c. 2006 Religion News Service
Oregon Senator Says He’ll Fight to Keep State’s Assisted Suicide Law
WASHINGTON (RNS) Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has said he will try to block a federal bill that would override Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law.
Wyden said Sept. 5 that he has placed a hold on the Assisted Suicide Prevention Act, introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. The bill would prohibit doctors from prescribing drugs for assisted suicide. A hold requires 60 votes to break.
In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Wyden said Oregonians twice voted to allow the option of physician-assisted suicide.
“The government ought not attempt to override or pre-empt the individual and the family values, religious beliefs and wishes,” Wyden said.
Brownback, who held a hearing on the issue in May, has said he does not expect the bill to become law this year.
“When the law permits killing as a medical ‘treatment,’ society’s moral guidelines are blurred, and killing could gain acceptance as a solution for the chronically ill or vulnerable,” Brownback said in a written statement last month when he announced the bill.
Oregon is the only state that has legalized physician-assisted suicide. The state’s Death With Dignity Act allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses to terminally ill patients. The Bush administration has argued that the practice violates federal anti-drug law. But in a 6-3 vote in January, the Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s law.
_ Jeff Kosseff
Jewish National Fund to Replant Forests Decimated by War
KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel (RNS) The Jewish National Fund is spearheading a 10-year, $400 million Rosh Hashana fundraising campaign to help replant Israel’s northern forests, which sustained heavy damage during the recent Hezbollah-Israel war.
Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, starts at sundown Sept. 22. Traditionally, the Jewish High Holy Days are a time when Jews reflect, pray and contribute to charity.
The JNF, which maintains Israel’s woodlands, estimates that 20 percent of the forests in northern Israel were damaged during the monthlong war, which also resulted in extensive environmental damage in Lebanon.
Between 700,000 to 1 million trees in Israel’s forests were destroyed by rocket-induced wildfires and it is likely that as many as 1 million damaged trees will not survive into the winter, the JNF said.
A large percentage of Israel’s 250 million trees were planted with funds donated by Jews _ and occasionally others _ all over the world. For decades, families, synagogues and individuals have marked special events _ the birth of a child, a bar/bat mitzvah, a marriage, even the death of a loved one _ by planting a tree in Israel.
During a late-August tour of the damaged forests, Paul Ginsberg, head of the JNF’s northern forestry service, noted that each and every one of the scorched Cyprus pines and eucalyptus trees had been planted by hand during the past several decades, usually by new immigrants to the country.
“Everything you see here required a lot of human effort to create it. It took 50 years to create these forests,” Ginsberg said, surveying the lifeless landscape, which until recently had been home to gazelle, wild boar, quail, tortoises, nesting birds and jackals.
_ Michele Chabin
Britain’s Parliament Report Says Anti-Semitism is “Rising Tide”
LONDON (RNS) Britain’s Parliament said Sept. 7 that anti-Semitism has become a part of “mainstream society” and that the nation’s 300,000 Jews are more vulnerable to attack now than they have been for a generation.
The report, issued Thursday (Sept. 7) by a parliamentary committee set up last year, called on the government, police, prosecutors, universities and the Jewish community itself to take urgent action to stem what it described as a “rising tide of prejudice.”
The parliamentarians said attacks on British Jews and their property have been steadily increasing since 2000 _ more than 530 such cases were reported in 2004 alone. It cited growing violence and tensions in the Middle East as an aggravating cause.
Dennis McShane, chairman of the 14-member All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism (none of whom was Jewish), said anti-Semitic sentiment “is appearing in the everyday conversations of people who consider themselves neither racist nor prejudiced” _ behavior he described as “driven by ignorance and complacency.”
The 60-page report said such behavior appears to be increasingly acceptable in “mainstream society” and that anti-Semitism “is no longer the sole preserve of the political far-right, but occurs across the political spectrum, including the left.”
The panel’s recommendations include a crackdown of anti-Jewish activity on university campuses, improved police reporting of anti-Semitic incidents and better education about anti-Semitism in schools.
The report said that the lack of a requirement that police forces log anti-Semitic incidents was “inexcusable.” It also lamented the failure of legal follow-up,including the prosecution of fewer than one in 10 such incidents.
The parliamentary report comes days after Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the chief rabbis of Israel signed a joint declaration setting out a framework for a formal dialogue between the 77-million worldwide Anglican Communion and Judaism.
The archbishop’s Lambeth Palace office in London said the pact “adds to the growing network of bilateral and multilateral dialogues between religious leaders in the Middle East and in the wider world.”
_ Al Webb
Haggard Warns Against Decline of U.S. Religious Freedom
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard warned Friday (Sept. 8) that religious freedom is in danger of being greatly reduced in this country.
“I think right now we’re in the beginning stages of the erosion of freedom of religion in the United States,” he told more than 200 people gathered for the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association. “The challenges are building for more and more limitation of religious speech.”
