News services

(RNS) Jewish and Mormon church leaders announced Wednesday (Sept. 1) that church policies preventing the posthumous baptizing of Holocaust victims have reduced tensions between them.

Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said they now require church members to have a family relationship with the people they baptize by proxy.

Mormons must also agree not to include Holocaust victims unless they are directly related to them, preventing the mass submissions of such names that had occurred.

The announcement by the church and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants said the policies, which have been in the works for more than two years, will enhance future cooperation between Jews and Mormons.

The church teaches that Mormons can be baptized on behalf of their dead ancestors, who then choose whether to accept the baptism in the afterlife.

"Respect for the Jewish identity of Holocaust victims is naturally a highly sensitive matter, and we are glad to see new movement in resolving the problems of the past," said B'nai B'rith International President Dennis W. Glick.

But some Jewish leaders, including Jewish genealogist Gary Mokotoff, continue to question whether the church will be able to prevent Holocaust victims from being included in proxy baptisms. "It's on the books, but no one enforces it," he told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Church spokesman Michael Otterson said there could still be glitches, but the church and Jewish groups are ready to move on.

"We've resolved the issues to our mutual satisfaction," he said. "We all know that no system is ever going to be foolproof."

-- Adelle M. Banks

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

OREGON CITY, Ore.

(RNS) Two members of an Oregon church that preaches faith-healing pleaded not guilty Monday (Aug. 30) to manslaughter charges for failing to provide medical care to their infant son, who died shortly after his premature birth.

Attorneys for Dale R. Hickman and Shannon M. Hickman entered the pleas. The Hickmans did not speak during the brief arraignment before Clackamas County Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Jones.

Jones set a Nov. 19 trial date for the Hickmans, who are each charged with second-degree manslaughter. It is likely that the trial will be rescheduled for sometime next year.

The Hickmans, who attend the Followers of Christ church in Oregon City, posted 10 percent of their $500,000 bail and are out on bail. They requested that the bail amount be reduced. A separate hearing will be held on the request.

The Hickmans' son was born in September 2009, about six weeks premature. He weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces and lived nine hours. No one with medical training attended the birth, and no one called a doctor or ambulance. An autopsy determined the infant died of staph pneumonia and complications from a premature birth, including underdeveloped lungs.

A jury or judge will determine whether the Hickmans were criminally negligent and that their neglect caused the child's death.

The death of the Hickman baby was the third faith-healing fatality involving children from the church in the past two and a half years.

-- Steve Mayes

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

y Adelle M. Banks
c. 2010 Religion News Service WASHINGTON

(RNS) Southern Baptist executive Richard Land was pleased at how religious Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally turned out to be.

Bishop Harry Jackson, a black evangelical leader, was pleasantly surprised that the Fox News talk show host said things "some of my close friends could have written."

And Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was among the faith leaders to enlist in Beck's new "Black Robe Regiment."

In the wake of the conservative commentator's rally on the National Mall last weekend (Aug. 28), some evangelical leaders say he sounded all the right religious notes.
But others say Beck's Mormon faith clouds the message.

"Glenn Beck's Mormon faith is irrelevant," said Falwell. "People of all faiths, all races and all creeds spoke and attended the event. Nobody was there to endorse anyone else's faith but we were all there to honor our armed forces and to call the people of America to restore honor."

But other conservative Christians say Beck's leadership at an event attended by evangelicals and other conservatives was nothing short of scandalous.

"The answer to this scandal ... includes local churches that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and disciple their congregations to know the difference between the kingdom of God and the latest political whim," Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog the day after the rally. "It's sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ."

At the rally, Beck paced before the Lincoln Memorial as he described the "240 men and women," from a range of faiths who had joined his regiment.

"We can disagree on politics," Beck said. "These men and women here don't agree on fundamentals. They don't agree on everything that every church teaches. What they do agree on is God is the answer."

There is no doubt that Beck has a following. Gallup has ranked him as the fourth most admired man -- just ahead of Pope Benedict XVI -- and millions tune in to his daily broadcasts.

But, as his religious rhetoric attests, Beck has gone fishing for a new audience recently.

Weeks before the rally, he gathered about 20 prominent religious leaders for a dinner at which he said God was leading him to talk about revival in America, Land said. The night before the rally, he held a "Divine Destiny" event that promised to leave participants with a "strong belief that faith can play an essential role in reuniting the country."

That kind of language has some evangelicals upset.

"I believe that Beck used his conservative veneer and doublespeak to co-opt leaders of the religious right," wrote Brannon Howse, founder of Worldview Weekend, which sponsors Christian worldview conferences.

Others, such as Lou Engle, founder of The Call rallies across the country, said Beck will get qualified support.

"I think evangelicals will see him as a moral voice, not necessarily a spiritual voice," he said.

Experts say Beck's ability to reach evangelicals will depend on whether he speaks a broad message or delves more narrowly into his Mormon beliefs.

