c. 2008 Religion News Service

ACLU sues over inmate’s right to preach

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit on behalf of a New Jersey prison inmate who was ordained behind bars eight years ago and now contends his religious freedoms were violated when prison officials forbade him from preaching.

Howard N. Thompson Jr., convicted of murder in 1985 and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, was ordained as a Pentecostal minister in 2000 and preached regularly for other prisoners for years before corrections officials prohibited preaching by inmates in June 2007.

Edward Barocus, legal director of the ACLU in New Jersey, said the ban is unnecessary and that preaching is an essential part of Thompson’s Pentecostal Christian faith.

“A number of religions have active preaching as a requirement,” Barocus said. “It’s not for the state to determine what is or what is not part of the religion. … The right to religious freedom and freedom of speech does not extinguish at the cell block gate.”

The suit names two defendants: Michelle Ricci, administrator of New Jersey State Prison, a maximum-security facility in Trenton, and George Hayman, commissioner of the state Department of Corrections. A spokeswoman for the DOC said Wednesday (Dec. 3) the agency would have no comment.

The suit contends the ban has no practical purpose for prison management and violates Thompson’s religious rights under both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. It also contends Thompson’s past preaching has never caused problems for prison officials.

The suit says Thompson, 44, first preached at a religious service in the prison about a decade ago, when he relieved a prison chaplain who was ill. Later, he would periodically preach at Sunday services, teach Bible study classes, and lead the prison choir.

After his ordination in 2000 _ overseen by a prison chaplain _ he preached more regularly, the suit contends. He often worked with the chaplain at the time, the Rev. Samuel Atchison, until Atchison was replaced by the DOC in September 2006. Thompson continued to preach, usually under the supervision of chaplain volunteers, until a new prison chaplain, the Rev. Pamela Moore, took over in June 2007, the suit says.

Barocus said the ban placed on preaching by inmates that was instituted after Moore’s arrival was not explained by the prison’s administration. He said Thompson is willing to agree to preach only with staff supervision, and that it was unfair to ban inmate preaching when inmates are allowed other duties.

“I have not heard of an outright ban like this in the other prisons in New Jersey,” he said.

The complaint seeks permission for Thompson to preach, along with nominal damages and attorneys’ fees.

_ Jeff Diamant

Survey: Half of clergy say their churches need to address poverty more

(RNS) Slightly more than half of Christian clergy surveyed say their own congregation should be doing more to address global poverty and health.

The survey of 1,024 Protestant and Catholic clergy found that almost two-thirds of them _ 64 percent _ said U.S. churches in general should increase those efforts. But while 57 percent said their own congregation should be doing more, 43 percent said they believed they were doing enough.

“The church is really split when it comes to their interest in dealing with international poverty,” said David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group, which conducted the research for the ONE Campaign, a secular advocacy organization that has started a ONE Sabbath effort to engage religious congregations.

While the vast majority of clergy _ 90 percent _ said political leaders should talk about how the country can address international poverty and health matters, the typical Christian leader may only preach about poverty issues once a year.

“Usually poverty is something that’s mentioned once or twice a year,” said Kinnaman, who added that African-American, mainline Protestant and Catholic churches tend to bring up such issues more often. “It doesn’t really become a main theme for many congregations as they talk about the kinds of things they’re trying to activate people in their church to do.”

The telephone survey of 1,024 Catholic and Protestant clergy was conducted in October and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Mark Brinkmoeller, national coordinator of ONE Sabbath, said the campaign is offering online resources to congregations _ from sermon and hymn suggestions to materials mosques can use during Ramadan and Hindu scriptures that might be used to influence service projects. The emphasis is timed to the first 100 days of the administration of President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress.

“It’s a bit of an on-ramp for congregations,” Brinkmoeller said in a news teleconference Wednesday (Dec. 3).

Leaders from the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities who support the ONE Sabbath effort said keeping things simple is crucial for congregational involvement. They cited examples of the Nothing but Nets Campaign, recently endorsed by the Union for Reform Judaism, where $10 can save a life with a malaria-preventing net over a person’s bed.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Church leaders ask Obama for action on economy

WASHINGTON (RNS) Church leaders from around the globe met Wednesday (Dec. 3) in Washington to discuss their hopes for an Obama administration and their wish for a new style of leadership in the Oval Office.

Leaders from U.S. churches gathered for a three-day summit convened by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches’ U.S. division.

The Rev. John Thomas, president and general minister of the United Church of Christ, stressed the American president’s understated role as a public theologian who shapes the way people understand their relationship to God, their outlook on the world, and their sense of morality.

Last June, President-elect Barack Obama resigned his membership in Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ after sermons by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a drag on his campaign.

“I do take comfort in the fact that Barack Obama has been schooled in this role by a preacher named Jeremiah,” Thomas said, in a veiled reference to the outspoken Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

Thomas said that he hopes Obama looks to Abraham Lincoln who “refused to pander to Americans’ desire for optimistic and self-righteous interpretations of their own history even in the midst of this nation’s greatest moral test.”

Other leaders at the WCC summit brought up the recession and housing market collapse as concerns.

“Now it’s an economic crisis that demands our attention,” said the Rev. Gradye Parsons, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA). “Our hope is that this current crisis does not become king, consuming us entirely and overshadowing the issues of ordinary people.”

Parsons said many middle class Americans ignored warning signs of a financial crisis. “We need to confess that it wasn’t just predatory lending, but predominately, I think, it was predatory acquisition … by people in my pews and in your pews.”

“Mr. President, before you save us, let us have a chance to profess our ills,” Parsons said.

Poverty, health care, and education were also discussed.

“President-elect Obama has made it clear that education is a priority but he has left the emphasis on teachers and parents … recent policies have tied the hands of both,” said the Rev. Sharon Watkins, president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The Rev. Jeffrey Carter of the Church of the Brethren urged an end to the war in Iraq and a call for transparency in government dealings.

“I would say to this administration, be transparent not only in action but most of all in motives,” Carter said. “Be responsive to real needs rather than rhetoric.”

The U.S. Conference of the World Council of Churches will use the concerns and issues raised by the panelists to draft a letter to send to Obama after he takes office on Jan. 20.

_ Brittney Bain

Quote of the Day: AIDS activist Kay Warren

(RNS) “When will this unconscionable disparity touch our hearts? When will it begin to dawn on us that the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots is a subject worthy of our passion? When will North American Christians decide that what they consider essential for their families is essential for all?”

_ Kay Warren, AIDS activist and wife of California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, writing in a column in Christianity Today about the disparities she sees between the recent emergency medical treatment for her one-month-old grandson and inadequate delivery rooms in Third World countries.

DEA KRE END RNS