c. 2008 Religion News Service

Specter moves to allow churches to show Super Bowl

WASHINGTON (RNS) Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to introduce legislation to allow churches to show the Super Bowl on widescreen televisions, just as bars do now.

“There’s absolutely no reason why you ought to be able to have a big screen in a bar but not in a church, where a church is having a social event,” said Specter in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Sunday (Feb. 3), hours before the National Football League championship game.

He was responding to NFL rules that bar churches from holding events featuring TV screens that are larger than 55 inches.

“I think when the NFL has sent out letters to churches saying you can’t have a social event, they have sort of lost touch with their duty of accountability to the American people,” the senator said.

Specter also is seeking information from NFL officials about the destruction of videotapes related to the New England Patriots’ spying on the New York Jets early in the season.

John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va., has tried unsuccessfully to find a church willing to sue for the right to host large Super Bowl parties.

Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, which was warned against hosting a screening last year, did not pursue a suit and its members planned smaller gatherings in their homes instead.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy has said NFL rules protect the network that paid to broadcast the game because large gatherings _ in churches or theaters _ could erode ratings and affect advertising revenues.

“It’s not a church issue, it’s a copyright issue,” he said.

Specter, asked about the church rule at a briefing Friday, said he didn’t understand that limitation.

“Might do people some good to be in church,” said Specter, who is Jewish. “Might come back when the game’s not on.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Judge OKs Oregon domestic partnership law

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) After years of emotion on the streets and in the Capitol, the fight for gay rights boiled down to a quiet ruling in a federal courtroom Friday (Feb. 1).

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman’s decision means that as of Monday (Feb. 4), same-sex couples can sign up for domestic partnerships, entitling them to most of the duties and benefits of married couples.

Mosman rejected a lawsuit that sought to block the domestic partnership law passed by state lawmakers and force a public vote.

Mosman’s decision was a major victory for gay-rights advocates, who have fought for years to gain the rights and protections that married couples enjoy. But the ruling ended up hinging not on the contentious social issue, but on the intricacies of Oregon’s 100-year-old system of direct democracy.

“Today’s hearing is almost completely and solely about Oregon’s referendum process,” Mosman said at the start of the session. “That’s the issue.”

The five-hour hearing subjected the signature-verification process to an unprecedented level of scrutiny. But in the end, Mosman said it passed the test.

“The state has done what it can here,” he said.

Opponents said they might appeal.

The case started late last year when a referendum against the domestic partnership law came up just short of the number of signatures needed to force a vote in November.

Referendum supporters cried foul, claiming that election officials rejected signatures of people who signed the petition. And when those people tried to get their signatures counted, election officials refused.

A group of people whose signatures were thrown out filed a lawsuit claiming that they had a constitutional right to have their signatures counted.

In December, Mosman said the case raised significant questions, and he put the law on hold to take a closer look at the workings of the initiative and referendum process.

_ Ashbel S. (Tony) Green

Orthodox dating site now welcomes all `marriage-minded’ Jews

NEW YORK (RNS) A dating Web site once strictly limited to Orthodox Jewish singles now welcomes all “marriage-minded” Jews, and has changed its name to appeal to a less traditional demographic.

Frumster.com, derived from the Yiddish “Frum” for “pious,” launched alter ego Jwed.com last month, offering the same services under a different name. The site’s motto morphed from “Connecting Orthodox Jews Online” to “Jewish Dating for Marriage.”

The shift comes after years of juggling complaints and kicking off members who turned out not to be Orthodox, said Ben Rabizadeh, Frumster’s CEO.

Faced with a growing number of Reform and Conservative Jews seeking alternatives to JDate.com, a popular site that is deemed too casual by some serious spouse-seekers, Frumster began allowing users to choose from a range of religious designations a few years ago, he added.

“This wasn’t in our business plans at all,” Rabizadeh said. “We were forced into it, to make sure that people were representing themselves correctly.”

The more inclusive philosophy has alienated some “extremely right-wing” members, he admitted, but he said there haven’t been any reports of problematic pairings or diluted devotion.

Of the 10,000 people currently signed on to Frumster/Jwed, about 60 percent identify as Orthodox, Rabizadeh said. The site recently celebrated its 1,000th marriage.

In contrast, JDate boasts more than 500,000 members worldwide, with about 10 percent self-described as “traditional.” The site doesn’t keep official count of marriages, said spokeswoman Gail Laguna.

The two sites also differ in price; Frumster/Jwed costs $10 to $15 a month, a fraction of JDate’s rates.

Playful competition and religious snobbery aside, both sites serve an important purpose, said Mindy Lurie, 28, who met her husband, Joel, on Frumster after each had failed to find love on JDate. They wed in 2006 and now live in Dallas, where they keep kosher but don’t identify with a particular stream of Judaism.

“I hate labels, I think they only serve to divide Jews,” Lurie said. “As long as we can get them to meet each other in some way, whether on JDate or Frumster, that’s the important thing.”

_ Nicole Neroulias

Quote of the Day: Boston University professor Stephen Prothero

(RNS) “Far too often, religious services in the USA are of the adults, by the adults and for the adults. And don’t think young people aren’t noticing.”

_ Stephen Prothero, chair of Boston University’s Department of Religion, writing in a commentary in USA Today.

KRE/PH END RNS