c. 2005 Religion News Service
Conservative Episcopalians Enlist Overseas Bishops in Battle Over Gays
PITTSBURGH (RNS) Seven archbishops from countries in the global south have promised to stand with American conservatives in their battle over the future of the Episcopal Church.
The international leaders met with 2,100 Americans for a three-day conference that ended Friday (Nov. 11). A main point of controversy was the consecration of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church USA. Conference participants alleged the American church is promoting liberal interpretations of the Bible that undermine the traditional faith of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
“I think what’s really important is that conservatives here in America and us in the global south are thinking alike,” Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda told “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,” a PBS show.
The meeting was sponsored by the Anglican Communion Network, a new coalition of disaffected conservative Episcopalians who want to stay connected to the broader worldwide Anglican Communion. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan is head of the network.
“Rallying the troops is exactly what we’re doing,” said Duncan.
The new network is building an alliance with African and Asian church leaders, who make up the majority of the worldwide Anglican Church.
In Uganda, Orombi heads a church of more than 9 million members, compared to 2.2 million American Episcopalians.
Another outspoken supporter was Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who leads a church of more than 17 million.
“As long as we hold this together, we are with you every inch of the way,” Akinola told American conservatives.
The coming year could be pivotal. The Episcopal Church USA meets in June for its triennial general convention, with the gay issue expected to be divisive again.
_ Kim Lawton of “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly”
Despite Warning by Robertson, Pa. Town Not Worried About God’s Wrath
DOVER, Pa. (RNS) Television broadcaster Pat Robertson has proclaimed God will forsake a Pennsylvania town because its voters tossed out school board members who supported the teaching of intelligent design.
But residents interviewed in the Dover Area School District said they’re not worried.
“God doesn’t do that,” said Chris Macdonald, 50, seated at the Moonlight Cafe in Dover. “I’m not worried. Not at all.”
Robertson made the statement Thursday (Nov. 10) on his syndicated talk show, “The 700 Club.” Robertson hosts the show, produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network.
He warned that if a disaster befalls the Dover area, its residents should forget about any help from God. Dover Area School District, a mostly white, rural area, has 17 churches.
“You just rejected him,” said Robertson, “from your city. … You just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help, because he might not be there.”
Last year, the Dover school board adopted a policy requiring school administrators to read a statement to ninth-graders preparing to study Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The statement says Darwin’s theory that species evolved from a common source through natural selection “is not a fact.” It also informs students that the school library has materials about intelligent design.
Intelligent design holds that life is too complex to have evolved at random and must have a powerful intelligence behind it. Many interpret that intelligence to be God.
Critics said intelligent design is thinly disguised creationism, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 is a religious philosophy, not science.
Eleven parents filed a federal lawsuit against the district, saying the policy violated the constitutional separation of church and state. That trial lasted for weeks, and a ruling is expected by sometime in January.
On Tuesday, the eight incumbent school board members on the ballot were defeated. Some of the winning candidates have said intelligent design does not belong in science class. They suggested that it be taught in courses on American culture or social studies.
Robertson took aim at the people of Dover on his show. His comments circulated on the Web and made national TV newscasts Thursday night.
“That’s silly,” said Chuck Zitnick, 61, who identified himself as a practicing Roman Catholic. “This thing was not a referendum on religion, not at all. You just don’t teach religion in science class. You deal with it elsewhere.”
_ T.W. Burger
After Boycott, Wal-Mart Apologizes, Acknowledges Christmas on Web Site
(RNS) Retail giant Wal-Mart altered its Web site to acknowledge Christmas less than one day after a conservative Catholic group began a national boycott against the company.
The boycott, enacted because of perceived discrimination against Christmas, but not Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, was abandoned when Wal-Mart revised its Web site Thursday night (Nov. 10). Wal-Mart also issued an apology for a customer service e-mail that claimed Christmas does not have religious roots.
The New York-based Catholic League said Wal-Mart was treating Christmas as a secular holiday, while not taking a similar approach with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which begins the same day as Christmas, or Kwanzaa, a celebration of African-American culture that begins Dec. 26.
On Thursday afternoon, a search for Hanukkah on Wal-Mart’s Web site yielded 200 products, and Kwanzaa 77. Prior to the change, a search for “Christmas” directed users to a “holiday” page, where a second link brought them to 7,967 Christmas items. Now, customers are taken directly to the “Christmas” site.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League and organizer of the boycott, was also angered by an e-mail from Wal-Mart headquarters to a customer who complained about “Happy Holidays.” The e-mail said Christmas is not a religious holiday but an “ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism.”
“Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, (sic) mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal,” the e-mail said, according to Donohue.
In a statement on its Web site, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman apologized to those offended by the “inflammatory” comment, adding the associate responsible was no longer with the company.
“We at Wal-Mart believe this e-mail between a temporary associate and one of our valued customers was entirely inappropriate,” he said, adding “Wal-Mart is proud to welcome customers of all faith, and celebrants of all holidays.”
Displays of Christmas in the public square, particularly in retail environments, have become an annual crusade for Donohue. Last year he signed on with the Committee to Save Merry Christmas, which gets angry when store clerks wish “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
Wal-Mart stood by its policy encouraging employees to say “Happy Holidays,” which Donohue called “dumb” but added that the greeting was not part of the boycott.
