RELIGIOUS NEWS - 1996-APRIL

• Newspaper Brookings Daily Register, Brookings SD 1996-APR-30
  A Violent Society by Molly Miron
  "Racial bigotry, homophobia and religious prejudice run throughout society, and the situation is getting worse, according to presenters at Monday's Brookings Human Rights Committee forum". The keynote speaker was John LaVelle, a law professor from the University of South Dakota. He discussed two recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court which has converted the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, into "a toothless act--it's unenforceable". In one case, the Native American Church was prohibited from using peyote as a sacrament. In the other, the court authorized a road in northern California which will run through land that three native tribes consider to be holy.
• Newspaper Kingston Whig Standard, Kingston ON 1996-APR-29
  Pope says Resurrection no fraud
  At his Saturday address in St. Peter's Square, the Pope said that there is compelling evidence for the existence of the Resurrection. One good indicator is the effect that Jesus' return had on the apostles and disciples. The topic has been addressed recently in books and seminars; some liberal theologians question whether it really took place.
• News Service Southam Newspapers, Canada 1996-APR-22
  Committee puts religious oath on trial
  A federal-provincial working group has recommended that the Christian religious oath used in courts be replaced with a simple promise to tell the truth. Their paper notes that only about 25% of adults take part in religious services. Although Canadians have been able to make a promise without a Bible being present, many feel intimidated by the process or are unaware of their options. The traditional Biblical oath has caused problems in the past: some people have objected to swearing on certain versions of the bible; other groups have objected to taking an oath at all. "The use of non-Christian oaths can complicate matters by opening the door to procedural errors, delays and unforeseen headaches" says the paper. Susan Campbell of the (Canadian) Federal Justice Department's social policy section said that "the issue is still on the table".
• Newspaper Mercury News, San Jose CA 1996-APR-20
  Methodists Seek Unity at National Conference
  The United Methodist Church's General Conference is being held in Denver CO. They have the formidable job of considering abut 3,000 petitions on a wide variety of religious and secular issues, "including a statement on baptism, rules on the Methodist ministry, and resolutions on gambling, abortion, the death penalty and tobacco..... Christian-Jewish cooperation, an apology to American Indians for Colorado's Sand Creek massacre of 1864, and support of a proposal in Congress that the US government consider reparations to African-Americans because of slavery." Some Methodists feel it is no longer appropriate to meet in Colorado, because of that state's Amendment 2, an anti-gay rights measure.
• News Service Reuters 1996-APR-20
  Worshipers gather to view Holy Coat
  The cathedral of Trier, Germany, has on display the robe that some believers say was worn by Jesus Christ on the way to the crucifixion. It has only been revealed to the public on two other occasions this century: in 1933 and 1959. It is expected to attract up to 1 million visitors. Unfortunately, it is impossible with current technology to carbon date the robe, because it was dipped in a rubber preservative during the 19th century. A group of skeptics has organized a counter-display of the underwear of Karl Mark, perhaps the most famous citizen of Trier.
• News Service Canadian Press 1996-APR-18
  TV Show draws complaints over use of native masks
  On APR-21, the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards show will be televised. The commercials for this show allegedly include the use of false face masks. George Miller, a Mohawk and federal civil servant, has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission over the use of Native religious objects "in a trivial, disrespectful way which for the Iroquois is sacrilege". The sponsor of the awards claims that the masks are crafts which are sold by the hundreds to tourists. The masks involved in the commercials were bought at a tourist outlet on the Six Nations reserve. Real ritual masks used by the False Face Society are created from live wood, undergo a ceremony once a year where they are ritually fed, and are always kept inside the longhouse.
• Newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Belfast, Ireland 1996-APR-18
  Priests celebrated IRA killing
  Sean O'Callaghan, a convicted IRA terrorist, claims that Roman Catholic priests "showered [him] with holy water and prayers" immediately after he murdered Detective Inspector Peter Flanagan, an Ulster police officer. Flanagan was targeted by the IRA because he was a Roman Catholic who was considered to have "betrayed his own". O'Callaghan was sheltered in a parochial house where the most senior of the priests called Flanagan "An abominable man who abandoned his faith and sold his soul to the devil". O'Callaghan claims that there are still extensive links between the Catholic Church in Ireland and the IRA. A Catholic spokesman stated that the church had always been opposed to the IRA campaign of murder.
• News Service Southham Newspapers 1996-APR-18
  Bishops join gay rights debate
  The Canadian Federal political parties which have held power since 1986 have continually promised to bring in a law extending basic civil rights to homosexuals. The promises have been continually broken due to opposition from some Members of Parliament and conservative religious groups. Most Rev. Francis Spence, the president of the Catholic bishops in Canada issued a letter saying that "discrimination against homosexuals should be outlawed - but only if same-sex couples are treated differently from heterosexual couples" They ask that the bill be further delayed until after an "in-depth study is completed. The Conservative Party has introduced a bill in the Senate which would extend some rights to gays and lesbians. [No, that is not a typo.] The New Democratic Party, who are socialists, has introduced the identical bill in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Chretien's latest promise is to bring forth a bill "sometime" before the next election.
• Newspaper Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City UT 1996-APR-17
  State Lawmakers Deal with Gay Clubs
  [Background: A number of gay and lesbian high school students applied for permission to organize a school club for mutual support. The initial response of Utah lawmakers was to ban all school clubs, from astronomy to glee club. This would have generated extreme amounts of anger by the student body against homosexuals; some persons claimed that this was the intent of the law makers.] On April 16, Gov. Mike Leavitt and other legislators concluded a secret meeting to present the latest approach to selectively ban homosexual clubs. It would let the local school board decide which clubs should be forbidden.

