c. 2007 Religion News Service
D.C. panels votes to protect `ugly’ church
WASHINGTON (RNS) It’s been called every name in the book: ugly and hideous (by its detractors), iconic and bold (by its fans). Now there’s a new word to describe the most disputed church in the nation’s capital: protected.
The small flock at the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, on Thursday (Dec. 6) lost the first round in their long-running bid to raze their own building when the city’s Historic Preservation Board voted to grant the building landmark status.
The ruling upset Third Church members, who said the designation makes it impossible to alter a church built in 1971 that no longer suits their needs _ or their tastes.
The church, located two blocks from the White House, is a stark, windowless structure formed from sheer walls of concrete. It sits atop a barren plaza and, parishioners say, is unwelcoming to visitors.
The case has pitted a congregation’s desire to pursue their mission against government officials and non-members who insist on preserving an architectural link to the past.
Admirers say Third Church is a classic example of “brutalist” architecture that had its heydey in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s “striking, iconic and bold,” said Tim Dennee of the city’s Historic Preservation Office. “In the midst of government, you hold on a minute and think of God.”
The board determined Third Church met two landmarking criteria: it was designed by a master architect _ one of I.M. Pei’s partners designed it _ and it is a unique representation of a special architectural style.
It doesn’t matter, board members said, if it’s ugly.
Board member Denise Johnson said the stark exterior actually touches her spiritually. “When I see that building … I think of religion as not ornamented,” Johnson said. Its lack of fancy extras, she said, represents “the most important aspects of religion and spirituality.”
But the church’s chief lay leader, J. Darrow Kirkpatrick, said basic upkeep will require alterations to the building’s exterior to fix deteriorating slabs of concrete.
It’s a price tag the 60-member congregation cannot afford, nor do they like the uninsulated walls that keep the 400-seat sanctuary chilly, or the thousands of dollars it costs to change a light bulb because scaffolding must be erected.
_ Sarah More McCann
Robertson’s son takes reins of Christian Broadcasting Network
(RNS) Gordon Robertson, the son of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, has been elected as the new chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The elder Robertson told CBN directors that he would remain as board chairman but wanted to “relinquish his duties as chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network, effective immediately,” the network said in a statement released Monday (Dec. 3).
Pat Robertson, who will turn 78 in March, has been the ministry’s CEO since he founded it in 1960. In his role as CBN’s chairman, he will continue to be actively involved in the ministry and to serve as president of Regent University.
The younger Robertson, 49, was voted unanimously by the board as CEO of the corporation and vice chairman of the board. He spent 10 years in corporate and real estate law before joining CBN. He has led CBN’s Asia operations and serves as the executive producer and a co-host of “The 700 Club,” CBN’s flagship program.
On Monday’s edition of the program, Pat Robertson announced the transition to his viewers.
“I thought that some of this day-to-day operation, it was important to pass down the line especially to somebody a little bit more adept at figuring out the new technologies coming at such a bewildering speed to all of us,” the elder Robertson said.
Gordon Robertson said of the transition: “It’s a lot easier when you sit on the shoulders of a giant.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Court rejects blasphemy case against Jerry Springer opera
LONDON (RNS) A Christian activist group has lost its battle in Britain’s High Court to prosecute a BBC executive and a producer under the nation’s blasphemy laws for televising “Jerry Springer _ The Opera” nearly three years ago.
The two-judge court on Wednesday (Dec. 5) upheld a lower court ruling that the musical, based on Jerry Springer’s racy U.S. talk show, could not be considered blasphemous since it did not target Christianity, but rather attacked the talk-show program genre itself.
“The play had been performed regularly in major theaters in London for a period of nearly two years without sign of it undermining society or occasioning civil strife or unrest,” the High Court said in its ruling.
Stephen Green, director of the activist organization Christian Voice, had appealed to the High Court to continue his blasphemy case against BBC Director General Mark Thompson and the opera’s producer, Jon Thoday.
Green argued that in depicting Jesus Christ as “a little bit gay” and including scenes set in Hell with Jesus and Satan, the show had “clearly crossed the blasphemy threshold.”
He also cited the record 63,000 complaints that the BBC received when the musical was broadcast on BBC-2 television in January 2005.
But the High Court judges said it was “reasonable” to conclude that “Jerry Springer _ The Opera” could not be considered blasphemous since it did not make Christianity a direct target.
Green immediately announced he intended to take his case to the House of Lords, Britain’s final avenue of appeal, because the High Court’s ruling amounted to a “carte blanche to blaspheme.”
The BBC applauded the court’s decision, saying “we believe the work, taken in proper context, satirizes and attacks exploitative chat shows and not the Christian religion” and that “the court’s judgment today vindicates that decision in full.”
