RNS Daily Digest: Also transmitting in `a’ category

c. 2007 Religion News Service Democrats Hire Catholic Outreach Director WASHINGTON (RNS) After a lengthy search, the Democratic National Committee has tapped a young Catholic who is active in social justice causes to lead its outreach to the Catholic community. John Kelly, 35, treasurer of Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace organization, has worked […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

Democrats Hire Catholic Outreach Director


WASHINGTON (RNS) After a lengthy search, the Democratic National Committee has tapped a young Catholic who is active in social justice causes to lead its outreach to the Catholic community.

John Kelly, 35, treasurer of Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace organization, has worked for the Congressional Hunger Center, a Washington-based nonprofit, for more than five years.

During the 2006 elections, Kelly worked with the consultanting firm Common Good Strategies, campaigning among Catholic voters for ultimately successful Senate candidates Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, as well as Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland. All three candidates gained a majority of the Catholic vote, swinging a wide swath of voters to the Democratic side.

“Our focus is on expanding on what we did last year,” said Leslie Brown, the DNC’s director of faith outreach. “The fact that John had experience working with candidates in the Catholic community, a knowledge of anti-poverty and anti-hunger issues,” were key factors in Kelly’s hiring, she said.

Throughout the U.S., Democrats gained 50 percent of the white Catholic vote, up from 45 percent in 2004, according to exit data provided by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Kelly said he’d like to help keep that trend going.

“I’d say they were dramatic improvements,” he said of the 2006 election results among Catholic voters. Kelly said he cultivated historic partnerships between Democrats and Catholics on social justice issues such as poverty and hunger.

“There’s a strong tradition of Catholics and Democrats working together,” he said. “There are strong relationships to build on.”

Before working for the Congressional Hunger Center, Kelly was director of social justice ministries and Catholic campus ministry for a parish affiliated with the University of Miami.

“He’s a very skilled guy,” said Jim Brown, Casey’s chief of staff, who worked with Kelly during the 2006 campaign. “And where he comes from, in many ways, is living a life of service.”


_ Daniel Burke

Christian Literature Distributors to Merge

(RNS) Two of the world’s largest distributors of Christian literature have decided to merge.

The Colorado-based International Bible Society and British-based Send the Light announced their intention earlier this month. The merger could be completed by March 1.

The Bible society has been focused on distribution of Bibles, said Steve Johnson, the society’s executive vice president of the Americas. Founded in 1809, it works with partners such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Campus Crusade for Christ as well as churches and individuals who use its Bibles for evangelism.

“Our intent is that the merger will actually expand the ministry work we do around the world,” Johnson said.

Larry Carpenter, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for STL USA, said the Bible society’s success in publishing Bibles will help his organization, while STL’s distribution expertise will help the society.

“When you’re distributing 13 million products a year, you need a good distribution arm,” Carpenter said of IBS. “We think we’ll learn some things about publishing from them.”

Send the Light, founded in 1957, helps U.S. Christian companies distribute a range of products _ including books, music, tracts and home schooling materials _ to European and other international locations.


When the merger is finalized, the headquarters of the merged ministries will be in Colorado Springs, Colo. Keith Danby, chief executive officer of STL, will become the global CEO for the blended organization, which will be called IBS-STL.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Imam Who Was Deported Is Released From Israeli Custody

CLEVELAND (RNS) After nearly three weeks in an Israeli prison, an imam who was deported from Cleveland was released Thursday (Jan. 25) and joined his family in the West Bank.

Fawaz Damra was freed after prosecutors decided not to appeal the decision of a military judge, who ruled there was not enough evidence to tie Damra to terrorist groups, said Damra’s Israeli lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan.

She expressed surprise at the turn of events.

“Its very unusual in military courts here that people get released,” said Ben-Natan, a Tel Aviv lawyer who often represents Palestinians arrested in the occupied territories. “It’s a sign there was no evidence whatsoever against him.”

Damra, the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, was arrested by Israeli security agents soon after U.S. immigration authorities presented him at a West Bank crossing from Jordan on Jan. 3.

He had been convicted in federal court of lying on his U.S. citizenship application by not disclosing fund-raising efforts on behalf of Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian extremist groups.


Damra eventually agreed to be deported to one of several Arab countries or to the West Bank. His surprise handover to Israel outraged friends and supporters in Northeast Ohio.

He’s now free to join his West Bank family, which includes his mother and father, and to call his wife and three daughters who remain in Strongsville, Ohio.

The family is elated, said Yusef Damra of Ramallah, Fawaz’s older brother.

“He is in good condition. He’s a strong man,” he said, adding he has not had time to talk with his brother about the future.

_ Robert L. Smith

Quote of the Day: Buddhist Monk and Author Matthieu Ricard

(RNS) “The idea of meditation as developing some mental skills is now coming in to replace the old notion of someone blissing out under a bongo tree.”

_ Buddhist monk and author Matthieu Ricard, speaking about the use of meditation for cognitive development and stress relief. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE/PH END RNS

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