c. 2006 Religion News Service
Orthodox Bishops Agree to Only Limited Financial Audits
(RNS) Top leaders of the Orthodox Church in America have ignored calls for a special audit to determine if millions of church dollars were misspent in the 1990s, but agreed to look over the books for the last two years.
The church’s 10-member Holy Synod of Bishops met in “extraordinary session” Wednesday (March 1) to discuss allegations of financial impropriety and parishioners’ calls for an outside financial audit.
The bishops agreed to adopt “best practices” for accounting in nonprofit organizations, but limited across-the-board audits to 2004 and 2005. The bishops also asked for advice on how to make church finances “more transparent, disciplined and accountable.”
And, in an apparent reference to a lay-led revolt over financial practices, the bishops Wednesday urged the church to “live as Christians in mutual repentance and forgiveness.”
The 400,000-member church traces its roots to the Russian Orthodox Church but has been independent of Moscow since 1970.
Former treasurer Eric Wheeler _ first in a confidential letter last October, and then recently on the Internet _ alleged that church leaders misspent millions of dollars in donations, including money from military chaplains to buy Bibles that were never purchased.
Wheeler said the funds were used to pay personal credit cards and blackmail, for lavish dinners and entertainment and was given to friends and family members of church leaders _ most of it “off the books.”
“During my years at the central church, I experienced a total abuse of power with no concern for accounting practice nor aspiration for accountability both internal and external,” Wheeler wrote last October.
Church officials were unavailable to discuss the bishops’ actions, but acting treasurer Paul Kucynda told The Washington Post the bishops “left the door open” for a more extensive investigation.
“Doing the independent audit will give them a sense of direction without being judgmental prematurely,” Kucynda told The Post. “It really isn’t some kind of stone-walling.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Notre Dame Theology Department Clears Professor Accused of Plagiarism
(RNS) A prominent Catholic theologian at the University of Notre Dame has been cleared of a plagiarism charge after a conservative watchdog group said he borrowed material from The Boston Globe without attribution.
The Rev. Richard McBrien, a liberal commentator on church affairs, was accused by the Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society after one of his syndicated columns contained passages similar to one written by Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara.
In a Jan. 24 letter, John Cavadini, chairman of Notre Dame’s Theology Department, dismissed the charges as “unsubstantiated and not meriting further investigation.”
Cavadini’s letter to Notre Dame officials forecloses further action. It was obtained by Religion News Service. McBrien verified its contents.
Patrick Reilly, president of the watchdog group, had told school officials that McBrien’s columns “long ago became an embarrassment to Notre Dame” and suggested that McBrien be fired or put on leave.
Cavadini reviewed the charges and spoke with McBrien and found some “unattributed” material but concluded its use was unintentional.
Cavadini said the charges were lodged by “a militant right-wing Catholic interest group lobbying for the most stringent standards of orthodoxy.”
Reilly was unavailable for comment.
McBrien declined further comment. “In my opinion, this story has already had too much oxygen,” he said in an e-mail. “I consider the matter closed _ to my satisfaction.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Unable to Forgive Terrorists Who Killed Daughter, Anglican Vicar Resigns
LONDON (RNS) An Anglican vicar whose daughter died in a series of suicide bomber attacks on London’s public transportation system last summer is resigning from her post because she cannot forgive the killers.
The Rev. Julie Nicholson is stepping down as priest-in-charge in the parish of St. Aidan with St. George in Bristol, England, to accept a lesser position in a community youth project. She says she found she was having difficulty preaching mercy.
Her 24-year-old daughter Jenny, an accomplished musician, was one of the 52 men and women killed last July 7 when explosives carried by four Muslim suicide bombers ripped through three underground trains in what police said were coordinated attacks.
“I am hugely offended that someone should take my daughter in the name of a religion or of a god,” Nicholson said in announcing her resignation during an interview on British Broadcasting Corp. television Monday (March 7), exactly eight months after the bombings.
