c. 1997 Religion News Service

Presbyterians elect Cincinnati social worker as moderator

(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has elected Patricia Brown, a 52-year-old social worker from Cincinnati, as its new moderator.

Brown was elected as the 209th General Assembly of the denomination got underway Saturday (June 14) in Syracuse, N.Y.”We are family,”said Brown of the 2.7 million-member church that has been wracked with division over sexuality issues, especially homosexuality.”We are brothers and sisters. We may not agree with each other, but God has put us together as a family and we’re going to behave like one.” The denomination is in the midst of a fiery controversy surrounding the approval of the so-called”fidelity and chastity”amendment to the church’s Book of Order.

Presbyteries, or local jurisdictions, earlier this spring approved Amendment B _ which requires ordained ministers, elders and deacons of the PCUSA to repent of any”self-acknowledged practices which the (church’s) confessions call sin”and pledge to adhere to”fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman or chastity in singleness.” Opponents of the measure say it is primarily aimed at homosexuals and as many as 50 of the denomination’s 11,000 congregations _ including those in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco _ have said they will defy it.

Supreme Court: Abortions must be performed by doctors only

(RNS) The Supreme Court ruled Monday (June 16) that Montana _ and other states _ may ban abortions by non-physicians.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices voted to reverse a federal appeals court ruling that had blocked passage of the law while reaffirming its 1992 decision guaranteeing women’s right to abortion performed only by doctors.”… The Constitution gives the states broad latitude to decide that particular functions may be performed only by licensed professionals, even if an objective assessment might suggest that those same tasks could be performed by others,”the Court said in its ruling.

The 1995 Montana law specifically banned physician assistants from performing abortions. Until then, the state allowed licensed physician assistants working under the direct supervision of a doctor to perform early-term abortions.

Susan Cahill, a physician assistant who performed abortions in Kalispell, Mont., was the only person affected by the new law. She and her supervising doctor, James Armstrong, argued that the new law made abortions more difficult to obtain and placed an”undue burden”on women seeking abortions in Montana.

In a separate case, the Court rejected, without comment, Utah’s bid to revive its invalidated law that would bar most abortions for women more than 20 weeks pregnant.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in striking down the law late last year, said Utah lawmakers had placed”an insurmountable obstacle in the path of a woman seeking a nontherapeutic abortion on a nonviable fetus after 20 weeks”and”imposes an unconstitutional burden on her right to choose.”

NYC public schools OK crescent and star as Muslim cultural symbol

(RNS) The New York City Board of Education has agreed to recognize the Muslim crescent and star as a cultural symbol that may be displayed in its schools alongside Christmas trees, the Hanukkah menorah and Kwanzaa candles during the December-January holiday season.

The school system also agreed to allow Muslim employees and students to take two Muslim feast days, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, as legal holidays.

The agreement announced Friday (June 13) settled a law suit filed some 18 months ago by three Muslim activists after the board earlier ruled the crescent and star was a religious symbol that could not be displayed in public schools. A board spokeswoman said after the suit was filed the board reviewed its position and concluded the crescent and star was, afterall, not a religious symbol.”This is an historic event,”said M.T. Mehdi, president of the National Council on Islamic Affairs and one of the three plaintiffs.”The American Muslims are being recognized as part of American society.” Mehdi estimates there are 100,000 Muslim students in the New York school system. Board officials said they do not keep track of students’ religions and do not know how many Muslim students they have.

Mehdi said he will now seek to gain similar recognition for the crescent and star in other school districts, beginning in New Jersey and Connecticut.

Mehdi said he hoped the agreement paves the way for cultural symbols of Buddhists, Hindus and other groups to also be displayed in New York public schools.

Speaking with The New York Times, Lorie Almon, a lawyer for the city, said the agreement was fashioned to encourage just that outcome.

Mehdi said the crescent and star _ a symbol that often graces the tops of mosques and the flags of Muslim nations _ came into use during the Crusades as a counter to the Christian cross. He said the crescent represents the Muslim lunar calendar and the star the celestial guideposts used by Arab traders crossing the unmarked desert.

Report: Anti-Semitism strong in former Soviet republics

(RNS) Anti-Semitism remains strong in the republics of the former Soviet Union, fed by disgruntled communists, anti-democratic extremists, elements within the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s desire to co-opt his nationalist opponents, according to a new report.

