c. 2005 Religion News Service
Wisconsin School Suspends Ban on RA-Led Bible Study in Dorms
(RNS) The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has suspended its ban on resident assistants leading Bible studies in their dorms, a university spokesman said.
But the students who challenged the ban vowed to continue their legal fight until a final decision is made and they are assured that “the constitutional rights of students will be respected.”
The school reviewed the policy after a resident assistant, Lance Steiger, challenged the ban. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based group that battles political correctness at universities, and Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis. and a UW-Eau Claire alumnus, took up Steiger’s cause and asked the school to allow resident assistants to conduct Bible studies.
UW-Eau Claire spokesman Mike Rindo said resident assistants had been prohibited from leading Bible studies in their dorms because they are essentially state employees _ receiving free room and board and a $625-per-semester stipend _ and therefore forbidden to host religious, political or sales activities in their workplace.
Steiger filed suit in federal court Nov. 30, charging the university violated his freedoms of speech and association, according to a statement from the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
University officials said they suspended the ban without knowing of the lawsuit. Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson said Wednesday (Nov. 30) that the policy against organizing religious and political activities was communicated inconsistently to resident assistants during training.
School officials said Kevin Reilly, president of the University of Wisconsin System, has formed a committee of campus student life experts to conduct a system-wide review by Jan. 9.
“Our lawsuit will proceed until it’s clear that the constitutional rights of students will be respected. It shouldn’t take a committee to decide whether to respect the First Amendment rights of students,” said Kevin Theriot, an ADF attorney, in a statement.
Jonathan Smylie, a resident assistant in Governors Hall at UW-Eau Claire, said: “The school seems to think that residents in the dorms will not want to approach an RA who is a Christian for fear of being judged. This is ridiculous. They are asking me to be something I’m not.”
_ Kathleen Murphy
Catholic Belief in Limbo Is in, Well, Limbo
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Roman Catholic belief in limbo _ the afterlife reserved for babies who die before baptism _ is hanging by a thread as the Vatican prepares to update its policy on the unbaptized.
Catholics devised limbo in the Middle Ages as an alternative to hell for babies who are excluded from heaven because they have not been cleansed of original sin through baptism.
But American Archbishop William Levada, the Vatican’s top theologian, reported Thursday (Dec. 1) that a Vatican commission is expected to issue a document addressing the fate of unbaptized children, expressing concern that the current belief has become outdated.
“In today’s season of cultural relativism and religious pluralism, the number of non-baptized babies is increasing considerably,” Levada told an annual session of the International Theological Commission that was attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
“In this situation, the paths to reach the way of salvation appear ever more complex and problematic,” he said.
Critics of limbo say the church cannot pass judgment on people living in regions with no access to Catholic mission and conversion.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante passes limbo en route to hell and writes: “Great grief seized on my own heart when this I heard, because some people of much worthiness I knew, who in limbo were suspended.”
Catholic theologians hold that souls in limbo feel eternal happiness, but are not in the presence of God.
“The church is aware that salvation is uniquely achievable in Christ by means of the Spirit,” said Levada. “But it cannot renounce reflecting on, in its role as mother and teacher, the destiny of all the men created in God’s image, and in a particular way, on the weakest and those who are not yet in possession of the use of reason and of freedom,” he said in reference to infants.
Addressing the commission, Benedict recalled that the fate of unbaptized babies was important to John Paul II, who last year encouraged the group to craft a message declaring that Catholics hoped heaven was open to unbaptized babies.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, the Rev. Luis Ladaria, secretary-general of the commission, said Catholic teaching on limbo was “in crisis” and does not represent a “binding Catholic doctrine.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Religious Leaders Press Bush, Rice on Foreign Aid
WASHINGTON (RNS) Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have urged President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to increase U.S. aid to developing nations and remove agricultural subsidies that they say hurt poor countries.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington met with Bush in the Oval Office on Thursday (Dec. 1) to support a U.S. move to cut “trade-distorting” farm subsidies at an upcoming World Trade Organization conference in Hong Kong.
McCarrick and others say the subsidies bloat global markets and prevent developing countries from equal competition, which in turn keeps those countries mired in the cycle of poverty.
At a follow-up meeting at the State Department, McCarrick and 12 other religious leaders asked Rice for a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development aid, and urged the White House to convince Republicans on Capitol Hill to fully fund foreign development programs. They also asked that $2 billion in overseas food aid be protected from potential budget cuts.
“The average European cow gets more (government) subsidies than the average person in Africa makes in income,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an ecumenical anti-hunger agency that convened the talks.
The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, cited an “emerging powerful convergence” among all faith groups against poverty, and said, “God looks on the condition of those in poverty to evaluate the quality of our faith.”