“Can I forgive them for what they did? No, I cannot,” she said. “And I don’t wish to.” To emphasize her point, she added that “I still say the name of my daughter’s murderer, Mohammed Sidique Khan, every day.”
Nicholson said she came to her decision to quit because “it is very difficult for me to stand behind an altar and celebrate the Eucharist and lead people in words of peace and reconciliation and forgiveness when I feel very far from that myself.”
“I believe that there are some things in life which are unforgivable by the human spirit,” she said. But “forgiving another human being for violating your child is almost beyond human capabilities.”
Bishop of Bristol Mike Hill told BBC news that he understood her decision. “I think these situations in life shake the faith of everybody because they immediately bring into focus the `why?’ question,” he said.
“There’s no simple Elastoplast (bandage) answer to that,” the bishop said.
_ Al Webb
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
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
Canadian Supreme Court Sides With Sikh Student Carrying Dagger
(RNS) In an important test of religious freedom, the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday (March 2) overturned a previous ban and allowed a Sikh boy in Montreal to wear his ceremonial dagger to school.
The high court ruled 8-0 that prohibiting Gurbaj Singh from wearing his kirpan violated the teenager’s rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, effectively the country’s constitution.
The court rejected arguments from lawyers for the Quebec school board that originally implemented the ban. The court concluded there is no suggestion the kirpan, required to be worn at all times by baptized Sikhs, is a weapon or that Singh intended to use it as one.
The argument is “disrespectful to believers in the Sikh religion and does not take into account Canadian values based on multiculturalism,” the judges wrote.
Religious tolerance “is a very important value of Canadian society,” they added. “A total prohibition against wearing a kirpan to school undermines the value of this religious symbol and sends students the message that some religious practices do not merit the same protection as others.”
The case stems from a November 2001 incident at an elementary school in suburban Montreal. Singh’s cloth-wrapped kirpan came loose from around his waist and fell to the ground.
The school’s principal ordered the 12-year-old to leave the 4-inch kirpan at home, but the boy’s family instead enrolled him in a private school and took the matter to court.
In 2002, the Quebec Superior Court ruled Singh could carry his kirpan to school if it was sewn into a heavy cloth and placed inside a wooden sheath worn under his clothing.
The Quebec government appealed and in 2004, the Quebec Court of Appeal struck down the decision, ruling the kirpan had the makings of a weapon and was dangerous.
Throughout the legal hearings, the family’s lawyer argued that there has never been a school assault committed with a kirpan anywhere in Canada.
Canada’s highest court ruled that if the kirpan is kept inside clothing, the risk of it being used for violent purposes or of being grabbed by other students is very low.
“There are many objects in schools that could be used to commit violent acts and that are much more easily obtained by students, such as scissors, pencils and baseball bats.”
The Supreme Court decision is limited to schools.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, kirpans have been banned from all Canadian airlines.
They are allowed, however, in schools in other provinces, in Parliament and in the Supreme Court itself.
_ Ron Csillag
Foreign Policy Think Tank Begins New Initiative on Religion
(RNS) With help from a former secretary of state, an influential think tank focusing on foreign relations has launched a new initiative that will study and explain the role religion plays in foreign policy.
The Council on Foreign Relations, with offices in New York City and Washington, designed the plan to expand on its existing foreign policy and religion lectures and roundtable talks. Workshops are being developed to bring religious figures together with influential foreign policy thinkers.
The effort’s advisory committee includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The initiative comes at a time when religion is playing a major role in the decisions of diplomats throughout the world. In recent weeks, tensions rose worldwide after Danish political cartoons lampooned the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, and conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims is having a profound impact on U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.
“My sense is that the timing for this educational initiative is just right,” said Luis E. Lugo, director of the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and a member of the advisory committee. “It’s time for foreign policy leaders to recognize the positives and negatives associated with involving religion in foreign policy and to acknowledge the growing interest in the topic, to generate public conversation.”