The report, scheduled for release Tuesday (June 17) by the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) based in Washington, documents anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union during the past two years.

During that period, the report says,”anti-Semitism can best be understood as an increasingly privatized version of traditional Russian and Soviet religious and political demonizing of Jews by extremist groups and officials on the local level.”Liberalized freedom of speech and association in much of the (former Soviet Union) has resulted in widespread production and distribution, including by government ministries and the Russian Orthodox Church, of anti-Semitic publications. … This anti-Semitic material blames Jews for the failures of communism, for stealing the nation’s wealth and for defiling the purity of the nation.”‘

Yosef I. Abramowitz, UCSJ president, said the report contradicts the general belief that anti-Semitism is on the decline in the former Soviet republics. Abramowitz said the report also”raises serious questions as to the reliability of the (former Soviet republics) as civil societies and democratic allies.” The report says that younger leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church _ described as historically anti-Semitic _ are often sympathetic to poor and elderly Jews. However, it also says a substantial portion of the church’s hierarchy remains anti-Semitic and anti-Semitic statements coming from within the church are not contradicted by its leaders.

Yeltsin, while”no hard-core anti-Semite,”tolerates anti-Semitism to curry favor with Russian nationalists, according to the report.

The Jewish population of the 15 former Soviet republics is estimated at 1.4 million, the vast majority residing in Russia and Ukraine.

Imprisoned Chinese church leader called a cult leader

(RNS) The president of China’s largest, state-approved Protestant organization has dismissed an imprisoned pastor as a cult leader and says the efforts of Western Christians to help him are misguided.

Wenzao Han, president of the China Christian Council, which functions both as a parachurch council linking 10 million Chinese Christians and a”post-denomination”church, said the case of Xu Yongze has been unduly”played up by the Western media.” However, Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Solidarity International USA, a Christian religious-rights organization, called Xu a”legitimate, if unorthodox, Christian”leader.”China tries to label everyone they don’t care for a cult leader so they can be executed under the law,”the Washington-based Jacobson said Monday (June 16).

Wenzao said Xu, who was arrested in March and faces a possible death sentence, teaches and engages in non-biblical practices.”He set up a group, Born Again. It sounds very Christian, but he told his followers to weep for three days. I cannot find that in the Bible,”Wenzao said.

Wenzao was quoted by Ecumenical News International, a Geneva-based religion news agency. He was interviewed during a recent visit to Geneva.

Jacobson said the weeping that Wenzao referred to was a form of repentance that Xu’s followers engage in following their born-again experience.”You may not find weeping as a practice in Scripture, but what’s wrong with repentance?”asked Jacobson.

Xu is one of several”house church”leaders arrested in China in a recent crackdown against religious figures who operate without official state sanction. Although the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the government also regulates religious expression.

Moreover, the constitution also stipulates it is illegal to”use … religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order”or”impair”public health or”disrupt”public education. Punishment can include the death penalty.

In a letter to the Washington Post published Saturday (June 14), Yu Shuning, press counselor for the Embassy of China in Washington, also dismissed Xu as the head of”an evil cult which spreads heresy that `the human beings’ doomsday is fast approaching’ and that `one must cry and shout loudly to survive.'” Yu wrote that Xu’s preaching has”disrupted”local”social life”and”some (people) even suffered from mental disorders.”Yu also said Western media has mistakenly adopted the claim of those Christian activists who charge China with being the world’s worst persecutor of Christians.”Under the protection of the government, religious believers engage in various kinds of religious activities,”Yu said.

Quote of the Day: Author Christopher Manes on animal sacrifices

(RNS) In reviewing contemporary attitudes toward animal sacrifices, Christopher Manes, author of”Other Creations: Rediscovering the Spirituality of Animals”(Doubleday), notes that society generally strongly disapproves of such practices.”We don’t find animal sacrifices repulsive because it is cruel _ the ritual borders on kindness compared to the conditions of life for many animals subjected to mechanized husbandry or vivisection. Rather, our disapproval stems from our belief that it doesn’t work. If people thought that the immolation of living beasts could bring them prosperity, cure disease, or assuage their guilt, there would be a bloody altar on every street corner in America.”

MJP END RNS