"Most evangelicals are friendly toward the idea of American civil religion and I think Beck's call sort of fit into that stream of history," said Stan Guthrie, editor at large for Christianity Today. "I think that as long as he doesn't get too specific about his Mormon faith ... many people will be willing to get on board."

Added evangelical public relations executive Mark DeMoss, who advised Mormon Mitt Romney's presidential campaign: "If he were mobilizing some sort of theological movement, I think most evangelicals would not get behind it but I don't sense that that's what he's doing."

In 2007, more than a third of Republican white evangelical Protestants said they would be reluctant to vote for a Mormon president, and 39 percent of white evangelical Protestants viewed Mormons unfavorably, according to a poll conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron, said doctrinal differences between evangelicals and Mormons have historically made it difficult for them to form alliances.

Some prominent evangelicals have distanced themselves in the past from Beck because of his Mormonism. In 2008, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson abruptly pulled an interview with Beck after viewers voiced concern about "theological compromise."

Green said much of the squeamishness is due to the additional sacred scripture and tenets that Mormons revere along with the Bible.

But despite those differences, he said there has been a growing sense of pragmatism among religious leaders who have worked together.

For example, evangelical leaders defended the Mormon Church when gay activists criticized it during the contentious debate over gay marriage in California.

Randall Balmer, professor of religious history at Barnard College, said Beck may be showing Romney a "better way to the heart of evangelicals" by being more forthright about his Mormon faith. He even speculated that perhaps Beck is a "stalking horse for Mitt Romney in 2012."

Whether or not Beck has such political aspirations, Balmer said his efforts to draw evangelical attention could end up creating exactly what Falwell's father envisioned -- a powerful coalition of politically conservative evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons.

"If Beck truly emerges as a leader for that movement, he will have fulfilled Jerry Falwell's dream," said Balmer. "I think Beck is working awfully hard to ingratiate himself to that population."

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

By Bruce Nolan
c. 2010 Religion News Service

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) With prayers and the tolling of bells, but also with second-line parades and Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleanians on Sunday (Aug. 29)took stock of their rebuilt lives in the five years since the worst event in the region's history and promised to keep the recovery going.

Observances of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its levee failures entailed a complicated daylong inventory conducted as a light, steady rain drenched the landscape. The day was filled with gratitude, mourning, frustration and hope in the face of a mammoth rebuilding job not yet complete.

"We are not rebuilding the city that was; we are rebuilding the city that is to be," Mayor Mitch Landrieu told the audience at the city's official event at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, where the anniversary commemoration turned into a fiercely joyous celebration of New Orleans culture.

It opened with drumming and the arrival of a dozen Mardi Gras Indian chiefs in full regalia, with Big Chief Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias leading the audience in the traditional "My Indian Red" and other chants.

The explicit message: New Orleans' cultural heart still beats.

The anniversary drew to New Orleans President Barack Obama and his family as well as actress Sandra Bullock, who helped open a health clinic at Warren Easton Charter High School.

At Xavier University, Obama quoted from the Book of Job, and
promised: "My administration is going to stand with you, and fight alongside you, until the job is done, until New Orleans is all the way back."

Later, in Metairie, Gov. Bobby Jindal told more than 1,000 people at Celebration Church that "sometimes it takes a tragedy like Katrina to remind you of what's really important -- to treasure the people in our lives, to make the most of our time on this earth."

In St. Bernard Parish, residents at Shell Beach cast a wreath onto the waters of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, which five years ago shotgunned a wall of water into the parish and the Lower 9th Ward, destroying everything in its path.

But after five years of hard work, that ceremony saw more than loss.
Pastor Ben Alderman of Harvest Time Ministries noted the unity that Katrina forged in hardship.

"We have unity here in our parish. That's what makes us so proud and so powerful, that we can love one another, we can go through these storms, we can go through that oil slick, we can go through things that come upon us."

At St. Louis Cathedral, representatives of eight world religions and hundreds of participants prayed in gratitude, grief and hope.

Lutheran Bishop Michael Rinehart told hundreds at the interfaith service that "suffering is the crucible of greatness" and that New Orleans has emerged from its near-death experience with a clearer vision of what it wants to become.

"We will never be the same," said Rinehart. "Thank God, we will never be the same."

But recovery has been uneven from storm that killed 1,464 in Louisiana, wrecked 182,000 homes and drove 125,000 in continuing exile.

Post-Katrina data indicate widening disparities among rich and poor around New Orleans. In the Lower 9th Ward, where a handful of trophy homes stand sentinel over a still-ruined neighborhood, more than 1,000 residents gathered to protest their plight and renew their loyalty to their neighborhood, come what may.

Some, like Monique Atkinson, wore T-shirts memorializing loved ones killed in the storm -- in her case, her aunt, Margie Lewis, 75, who was torn from her son's grasp and swept away by the floodwaters coursing through Gentilly.

Her body has never been found, Atkinson said.

