c. 2006 Religion News Service
Humanists File Suit to Stop Voting in Churches
WASHINGTON (RNS) The civil rights of a Florida humanist were violated when he was forced to pass an anti-abortion banner on his way to vote at a Florida church in the midterm elections, leaders of the American Humanist Association said Wednesday (Nov. 29).
The humanists filed suit to stop voting at the church in Delray Beach, Fla., and ultimately hope to use similar cases to halt voting at all houses of worship.
The lawsuit on behalf of the Florida man, Jerry Rabinowitz, also launched the American Humanist Association’s new legal center in Washington, the first nontheist legal center in the nation’s capital.
The AHA defines humanism as a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms humans’ ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Twenty-seven humanist lawyers from around the country, including Michael Newdow, who tried to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, will step up efforts to defend the constitutional rights of religious and secular minorities through legal action and public outreach, said Heidi Bruggink, legal coordinator for the new legal center.
The center’s goal is to represent humanist values in the legal arena and stand up against the efforts of the “Bush administration to damage Jefferson’s wall of church-state separation.”
“George W. Bush has been busy appointing conservative Christian judges who don’t support the separation of church and state,” said AHA executive director Roy Speckhardt. “And year after year we’re seeing government intruding further and further into the religious sphere.”
The AHA said churches are the most common polling locations in America, and cited a Stanford University study that found “environmental cues” inside polling locations can influence how voters vote.
_ Chansin Bird
Rick Who? Most Americans Don’t Recognize Major Christian Leaders
(RNS) If Britney Spears, Denzel Washington and James Dobson were in a lineup, most Americans would know the first two but draw a blank on the evangelical leader.
A new study by the Barna Group found that a majority of Americans, when presented with 16 public figures, had never heard of some of the nation’s most prominent Christian leaders, but instantly recognize pop-culture celebrities.
Rick Warren, pastor of a megachurch in Lake Forest, Calif., has sold more copies of his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” than any other nonfiction work except the Bible. But three out of every four adults (72 percent) have never heard of him, the survey found.
Nearly 57 percent of adults have never heard of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and host of a religious radio program that reaches more Americans than any other religious personality.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Dallas megachurch pastor who is considered by many to be the most influential African-American minister in the country, is unknown to 68 percent of American adults, Barna found.
And 75 percent said they didn’t know of Tim LaHaye, a prominent minister and co-author of the “Left Behind” novels, the best-selling fiction series of all time. Two out of three Americans (67 percent) drew a blank on Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston _ one of the largest Christian congregations in the country _ and host of the most widely viewed teaching programs in the United States.
Actors Denzel Washington, Rosie O’Donnell and Mel Gibson fared better in the minds of Americans. The percentage of adults to recognize their names were 93 percent, 95 percent and 96 percent, respectively.
“The survey statistics suggest that perhaps Christian individuals are more attuned to matters of culture and entertainment than to matters of faith,” George Barna, director of the research study, said in a statement.
“People pay attention to what they deem important. These figures may be another indicator that millions of Christians invest more of their mental energy in cultural literacy than in biblical literacy.”
The Barna Group, based in Ventura, Calif., interviewed 1,003 adults for the survey in October. The margin of error for the study was 3.2 percentage points.
_ Jason Kane
Obama Addresses Warren’s AIDS Conference After Controversy
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (RNS) After earlier protests about his abortion stance, Sen. Barack Obama spoke Friday (Dec. 1) at one of the country’s most prominent megachurches, calling for spiritual efforts to address the AIDS pandemic.
“I don’t think we can deny that there is a moral and spiritual component to prevention,” said Obama, D-Ill., one of more than 50 speakers at Saddleback Church’s second annual AIDS conference. “The relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down and needs to be repaired.”
In the days leading up to the two-day meeting that ended on World AIDS Day, anti-abortion activists said Obama’s support for abortion rights should have disqualified him from speaking. The “Race Against Time” AIDS conference was at the church of Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life” and a maverick among evangelical clergy.
Obama didn’t directly address the earlier criticism about his appearance, but Warren did, noting that while people on the left and right wings of American politics may differ on abortion, “you gotta have two wings to fly.”
Warren added that both Obama and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who spoke on the same panel with Obama, “will speak with integrity, but more than that _ civility.”
Brownback discussed the millions of poor people worldwide who are suffering from AIDS and said, “if we can just give them the crumbs off our table, they can live and we can save our souls.”
Warren, Obama and Brownback all took HIV tests before more than a dozen news cameras and all tested negative.
“America has moved away from this disease. Much of Hollywood has moved on,” Warren said at the conference attended by more than 2,000 people. “It is the church that needs to take the lead on HIV/AIDS.”
The anti-abortion activists’ statements prompted a response from more than two dozen religious leaders who criticized them for playing “partisan politics” instead of addressing AIDS.
