c. 2007 Religion News Service

Government Rescinds Fine Against Baptist Group

WASHINGTON (RNS) A moderate Baptist group will not have to pay a fine related to alleged violations by members of affiliated churches who traveled to Cuba, the Treasury Department has decided.

In 2006, the Washington-based Alliance of Baptists received a notice that it could be fined $34,000 because the itineraries of five churches that used its travel license “did not reflect a program of full-time religious activity.”

In a May 17 “warning letter,” the Office of Foreign Assets Control informed the alliance that “after a careful review of the entire file, OFAC has decided to withdraw the notice.”

But Elton A. Ellison, OFAC’s assistant director for civil penalties, noted that the alliance should be aware that any action by the alliance or its affiliates that violates the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba “may result in the imposition of criminal and/or civil penalties.”

The Rev. Stan Hastey, executive director of the alliance, said he was “gratified and grateful” that the issue has been resolved. The alliance had appealed the fine notice.

“According to our attorney … the determination was made that all five of these groups had been well-intentioned,” Hastey said. There may have been “some inadvertent technical violation” of policies, he said, but they were “incidental” to the overall activities of the groups.

The OFAC letter cited itineraries that indicated some persons who traveled under the alliance’s license had spent a “significant portion of their time” in tourist activities. The alliance has denied that.

Hastey said the alliance no longer has a license to travel to Cuba and does not have plans to apply for one. He traveled to the communist island nation last November under a license obtained by his Washington congregation.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Mosque Sues to Oust Imam It Says Is Too Fundamentalist

TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) Founding members of a Trenton mosque have asked a judge to oust their leader because he is taking the congregation in a fundamentalist direction.

In recent years, the imam, Sabur Abdul Hakim, has adopted stricter views of Islam and his aides plan to link the mosque with others of a conservative sect in Saudi Arabia, beaming in lectures via satellite links, according to the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, the International Muslim Brotherhood Inc., which owns the mosque, and founding members Rahman Khan, Salim Baig and Mubin Kathrada contend that the imam began changing religious practices at their mosque, Masjid As-Saffat, three years ago.

In the suit, the members say Hakim appointed his son-in-law, Shalby Akbar Shalby, as “ameer” last August, without an election by the congregants.

Hakim and his lawyer declined to comment about the lawsuit.

Since its founding in 1981, the mosque had been open to Muslims of all sects, the suit said.

“It was the policy not to discriminate based on sect and to allow various religious ideas to be heard,” the suit said. “In that vein the board of trustees would select a rotating slate of educated individuals to give the weekly Friday Khutbah (sermon),” the suit said.

But in 2004, Hakim decided that he alone would decide who gave the Friday sermon. “For the last three years, Hakim and a small group of congregants of the mosque began having more rigid views of Islam,” the suit said.

“They decided that they wanted the mosque to follow the Salafi doctrine. Adherents of Salafi Islam believe that there is only one true way of worshipping Islam and are totally intolerant of other moderate sects of Islam,” according to the lawsuit.

Peter Golden, a Rutgers University history professor who specializes in Middle East and Islamic history, said the Salafi is a form of Islam associated with the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. Practitioners consider themselves reformers but others think of them as reactionary, Golden said.

_ Linda Stein

Dobson: `I Cannot, and Will Not, Vote for Rudy Giuliani’

(RNS) Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, writing his personal views in an online commentary, has declared that he will not vote for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a presidential election.

“Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008,” he declared in a column for WorldNetDaily. “It is an irrevocable decision.”

Dobson cited numerous reasons why he had come to that conclusion, most notably Giuliani’s stance on abortion.

“How could Giuliani say with a straight face that he `hates’ abortion,’ while also seeking public funding for it?” Dobson asked. “Those beliefs are philosophically and morally incompatible. What kind of man would even try to reconcile them?”

Dobson said Giuliani’s recent speech at Houston Baptist University, in which he stated his support for abortion rights, means “the jig is up” and Giuliani is “an unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand.”