  "Religious leaders, including Catholic Bishop George H. Niederauer, spiritual leader to Utah's 80,000 Catholics, issued a statement promoting diversity and tolerance, decrying bigotry and asking elected officials 'to refrain from divisive and polarizing behavior.'" [The legislators seem to be driven by a belief that "gayness" is somehow catching and that if we suppress all gay groups and information it will simply go away. We can think of no group in high schools that is more in need of a mutual support group than homosexuals.]

• Fax Service Focus on the Family 1996-APR-12
  Pastor's Weekly Briefing
  This is a fax service which informs pastors of religious developments in the United States. This particular briefing contained a number of items, including:
  • "Acceptance of homosexuality increases" According to a USA Today/CNN Gallop Poll, the percentage of people who accept homosexuality as "acceptable" has increased from 34% in 1982 to 44% during the poll on 1996-MAR-15 to 17. [The briefing does not define whether the poll referred to homosexual feelings or homosexual behaviour; they didn't define what the term "acceptable" means].
  • H.B. London, Jr. (a regular columnist for the "Briefing") discussed the decline in church attendance in the United States. He quotes the 1996 issue of Leadership Journal which reports that not a single county reports an increase in church affiliation. 41% of the population is currently ""unclaimed by a major Judeo-Christian religious group." He quotes a USA Today Snapshot of 1996-APR-4 which states that "Just 37% of [adult] Americans say they've attended a religious services in the past week vs. 49% in 1991." [According to the Angus Reid poll, about 22% of Canadian adults attend religious services regularly].

    Church attendance for adults who are 30 years of age or younger has remained more or less constant at about 1 in 3. Attendance for people in their 30's and 40's have declined steeply from 50% to 31% over the last 5 years! Those in their 50's and 60's have remained more or less constant, dropping only from about 52% to about 46%. But those 69 and over have dropped significantly from 69% to 48%. London has asked people to Fax him at (719)531-3347 with an answer to: "I believe/do not believe church attendance in the US is in a downturn because..."

