RELIGIOUS NEWS - 1996-JUN

• News Service Unidentified, 1996-JUN-28
  Prayer Walk Fights Crime
  Members and clergy from 24 Evangelical Christian churches went on a "prayerwalk" through the toughest neighborhoods of Brockton, MA in order to fight crime by prayer. They took their idea from a book by Frank Peretti, "This Present Darkness".
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-27
  Russian Security Chief Blasts Mormons
  Russia's new security chief, Alexander Lebed, condemned outside cultural and religious influences in his country. He called foreign sects a threat to security. He said "...all these Mormons are mold and filth which have come to destroy the state.... The state should outlaw them. They should not exist on our soil". He feels that traditional religions (Russian Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) should be free to develop in Russia.
• News Service Ecumenical News Service, 1996-JUN-25
  Hungary Legalizes Gay Common-law Marriages
  In the past, their law governing common-law relationships specified that the partners must be of opposite genders. The Parliament passed an amendment on MAY-21 removing this limitation. This makes same-sex common-law marriages legal, along with the usual benefits: joint property, pension and inheritance rights. The vote was 207 to 73 with 5 abstentions.

  Bishop Lorant Hegedus of the Reformed Church condemned the action, stating that the vote was due to a "parliamentary dictatorship" who are promoting "Western permissiveness...The measure represents a declaration of libertinism, against biblical truth...we cannot accept a situation in which positive legislation is used to advance homosexual rights."

