c. 2005 Religion News Service
Swedish Pastor’s Acquittal of Alleged Hate Crime Called Free Speech Win
(RNS) American legal groups defending religious liberty say they are pleased with the acquittal of a Swedish pastor who had been charged with a hate crime after calling homosexuals a “cancerous tumor” in society.
Pastor Ake Green was acquitted Tuesday (Nov. 29) by Sweden’s Supreme Court. Green had received a one-month jail sentence for his statement in a sermon about gays and lesbians. An appeals court first acquitted him in February, saying his preaching was not an attack on gays and lesbians because it was a personal interpretation of the Bible.
Sweden’s highest court upheld the lower court ruling.
The case had attracted international attention, with the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filing a brief urging the high court to affirm the appellate decision.
“To muzzle a preacher and mute a religious message simply because the expression is offensive to one, some, or many, is a fundamental mistake concerning a fundamental right,” said Jared Leland, spokesman for the Becket Fund, in a statement.
“The issue before the court was neither homosexuality nor society’s perception of homosexual conduct. The issue was religious liberty.”
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based legal group, helped coordinate the filing of friend-of-the-court briefs in Green’s case.
“Voicing one’s conscience is a fundamental human right, ” said Benjamin Bull, the fund’s chief counsel, who attended Green’s trial as an international observer. “This is a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere.”
John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based civil liberties organization, also said he was pleased with the Swedish court’s decision.
“A pastor giving a sermon _ there’s no threat of imminent danger,” he said in an interview. “When there’s no threat of imminent danger, it should be protected by any kind of decent human rights law.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
New Policy: Southern Baptist Missionary Candidates Can’t Speak in Tongues
(RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board has adopted a new policy that forbids missionary candidates from speaking in tongues.
The policy, adopted Nov. 15 during the board’s trustee meeting in Huntsville, Ala., reflects ongoing Southern Baptist opposition to charismatic or Pentecostal practices.
“In terms of general practice, the majority of Southern Baptists do not accept what is referred to as `private prayer language,”’ states the policy, according to a denomination announcement. “Therefore, if `private prayer language’ is an ongoing part of his or her conviction and practice, the candidate has eliminated himself or herself from being a representative of the IMB (International Mission Board) of the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention).”
The policy took effect on the day it was adopted and is not retroactive. It is designed to guide staff in the Office of Mission Personnel as they consider new candidates.
The denomination’s North American Mission Board has a policy that prevents the endorsement of chaplains who participate in speaking in tongues or “any other charismatic manifestations.”
The International Mission Board trustees voted that any exception to the policies must be reviewed by the board’s Process Review Committee and staff of the mission board.
_ Adelle M. Banks
N.J. Sports Complex to Add Space for Prayers
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) In what may be the first such designation in the nation, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority will set aside areas at Giants Stadium and Continental Airlines Arena for fans who want to pray, officials said.
The decision, which follows the detention of five Muslim men who were seen kneeling in prayer at a Sept. 19 Giants game, was hailed by stadium officials and Islamic leaders.
“I think that we handled this situation with sensitivity, and it’s the right thing,” said George Zoffinger, the sports authority’s president and chief executive. “We reached out to the people in the community who felt offended and we put in an expert on both Muslim culture and religion to address all our staff in terms of the sensitivities involved.”
Zoffinger said stadium and arena staff are still trying to determine which areas would be set aside and when they would open. Once the areas are designated, fans of any faith who want to pray would be directed by stadium staff to the appropriate areas.
Sami Shaban, one of the Muslims who had been questioned and detained, called the decision an “amazing step.”
“I think it’s a very good start. I really appreciate it,” he said. “I love the fact that we have a place to pray. … It was not our main aim, though. Our main aim was to bring to light and educate people about what it is we’re supposed to do, that (our praying) is not suspicious behavior and we shouldn’t have been treated like this.”
Shaban and four other men were questioned by the FBI and stadium security after they were observed praying as a group during the Giants-New Orleans Saints game. Former President George H.W. Bush was attending the football game as part of a fundraising campaign for Hurricane Katrina victims.
The men called the incident an example of religious profiling, an allegation the FBI and sports authority denied. Officials said the men were praying in a spot that, while public, was in an area near a major ventilation duct to the stadium.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it was the first time he had heard of such an arrangement in a sports stadium.
“We’ve had prayer spaces allocated in hospitals, in airports and universities, places like that, and sometimes they’re for Muslims but, more often, they’re interfaith prayer areas,” Hooper said.
Sohail Mohammed, an attorney who represented one of the detained men, said the agreement would also include a special area at the Meadowlands Racetrack, though it probably wouldn’t be needed.
“I told them you won’t get many Muslims using that area because gambling is forbidden in Islam, but I understand there is quite a bit of praying going on among the track patrons while the horses are running,” he joked.
_ Jeff Diamant and Russell Ben-Ali
On Anniversary, New York Defender of the Poor Called `Future Saint’
NEW YORK (RNS) On the 25th anniversary of Dorothy Day’s death, the former New York Catholic and defender of the poor was called a 21st-century saint worthy of canonization.
