c. 1999 Religion News Service

Wake Forest University chaplain permits same-sex union

(RNS) The chaplain of Wake Forest University has agreed to schedule a same-sex union for two women in the chapel on the Winston-Salem, N.C., campus, capping months of discussion on whether such a ceremony is appropriate.

The union will be a private affair between the two women, Wendy Scott and Susan Parker, and their church, Wake Forest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. The church has been worshipping at the chapel on campus for nearly 50 years.

Although university trustees decided they would not allow the use of the chapel for gay or lesbian unions, President Thomas Hearn said last week he would not stand in the way of action by an independent congregation.

Chaplain Ed Christman said Wednesday (Oct. 13) he took his cue from the president.”The university will not interfere with a local, autonomous Baptist church which uses the university facility,”Christman said.”It can make decisions for itself.” Last November, Wake Forest Baptist Church paved the way for the ceremony in a contentious vote affirming the right of members to make personal decisions on the basis of their faith. The congregation has long been supportive of the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church.

Christman would not say when the ceremony would take place or whether the church’s ministers would preside.”We don’t publish that information for anybody else,”he said.”The couple can choose who they want to participate. There’s no religious requirement for an ordained minister.” Earlier this year, Wake Forest Baptist Church formally severed its ties to the Southern Baptist Convention and agreed it would drop its membership with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina because of differences on this issue.

United Methodist agencies take different stands on Boy Scouts

(RNS) The social action agency of the United Methodist Church says it disagrees with the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on homosexuals, a view that conflicts with the stance of the denomination’s agency overseeing scouting ministries.

In a statement released Monday (Oct. 11), the General Board of Church and Society said the denomination _ a strong supporter of the Boy Scouts _ has condemned discrimination based on sexual orientation.”While the General Board of Church and Society would like to enthusiastically affirm and encourage this continuing partnership of the church and scouting, we cannot due to the Boy Scouts of America’s discrimination against gays,”the statement reads.”This discrimination conflicts with our Social Principles.” The board affirmed the decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court that the Scouts’ ban on homosexuals is illegal under state anti-discrimination laws.

The board’s statement conflicts with a recent decision of the Commission on United Methodist Men, which voted in September to argue against the court’s ruling. Officials of the men’s organization, which oversees scouting ministries, said they believe the Aug. 4 court decision incorrectly permits government to dictate the religious beliefs of a group.

More than 421,000 boys are members of the Boy Scouts through local United Methodist congregations.

Indian Catholic leader says Hindus are not being forcibly converted

(RNS) Rebutting the claims of Hindu nationalists, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi says Christians in India are not forcing or financially enticing Hindus to convert.

Archbishop Alan de Lastic also said he had no objections to protest marches planned by Hindus to coincide with the scheduled Nov. 5-8 visit to India by Pope John Paul II.”This is a free country,”de Lastic said.”But I hope they will not spoil India’s image of a hospitable country. We don’t want people to say Indians insulted a religious leader.” De Lastic said he expects John Paul to publicly apologize for the killing of tens of thousands of Indian Hindus by Portuguese Catholic colonizers during the 16th century.

Thousands of Hindu nationalists are expected to march some 935 miles from the southwest Indian state of Goa, a former Portuguese colony that is largely Catholic, to New Delhi and arrive on the eve of the pope’s visit.

The demonstration is meant to protest what the Hindus say are contemporary Christian efforts to force or induce conversions. Hindus say those efforts are responsible in large measure for India’s recent rise in anti-Christian violence.

The march is also meant to draw attention to the widespread massacres of Goan Hindus by the Portuguese during the 16th century, the period of the Inquisition. A Hindu nationalist group says 75,000 Hindus died in the massacres.

De Lastic, speaking at a New Delhi news conference, denied the claim that Christians today are improperly converting Hindus, the Associated Press reported Thursday (Oct. 14).”A forced conversion is no conversion,”said the archbishop.”A conversion takes place in the heart. No one can get into another person’s heart.” He said no proof has been produced to support the conversion claims and he called on the Indian government to step up its efforts to end the violence, in which Hindu nationalist extremists have killed both Catholic and non-Catholic clergy, lay people and foreign missionaries.

Human Rights Watch, the international human rights group, recently released a report in which it charged the Hindu nationalist-led Indian government of exploiting anti-Christian sentiments for political gain.

In contrast to the charges of Hindus, Human Rights Watch said thousands of Indian Christians have been forcibly converted to Hinduism in recent months.

Christians make up just 2.4 percent of India’s 1 billion people, the vast majority of whom are Hindus.

Tramaine Hawkins, Mississippi Mass Choir among Hall of Fame honorees

(RNS) Gospel singer Tramaine Hawkins, the Mississippi Mass Choir and the Jackson Southernaires are among 15 inductees to be honored at the Oct. 23 awards ceremony of the Detroit-based Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The ceremony will mark the third year in which the organization has honored those who have contributed to black gospel music. Many of the honorees have been industry stalwarts for decades.

