c. 1997 Religion News Service

Jewish group asks for investigation of Ten Commandments judge

(RNS) The American Jewish Congress (AJC) is calling on an Alabama state government agency to investigate the conduct of controversial Circuit Court Judge Roy Moore to determine whether non-Christians appearing in his court can get a fair trial.

The AJC made the request of the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission as some 20,000 people rallied in Montgomery, Ala., Saturday (April 12) in support of Moore and his practice of opening court with prayer by a Protestant minister and his display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

Both practices have been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, making Moore’s cause a national one with a high priority among some Christian conservative groups, including the Christian Coalition. Alabama state courts have ordered Moore to stop the prayers and to remove the plaque. The plaque issue is before the Alabama Supreme Court.

The AJC call for an investigation was prompted by remarks attributed to Moore that his”duty under the (U.S.) Constitution is to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian God, not the gods of other faiths. We are not a nation founded upon the Hindu god or Buddha.” In a letter to Betty Blow, secretary of the inquiry commission, the AJC said an investigation of Moore was necessary”to restore faith and trust in the (Alabama) judicial system. … No Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim can walk into Judge Moore’s courtroom with confidence that he will not meet prejudice.” At Saturday’s rally in support of Moore, speakers compared their defense of Moore to a battle to preserve America.”We are drawing a line in the sand and saying, `Devil, you’ve taken enough from us,'”said the Rev. Clifford Terrell, the Associated Press reported.

Republican Gov. Fob James, who has threatened to call out the National Guard to block any effort to remove the Ten Commandments plaque in Moore’s courtroom, told the demonstrators,”By defending his (Moore’s) liberty, we preserve freedom for all Americans.” Other speakers took aim at a broader array of targets.”We gather as Americans, as Christians and as patriots, and we send a message loud and clear. We say to the federal courts, we say to the liberal media and we say to the ACLU: You have gone this far and no further,”Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, told the throng of American and Confederate flag-waving demonstrators.

Shroud of Turin survives cathedral fire

(RNS) Investigators say an electrical short circuit may have been responsible for the fire in the cathedral housing the famed Shroud of Turin.

The cathedral in Turin, Italy, was heavily damaged in a fire Friday night (April 11) but firefighters managed to save the linen cloth some Christians believe is the burial shroud of Jesus.”The linen is intact,”said Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, the archbishop of Turin, who oversees the shroud on behalf of the pope and the Vatican.”It’s a miracle.” Firefighter Mario Trematore, hammered through the four layers of bulletproof glass that protected the urn containing the 14-foot-long piece of linen and other fire personnel poured water on the vessel to keep it cool, the Associated Press reported.

A Turin police officer said it was not believed the fire was an act of sabotage.

Pope John Paul II plans to honor the firemen who saved the shroud with a special papal award, a Vatican spokesman said.

The cathedral interior and the historic Royal Palace next door were seriously damaged in the blaze.

The shroud is usually housed in the cathedral’s Royal Chapel. But due to restoration work, it had been moved into the cathedral. Firefighters said if it had been in its traditional spot _ where it had been enshrined since 1578 _ it would not have survived the fire.

The incident marked the second time the shroud has survived a blaze. The linen was scorched in a 1532 fire in Chambery, France.

The shroud bears faint yellowish negative images of the front and back of a man with thorn marks on his head, like those suffered by Jesus, according to gospel accounts. But radiocarbon tests in 1988 suggest the cloth is not older than 700 years. Scholars have been unable to reach a consensus on how the image came to be.

The Roman Catholic Church has never said the shroud is a holy relic, but some believers consider it to be an awesome reminder of the crucifixion.

Muslim leader recommends purging Egyptian army of Christians

(RNS) The leader of Egypt’s largest Muslim fundamentalist group has called for a purge of Christians from the Egyptian army, saying they represent a threat to national security.

Mustafa Mashoor, the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, told the weekly magazine Rose El Youssef that Coptic Christians also should be required to pay a religious tax that once was levied on Jews and Christians in the Muslim world.

Christian leaders criticized Mashoor’s comments, which were published Sunday (April 13), saying they demonstrate his group’s intolerance, the Associated Press reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood has said repeatedly that it would treat Muslims and Christians equally if it were ever in power. It also has condemned violence since the 1970s.”The remarks unveil the ugly face of the group’s ideology and remove … its tolerant mask,”said a front-page editorial in Watani, the Coptic Christian community’s newspaper.

In the interview, Mashoor said the army would be more secure without Christians.”When a Christian country attacks the Muslim country and the army has Christian elements, they can facilitate our defeat by the enemy,”he said.

The brotherhood’s spokesman, Maamoun Hodeibi, said there was”misunderstanding”in Mashoor’s comments. He did not elaborate.

Hodeibi said the brotherhood’s ideology does not include requiring Christians to pay a religious tax.

Christians comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 60 million population.

Monument unveiled to remember burned churches

(RNS)”We are not satisfied.” That is the short, simple message on a monument to black and multiracial churches that was unveiled Friday (April 11) on the campus of Allen University, a traditionally black school in Columbia, S.C.

The inscription is on a 10-foot high, white marble memorial in the shape of a tombstone.

More than 100 ministers and supporters from Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina took part in the candelight procession that preceded the unveiling, the Associated Press reported.”Hatred has to leave,”said the Rev. Terrance Mackey of Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Greeleyville, S.C.”People of goodwill must stand up to it.” Mackey’s church, which burned in 1995, became the center of national attention after President Clinton toured the site last summer. Two white men were sentenced to prison for setting the blaze.

The monument, which recalls more than 200 churches that have burned since 1990, includes the names of churches and the dates they were burned.

Episcopal bishops takes himself out of running for top job

(RNS) Episcopal Bishop Peter Lee, head of the diocese of Virginia, has taken himself out of the running to be the church’s new presiding bishop.

Lee’s name had been submitted to the church’s Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of a Presiding Bishop more than a year ago, and he was still under consideration to be on the short-list of candidates to replace Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning.”This decision comes after much prayer and consultation,”Lee said in a letter to the nominating committee.”I became increasingly ambivalent about a vocation to this office and I am now clear that I am not called.” Browning is retiring after a 12-year term as head of the 2.5 million-member denomination. In the past few years, the denomination has been rocked by a financial scandal and deeply polarized over the issue of human sexuality.

The nominating committee is expected to make public its slate of candidates for the top job on Tuesday (April 15). A new presiding bishop will be elected by the denomination at its general convention in Philadelphia in July.

Quote of the day: Former Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis.

(RNS) Former Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis., who retired from the House last year, was one of the few self-acknowledged homosexuals in Congress. Gunderson, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, recently spoke at a Lutheran Campus Ministry Conference on gays in the church:”Every day for eight years I prayed to have this demon removed from me. Then God asked, `Why are you so unhappy with the person I created?'”

MJP END RNS