And others repeated a common theme: They are determined to stay in the Lower 9th, but that flaws in the Road Home program and other public assistance programs systematically discriminated against the historic blue-collar neighborhood that was one of the most severely damaged in
the storm.

The ceremonies just a few blocks from the Industrial Canal floodwall that disastrously failed unfolded in a landscape where three-fourths of the neighborhood's residents have been unable to return.

While the neighborhood is a showcase for some well-documented homes, erected by actor Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation, vast stretches remain vacant and weed-choked. And it was this condition that residents sought to emphasize at the memorial, which began with a second-line up North Claiborne Avenue to the top of the bridge over the Industrial Canal, where a wreath was laid.

Calandthia Randall, who has rebuilt her home in the 7th Ward, said she nonetheless feels the recovery is incomplete.

"I'll be fully recovered when I see the city recovered," she said.

(Bruce Nolan writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Staff writers Chris Kirkham, Kari Dequine, John Pope contributed to this
report.)

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
permission.

Read this post »

JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish authorities at the Western Wall hope to
replace the existing opaque partition that separates the men's and
women's prayer areas with one that will enable female worshippers to see
into the men's section but not vice-versa.

The move follows years of complaints by female worshippers who have
been unable to see into the men's section, even during family bar
mitzvahs. Currently, female relatives who want to see a bar mitzvah from
the women's section must stand on plastic chairs and peer over the top
of the tall barrier, called a mechitza.

Mechitzas exist in all Orthodox synagogues because Jewish law
prohibits men and women from praying together. It also prohibits men
from seeing women during prayer.

To help women feel more a part of the service, some synagogues have
erected partitions made of one-way mirrors.

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said he and officials from the
Western Wall Heritage Foundation have been trying to find a solution for
some years now. Plans to install a mechitza made of one way mirrors were
dashed "when we discovered that, in direct sunlight, the one-way effect
is ineffective. In the sun, both sides are visible, the rabbi said.

"We are working with international experts to find or develop the
kind of glass we need," Rabinovitch said, but declined to give a
timetable.

Rabinovitch told Ynet News that he is pushing the matter because of
the obvious need to resolve the existing partition problem. "We, the
Western Wall administration, will do whatever is needed to enable women
who come ... to watch the daily celebrations, out of a genuine will to
improve the visiting experience," he said.

While many Jews have hailed the foundation's efforts as creative,
others have noted Rabinovitch's longstanding opposition to permitting
women to don prayer shawls or read from a Torah scroll at the Wall. His
position was eventually adopted by Israel's High Court of Justice.

-- Michele Chabin

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
permission.

Read this post »

By Nicole Neroulias
c. 2010 Religion News Service

(RNS) The outcry over the proposed Islamic community center near Ground
Zero should not be lumped together with protests against planned mosques
in other parts of the country, a new poll suggests.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose building an Islamic center or
mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terror attacks, but 76
percent would support one in their own communities, according to a
PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll released on Thursday (Aug. 26).

The strongest opposition to the New York project, called Park51,
came from Republicans (85 percent) and white evangelicals (75 percent
opposed the New York project, and 24 percent don't support mosques in
their own communities), according to the poll conducted by Public
Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service.

The numbers suggest that the negative reaction to what's been dubbed
the "Ground Zero mosque" stems more from its proximity a site that's
considered "sacred ground" by a majority of Americans rather than the
general Islamophobia exhibited in the nationwide protests, researchers
said.

"Our findings indicate that while the vocal opposition around the
country we've seen covered is real, it may not represent the views of
the vast majority of Americans," said Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public
Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan research firm in Washington.

"People are drawing a distinction between support for a
(hypothetical) mosque in their local community and support for the
particular mosque a few blocks from the former site of the World Trade
Center."

Among other findings from the PRRI/RNS poll:

-- Fifty-six percent of Americans consider the site of the 9/11
attacks "sacred ground," including 68 percent of Catholics, 53 percent
of white evangelicals, and 48 percent who claim no religious
affiliation. Thirty-eight percent disagreed.

-- Sixty-three percent of Catholics, 58 percent of black Protestants
and 55 percent of mainline Protestants expressed opposition to the New
York Islamic center. The only group that was marginally supportive was
religiously unaffiliated Americans, of whom 43 percent supported the
project and 40 percent opposed it.

Mark Silk, professor of religion in public life at Trinity College
in Hartford, Conn., said the poll may reflect the success of Park51's
opponents in getting their message across earlier and louder.

"You first hear `they're building a giant mosque on the site of
9/11,' and of course your first thought is that it's not a good idea.
Then you hear that it's a few blocks away ... but you've already been
thinking that it's not a good idea," he said. "It's a matter of public
relations."

In recent weeks, Park51 organizers have tried to revamp the
project's image, including changing its name from Cordoba House and
assembling a supportive coalition that includes interfaith leaders and
families affected by 9/11.

