c. 2005 Religion News Service
British Religious Leaders Denounce London Bombings
LONDON (RNS) British church leaders urged prayer for the victims of Thursday’s (July 7) bombings in central London, and Muslim leaders condemned the violence as a desecration of the Islamic faith.
The coordinated blasts, which left at least 40 people dead and several hundred injured, brought the British capital to a halt. Responsibility was claimed by a group calling itself the Secret Organization Group of al-Qaida of Jihad in Europe.
The leader of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was meeting with Muslim leaders in Yorkshire when the bombings hit London’s morning rush hour.
“We were all one in our condemnation of this evil and in our shared sense of care and compassion for those affected in whatever way,” he said. “Such solidarity and common purpose is vital for us all at this time of pain and sorrow and anger.
Britain’s top Catholic leader, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, said he was “horrified” at this “terrible attack on innocent people.” Pope Benedict XVI, in a message to the English cardinal, said he was “deeply saddened” by the terrorist attacks and deplored “these barbaric acts against humanity.” He prayed for “the consolation that only God can give in such circumstances.”
In Scotland, where G-8 leaders had gathered for their annual summit, leaders of the Church of Scotland urged the United Kingdom to “strengthen and uphold what terrorism seeks to destroy.”
The Muslim Council of Britain, in a joint statement with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, said “religious precepts cannot be used to justify such crimes, which are completely contrary to our teaching and practice.”
“We continue to resist all attempts to associate our communities with the hateful acts of any minority who claim falsely to represent us.”
In a separate statement the Muslim Council of Britain said the bombings “make victims of us all” and urged Christians and Muslims to work “shoulder to shoulder” in working against terrorism.
The “evil people” who bombed the buses and subway trains “want to demoralize us as a nation and divide us as a people. All of us must unite in helping the police to capture these murderers,” said Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
_ Robert Nowell
Billy Graham’s Eldest Daughter Charged in Alleged Domestic Violence
(RNS) The eldest daughter of Billy Graham has been charged with battery after an alleged July 1 incident of domestic violence in Florida.
Virginia “Gigi” Graham Foreman, 59, was charged after a dispute with her husband on a New Smyrna Beach, Fla., roadway, according to a report published on the Web site of “The Smoking Gun,” which finds and posts public documents about celebrities.
In the affidavit provided by the site, the arresting officer said Foreman “intentionally struck” Chad Foreman.
The battery charge is a misdemeanor.
Virginia Foreman, who was described as a self-employed public speaker in the affidavit, has written several Christian books, including “Weather of the Heart,” a devotional volume that won a Gold Medallion Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 1992.
A. Larry Ross, spokesman for her father, evangelist Billy Graham, said Thursday (July 7) her parents were aware of the allegation.
“Though they don’t know the details of the alleged incident, Mr. and Mrs. Graham have expressed their ongoing unconditional love for their daughter,” he said in an interview. “They will continue to lift her and her family up in prayer as the facts unfold.”
Her brother, Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said in a statement that he regretted the report of the alleged altercation.
“As a 59-year-old mother of seven and grandmother of 17, Virginia has our family’s full love, support and prayers,” he said. “As her brother, I find this report certainly out of character for my sister and trust that this situation will be quickly and satisfactorily resolved.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
American Baptist Executive Warns of Division Over Homosexuality
(RNS) The general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA urged members at their recent biennial meeting to not let divisions over homosexuality endanger the denomination’s future.
“The issue of homosexuality has brought us as a denomination to a crossroad in our life together,” said the Rev. A. Roy Medley in a July 1 sermon on the opening day of the denomination’s three-day meeting.
“One road will lead to separation. The other path will lead us to shared ministry and mission in all the theological and ethnic richness that has come to make us the unique denomination we are.”
He reiterated his past personal declaration that he is “conservative in matters related to human sexuality” but does not want to be separated from those who disagree with him.
The denomination, known for being both evangelical and ecumenical, has struggled with the issue of homosexuality. Regional leaders of the church group issued a pastoral letter last December stating that the debate “threatens to break us apart.”
In 2003, the denomination’s General Board approved the establishment of the Evergreen Baptist Association, which includes congregations in the northwestern United States that welcome gays and lesbians. The association disagrees with more theologically conservative congregations in the larger American Baptist Churches of the Northwest.
