c. 1997 Religion News Service

Assault charges against Schuller dropped

(RNS) Federal prosecutors agreed Wednesday (Aug. 13) to drop misdemeanor assault charges against televangelist Robert Schuller for his role in a dispute with a male United Airlines flight attendant.

During an appearance Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., Schuller pleaded innocent to the charges, yet publicly apologized for the incident.”My actions were inappropriate,”Schuller told the court.”I apologize for any portion of my conduct which (the flight attendant) found offensive.” Schuller agreed to enter an informal supervision program, which will require him to check in with authorities by phone or by mail during the next six months, the Associated Press reported.

The televangelist, whose”Hour of Power”is seen by more than 20 million viewers each week, also agreed to pay a $1,100 fine to the Federal Aviation Administration for delays and disruptions to other passengers on the flight.

The dispute began June 28 as Schuller flew first-class on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York to attend a memorial service for Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X.

Before take off, Schuller asked the flight attendant to hang up his garment bag that contained the robe he planned to wear at the memorial. The attendant refused, saying it was a violation of the airline’s rules.

Later, the same attendant refused Schuller’s request to be served fruit without cheese, prompting Schuller to go to the plane’s kitchen to ask another attendant for a serving of grapes, according to Terry Giles, Schuller’s attorney.

At that point, according to Schuller, he grabbed the first flight attendant’s shoulders in what Schuller described as an effort to counsel him, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A spokesman for United Airlines said Schuller”made physical contact with the flight attendant and the flight attendant was injured.” The flight attendant claimed the 70-year-old Schuller either pushed him or put him in a headlock, sources told Giles.”I am sorry that the interaction between myself and the young man … created such a disturbance,”said Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.”Early in the flight I should have tried to be more polite, and later I absolutely should not have aggressively grabbed his shoulders or touched him in any way,”Schuller told the court.”My intent was to get his attention, not to cause physical harm.”

Texas church, city reach accord on dispute

(RNS) St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church and the city of Boerne, Texas, have reached an accord on their dispute that traveled all the way to the Supreme Court and resulted in the overturning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The dispute began when the church, located in the city’s historic district, wanted to raze its aging sanctuary and build a new one to accommodate its growing membership.

But because the church is in an historic district, the city objected. The church filed suit under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the 1993 law that sharply restricted the ability of government at all levels to interfere with religious practice.

In a landmark decision in June, however, the Supreme Court struck down RFRA, arguing that the congressionally passed law violated the separation of powers.

The agreement worked out between the church and the city and signed on Tuesday (Aug. 12), will allow St. Peter’s to demolish a section of the rear of the 74-year-old sanctuary to attach a new sanctuary. Reuters reported that the city has agreed to donate a parcel of land to the church for parking space.”You would see the new structure toward the rear, but the new structure would not overpower or compromise the continuing use of and architectural integrity of the historic structure,”said Boerne Mayor Patrick Heath.

Under the compromise, unanimously approved by Boerne’s city council, about 80 percent of the old structure will be left intact, the AP reported. The 230-seat sanctuary would be expanded by 850 seats.

Nordic aid agencies: Afghan government interfering with our work

(RNS) A group of humanitarian aid agencies based in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have protested religious policies issued by Afghanistan’s ruling Islamic Taleban movement, saying the policies interfere with the groups’ relief efforts.”We, the Nordic non-governmental organizations active in Afghanistan, want to express our concern about recent regulations issued by the Taleban authorities, which contradict the humanitarian principles on which our work is founded,”the four groups said in a statement issued Tuesday (Aug. 12).

The four groups were Norwegian Church Aid, the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees and the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.

In particular, the agencies objected to Taleban regulations barring them from providing aid in areas not controlled by Taleban.

The statement, issued just before a scheduled visit to Afghanistan by Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Egelund, said the agencies would be forced to reconsider their programs in Afghanistan if Taleban did not change its regulations.

The agencies stressed that they abide by the principle of providing aid to those in need regardless of gender, political, religious and ethnic affiliation.”If we are prevented or obstructed to implement our activities in accordance with those principles, we will be forced to consider the possibility of reviewing our involvement in Taleban-controlled areas of Afghanistan,”the groups said.

The agencies, citing a series of decrees issued by Taleban on July 16 by the Taleban’s religious police charged with enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, said they are especially disturbed by rules limiting their access to women in need and their ability to employ women.

Another aid agency, CARE International, has already suspended its work in Afghanistan as a result of the religious decrees.

Australia’s religious landscape is changing

(RNS) Census figures released by the Australian government’s Bureau of Statistics show 73.8 percent of the country’s 18 million people identify with some religious group and 70 percent identify with a Christian denomination.

The figures, from the country’s 1996 census, show a slight decline in religious identification _ down from 76.6 percent in 1991. According to the figures, 16.5 percent of the people say they have”no religion,”but just 0.04 percent describe themselves as atheists.

According to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, the religious landscape of Australia has changed dramatically during the past 50 years.

In 1947, for example, Anglicans made up 39 percent of the population and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christian Pentecostals were undetectable.

Now, Roman Catholics are the nation’s single largest group, growing from 20.7 percent of the population in 1947 to 26.8 percent in the 1996 census. Anglicans, meanwhile, have slipped to second place, with 21.8 percent of the population.

Muslims and Buddhists each account for 1.1 percent of the population.

Organizers worry about low turnout for World Youth Days

(RNS) Worried organizers of Pope John Paul II’s trip to France next week for World Youth Days observances said Wednesday (Aug. 13) they are concerned the papal trip could be marked by apathy and low turnout.”The number one question is whether there will be as much public interest as there was during the pope’s last visit,”one anonymous church official told Reuters.

But Monsignor Michael Dubost, chief organizer of the week-long youth festival, estimated as many as 500,000 people would attend a Mass the pope is to celebrate on Aug. 24. But that’s 150,000 people less than earlier estimates given by organizers.

In addition, officials say far fewer young people than originally forecast have signed up to attend the festival and fewer families than expected have signed up.

U.S. church officials say they believe between 12,000 and 13,000 American youths will attend the week-long celebration.

French organizers had originally estimated as many 600,000″young people”_ those between 17 and 35 _ would attend the festival in Paris. That estimate was revised downward to 300,000 earlier this year and this week, officials gave an estimate of 220,000.

Quote of the day: Dr. Diane Meier

(RNS) Dr. Diane Meier, a geriatrician at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and co-author of a recent study urging doctors and nurses to stop considering death a failure, says medical schools and residency programs must change the way they teach about the end-of-life, especially a dying patient’s pain:”Just as we expect every medical student and intern to learn to manage diabetes and high blood pressure, we should require (them) to become sophisticated in the management of pain … and the basics of communication with patients and families.”

MJP END RNS