Park51 organizers Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan
have rejected suggestions that they relocate the project, a compromise
move pushed by New York Gov. David Paterson and New York Archbishop
Timothy Dolan.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg maintained his support for
Park51 at a Ramadan Dinner at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday, calling the
project "a test of our commitment to American values."

Relocating Park51 would not resolve the conflict, and it would send
the wrong message to Muslims at home and abroad, added Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"This is a manufactured controversy that is exploiting legitimate
emotions generated by the 9/11 attacks, by a vocal minority of
individuals with an agenda to marginalize Muslims and demonize Islam,"
he said. "I don't think hate-mongers should be handled a victory."

A separate study released by the Pew Research Center found that
American opinions of Islam have dropped from 41 percent favorable to 30
percent favorable since 2005. On the other hand, only 35 percent said
they believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage
violence, compared to 38 percent last year.

Hooper called the polls consistent with CAIR's position that the
mosque protests across the country represent a minority, however vocal,
of public sentiment.

"We need to promote educational initiatives and outreach initiatives
in the local communities," he said. "When people know more about Islam,
prejudice goes down. And when they interact more with Muslims, prejudice
also goes down."

Silk found some reason for optimism in the fact that a strong
majority of Americans reject the idea of treating minority religions
with fear and suspicion, even at a time of war.

"The history of the country has not been so great on a lot of
feelings towards minorities, whether they're blacks or Jews or
Catholics, and of course the Japanese during World War II," he said.
"Yet three-quarters of the American people acknowledge the right of
Muslims to build religious centers in their own communities. I think
that's not too bad, really."

The PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll was based on telephone interviews of
1,005 U.S. adults between August 20 and 22. The poll has a margin of
error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
permission.

Read this post »

By Daniel Burke
c. 2010 Religion News Service

(RNS) For the second time in two years, the Rev. Jane Spahr is on trial in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for performing same-sex weddings.

A retired pastor and self-described "lesbian evangelist," Spahr, 68, was acquitted of similar charges by the denomination's high court in 2008. The same-sex ceremony she had presided over in 2006 was not really a "marriage" since neither church nor state recognized it as such, the court ruled.

Months after that ruling, Spahr again wed a same-sex couple. This time, however, same-sex marriage was legal in California. In fact, Spahr wed more than 16 gay and lesbian couples before California voters passed Proposition 8 and outlawed same-sex marriages in November 2008.

"These are marriages," Spahr said in an interview. "They were legal marriages that were done. There is no question about that."

Now, less than three weeks after a federal judge overturned Prop 8, a seven-judge church court in Napa, Calif., must decide whether Spahr broke church rules while following state law.

Liberal and conservative Presbyterians alike have little doubt about the outcome of the three-day trial that began Tuesday (Aug. 24). They expect the liberal Presbytery of the Redwoods to acquit Spahr.

More important, they say, is what the higher courts decide when the ruling is inevitably appealed, and how Spahr's case plays out in the court of public opinion. A decision from the Redwoods Presbytery court is expected to be issued early next week.

With about 2 million members, the PCUSA is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., though it has been losing members for decades, with dozens of congregations leaving amid a 40-year fight over homosexuality. On Sunday (Aug. 22), the 1,700-member Colonial Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Mo., voted to leave the PCUSA to join a more conservative denomination.

Spahr's case also highlights a new dilemma for progressive Presbyterian pastors who live and work in the five states and the District of Columbia where same-sex marriage is legal.

At least a dozen Presbyterian pastors are marrying same-sex couples under the radar, said Pam Byers, executive director of the liberal Covenant Network of Presbyterians.

Under PCUSA law, pastors are allowed to bless same-gender unions, but are not permitted to call them marriages or represent them as such.

Many progressive pastors say the rule creates a separate-but-unequal arrangement that alienates their gay and lesbian parishioners.

In Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2004, a mid-level church court convicted the Rev. Jean Southard in June of violating the PCUSA's constitution and her ordination vows by officiating at the marriage of a lesbian couple.

Southard has appealed the conviction, which will now be considered by the PCUSA's highest court, the Permanent Judicial Council of the General Assembly. That decision will likely come before Spahr's case reaches the high court.

In July, delegates to the PCUSA's General Assembly voted to lift a ban on sexually active gay and lesbian clergy. But the ban must be ratified by a majority of the church's 173 regional presbyteries, where similar moves have been defeated four times in the last dozen years.

In the absence of a firm consensus on same-sex marriage and gay clergy, PCUSA courts have been reluctant to deliver rulings on the merits of cases like Spahr's, often tailoring narrow judgments around technical issues instead.

Some Presbyterians predict Spahr's trial will produce a similar result.

"A lot of time and energy and money will be spent on what in the end will probably not be a clarifying moment for the church," said the Rev. Jerry Andrews, a San Diego pastor and moderator of the conservative Presbyterian Coalition.

"It's doubtful it will stop at the lower level, and its interpretation (of church law) will be ambiguous, maybe intentionally so."