• Newspaper The Orlando Sentinel, Orlando FL, 1996-APR-14
  Episcopalians Protest Female Leader
  A group of about 50 conservative Episcopalians from the Washington area, who represent Concerned Parishioners of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington marched past the National Cathedral on Saturday. They were protesting visits to their churches by Jane Holmes Dixon, one of six female assistant bishops in the US. The group opposes the ordination of women and non-celibate homosexuals.
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-APR-12
  Climate of Ideas: Search for the Historical Jesus by Martin Levin
  Time, Newsweek and Macleans [the Canadian news magazine] all had April 8 cover stories relating to religious faith. "These were the most public airings yet" of the 160 year old debate over "higher criticism", which is the analysis of Biblical text and church beliefs as historical documents. This approach is in continual conflict with people who accept the writings as the revered word of God. Much attention lately has been given to the Jesus Seminar a group of 75 liberal University Bible scholars, mostly from North American universities. They have been seen by some as undermining the fundamentals of Christianity: the Nativity and Resurrection. A book by the Seminar The Acts of Jesus is about to be published; it questions the historical veracity of both beliefs.
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-APR-12
  Police Raids Religious Community on Fishing Expedition
  Canadian police in Winnipeg, Manitoba raided 6 homes and buildings operated by a religious community called The Community of Winnipeg. They were searching for two children who had not been returned to their Vermont mother after a visit. The father is a member of the Community. The search warrant also authorized the police to look for signs of abuse in any other children that they came across. This is the latest investigation of intentional communities that are affiliated with this religious group. No child abuse has ever been found. [Many child protection service agencies, following various hoaxes, urban folk tales and mis-information believe that child abuse is common within intentional religious communities. So the police and CPS continue to raid, and come up empty handed. The members of such communities are mildly terrorized by the raids; it is one of the costs of following a non-traditional religious path.]
• Newspaper Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1996-APR
  New New Testament
  Some Biblical experts in the Jesus Seminar are proposing some major changes to the Bible:
  • addition of a fifth gospel, the Gospel of Thomas
  • additional books from the early church which resemble Revelations: the apocalypses of Peter, Baruch and Ezra
  • deleting of existing books which did not have wide acceptance in the early church: Jude, James and Revelation
  • addition of more recent writings: by Augustine and Ingnatius of Antioch
  [Makes a lot of sense, but we doubt that it will ever happen]
• Internet Mailing List 1996-APR-12
  "Religious Access Dispute Resolved"
  The "Cathedral of the Pines" is a New Hampshire park with a religious theme. People of all denominations were given access and allowed to hold religious services. In the past, Wiccans were apparently excluded. The dispute was resolved as a result of meetings with the WADL (Witches' Anti Discrimination Lobby), the Cathedral of the Pines, and the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights. Wiccans will now have access to the park, equal with other religious groups. The park has even offered a permanent site that will be consecrated as a Wiccan sacred space.
• Book Review 1996-APR-8
  "Alternative Realities", by Dr. Leonard George
  Dr. George mentions that the belief in reincarnation is almost as common as belief in a heaven or hell or some other form of life after death. In the early years of the Christian Church, belief in reincarnation was common. St. Jerome felt threatened by the concept that we may be reincarnated as a person of the opposite gender. He wrote that "we may have to fear that we who are now men may be born women".
• Reuter, 1996-APR-6
  Easter Marked With 14 Crucifixions
  14 people, including one couple, one Japanese and 13 Filipinos, were nailed to wooden crosses in the Cutud region of the Philippines. 5 inch nails were hammered through the palms and feet of Schinichrio Kaneko, a Japanese Roman Catholic who was then hung for 10 minutes. Dozens of others whipped "their own backs into bloody pulp"; at least one used a "bamboo whip encrusted with glass shards."
• Newspaper Letter to the Editor, Globe and Mail, Toronto ON 1996-APR-5
  Jesus' Ancestory: a letter by David J Colman
  "...those [old testament] prophecies state that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David, they further state that it will be through his son Solomon. All scriptural sources trace tribal descent through the father and, as Jesus is declared to have no corporeal biological father, he cannot, therefore, be a fulfillment of those prophecies. And even if Jesus is viewed as a descendant of Mary or Joseph, neither of them are descendants of Solomon.".
• News Service Phillips News Service, Washington DC 1996-APR-4
  Same-sex Marriages in Hawaii
  "Conservative Christian groups on the mainland are vowing to boycott Hawaii as a tourist destination unless the state Legislature gives voters the chance to ban homosexual marriages." Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition stated "The only thing we know that we can do now is have an economic boycott... If people want to go to the South Pacific, we will urge them to go to other islands."
• News Services Reuters & Associated Press, 1996-APR-3
  Physician Assisted Suicide
  The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals declared unconstitutional a state of New York law that criminalized physician assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. A panel of 3 judges found that the law violates the equal protection guaranteed by the 14 Amendment to the US constitution. This ruling only affects 3 states: Connecticut, New York and Vermont. It comes less than a month after the 9th Circuit Court came to the same conclusion with respect to 9 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada and Washington. The New York decision is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-APR-2
  Scholars Recast Jesus as Resistance Symbol
  The article states that some biblical scholars have proposed that the palm fronds mentioned on Palm Sunday were a symbol of Jewish nationalism at the time. They also mentioned some inaccuracies in the traditional image of Jesus' crucifixion:
  • the cross that the prisoners had to bear was the crossbeam only, not the entire cross
  • the condemned prisoner's feet were probably nailed to the sides of the cross
  • the prisoner may have had a saddle to sit on; this would have kept them conscious and in pain longer
  • not mentioned in the article but generally acknowledged is the belief that nails did not pierce the palms of the victim, but were pressed through the wrist.
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON 1996-APR-1
  Politics, religion an uneasy mix for network
  Vision is a Canadian TV network which broadcasts two types of programs: Cornerstone programs which promote religious and ethnic tolerance etc, and Mosaic programs which are supplied by individual religious organizations and occasionally contain intense religious hatred. A Sikh program, Ankhila Punjab (the voice and soul of Punjab) supports "the establishment of an independent state of Khalistin". In doing so, it is alleged to promote religious intolerance. Mr. Fil Fraser, president of Vision, said "We're trying to do a balancing act. We know there are strains of fundamentalism in every faith".

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