c. 2006 Religion News Service

White House Faith-Based Office Director Counters Claims Against It

WASHINGTON (RNS) The new director of the White House office dealing with faith-based initiatives on Tuesday (Dec. 5) refuted charges in a recent book that said the Bush administration used the office for political gain.

“Criticism of whether we’re authentic and whether we did what we were promising to do, I think, takes the entirely wrong argument,” said Jay Hein, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

Hein, who took the job in August, addressed the annual conference of the nonpartisan Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, which researches faith-based groups.

Author David Kuo, former deputy director of the faith-based office, wrote in “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” that the office had “run a sad charade, to provide political cover to a White House that needed compassion and religion as political tools.” He said the office has not implemented much of President Bush’s “pro-poor” proposals that were highlighted in his campaign for the presidency.

Hein cited the $2.1 billion in funding received by faith-based organizations in fiscal year 2005 and “hundreds of millions” of dollars related to efforts such as prisoner re-entry and substance abuse recovery.

“I don’t think there’s much weight behind the argument that dollars haven’t been increased and attached to a lot of new players,” he said.

Hein, who succeeded Jim Towey to become the office’s third director, said he would work with state officials to further expand the work of his office on the state level. He said 33 states now have offices or liaisons that work with faith-based and community groups.

Speaking days after the Supreme Court agreed to take a case on whether taxpayers can challenge aspects of his office, Hein said he expects the legal deliberations will be closely watched. The complaint, filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, is the first to reach the high court that relates to the faith-based office.

“The enormity of how this is observed, I think, is hard to overstate,” he said.

But he noted that the question facing the Supreme Court deals with a “technical legal dimension” _ whether the plaintiffs have standing to bring the case _ rather than the overall constitutionality of the office.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Veiled Woman to Deliver Britain’s `Alternative’ Christmas Message

LONDON (RNS) A major British television network has selected a Muslim woman who will dress in the full-face niqab veil to deliver its annual “alternative” Christmas Day message opposite Queen Elizabeth II.

The woman, identified by London’s Daily Mail newspaper as part-time Islamic studies teacher Khadija Ravat, will appear on Channel 4 TV with a six-minute message that is expected to include a defense of the right of Muslim women to cover their faces in public, if they wish.

Channel 4 is one of five mainstream television networks in Britain, alongside BBC1-TV, BBC2-TV, ITV and Channel 5 TV.

Ravat’s broadcast is scheduled to be aired at the same time as the traditional telecast on BBC1 and ITV of the annual Christmas Day message to the country and around the globe by the queen, who as Britain’s monarch is titular head of the Church of England.

Channel 4’s alternative Christmas messages have grown as an offbeat, often irreverent tradition of their own over the past 13 years and have previously been delivered by celebrities such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, French actress and animal lover Brigitte Bardot and The Simpsons television comedy cartoon characters.

The broadcaster told journalists that it was fitting that its “alternative Christmas message should be given by a Muslim woman in a year when issues of religious and racial identity and freedom of expression have dominated the news agenda.”

A furious debate over Islamic veils erupted two months ago when Jack Straw, a former foreign secretary in British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet, said he had asked Muslim women to remove their face garb when visiting his office because he regarded it as a “visible statement of separation and difference.”

In Holland, the government has proposed legislation to ban the niqab, a veil that covers the entire face except for the eyes. Italy already has a decades-old law against covering the face _ originally an anti-terrorism measure that some politicians want to resurrect to deal with Muslim veils.

Ravat, who has worn the veil for the past 10 years, told The Daily Mail newspaper that she regards her Christmas Day appearance on Channel 4 as “a way of making a positive message.”

But she added that “I don’t think I realized what I was getting into. I just thought it was doing a little six-minute thing … ”

_ Al Webb

Gay-Marriage Supporters Set to Press Lawmakers

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) New Jersey’s gay rights groups kicked off a 10-day campaign Wednesday (Dec. 6) aimed at persuading state lawmakers to reject the idea of civil unions in favor of legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.

The distinction is more than a matter of semantics, said Steven Goldstein of Garden State Equality.

“There is a sense of anger in the gay community that we’re being excluded, that our relationships are somehow less,” Goldstein said. “We want full marriage equality.”

The effort, backed by national gay-rights groups, comes after New Jersey’s political leaders said they favor the idea of civil unions over marriage. Legislation creating civil unions, which would entitle participants to all the legal rights of marriage, was introduced Tuesday in both houses of the Legislature.

Lawmakers have been wrestling with the issue since the state Supreme Court ordered lawmakers in October to give same-sex couples full marriage rights. The justices split over whether to call it marriage; in a 4-3 decision, they decided to leave that up to the Legislature.

Gay activists said they know the governor and most lawmakers favor civil unions but are hoping an intense, grass-roots effort similar to the final weeks of a statewide political campaign could turn the tide.

Mixing retail politics, television advertising and public demonstrations on a shoestring budget, activists will assert a single message: “Civil unions don’t work. Let all couples marry.”

The battle plan calls for deluging legislative leaders with phone calls this week as well as mailing post cards to lawmakers in each district asking them to support “marriage equality.”

“The next 10 days are a very big deal for the gay community,” Goldstein said. “It is an unprecedented time for us.”

State Sen. Diane Allen, a Republican, said legislative hearings would help clarify the matter for everyone. She said she opposes gay marriage and might support civil unions, but she wants to know more before she votes.

“I don’t think we should have it crammed down our throats,” Allen said. “On any major issue like this, we should have an open discussion to hear all sides.

_ Deborah Howlett

German Church May Go to Court to Keep Stores Closed on Sundays

BERLIN (RNS) Germany’s Protestant church is thinking about heading to court if that’s what it takes to keep Sunday a day of rest.

Germany’s longstanding _ and legally mandated _ tradition of keeping shops closed on Sundays is under attack like never before.

Instituted partly to uphold cultural heritage and partly to guarantee a day off for workers, many businesses argue the rule is holding them back in today’s modern economy. The policy has already eroded on many fronts; some larger cities allow stores to stay open on special Sundays, such as during the Christmas shopping season.

But a recent reform of Germany’s federal system devolved the power to decide store hours to individual German states. Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony quickly jumped at the opportunity, allowing stores to operate on up to 12 Sundays a year.

That might be a step too far for Wolfgang Huber, head of Council of Evangelical Churches of Germany (EKD) and the bishop of Berlin’s Lutheran churches.

“I think it’s urgent that we check to see if we’re still protecting Sundays and holidays as days of rest and reflection, as mandated by the Constitution,” according to the Berliner Zeitung (Berlin Newspaper).

Huber has not decided what, if anything, to do. But he could theoretically bring the question of store hours to Germany’s highest court for a ruling on whether the Sunday openings violate constitutional protections.

Even if the church opts against filing suit, the court might get its chance to rule, according to Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. A major German labor union is also considering a complaint, arguing that new hours require workers to put in too much time and penalize them if they don’t want to work Sundays.

_ Niels Sorrells

Quote of the Day: AIDS Activist Kay Warren

(RNS) “You never find Jesus asking people how they got sick, not once does he ask that. When sick people came to him, he simply said, `How can I help you?’ And that’s where we’re trying to go. That needs to be the first question out of our mouths.”

_ AIDS Activist Kay Warren, wife of best-selling author Rick Warren and co-founder of an HIV/AIDS initiative at their Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. She was quoted by Newsweek.

KRE/JL END RNS