c. 2007 Religion News Service

Religious Leaders Defend Obama Against Madrassa Allegations

WASHINGTON (RNS) A host of religious leaders have condemned “the bitter, destructive politics” that they say resulted in a political smear campaign against presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Several Web sites and a Fox News program reported that Obama was hiding the fact that he was educated in a madrassa, or a fundamentalist Islamic school, during his childhood in Indonesia.

Obama, who denied the allegations, has acknowledged attending a school that enrolled mostly Muslims for two years, as well as a Catholic school for another two while living in Indonesia.

A number of clerics signed an open letter that sharply criticized the smear tactics.

“We have had enough of the slash and burn politics calculated to divide us as children of God,” the letter read. “Certain moral standards should infuse our national dialogue, and the recent attacks on Sen. Obama violate values at the heart of this dialogue.”

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a former Democratic congressman, signed the letter and lambasted the allegations against Obama.

“We must not let fear, fundamentalism and Fox News set our nation’s agenda,” Edgar said in a statement. “It appears Fox News is using a political candidate to further foment a fear of fundamentalism in hopes of dividing Americans and pitting people of faith against one another. Faithful Americans must stand up and say no to such sinful behavior.”

Prominent religious officials signing the letter included Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, of the Union for Reform Judaism; Imam Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society; and the Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention.

CNN sent senior correspondent John Vause to Jakarta, Indonesia, to investigate the questions about Obama’s educational background. Vause, who has visited madrassas in Pakistan accused of training terrorists, reported he found no signs of radicalism at the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.

Additionally, the headmaster of the school told Vause that Basuki is “a public school” that doesn’t “focus on religion,” adding that although respect for religion is advocated, the school does not give preferential treatment to any one faith.

_ Katherine Boyle

National Baptists Meet, Eye More Aid for New Orleans Churches

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) The nation’s largest historic black denomination, the National Baptist Convention (USA), opened a meeting here Tuesday (Jan. 23) to discuss plans to help revitalize churches devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“They haven’t returned to full strength,” said the Rev. William J. Shaw, president of the 7.5 million-member denomination and pastor of a church in Philadelphia. “We have to determine whether that’s even possible. We’re looking at what Katrina has done and what will still be needed.”

Since Katrina hit in 2005, churches and their members have struggled to re-establish, said the Rev. Calvin Woods Jr., pastor of Greater Liberty Baptist Church in New Orleans.

“They’re coming back slowly,” said Woods, whose congregation began worshipping in a New Orleans church again in March 2006, then moved back into its renovated sanctuary in November. “A lot of them need assistance. Each week we’re building back up. The community is glad to have us back. It’s a challenge for all of us.”

Woods said his church formerly had 900 members; now it has 125 and many of them don’t have their homes back. “We’re seeking to revitalize houses, get them moved out of trailers,” he said.

“We’re trying rebuild Iraq, and we haven’t even rebuilt after Katrina,” said the Rev. David W. Craig, pastor of the 1,500-member Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church in Fairfield, Ala. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

_ Greg Garrison

Queen Elizabeth to Visit Pilgrims’ Church, Jamestown Settlement

LONDON (RNS) Queen Elizabeth II will visit Amsterdam next month to mark the 400th anniversary of a church with loose ties to the Pilgrims, and is also set to visit Virginia to mark the first Anglican settlement at Jamestown.

The queen and the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix will visit Amsterdam’s English Reformed Church on Feb. 5. The parish belongs to the Dutch Reformed Church but was established for English expatriates and has been staffed by Scottish clergy.

Although the church has a stained-glass window commemorating the Pilgrims, its links to the Pilgrims _ who moved to Leiden, another Dutch city, before setting sail for Plymouth on the Mayflower _ are rather tenuous. Both the Pilgrims and members of the church were English, but theological differences kept them apart.

Over the past two years the Amsterdam congregation has raised about $767,000 for urgent structural repairs to the church, one of the city’s oldest buildings.

In May, Elizabeth and Prince Philip are scheduled to visit Jamestown, Va., for the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is also scheduled to mark the anniversary, in festivities on April 26.

_ Robert Nowell

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

Religious Leaders Call on Rice to Jump-start Middle East Peace

WASHINGTON (RNS) A team of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to increase U.S. involvement in the Israel-Palestine peace process at a meeting here Monday (Jan. 29).

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, said U.S. leaders must actively promote peace in the Middle East, adding that Israelis and Palestinians should build public support and be held accountable for successes and setbacks.

“People are suffering on both sides of the divide,” said Rabbi Paul Menitoff, former executive vice-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, noting that a suicide bomber had killed three people and himself in Israel earlier that morning. “There have been too many lives lost over the years.”

Menitoff said the eventual borders of Israel and the Palestinian territories are already more or less apparent under the United Nations’ Road Map plan, which provides a two-state solution to the conflict. But he emphasized it is up to leaders in both regions and in the U.S. to help end needless violence.

The only thing “we don’t know is how many dead bodies there will be before” peace comes, he said.

Last month, 35 Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders released a statement they called “Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Peace: From Crisis to Hope.” It highlighted peace as an essential component of all three religions.

In the statement, the religious officials asked that access to holy places be allowed for all people, and advocated a peaceful solution to the crisis in Lebanon with reconstruction aid for both Lebanon and Israel.

“We believe nothing will be solved without hope, without faith, without people willing to work together,” McCarrick said. “We are all children of Abraham.”