Haggard, 50, the senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., cited personal examples in which he had spoken out on public issues and had been criticized for doing so as a member of the clergy. He also cited his organization’s intervention in a lawsuit filed by Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who wants to halt what he calls unconstitutional evangelistic practices within the Air Force.
“If this lawsuit prevails, we’ll have increased government supervision of religious speech,” Haggard said.
Weinstein said Haggard has mischaracterized his suit, which he says aims to protect men and women in uniform and on duty from being pressured to change their faith.
“I think Ted Haggard is the Prince of Darkness when it comes to religious freedom,” said Weinstein, reached by phone in Albuquerque, N.M. “He’s the one who’s really trying to suppress religious freedom by ensuring that one particular biblical worldview becomes the official biblical worldview of the U.S. government, and particularly the Department of Defense.”
Haggard warned that if Weinstein’s suit prevails, government officials will have the power to censor or monitor religious speech by chaplains or between service members _ a change that would result in America’s first “established church.”
As leader of the umbrella organization of evangelicals, Haggard said the group’s membership is broader than most people think. He said four recent presidents may best exemplify evangelical diversity _ Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who are Democrats and have had affiliations with the Southern Baptist Convention, and Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Republicans with links to mainline Protestant denominations.
Asked about evangelicals’ reputation for a “my way or the highway” view about their beliefs, Haggard said evangelicals can be strong in their beliefs but yet protect the beliefs of others.
“We feel comfortable in a guaranteed right to heaven,” he said. “The test of every person that believes anything for sure is how they treat people who don’t feel the same way.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
EPA Says New Rules Not Needed on Ritual Use of Mercury
WASHINGTON (RNS) Mercury used in folk and religious rituals is dangerous but increased regulation is not needed, according to a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Aug. 31 report was prompted by a request in February 2005 from the Mercury Poisoning Project, a private watchdog group based in Brooklyn, N.Y. An unnamed representative from the organization approached the EPA’s Office of Inspector General with concerns about ritualistic use of mercury and allegations that the agency had falsified earlier studies on the substance for a 1993 report.
The EPA denied the charges in the most recent report.
Members of certain Latino and Afro-Caribbean traditions, including Santeria, Palo, Voodoo and Espiritismo, wear mercury in its liquid form in amulets, sprinkle it on the floor at home, put it in candle or oil lamps and add it to detergent or cosmetics, the report said.
Mercury is believed to attract love, luck or wealth; ward off evil; or initiate spells. Uncontained mercury can evaporate at room temperature and become an invisible, odorless toxic gas, potentially causing severe lung, gastrointestinal and nervous system damage if inhaled.
The report did not suggest any new recommendations, but instead said the EPA’s current education outreach and environmental monitoring are sufficient. These programs were started following the 1993 EPA report on ritualistic mercury use.
Increased regulation could drive the practice underground and violate the First Amendment’s provision of religious freedom because the mercury is used in religious and folk rituals, the report argued.
_ Kat Glass
New York, Canadian Reporters Take Top Religion Writing Prizes
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Religion reporters from White Plains, N.Y., and the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Ottawa, earned the top prizes in the annual contests of the Religion Newswriters Association.
Winners were announced during the group’s annual conference here on Saturday (Sept. 9).
Gary Stern of The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., won first place for the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, which recognizes versatility and excellence in enterprise reporting. Bruce Nolan of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans came in second, and James Davis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel garnered third prize.
Douglas Todd of The Vancouver Sun was named the first-place winner of the Supple Religion Writer of the Year Award, which recognizes a reporter’s writing skill. Second place went to Jennifer Garza of The Sacramento Bee and third to Margaret Ramirez of the Chicago Tribune.
Robert Sibley of The Ottawa Citizen won first place in the Templeton Story of the Year Award, which highlights a single story or series on religion in print media. John Cochran of Congressional Quarterly and William Lobdell of the Los Angeles Times, came in second and third, respectively.
Other winners are as follows:
_ Cassels Reporter of the Year, for religion reporting at newspapers with circulations of 50,000 and below: Nicole Neroulias of the San Mateo County Times in California, first place; Daniel Burke of the Lancaster New Era in Pennsylvania (and now, Religion News Service), second place; Linda Andrade Rodrigues of The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass., third place.
_ Cornell Reporter of the Year for religion reporting at mid-sized newspapers: John Chadwick of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., first place; Brad Greenberg of The Sun/The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif.; second place; Jessica Ravitz of The Salt Lake Tribune, third place.
_ Schachern Award for best religion pages or sections, small paper category: The Record in Ontario, Canada, first place; The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., second place; The Huntsville Times in Alabama, third place.
_ Schachern Award for best religion pages or sections, large paper category: The Salt Lake Tribune, first place; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, second place; The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan, third place.
