c. 1998 Religion News Service
United Methodist high court won’t hear gay issue _ for now
(RNS) The United Methodist Church’s Judicial Council _ the denomination’s top court _ has decided it will not take up the issue of the legal standing of the church’s ban on homosexual unions when it meets April 22-25. But it said it would take up the issue later.
The College of Bishops in the church’s South Central Jurisdiction had asked the council to deal with the issue following the March 13 acquittal of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, of Omaha, Neb., on charges he violated church law by performing a union ceremony for a same-sex couple last year.”We have determined that time is inadequate to place it on the docket for our spring meeting,”Tom Matheny, chairman of the council, said in a statement.
But he said the council will decide at its April meeting when and where it will hear the matter.”Adequate notice of the time and place will be given in order for all interested parties to file briefs and be heard.” The South Central bishops have asked the judicial council to consider whether a statement in the church’s Social Principles prohibiting such ceremonies governs the conduct of ministers and whether a United Methodist minister’s performance of such a ceremony is a chargeable offense under church law.
In a separate but related development, Creech’s congregation _ First United Methodist Church _ is planning an April 19 open house and rally to celebrate what it says is the community’s diversity and openness.
Church members announced the event in an April 11 ad in the Omaha World-Telegram, expressing support for the church.
The ad was signed by members of the congregation, people from other denominations and faiths as well as several ministers, rabbis, local organizations and elected officials, including Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb.
Two weeks before the First United ad appeared, some 100 Omaha-area churches bought their own ad in which they voiced criticism of the same-sex union ceremony.
In a preamble to First United’s ad inviting the community to the open house, Anne Boyle, a Roman Catholic and member of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, implicitly criticized those censuring First United.”Some of the public comments and actions regarding First United Methodist Church are uncharacteristic for the people our city,”she wrote, calling on citizens”to forgive one another and to accept our differing views without fear of alienation.”
Florida congresswoman tied to Lyons’ secret bank account
(RNS) Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., received $10,000 from a secret bank account of the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, a Baptist leader charged with grand theft and racketeering, a newspaper has reported.
Brown, a political ally of Lyons, the president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, did not mention the money on campaign contribution reports or financial disclosure statements, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
Her lawyers have denied any wrongdoing. They say the $10,000 was solicited from Lyons to defray the costs of a rally the congresswoman organized in protest of a legal challenge to the racial makeup and shape of her congressional district.
The report not only could have political and legal ramifications for Brown, who is seeking re-election this year but it also could affect the investigation of Lyons, who has been charged by state authorities.
The $10,000 bank check made out personally to Brown came from a secret account in Milwaukee that has been key to the charges against Lyons.
Prosecutors allege the denomination president hid more than $1 million in the account. They also charge that Lyons extorted the money from the Loewen Group, a Canadian funeral company, by threatening to prompt a Congressional Black Caucus investigation into the company’s relations with black customers.
Brown’s lawyers say she knew nothing of the alleged extortion.
The Milwaukee account has two signatories _ the owner of a Milwaukee diner and Bernice Edwards, a former denomination official who was charged with Lyons in February.
If Brown’s comments about the $10,000 payment are accurate, they would show Lyons had authority over the account.
Lyons’ attorneys attempted to disassociate him from the payment and declined to confirm Brown’s interpretation of it.
Keyes tells Catholic educators Clinton shouldn’t have communed
(RNS) Active Roman Catholic and former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes says a South African Roman Catholic priest’s decision to give President Clinton Holy Communion during the president’s recent Africa trip”lacked moral courage.””I think it lacked moral courage, at least in terms of the explanation that was given,”Keyes said.”I think one ought to be willing to embarrass the most powerful man in the world rather than to embarrass the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist.” Keyes made his comments in an interview following an appearance at the National Catholic Educational Association meeting in Los Angeles.
On March 29, the Rev. Mohlomi Makobane gave Clinton communion at Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto. The priest defended breaking church rules by giving the Southern Baptist president Holy Communion, saying he”did not want to embarrass Clinton” Keyes, a conservative activist and keynote speaker at the NCEA meeting, told the educators Makobane should have approached Clinton in the same way the late Mother Teresa did when she confronted Clinton at a National Prayer Breakfast in 1994 and politely but firmly condemned Clinton’s support for legal abortion. Holy Communion is not part of the prayer breakfast.”She did not shrink from the truth, she was not embarrassed by power,”Keyes said.”She simply spoke the truth in love.” When asked if Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should be denied communion, Keyes said”serious questions should be raised about their relationship with the church, and until it’s settled I don’t think they should be treated just like everybody else.” At the meeting, officials of the NCEA said enrollment in Catholic elementary and secondary schools has risen for the sixth consecutive year.
Total enrollment nationwide now stands at 2.6 million, an increase of 81,000 students since the 1992-93 school year.”What is compelling about these numbers is that no matter what popular polls may seem to say, people are concerned about character,”said Leonard DeFiore, NCEA president.”Parents want their children to grow into adults with strong moral values.”
Study of prime-time TV finds more violence
(RNS) A three-year study of prime-time TV shows finds they are growing more violent.
