c. 2005 Religion News Service Human Cloning License for “Dolly” Scientist Stirs Religious Concerns (RNS) Some religious observers of bioethics are reacting with concern to a decision by the British government to approve human cell cloning for medical research. Ian Wilmut, who directed the creation of the cloned sheep “Dolly” in Scotland in 1996, received a human cloning license Tuesday (Feb. 8) from the British government. Wilmut and Christopher Shaw, a motor neuron expert in London, will lead an effort to find a treatment for motor neuron disease _ conditions damaging nerve cells and causing muscle wasting, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. To study nerve function in the diseases, they will clone cells from affected patients and compare them with nerve cells developed from human embryos without the disease. Carrie Gordon Earll, bioethics analyst for the Colorado-based conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, said it is not ethical for researchers to use and discard human embryos _ including those produced by cloning, which transfers an adult cell nucleus into a human egg. “It’s alarming in that it is one more step toward creating human life for the purpose of destroying it,” Earll said. “You can’t justify that through any desire to find cures.” Richard Sherlock, professor of philosophy at Utah State University and a researcher on medical ethics and biotechnology, said he does not object to cloning human cells for medical research, but he fears licenses may be granted to researchers who want to change human characteristics that don’t cause disease. “We knew it was coming when they first cloned Dolly,” Sherlock said. “We should be really thinking if we want to go down this road because this will result in wanting to make a better human.” Closer to where Wilmut will be working, a Church of Scotland spokesman said he disagreed with the decision of the British government’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. Donald Bruce, director of the Church of Scotland’s society, religion and technology project, said the decision posed “ethical problems beyond the strict legality of the proposed research.” Commending the aim of studying the causes of “this awful disease,” Bruce asked if this was reason enough to make cloned embryos. “It is unwise to allow cloned embryo research until there is a United Nations ban on reproductive human cloning,” he said. There was a “significant danger” that Wilmut’s research would lead to misuse of the technology by “maverick scientists in some other country where there is little or no regulation who wish to make and implant cloned embryos to create cloned babies, regardless of major risks and ethical objections.” _ Celeste Kennel-Shank and Robert Nowell Lutherans in El Salvador Say Campus Murder Meant to Intimidate (RNS) The Lutheran Church in El Salvador and officials at the Salvadoran Lutheran University contend a Jan. 29 robbery and brutal murder on their campus was an act of intimidation aimed at the church for being outspoken in politics. Though computers, stereo equipment, cash and documents were stolen, university officials said in a statement the motive was not armed robbery. The murder is believed to be an attempt to silence the Salvadoran Lutheran Church and the university, said Medardo Gomez, the Lutheran archbishop of El Salvador, in an interview with a Salvadoran newspaper, Diario Co Latino. Speaking in Spanish, he called the attack “politically related threats because we are a critical church.” The Rev. Hector Fernandez, Lutheran University president, said in a Jan. 31 statement that the university is known for “promoting a critical conscience in society, accompanying the people in their struggles for justice, and in giving opportunities of education for the poor in El Salvador.” Fernandez also said the Jan. 29 murder of guard Manuel de Jesus Martinez, 46, who was tied up, blindfolded, gagged and hanged from a tree on the university’s campus, reminded him of violence perpetrated by armed groups during El Salvador’s 12-year-long civil war, which ended in 1992. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, wrote a letter Feb. 7 to Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca calling for a full investigation of the murder and increased security to the university. The ELCA and the Lutheran Church in El Salvador are both part of the Lutheran World Federation, which includes about 100 church bodies worldwide. In a statement, the board of directors and higher university council said the murder was possibly an attempt to “frighten, in order to curb the commitment which we have assumed.” _ Celeste Kennel-Shank Religious Freedom Commission Says U.S. Jails Some Asylum Seekers (RNS) A commission set up by Congress has found some foreigners seeking a haven from persecution or torture are being unfairly held by the U.S. government in jails and jail-like facilities. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report Monday (Feb. 7) on how expedited removal _ under which immigration officials can detain and promptly deport immigrants arriving without documentation _ is affecting internationals who are afraid to return to their countries of origin. Experts appointed by the commission found procedures to protect asylum seekers under expedited removal were applied inconsistently. Also, most asylum seekers were detained in facilities resembling prisons _ some actually in jails with convicted criminals. These flaws, the report stated, are not being resolved as a result of poor coordination between the departments of Homeland Security and Justice. The report gave recommendations to the U.S. attorney general and Department of Homeland Security, including: _ Allow asylum officers to grant asylum to credible applicants rather than sending them to court. _ Increase consistency in the rulings of immigration judges. _ Improve conditions at detention facilities. _ Expand efforts to provide legal assistance to asylum seekers. The commission study was the first to directly investigate ports of entry, secondary inspection and detention centers. The Rev. Ricardo Ramirez, bishop of Las Cruces, N.M., and a member of the commission, said he was “deeply moved” by the mistreatment of detainees. On a commission visit to a facility to Florence, Ariz., commission members met detainees awaiting deportation, said Ramirez. Some were kept in the heat outside, others in air conditioning so cold it made them shiver, Ramirez said. Though most were Mexicans and 90 percent were likely Catholic, he said, “They were so frustrated even a priest was no consolation.” The findings of the study will benefit those seeking freedom from religious persecution by improving conditions for all asylum seekers, said Felice Gaer, vice chair of the commission. “You cannot realize and enjoy religious freedom without human rights,” Gaer said. _ Celeste Kennel-Shank Update: Church Breakaway Bill Dies in Va. Legislature

