c. 2007 Religion News Service
Mormons Launch PR Campaign After Romney Stirs Interest
(RNS) Prompted by interest generated by Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is mounting a campaign of its own to help journalists better understand it.
On Tuesday (Oct. 2), two spokespeople for the Salt Lake City-based church hosted the effort’s first online news conference _ with religion reporters.
Mike Otterson, a church spokesman, said recent polls have shown a “big knowledge gap” about the Mormon faith. While “polygamy” and “Utah” seem to be the words that come to mind when Americans think of Mormons, he said the practice of multiple wives was disavowed by the church in the 19th century, and only one in eight Mormons live in Utah.
Church leaders are planning meetings with editorial boards, and said additional online news conferences may be held.
“How much does it have to do with Romney?” Otterson said in response to a question from Religion News Service. “Frankly, a great deal.”
He added that the church draws a “clear and bright line” between political neutrality and any political campaign.
Otterson said a national television network recently posed questions about the church and got answers from a journalist rather than church officials. That journalist, he said, when asked which church was closest to the Mormon faith, responded by saying the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.
“You could almost hear the collective jaw dropping from Mormons around the country,” he said.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said they hope church experts will be sought for perspectives on news stories.
“Too often the church itself is left out of that conversation,” she said. “The point we’re making is that we feel we need to do more to help the public understand who we are.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Church Fraud Trial Ends in Guilty Verdict
CLEVELAND (RNS) A stretch in federal prison awaits Anton Zgoznik, a former accountant for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese who was convicted Tuesday (Oct. 2) of paying kickbacks to a church official and defrauding the diocese.
A jury in U.S. District Court returned guilty verdicts on all 15 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Defense attorneys and prosecutors declined to speculate on the range of prison time that Zgoznik faces when he is sentenced in February.
Zgoznik, 40, of Kirtland Hills, appeared shocked as Deputy Clerk Vicky Kirkpatrick read each verdict.
He remained free on bond, and left the courthouse with his wife, Renee, and brother, Alexander, without speaking to the media.
Zgoznik testified that he paid monthly checks totaling $784,000 to his boss, Joseph Smith, as a bonus to the former chief financial officer and top lawyer at the diocese. Smith, 50, is scheduled to stand trial on similar charges.
Prosecutors argued that the checks were kickback payments in return for $17.5 million in diocesan business that Smith awarded to Zgoznik and his companies.
“We presented a case of a serious fraud against the Diocese of Cleveland and against the Internal Revenue Service, and we’re glad the jury reached a verdict that agreed with us,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Siegel.
Defense lawyer Robert Rotatori said he was frustrated throughout the five-week trial. He said he had been blocked from presenting all the evidence he had hoped to offer, and vowed to file an appeal.
“The diocese fought us tooth and nail on every request for evidence,” Rotatori said. “That will be the basis of our appeal, that the jury did not have access to the totality of evidence, that the diocese encouraged this type of activity … and that Anton thought he had the approval of his superiors to do this.”
The diocese has maintained all along that it was the victim of Zgoznik’s and Smith’s crimes, and that church officials did nothing wrong. Church spokesman Boby Tayek said the diocese has implemented anti-fraud controls.
“Catholics and all others who generously support the spiritual and social work of the church can be confident of continued good stewardship by the diocese,” Tayek said.
_ James F. McCarty
WCC Cautions Against Military Force in Iran
(RNS) The World Council of Churches has cautioned the United States and its allies that the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programs must be settled through negotiations and not military force.
In a statement on Iran and the Middle East regional crisis, the WCC’s executive committee also called for withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. It called for the implementation of “alternative Iraqi and multilateral political, economic and security programs.”
“Threats to begin another war in the Middle East defy the lessons of both history and ethics,” the WCC said, referring to the “belligerent stance” of the United States toward Iran and of Iranian threats against the U.S. and Israel.
“This international church position against attacking Iran seeks protection for all the populations involved, including the U.S. and Israeli publics,” the WCC said, in an apparent reference to reprisal attacks should the United States attack Iran.
In calling for diplomatic negotiations to end the U.S.-Iranian standoff, the WCC pointed to the “slowly emerging” success of the U.S.-North Korea talks.
The WCC statement said Iran must comply with International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations Security Council directives on its nuclear program. And it said the United States must adhere to its 1995 pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear signers of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including Iran.
On Sept. 26, some 100 U.S. religious leaders met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. leaders pressed Ahmadinejad about his denial of the Holocaust, the status of the small Christian community in Iran, and the country’s nuclear enrichment program. They also urged the Iranian leader to make peace with Israel.
_ David E. Anderson
British Teachers May Present Creationism as Not `Scientific’
LONDON (RNS) The British government has given teachers the go-ahead to discuss creationism with their pupils _ but only if they stress that the controversial theory has “no underpinning scientific principles.”
The Department of Children, Schools and Families said Monday (Oct. 1) that it issued such guidance after several teaching unions and civic groups said science teachers were unsure how to tackle the issue of creationism in their classrooms.
One Christian group, Truth in Science, sent DVDs to schools across the country in late 2006 promoting intelligent design, an offshoot of creationism, in an attempt to get it taught.
Under the government’s guidelines, teachers are expected to contrast the belief that the world was created by God in six days with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which teaches that life on earth evolved over millions of millennia.
The government’s move is seen as an attempt to avoid the situation in the United States, where some schools have been pressured by the religious right to teach lessons in intelligent design.
British ministers conceded that “there is scope for schools to discuss creationism as part of religious education _ a component of the basic school curriculum _ in developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other religions.”
But the guidance document said that while “creationism and intelligent design are sometimes claimed to be scientific theories,” it firmly insisted that “this is not the case, as they have no underpinning scientific principles, or explanations, which are accepted by the scientific community as a whole.”
_ Al Webb
Quote of the Day: Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson
(RNS) “In my mind, the `acting’ is off the title. I am going to be the surgeon general and actively engage in policy and education.”
_ Dr. Steven Galson, who has been named acting surgeon general while the Senate stalls over President Bush’s pick to hold the office, Dr. James W. Holsinger, a top official in the United Methodist Church. Democratic senators grilled Holsinger at a hearing in July on his position on homosexuality. He was quoted by WebMD.
KRE/LF END RNS
