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.
_ 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.
_ 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.
_ 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.”
_ Al Webb
Italian bishops buy soccer team to help `moralize’ sport
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In an effort to “moralize” a sport recently beset by scandal, Italy’s Roman Catholic bishops have purchased a professional soccer team, announcing plans to raise ethical standards for players, executives and fans.
The Conference of Italian Bishops has acquired an 80-percent interest in AC Ancona, a third-division team in the central Italian city of Ancona.
“It’s a way to moralize soccer, to bring back a little bit of ethics into a sector that is undergoing a grave crisis of values,” said the archbishop of Ancona, Edoardo Menichelli, to the Turin newspaper La Stampa.
According to the team’s new ethics code, players who commit fouls will be required to perform volunteer work as part of their punishment, ticket prices will be lowered, team profits will go to support relief projects in developing nations, and spectators must promise not to insult rival fans or to display offensive banners.
Stadium violence at soccer games has been an increasing problem in Italy. In February, the death of a policeman at a match in Sicily led the Italian soccer federation to suspend play nationwide.
The sport has also been plagued by the bribing of referees. In 2006, Ancona’s former president was sentenced to jail in a game-fixing scandal that involved several of the country’s top teams.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Case of praying football coach heads to court
PHILADELPHIA (RNS) A federal appeals court was asked Wednesday (Oct. 3) to decide whether a New Jersey high school football coach violated the Constitution by taking a knee and bowing his head during pre-game prayers.
Marcus Borden, a longtime coach and Spanish teacher at East Brunswick High School, persuaded a lower court judge last year that his actions did not amount to prayer and did not violate the separation of church and state. Borden, 52, instead described his movements as a secular sign of respect for the team.
The East Brunswick Board of Education appealed the ruling, contending that by taking a knee and bowing his head, Borden was endorsing religion whether he mouthed the words with his players or not.
The appeal has since been taken over by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based group that opposes prayer in schools.
“There is no question that Borden was leading the prayer,” Richard Katskee, the group’s assistant legal director, told a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
With sharp questioning, the judges at times appeared to express doubt about the school board’s position.
“How are you going to enforce this? Are you going to walk around with a ruler?” Judge Maryanne Trump Barry asked in reference to Borden’s bowed head. “What if he has his head bowed, but he says he’s not praying?”
But the panel also took issue with the arguments made on behalf of the coach, who has acknowledged praying with the team in the past.
“Knowing the (coach’s) history, I’m not sure I’d want to say, `No, I don’t want to pray,”’ Judge Theodore McKee said.
McKee said he had “serious concerns” about several aspects of the lower court decision, but he added the school board’s appeal didn’t raise the issues. At one point, he told both sides, “This looks like a mess to me.”
_ Sue Epstein and Mark Mueller
Diocese asks priests to help pay abuse settlement
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is asking parishioners and priests to help pay for the nearly $200 million sexual abuse settlement it reached last month.
As part of a new campaign, priests will be asked to contribute one month’s salary, estimated at $1,485 to $1,535. Retired priests will be asked to contribute according to their means.
“We cannot ask of others what we are unwilling to do ourselves,” San Diego Bishop Robert Brom said in a memo to diocesan priests. The memo was posted online by the San Diego Union-Tribune; a diocesan official confirmed its accuracy.
Parishioners will be asked for “a generous contribution” as well, “to help cover the expense involved in compassionate outreach to our brothers and sisters who suffered sexual abuse within the family of the Church,” Brom said.
On Sept. 7, San Diego reached a $198.1 million settlement with 144 victims of sexual abuse, the second-largest such settlement since the explosion of the sex abuse scandal in 2002.
The diocese will pay about $107 million of the settlement, and hopes to recoup about $30 million from religious orders.
_ Daniel Burke
Indian company withdraws `Nazi bedspreads’
CHENNAI, India (RNS) A home furnishing company in Mumbai, India, has agreed to withdraw its `Nazi Collection’ bedspreads after they provoked fury among the country’s small Jewish community.
Jews in Mumbai had earlier threatened legal action to block the sale of the product line. Promotional materials for the linens feature swastikas, an ancient Hindu symbol associated with good luck before it became the symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party.
“We Jews believe that the best part of living in India is that it is a country that has never ridiculed us or harmed us,” said Jonathan Solomon, chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, the community’s umbrella organization. About 5,000 of the nation’s 6,000 Jews live in Mumbai.
The housewares company, for its part, initially said “Nazi” stood for “New Arrival Zone of India,” while the swastika was used to invoke its original meaning.
Later, following objections from Jews, furnishings dealer Jagdish Todi met community leaders and assured them that it was not their intent to hurt the sentiments of Jews, Solomon said.
Todi, who apologized for offending the Jewish community, had assured them that all publicity material with the name “The Nazi Collection” would be immediately destroyed and the company would refrain from using it in the future, Solomon added.
_ Achal Narayanan
New counselor to Mormon president chosen
(RNS) One of the three top-ranking leaders of the world’s Mormons has been chosen for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has selected Elder Henry B. Eyring, formerly a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to be a member of the three-man First Presidency that serves as the church’s highest governing body.
The three-man First Presidency _ Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson and now, Eyring _ is the highest decision-making body in the church. Hinckley, 97, announced the selection Saturday (Oct. 6) during the church’s semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City.
Eyring, who served twice as the church’s commissioner of education, became an apostle in 1995. He will be the second counselor in the First Presidency.
