c. 2006 Religion News Service

Congress Passes Law Allowing Bankrupt to Tithe

WASHINGTON (RNS) Congress approved a bill Wednesday (Dec. 6) that allows people who have filed for bankruptcy to continue to tithe and to make charitable contributions.

Earlier this year, a New York court ruled that debtors above the median income must pay off their debts before giving to charity or tithing.

The Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Clarification Act of 2006 responds to that ruling by tweaking bankruptcy rules passed by Congress last year. It ensures “that all individuals in bankruptcy, no matter their income, would be able to continue giving to charity and their church,” according to a statement from the office of one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

It is unclear whether President Bush will sign the bill. A White House spokesperson did not return requests for comment.

“Congress has a long history of protecting our religious freedom to tithe,” said another bill sponsor, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “That was our intent when we enacted bankruptcy reform last year, and this bill clarifies the law so that those who tithe can continue to live their faith while in bankruptcy.”

More than 2 million Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 and hundreds of thousands are expected to do the same by the end of 2006, according to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

Debtors and religious groups had feared that the New York ruling might lead credit-card companies to demand similar rulings in other states.

Nationwide enforcement would have had an adverse affect on religious bodies that expect members to donate 10 percent of their income to their church, synagogue, mosque or temple.

_ Daniel Burke

`Muhammad Cartoons’ Editor Says West Must Not Bow to Religious Pressure

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Danish editor who published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, sparking violent protests in the Muslim world, said Wednesday (Dec. 6) that trying to appease religious groups risks endangering Western liberal values.

Flemming Rose, culture editor of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper, said the cartoons _ one of which showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban _ were a necessary salvo in Europe’s “clash of cultures.”

“I have been accused of being intolerant to religion,” Rose said at a conference hosted by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. “But it is not my newspaper that has been intolerant. It is those who have tried to intimidate it into silence.”

The cartoons, published in September 2005, eventually led to violent protests when they were shown in the Muslim world in early 2006. The Guardian newspaper in London recently tallied 139 deaths due to cartoon-related riots.

Aiman Mayzek, a leading German Muslim who took part in the discussion at Georgetown, said Western media should balance rights and responsibilities.

“The Western world has to think about its freedom of religion and the freedom of the press,” Mayzek said. “Muslims should join in this discussion, but respect for our holy ones cannot be discussed only to the debit of Muslims. That would be too much for us.”

“How could I not see that cartoon as an attack on all Muslims?” Mayzek said about the caricature of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Rose protested that the cartoons were a response to recent events in Europe in which artists and public officials were intimidated by “Islamists.” There was a story about censorship to be told, according to Rose.

“We decided to go with (the cartoons) in an unusual, and I would say creative, way in accordance with the classic journalistic principle: don’t tell it, show it,” Rose said.

As Muslim immigrants pour into Western Europe, there will continue to be a “clash of cultures, which is very important to make integration work and in order to safeguard our fundamental values,” Rose said.

_ Daniel Burke

House Fails to Pass Abortion Bill on Fetal Pain

WASHINGTON (RNS) A bill that would have required doctors to inform women seeking an abortion that a fetus may experience pain failed in the House on Wednesday (Dec. 6), in what could be the last significant abortion-related bill in Congress for some time.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., would have needed a two-thirds vote to pass. The final vote was 250-162, 25 votes short of the necessary margin.

Democratic leaders have signaled they will put much less emphasis on abortion-related bills when the new Congress convenes in January. Conservative anti-abortion groups had hoped to use Smith’s bill to signal that abortion should remain a high priority.

“It’s no small thing that 60 percent of the House endorsed requiring abortionists to inform women that late abortion may be very painful to the unborn child,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee.

Several leaders, including Johnson and Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said federal rules regarding slaughter of animals are more humane.

“Abortion not only kills a baby, it tortures them,” Wright said. “Women deserve full information before making a life-altering decision that will end their baby’s life and haunt them forever. We hope that women will have compassion on their child when they learn their baby will experience extreme pain and choose instead for their baby to feel the loving touch of an embrace.”

Opponents of the measure, including Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., accused supporters of “playing politics with women’s health,” and argued that using anesthesia for the fetus may actually harm the mother.

“The medical and scientific community has yet to reach a consensus with regard to the issue of when and if a fetus feels pain,” Pallone said.

_ Kevin Eckstrom and Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Author and radio personality Garrison Keillor

(RNS) “There are people who feel `excluded’ by Christian symbolism and are offended by the manger and the angels and the Child, but there have always been humorless, legalistic people. Complaint is an American art form, and in our time it has been raised to an operatic level. To which one can only say: Get a life.”

_ Author and radio personality Garrison Keillor

KRE/PH END RNS