.
Known for his wit, Sin called his residence “the house of Sin.” Referring to the endemic corruption that Marcos left behind, he said, “We got rid of Ali Baba, but the 40 thieves remained.”
_ Peggy Polk
Quote of the Day: Michael Schiavo
(RNS) “I kept my promise.”
_ Michael Schiavo’s inscription on a grave marker for his wife, Terri Schiavo, a woman at the center of an end-of-life controversy. It refers to the promise he said he made to not keep her alive artificially. Her cremated remains were buried Monday (June 20) amid reports that Terri Schiavo’s parents were outraged by the inscription.
MO/PH END RNS
