c. 2008 Religion News Service
Hagee’s attorneys succeed in removing YouTube videos
(RNS) Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee has successfully worked with copyright lawyers to get more than 120 videos featuring him removed from YouTube.
The development was reported by The Huffington Post, whose blogger Max Blumenthal discovered that a video he had made at Hagee’s Christians United for Israel conference last year was among those removed from the popular video Web site.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Hagee, confirmed that the videos had been removed.
“They were anything that contained clips of sermons, clips of activities happening at CUFI or John Hagee Ministries events,” he said.
Hagee is the outspoken pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. After his controversial comments about the Holocaust and Catholics were carried on the Internet, Sen. John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement of his presidential race.
Blumenthal criticized the move as “a naked exercise in news suppression.” Engelmayer would not respond directly to the comments of Huffington Post writers but said the removal of videos followed particular criteria.
“It wasn’t done on a targeted basis,” he said. “It was done strictly on a formulaic basis of whether it fit certain criteria.”
He said the removal was not timed to the upcoming annual summit of Christians United for Israel, July 21-24 in Washington.
Rather, he said Hagee’s daughter read a story about a studio that had successfully challenged YouTube and had material removed, sparking the work by lawyers several months ago.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Conservatives threaten schism over Anglican women bishops
LONDON (RNS) The Church of England is facing the threat of a major split and years of turmoil over the church’s July 7 vote by the church’s General Synod to allow the ordination of women as bishops.
The Synod’s vote authorizes the formation of a group to draft a code to be put to a Synod vote next year. A ballot of dioceses in England will be required before a further vote by the General Synod, possibly not until 2012 at the earliest.
The Church of England has had women priests since 1994. Ten Anglican provinces allow women bishops, but only four _ the Episcopal Church in the United States, and Anglican churches in Canada, Australia and New Zealand _ currently have women serving as bishops.
At the Synod meeting this week, bishops voted 28 to 12 to move forward on female bishops; the clergy voted 124-44 and the laity 111-68 in favor.
The debate prompted the church’s No. 2 official, an exasperated Archbishop of York John Sentamu, to lambaste the church for wasting time on internal politics while ignoring the problems of the world outside.
“Jesus Christ is in the streets weeping,” Sentamu fumed in a separate speech before the vote. “Did you see the newspaper that said the Church is navel-gazing while our children are being slaughtered and killed?”
Meanwhile, in a letter to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, more than 1,300 clergy, including 11 bishops, have already threatened to leave the Church of England if women are permitted to become bishops.
The letter’s signatories said they have begun “thinking very hard about the way ahead” and that “we will inevitably be asking whether we can, in conscience, continue as bishops, priests and deacons in the Church of England which has been our home.”
The embattled archbishop insisted he had no intention of limiting the authority of women within the church, saying, “I am deeply unhappy with any scheme or any solution to this which ends, as it were, structurally humiliating women who might be nominated.”
_ Al Webb
Gay man sues publishers over Bible verses
CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (RNS) A gay man is suing two heavyweight Christian publishers, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.
Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan, based in Cascade Township, and $10 million from Nashville, Tenn.-based Thomas Nelson Publishing.
Fowler filed the suit in federal court against Zondervan on Monday (July 7), the same day U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. refused to appoint an attorney to represent him in his case against Thomas Nelson.
Fowler filed a suit against Thomas Nelson in June. He is representing himself in both claims.
“The Court has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of these claims,” the judge wrote.
Fowler, 39, alleges Zondervan’s Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of “demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.”
The intent of the publisher was to design a religious, sacred document to reflect an individual opinion or a group’s conclusion to cause “me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence … including murder,” Fowler wrote.
Fowler’s suit claims Zondervan’s text revisions from a 1980s version of the Bible included, and then deleted, a reference to homosexuality in 1 Corinthians without informing the public of the changes.
The other suit, against Thomas Nelson and its New King James Bible, mirrors the allegations made against Zondervan.
_ Grand Rapids Press
ACLU sues to get eagle feathers of Native American inmate
WASHINGTON (RNS) A Native American prisoner who was denied the eagle feathers he needed to practice his religious rites will be represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a suit against the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.