On Sunday (Nov. 27), Cardinal Edward Egan celebrated a Mass in observance of the 25th anniversary of Day’s death. It was held at Our Lady Help of Christians Church _ where Day was baptized _ and was the final event of several organized by the parish to help publicize the story of Day’s life.
“This morning we are here in a very particular way to celebrate the passing to the Lord of a future saint of Staten Island,” Egan said, referring to the New York borough.
The cardinal spoke of her early life, when she had an abortion and later a child out of wedlock, as demonstrative of the redemptive power of the gospel. And he described her unwavering commitment to the poor and to those at society’s margins.
“She was dedicated to those who were hurting the most … she saw, in them, Jesus Christ in need,” Egan said.
Day is the co-founder of Catholic Worker, an organization that works on behalf of the poor and is grounded in a belief in the God-given human dignity of every person. She was motivated to convert to Catholicism in 1927, and was later baptized at Our Lady Help of Christians.
Shortly before he died, Cardinal John O’Connor sought permission from the Vatican to begin the lengthy process needed to have someone canonized, and he asked Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo to lead the effort as postulator of her cause.
With the Vatican’s go-ahead, the monsignor and others working with him must gather all of Day’s writings, as well as things written about her, and gather testimony from people who knew her. The information will be forwarded to Rome, where the cause will be turned over to the Congregation for the Canonization of Saints.
_ Leslie Palma-Simoncek
Islamic Leader in Cleveland Arrested for Deportation Case
(RNS) Imam Fawaz Damra, a controversial Islamic leader from Cleveland, has been arrested outside his home and taken to Detroit for the start of his deportation case.
The Friday (Nov. 25) arrest came one week after federal lawyers acknowledged they were concerned that Damra might avoid deportation because of immigration-law loopholes.
Damra’s fundraising activities on behalf of terrorist groups make him a national security threat who can be deported, said Brian Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs office in Detroit.
“He actively espoused and sought funding for the killing of Jews and innocent people,” said Moskowitz, who is overseeing the deportation case. “This trumps the others because of the national security grounds.”
Damra was convicted last year of lying on his citizenship application more than a decade ago. He spent two months in prison after prosecutors proved he raised money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups.
The case shocked many throughout Greater Cleveland, who viewed Damra as an example of moderate, mainstream Islam.
Federal prosecutors said after the conviction they intended to deport Damra, who was born in the West Bank and came to the United States in the mid-1980s.
After a year of little public activity on the case, several of the lawyers involved acknowledged they were concerned that Damra could escape deportation because he had committed only one crime _ lying on his citizenship application _ since coming to the United States.
Damra claims he will be tortured if sent to the West Bank, Gaza or Jordan. International law forbids deporting someone if there’s a likelihood they will be tortured.
_ Mike Tobin and Robert L. Smith
Texas Baptists Elect First Black President
(RNS) The Rev. Charles Wade, executive director of the 2.5-million-member Baptist General Convention of Texas, says he wants the convention to reflect the diversity of Texas.
For the second straight year, the convention took a major step toward that goal.
Representatives from 5,700 congregations gathered at the convention’s annual meeting Nov. 14 elected the organization’s first black president, the Rev. Michael Bell, 54, senior pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
Bell succeeds the convention’s first Hispanic president, the Rev. Albert Reyes, the top administrator at The Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.
Bell defeated Rick Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brownwood, by a vote of 1,278-310.
Also, the Texas Baptist group plans to increase minority representation on its executive board from 15 percent to 30 percent, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
University Asks for Legal Review of Bible Study Ban
(RNS) The University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire has asked the state attorney general to review the legality of its ban on resident assistants leading Bible studies in their dorms, a university spokesman said.
Last July, a school administrator sent a letter to Lance Steiger, a resident assistant, informing him that students might fear they’d be “judged or pushed in a direction that does not work for them” because Steiger conducted Bible studies in his dorm.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based group that battles “political correctness” at universities, took up Steiger’s cause and asked the school to allow resident assistants to conduct Bible studies. FIRE issued a statement calling the policy an “assault on basic civil liberties.”
UW-Eau Claire spokesman Mike Rindo said resident assistants are essentially state employees and are forbidden to host religious and political activities or “sales parties” in their workplace, the dorms.
Resident assistants receive free room and board plus a $625-per-semester stipend in exchange for counseling students and explaining community standards. They are permitted to organize and lead religious activities outside the residence halls where they live, Rindo said.
“All of this is under review, and we’re seeking advice from legal counsel,” Rindo said in a telephone interview.
By spring, the school expects to clarify its policies, which have been verbal directives until now, and may put them in writing, Rindo said. It is uncertain whether the attorney general will respond to the school’s request for a legal review, Rindo said.
_ Kathleen Murphy
Congregations Worried About Spiking Energy Costs
(RNS) The soaring cost of keeping the sanctuary warm this winter has congregations fretting.