Eyring, 74, will be succeeded in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest governing body, by Elder Quentin L. Cook. Cook, 67, has overseen the church’s worldwide missionary program.
Monson serves as first counselor in the First Presidency, and has been an apostle since 1963. The vacancies occurred with the death in September of President James E. Faust, who had served as counselor to Hinckley for a dozen years.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Court says Freemasons fall under religious protection law
(RNS) Freemasonry may rank with Christianity, Judaism and Islam as an official form of “religious exercise,” a California court of appeals suggested in a ruling on Oct. 3.
As such, Masons would fall under the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), the landmark law that says government may not infringe on religious buildings without a compelling interest.
“We see no principled way to distinguish the earnest pursuit of these (Masonic) principles … from more widely acknowledged modes of religious exercise,” the statement said.
The case involves the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Cathedral (LASRC) and the Scottish Rite Cathedral Association of Los Angeles (SRCALA). The court concluded that “chief” Masonic principles include “the reverence of a Supreme Being and the embrace of other forms of religious worship.”
The court said it could find “no decisions analyzing whether Masonic practices are sufficiently religious in nature to qualify under RLUIPA,” which says the government cannot “impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person.”
The court’s statement countered a lower court’s opinion that “the `Freemason’ organization is (not) a religion.”
While the Masons may have received a victory as a religious group, the court ultimately ruled that the RLUIPA law did not apply in the specific case at hand.
In 2002, LASRC began leasing the Scottish Rite Cathedral, a Masonic temple on Wilshire Boulevard, from the association. Despite city codes that restrict the use of the cathedral to Masonic-related activities, the group rented out the building for non-Masonic events, including concerts and dance performances. As a result, the Los Angeles city council withdrew the Cathedral’s certificate of occupancy in 2005.
In response, the two Masonic associations went to court, claiming that their rights under RLUIPA were being harmed. The lower court initially rejected the case, but the appeals court ruled that since the cathedral was used for “a melange of cultural and commercial events with a declining nexus to Masonic principles or other religious exercise,” the Scottish Rite organizations could not claim protection under RLUIPA’s “religious exercise” clause.
_ Heather Donckels
Group warns British clergy to leave their collars at home
LONDON (RNS) A British church safety group is advising clergy _ from the archbishop of Canterbury on down _ to take off their clerical “dog collars” when they go out while off duty, to reduce the risk of being attacked.
A new report issued by National Churchwatch says members of the clergy are in danger from assailants who believe they have money or who bear some sort of “grudge against God.”
National Churchwatch, an independent organization that provides clergy with personal safety advice, said priests are attacked more often than those of other professions because they are considered unlikely to fight back.
Nick Tolson, who heads the safety group, said the clergy “have got to be aware that when they’re on their own, they’re at high risk. What we are saying is that when they are off duty _ say when they are shopping” at a supermarket, “they should slip off the dog collar and put it in their pocket.”
The report said “attacking a member of the clergy is seen by most criminals as no different to attacking a shopkeeper, robbing an old lady or any other member of society, if their own motivation demands this action.”
In Britain, five vicars have been murdered in the past decade, and in a survey of 90 members of the clergy that Tolson said he conducted last year, nearly half reported they had been attacked in some form during the previous 12 months.
Tolson conceded that for some clergy, safety advice “is real radical stuff” and that their “argument against it is it’s (the collar) their witness in the community _ their way of saying, `Hello, I’m the vicar’.”
“That fine _ when you’re being the vicar,” he said. But “there are times when you can be in church on your own and you look out and you see some buy who’s obviously off his trolley. You may want to slip off the dog collar before you see him.”
The Church of England was lukewarm about the safety advice, saying in a statement that while it was welcomed, church rules still say that “clergy should dress as clergy.”
_ Al Webb
Muslim women don pink hijabs for breast cancer awareness
(RNS) Hend El-Buri began wearing a hijab, or headscarf, in middle school. After eight years of watching non-Muslims warily eye her devout attire, she joked with some veiled friends that it might finally break the ice if they all wore bright pink hijabs to their University of Missouri classes one day.
The wardrobe whim has evolved into a national campaign involving thousands of other Muslim coeds, simultaneously aiming to tear down interfaith social barriers and raise money for breast cancer research.
“It might make Muslim women more approachable,” El-Buri explained, “and I thought it would be a good idea to help them be more active in their communities and show everyone that we might have different faiths and we might look different, but breast cancer can affect any of us.”
The 20-year-old college junior created a group on Facebook, a social networking Web site, proclaiming Oct. 26 as National Pink Hijab Day. Through word of mouth, more than 6,500 participants have signed up across the country, including young Muslim men who will wear rosy caps or shirts to show solidarity.
As a nod to October’s designation as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Islam’s requirement of making charitable donations, participants are asked to give at least $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breast cancer research.
Ultimately, El-Buri said, the event’s goal is to build bridges between Muslim women and other Americans, on college campuses and beyond.
“I hope that when people see groups of Muslim women wearing pink scarves they will wonder what’s going on, and ask about the hijab,” she said. “Any chance for open communication and understanding between faiths is important and beneficial for everyone.”
_ Nicole Neroulias
Quote of the Week: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
(RNS) “When people talk about further destabilization of the region and you read some American political advisers speaking of action against Syria and Iran, I can only say that I regard that as criminal, ignorant and potentially murderous folly.”
_ Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. He was quoted by the BBC.
KRE END RNS