The conservative Christian leader accused Giuliani of “tap dancing” on the issue of marriage, both in his policy perspectives and personal life. The Republican frontrunner has said he doesn’t see a current need for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Dobson also called Giuliani’s three marriages and two divorces “troubling.”

The Christian radio psychologist ended his commentary with a vow to vote for an “also-ran” or not vote in the presidential election “for the first time in my adult life” if his choice is between Giuliani and either Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Dobson has also said that he would not vote for Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “under any circumstances” and has wondered aloud whether potential candidate Fred Thompson is a “Christian.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Methodist Official Questions Display of U.S. Flag in Churches

WASHINGTON (RNS) Displaying a U.S. flag during United Methodist worship services is “inappropriate and unwise” because the flag may become an object of worship and could imply an endorsement of the government’s policies, according to a member of the denomination’s public policy arm.

“In a worship setting nothing should come before the center of our faith in whose presence we have gathered to worship, the Triune God,” said the Rev. Clayton Childers, director of annual conference relations for the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society.

Writing in the May 10 edition of the board’s newsletter, Faith in Action, Childers also argues that “the presence of a national flag in worship can imply endorsement of national policies which often run counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ and our Christian faith.”

President Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church, as are 61 members of Congress, including 2008 Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

Childers was sharply criticized for a “lack of patriotism” by the Institute on Religion & Democracy, a conservative watchdog group that is often critical of mainline Protestant churches.

“Religious Left figures, like (Childers), are hardly concerned about idolatry when their politically correct, rainbow paraphernalia and peace banners are woven into church worship services,” said Mark Tooley of the IRD. “They oppose the United States Flag because they are contemptuous of our country, its history, its institutions, its culture. … ”

Childers wrote that he addressed the “treacherous terrain” of the flag’s presence at worship services after discussions arose about churches placing it “in the sanctuary, by the altar … or at another prominent location on the church grounds.”

The tradition of placing a U.S. flag in the sanctuary began during the Civil War, when churches used it to promote the Union’s cause, according to Childers. He said there is no official United Methodist policy on the issue.

_ Daniel Burke

Gay Marriage Rate Drops in Massachusetts

BOSTON (RNS) As Massachusetts marked the third anniversary of legalized same-sex marriage Thursday (May 17), the state released statistics showing the number of gay marriages has dropped sharply since 2004.

According to the state Department of Public Health, 6,121 gay couples married in the first seven months after gay marriage became legal on May 17, 2004.

In 2005, 2,060 gay couples married, and in 2006, the number declined to 1,427, down 31 percent from 2005.

During this year through April 26, only 87 gay couples have tied the knot.

The statistics also show that 9,695 gay couples have married in this state. Of that total, 6,209 marriages, or 64 percent, consist of women.

Kristian M. Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute in Newton, said that if there’s such a great need for same-sex marriage, then the number of married gay couples should be increasing.

“The numbers are relatively small and dwindling rapidly,” Mineau said. “The actual institution of marriage is not being sought after by the gay community.”

Gov. Deval Patrick opposes a move to put a question on the 2008 statewide ballot that, if approved by voters, would ban future gay marriages. Legislators are scheduled to vote June 14 on whether to place that measure on the 2008 ballot.

_ Dan Ring

Gordon-Conwell Seminary President Resigns

(RNS) The president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has resigned “due to family considerations,” but will continue to serve as a professor on the school’s Charlotte, N.C., campus.

James Emery White resigned effective June 30, the school announced Wednesday (May 16), “due to family considerations which resulted in his unanticipated inability to relocate as planned from North Carolina to Massachusetts.”

White, the founding pastor of Mecklenberg Community Church in Charlotte, began serving as president last July 1, and had commuted to Gordon-Conwell’s main campus north of Boston.

Haddon W. Robinson, 76, a professor of preaching at the seminary, will serve as interim president. White, 45, will continue to serve as a professor of theology and culture in Charlotte.