Others attending the meeting with Rice included Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori, former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Rabbi Amy Small and National Director of the Islamic Society of North America Sayyid Muhammad Syeed.

_ Katherine Boyle

U.S. `Satisfied’ With Religion’s Public Role, But More Want Less

WASHINGTON (RNS) For the third consecutive year, the number of Americans calling for less religious influence in public life exceeded the number of Americans who want more, according to a new Gallup poll. Most Americans, however, remain “generally satisfied” with organized religion’s role in the U.S., the survey round.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans say religion’s level of influence “in the nation” should not change, 32 percent would like it to have less influence and 27 percent would like it to have more, according to the survey. Weekly churchgoers are much more likely to agree that religion should have greater influence on government and politics than those who go to church less frequently, the survey found.

Opinions also tended to shift depending on political affiliation. Some 41 percent of Democrats believed religion should have less impact, while 43 percent of Republicans felt it should have more.

During President Bush’s first term, 2001 through 2004, more Americans believed the role of religion should increase than wanted its influence to fade. But by 2003, the numbers began to shift, and by 2005 a greater number of Americans believed religion should have less influence on public life.

The number of Americans who think religion should have less impact has increased 10 percentage points since 2001, according to Gallup.

The Gallup Poll of 1,018 adults was conducted between Jan. 15 and Jan. 18, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_ Katherine Boyle

No Exemptions for Catholic Agencies in New British Discrimination Law

LONDON (RNS) The Roman Catholic Church has lost the fight to opt out of new laws in England and Wales banning discrimination against gay couples, throwing its adoption agencies into a bind.

Despite protests from Catholics, who were supported by the Anglican Church of England in their campaign against the laws, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Monday (Jan. 29) that there would be “no exemptions” for faith groups when the Equality Act comes into force April 6.

The act will outlaw discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

In a bid to soften the impact, Blair _ whose wife Cherie is a prominent Catholic _ said the adoption agencies would be given 21 months to get ready to adopt the new rules.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, had warned that its adoption agencies would close rather than obey any regulations that require them to hand over babies to gay couples.

After the prime minister’s declaration that there would be no exemptions to the Equality Act, the cardinal, interviewed by the British Broadcasting Corp., expressed disappointment.

“The government has a right to legislate and homosexual couples are also able to adopt in other agencies,” Murphy-O’Connor said, “but we want to hold onto this principle,” that “normally children should be brought up by a father and a mother.”

He added, “We hold that that is extremely important.”

The cardinal said “there may well be some way in which, without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work according to Catholic principles.” But he did not elaborate.

The prime minister insisted that the 21-month “grace” period faith-run agencies have been given to adjust to the new rules was a “sensible compromise” in the dispute between church and state.

But Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said “it would be a great pity … if people weren’t able to act according to their conscience for the sake of the common good in our country. It would be a lack of freedom for religious conviction.”

_ Al Webb

Shakespeare’s Church Crumbling and Seeking $6 Million for Repairs

LONDON (RNS) The tiny church in England where William Shakespeare was baptized and buried is falling apart, and fans of the Bard are being asked to help raise more than $6 million to repair the ravages of eight centuries.

Above the burial spot inscribed simply “Will Shakspeare, Gent,” the spire of Holy Trinity Church is cracked, its windows are broken, its bricks are eroding and it’s leaking rain in the historic Midlands town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

“It’s absolutely desperate,” Josephine Walker of the Friends of Shakespeare’s Church told the Associated Press. “It’s raining, and as we speak, rain is pouring in through the clerestory windows.”

Dry rot and generations of beetle infestations have added to the 800-year-old church’s woes. Church officials estimate it will take $6.3 million to repair all the damage _ and at least $400,000 of that is needed urgently for work on the spire alone.

Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity as “Gulielimus, filius Johannes Shakspeare” (William, son of John Shakespeare) on April 26, 1564. After a career of writing and staging his plays in London, he retired to Stratford in 1611 and was buried in the church’s chancel on April 25, 1616, two days after his death.

Buried alongside the Bard is his wife, Anne Hathaway.

During his lifetime, Shakespeare paid to help keep the chancel in good working order. But that source of funding died with him; within only a few years Holy Trinity _ already three centuries old _ once again began to deteriorate.

Donations have kept the old church in some sort of repair in recent times, but Holy Trinity’s officials said a drop in tourism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had sharply cut back contributions to the church’s welfare. British government statistics showed the number of tourists from the United States alone fell by 13 percent from 2000 to 2005.

Shakespeare’s church isn’t the only one in trouble in Britain. The $6.3 million needed for repairs to Holy Trinity is only part of a whopping $680 million in restoration work that the Church of England says is needed for its crumbling houses of worship.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Week: Former Male Prostitute Mike Jones of Denver

(RNS) “A couple of ladies cried when they were touching me. I was thanked for exposing the church, for helping Ted Haggard. A couple of them said they hoped I get God into my life. And they all said `God bless you,’ every one of them.”

_ Former male prostitute Mike Jones of Denver, whose allegations of a three-year sexual liaison with New Life Church founder Ted Haggard led to Haggard’s dismissal from his church and resignation as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He was quoted by the Denver Post after he visited the Colorado Springs, Colo., church on Sunday (Jan. 28).

DSB END Editors: Shakspeare in final item is CQ.