c. 2006 Religion News Service

Dobson: Justice Alito Sends Personal Note of Thanks

(RNS) Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sent a personal note to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, thanking him for his support during recent Senate confirmation hearings, Dobson announced on his radio program Wednesday (March 1).

“This is just a short note to express my heartfelt thanks to you and the entire staff of Focus on the Family for your help and support during the past few challenging months,” read the letter, according to Dobson.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family during this period.”

Dobson read the letter in its entirety on the air during “Focus on the Family,” the program of his Colorado Springs, Colo.-based conservative Christian ministry. He said he received it Tuesday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Supreme Court could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called Alito’s action “grossly inappropriate.” Lynn opposed Alito’s nomination.

“This note strongly suggests that Alito is carrying out a right-wing agenda instead of being a justice for all,” said Lynn. “Alito sounds like a political candidate doing a victory lap and thanking his backers rather than being a fair and independent judge.”

Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family’s senior vice president for government and public policy, responded: “We don’t believe that thank-you notes are part of a right-wing agenda. We believe that everyone ought to be nice.”

During Alito’s confirmation hearings, Dobson had asked listeners to send personal notes of encouragement to the nominee. On Wednesday’s broadcast, Dobson urged listeners to remain active in the public arena.

“It makes a difference,” Dobson assured them. “And, in this case, it absolutely affected history and just in time. Just in time because partial-birth abortion is now being considered by the Supreme Court.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Pat Robertson Loses Seat on National Religious Broadcasters Board

(RNS) Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson has lost his place on the board of directors of the National Religious Broadcasters, following a recent vote at the NRB’s annual meeting.

NRB officials declined to say whether the voters may have been influenced by Robertson’s recent controversial remarks, including that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke could be God’s judgment for making a deal with the Palestinians to pull out of the Gaza Strip. Last August, he intimated that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated. Robertson, 75, later apologized for both remarks.

“In this year’s highly competitive race for the 33 board positions, five candidates, including Pat Robertson, did not receive enough votes to be named a member of the board,” the organization said in a statement released Wednesday (March 1).

The NRB announced shortly before its annual meeting, held Feb. 17-22 in Grapevine, Texas, that Robertson had “asked to be excused” from speaking at the organization’s closing banquet “due to scheduling complexities.”

It noted at that time that Robertson, a longtime NRB member, had spoken at previous conventions, had “faithfully served many years on its board of directors” and was inducted into the NRB Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1986.

A spokeswoman for Robertson could not be reached for comment.

During the meeting, Robertson’s “The 700 Club” show was named winner of the “Best Television Talk Show” award from the NRB.

Among those elected to three-year terms on the board were the Rev. Jack Hayford, president of the Los Angeles-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; the Rev. D. James Kennedy, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice, which was founded by Robertson.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Religious Leaders Rally Against Proposed Immigration Law

WASHINGTON (RNS) A coalition of Catholic, Protestant, evangelical Christian and Jewish leaders urged Congress on Wednesday (March 1) to reject legislation designed to curtail illegal immigration.

They asked Congress to instead establish a process for illegal immigrants already in the country to earn status as lawful residents, and to make changes to speed up clearance for immigrants waiting to reunite with their families _ a process that can currently take years.

“We call for immigration reform because each day … we witness the human consequences of an outmoded system,” said the joint statement issued by 49 national religious groups. “Changes to the U.S. legal immigration system would help put an end to this suffering, which offends the dignity of all human beings.”

The plea comes as some lawmakers are pushing to further tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border, where they see increased smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants and a possible entry point for terrorists.

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, recently passed in the House, would require faith-based organizations to ask immigrants for legal documentation before providing them with aid and penalize those that refuse to do so. The bill awaits consideration in the Senate.

The proposal’s reach, said Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, “would extend to U.S. citizens as well, including those, such as our own parishioners, who offer, in an act of mercy, basic sustenance to an undocumented migrant.”