Hawkins, known for the gospel hit”Oh Happy Day,”has had a 31-year career in gospel music. The Jackson Southernaires began in the late 1940s and the Mississippi Mass Choir was formed in 1988.

Other awardees include the Barrett Sisters of Chicago; the Clark Sisters, who have been singing since the late 1970s; veteran recording artist Emily”Cissy”Houston, the mother of celebrity singer Whitney Houston; Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes, a group that pioneered the sound of gospel quartet singing; and the Sallie Martin Singers, whose founder, Sallie Martin, helped organize the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1932.

Additional honorees are Roberta Martin, who established a publishing distribution company for gospel music; Utah Smith, a traveling evangelist who sang and played the guitar; Thomas Whitfield and the Whitfield Company, a contemporary gospel music group from Detroit; the Williams Brothers, a Mississippi group organized in 1960; Margaret Douroux, a California-based minister, musician and composer of more than 100 gospel songs; Arizona Dranes, a gospel singer from Dallas who sang and played the piano; and Al”The Bishop”Hobbs, president of the Gospel Music Workshop of America Announcer’s Guild.

Update: Vatican warns against plan for new mosque in Nazareth

(RNS) The Vatican warned Thursday (Oct. 14) a controversial plan to build a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth could threaten preparations for a holy year visit by Pope John Paul II.

Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Roman Catholic pontiff shares the concern of all Christian leaders in the Holy Land over the decision by an Israeli government panel Wednesday to go ahead with the construction and feels”particularly close to the Christians of Nazareth.””It is not superfluous to observe that such a situation does not help in the preparation of an eventual pilgrimage by the Holy Father to that great sanctuary,”the spokesman said in a statement.

The pope is expected to visit Nazareth in March on one of a series of pilgrimages to Old and New Testament sites in the Middle East to mark the holy year 2000 and the start of the third millennium of Christianity.

The Vatican spokesman said the pope hoped”to find a city that is both a symbol of the traditional and secular peaceful co-existence among Christians and Muslims and a stimulus for the peace of which all of the Holy Land has so much need.” The Israeli government plan calls for construction of a 700-square-meter mosque and a 1,300-square-meter plaza for millennium pilgrims on vacant land in front of the basilica.

The church is an important Christian shrine, standing on the spot where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.”The decision to authorize the construction of a mosque some meters’ distance from the historic Basilica of the Annunciation at Nazareth concerns the (Vatican) Secretariat of State as well as the Catholic Church in the Holy Land,”Navarro-Valls said, indicating that the move could have political repercussions.

Nazareth, the biggest Arab city in Israel, is also a place of pilgrimage to Muslims, who worship at the tomb of Sha’hab el-Din, a nephew of the 12th century Muslim hero Saladin, who swept the Crusaders from the Holy Land. The grave is on land belonging to the Muslim religious trust Waqf and will be incorporated into the mosque site.

Suleiman Abu Ahmad, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has said he wants the pope to lay the cornerstone of the new mosque, but Navarro-Valls has labeled the building plan”a provocation.””It is hoped that the Israeli governing authorities, considering the value the city of Nazareth holds for all of Christianity, will be able to guarantee respect for the Christian sanctuary and its free and peaceful access to pilgrims,”the Vatican spokesman said.

Update: Maryland task force says cults not a big problem at colleges

(RNS) A Maryland panel has recommended warning college students to watch out for potentially harmful groups, while concluding that such groups, commonly called cults, are not a major concern on the state’s campuses.

The panel was created by the state legislature in response to complaints from some parents that their children had suffered by joining cults while at college or university.

In its recently issued final report, the task force also recommended that Maryland schools create an educational program to help incoming students make more informed choices about what groups they join.

Free speech advocates and religious liberty activists had criticized the panel’s efforts. A group linked to the Rev. Sun Yung Moon’s Unification Church filed suit in Baltimore to force an immediate halt to the panel’s work. That request was denied by a judge.

Israel blocks sect members from entering the country

(RNS) Israeli authorities have barred some two dozen people from entering the country, alleging they were members of the controversial Denver-based Concerned Christians sect.

The group of 26 men, women and children of Irish, Romanian and Colombian nationality were ordered to return to Cyprus on Oct. 10 after arriving in Haifa over the weekend. The group arrived by boat with four mobile home units, which they had apparently intended to use as dwellings.

The group is led by Monte Kim Miller, who once told followers he planned to die on the streets of Jerusalem in December 1999. Fourteen members of the group were deported from Israel last January after police became concerned the group might carry out a violent attack in the Holy Land during the millennium period.

Quote of the day: Atlanta newspaper columnist Cynthia Tucker

(RNS)”I am tired of hearing the word `Christian’ from the public stage in newscasts and having it only mean one very, very narrow theology. So those of us who have a broader, more expansive view of Christianity have an obligation to take back the public stage. … We need to do our own evangelization.” _ Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist, who attends First Congregational Church in Atlanta. She was quoted by the Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

DEA END RNS