Penitentiary officials confiscated the single feather held by North Arapaho tribesman Andrew John Yellowbear in June 2006, and told Yellowbear to apply to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to reclaim it.
“They said that he needed a federal permit, so he applied and was granted a permit to obtain up to 10 feathers,” said Stephen Pevar, the ACLU lawyer representing Yellowbear.
But Yellowbear, who is serving a life sentence for murder, was not allowed to get his hands on the additional feathers, and the original confiscated feather remains with prison officials.
Representatives from the penitentiary declined to comment.
The possession of bald eagle feathers is barred by federal law, with an exception made for American Indian tribes that use them for religious practices.
“It’s the means of communicating with the creator,” said Alonzo Moss Sr., an Arapaho elder in Ethete, Wyo. “It’s hard to explain in English. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s no different from the white man using his cross or his rosary.”
Under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, states can bar a prisoner’s religious exercise only in the event of a compelling government interest and by using the most benign approach possible.
In the past, at least one inmate at the Wyoming penitentiary has been allowed the use of a full eagle wing, according to an ACLU press release.
The only reasonable defense for the prison’s actions would be if the feathers posed some sort of danger to the institution, said Pevar.
“But that’s not the case here,” he said. “These eagle feathers are the most sacred item for these prisoners. There’s no way they’re a threat to anyone or anything.”
_ Mallika Rao
Prominent New Orleans church faces another uncertain future
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) One of the city’s largest churches, whose congregation was scattered by Hurricane Katrina, is facing another uncertain future after a weekend fire destroyed its 2,000-seat sanctuary.
Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Church was gutted by a predawn fire on July 7. Parishioners who stopped by to see the damage compared the scene to a wake.
“We’re like family here,” said Lisa Smith, a social worker and member of more than 20 years.
As investigators search for the cause of the fire, Bishop Paul S. Morton, who built what was once a small Baptist church into a major congregation, said officials suspected the fire started in the choir area behind the pulpit.
Morton said the congregation was insured. His wife, Debra, was recently named the church’s pastor after her husband wanted to devote more time to nurturing a satellite church in Atlanta that was started after Katrina.
“We’ll be back, bigger and better,” she said.
The Mortons said they were summoned to the church well before dawn and watched a three-alarm blaze ruin the sanctuary. A nearby education building sustained heavy smoke damage, said church administrator Brandon Boutin.
The building’s loss presents the congregation with a major challenge.
Before Hurricane Katrina, Greater St. Stephen was by far the largest church in the city, perhaps the largest in the state. It claimed about 20,000 members worshipping at three campuses, and Morton was a prominent figure in the city’s political scene.
Katrina scattered the congregation, knocking its number down to about 5,000. The church’s location in eastern New Orleans is still closed, and a suburban branch is probably too distant to be of much use to the downtown congregation, the Mortons said.
For now, church members plan to worship at Temple Sinai, which itself is nearing the end of a multimillion-dollar renovation. “We say all the time we’re a house of prayer. Anyone who comes in a spirit of brotherhood is welcome,” said Rabbi Ed Cohn. “We’re walking the walk.”
_ Bruce Nolan and Mary Elise DeCoursey
Debate surfaces over who wrote `Serenity Prayer’
(RNS) As a federal judge tries to sort out who actually wrote the famous “Footprints in the Sand” poem, a similar debate is brewing over whether theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was the author of the “Serenity Prayer.”
The origins of the Serenity Prayer, which usually begins with the words, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change …, ” has been called into question by the alumni magazine at Yale University.
Niebuhr, one of the most prominent Protestant theologians of the 20th century and a Yale alumnus, has long been considered the author, though there has been speculation about other writers.
“It is entirely possible that Niebuhr composed the prayer much earlier than he himself later remembered,” writes Fred R. Shapiro, editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” in an article in the July/August issue of Yale Alumni Magazine.
“But it also appears possible, indeed plausible, that the great theologian was unconsciously inspired by an idea from elsewhere.”
The debate resembles a legal battle over a popular religious poem, “Footprints in the Sand.” In May, a New York man whose mother claimed to have written the poem sued two other people who also claimed authorship.
