c. 2008 Religion News Service
McCain, Obama urged to make poverty a priority
(RNS) Nine faith leaders have banded together to urge Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to present a 10-year plan to combat poverty when speaking at their national nominating conventions.
The interfaith coalition _ led by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA _ sent letters to the two candidates asking that they address poverty in a prime-time speech and propose a strategy to help the 37 million Americans who live below the poverty line.
“As people of faith, we believe it is immoral to ignore our nation’s most vulnerable populations. As Americans, we believe enduring poverty undermines our country’s economic strength and prosperity,” the letter states. “But our efforts to sustain our brothers and sisters living in poverty must be complemented with a serious plan from our political leaders to reduce the number of needy.”
In addition to Gutow and Snyder, the statement was signed by the Rev. David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World; the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs, National Association of Evangelicals; the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary, National Council of Churches; Dr. Eboo Patel, executive director, Interfaith Youth Core; Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism; Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general, Islamic Society of North America; and the Rev. Jim Wallis, chief executive officer, Sojourners.
The letter is part of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs’ new national anti-poverty initiative, “There Shall Be No Needy Among You.” The campaign urges local, state and national lawmakers to advance anti-poverty legislation and programs, including shelters, work and educational opportunities.
“JCPA is trying to get the faith community involved to engage politicians to address poverty in this country,” said Adam Muhlendorf, JCPA spokesman. “We want to have the candidates ensure that at the convention, the issue is addressed.”
Neither the McCain nor Obama campaign has responded yet, he said.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Bush asked to press China on religious freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal religious freedom watchdog panel has asked President Bush to use his trip to the Beijing Olympics next month to speak publicly against abuses of religious freedom and human rights in China.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, joined by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, also voiced support for a resolution pending in Congress that urges China to end all human rights violations.
“We were in the White House and I told Bush that he had made a horrible mistake to go to the Beijing Olympics,” said Wei Jingsheng, one of five Chinese freedom activists who met with Bush on July 29.
“I do know that the Bush administration did try to push for human rights. Unfortunately, such an effort did not make much progress. Not only is there no improvement, as a matter of fact, human rights have gone backwards.”
In addition to a televised speech, the joint appeal asks Bush to urge the Chinese government to end religious oppression, to release detained religious leaders and groups, and to urge China to use its “considerable leverage” with Sudan to end the genocide in Darfur.
“Hopes that the Olympic Games would dramatically improve human rights conditions in China have not been realized,” said Felice D. Gaer, the commission’s chairwoman. “Instead, the situation has grown increasingly dire, particularly for many of China’s religious adherents.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., an outspoken opponent of China’s human rights record, said granting the 2008 Olympics to China was a “terrible mistake.”
“When you see all the choreography smiling faces in opening ceremonies, know that they are the lucky ones,” he said.
_ Ashly McGlone
Methodists elect first woman bishop in Africa
(RNS) The Rev. Joaquina Filipe Nhanala is a woman of firsts in Africa _ she’s the only female United Methodist pastor in Mozambique with a master’s degree in theology, and now she is the first female United Methodist bishop in all of Africa.
Her election, during the denomination’s Africa Central Conference held July 22-24 at Africa University in Zimbabwe, is effective in September.
In addition to pastoring a large church in Matola, a suburb of the capitol Maputo, Nhanala also coordinates local women’s projects, leads the World Relief HIV/AIDS education program for southern African provinces and also participates in the Mozambique Initiative, a partnership of churches in Missouri with churches in Mozambique.
“We have had a long relationship with Rev. Joaquina Nhanala,” said Carol Kreamer, coordinator of the Mozambique Initiative. “Bishop Nhanala is capable, bright and dedicated and we look forward to collaborating in mission and ministry together.”
Nhanala is succeeding retiring Bishop Joao Somane Machado, who has seen the Mozambique United Methodist Church triple in size in the last 13 years, according to United Methodist News Service. There are reportedly more than 125,000 members some 170 churches across Mozambique.
As bishop, Nhanala will also oversee 29 schools, a theological school, agricultural programs, a hospital, two clinics, a seminary and four Bible schools.
_ Ashly McGlone
UpDATE: Inmate reaches accord with prison over eagle feathers
(RNS) An American Indian inmate in Wyoming has reached an agreement with prison officials to allow him and other inmates access to bald eagle feathers for use in sacred ceremonies.
Stephen Pevar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented inmate Andrew John Yellowbear, called the decision a “great victory for religious freedom.”
Yellowbear, a North Arapaho tribesman, is serving a life sentence at the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Even after Yellowbear was granted a federal permit to keep 10 feathers for daily prayer, prison officials confiscated the only one he had.
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,” Arapaho elder Alonzo Moss Sr. said when the ACLU decided to try the case in mid-July. “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.”
An agreement between Wyoming prison officials and the ACLU was filed as a court order Tuesday (July 29) by a judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming.
All prison officials in Wyoming must now allow American Indian prisoners up to four single feathers and a feather fan for group prayer.
Yellowbear filed his suit in January and “met with a lot of resistance,” Pevar said, but within two weeks of connecting with the ACLU, a compromise was reached. The order affects only prisoners in Wyoming.
The case hinged on the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which says officials can bar an inmate’s religious practice only if it poses a threat.
_ Mallika Rao
Vatican giving `serious’ thought to union with small Anglican group
(RNS) A top Vatican official said he is giving “serious attention” to a small group of traditionalist Anglicans who are in talks with Rome about a possible reunification with the Catholic Church.
Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told members of the Australia-based Traditional Anglican Communion that their request is under consideration.
“As Your Grace is undoubtedly aware, the situation within the Anglican Communion in general has become markedly more complex,” Levada wrote to Archbishop John Hepworth on July 5, in a letter that was released July 25.
According to Levada’s letter, Hepworth visited Levada’s offices last October. Levada said his staff is reviewing Hepworth’s proposal for “corporate unity” with “serious attention.”
Hepworth’s group, with a reported 400,000 members worldwide, is not a part of the official Anglican Communion headed by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
It also does not include any of the major conservative Anglican groups, such as the Pittsburgh-based Anglican Communion Network. The Australian group counts as its U.S. member the Anglican Church in America, which split from the Episcopal Church in the late 1970s.
Yet Levada’s letter comes at a crucial time for the worldwide Communion as more than 600 bishops wrapped up their once-a-decade Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, amid speculation that conservative Anglicans might try to move en masse to reunite with Rome.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, warned Anglican bishops on July 30 that moves to allow women bishops and increasing acceptance of homosexuality threaten to hamper “full visible communion” between Canterbury and Rome.
It’s unclear whether the Vatican would be willing to carve out an Anglican enclave within Catholicism on the model of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, which maintain separate hierarchies and distinct practices, including married priests.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