“My colleagues will quote from (the Gospel of) Luke and I’ll quote from Isaiah, but we’ll all come to the same conclusion,” said Eric Schockman, president of MAZON, a Jewish anti-hunger agency.
Beckmann said Rice shared concern about foreign development funding, but said it would be “tough” to get more money from Congress. Regardless, the religious coalition urged Rice and Bush to “be bold” in increasing the amount of overseas U.S. aid.
Other leaders included the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America; Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; and Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Jewish Leaders Defend Use of `Merry Christmas’
(RNS) “It’s OK to say `Merry Christmas,”’ a group of Jewish leaders said Thursday (Dec. 1), lending their support to evangelical Christian groups who are combating perceived attacks on the holiday’s religious content.
“It’s a matter of simple courtesy to acknowledge a holiday celebrated by 96 percent of the American people,” said Don Feder, president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, which sponsored the Washington press conference.
Feder blamed the “disappearance of Christmas” on a “militant and perpetually aggrieved minority” who want to eliminate religious symbols and “undermine America’s Judeo-Christian ethic.”
Feder founded the Framingham, Mass.-based organization in April “to provide a Jewish response to anti-Christian bias in the news media, entertainment, government and culture.”
Michael Horowitz, a board member of the organization and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the issue was more than just “good manners” toward Christians.
“A country robustly proud of its faith is a country that will protect me and my children (as Jews),” Horowitz said.
Feder endorsed the work of the American Family Association, which has called for boycotts of retail chains that downplay the word “Christmas” in their holiday advertising and displays.
Daniel Lapin, an Orthodox rabbi and president of the Jewish group Toward Tradition, said retail establishments are feeling pressure from “increasingly ferocious and fundamentalist” advocates of secularism.
While Feder said Jews were not to blame for the “Happy Holidays” approach to Christmas, he did single out Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, for encouraging “secularized Christians” to conduct a “war on Christmas.”
Foxman, commenting by telephone after the press conference, said the leaders represented the views of a small minority of Jews. He scoffed at the idea of Jews involving themselves in what he called a disagreement among Christians about a well-established holiday.
“We are not the ones who took Christ out of Christmas,” said Foxman. “The majority of this country is Christian, and Christmas is a national holiday. Why do Jews need to come together to defend it?”
_ Andrea Useem
Lech Walesa Accepts Honorary Degree That Was Awarded in 1982
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (RNS) Former Polish President Lech Walesa says it was faith that allowed Poland to triumph over Communism, and he credited the late Pope John Paul II with stirring the nation to rise up in solidarity.
Walesa urged listeners to focus on values as he spoke to a gymnasium full of people at Seton Hall University on Thursday (Dec. 1) as part of the school’s World Leaders Forum.
“No one throughout the world gave us the least of a chance to break Communism down,” the Nobel laureate said.
“It happened quite simply,” he added. “We knelt down and prayed.”
In addition to witnessing a new millennium, Walesa said the current generation has a unique opportunity for peace, providing its members recognize the role of the United Nations and the effects of the current economic system.
“Less than 10 percent of mankind has in their pocket 90 percent of the globe,” he said.
Walesa began working as electrician at the Gdansk shipyards in 1967 and soon became a leading opponent of Communism. In 1980, he led a shipyard strike that rippled to factories across Poland. He negotiated with Communist authorities to get workers the right to strike and to organize independent unions.
Walesa’s Solidarity movement gained strength throughout the 1980s, and after Communism fell, Walesa was elected president of Poland in 1990. He was defeated in 1995 by Alexander Kwasniewski.
“He is proof that someone from the most unremarkable of circumstances _ a tradesman and a shipman _ can become the most remarkable of men,” said Monsignor Robert Sheeran, president of Seton Hall University in South Orange.
After speaking, Walesa was presented with an honorary doctorate that was awarded to him in 1982, a year before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Walesa was unable to receive the doctorate in person because he was under house arrest while martial law ruled Poland.
_ Sara K. Clarke
Quote of the Day: Joe Samona, 16, of Novi, Mich.
(RNS) “`Please remove your Nativity scene’? That’s the part that disturbs us. We have the lion (statue) and the Santa and Mrs. Claus and they specifically point out the Nativity scene? That’s ridiculous. We refuse to take it down.”
_ Joe Samona, 16, member of a family that refuses to comply with a homeowners’ association demand to remove a Nativity scene from the front yard of its upscale home in Novi, Mich. He was quoted by The Detroit News.
KRE/PH END RNS
Editors: To obtain a photo of Condoleezza Rice and religious leaders to accompany third item, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.