Shapiro said Niebuhr’s daughter believes her father wrote the poem in 1943 and his preferred version was “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”
The prayer was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous, whose version of it reads: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.”
Shapiro combed databases of historical newspapers and found references to versions of the prayer dating as far back as the 1930s by speakers such as a YWCA executive secretary and a children’s home superintendent, with no reference to Niebuhr.
In a response also published by the Yale Alumni Magazine, Elisabeth Sifton, Niebuhr’s daughter, said Shapiro’s research via “the power of search engines” is not sufficient for prayers, which are often first presented orally and are sometimes shared and recalled for years before being printed.
“To me, his new discoveries simply suggest that in the years before World War II, Reinhold Niebuhr’s voice reached many more American churches and organizations than we previously realized,” responded Sifton, author of “The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Court says Jews have no right to mezuzahs in condo building
(RNS) A federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled that fair-housing laws do not extend to permitting a Jewish resident to nail a mezuzah to a door frame, prompting an outcry from the Jewish community.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling on July 10, decided the federal Fair Housing Act does not accommodate a resident’s religious requirement to affix the Jewish emblem to a doorway, if the ban on hallway displays applies to everyone regardless of religious beliefs.
The case stems from the condominium association at Shoreline Towers, a Chicago housing complex, enforcing a rule in 2004 banning doormats, shoes, signs and other materials in the hallways.
The Bloch family sued after the repeated removal of their mezuzah _ small encased biblical scrolls that are nailed to the entrances of Jewish homes _ although the association later adopted a religious exception to the rule.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America criticized the court’s decision, and may appeal to Congress to amend the federal law, said the OU’s Washington director, Nathan J. Diament.
“We believe that irrespective of the facial neutrality of the condo association’s rule, that to ban a Jewish tenant from affixing a mezuzah ought to be viewed as a constructive eviction from their home and thus illegal under the Fair Housing Act,” he said.
Congress may consider amending the law to accommodate mezuzahs and other religious necessities if lawmakers are convinced a ban results in Jews not being able to live in a residence, said Howard M. Friedman, a University of Toledo law professor whose Religion Clause blog follows church-state legal cases.
The Bloch family could also appeal to the Supreme Court, but it seems federal judges want to keep these cases in the hands of state and local authorities, he added.
“They probably didn’t want every dispute between a condo owner and condo boards going into federal court,” Friedman said. “This ruling didn’t say it was a good thing to have that kind of rule, but it just said that the federal Fair Housing Act doesn’t say anything about it, so it should be dealt with by state law.”
In the last three years, Chicago and Illinois lawmakers have adopted laws guaranteeing tenants’ rights to affix religious symbols to their doors, preventing Shoreline Towers from reverting back to the original ban.
“In this particular case, the issue is moot now,” Friedman said. “It may prompt other states to come up with their own laws, too.”
_ Nicole Neroulias
Ariz. tribe says border fence restricts sacred rites
WASHINGTON (RNS) Calling it an affront to religious freedom, representatives of an Arizona Indian tribe have asked the federal government to halt construction of a border fence across the tribe’s Arizona reservation.
Leaders of the Tohono O’odham nation say the fence, currently being built along the U.S.-Mexican border by the Department of Homeland Security, will prevent members of their nation from crossing into Mexico for traditional religious ceremonies.
“This wall and the construction of this wall has destroyed our communities, our burial sites and ancient Tohono O’odham routes throughout our lands,” said Ofelia Rivas, according to the Washington Times.
Rivas argued that the fence will violate the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which guarantees free exercise of traditional religious practices for Native Americans. She said that the fence would disrupt such practices by limiting travel to and from O’odham land in Mexico.
The Tohono O’odham reservation straddles the Mexican border for 75 miles in Arizona, and extends south into Mexico. According to the 2000 census, 18,000 people live on the reservation, which spans an area roughly the size of Connecticut.
Rivas’ statement is the latest salvo from the Tohono O’odham nation protesting the fence. The community has been at odds with the federal government in recent years over how best to deal with undocumented immigrants and smugglers who cross through tribal lands.
Testifying in front of a House subcommittee last April, the nation’s chairman, Ned Norris Jr., called the Department of Homeland Security “inflexible” and “unreasonable,” and framed the fence as part of a larger problem facing the nation.