But Byers said the Spahr case provides progressives with another venue to make the case -- both inside and outside the courthouse -- for gay marriage.

"Jane's ministry is in two parts," Byers said. "It is primarily pastoral, but it's also a ministry of witness. So she has the three days of the trial to present lots and lots of witnesses. The actual import of this case and this ruling is educational."

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

WASHINGTON (RNS) The most sweeping changes to the Catholic Mass in 40 years will be rolled out in 2011, the U.S. bishops announced Friday (Aug. 20) after receiving formal approval from the Vatican.

The new English-language translation of the Roman Missal, the official text of prayers and responses used in the Mass, will be implemented on Nov. 27, 2011, the first Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical year.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Vatican approval was granted on June 23, with additional changes approved on July 24.

Over the next year, priests and parishioners will work through the changes to the text, such as the prayer "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you," which will change to "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof."

Other familiar passages, such as "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again" will no longer be used. Changes to the wording of the Nicene and Apostles' creeds have also been made.

The bishops said "no other edition of the Roman Missal may be used"
in U.S. dioceses. Monsignor Anthony Sherman of the bishop's liturgy office said dioceses should start planning now "so that when the time comes, everyone will be ready."

Pope John Paul II ordered the new translations to encourage greater fidelity to the original Latin. Translations into local languages after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s were too hastily and sloppily produced, according to the late pope.

Some U.S. bishops have objected to the changes as difficult to understand and pronounce, but the Vatican showed no willingness to keep the current Mass that's familiar to millions of Catholics.

Also included in the new translation are prayers for holidays specific to the United States, such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day, as well as prayers to U.S. saints, including St. Damien of Hawaii, St. Katharine Drexel and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

The new translation also includes a special Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life, to be celebrated each year on Jan.
22, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

-- Kevin Eckstrom

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

(RNS) Fire officials in Gainesville, Fla., have denied a permit to a church that wants to burn Qurans on Sept. 11, but church officials said they'll go ahead with the protest that has garnered worldwide attention.

Leaders of the Dove World Outreach Center say "Islam is of the Devil" and plan to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Gene Prince, interim chief of Gainesville Fire Rescue, told The Gainesville Sun that he informed the church on Tuesday (Aug. 17) that the protest violates local fire-prevention laws, which include rules against burning corrugate cardboard or office paper, which includes books.

"It wouldn't matter what the book is they're burning," Deputy Chief Tim Hayes told the newspaper.

Regardless, the church sent out an e-mail vowing to go burn the books anyway. "City of Gainesville denies burn permit -- BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS," The Sun reported.

The church's website includes a list of 10 reasons to burn the Quran, including "Islamic Law is totalitarian in nature," Islamic teaching contains "irrational fear and loathing of the West" and that the Quran teaches that Jesus "was NOT the Son of God."

-- Kevin Eckstrom

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

By Adelle M. Banks
c. 2010 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Two new polls say as many as one in four Americans mistakenly believe President Obama is a Muslim, presenting the White House with the unique challenge of defining a central element of the president's life story.

Asked in a Time magazine poll whether the president is a Muslim or a Christian, 24 percent of respondents said Muslim, and 47 percent said Christian.

A separate Pew poll released Thursday (Aug. 19) found that 18 percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim. A full 43 percent of Americans -- across lines of race, political party and religion -- don't know what faith he follows.

Perhaps most strikingly, the number of Americans who believe Obama is a Muslim has increased over the last 18 months, while fewer believe that he's a Christian. The percentage of Americans who could identify Obama as a Christian has dropped from 48 percent to 34 percent, according to the Pew poll.

Experts pointed to a number of possible explanations, but one quickly rose to the top: The candidate who discovered Christian faith in a Chicago black church has rarely been seen leaving the White House for Sunday services.

"Possibly this reflects the degree to which this president is less public about his religion, especially than his predecessor was," said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Whatever the reason, White House spokesman Shin Inouye described Obama Thursday (Aug. 19) as a man of "strong Christian faith" even though "he doesn't wear it on his sleeve."

"He prays every day, he seeks a small circle of Christian pastors to give him spiritual advice and counseling, he even receives a daily devotional that he uses each morning," Inouye said.

Shaun Casey, an ethics professor at Wesley Theological Seminary and a former adviser to the Obama campaign, said the poll findings indicate a "communications problem" in the White House, but also continuing opposition to the president.

Casey noted the Pew poll's finding that Republicans showed the most marked increase in believing Obama is a Muslim.

"It shows that people who are not political supporters are the ones who are willing to offer up their opinion he is a Muslim," Casey said.

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said the findings refute the "reasonable expectation" that as Americans come to know Obama better, they would have a more accurate picture of his faith.

"The fact that we don't see a lot of pictures of him attending a house of worship ... might have some kind of effect," said Green, who worked on the Pew study with other researchers.

As president, Obama has addressed his faith occasionally, telling how he and other Christians "glory in the promise of redemption in the resurrection" at an Easter prayer breakfast last April, or telling the National Prayer Breakfast in February, "I assure you I'm praying a lot these days."