Programs supported by the Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative, introduced Feb. 6, will include a fellowship to a religious leader who will work closely with the council, as well as teleconferencing council meetings to a variety of religious figures.
The council also plans to expand the reaches of its Academic Conference Call Series to professors and students in higher education who focus on religion.
The Council was established in 1921 and is regarded as one of the most powerful organizations regarding American foreign policy. Its membership of more than 4,000 includes a diverse group of politicians, including former U.S. presidents, as well as media and other interested citizens. Past directors have included George H.W. Bush and Henry Kissinger. The council publishes Foreign Affairs magazine.
_ Nathan Herpich
Presbyterian Minister Cleared on Charges of Marrying Lesbian Couples
(RNS) A church court in California has cleared a lesbian Presbyterian minister who was charged with improperly officiating at the weddings of two female couples.
The Rev. Janie Spahr was cleared Friday (March 3) by a 6-1 vote of a church court in Santa Rosa, Calif., which ruled that same-sex weddings are not “outside of, or contrary to, the essentials” of Christian faith.
Spahr, 63, is a self-proclaimed “lesbian evangelist” whose organization, That All May Freely Serve, advocates for greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in church life.
“This historic ruling means that as a minister, I can exercise my conscience to marry two people who have demonstrated their commitment to love, honor and cherish one another,” Spahr said after the verdict.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows churches to conduct same-sex union ceremonies as long as they are not equated with traditional marriage. The court said Spahr was acting “within her right of conscience” in officiating at the two ceremonies.
“We affirm that the fundamental message of the Scriptures and (doctrinal) Confessions is the proclamation of the Good News of God’s love for all people,” the court said. “It is a message of inclusiveness, reconciliation and the breaking down of barriers that separate humans from each other.”
The court handles judicial complaints for the Presbyterians’ Redwoods Presbytery, a regional body of more than 50 churches headquartered in Napa, Calif.
Spahr was called as co-pastor of a church in Rochester, N.Y., in 1991. The Presbyterians’ highest court invalidated that call in 1992 because of a ban on non-celibate homosexual clergy. Spahr was allowed to remain a minister in good standing.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Leader of Divestment Effort Worries About Jewish Pressure on Churches
WASHINGTON (RNS) The head of a Palestinian Christian group pushing for divestment from Israel says he is concerned some previously supportive churches in the U.S. are being pressured to back away from the effort.
The Rev. Naim Ateek, an Anglican priest who heads the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Center, expressed concern in a Friday (March 3) interview that “some” American churches are succumbing to “political pressure from Jewish Zionist organizations and communities.” Ateek declined to name the churches he had in mind.
He acknowledged that “pressure is mounting also from inside the churches from church members who support Israel” _ a reference to groups such as Presbyterians Concerned About Jewish-Christian Relations, which has spearheaded internal Presbyterian Church (USA) opposition to overturn the denomination’s 2004 vote that sparked the American church divestment movement.
When asked if he was satisfied with how the divestment campaign was going, Ateek said churches “could do more” and “act quicker.”
PCUSA’s highest policy body, the General Assembly, was expected to take up the divestment issue once again at its June biennial meeting. Recently, however, the denomination’s committee on investments announced it is not ready to make specific recommendations on which companies to divest from.
Pro-Israel American Jewish groups have interpreted that circumstance as a significant slowing of the divestment campaign in the United States. The Jewish groups argue that divestment is a one-sided action that unfairly targets Israel while failing to hold Palestinians responsible for their part in the ongoing Middle East conflict.
An Episcopal Church committee report also stepped back from recommending divestment, saying instead that “corporate engagement,” such as stockholder actions, is a more effective way to get firms to change their policies on selling to Israel. Other groups, such as the United Church of Christ, have also stopped short of taking up Sabeel’s call for full-scale divestment action.
“I’m hoping that the mainline churches will not back down from morally responsible investment,” Ateek said. “They need to be encouraged in every way.”