During the biennial meeting in Denver, delegates approved a “statement of concern” on “Reaffirming the Association Principle.” It addressed changes that have occurred in divisions within the denomination.
“Some regional associations have shifted their focus from shared ministry to shared theology,” the statement reads. “As a result, our energies are focused on the internal dynamics of our life together rather than our larger call to ministry in the world.”
Richard Schramm, spokesman for the denomination, said the statement was viewed by some as a reference to the Evergreen association but it was meant as a “very general statement.”
In other business, the Rev. Arlee Griffin Jr., pastor of Berean Missionary Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., was elected as the group’s next president. His two-year term begins on Jan. 1, 2006.
_ Adelle M. Banks
IRS Investigating Organization of Faith Healer Benny Hinn
(RNS) A yearlong inquiry by the Internal Revenue Service has focused on the ministry of flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and questions about his organization’s operations and finances, according to a newspaper report.
The issues at the center of the IRS review underlie the tax-exempt status of Hinn’s organization as a church, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday (July 6).
The IRS declined to discuss the case, and the newspaper report said it’s unclear whether the agency’s concerns about the ministry, which is estimated to raise more than $100 million annually, are close to being resolved or will open an audit.
Hinn spokesman Ronn Torossian confirmed the inquiry and told The News the ministry has “fully cooperated with the IRS” and is not being audited. He said the IRS each year sends “thousands of letters of inquiry to a sampling of nonprofits.”
Torossian dismissed the possibility that Hinn’s tax exemptions _ worth millions a year _ could be at risk, repeatedly warning the newspaper that it should “be very careful about what it reports.”
Hinn’s World Healing Church has administrative and mail-processing headquarters in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine.
Documents provided to the newspaper by the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based religious watchdog group, indicate the IRS has asked for dozens of detailed answers from Hinn’s ministry.
In a March 25 letter contained on the Trinity Foundation’s Web site, the watchdog group’s president, Ole Anthony, cited its 13-year investigation of Hinn’s ministry and urged the IRS to deny it church status.
Anthony said the Trinity Foundation began its investigation of Benny Hinn Ministries in 1992 after complaints to its national victims hotline.
“We now have extensive documentation obtained from public records, informants and `(D)umpster diving’ at various locations, including Florida, Texas and California,” Anthony wrote.
He said the watchdog group, which condemns Hinn’s leadership as autocratic and his lifestyle as lavish, “most strongly disagrees” with the ministry’s claims that it deserves tax-exempt status as a church.
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
Polish Newspaper Reports Late Pope Wrote Letter to Man Who Shot Him
(RNS) The late Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to Mehmet Ali Agca after the Turkish terrorist shot and wounded the pontiff in 1981, a newspaper in his native Poland has disclosed.
According to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, John Paul asked the gunman: “Why did you shoot at me if we both believe in one sole God?”
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Polish pope’s private secretary until John Paul’s death this year, confirmed the letter existed and that in the end it never was sent to Agca, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court for the shooting in St. Peter’s Square May 13, 1981.
Dziwisz added that the letter will be made available to the postulator in the process under way for the beatification of John Paul but that otherwise it was part of material that would remain secret.
“I confirm that the Holy Father John Paul II wrote such a letter to Ali Agca but that it was not sent,” the archbishop of Cracow told the Polish news agency PAP.
“The archive is closed to outsiders and so it (the letter) will end up being catalogued with other material. This will take some years and during that time it won’t be open to anyone. The longer that is the better.”
John Paul forgave Agca for the shooting and visited him at Rome’s Rebibbia maximum security prison.
Dziwisz disclosed earlier this year that the late pope had asked for his personal letters to be burned but that he had decided not to carry out the request.
“Nothing deserves to be burned but there is much that ought to be preserved,” he told the Polish news agency.
_ John Phillips
Quote of the Day: Sedki Riad, director, Islamic Center of Blacksburg, Va.
(RNS) “There is nothing better than knowing that Blacksburg is what we expect it to be _ a caring, friendly and supporting neighborhood. … It is a big relief.”
_ Sedki Riad, director of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg, Va. on the revelation that a charred Quran discovered outside his mosque was not evidence of a hate crime. A Muslim student at Virginia Tech told police he left the damaged holy book outside the mosque because he thought members would know how to dispose of it properly after it was damaged in a house fire. Riad was quoted by the Roanoke Times.
MO/JL END RNS
