c. 2005 Religion News Service

Methodist Minister Disciplined for Refusing Gay Man as Member

(RNS) A United Methodist minister in South Hill, Va., has been put on involuntary administrative leave for refusing to allow an openly gay man to become a church member.

The Rev. Ed Johnson, senior pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church, was disciplined in a closed-door executive session at the church’s statewide annual conference held in mid-June. United Methodist officials did not grant interviews on the subject until July.

At issue is how the Methodists’ constitution deals with homosexuality and church membership. The Rev. Tom Thomas, the man who defended Johnson at the annual conference, says Johnson believes his actions were in keeping with the book.

“The social principles in the Book of Discipline make it clear that the church does not condone the practice of homosexuality,” Thomas said. He said “members … take certain vows. The first is that persons acknowledge the spiritual forces of wickedness and repent of their sins.”

“The man was a practicing homosexual and was not willing to consider the notion that (his) homosexual relations must stop,” Thomas said. In the pastor’s mind, Thomas said, this man would “come afoul of (this) vow.”

Bishop Charlene Kammerer, who met with Johnson prior to the disciplinary vote, acknowledged the church’s stance against homosexuality. But, in an interview, Kammerer asserted that “there has been no prohibition of gay membership in the church.”

She pointed to the church’s Book of Discipline, which states, “We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.”

According to Thomas, the man in question had been active at the South Hill congregation for some time, even singing in the choir, when he sought membership. Johnson learned the man was a practicing homosexual in the course of routine membership classes.

A grievance was filed against Johnson, according to Thomas, with then-district superintendent Tony Layman, who reportedly met several times with the pastor.

Bishop Kammerer said Layman “advised him that he should be open to receiving the gay man into membership” but Johnson wouldn’t change his position. At that point, Layman contacted Kammerer, who took the issue to the state board of ordained ministers, which agreed to recommend the disciplinary action at the annual meeting.

_ Martin A. Davis Jr.

Canadian Prelate Says Church Will Not Baptize Children of Gay Couples

OTTAWA (RNS) The Catholic Church will refuse to baptize children of same-sex couples if both parents insist on signing the baptism certificate, Canada’s top Catholic cleric said.

“If I take the example of the ceremony of baptism, according to our canon law, we cannot accept the signatures of two fathers or two mothers as parents of an infant,” Cardinal Marc Ouellet on Wednesday (July 13) told a Senate committee hearing on Bill C-38, the same-sex marriage law that Canada’s lower house of Parliament passed on June 28.

An official with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops explained that Ouellet’s claim would be true only if both fathers or both mothers insisted on signing the baptismal certificate.

Benoit Bariteau told the Ottawa Citizen that “if the parents insist that the two signatures be on the act of baptism, if we say no, it will be their choice of seeking baptism or not.”

But if one signature is sufficient for both parents, the church would not refuse to baptize children of a same-sex couple, he added.

Meanwhile, some legal experts in Canada dismissed Ouellet’s warnings that vocal opponents of same-sex marriage will risk criminal prosecution for publicly denouncing the unions.

Ouellet told the Senate committee that once the state “imposes a new standard affirming that homosexual sexual behavior is a social good, those who oppose it for religious motives or motives of conscience will be considered as bigots, anti-gay and homophobes, and then risk prosecution.”

He said that already, pulpit priests are beginning to shrink from preaching against homosexual behavior.

“There’s a type of climate that exists where we no longer feel we can express our opinion,” he told reporters after his presentation to the Senate committee. “Even our priests sometimes do not feel free to preach on homosexuality … because they are accused of homophobia and they are threatened for prosecution.

“This is an insane atmosphere in our country and our communities and it is not good for religious freedom.”

A University of Toronto expert in same-sex issues called Ouellet’s remarks “rhetorical hysteria,” while a leading law professor said they are groundless because those who oppose homosexual marriage will keep their freedom of expression. However, as with any example of hatemongering, “if someone speaks out against same-sex marriage in a manner that foments hatred, then they run a risk of prosecution,” Marilyn Pilkington, the former dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, told the Globe and Mail.

The same-sex marriage bill is expected to receive final passage in the Senate next week (July 19 or 20), and could become law the same day.

_ Ron Csillag

Holocaust Center Urges Israelis Not to Write ID Numbers on Arms

JERUSALEM (RNS) Officials of Yad Vashem, Israel’s central Holocaust center, urged Jews not to write their Israeli ID numbers on their arms to protest the withdrawal of troops and settlers in mid-August.