_ Chandler Award for for Student Writer of the Year: Roy Maurer of the Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University, first place; Laura Misjak of The State News, Michigan State University, second place; Malorie Lucich of Golden Gate Xpress, San Francisco State University, third place.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Democrats Have Less Favorable View of Faiths, Poll Shows
(RNS) A recent survey showed that most Americans think Republicans are more friendly than Democrats to religion. Apparently, the feeling is mutual, a new, separate Gallup poll has found.
While approximately 50 percent of Democrats and “Democratic leaners” hold positive opinions of Jews, Methodists, Baptists and Catholics, according to the survey, nearly 70 percent of Republicans said they felt sympathetic toward the same groups.
The divide between Republicans and Democrats was most striking in their evaluations of evangelical and “fundamentalist” Christians. While 63 percent of Republicans reported having positive opinions of evangelical Christians, just 31 percent of Democrats reported the same feelings. A third of Democrats held negative views of “fundamentalist Christians,” while 50 percent of Republicans held positive opinions of the group.
Members of the two political parties were united in their feelings toward Muslims _ where just 27 percent of both Republicans and Democrats reported positive opinions _ and Scientologists, where about 10 percent of each party said they harbor positive feelings about the group.
The survey, which was conducted Aug. 28-31 by The Gallup Poll, asked 1,001 randomly selected American adults their views on 10 religious groups. Those surveyed were asked whether they felt “very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative,” about Jews, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, atheists, evangelical Christians, “fundamentalist” Christians and Scientologists.
For results based on the total sample, the poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Only half the sample was asked about evangelical and “fundamentalist” Christians, so the margin or error is plus or minus 5 points for those results.
_ Daniel Burke
Somali Radio Station Back on the Air _ Minus Love Songs
(RNS) Islamic militants in Somalia are allowing a radio station to air again _ as long as it stays away from music, according to wire reports.
Radio Jowhar was closed Saturday (Sept. 9) because Islamist clerics said the radio was playing love songs that encouraged immorality.
That decision was altered on Monday (Sept. 11), allowing the station to reopen if it pledged to only broadcast news, readings from the Quran and Islamic lectures. Jowhar is a small farming town in Somalia, 56 miles north of the capital Mogadishu.
Some listeners are angry about Radio Jowhar’s new restrictions, Islamist spokesman Abdirahman Ali Mudey said, but he said the rules are reasonable in the predominantly Muslim nation.
“Since the media operators are Muslims, they should know they also have a role to protect and preserve our Islamic norms,” Mudey told Reuters.
The new group of Islamic militants, which swept into southern Somalia in June, has imposed a series of religious restrictions since taking control.
Islamist clerics banned movie viewing, publicly lashed drug users and stopped a wedding ceremony where women and men were socializing together, the Associated Press reported.
_ Kat Glass
Court Says Atheists Not Harmed By Boy Scout Recruiting
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that Portland Public Schools didn’t discriminate against atheist students by allowing the Boy Scouts to recruit during school hours.
Even though the Boy Scouts require a belief in God to become a member, the court ruled that no discrimination took place at school because neither the recruiter nor the Scout material distributed during lunchtime to elementary school boys mentioned religion.
“It is in the later enrollment in the organization that the Boy Scouts differentiate among those who do not profess a belief in a deity and those who do,” Justice W. Michael Gillette wrote in an opinion issued Friday (Sept. 8). “That enrollment, however, is not done by the school district.”
The 6-1 opinion reversed the Oregon Court of Appeals, which last year held that the school district had contributed to discrimination by allowing the Boy Scouts to recruit during school hours in 1996 at Harvey Scott Elementary School.
The mother of a first-grader, Remington Powell, sued because the Scouts don’t allow atheists to join. The high court, however, said the school district isn’t responsible for that policy.
“By its conduct in this case, the school district has done nothing more than permit a community group to provide nondiscriminatory information to parents and students, who may then voluntarily decide the extent of their involvement, or noninvolvement, in such activities,” Gillette wrote.
Justice Rives Kistler dissented, arguing that the recruitment effort “divided the elementary school children into two groups: those whose religious views agreed with the Scouts’ views and those whose views did not.”
The ruling drew praise from the Boy Scouts.
“It’s the right decision,” said Don Cornell, field director of the Columbia-Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America. “It’s going to allow Portland Public Schools to help parents find out about all community organizations available to their kids.”
Nancy Powell, an atheist who filed the suit on behalf of her son, called the ruling “a blow to my family … and a blow to Oregon.”
_ Steven Carter and Scott Learn
Quote of the Week: Plane Crash Survivor James Polehinke
(RNS) “Why did God do this to me?”
_ James Polehinke, the sole survivor and co-pilot of a plane crash that killed 49 people in Lexington, Ky.,on Aug. 27. He remains hospitalized with numerous broken bones and has not specifically mentioned the crash, according to The Associated Press.
END RNS