Ateek’s comments came during a two-day Sabeel conference held in a PCUSA church in downtown Washington. The conference attracted more than 350 people, the majority of them members of mainline denominations, according to organizers. It was the 16th such event that Sabeel has held in North America over the last three years.
_ Ira Rifkin
Pat Boone Wins `Faith & Values’ Lifetime Achievement Award
(RNS) Recording artist Pat Boone, 73, was given a lifetime achievement award at the 14th annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards.
The awards are the brainchild of Christian movie critic Ted Baehr, whose mission is to encourage writers and producers to develop movies with “stronger Christian values and principles.”
Five prizes of $50,000 each were handed out Thursday (March 2) and a lifetime achievement award was given to Boone “for his tireless and superior efforts over many years to redeem the values of the mass media and to present the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the mass media.”
In the 1950s, Boone, known for his white buck shoes, was so popular that some thought he might rival Elvis Presley. As Boone aged, he became increasingly known for promoting evangelical Christian values.
Baehr, who is the founder and publisher of Movieguide, a biweekly movie review service aimed at advising evangelical moviegoers, said he hoped the addition of two new $50,000 awards this year would have a lasting impact.
“As soon as you recognize and commend, you get people who want to move in this direction,” Baehr said.
One of the new awards, the Ware Foundation Libertas Prize, gives $50,000 to the executive producer of a TV show or movie that did “the most to improve cultural understanding between Americans and people in other countries.”
The prize was split between the TV series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye.”
Movieguide’s other new $50,000 prize was split between three new screenwriters _ David M. Anthony, Heather Hughes and Graham Moes _ for most spiritually uplifting screenplays by first-time screenwriters.
An episode of “7th Heaven” won the $50,000 prize for most inspiring TV program of 2005.
In addition, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” won for most uplifting movie and topped Movieguide’s list of the 10 best family films of 2005. “Pride and Prejudice” headed off the list of 10 best films for mature audiences.
The Movieguide’s awards gala was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
_ Zain Shauk
Hillel Lists Largest Jewish Campuses in America
(RNS) A Jewish foundation has released a list of U.S. campuses with the largest Jewish populations.
The Washington-based Hillel, The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, already boasts an extensive database on its Web site listing the Jewish aspects of some 792 colleges in North America, Latin America, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the former Soviet Union.
Prospective Jewish students and their parents can search the site for a range of interests on campus _ from kosher dining and Jewish a cappella groups to general academic disciplines.
Two “top 10” lists rank the public and private schools with the largest Jewish populations.
“We did it because we were getting at least one phone call a week if not more requesting the top 10 Jewish schools,” said Jeff Rubin, Hillel’s spokesman. There is a “deep desire to understand where the Jewish community is attending schools.”
The two lists, with estimated Jewish student population in parentheses, actually include 11 schools each because of ties.
Public Universities
1. (tie) University of Maryland, College Park, Md.; University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. (5,400)
3. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. (5,000)
4. University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla. (4,500)
5. (tie) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. (4,000)
8. (tie) California State University, Northridge, Calif.; University of Texas, Austin, Texas (3,800)
10. (tie) University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, N.Y.; Florida International University, Miami (3,500)
Private Universities
1. New York University, New York City (6,500)
2. Boston University, Boston (4,000)
3. Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (3,500)
4. (tie) The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Yeshiva University, New York City (2,800)
7. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. (2,500)
8. (tie) Columbia University, New York City; Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.; Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Tulane University, New Orleans (2,000)
_ Rachel Pomerance
Quote of the Week: Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson
(RNS) “You might address your correspondence to Archbishop Blitzer.”
_ Religious broadcaster James Dobson, asking his radio listeners to contact CNN “Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer after a reporter on Blitzer’s program erroneously called Dobson “Rev. Dobson” several times. Dobson, a lay evangelical psychologist, was quoted in his organization’s e-newsletter, Citizen Link.
KRE/PH END RNS