_ David Finnigan
Former Pastor Charged With Trying to Kill Donor _ Twice
(RNS) A former California pastor has been arrested and accused of murder in the 2004 death of an 85-year-old man.
Stanislaus County authorities said they believe Doug Porter, 55, intended to kill Frank Craig in order to inherit Craig’s multimillion-dollar trust, The Modesto Bee reported.
The two men were involved in two auto crashes: the first in 2002, which crippled Craig after crashing into a tree, and the second in April 2004 which drowned the elderly man after driving into an irrigation canal. Porter was the driver in both cases and walked away with only minor injuries.
His no-bail arrest warrant includes charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and grand theft, Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold said. Porter was arrested Monday (Nov. 27) and booked on Thursday.
Craig had up to $4 million in stocks and real estate left to him after his brother died, according to another brother, N.J. Craig.
In 1999, Porter gained control of Craig’s finances when the agriculture enthusiast asked the pastor and high school wrestling coach to help him build a museum in eastern Stanislaus County. He wanted to showcase farm equipment and memorabilia he had acquired over the years.
Porter still has not broken ground on the museum.
The Modesto Bee reported that Craig’s friends said within days of Craig’s death, Porter began removing items from Craig’s home. Two months after his death, Porter told The Modesto Bee that Craig “basically left everything in the trust to me, Doug Porter.”
Eight months after the crash, Porter sold Craig’s 17-acre ranch to a neighboring nursery for more than $400,000, according to Stanislaus County assessor’s records.
“We’re just at the start of this and have to wait and see how the case plays itself out,” Goold said. “He is still innocent until proven guilty.”
_ Chansin Bird
New Rabbi Installed 16 Months After Katrina Delay
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Sixteen months and a life-changing storm after he arrived in suburban Metairie to take over his new pulpit, Rabbi Theodore Lichtenfeld was finally installed Nov. 18 as the second rabbi of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation.
Lichtenfeld’s installation would have occurred months ago, but for Hurricane Katrina.
Lichtenfeld, 36, his pregnant wife, Miriam _ also a rabbi _ and their 2-year-old daughter, Avital, arrived in New Orleans from Pompton Lakes, N.J., Aug. 1, 2005. Shir Chadash, the metro area’s only Conservative congregation, is Lichtenfeld’s second full-time pulpit.
But only four weeks later, they found themselves in Atlanta with thousands of other evacuees, trying to get a grip on what Hurricane Katrina had done to Metairie.
Lichtenfeld faced a peculiar frustration. Like other clergy, he struggled to locate his families by cell phone and e-mail. Unlike them, he had been their leader for only four weeks.
“I still had not placed all the names with all the faces,” he said.
In short order, Lichtenfeld led Rosh Hashana services for displaced New Orleans Jews in Houston. He returned to his damaged but serviceable temple six weeks after Katrina to lead Yom Kippur services on bare concrete floors.
With Tenet Memorial Hospital destroyed, Miriam and Avital temporarily moved to New Jersey until the birth of the couple’s son, Aryeh, in November 2005.
Lichtenfeld shuttled back and forth between his family and his congregation until January, when the family permanently returned to Metairie.
Today, Shir Chadash is largely repaired physically, having absorbed about $500,000 in work, said Lichtenfeld. Its population is down by a quarter, with about 300 families where there used to be 400 families.
Asked what he hoped for the coming year, Lichtenfeld offered two thoughts: “The first hope is not only for this congregation, but that particularly in New Orleans, more things happen to make life more normal and bring hope to this community. I want money that’s supposed to come to us really start coming in . …
“And for our congregation … even before Katrina I wanted to clarify our mission, particularly as the only Conservative synagogue in the New Orleans area.
“I want to keep people here and make them feel good . … I want to think of ways to enhance our services and encourage spirituality, which is even more important now.”
_ Bruce Nolan
Vatican Threatens to Excommunicate Chinese Bishop
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Relations between China and the Vatican continued to fray after the Holy See threatened to excommunicate a Chinese bishop recently consecrated without papal approval.
A Vatican statement issued Saturday (Nov. 2) condemned the consecration of Wang Renlei of the Xuzhou diocese in eastern China, as a “laceration of the ecclesial communion.”
The statement invoked a section of canon law that says the bishop and those who assisted in his consecration faced the penalty of excommunication if “the act was completed in conditions of true freedom” _ a caveat implying that Wang could have been pressed into accepting the consecration and, if so, would not be excommunicated.
“The Holy Father was deeply saddened by the news,” the statement said.
The world’s largest church and most populous country have frequently clashed over who ultimately holds the authority to appoint bishops to run China’s Catholic hierarchy. The Vatican argues that the power lies exclusively with the pope. But Beijing says the appointments are necessary to offset the shrinking number of current Chinese bishops. The government argues the new bishops have the support of their dioceses.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Faiths Urged to Rally for Darfur This Weekend
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious organizations of all creeds are joining forces this weekend (Dec. 9-10) to pray for an end to the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and demand action by the U.S. government.