(RNS) A Virginia lawmaker has withdrawn a proposed bill that would have allowed churches to more easily leave their denominations with their property intact.

Critics said the bill, sponsored by state Sen. William Mims, would entangle the government in internal church disputes _ especially churches where conservatives would like to break away over disputes on homosexuality.

Mims, a Republican and Episcopalian, sent the bill back to a committee that is no longer considering legislation, which effectively killed it. However, he said he would bring up the issue again next year.

“We are incapable of handling legislation that is exceptionally complex or on which there has been exceptional confusion,” Mims said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Courts have traditionally ruled that local parishes hold their property “in trust” for their denominations and must leave it behind if they want to break away. Mims’ bill would have allowed churches to keep property if at least 10 congregations or 10 percent of a diocese voted to secede.

Mims’ parish, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn, Va., is a satellite branch of Truro (Episcopal) Church, a bulwark of opposition to an openly gay Episcopal bishop. Both churches have signed on as members of a conservative network of dioceses and churches.

Mims said secular judges should not defer to church laws on the matter, and said the state’s “archaic” laws need to be updated. Others, however, said the state has no business meddling in church disputes.

“There are some areas we should just stay away from,” state Sen. Edward Houck, a Democrat, said, according to the Times-Dispatch.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Robert Baker, Dean of Church Organists, Dies at 88

(RNS) Robert Stevens Baker, the dean of American organists and a towering figure in church music, died Jan. 24 after a long illness at his home in Hamden, Conn. He was 88.

Baker was the founding director of the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, which announced his death, and former dean of the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

“All of us here (at Yale) and all of the nearly 300 alums of the Institute of Sacred Music share in the rich legacy of Robert Baker’s leadership and consummate musicianship,” the school said in a statement.

Baker founded the Yale program in 1973 and served as director from 1974-1976. He remained a member of the faculty until he retired in 1987. He started playing the organ at age 12 and won a full organ scholarship to Illinois Wesleyan University, according to The New York Times.

Originally planning to be a concert organist, Baker decided to become a church organist after attending an organ concert at New York’s St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on his first Sunday afternoon in the city in 1938, according to his Yale biography.

Baker received two music degrees from Union Theological Seminary and served as organist and choirmaster at several of New York’s prominent churches, including First Presbyterian Church and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

His wife of 61 years, Mary Baker, died last July. He is survived by a son and a daughter and two grandchildren. A memorial service was held on Jan. 29 in Connecticut.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Easley to accompany the following story.

Moody Bible Institute Names New President

(RNS) Moody Bible Institute has announced that Pastor Michael J. Easley, the leader of a prominent Virginia church, will serve as its new president.

Easley was named to the position at the Chicago-based ministry on Feb. 1, succeeding Joseph M. Stowell, whose 18-year tenure as president ends on Feb. 28.

“My vision is to guard the Moody legacy,” Easley said in a statement, “training more men and women for Christian service; utilizing broadcasting and other technological advances to take the gospel to more people; continuing to publish reliable, trustworthy materials.”

Easley, 46, has most recently served as pastor of Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Va., and previously led Grand Prairie Bible Church in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The institute, founded in 1886, includes undergraduate and graduate schools and a distance learning center as well as Moody Publishers and Moody Broadcasting Network.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Jeffrey Goldberg, Co-Founder of Jewish Rock Hall of Fame

(RNS) “It seems to be improbable that these people own `rock ‘n’ roll,’ it’s entirely unlikely they own the phrase `hall of fame,’ and I know for sure they don’t own the Jews.”

_ Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The New Yorker magazine and a founder of the online Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, reacting to a trademark infringement lawsuit filed Monday (Feb. 7) against his rock hall by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

MO/RB RNS END