• Conference Report Pentecostalism 1996-JUN
  Globalization of Pentecostalism
  A book publisher and group of institutes sponsored a conference on Pentecostalism on JUN-10 to 13 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Their report contained (in part):
  • "Over the past nine decades, the Pentecostal community has evolved .... to a world-wide movement with an estimated 463 million adherents."
  • The Pentecostal movement is seen throughout "the various sectors of mainstream Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox faith confessions".
  • "the story of how Pentecostalism has affected missionary activity and emerging indigenous Christianity is just beginning to be told."
  • "..the story of the movement as a whole.... is just beginning to be investigated" academically.
  [This implies that just over 1 in 4 Christians is a Pentecostal Christian. A truly amazing and relatively unnoticed growth].
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-27
  Iceland Legalizes Gay Marriages
  Iceland's Althing (Parliament) approved a Bill on Homosexual Marriages which gives gays and lesbians the right to marry in a civil ceremony. Margaret Olafsdottir, who leads the Association of 78 (the country's gay rights movement, said "This will revolutionize the lives of the gay couples in Iceland who have, until now, had to suffer great inequality in matters regarding insurance, taxes and the rights to inherit from one's partner....This injustice has, in the past, led to many personal tragedies." . This is the fourth country in Europe to recognize homosexual unions; the others are Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Shared custody of children is permitted in some circumstances, but the law does not allow them to adopt children or practice artificial insemination. Three couples (two gay and one lesbian) were married in the Reykjavic central registry office immediately after the bill was passed.
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-27
  Ancient Buddhist Texts Found
  The British Library announced the discovery of ancient Buddhist manuscripts written on pieces of birch bark. They are the oldest ever found; they date as far back as the second century CE. Included are some of the Buddha's poems, sermons and treatises.
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-JUN-27
  Doomsday Cult Member Avoids Prison
  Hideaki Yasuda, a former member of the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult was found guilty of strangling a fellow believer to death. He received a 3 year suspended sentence. He was not sent to prison because of the unusual nature of the murder: he was ordered by the leader of the cult to kill or be killed himself.
• News Service Canadian Press, 1996-JUN-26
  Abuse Victims Get Apology
  Ontario Attorney-General Charles Harnick expressed "in the strongest terms" the government's regret and condemnation of the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic group who operated two reform schools in the province. Evidence had shown that over 1000 men had survived extensive beatings and sexual abuse at the hands of the Brothers at St. Josephs and St. John's training schools. About 30 Brothers and other staff have been charged with abuse and over a dozen have been convicted so far.
• News Service Canadian Press, 1996-JUN-26
  Teen Kills Child Under Influence of Horror Movie
  14 year old Sandy Charles of Saskatoon, SK, Canada was suffering from bizarre delusions and "becoming schizophrenic" when he watched the horror movie Warlock. Inspired by some of the scenes in that movie, he murdered a 7 year old boy, removed strips of flesh and fat from the body and cooked them. From the movie he had accepted the belief that if a person drinks the liquefied fat of an unbaptised child, they would gain special powers - in this case, the power to fly. At his trial, a psychiatrist testified that the accused "did not see the victim as human but as an object whose death was necessary to fulfill his deluded plan".
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-26
  US Presbyterians Oust Gay Elder
  For the first time in US history, a Presbyterian judicial body overruled a local church on the sexual orientation issue. An unidentified elder of the Knox Presbyterian Church of Hyde Park was stripped of his ordination by the Judicial Commission of the Cincinnati Presbytery because he is gay. The vote was 4 to 3. A fellow elder of the congregation had laid a complaint. The Rev. Lloyd Dunavent, stated clerk of the Presbytery predicted that this decision would probably add fuel to the debate on the issue at the Presbyterian Church's annual meeting in Albuquerque, NM which is scheduled for the weekend of JUN-29. [The congregation looked at their elder and saw a compassionate, spiritual person; the Commission looked at the elder and saw an issue].
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-25
  Religious Conflict in Mexico
  A large scale religious conversion to Presbyterianism and Pentecostalism is occurring throughout Latin America; membership has grown from 5 million in 1960 to nearly 60 million in 1996. In the Chiapas highlands of Mexico, religious friction has turned violent. One group is a local variety of Roman Catholicism which does not employ priests, celebrate mass or use church pews. The faith group ritualizes the consumption of soft drinks and poshe (a rum made from sugar cane). They adore the saints, respect the Cross and thank "Mother Earth" for the crops. According to the Protestants, 25,000 people have converted to Protestantism and been driven out of town during the past 2 decades. Their children are not allowed to attend the local state-sponsored school. As some Protestants have returned to the area recently, the resultant battles have left dozens dead.
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-25
  Hillary Clinton talks to Eleanor Roosevelt
  Jean Houston, a New Age feminist, uses a "virtual therapy" technique called "docking with one's angel". Client First Lady Hillary Clinton used the method; she had imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi.
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-25
  Caution: Ghost Crossing
  Exactly 7 years ago today, signs containing ghost symbols were installed to mark "supernatural hazard[s]" on some roads in southern Norway. Local citizens had reported encounters with ghosts that had caused numerous vehicle accidents.
• News Service Reuters 1996-JUN-24
  Angry Berlin Mob Heckles the Pope
  The Pope visited Germany to promote ecumenism and to "beautify" two anti-Nazi Catholic martyrs: Rev. Bernhard Lictenberg and Rev. Karl Leisner. The visit was preceded by serious discussions about the lack of opposition by the Church's against the Holocaust during World War II. [The Church's first condemnation of Nazism occurred some months after the cessation of hostilities]. An angry minority threw paint bags at the Pope's vehicle; two bags hit; noisy groups almost drowned out speeches by Chancellor Kohl and the Pope. The homosexual community staged a peaceful spoof of the Pope at a different location. The Pope acknowledged that opposition by Catholics to the Nazi regime "were still too few".
• News Release Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1996-JUN-24 (approx.)
  Communications Decency Act (CDA) Declared Unconstitutional
  A three judge panel of Philadelphia's federal court struck down the CDA, stating "Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects." The law was found to violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The CDA law would have made it illegal for any person or group to create a home page on the Internet World Wide Web or a posting on an Internet newsgroup that is unsuitable for viewing by children. Censorship will now rest within the individual family, who "already have the technical means to make their own choices about what they and their children read and see." The federal government is expected to appeal, using an unusual provision in the CDA which allows taking it directly to the US Supreme Court.
• Newspaper New York Times, 1996-JUN-24 (approx.)
  Europe Scrutinizes Sects by Marlise Simons
  The French government is concerned about activities by some small religious groups, including:
  • mass murder and suicide by the Solar Temple cult
  • desecration of cemeteries in four cities with anti-Christian graffiti, presumably done by teenage dabblers in Satanism
  • laundering money and engaging in "inappropriate businesses" activity
  • extorting money from their followers
  • destabilizing "people through isolationist or paranoid theories"
  • placing members and their children in danger because of apocalyptic teachings.
  • making captives out of minors
  • dissemination of hatred against racial and immigrant groups under the guise of religion
  A government report states that there are 172 sects and 800 small groups which total 260,000 followers in France. Some legislators and human rights groups are alarmed at the potential for religious repression of small benign religious groups as a result of the government action. Similar investigations are occurring in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

