c. 2006 Religion News Service
U.S. Bookstores Refuse to Sell Magazine With Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
(RNS) Borders bookstores and Waldenbooks, both part of the Borders Group Inc., have pulled the April-May issue of Free Inquiry from magazine racks because it includes cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The satiric cartoons, first published in Denmark, have set off worldwide protests, some of them violent, by Muslims because Islam forbids any images of its prophet.
“Borders absolutely supports the customers’ right to choose what to read and what to buy, and Free Inquiry has the right to publish the cartoons,” Borders Group spokeswoman Anne Roman wrote in a Thursday (March 30) e-mail. “We made the decision not to carry this particular issue of Free Inquiry because of the fact that we place a priority on customer and employee safety and security.”
Free Inquiry is a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism, which published four of the cartoons. One shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-like turban with a lit fuse.
“Why should the general public in open democratic society follow the prohibitions of one of the sects?” Dr. Paul Kurtz, editor of the 30,000-circulation bi-monthly magazine, said Thursday from his Amherst, Mass., home. “There are hundreds of denominations in the United States. They have the right to express their beliefs. We have the right to express our dissent.”
The magazine has published cartoons critical of organized religion in the past, said Kurtz. He said that when the Danish controversy broke, and many news organizations refused to show the illustrations in question, the Free Inquiry staff decided to do so as a critical comment on censorship and extreme Islam.
The magazine edition includes three essays with commentary on the cartoons.
“I feel bad to be put in this position because I love their books and I love what they do,” Kurtz said of the Borders Group. “(But) if you can’t put (the issues) on display in bookstores, it cuts off free expression.
“What is the greatest offense, to publish critical cartoons or allow obscene suicide bombers to go on without any criticism, essentially since the motive is religious?”
_ Piet Levy
Editors: Mat in the 10th graph below is cq.
Religious Conservatives Unveil `Values Voters’ Contract With Congress
(RNS) A group of religious and social conservatives announced a “Values Voters’ Contract With Congress” Wednesday (March 29) that seeks legislative action on issues ranging from marriage to private property rights.
“Values voters must vote this fall, but our legislators have got to give them hope,” said Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, a Texas-based conservative Christian organization that concluded a “War on Christians” conference in Washington the previous day.
The 10-point contract called for legislation that affirmed marriage as between one man and woman and restricted pornography. It also called for action to halt the marriage penalty and increase tax credits, ban cloning, and permit public acknowledgment of God.
Rabbi Aryeh Spero of the Manhasset, N.Y.-based Caucus for America, spoke on the contract’s call for insuring the parental rights, including support of a law prohibiting transportation of minors across state lines for abortions without parental permission.
“State meddling is a breach of that which is sacred when it meddles into the family,” he said. “No, it does not take a village. It takes a family.”
Tom McClusky, acting vice president of government affairs for the Washington-based Family Research Council, called for Congress to prevent government from seizing private property for economic development. He said a Supreme Court eminent domain decision last June “poses a serious threat to all private property owners, but especially to churches that have tax-exempt status.”
Weighing in on the issue of immigration, Phyllis Schlafly, president of Washington-based Eagle Forum, called for legislation to secure the nation’s borders.
“If a day laborer can sneak over the border illegally, so can an al-Qaida terrorist,” Schlafly said.
Alan Keyes of Washington-based Renew America urged legislative action to maintain religious liberty at a time when judges have created a “regime of oppression.”
Contract signatories include the Rev. Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition; Pastor Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio; Mat Staver of Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel; and Frank Wright of the Manassas, Va.-based National Religious Broadcasters.
The contract noted signatories’ endorsement did not necessarily mean their organizations also support the contract.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Christian Peace Activist Says Kidnappers Played Jesus DVD in Arabic
LONDON (RNS) Freed Christian peace activist Norman Kember, breaking his silence for the first time since his release, has described his 117 days of captivity in Iraq as “time stolen” but says he does not regret having gone to the war-torn country in the first place.
In an interview in the Wednesday (March 29) issue of the Baptist Times newspaper, the 74-year-old British member of the Christian Peacemakers Teams group also thanked the British and U.S. troops who rescued him from his kidnappers in Baghdad.
Kember and two fellow Christian Peacemakers members, Canadians James Loney and Harmeet, were freed last week in the military operation. A fourth hostage, American Tom Fox, was found shot to death in the Iraqi capital on March 9.
“The experience of being confined is desperate,” Kember recalled. “Not going outside for four months _ it’s having that time stolen.”
The Briton described the bewildering nature of his kidnappers. “One night,” he said, “our captors took us downstairs, sat us in front of the TV and showed us the life of Jesus on DVD in Arabic.”
“But these are the people who shot Tom Fox in the head,” Kember said. “People are very complex.”
The peace activists have drawn some media criticism in Britain, for being in the war zone and opposing the conflict, while troops involved in the fighting had to risk their own lives to rescue them.