Thomas J. Colatosti, chairman of the seminary’s board of trustees, said the board is “deeply saddened” by White’s resignation.

“Dr. White powerfully embraced, represented and communicated the trustees’ vision to more effectively equip men and women for pastoral and global ministry with a Christian worldview and to build stronger relationships with both the traditional and contemporary churches,” Colatosti said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Guilty Pleas Close Alabama Church Arson Cases

CARROLLTON, Ala. (RNS) Two men pleaded guilty Wednesday (May 16) to burning a church in Pickens County, a step that ends federal and state prosecution in a 2006 arson spree that targeted nine rural churches.

“As far as court goes, this is it,” said Pickens County District Attorney Chris McCool. “The next step is that they go to federal prison.”

Matthew Cloyd and Benjamin Moseley, both 21, pleaded guilty to arson and burglary charges, acknowledging they set fire to Dancy First Baptist Church, one of the nine churches burned in February 2006. A friend, Russell DeBusk, was involved in five of the fires and earlier pleaded guilty to his role.

Wearing buzz cuts and orange jail jumpsuits at the county courthouse, Cloyd and Moseley pleaded guilty to second-degree arson and third-degree burglary charges. The men will serve two-year state prison sentences that will run at the same time as prison sentences that were previously handed down in Bibb, Sumter and Greene counties.

The concurrent state sentences will begin once they complete an eight-year federal prison term ordered by U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor in February.

DeBusk, 20, will also serve a seven-year federal prison term followed by a two-year state sentence for the fires in Bibb County.

“They’re ready to go,” said Cloyd’s attorney, Tommy Spina.

In addition to federal prison, the three men must pay $3.1 million in restitution, with Cloyd and Moseley to pay a greater share. They also are to perform 300 hours of community service work at the churches once they are released.

_ Val Walton

Democrats to End Abstinence-Only Funding

WASHINGTON (RNS) Congressional Democrats say they will pull the plug on abstinence-only sex education when a $50 million grant expires on June 30, a move sparking outrage among social conservative groups.

“As the House works to eliminate abstinence funding, their solution is simple _ provide more pills that prevent and abort pregnancies,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Perkins, in an e-mail to supporters, said Democrats are pushing a “radical agenda that few voters expected _ or supported _ when they propelled the Democrats to power.”

Democrats would still include money for abstinence teachings in schools, but would combine it with comprehensive sex-ed programs that would teach about birth control and other safe sex methods.

States currently pay for abstinence-only education in public schools by matching $3 for every $4 they receive from the federal government. Congress initially approved the Title V funding as part of welfare reform.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday (May 16) that the decision to stop funding for the program wasn’t difficult at all.

“Abstinence-only education seems to be a colossal failure,” Dingell said, according to the Associated Press.

Dingell backed that statement with a recent study by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. that showed students in four abstinence-only education programs were equally likely to have sex at the same age as those not in abstinence programs.

“With all we know about how to prevent teen pregnancy and reduce sexually transmitted diseases, it is high time to redirect the millions of federal dollars that we squander every year on abstinence-only education to programs that actually work,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., according to the AP.

_ Philip Turner

Gay Bishop Says Exclusion is an `Affront’ to U.S. Church

(RNS) Openly gay Episcopal bishop V. Gene Robinson reacted angrily to his exclusion from a key meeting of Anglican leaders in England next year, saying it is “an affront to the entire Episcopal Church.”

“It is time the bishops of the Anglican Communion stop talking about gay and lesbian people and start talking with us,” said Robinson, who was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

“The refusal to include me among all the other duly elected and consecrated bishops of the church is an affront to the entire Episcopal Church,” Robinson said Tuesday (May 22).

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, sent the first round of invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference scheduled for next July in Canterbury.

Held every 10 years, the conference brings together bishops and leaders from throughout the Anglican Communion’s 38 regional and national churches, all of which trace their roots to the Church of England.