Obama had planned to attend "a number of different churches" in Washington, but the Obamas have visited only a few, including St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House, two historically black Baptist congregations in Washington, and the Washington National Cathedral for an inauguration prayer service.

The Pew poll of some 3,000 respondents was taken between July 21 and Aug. 5, before the president waded into the controversy over a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. After telling a Ramadan dinner at the White House that the U.S. has an "unshakeable" commitment to religious freedom, the next day he said he would not "comment on the wisdom" of placing the Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks.

The Time poll of some 1,000 adults was taken just after he made his comments.

Observers said the findings may have less to do with Obama and more to do with opponents who skillfully used the media -- especially the Internet -- to spread misinformation about the president.

Sally Steenland, a senior policy adviser to the Faith and Public Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress think tank, said it's important for people of all parties to be responsible about telling the truth.

"Do any of us want to live in a country, or do we want to be voting, on the basis of made-up reality?" she said. "This is a pollution of democracy."

The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a professor of African-American studies and sociology at Colby College, said trying to fix the misperceptions could be a "difficult strategy" and "problematic" for the White House.

"I think sincerity in terms of his relationship with God is more important than trying to move poll numbers around religion," she said.

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

By Adelle M. Banks
c. 2010 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) What started as a local zoning debate about an Islamic center near Ground Zero, and then morphed into a fight over religious expression, has now turned into an election-year political brawl.

Caught in the middle of the rancorous partisan fight are American Muslims, whose own voices have been drowned out by politicians on both the left and the right.

"In a fundamental sense, this is not a conversation about Muslims,"
said Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "This is a conversation in which the Muslims are being used as the football with which to play the game of competing visions of America."

President Obama waded into the debate on Friday (Aug. 13) when he hailed America's "unshakeable" commitment to religious freedom during a White House dinner to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,"
Obama said. "And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."

Perhaps sensing the political storm clouds that were gathering, Obama said Saturday that he would not "comment on the wisdom" of whether to build near Ground Zero, which the night before he had called "hallowed ground."

Republicans, however, pounced. Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican responsible for adding GOP Senate seats in the November elections, said Obama "seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America" and called his remarks "unwise." The top Republican in the House, Minority Leader John Boehner, called them "deeply troubling."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat whose district includes the site of the proposed Cordoba House in lower Manhattan, fired back on CNN's "State of the Union."

"It is only insensitive if you regard Islam as the culprit as opposed to al-Qaida as the culprit," Nadler said Sunday. "We were not attacked by all Muslims."

GOP luminaries like former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have already promised to make the issue one for the voting booths in November, with Gingrich telling The New York Times that Obama was "pandering to radical Islam."

According to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 54 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans oppose the New York mosque project. The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody predicted the issue will have legs in 2010 and beyond.

"This situation all by itself has the potential to make President Obama a one-term president," he wrote Monday (Aug. 16) on his "Brody File" blog. "This latest mosque move may be the fatal blow."

Shahed Amanullah, founder of altmuslim.com, a popular Muslim website, agreed that the fight could influence some voters this fall -- "people are still going to be drunk on this issue," he said -- but probably not beyond that.

"We're definitely far enough from 2012 where the dust will have settled," Amanullah predicted.

Lost in the debate, Amanullah said, is the interfaith bridge-building that the Cordoba House once hoped to foster, in part because of anti-Muslim vitriol that he said is worse than immediately after 9/11.

"The people that are being ostracized, I think, right now are the people that are in the middle, who feel that Muslims belong in America but have misgivings (about the center)," he said. "Those people are ...
caught in the crossfire because the opposition is being led by people who, in my personal opinion, really don't believe that Muslims belong in America."

Also forgotten, said UNC's Safi, is the fact that the proposed building near Ground Zero is not just a mosque, but a community center that would include a swimming pool and a wedding hall in addition to a place for prayer.

"It's as American as megachurches," he said. "It's as American as Jewish community centers."

Melissa Rogers, an expert on church-state relations who has praised New York officials for supporting "a linchpin of the American tradition of religious liberty," said the overall debate could send the wrong message to Muslims, both at home and abroad.

A planned protest at a Florida church to burn copies of the Quran on the 9/11 anniversary can only make things worse, she said.

"I do think that there's a real danger that Muslims receive the message that they are second-class citizens and that their rights have an asterisk beside them, if you will," said Rogers, director of Wake Forest University Divinity School's Center for Religion and Public Affairs.

Rogers hopes grass-roots Americans, including religious leaders, can help lead the discussion above the political fray.

"Americans have an important role in this debate," she said. "It goes to our core values and we should talk about it and we should definitely try to bring more light than heat to the issue, no matter what the politicians are doing."

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

By DANIEL BURKE
c. 2010 Religion News Service
(RNS) Contrary to what they say about Las Vegas, what happens in one branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion rarely stays there.

