c. 2006 Religion News Service

American Academy of Religion Announces Reporting Awards

(RNS) Writers for The Boston Globe, The Clarion-Ledger and The Wall Street Journal were named winners of the 2006 American Academy of Religion Awards for Best In-Depth Reporting on Religion.

Charles A. Radin of the Globe won in the category for journalists at news outlets with more than 100,000 circulation or on the Web. His three-part series on moderate Muslims was called “a remarkable piece of work” by one judge.

Robert Sibley of the Ottawa Citizen and John Blake of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution placed second and third, respectively, in that category.

Jean Gordon of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., won in the category for journalists at news outlets with less than 100,000 circulation. A judge credited her “rare and powerful grasp of the diversity and nuances in the American religious scene.”

Brett Buckner of The Anniston Star in Alabama and Terri Jo Ryan of the Waco Tribune-Herald in Texas were named second and third place winners, respectively, in that category.

Naomi Schaefer Riley of The Wall Street Journal won for opinion writing. One judge said she had “an elegant style.”

Second and third place winners for opinion writing were Tracey O’Shaughnessy of the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., and Douglas Todd of The Vancouver Sun.

The awards recognize “well-researched and well-written newswriting that enhances the public understanding of religion,” said AAR executive director John R. Fitzmier in a Thursday (Aug. 10) announcement. The first-place winners receive $1,000 each.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Progressive National Baptists Reiterate Opposition to Iraq War

(RNS) The Progressive National Baptist Convention continued its call for an end to the war in Iraq during its annual meeting in Cincinnati, saying resources spent on the conflict are needed to address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Delegates to the meeting, which concludes Saturday (Aug. 12), held their 45th annual session in the city where the historically black denomination was founded.

“The rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the post-Katrina age should be done with financial and other support systems comparable to the resources available to Iraq,” reads one of almost two dozen resolutions passed Thursday.

Another resolution stated: “This unnecessary, unwise and destructive war in Iraq is rupturing our nation, corrupting our foreign relations and disrupting our future. Iraq is now a growing cancer rapidly and deeply spreading nationally and globally.”

The 2.5 million-member denomination has decried the war in Iraq since it began in 2003.

“We believe it to be unnecessary and that we should have our troops home,” said the Rev. T. DeWitt Smith Jr., the new president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, in a statement to Religion News Service.

PNBC members also passed resolutions urging the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, “a just and humane immigration policy,” a lifting of travel restrictions to Cuba and a continuing commitment to affirmative action.

Smith succeeds the Rev. Major L. Jemison, an Oklahoma City pastor who served for four years as president. Smith is the senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church of Metro Atlanta and the former first vice president of the denomination.

Smith said he intended to continue Jemison’s efforts to work with three other historically African-American denominations _ the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America and the National Baptist Convention, USA _ after the groups severed ties years ago.

The four churches held a historic joint meeting in January 2005. “We are working out plans for another joint meeting,” Smith said. “I believe that these dialogues are important to the welfare of our African-American witness as Baptists in America and abroad.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Scientologists Win Tax Battle With British Government

LONDON (RNS) The Church of Scientology has won a tax fight with British authorities, a victory that means the government will be forced to reimburse the millions of pounds in past payments the church has made.

After years of legal wrangling, a tax tribunal ruled Thursday (Aug. 10) that British Revenue and Customs will have to pay back at least 4.1 million pounds ($7.8 million) in taxes that the church paid while its status was in legal limbo, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

The dispute was over value-added tax, or VAT, a levy on the final consumption of goods and services, and applicable to profit-making organizations. Religions are normally exempt, since they are viewed as charities “for the public benefit.”

For the Scientologists, the trouble started when the church sought charity status. The claim was rejected by the government’s Charities Commission on grounds that it was not a religion and that there was “no public benefit arising out of the practice of Scientology.”

The Scientologists appealed, and a year later, in 2000, the Revenue and Customs department ruled that the church, which counts among its members film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was a not-for-profit organization after all and did not have to pay VAT.

The fight was reminiscent of the church’s battle with the U.S. government, which granted a tax-favored designation to the church only after the settlement in 1993 of a long series of court battles between Scientology and the Internal Revenue Service.

Although the VAT tribunal ruled that the British government would have to pay back 4.1 million pounds, the Telegraph report said that since VAT was introduced in Britain in 1973 and the Scientologists arrived four years later, “the full amount due to the Church of Scientology has yet to be determined.”

The tribunal’s decision reinforced an earlier case that had forced the British government to abandon its claim that VAT reimbursement claims could be taken back only three years. Under its ruling, the Church of Scientology could claim all the way back to 1977, when it established itself in Britain.

In Britain, it operates as the Church of Scientology Religious Education Inc., with reported assets of 18.9 million pounds ($36 million), according to the latest accounts filed at Companies House.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Day: Mayor David Miller of Lubbock, Texas

(RNS) “Nobody is going to tell God what to do and what not to do, but we are in a serious drought in West Texas and since he is the man who controls the rain clouds we’re asking him for his mercy and his help.”

_ Mayor David Miller of Lubbock, Texas, speaking about efforts to encourage residents to pray for rain that would ease the dry conditions in the area. He was quoted by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

KRE/PH END RNS