Also left off the invitation list was Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a conservative splinter group under the aegis of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

“While the immediate attention is focused on the invitation list, it should be remembered that this crisis in the Anglican Communion is not about a few individual bishops but about a worldwide communion that is torn at its deepest level,” Minns said.

As the spiritual head of the world’s 77 million Anglican Christians and convener of the meeting, Williams said he reserves “the right to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion.”

Williams also said that “there are currently one or two cases on which I am seeking further advice,” but a top Anglican official seemed to indicate to The Associated Press that Williams has decided not to invite Robinson and Minns.

“At a time when the Anglican Communion is calling for a `listening process’ on the issue of homosexuality,” said Robinson, “it makes no sense to exclude gay and lesbian people from that conversation.”

_ Daniel Burke

Firm Says Phelps’ `God Hates the World’ Parody Violates Copyright

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Hollywood-based company that owns the rights to the 1980s benefit single “We Are the World” has asked a controversial Kansas church to remove its “God Hates the World” parody from its Web site.

But officials at the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, citing their right to satire and free speech, refused. What’s more, they’re standing by their version’s warning that Americans are doomed to eat their children.

“You’ll eat your kids, you hateful people,” church members sang on the church’s Web site against scrolling images of picketing Westboro members. “It’s too late to change (God’s) mind.”

The song takes its theme from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, which says, “Thou shalt eat … the flesh of thy sons and daughters,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Topeka-based church.

“No,” she said in an interview, “we’re not being metaphorical.”

Asked to clarify, Phelps-Roper said that America is damned, and although individuals can still act to save themselves, they probably won’t. Besides, she said, the saved already have been chosen by God _ leaving everyone else to face heaven’s wrath.

The original “We Are the World,” written by Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson, raised $50 million for famine relief in Africa. Warner/Chappell Music Inc., which owns the copyright to the song, said in a letter dated May 8 that the church is infringing on its rights and asked that it take the song off the church’s Web site.

_ Charles O’Toole

Alberta Court Allows Photo-less Licenses for Hutterites

TORONTO (RNS) A Hutterite community in Alberta that believes being photographed is a sin has won the legal right to obtain drivers’ licenses without a photo.

The Canadian province’s Court of Appeal agreed with their arguments that requiring them to be willfully photographed violates their religious rights.

Last week, the court upheld a lower court decision from last year that the provincial regulation requiring photographs on driver’s licenses violated the Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony’s religious freedoms guaranteed under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The court ruled that the risk of harm from photo-less licenses was “minimal,” while requiring a photograph would cause the rights of Hutterites to be “totally infringed.”

“This is good news. Not being photographed is one of the Ten Commandments,” said John Wurz, head of the Wilson Hutterite colony, located in southern Alberta.

About 30,000 Hutterites live in Canada, and many believe that the Second Commandment, which forbids graven images, prohibits them from willfully having their picture taken. Some even believe it is a sin for that photograph to be seen by another person.

The Alberta government used to allow those with religious objections to hold photo-less driver’s licenses. About 450 such licenses were issued, just more than half to Hutterites.

But in 2003, that exception disappeared with the introduction of new documents and the creation of a provincial database of faces to prevent one person from holding more than one license.

While the Hutterite community fought the legal case, the government issued them interim licenses that don’t require photographs. Eighty such licenses were issued, but they are not considered a legal form of identification.

Other provinces with large Hutterite populations, such as Manitoba and Saskatchewan, allow driver’s licenses without photos for religious reasons.

_ Ron Csillag

Quote of the Week: Presidential Candidate Tom Tancredo

(RNS) “I trust those conversions when they happen on the road to Damascus, not on the road to Des Moines.”

_ Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., at a Republican presidential debate, referring to candidates who shift to conservative positions on hot-button issues before the Republican caucuses in Iowa. He was quoted by the Washington Post.

KRE END RNS