_ Al Webb
Vatican, Israel report `promising progress’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Israel and the Vatican have made “promising progress” in long-running talks over the Catholic Church’s legal and tax status in Israel, according to Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See.
“There has been very, very promising progress,” Oded Ben-Hur told Vatican Radio on Monday (December 5). “We’re about 85 percent done.”
Yet Ben-Hur downplayed hopes for an imminent solution, noting that the “road is long, very complex and full of details that the public doesn’t know.”
The two parties meet on Dec. 12 in Jerusalem for the latest session in a process that has lasted nearly 14 years. The Vatican and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1993. Under that agreement, Israel promised to regularize the legal status of church activities within its borders.
Two major issues remain unresolved, however: the Vatican’s property claims and its right to tax exemption in the Holy Land. As a result, church properties ranging from holy shrines to modern hospitals have continued to languish in legal and fiscal limbo.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Study: Only 7 percent of churches sought government grants
WASHINGTON (RNS) A distinct minority of U.S. congregations _ just 7 percent _ sought government grants in the past four years, a new study shows.
“Government grant activity is not tremendously important for congregations … even though they’re engaged in social services in a wide variety of areas,” said John C. Green, a political science expert at the University of Akron and author of the study.
The study, released Wednesday (Dec. 5) at the annual conference of the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy at the National Press Club, also showed that marriage counseling is the most commonly provided social service by U.S. churches.
Two-thirds, or 68.5 percent, of congregations surveyed said they offered marriage counseling. More than 50 percent of respondents said they provided a food pantry (63.5 percent), family counseling (58.8 percent), and senior citizen services (58.3 percent).
Most congregations were not familiar with “charitable choice,” a provision of the welfare reform law that increased governmental funding of faith-based social services. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they were were at least somewhat familiar with charitable choice, while 72 percent said they were not very familiar with it.
Just 6.5 percent of congregations said a representative of their congregation had attended an outreach conference that related to charitable choice. Green said this was one area in the study that showed a variation between religious traditions.
“The historical black churches were much more likely to report a familiarity with charitable choice and attendance at conferences,” he said, with 42 percent of them knowing of charitable choice and 24 percent having attended a conference such as the ones offered by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.
Congregations tended to get most of their revenue from individual contributions or special fund-raising efforts.
The study was based on 1,692 responses to surveys that were sent to congregations; it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
_ Adelle M. Banks
HIV-positive chaplain sentenced for sexual misconduct
WASHINGTON (RNS) An HIV-positive Navy chaplain was sentenced Thursday (Dec. 6) to two years in a military brig after he pleaded guilty to charges of sexual misconduct with members of the military.
Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, a 42-year-old Catholic priest who lives in Burke, Va., pleaded guilty to sodomy, aggravated assault and other charges in a court-martial at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va., the Marine Corps announced.
Lee said he learned that he had the virus that causes AIDS in April 2005, said Lt. Brian Donnelly, a spokesman for the base. Donnelly said military officials are not aware of anyone who has contracted HIV from Lee.
The chaplain was charged with forcible sodomy on a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 2004.
He was charged with aggravated assault in relation to a sexual encounter in December 2006 with a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, to whom he did not disclose that he had HIV.
As part of a pretrial agreement, Lee must provide a list of sexual partners he has had since learning his HIV status to allow medical officials to make contact with people who need to be tested.
A military judge sentenced Lee to 12 years of confinement but he will serve a two-year confinement based on the pretrial agreement. If he should commit another offense within a period of a year after that confinement, he would be required to serve the rest of the original sentence, said Donnelly.
Prior to being stationed at Quantico and the Naval Academy, Lee, who was ordained in 1993, served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Washington for three years.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, which provides spiritual support to Roman Catholics in the military, and the Washington Archdiocese suspended Lee’s priestly functions in June when he informed the Military Archdiocese that he was being investigated for alleged adult sexual misconduct.
The Washington-based Military Archdiocese said it had “no prior knowledge of the allegations.” It said they were made directly to military authorities and the investigation was solely under the Marine Corps’ jurisdiction.
“Our concerns start with a priest, an officer in a position of trust, violating that position of trust, and violating it so obviously to also put people’s lives at risk,” said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington. “There’s so many levels of bad here.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Catholic bishops rebuke Georgetown theologian
(RNS) U.S. Catholic bishops, acting at the direction of the Vatican, have rebuked a theologian at Georgetown University for writings that they say conflict with church doctrine on the uniqueness of Christianity and Catholicism.
In a 15-page statement released Monday (Dec. 10), the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine criticized the 2004 book “Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue” by the Rev. Peter C. Phan.