Kember said he saw “no point in regretting” his decision to go to Baghdad to try to help the Iraqi people _ but he added that “I’m very grateful to them (the multi-national force) for rescuing me. And our (British) diplomatic service was super.”
_ Al Webb
U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom Urges Intervention in Sudan
WASHINGTON (RNS) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by Congress, issued a report Wednesday (March 29) painting Sudan as a nation in crisis that needs U.S. intervention.
“Sustained close engagement by the United States government is necessary to ensure compliance … with human rights provisions,” chairman Michael Cromartie told reporters in releasing the study, based on a fact-finding visit in January.
The bipartisan commission was created by Congress in 1998 to promote religious freedom and make policy recommendations. Its Sudan study found displaced refugees, a prohibition on new churches and even genocide of non-Muslims _ all in a country supposedly at peace.
In January 2005, Sudan officially ended two decades of civil war with a peace agreement signed by National Congress Party in the north and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the predominantly non-Arab south.
A year later, USCIRF has found that while religious freedom has improved in the south and other areas, development and security remain problems.
Meanwhile in the Arabic north, non-Muslims continue to be subjected to the Muslim law of sharia, which carries a possible death sentence for religious conversion.
The report said that permits for new churches have been denied, churches built without permission often are destroyed, and the government-controlled Muslim religious institutions enforce a militant interpretation of Islam.
The report also said humanitarian organizations continue to be harassed and little progress is being made by groups promoting peace. There is no indication the country’s oil revenues are being shared evenly by north and south as required in the peace agreement. Refugees are still imprisoned, and stories of rape, murder and slave trade in the detention camps abound, the report said. And the situation is exacerbated by the genocide in Darfur.
In addition to other suggestions, the report urged Washington to send a high-ranking envoy to Sudan to oversee implementation of the peace accords.
Joining Cromartie were Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California, and Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Donald Payne, D-N.J.
Genocide, Pelosi told reporters, “Is a concern of the entire world, and we all must rise to the challenge. Too often we have said `never again’, only to have it happen again.”
_ Piet Levy
Afghan Christian Convert Accused of Apostasy Thanks Pope for Release
ROME (RNS) Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who fled to Italy after facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam, thanked Italy and Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (March 30) for seeking his release.
The taped interview was broadcast on Italian television after authorities formalized Rahman’s political asylum Thursday.
“I thank the pope, the Italian government and all those who have been involved in my case. I am happy to be here,” said Rahman.
Afghan authorities had jailed Rahman for converting to Christianity 16 years ago and tried him on charges of apostasy _ a crime punishable by death under Islamic laws that are recognized in Afghanistan.
During the TV interview, Rahman said he felt “persecuted” in Afghanistan because “I read the Bible and I became convinced of the goodness of this religion.”
Rahman arrived in Italy Wednesday seeking political asylum after his release from a Kabul prison unleashed calls for his death from Afghan clerics.
Afghanistan’s government, led by President Hamid Karzai, ordered Rahman’s release in response to a wave of international criticism.
On Saturday the Vatican sent a telegram to Karzai on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, calling for Rahman’s release out of “respect for every person’s freedom of conscience and religion.”
“I am certain, Mr. President, that dropping the case against Mr. Rahman would bestow great honor upon the Afghan people and would raise a chorus of admiration in the international community,” the telegram read.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Major Study Shows Intercessory Prayer Has No Major Effect on Recovery
(RNS) A major study of Christian intercessory prayer for cardiac patients has found no significant effect on reducing complications but patients who knew they were receiving the prayer had a slightly higher rate of complications.
The study comes after at least five previous studies that found varying results. Three did not report success with intercessory prayer but two did.
The latest study, released Thursday (March 30), was the most extensive. It involved 1,802 coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients from six hospitals who were divided into three groups: 604 received intercessory prayer after learning they might or might not be prayed for by others; 597 did not receive prayer after being told they might or might not receive it; 601 received intercessory prayer after learning they would receive it.
Investigators found that complications occurred in 52 percent of the first group, 51 percent of the second group and 59 percent in the third group.
“Our trial cannot be generalized to all forms of intercessory prayer,” cautioned Dr. Charles F. Bethea, a principal investigator from Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, in a teleconference with reporters on Thursday. “But the role of awareness needs careful further study.”
He said it is possible that patients’ knowledge that they were the subject of intercessory prayer “might have induced a form of performance anxiety or made them feel doubtful about their outcome.”
The Rev. Dean Marek, director of chaplain services at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said another possible cause for the different results is that patients who were prayed for “thought they were home free and discounted the traumatic effect that surgery has upon the body, so were ill-prepared for it.”
The study, to be published Tuesday (April 4) in The American Heart Journal, analyzed patients between January 1998 and November 2000. Two Catholic groups and one Protestant group were given patients’ first name and the first initial of their last name and asked to pray for them for two straight weeks, starting the night before the scheduled surgery.
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The groups were faxed the names of the patients and asked to include the phrase “for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications” to their usual prayers.