“People are very worried,” said consultant Andrew Rudin, who’s been advising houses of worship on energy conservation for 30 years. “We’ve never had so much business.”
Rudin, of Philadelphia’s Interfaith Coalition on Energy, consults congregations in Philadelphia and beyond on energy costs.
“Budgets are always a sensitive matter” for congregations, Dernbach said. “Every dollar you don’t spend on energy is a dollar you can spend on doing good for someone.”
The Energy Department predicts higher natural gas and oil prices will make winter heating bills 30 percent to 50 percent higher than last year for most households.
The problem is complicated for churches, mosques and synagogues _ often in old buildings, largely empty much of the week, with high ceilings, broad expanses of stained glass, little or no insulation and aged boilers in the basement.
Rudin, who once wrote an article titled “Blessed Are They Who Turn Things Off,” said those buildings can do surprisingly well on energy use _ if people are smart about using them.
“It’s not the organ; it’s the organist,” he said. “It’s the switch and the thermostat.”
_ Mary Warner
In Washington, `Holiday Tree’ Replaced With `Capitol Christmas Tree’
WASHINGTON (RNS) The decorated tree that will stand outside the U.S. Capitol in the coming weeks has officially been designated a “Christmas Tree” again, after several years with the title “Holiday Tree.”
“The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that,” Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told The Washington Times.
In recent years, some governments have named the firs, spruces and pines that have been placed on lawns and under rotundas “holiday trees” instead of “Christmas trees.” Others, such as the National Christmas Tree near the White House, stuck with the traditional title.
Matthew Evans, landscape architect of the U.S. Capitol, told Religion News Service in 2001 that the tree is “intended for people of all faiths to gather round at a time of coming together and fellowship and celebration.”
But this year, Evans told The Washington Times the name has changed back to the “Capitol Christmas Tree” designation it had until the late 1990s.
“This was a directive from the speaker,” he told the newspaper.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Religious Leaders Ask State Department to Press for Middle East Peace
JERUSALEM (RNS) Three dozen Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders have asked the U.S. State Department to redouble its efforts to secure a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
In a Nov. 20 letter the leaders, all members of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative (NILI), asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to revive the stalled peace plan known as the “Road Map.”
The religious leaders, 25 of whom head national organizations, expressed the concern that if long-stalled negotiations between the two enemies are not resumed quickly, “the opportunity toward peace created by Israel’s (August 2005) disengagement from Gaza may be lost.”
The NILI members urged Rice and Hughes to appoint a special envoy “to strengthen Israeli-Palestinian security coordination to prevent violent attacks on Israelis.” They said that “it is essential that the Palestinian Authority effectively disarm … groups that persist in carrying out acts of violence.”
At the same time, the leaders stressed their support for President Bush’s efforts to convince Israel to remove “unauthorized outposts” and “stop settlement expansion.”
They reiterated their longstanding support for the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel, and offered to work with the State Department to achieve this goal.
“We are committed to mobilizing support from our communities nationwide, including urging bipartisan congressional support, for active, fair and firm U.S. leadership in pursing implementation of the Road Map,” the religious leaders said, and requested a meeting with Rice and Hughes “to discuss how we, and our congregations and communities, can best help your efforts at this critical time.”
_ Michele Chabin
Conservative Protestant Coalition Decries `Third Way Policy’ on Gays
WASHINGTON (RNS) A coalition of conservative Protestant church leaders is urging mainline denominations to reject strategies that circumvent traditional church teachings on homosexuality.
The Association for Church Renewal, a Washington-based evangelical alliance based at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, issued an open letter Nov. 28 warning against “third-way policy.” Such conciliatory action, they say, would undermine orthodox doctrine by allowing procedural loopholes.
Leaders signing the letter came from 21 Christian organizations, including the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church and the American Baptist Church.
The letter represents a warning to those who failed in a “frontal assault” on traditional marriage within the mainline churches, but “are now trying to subvert the standards indirectly,” the letter says.
The leaders point to several examples of what they see as subversion. Foremost was a closely defeated resolution at the 2004 United Methodist Conference that would not alter the denomination’s stance that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, but would add a phrase to denomination literature that “Christians disagree” on the issue.
They also warn against similar policy to be considered at the 2006 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. There, leaders will consider upholding the denomination’s constitutional requirement of fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness, but would permit local churches to deem the requirement “non-essential.”
While the leaders said “third-way policy” indicates a retreat by “homosexual advocates,” they also say compromise would be more damaging than a direct blessing of homosexual relations.
“We cannot be content with standards that remain on paper while being emptied of all force,” the letter says. “Not only would it convey tolerance of sin in the important area of sexuality, but it would also set the church adrift more generally.”
_ Jason Kane
Quote of the Week: Mississippi Investigative Reporter Jerry Mitchell
(RNS) “If they kill me, they kill me. I try not to do anything stupid. My faith plays a big role. I really believe God’s hand has been in this.”
_ Jerry Mitchell, award-winning investigative reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi, commenting about how he has received threats for his coverage of members of the Ku Klux Klan. He was quoted by Christianity Today.
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