Organized by the Washington-based Save Darfur Coalition, the “National Weekend of Prayer for Darfur” encourages faith organizations to dedicate a sermon, encourage prayer and educate their members about Darfur.
Dozens of the nation’s leading faith communities have signed on, adding their names to a full-page advertisement that ran Tuesday (Dec. 5) in USA Today. Participants include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Jewish Committee, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Islamic Society of North America.
The hope for the movement is to “drive people out of the pews and into the streets,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, in a press conference Tuesday.
Violence has raged in the vast Darfur region of Sudan for more than three years as government-backed Arab militias have repeatedly attacked non-Arab tribes seeking greater rights and autonomy. At least 2.5 million people have been displaced and 200,000 killed in a conflict the Bush administration calls genocide.
The faith leaders said it is time for Washington and the United Nation to act on that rhetoric by more forcefully demanding the implementation of a U.N. peacekeeping force _ a force the Sudanese government has adamantly rejected thus far.
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said Americans currently know too little about the conflict to demand concerted action.
“If they knew more, if they had all of the facts, they would rise up urgently to stop the genocide,” Edgar said.
Gutow compared the current violence to the Holocaust, and asked Jewish communities nationwide to respond with that sense of urgency this weekend.
“We’re all opening our hearts and our lips to try and bring God into this help and this work. We join the world in asking God to walk with us.”
_ Jason Kane
Presbyterian, Jewish Leaders Find Common Ground After Divestment
(RNS) Presbyterian and Jewish leaders have promised to work toward a “renewed engagement” after the church last summer revised its policy on divesting from companies involved in Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
Meeting at Prebyterian Church (USA) headquarters in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 29, the faith leaders said they “discussed frankly and openly our different perceptions of the situation in the (Middle East) and found some ways to begin working together in this area that has most divided us in the past.”
The joint-statement produced by the meeting was signed by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination’s stated clerk, as well as top officials from three branches of Judaism: Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform.
At their General Assembly in 2004, Presbyterians approved a plan to pull some investments in companies thought to be in involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
Under fire from Jewish and conservative Christian leaders, the General Assembly modified its policy in 2006, replacing divestment with a pledge to use investments toward “peaceful pursuits.”
“Together, we affirm that peace for Israel and the Palestinians should be built on the foundations of security, justice and the establishment of two viable states,” the Dec. 4 joint statement said.
“Our specific approaches to peace differ, but we believe that we can, and must, be strong advocates together _ and together with other Christian and Muslim colleagues _ for a renewed peace process,” the statement said.
_ Daniel Burke
(Editors: Petter in 9th graf is CQ)
Church of Norway Ends Status as State Church
(RNS) In a radical revision of its relationship with the Norwegian government, the (Lutheran) Church of Norway has voted to abolish the nation’s current system under which it was the nation’s official church.
The mid-November vote at the church’s General Synod meeting in Oyer, Norway, aims to bring to an end the state-church system that has been in place since 1537, when the then-united Denmark-Norway endorsed the Lutheran Reformation. The proposal still must be affirmed and implemented by the government, and likely will not take effect until 2013.
Olaf Haraldson, a Viking warrior king, brought Christianity to central Norway in the 11th century after converting during a raiding tour of England and imposed it on his local followers.
At the Oyer meeting, delegates voted 63-19 that the Church of Norway should no longer be referred to as a state church in the country’s 1814 constitution. Rather, they said, the church should be founded on a separate act of parliament.
The Norwegian constitution also says the nation’s values are based on those of the Lutheran Church, and stipulates that half of government ministers must be Church of Norway members.
In addition, the church meeting said the General Synod _ not the king of Norway and the government _ should exercise authority over church matters.
The vote by the synod follows a report issued in January by a government-appointed commission that recommended the changes to reflect Norway’s evolution to a modern, multi-faith society.
Jens Petter Johnsen, director of the Church of Norway’s national council, called the synod’s mid-November vote “historic.”
“What matters is the relation between church and people, not between church and state,” he said. “We will do our utmost to strengthen the service of the church in and with our people.”
The Church of Norway has about 3.9 million members, representing some 85 percent of the Norwegian population. If the changes are implemented, Norway will follow neighboring Sweden, which separated church and state in 2000.
_ David E. Anderson
Quote of the Week: Former Nun Mary Dispenza
(RNS) “Everything that I knew, all my identity, was wrapped up in the church in one way or another. I was just lost. I felt we both lost: the church lost me and I lost the church. And we both had invested a lot in each other for all those years.”
_ Mary Dispenza, 67, a former nun who expects to receive $1.33 million of the $60 million settlement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in a class action suit involving clergy sex abuse. Quoted by the Associated Press, Dispenza said she is haunted by the memory of being molested by a pedophile priest as a young girl.
KRE/PH END RNS
Editors: To obtain photos of the Florida polling station referenced in the first item, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