And no one knows this more than the former Episcopal bishop of Sin City, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is now presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Schori recently wrapped up a whirlwind tour of six Anglican provinces -- all of them English-speaking -- where she defended her church's acceptance of gay bishops and same-sex unions, and its commitment to maintaining ties with other provinces.

In June and July, Jefferts Schori traveled to Canada, Scotland, England, Australia, New Zealand and Wales, addressing synods, preaching at cathedrals, sitting on panels, talking with parishioners, and meeting with powerful archbishops.

At almost every stop, the presiding bishop's message was subtle but
clear: her church's embrace of gays and lesbians is grounded in the gospel, and the Anglican Communion has always allowed local autonomy in its provinces.

Jefferts Schori and her staff say the visits abroad were planned well before the controversy that followed the May 15 consecration of Bishop Mary Douglas Glasspool in Los Angeles, the second openly gay bishop in the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

Still, her timing could not have been more fortuitous. In the weeks before a top Anglican committee decided whether to punish the Episcopal Church for ignoring warnings not to consecrate Glasspool, Jefferts Schori visited the homelands -- and sometimes home churches -- of five of the committee's 13 members.

(Jefferts Schori herself and another U.S. bishop hold seats on the panel, the Anglican Communion Standing Committee.)

On July 24, the panel firmly rejected a proposal to "separate" the Episcopal Church from the rest of the communion, calling the move premature and "unhelpful."

In a recent webcast, Jefferts Schori was asked if she was trying to shore up support from other provinces before the meeting. "That was certainly not the intent," she answered. "It may have been a byproduct."

"We have partners all across the Anglican Communion," Jefferts Schori continued. "These visits had been set up some time ago, well before the timing of the Standing Committee meeting was known, basically as a way of building relationships between our respective provinces."

Neva Rae Fox, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church, said Jefferts Schori was not available for further comment on her travels.

The visits come in the wake of a war of words between Jefferts Schori and Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the communion, over whether inter-Anglican conflicts over homosexuality should be settled by centralizing authority in the hands of a few powerful bishops and committees.

Jim Naughton, a progressive blogger at Episcopal Cafe, said Jefferts Schori's international diplomacy is necessary to counter conservatives who have labeled Episcopalians as heretics and want them ousted from the communion.

"Something like this was long overdue," he said. "One thing people underestimate is the effect of a constant drumbeat of vilification on the morale of the church. The Episcopal Church has an organized opposition that would be very happy to replace it or destroy it. They put an image of the presiding bishop and the Episcopal Church out there, and if we do not engage with that, that's the image that takes hold."

But the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative theologian from South Carolina, criticized what he called Jefferts Schori's "charm offensive."

"The clear implication of her message is that the American church is way out ahead, but fortunately it will wait for the rest of the communion to catch up," Harmon said.

While Jefferts Schori said she was "received very well," there were some diplomatic snafus. Williams' office asked her not to wear her miter, a pointy hat that symbolizes her rank as a bishop, while preaching at London's Southwark Cathedral. The presiding bishop called the request "beyond bizarre."

Also, at a panel in England, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, South Africa, chided Episcopalians for acting "in ways that communicated a lack of care about the consequences of their actions."

In Sydney, the Anglican Church League, an evangelical group, said Jefferts Schori bears "a great deal of responsibility" for the "division and anguish" in the communion.

"It is entirely inappropriate that she should be welcomed into any diocese in the Anglican Church of Australia," the Rev. Mark Thompson, the league's president, said in a statement.

And Anglicans in New Zealand kept her visit "low key," according to a local media report, not allowing her to appear at a prominent cathedral.

"Nobody makes any bones about the fact that she does represent tension," Lloyd Ashton, a spokesman for the Anglican church in New Zealand, told The Press, a local newspaper.

"There is not going to be an endorsement of where the Episcopalian (sic) Church is going," Ashton said.

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

GENEVA (RNS/ENInews) World Christian leaders are paying tribute to the ecumenical Taize community in eastern France, which is marking the 70th anniversary of its founding in 1940 by Brother Roger Schutz, who died in 2005.

In a message in advance of the Saturday (Aug. 14) commemoration, Pope Benedict XVI described Schutz as a "pioneer in the difficult paths toward unity among the disciples of Christ."

"Seventy years ago, he began a community that continues to see thousands of young adults, searching for meaning in their lives, come to it from around the world, welcoming them in prayer and allowing them to experience a personal relationship with God," Benedict said.

Schutz died at age 90 after being attacked with a knife by a mentally disturbed woman during evening prayers on Aug. 16, 2005 at the ecumenical community's headquarters in Burgundy.

Schutz, a Swiss Protestant, arrived in the village of Taize on Aug.
20, 1940 with the idea of founding an ecumenical monastic community.

"With him and the brothers who shared his vision ..., Taize has become a true center, a focal point and a place of gathering; a place of deepening in prayer, of listening and humility," said Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodoxy.