_ Kevin Eckstrom and Jason Kane
Religious Leaders Ask Congress to Protect Expressions of Faith on Job
WASHINGTON (RNS) Leaders from a variety of faith backgrounds are urging Congress to pass the Workplace Religious Freedom Act to prevent discrimination against employees who practice their faith on the job.
“Americans should not have to check the freedom to exercise their faith at the door of their workplace,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “The Workplace Religious Freedom Act would address this need and re-establish the protection Congress put in place three decades ago before court rulings undermined and vitiated it.”
The Workplace Religious Freedom Act, sponsored in March by 153 House members, proposes to protect people’s “right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs … on public property, including schools.” The bill includes a second clause that prohibits the state from forcing prayers.
Land, along with other proponents of the bill, said Thursday (Nov. 10) that the new legislation will require employers to accommodate their employees’ religious practices. They argued that such faith-based legislation was imperative in the United States, a diverse nation that embraces pluralism.
Some of the religious leaders later testified at a House hearing Thursday on the bill.
Rep. Mark E. Souder, R-Ind., cited several cases in which religious people were discriminated against at work, including Sikhs for wearing the turban, Jews for taking days off during the High Holy Days and Baptists for insisting on dressing modestly. Souder said Sikhs were sometimes fired after being misidentified as Al-Qaida allies.
“That’s flat out a religious discrimination case, not an employee seeking accommodation,” said Samuel A. Marcosson, a former attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, now a professor of law at the University of Louisville.
Camille A. Olson, a lawyer representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said at the hearing that the proposed legislation was unnecessary because religious protection already exists under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
_ Kabuika Kamunga
Veterans Day Rally Proclaims There Are `Atheists in Foxholes’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Carrying a banner that read “Atheists in Foxholes: Always Were … Always Will Be,” dozens of atheist veterans and military members marched down the National Mall on Veterans Day (Nov. 11).
The flag-waving band of nonbelievers were the stars of a rally of about 100 people. Speakers ranged from veterans to atheist organization leaders who decried recent and long-standing declarations that “there are no atheists in foxholes” by media commentators and military officials.
“This parade, this assembly, this coming together in our nation’s capital is long overdue,” said Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, the New Jersey-based organization that spearheaded the rally in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.
She said atheists have served in foxholes, on ships, as medics and jet fighters from the Battle of the Bulge to more recent conflicts in the Middle East.
“These knees will not bend,” she said. “These heads will not bow, whether under the threat of hellfire or gunfire.”
Edwin Kagan, Kentucky state director of American Atheists and an Air Force veteran, was among the speakers who decried the “lie” that atheists are never in foxholes.
“This lie knocks our Constitution and gives aid and comfort to the enemies of freedom,” said Kagan, who then made a reference to the Pledge of Allegiance without its “under God” phrase.
“We ask … that all Americans help us to become and remain, one nation, indivisible,” he said to cheers.
Participants included Hans Kasten, a World War II veteran who now lives in the Philippines and was a prominent prisoner of war. He recalled his capture by Germans and how he was held in a church one night.
“I slept on the altar,” he said. “You can imagine what I was saying that night. It was certainly not a prayer.”
A Vietnam War-era veteran who carried a sign that read “Do Adults Really Need an Imaginary Friend?” said in an interview that he feels atheists are a “persecuted minority” because society doesn’t welcome them.
“I think it’s important that nonbelievers and atheists make their presence known,” said John Watson-Jones, a retired zookeeper from Etlan, Va. “A lot of us are afraid to come out of the closet.”
The Department of Defense reports that 4,332 of the 1.4 million people in the active-duty military have declared themselves to be atheists, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Professor Doubts Ceramic Shard Provides Tie to Bible’s Goliath
(RNS) An archaeologist from a leading Israeli university says he doubts that a small ceramic shard recently discovered refers to the prominent biblical figure Goliath.
Bar-Ilan University archaeologists made the discovery while digging at Tell es-Safi, the biblical city “Gath of the Philistines,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
The shard mentions two names that are similar to the name “Goliath,” prompting worldwide speculation it could refer to the biblical giant killed with a slingshot by a young Israeli boy. The lettering is considered the earliest known Philistine inscription that’s ever been discovered.
Aren Maeir, a professor at the university, told the newspaper that the odds of the names relating to the actual Goliath mentioned in the Bible are “small if nonexistent.”
The Bible notes that Gath is the hometown of Goliath, the famous Philistine who lost a battle with the much smaller David, according to the biblical story in 1 Samuel. In the biblical text, the Philistines were the archenemies of the Israelites.
Maeir said the find could be placed chronologically about 50 years after the story of David and Goliath occurred. In addition, Maeir said Goliath was a very popular name at that time.
The inscription on the shard, which dates to the 10th or early ninth century B.C., contains two non-Semitic names. Maeir and his colleagues concluded that the names are similar to the etymological parallels of the name Goliath, which also is of non-Semitic origin.
Quote of the Day: Episcopal Bishop Keith Ackerman
(RNS) “We’ve reversed Genesis. We’ve brought chaos out of order. We’ve created God in our own image.”
_ Episcopal Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy, Ill., on recent decisions by the Episcopal Church, including the 2003 consecration of openly gay New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson. Ackerman was attending a gathering of 2,500 conservative Episcopalians in Pittsburgh and was quoted by The Washington Times.
MO/PH END RNS