Researchers from four universities say about two-thirds of prime-time network and basic cable channel programs aired in June 1997 contained violent scenes, compared to about half of similar programs in October 1994.”For those who think the TV violence problem is solved, it is not,”said Daniel Linz, one of the researchers and the chair of the law and society program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The study found that pay cable networks aired the most violence, averaging 92 percent since 1994, the Associated Press reported.
The three-part study, considered to be the largest ever, was commissioned by the National Cable Television Association and cost $3.5 million.
The study issued Thursday (April 16) was based on a sample of about 10,000 hours of programs on 23 cable and broadcast channels.
Violence is defined as any”overt depiction of a credible threat of physical force or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm an animate being or group of beings.”The definition did not include psychological or verbal abuse.
National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton said the study’s conclusions contradict a network-funded study by UCLA researchers,”which found that violence on broadcast television has declined steadily over the last three years.””The simple, undeniable fact is that the vast majority of violence on television is on pay cable,”Wharton said.
The report commissioned by the NCTA also concluded that most TV violence is sanitized and glamorized. Almost 40 percent of the violent incidents are prompted by”good”characters who could be perceived as attractive role models.
Long-term negative consequences of violence are only shown in 15 percent of the programs, the report stated.”These patterns teach children that violence is desirable, necessary and painless,”said Dale Kunkel, another of the study’s researchers and an associate communications professor at UC Santa Barbara.”We need to see more anti-violence messages in TV shows.” The study also concluded that the new age-based TV ratings do not give enough information about the presence of violence in shows.
Vatican: U.S. clerics trip did little to advance Vatican-China ties
(RNS) A Vatican diplomat said Thursday (April 16) that a delegation of U.S. religious leaders who recently visited China made little headway in restoring ties between Beijing and the Holy See.
Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican secretary for relations with states, said in Rome that”we can’t speak of any concrete initiatives”that came out of the delegation’s visit.
China and the Vatican do not have diplomatic relations, and Chinese Catholics who pledge allegiance to the pope and belong to underground churches are persecuted, according to religious and human rights activists. An official Chinese Catholic Church with no Vatican connection also exists.
In February, three American religious leaders _ including Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J. _ made an unprecedented visit to China, where they met with leading officials to discuss the widespread allegations of religious persecution in China affecting members of all faiths.
Following the delegation’s return, McCarrick was asked about the possibility of renewed China-Vatican ties.”I’m sure the road of the future will be a road of reconciliation,”he replied, adding he did not want to discuss details because of the sensitivity of the issue.
However, Tauran said little progress had been achieved, the Associated Press reported.”Normalization is not yet a priority,”he said of China.”There is not much positive in that we haven’t seen anything concrete on the table.” Meanwhile, a U.S.-based group that keeps watch over Catholic activities in China also said Thursday that two underground Catholic priests have been arrested.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation of Stamford, Conn., said the Rev. Shi Wende was arrested March 14 and the Rev. Lu Genyou was arrested April 5.
Local Chinese officials denied the pair had been arrested, Reuters reported.
British Catholic aid agency urges reform of debt relief programs
(RNS) Poor nations must be”sufficiently liberated”from their debt burden to provide essential health and education services before they repay their debts, the English and Welsh Roman Catholic Bishops development aid agency CAFOD says in a new report.
The report called on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to change their”limited and flawed view”of what constitutes sustainable levels of debt for poor nations and the policies they insist those nations must adopt in order to continue to receive aid from the international financial community.
The CAFOD report said that unless poverty is put at the heart of the assessment of debt sustainability for the poorest of nations, the World Bank and IMF’s program for debt relief launched in October 1996 is likely to fail.
It proposed that the two international financial agencies cancel the debt of all countries where the gross domestic product (GDP) falls below the international poverty line _ fixed by the World Bank at $1 per person per day at 1985 prices _ and the amount the countries need to spend on essential health and education programs exceeds $40 per capita per year.
Under the CAFOD criteria, 10 countries would qualify for 100 percent debt relief: Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.”In other words, the need for basic human development expenditure in these countries is greater than their feasible net revenues,”the report said.”These 10 countries are among the 19 countries with the lowest gross national product per capita at purchasing power parity in the world. Their combination of extreme poverty and severe indebtedness qualifies them for 100 percent remission of their external debts.”Until an effective solution to their continued debt crisis is put in place, they will go on paying, and the (World Bank) initiative does not even attempt to address this problem,”the CAFOD report concluded.”A debt relief initiative designed to address these problems and to end the human suffering resulting from the excessive debt burdens of the poorest countries would be a truly enduring and meaningful celebration of the new millennium.”
Quote of the day: Catherine Bertini of the U.N. World Food Program
(RNS)”Frankly, whether three people died or 3 million people died, it’s totally unacceptable. I don’t think the number is as important as the fact that many people have died. And the fact that many people have died should not be happening in this world where we have more than enough food to feed every person.” _ Catherine Bertini, quoted by Reuters on April 16, on disputes between aid agencies and the South Korean government on how many people have died in the North Korean famine.
DEA END RNS