• News Release American Cathar Church, Lancaster PA, 1996-JUN-24
  Cathars Gain RC's From Excommunication Flap
  The Roman Catholic bishop in Nebraska announced an edict of excommunication against any of the 75,000 members in his diocese who belonged to progressive groups. The American Cathar Church's offered to mediate was rejected by the bishop who called the about-to-be excommunicated members " intrinsically incoherent and fundamentally divisive." An estimated 321 Roman Catholics sought entry into the Cathar Church. [It is ironic that the Cathars were nearly exterminated by an act of genocide by the Church over 800 years ago].
• Newspaper New York Times, New York NY, 1996-JUN-23
  The Interface Alliance by Terry Anderson
  The Interface Alliance (TIA) is rapidly expanding across the US. It is composed of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant groups who are providing "an alternative voice on political matters for people of faith." They are a liberal voice which opposes the philosophy and political aims of the Christian Coalition. In July, the TIA will start Road to Renewal, a campaign aimed at "strengthening families by advocating for a fair living wage ... ensuring opportunity by advocating for quality education in public schools ... (and) honoring freedom by encouraging the active participation in the political process by people of faith and all people of good will." From the recruiting letter of the TIA New York chapter comes a quotation by Pat Robertson of the Evangelical Christian 700 Club (1991-JAN-14): "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists ... Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist" They have a WWW page .
• Press Conference Liberals United!, New York NY, 1996-JUN-21
  Promise Keepers Attacked
  T.J. Walker, President of Liberals United! held a press conference to criticize Promise Keepers (PK). PK is an Evangelical Christian men's group which is currently growing at a phenomenal rate in the US. Criticisms include:
  • PK founder Bill McCartney has said that all gay people are stark raving mad
  • McCartney has said that women should have no access to abortion
  • the organization's statement Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper tells men to take back power in the family, presumably from their wives.
  • PK "stress the idea that women are 'different', that a 'real man' can't confide in the women in his life, or have a true, equal partnership with any female."
  • PK "pretends to be apolitical; it is not. Its spokesmen have made disparaging remarks against President Clinton."
• Newspaper Column Lexington Herald Leader, Lexington KY 1996-JUN-20
  Stop the Madness - Southern Baptists are on Power Trip Merlene Davis
  "At their national convention last week, Southern Baptist leaders decided to boycott the Walt Disney Co. and to convert Jews to Christianity." By a near unanimous vote, they passed their tenth resolution since 1867 to convert the Jews. The resolution states, in part, that Southern Baptist members will: "direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews". They have hired an employee to head up this missionary outreach.
• Newspaper The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte NC, 1996-JUN-20
  Scouts Discriminate over Sex and Religion Letter to the Editor by Jeff Harris
  "Boy Scouts require that members believe in God. They also exclude gay boys. In several cities and states where there is civil rights protection ... the Scouts have successfully argued that they are exempt from those laws because they are a private religious organization... So where would girls, gay adolescents and nonbelievers go if the only camps in town were run by the Boy Scouts?"
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-JUN-19
  Scientists Bash Media for Promoting Pseudoscience by John Afflec
  The first World Skeptics Congress is being held near Buffalo NY. It is sponsored by and located at the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. It will deal with some topics of a quasi-religious nature: UFO abductions, ghosts, psychic healing, etc. They are worried about the spread of pseudoscience, the lessening of critical skeptical thinking among the public, and the portrayal of scientists as truth suppressors.
• News Service Anglican Communion News Service 1996-JUN-19
  German Old Catholics Ordain Women Priests
  The German Old Catholic Church has links both to the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. At Pentecost, they ordained two women as priests: Angela Berlis, a Bonn University chaplain, and Regina Pickel-Bossau, a teacher
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-18
  Physical and Sexual Abuse at Residential Schools