From the 1960s onwards, thousands of young people made pilgrimages to Taize to experience its ecumenical spirituality and unique worship styles.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev.
Olav Fykse Tveit, described the community "as a model for attending to the spiritual and physical needs of the whole people of God and in particular the needs of young people."

After Schutz's death, Brother Alois, a German Catholic, became prior of the community.

"Today at Taize, a hundred brothers, Catholics and Protestants, live together. And the community is often visited by young believers from the Orthodox churches," said Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, described Schutz as "one of the few figures who truly change the climate of a religious culture, not by the exercise either of force or of cheap popularity, but by a lifelong practice of Christ-like authority."

Though Schutz remained a Protestant until his death, he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and received the Catholic Eucharist from the hands of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who weeks later would become Pope Benedict XVI.

-- Stephen Brown

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

By ALFREDO GARCIA
c. 2010 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) When the Baptist World Alliance held its global conference in Hawaii earlier this month, it was missing about 1,000 attendees from around the world.

In June, the inaugural meeting of the World Communion of Reformed Churches in Grand Rapids, Mich., was missing 74, and the Seventh-day Adventists' General Conference in Atlanta was missing about 200.

The three church groups said foreign delegates' visas were denied by U.S. officials, meaning some nations lacked representation at the global assemblies that occur only once every several years.

"I was deeply saddened" by the visa problems, said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, which merged with another group in Grand Rapids to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

"I don't think you hear of government events or corporate events that have this percentage of people denied visas."

A lot of it had to do with money, he believes, saying "the criteria (for securing visas) are so skewed to the financial status of people involved."

Church officials say they fully complied with State Department rules on international visas for visiting delegates -- particularly providing evidence visitors would return to their country of origin once the meetings ended.

"We registered our session with the U.S. State Department, and they put it on their internal intranet site," said Rosa Banks, associate secretary of the Adventists' General Conference. "And we updated it on a weekly basis when we got into the process."

Like the Reformed gathering, Adventists said they found many of the rejected visas came from poverty-stricken areas of the world.

"The countries where we had the most problems were in West Africa, particularly Nigeria, and districts in India," said Banks. "We have to assure that our delegates are going to return."

Church leaders weren't quiet about their anger.

"As a citizen of this country, I am outraged that United States consulates have refused access to an international ecumenical gathering because they feared terrorism and illegal immigration," the Rev. Susan Davies of the United Church of Christ told the meeting.

In an Aug. 3 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials, the Reformed leaders said "the decisions (to grant or deny visas) seem arbitrary."

The letter acknowledged concerns about illegal immigration, subversive activities and the need to present evidence of funding while in the U.S.

"What we do not understand, and cannot accept," the letter said, "is the fact that the 74 who were denied visas provided evidence that should have convinced the U.S. consuls in all these areas."

A State Department spokeswoman said the U.S. holds a high standard when considering visa applicants that, unfortunately, often leads to denials for those who cannot provide sufficient evidence of returning to their homeland.

"It's not about the conference, it's about the applicant. And each one has to demonstrate that they qualify for the visa in accordance with the law," said Rosemary Macray, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs with the State Department.

Applicants must show "a wealth of information and need to show strong ties to their home country and convince the adjudicating officer beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will return to their home country after their stay in the U.S." she said.

Ongoing visa problems, however, could prompt some leaders to rethink holding future conferences in the U.S.

"We are getting into a position where it's difficult to host major international ecumenical events in the U.S. with integrity," Kirkpatrick said.

It also provides an image to the world that the U.S. is "not a welcoming country," the letter to Clinton said.

"Our letter to you is not only a complaint," the letter said. "It is a call for action."

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

(RNS) Same-sex couples can begin marrying in California again on Aug. 18 after a federal judge lifted a stay on his recent ruling that struck down California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

"Based on the trial record, which establishes that Proposition 8 violates plaintiffs' equal protection and due process rights, the court cannot conclude that proponents have shown a likelihood of success on appeal," wrote U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker in a closely watched order that was issued Thursday (Aug. 12).

The Alliance Defense Fund, which had argued for keeping the stay that was issued with Walker's original Aug. 4 decision, said it would appeal on behalf of ProtectMarriage.com.

"This case has just begun, and ADF and the rest of the legal team are confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld," said Jim Campbell, an ADF lawyer.

"It makes no sense to impose a radical change in marriage on the people of California before all appeals on their behalf are heard."

Equality California, the largest gay rights organization in the state, praised Walker's decision to lift the stay.

"This case has definitively proven that extending the freedom to marry to same-sex couples causes no harm and is in line with our country's core values of equality and liberty," said Geoff Kors, the group's executive director. "Today is a monumental step forward for our entire nation."

-- Adelle M. Banks

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

Read this post »

As believers in the literal truth of the Bible, they knew it was there.

Thanks to a deadlock engineered by the U.S. government, the Middle East peace process is stalled.