The study team also included participants from the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston; St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla.; and Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Orthodox Bishops Warn Parents of iPod, Cell Phone Pornography
(RNS) Eastern Orthodox bishops in the U.S. have issued a warning to parents about the “uncontrolled availability” of pornography on cell phones, iPods and other handheld wireless devices.
Bishops from nine Eastern Orthodox churches said pornography that can easily be downloaded onto iPods and cell phones is a risk that can cause “grave consequences resulting in immeasurable moral, social and spiritual damage” on children.
The warning over pornography was first raised by Roman Catholic Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore last November, who cautioned parents about buying the devices as Christmas gifts for their children.
“The technology itself is not dangerous,” the Orthodox bishops said. “The danger lies in the fact that there are currently no safeguards or regulations in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, seductive and explicit content that is downloadable through these wireless handheld devices.”
The bishops issued their statement on March 15 through the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), an umbrella group headed by Archbishop Demetrios, the Greek Orthodox primate.
The SCOBA bishops said they were working with the Religious Alliance Against Pornography _ founded in 1986 by the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York _ to ensure better safeguards, especially on video cell phones.
“It is precisely your children who may pay the highest price and become victims of the uncontrolled availability of all that is now technologically available on the internet,” the bishops said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Survey: More Americans Reading Bible at Least Once a Week
(RNS) A survey shows the percentage of Americans who say they regularly read the Bible continues to increase.
The survey, conducted by the Barna Group, found that 47 percent of respondents said they open the Bible on a weekly basis, up from just 31 percent in 1995 and 40 percent six years ago.
The survey also polled respondents on six other “religious behaviors” including church attendance and attending small groups like Bible studies. Forty-seven percent said they attend church on a weekly basis, up from 37 percent a decade ago, while 23 percent said they attend small group functions affiliated with church.
Twenty-seven percent of those asked said that they volunteer through church, while 24 percent said that they attend Sunday school, up from 17 percent in 1996.
Survey director George Barna said it was unusual for there to be an increase in participation in all of these religious behaviors at the same time.
“The intriguing possibility,” he said in a statement, “is that with most of our key behavioral measures showing increases at the same time, there is the possibility that this may herald a holistic, lasting commitment to engagement with God and the Christian faith.”
The Barna report was based on data taken from 1,003 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone in January. The Barna Group is a private, for-profit corporation in Ventura, Calif., that conducts research on spiritual development.
_ Nate Herpich
Richard Gere Offers to Pay for Repair of Road Leading to Dalai Lama
(RNS) Hollywood star Richard Gere has promised to provide funds to India to help repair a narrow mountain road leading to the house of the Dalai Lama, the Buddhist spiritual leader living in exile.
Revealing the offer to the state legislative assembly on March 24, legislator Vijay Singh Mankotia said Gere had promised funds “provided the money is properly spent.”
The Dalai Lama lives in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile since 1959, when the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers escaped to India following the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Gere, a follower and friend of the Dalai Lama, is a regular visitor to the town.
Following a tour of Nepal in 1978, Gere converted to Buddhism. He has since actively promoted the cause of Tibet and the Dalai Lama.
_ Achal Narayanan
Biblical Self-Defense Class Held by United Church of Christ Seminary
(RNS) A seminary is conducting an online self-defense course for United Church of Christ members besieged by conservative reactions to their denomination’s liberal social positions on gay rights and other issues.
A six-week online course offered by Chicago Theological Seminary, a UCC-affiliated institution, helps those accosted for “not believing in the Bible,” said a UCC statement promoting the class.
The course _ “Biblical and Theological Self-Defense for the United Church of Christ” _ began March 27 and is being taught by the Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president of Chicago Theological Seminary.
In attending numerous denominational meetings and conferences throughout the country, Thistlethwaite said she hears UCC members “saying that they feel as if they are under attack and they feel ill-equipped when someone says `Why do you go to that gay church?’ or claims that the UCC’s social and theological positions are `against the Bible.”’
“We need to help our people come to their own defense,” she said. “There are many who feel like they don’t know how to respond when attacked from a place of biblical literalism.”
The 1.3 million-member UCC was the first mainline American Protestant denomination to ordain openly gay clergy and in 2005 formally endorsed same-sex marriage, a position that has earned the UCC criticism from some religious conservatives.
The class addresses concepts like theology, Christology and ethics in addition to more practical concerns _ such as how UCC members can muster the “courage to stand up for themselves and their church,” the UCC said in its announcement.
_ Chris Herlinger
Quote of the Week: World Magazine Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky
(RNS) “We’re not hating you. We’re not just going to make fun of you. … We’re going to listen to you. We’re going to discuss this, debate this.”
_ Marvin Olasky, editor in chief of the conservative Christian weekly magazine World, speaking at the March 17-18 Reclaiming America for Christ conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., about the need for conservative Christians to send a gentler message to people on the other side of the evolution debate.
MO/RB END RNS
