c. 1999 Religion News Service
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America speaks out on suicide
(RNS) The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has adopted a message encouraging its members to contribute to efforts to prevent suicide.
The lengthy report, adopted Nov. 14, states that with more than 30,000 people committing suicide in the United States each year, those deaths outnumber the total of homicide victims. In addition, close to 500,000 people attempt suicide annually in ways that lead to emergency room treatment.”Suicide testifies to life’s tragic brokenness,”the message reads.”We believe that life is God’s good and precious gift to us, and yet life for us ourselves and others sometimes appears to be hell, a torment without hope.” Rather than ignore or avoid those who may have suicidal tendencies, the message urges Lutherans to join in the growing awareness of suicide as a public health problem.
The report details how suicide affects people of all ages and all ethnic and religious groups, but notes categories where suicide is more frequent. For example, it states that people living in a home with a firearm are almost five times more likely to die from suicide than people who live in a household without guns. Also, it states that more than 60 percent of people who commit suicide suffer from major depression.
The message also addresses social attitudes and misunderstandings about suicide and steps to take to help those who appear to be suicidal.”Whoever among us experiences suicidal thoughts should know that the rest of us expect, pray and plead for them to reach out for help,”the message reads.
The message also calls for support for the bereaved when a suicide does occur.”Funerals are not occasions either to condemn or idealize an act of suicide, but times to proclaim that suicide and death itself do not place one beyond the communion of saints,”the message reads.”Because of Christ’s death and resurrection for us, we entrust a troubled person to God’s love and mercy with the promise that `whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s’ (Romans 14:7).” The message calls for the various entities of the denomination to work on suicide prevention, from individual congregations to its Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
Eds: The full text of the message is on the ELCA’s Web site at http://www.elca.org/dcs/suicide_prevention.html)
Vatican newspaper attacks French `morning after’ pill for schoolgirls
VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican newspaper leveled an angry attack on the French Ministry of Education Tuesday for a plan to give the”morning after”birth control pill to schoolgirls, calling it perverse and hypocritical.”No one can erase the perverse intention against the life of a human being,”the Rev. Gino Concetti wrote in an editorial in L’Osservator Romano.
The Vatican upholds the right to life from conception to natural death. It opposes all forms of artificial birth control as well as abortion.
Concetti took issue with the assertion by French authorities that they had decided to provide the pill to girls in trouble to save them from resorting to an abortion.”The pill will be administered the day after, they maintain, to prevent the girls from becoming pregnant and being forced to have an abortion,”the theologian said.”It is evident that this refers to a surgical abortion performed in a clinic, but they forget, or they prefer to forget, that the use of the day-after pill also provokes the effect of an abortion.” Concetti said that instead of offering”illicit means to avoid abortion,”authorities should provide education on the nature and purpose of sexuality so that”adolescents and adults do not come to commit acts that conclude with an atrocious epilogue of a crime, indeed a crime against life.”It is bitter to observe it,”he said.”The permissive and hedonistic culture creates victims among those people who should be better protected.”
Committee recommends removing Methodist name from campground
(RNS) An investigating committee has recommended that the United Methodist name and logo be removed from a controversial campground that has been accused of treating a homosexual couple inappropriately.
The committee of the Northern Illinois Conference Board of Church and Society has investigated allegations concerning the Historic Methodist Campground, run by the Chicago District Campground Association in Des Plaines, Ill. Trustees allegedly violated the United Methodist Church’s Social Principles by refusing to rent a cottage to Robert Carroll and Russell Elenz because of their sexual orientation, the United Methodist News Service reported.”While there has been no overt or official policy of discrimination against persons based upon sexual orientation, or the perception and assumption of a homosexual orientation, by the Chicago District Campground Association, there exists a pervasive atmosphere of intolerance and inhospitality to persons who are, or are perceived to be, homosexual in orientation,”the committee’s report stated.
The committee recommended removing the United Methodist insignia”until such time that a working relationship and covenant with the Northern Illinois Conference is clarified and established.” Marjorie Cilley, president of the campground trustees, issued a statement saying the campground’s side of the story has not been heard.”The campground has not been given due process by the Board of Church and Society, which has never listened to our side of the story,”Cilley said.”They have formed their own opinions and do not have all the facts.” The Rev. Todd Singley, co-chair of the investigating team, said the campground trustees were provided with”ample opportunity”to present their side but chose not to do so.
Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, the leader of the Northern Illinois Conference, said action on the report is likely at the conference’s next annual meeting in June, but the matter might be addressed by the concerned parties before that time.
Update: Southern Baptist Convention president responds to Chicagoans
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(RNS) Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson responded to concerns of Chicago religious leaders about an upcoming evangelistic project by saying Southern Baptists plan a peaceful visit that upholds religious freedom.
The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago sent Patterson a letter Nov. 27 urging reconsideration of the”Strategic Focus Cities”effort that will involve scores of Baptist volunteers gathering in the city next summer. Patterson, in a Nov. 29 letter, states the denomination’s continued determination to visit Chicago.”When Southern Baptists come to Chicago, we will come as men and women of peace, committed as always to absolute religious liberty for every individual,”wrote Patterson.”We will oppose all human violence as unworthy of the Prince of Peace. … To all who wish to hear, we will share the hope of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This we will do with nothing but love and prayer in behalf of all people as the sole weapons of our arsenal.” The council’s letter had stated the Chicago leaders’ concern that the evangelistic effort could”unwittingly abet the designs of those who seek to provoke hate crimes by fomenting faith-based prejudice.” Patterson responded by saying:”If there is violence or `hate crimes,’ such will not be perpetrated by Southern Baptists or in any way engendered by our compassionate message. To the contrary, we are much more likely to be the targets of such attacks.” The SBC president said that the council’s request came close to suggesting that evangelism in and of itself is criminal.”You appear to desire religious liberty for Bible-believing evangelicals as long as they agree not to exercise that freedom,”Patterson wrote.”It is but one small step from alleging that the bearing of witness for Jesus results in `hate crimes’ to the allegation that such witness IS a `hate crime.'”
Catholic delegation finds religious freedom improvement in Vietnam
(RNS) Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, says Vietnam has made strides in improving the daily life of its people and in providing greater religious freedom.
But Fiorenza, who led a delegation of Catholic bishops to the Southeast Asian country, said in a Nov. 24 statement after the trip that the country should remove the remaining restrictions on the life of the church as soon as possible.”We strongly encouraged a rethinking of such measures that seem to express a fear of that tenth of the Vietnamese people, the Catholic community, that seeks only to be patriotic and productive citizens, free to express their commitment to Jesus Christ and to his church,”Fiorenza’s statement said.
The statement, released to coincide with the Nov. 24 observance of the Feast of the Vietnam Martyrs, recounted the Aug. 26-Sept. 2 visit of the U.S. bishops to Vietnam.
The delegation met with Vietnamese bishops, clergy and laity in a number of sites around the country.”It is our fervent hope that the authorities come to understand that the responsible exercise of religious belief not only does not threaten the peace and good order of society but can positively enhance the general well-being of all,”Fiorenza said.
Quote of the day: author Reynolds Price
(RNS)”Given the gleaming confidence of those words, and in light of the appalling failure of Jesus’ followers, that last command (go make disciples of all nations) goes on contributing heavily to the evils of national and religious warfare, institutional and individual hatred, imperialism and enslavement. Yet alongside that havoc, and in the same two millenniums, Jesus’ meaning has resulted in the most far-reaching movements of mercy, tolerance and human freedom and in the high-water marks of Western art.” _ Author Reynolds Price writing in the current issue of Time magazine on Jesus as the most influential human being in history.
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