On Thursday (July 14), several Jewish settlers wrote numbers on their arms, evoking images of tattooed victims of Nazi concentration camps and walled ghettos.

The small group of settlers took their action after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sealed off Gaza to outside visitors. Gaza residents wishing to move freely between Gaza and Israel proper were told to register their ID numbers with the army.

The Jerusalem Post quoted a settler, 20-year-old Yehuda Lumberg, as saying “He (Sharon) put us in a ghetto. I’m just completing the actions.”

Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, said in a statement that the use of the memory of the Holocaust as a part of a protest “is irresponsible and leads to the damaging of the memory of the Shoah and a perversion of the historical facts.”

Shalev said that “as the public/political debate over the disengagement plan intensifies, Yad Vashem calls on all parties to refrain from using symbols and terminology taken from the Shoah (Holocaust).”

In particular, Shalev said, “people should refrain from unnecessary and wrong comparisons that cause a perversion of the memory of the victims and events, and may even be tainted with Holocaust denial.

Shalev added, “It is important that the memory of the Shoah remain a unifying factor in Israeli society _ not the opposite.”

Several months ago, right-wing activists opposed to the disengagement angered Holocaust survivors by wearing orange-colored stars on their clothes. The Nazis forced many Jews to wear yellow stars during the Holocaust, making it impossible for them to escape persecution.

Also on Thursday, tens of thousands of opponents of the Gaza disengagement gathered at Jerusalem’s Western Wall to pray for “the annulment of the expulsion order.”

Orthodox Jews around the world have been reciting special prayers for months, in the hope that God will ultimately step in and save the settlements in the territory they regard as the biblical land of Israel.

_ Michele Chabin

International Evangelist Morris Cerullo Indicted on Tax Evasion Charges

(RNS) Evangelist Morris Cerullo, a religious broadcaster with an international ministry, has been indicted on charges of filing false income tax returns.

Cerullo, president of San Diego-based Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, misstated his income from 1998 and 2000 by a total of more than $550,000, the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of California announced Tuesday (July 12).

He has been charged with three counts of falsely filing tax returns. Each count has a maximum penalty of $100,000 and three years in prison.

“All who partake in this country’s benefits have a responsibility to pay their taxes, and there are no self-bestowed exemptions,” U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said in a statement.

The charges came after an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

Cerullo’s lawyer, Gregory Vega, said the evangelist will fight the charges, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

“Dr. Cerullo looks forward to an opportunity to respond to the allegations in a court of law,” Vega said. “And he is pleased that after three years of investigation by the IRS, nothing was found to be inappropriate in the operation of the ministry.”

According to the ministry’s Web site, Cerullo has conducted crusades internationally for four decades in locations such as Argentina, Russia and the Middle East. The author of dozens of books, Cerullo has additional evangelistic meetings scheduled for this year, including one in August in Anaheim, Calif.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Media Watchdog Group Joins Sen. Clinton in Warning on Video Game

WASHINGTON (RNS) The president of the National Institute on Media and the Family joined Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., on Thursday (July 14) to warn that pornography may be hidden in the popular video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” published by Rockstar Games.

According to the NIMF, hidden interactive pornographic content can be accessed by all “Grand Theft Auto” users by downloading a code modification from the Internet.

“If the code is on the disk, we call upon Rockstar to issue a general recall, with a full refund, of all units of `Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ so they can be properly labeled Adults Only,” NIMF President David Walsh said. “On the other hand if the … sequences have been created, independent of any of Rockstar’s actions, then parents everywhere need to be alerted.”

“If interactive pornography can be so easily inserted into this video game, it can be inserted into any game,” he said.

The Minneapolis-based institute was founded in 1996 as a nonpartisan, nonsectarian clearinghouse of information on the impact of electronic media on families.

Walsh also said he supports Clinton’s request of the Federal Trade Commission to conduct an examination of retailer rating enforcement. “In any case, it is now more crucial than ever that parents be more vigilant about the video games their children are playing,” he said.

_ Hugh S. Moore

Quote of the Day: Airport Chaplain David C. Southall

(RNS) “I like to joke that my church has 17,000 members and 24 million visitors.”

_ The Rev. David C. Southall, senior chaplain of Dulles International Airport’s interfaith chapel, referring to the number of employees at the Virginia airport and the number of travelers who pass through the airport each year. Southall was quoted in The Washington Times.

KRE/JL END RNS