c. 2007 Religion News Service
Southern Baptist Nominated as Top Army Chaplain
(RNS) A Southern Baptist has been nominated to serve as the next chief of chaplains for the U.S. Army.
Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver currently serves as deputy chief of chaplains for the Army and would be the first Southern Baptist chaplain to lead the Army’s chaplain corps since 1954.
The Defense Department announced Thursday (May 10) that Carver also has been nominated to be promoted to the rank of major general.
Carver, a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., served as a chaplain in the U.S. for the 101st Airborne Division and abroad in Germany. He also was director of training at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, S.C., before becoming deputy chief of chaplains for the Army in 2005.
If he is confirmed by the Senate as chief of chaplains, Carver will be promoted to his new position at a July 12 ceremony at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“It’s an exciting day to see a fellow Southern Baptist receive such an honor,” said Keith Travis of the denomination’s North American Mission Board, reported Baptist Press.
“Chaplain Carver has had an outstanding military career and he is a remarkable man of God.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Catholic Democrats Protest Pope’s Comments on Abortion
WASHINGTON (RNS) A group of 18 Catholic House Democrats publicly disputed Pope Benedict XVI’s recent condemnation of politicians who support abortion rights, saying that “such notions offend the very nature of the American experiment.”
On his flight to Brazil last Wednesday (May 9), Benedict said Catholic politicians in Mexico City who recently voted to legalize abortion could consider themselves excommunicated from the church. The Vatican later said the pope was merely restating church policy, which calls for Catholics who participate in abortions to exclude themselves from taking Holy Communion.
On Monday (May 14), Catholic House Democrats said Benedict’s comments “do a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done.”
“The fact is that religious sanction in the political arena directly conflicts with our fundamental beliefs about the role and responsibility of democratic representatives in a pluralistic America _ it also clashes with freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution,” a statement from the 18 lawmakers said.
Included in the group are members who last year signed a “statement of principles” that sought to stake out territory for Catholic lawmakers who disagree with the church on abortion and embryonic stem cell research, among other controversial issues.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Joe Baca, D-Calif., are among the lawmakers who expressed concern over the pope’s recent statements.
Catholics make up the largest religious group in the current Congress, with more than 150 members in the House and Senate.
_ Daniel Burke
Rabbis Mark Six-Day War Anniversary With Visit to Temple Mount
JERUSALEM (RNS) Forty years after Israel seized control of the eastern half of Jerusalem, Orthodox rabbis visited the Temple Mount on Sunday (May 13) to express solidarity around the controversial holy site.
Jews worldwide officially observed Jerusalem Day on Wednesday, marking Israel’s capture of the area from Jordanian forces in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Sunday’s two-hour visit to the mount _ known as haram al-Sharif to Muslims _ was significant because the rabbis openly called on Jews to visit the site, the holiest in Judaism.
For decades, Orthodox leaders had banned visitors out of fears that they might inadvertently tread on sacred ground. Several rabbis began permitting visits a few years ago, after Palestinians _ who want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state _ began to deny that the Jewish Temples had been built there. Due to its holy and contested status, the mount has seen intermittent violence over the years.
Contrary to media reports, this was not the rabbis’ first visit to the mount, said Rabbi Nahum Rabinowitz, spiritual leader of the Maaleh Adumim Yeshiva.
“We visit the Temple Mount before festivals,” Rabinowitz said. “It has been clear for quite a few years what the boundaries are for the courtyard of the Temple, and all of us who go up take care not to overstep these boundaries.”
Rabinowitz called the 40th anniversary of the “reunification” of Jerusalem “the day when the Almighty performed a miracle for us.”
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Day: St. Vincent College President James Towey
(RNS) “Could you tell the pope that St. Vincent’s is looking for a commencement speaker for next year?”
_ St. Vincent College President James Towey, asking President Bush at the school’s May 11 commencement if he could deliver a message during a papal visit in Rome in June. Towey, who was director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives prior to his college appointment, invited Bush to speak at the commencement in Latrobe, Pa. He was quoted by The Washington Times.
KRE/LF END RNS