“Our land is now cut in half, with O’odham communities, sacred sites, salt pilgrimage routes, and families divided,” Norris said. “We did not cross the 75 miles of border within our reservation lands. The border crossed us.”
_ Tim Murphy
Stephanopoulos to retire from Greek Orthodox Church
(RNS) Nikki Stephanopoulos, a longtime spokeswoman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and mother of Washington political insider George Stephanopoulos, will retire Aug. 1.
Stephanopoulos began in 1983 as an editor for the archdiocese’s Orthodox Observer and soon rose to become the director of news and public relations for the 1.5 million-member church.
The Minnesota native also coordinated media for the U.S. visits of ecumenical patriarchs Dimitrios in 1991 and Bartholomew in 1997. Stephanopoulos is a member of the governing board of the National Council of Churches.
Her husband, the Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, recently retired after 25 years as dean of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City.
Archbishop Demetrios of America said Nikki Stephanopoulos “has offered in an insightful and amiable way her service in the various tasks of the church which needed her contribution.”
_ Daniel Burke
Lutherans to apologize for Anabaptist persecution
(RNS) The Lutheran World Federation is preparing a statement asking forgiveness from Anabaptists _ Mennonites, Amish and similar believers _ for 16th century persecution, which including torture and killings.
The decision to prepare the statement was made by the LWF council, the world body’s main governing agency, which met in Arusha, Tanzania, June 24-30.
Anabaptists, which means “re-baptizers,” were the radical wing of the Protestant Reformation and were persecuted by both Lutherans and Catholics. They stressed “believers,” or adult, baptism, even for those baptized as infants, as well as the strict separation of church and state. Many also adopted pacifism as a core belief.
Much of the Lutheran persecution of Anabaptists was based on writings by key figures in the Lutheran movement such as Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, as well as condemnations in Lutheran confessional writings such as the Formula of Concord and the Augsburg Confession, which are still considered authoritative for Lutherans today.
Last year, in a statement from the Lutheran-Mennonite International Study Commission, participants noted that the 16th-century condemnations do not figure prominently in the reading of the Reformation among Lutherans today.
“The history of persecution has, however, been deeply imbedded in the memory of Anabaptist descendants and requires careful joint processing in order that obstacles may be removed for the sake of better understanding and closer relations between Mennonite and Lutheran churches today,” the communique said.
The statement seeking forgiveness is expected to be ready for the LWF’s 11th Assembly, in July 2010. The LWF represents 68 million Lutherans in 141 member churches in 17 countries, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
In 2006, the ELCA formally apologized for Lutheran persecution and repudiated the use of government authority “to punish individuals or groups with whom it disagrees theologically.” Lutheran churches in France and Germany have adopted similar statements.
_ David E. Anderson
Audio Bible wins Christian Book of the Year award
(RNS) For the first time in its 30-year history, the Christian Book of the Year award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association is going to a Bible and an audio product.
The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible, produced by Nashville, Tenn.-based Thomas Nelson Inc., took home the coveted award. It is the first year ECPA included media presentations of the Bible in the program.
The New Testament dramatization features the voices of actors Jim Caviezel, Stacy Keach, Louis Gossett Jr. and Marisa Tomei, among others.
The Christian Book of the Year winner was selected from 32 finalists using “overall excellence” and “consumer impact” as criteria.
The Word of Promise has maintained a firm spot on the ECPA’s best-sellers list since its release last October, and is the No. 1 best-selling Bible retailing for more than $30, according to a press release.
“The Scriptures have always had a unique oral tradition and our members have continued to creatively produce amazing presentations of this written Word,” said ECPA President Mark Kuyper. “Allowing audio presentations of the Bible into the Christian Book Award Program this year was a timely decision.”
_ Ashly McGlone
Quote of the Week: Jim Harrison, director of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo
(RNS) “You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense.”
_ Kentucky Zoo Reptile Director Jim Harrison, commenting on the arrest of pastor Gregory James Coots, who practices snake handling in his Kentucky church. State officials found 60 snakes, many of them deadly, in Coots’ Appalachian home. Harrison was quoted by The Associated Press.
KRE/PH END RNS
