c. 2007 Religion News Service
Former Salvation Army Leader Named to NAE Post
(RNS) The National Association of Evangelicals has chosen a former top official of the Salvation Army to serve as its new executive director.
W. Todd Bassett, the former national commander of the Salvation Army, has been a member of the NAE’s Executive Committee for four years.
“We’re thrilled to have him do this,” said interim NAE President Leith Anderson, pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., on Wednesday (Jan. 17). “He brings enormous stature and experience and is well-connected with the evangelical community.”
Officials of the umbrella organization explained that Bassett is not succeeding the Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned last November as president amid a sex and drug scandal.
“This is a new role that we used to have in years gone by and we now have,” said the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs.
Reached in Calcutta, India, during a church missions trip, Anderson said Wednesday (Jan. 17) that a key part of his role as interim president has been to focus on the staffing of the Washington headquarters of the association. Bassett’s appointment is a part of that, he said.
“It’s a different style of organization and it strengthens the organization,” he explained. “It’s less dependent administratively on the position of president and provides just a breadth of organization and infrastructure.”
Bassett was national commander of the Salvation Army from 2002 through April 2006. The Salvation Army is one of 60 member denominations in the organization.
His new role with NAE will include oversight of its administrative, communications and financial activities.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Driver Says He Followed Policy When Kicking Muslim Woman Off Bus
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Bus driver Gene Bandlow says he was just following policy when he asked a woman with an Islamic veil to step off his bus last July.
He didn’t believe passenger Tasha Douglas was a terrorist, nor did he intend to discriminate against her religion, said Bandlow, who has been driving a city bus for 61/2 years.
“I’m not an idiot,” said Bandlow. He said he decided to come forward after letters to the editor in the Grand Rapids Press suggested he believed Douglas was a terrorist.
“I didn’t see her as a security risk, it was just a policy I had to enforce,” said Bandlow, who compared the transit system’s then-rule against passengers having their faces covered to its rule against eating on the bus.
Bandlow, 37, said he would not have told her she could not wear the veil had he known she was wearing it for religious reasons.
Since September, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, working on Douglas’ behalf, have been in talks with transit officials about the incident.
Douglas’ lawyer, Miriam Aukerman, said she finds it hard to believe Bandlow did not recognize Douglas’ garb as being religious.
“If that’s the case, I think it points to the need for diversity training within” (the transit system), she said. “That’s a fairly common form of dress among Muslims.
“Our issue is not with the driver,” Aukerman said. “He’s an individual who made a mistake because The Rapid as an institution had a policy that was wrong.”
Since Douglas’ complaint surfaced in September, Rapid officials have modified their ban on head coverings and apologized to her.
Rapid spokeswoman Jennifer Kalczuk has said the original policy was for security reasons and that religious dress was not considered. The rule was made so on-board cameras could identify riders in the event of a disturbance.
Douglas, 30, since has said she was “devastated” and “humiliated” by the incident. The Grand Rapids woman, who does not own a car, said she has relied on taxicabs since then.
“I embrace all religions,” Bandlow said. “I don’t care what religion you are. If it makes you a better person, I’m all for it.”
_ Jim Harger
Seminary to Host Transgender Conference
BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS) The first Transgender Religious Summit to be held at a Christian seminary will bring together 50 activists, transgender members of faith communities, academics and religious leaders this weekend (Jan. 19-21) at the Pacific School of Religion here.
“Transgender people are emerging from the spiritual closet,” said Justin Tanis, program manager for the National Center for Transgender Equality, a Washington-based advocacy group that is co-sponsoring the summit with the seminary’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry.
The summit is designed to create dialogue among transgender people and their allies in faith communities who are concerned with human rights and social justice issues. Tanis said the program will empower people to speak about transgender matters in churches and the public sphere. Participants come from Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and pagan faith communities.
“Something like this conference would have been unheard of 12 years ago,” said the Rev. Erin Swenson, a transgender Presbyterian pastoral counselor.
Organizers said the transgender community is gaining momentum and is organizing itself as a movement. In addition, more religious communities are realizing that transgender people are part of their congregations, Swenson said.
Response, however, has been mixed. In 2003, the Catholic Church banned transgender people from religious orders while Unitarian Universalists and the United Church of Christ have begun ordaining transgender ministers.
Swenson said transgender people have many gifts to offer to their congregations and society at large. She said these gifts include having a deep sense of personal integrity and an ability to be honest about who they are. Transgender people also can help faith communities emphasize love, self-respect and human dignity as “central core values.”
While conservative religious groups have opposed steps to protect against gender discrimination, none were invited to the summit. Tanis, however, said dialogue between transgender people of faith and conservative groups is a “worthy goal.”
_ Shona Crabtree
British School Bars Cross Necklace for `Health and Safety’ Reasons
LONDON (RNS) A British school has rekindled fury over the wearing of religious items by ordering a 13-year-old student to remove her neck chain with its silver crucifix, this time on unspecified “health and safety” grounds.
The Robert Napier School in Gillingham said Samantha Devine’s wearing of the tiny cross as a necklace violated its dress code, which says no jewelry is to be worn by students.
It cited health and safety regulations, but gave no specific example as to any hazard that might be involved in her case.
In Britain, government-mandated health and safety rules are a general set of regulations that can _ and have been used to _ cover a wide variety of possibilities, ranging from bans on trees and hanging baskets (on grounds they might fall on a passer-by), Christmas lights (in case they catch fire) and school ball games (in case someone gets hit).
In Samantha’s case, a human rights group questioned whether wearing items of religious jewelry during standard lessons could constitute any threat to health and safety.
The teenager said she was “really shocked and upset” but insisted she would continue wearing her crucifix necklace “even if I get suspended or expelled.” She said she received the chain and cross as a Christmas gift, and she rejected a school suggestion of a compromise by wearing the crucifix as a lapel badge.
She added that “other religions are allowed to show their beliefs by wearing bracelets or turbans, so why can I not wear a cross to show my devotion to God? I can’t understand why the school thinks a tiny crucifix on a thin silver necklace is a health and safety hazard.”
Paul Jackson, the school’s deputy head, said the school “has a policy of no jewelry,” The only exception would be if the jewelry were an essential requirement of a particular religion, he said.
_ Al Webb
Quote of the Day: Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi
(RNS) “I believe in the culture war. And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war, I’ll take their side. Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I’ll take Jesus.”
_ Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, talking to The New York Times about her new film, “Friends of God,” about evangelical Christians. She is the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
KRE/PH END RNS
