c. 2007 Religion News Service

Pro-Gay Baptist Groups Excluded From Official Role in Unity Event

(RNS) Leaders of an upcoming Baptist unity celebration have denied two Baptist organizations an official role in the event because they support gay rights.

The Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America learned in mid-July that they could not be “participating organizations” of the “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” that has been endorsed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and will be held in Atlanta from Jan. 30 to Feb 1, 2008.

The Rev. Alan Stanford, general secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship, said fellowship officials decided the groups could not be members of the fellowship and thus could not be formal sponsors of the event.

“We agreed that we would work together on the things that we had broad consensus on, and that is certainly not an issue that there is broad consensus on,” Stanford said.

“It’s not negative about those organizations. It’s just beyond the scope of what the different chief executive officers of the North American Baptist Fellowship … felt comfortable doing together.”

The Rev. Ken Pennings, executive director of the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists, said his group had looked forward to working on addressing poverty with the other Baptist groups.

“We asked to be a participating organization because we value the same things the New Baptist Covenant values,” he said. “This is not a new covenant at all. This is the old covenant of exclusion, people being excluded based on their … belief system.”

Evelyn Hanneman, leader of the Baptist Peace Fellowship, said her group considers the rights of gays and lesbians to be “an incredibly important justice issue that needs to be addressed” even if it can be divisive.

Hanneman and Pennings expect members of their groups will still participate in the event, in part because they also have ties to some of the Baptist groups that are considered participating organizations.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Suicide Bombings Never Justified, Majority of Muslims Worldwide Say

(RNS) George Bush and Osama bin Laden are both losing the battle for Muslim hearts and minds, according to a new report.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project, a 47-nation survey, found that rising prosperity in the Islamic world has helped slash support for terrorism and bin Laden, but has not changed minds about the U.S., which most Muslims still view as a military threat.

Majorities in 15 of 16 Muslim countries surveyed said suicide bombings can be rarely or never justified, the report said. The Palestinian territories were the exception, where 70 percent of respondents said suicide bombing is sometimes or often justified.

The percentage of Muslims saying that suicide bombing is justified fell sharply since 2002 in five of eight countries where the trend could be measured. In Pakistan, for example, 9 percent of Muslims said suicide bombings to defend Islam are often or sometimes justified, compared with 33 percent in 2002.

Bin Laden’s popularity also fell. Between 2003 and 2007 in Jordan, support for the al-Qaida leader declined from 56 percent to 20 percent. In Lebanon, it decreased from 20 percent to 1 percent.

But America’s image remained “abysmal” in the Muslim world, the report said, with solid majorities in every country saying they worried that the U.S. is a military threat.

The report also found mixed support for Hezbollah and Hamas, and growing worries about the spread of violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

_ Omar Sacirbey

Doug Adams, Scholar of Religion and Arts, Dead at 62

(RNS) The Rev. Doug Adams, a prominent scholar of religion and the arts, died Tuesday (July 24) in Jackson, Calif.

Adams, 62, had cancer.

For 31 years, Adams was professor of Christianity and the arts at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. He was instrumental in affecting how clergy used art in their worship spaces, the school’s president said.

“With his attention to the environment of worship, Doug Adams almost single-handedly transformed worship on the West Coast,” said William McKinney,president of the Pacific School of Religion. “You don’t see unadorned sanctuaries on this coast: They come alive with color and art. Doug attended to the entire sensory experience of worship and had an amazing and wide-ranging influence.”

Adams also led the doctoral faculty in Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union, a Berkeley-based consortium of nine seminaries, which includes the Pacific School of Religion. He was honored with an award for excellence in teaching from the Graduate Theological Union last year.

Although his principal field of scholarship was visual art and religion, Adams also served as national president and a board member of the Sacred Dance Guild. When the guild held its national festival at Berkeley July 17-21, it was dedicated to him.

Adams, who at one time wore a clerical stole featuring the “Peanuts” character Charlie Brown, also wrote about humor and religion. His best-selling 1997 book, “The Prostitute in the Family Tree: Discovering Humor and Irony in the Bible,” is in its 10th printing.

The DeKalb, Ill., native and United Church of Christ minister founded the Center for the Arts, Religion and Education, an affiliated center of Graduate Theological Union, in 1987.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Longtime cab driver Paul Gillespie

(RNS) “People do bring a lot of negative energy in the cab, and if people want to talk about the number, then the driver has to talk about it.”

_ Longtime San Francisco cab driver Paul Gillespie about a colleague’s quest to have his taxi medallion number changed from 666. The cab driver believes the number, which is sometimes associated with Satan, is responsible for a series of calamities that have befallen the cab. Gillespie was quoted by The New York Times (July 26).

DSB/PH END RNS