Phan is a Vietnamese native and a priest of the Dallas diocese. He teaches in Washington and is a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
The bishops specifically criticized Phan for arguing that Christ should not be described as the “unique,” “absolute” or “universal” savior of humankind; that non-Christian religions offer an “autonomous” path to salvation; and that past injustices committed by the Catholic Church disqualify it from claiming to be the “unique and universal instrument of salvation.”
In what they presented as a “positive restatement” of relevant Catholic teaching, the bishops asserted that Christ “brings together humanity and divinity in a way that can have no parallel in any other figure in history.”
Phan’s vision of religious pluralism conflicts with Christ’s injunction to “make disciples of all nations,” the bishops wrote.
And the Catholic Church’s historical failings do not invalidate its claims to be the “universal sacrament of salvation,” according to the bishops, since the “holiness of the Church is not simply defined by the holiness (or sinfulness) of her members but by the holiness of her head, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The statement is the product of a two-year investigation undertaken at the behest of the Vatican.
In July 2005, then-Bishop Charles Grahmann of Dallas received a letter from an official of the church’s highest doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, regarding Phan’s book.
The letter said the book was “notably confused on a number of points of Catholic doctrine and also contains serious ambiguities,” particularly with respect to the Congregation’s 2000 document “Dominus Iesus,” which describes non-Christians as being in a “gravely deficient situation.”
The Congregation subsequently asked the U.S. bishops to conduct their own investigation of Phan’s book.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Pope says abortion, gay marriage are `obstacles’ to world peace
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality are threats to world peace _ but so are abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage, Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement released by the Vatican Tuesday (Dec. 11).
“The Human Family, a Community of Peace” is this year’s papal message for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1.
Presenting the nuclear family as the “first and indispensable teacher of peace” and the “primary agency of peace,” the 15-page document links sexual and medical ethics to international relations.
“Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of new life … constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace,” Benedict writes.
Regarding actual military conflicts, the pope laments unspecified African civil wars and violence in the Middle East.
Condemning what he describes as a global “arms race,” Benedict calls for a “progressive and mutually agreed dismantling of existing nuclear weapons.”
At a press conference held to present the document, a top Vatican official criticized the U.S. for its handling of Iran’s suspected nuclear arms program, saying that Washington’s rhetoric had fomented international tensions.
“All these threats, all these worries, these threats of war and invasion … harm the international atmosphere because they can provoke worries and the reinforcement of security with the production of new arms,” said Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and a former Vatican envoy to the United Nations.
In his message, the pope also endorses greater cooperation on environmental protection, writing that “further international agencies may need to be established” for the purpose. He also calls for an “equitable distribution of wealth” in a globalized world.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Bishops pull positive review of `Golden Compass’
(RNS) U.S. Catholic bishops have dropped their own positive review of “The Golden Compass” following criticism from conservative Catholics and other groups for the article’s glowing take on the movie.
The review _ written by Harry Forbes and John Mulderig of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops _ called the film “lavish, well-acted and fast-paced” in a Nov. 29 review.
The bishops conference withdrew the review from the Catholic News Service Web site and archives on Monday (Dec. 10), but the bishops’ press office did not return calls requesting comment.
The removal came as good news to the New York-based Catholic League, which has spearheaded a boycott of the movie in recent months in an bid to pull down box office returns and discourage future film adaptations of the second and third books in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy.
“That review by the Catholic News Service showed that Mr. Forbes is positively clueless,” Catholic League president Bill Donahue said in an interview with RNS. “Pullman hates the Catholic Church, and he (Forbes) doesn’t want to come to grips with that.”
Donohue and others say Pullman’s books are deeply anti-Catholic. The books are set in a world dominated by a governing authority Pullman calls the Magisterium _ the same name Catholics use to refer to their church’s teaching authority.
The review by Forbes and Mulderig called Pullman’s use of the term magisterium “a bit unfortunate.”
“I don’t know what his (Forbes’s) motive was. Maybe he’s just a simpleton who thought it was `unfortunate’ that Pullman used the word `magisterium,”’ Donahue said.
“There was nothing `unfortunate’ about it; it was deliberate,” Donahue said.
The review rated the film “A-II” (adults and adolescents), a step harsher than A-I (general patronage) on the USCCB’s five-point rating scale.
Forbes and Mulderig expressed some relief in the review that most of Pullman’s explicit religious references did not appear in the film adaptation.
“Most moviegoers with no foreknowledge of the books or Pullman’s personal belief system will scarcely be aware of religious connotations, and can approach the movie as a pure fantasy-adventure,” Forbes and Mulderig wrote. _ Kat Glass
Quote of the Week: Gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson
(RNS) “I always wanted to be a June bride.”
_ Openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, telling students at Nova Southeastern University in Florida of his wedding plans. Robinson and his partner Mark Andrew plan to enter into a civil union in New Hampshire in June. Robinson was quoted by University of Miami News Service (Dec. 4).
KRE END RNS