In a Tuesday (Feb. 28) interview with the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony called on the city’s 5 million Catholics to support “humane immigration reforms.”

“The war on terror isn’t going to be won through immigration restrictions,” he said, adding that he would instruct his priests to defy the legislation if it becomes law.

_ David Barnes

Religious Leaders Urge U.S. to Continue Palestinian Aid

WASHINGTON (RNS) Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are warning against “premature” decisions on U.S. aid to the new Hamas-led Palestinian government and insisting that American humanitarian aid not be disrupted.

The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East on Tuesday (Feb. 28) also urged President Bush to take a more active role in resolving the conflict, including appointing an “on the ground” special envoy.

Ron Young, the co-coordinator of the Connecticut-based coalition, urged that the “president’s hands not be tied” by some congressional efforts to stop all U.S. aid to the Palestinians because Hamas is considered a terrorist organization committed to destroying Israel.

“A decision should not be made until a government is formed and its policies are put in place,” Young said. “We need to avoid a rush to judgment” on the Hamas government and its potential views toward Israel.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who led a delegation to meet with Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes late Tuesday, said the Hamas victory is “problematic” but humanitarian aid must be continued.

“Once you stop doing that, you’re as bad as anyone else,” McCarrick said. “The humanitarian aid is so important. If we lose that, we create chaos for the Palestinian people.”

The loose-knit coalition has long pushed for an increased U.S. role in the region, which Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, called “the mother of all different conflicts” around the world.

The group has called for the U.S. to help broker an “immediate, comprehensive and lasting ceasefire,” assure that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza continues, work toward a lasting “two-state” solution and appoint a special envoy to oversee U.S. activity in the region.

Other top leaders included Rabbi Paul Menitoff, former executive vice president of the nation’s Reform rabbis, and retired Bishop Ray Chamberlain of Knoxville, Tenn., representing the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

“What we want to say is, if we do not find peace in the holy city of Jerusalem, we will have terrorism all over the world,” Chamberlain said.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Canadian Priests Blast Church Over Gay Marriage

MONTREAL (RNS) In a rare display of public dissent, 19 Roman Catholic priests in the Canadian province of Quebec have denounced the Vatican’s opposition to same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay men.

The clerics on Sunday (Feb. 26) published a 1,000-word letter in the daily newspaper La Presse in which they used unusually strong language to criticize their church.

Does the church “have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?” they wondered.

Disputing the Vatican’s position that homosexual acts are “intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law,” the letter noted that humans have “endlessly strived” throughout history to redefine what is natural to them.

The priests argued that slavery was once considered “normal.”

The letter was in response to positions taken by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which argued against gay marriage before Canada’s Parliament legalized same-sex marriage last summer.

“Was there any trace of the compassion that marked Jesus’ passage on Earth?” the letter inquired. “Not a paragraph, not a sentence in your brief that takes into account the historical discrimination against homosexuals and the tragedy of their social and ecclesial exclusion.”

Last November, the Vatican issued new rules that bar men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” from entering the priesthood.

“In these matters,” the priests wrote, “the official teaching of the Church has shown itself more than once to be wrong.”

One of the authors, the Rev. Claude Lefebvre of Montreal, told the Globe and Mail newspaper, “We don’t want people to believe that everyone within the church thinks the same way.”

Christophe Potworowski, a professor of Catholic studies at Montreal’s McGill University, said there has not been been such a broad, open protest in the predominantly Catholic province since the Vatican’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which declared artificial contraception immoral.

_ Ron Csillag

Quote of the Day: Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council

(RNS) “What is at the core of being Catholic is the life issue, and that’s something the pope has never strayed from. While other issues are important _ such as helping the poor, the death penalty, views on war _ these are things that aren’t tenets of the Catholic Church.”

_ Tom McClusky, acting vice president for government affairs at the Washington-based Family Research Council, reacting to a statement by 55 Catholic House Democrats who asked for room to disagree with the Catholic Church on the issue of abortion. McClusky, who is Catholic, was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE/PH END RNS