  A First Nations Summit committee is investigating abuse of native children in the 14 former federal residential schools in British Columbia. The United, Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches ran schools in the province. All of the churches have issued formal apologies for abuse. The United Church's apology in 1986 was for depriving natives of their culture and language, imposing a foreign discipline and providing an environment in which natives were vulnerable to physical, and psychological abuse. They have established a "healing fund". In 1991, the Oblate Order of the Roman Catholic church apologized for sexual and physical abuse in their schools. But the federal government has been accused of being in denial and of not having issued a significant apology to the native people.
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-18
  Stiffer Requirements for Divorce in England
  A new bill passed Parliament which requires couples to be separated for 18 months before they can obtain an no-fault divorce. However couples who have no children under 16 and both parties consent, they can still get a divorce after 12 months. Separated couples will also be urged to go for counselling and mediation.
• Newsletter Family Issues Alert, 1996-JUN-18
  Church Fires May be more Faith-Based Than Race-Based
  This newsletter is distributed weekly by fax by Focus on the Family. It notes that there have been almost as many "black" churches burned in the US as "white" churches. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) is has investigated 123 suspicious church fires in the past 5 years. Only 38 have been "black" churches. 32 of the remainder were set by one anti-Protestant white male. 12 synagogues were torched by one Jewish male. Most of the rest have mixed-race congregations. [Not counted was at least one fire set by a young teenage woman who may be a dabbler in Satanism]. The report asks why everyone is concentrating on race as an issue in the church burnings when it may be mainly a religious tolerance issue. [We have seen many news items about church burnings, but have not noticed any criticism of the existence of "mono-race" churches as un-Christian].
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-18
  Black Churches Declared Endangered
  The National Trust for Historic Preservation has declared to be endangered structures. This is in response to dozens of fires set by arsonists. They will also be making loans available to historic churches.
• Newspaper USA Today, 1996-JUN-18
  Saint Has Three Legs
  When scientists opened the casket of St Chad in Burmingham, England, they found not two but three legs. Radio-carbon dating of the bones have shown that at least some may be genuine, since they date from the 6th or 7th century CE. The Archbishop of Burmingham has decreed that devotions to the relics may continue, as long as they are directed equally at all of the bones.
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-JUN-18
  Clergy Coalition Says Christian Right Must Share Blame for Fires A religious and civil rights coalition said that only a fine line divides the Christian right from the arsonists who have been burning black churches in the Southern US. Rev. C.T. Vivian of the Center for Democratic Renewal said "It is not just those who strike the match....The far right is really the problem that we really face here...There's only a slippery slope between conservative religious persons and these that are actually doing the burning". Rev. Gerald Durley of Concerned Black Clergy said "We are not certain whether these burnings constitute a national conspiracy by emerging hate groups, but there is a conspiracy of ignorance and fear which is prompting individuals in groups to destroy institutions at the heart of America," Durley said.
• Newspaper Editorial News-Sentinel (Knoxville,Tenn),1996-JUN-17
  Baptists' Boycott of Mickey Mouse is a Cheesy Move, Ina Hughs
  Commenting on the Southern Baptist Convention vote to boycott the Disney Co. because (in part) they extend equal health benefits to all of their employees (including gays and lesbians), she writes:

  If the delegates want to be consistent, since the bone they pick is for allowing non-traditional couples financial benefits, they'll have to boycott -- among others -- Time Warner Inc., Universal Pictures, Colgate toothpaste, Kodak film and Apple Computers. These and hundreds of other large companies recognize domestic partnerships. Not to mention a whole slew of universities, medical complexes and city governments.

  Several years ago, we Christians used the same rhetoric to `sanitize' mixed-race partnerships. We quoted verses from Scripture `supporting' our bias. Remember way back when Jerry Falwell preached how and why racially mixed marriages were `an abomination?' Last month he invited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, who is white, to speak from his pulpit. `I changed my mind,' Falwell told public interviewers when reminded of his past actions. `I saw the light.'"

  [Rev. Falwell is to be commended for both the ability to change his beliefs and his honesty in admitting that he has changed.]
• Newspaper Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-17
  Native Solstice Ritual
  Native spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse will hold Earth healing rituals on Sunside Beach in Elliot Lake ON on JUN-19. The location chosen for the ritual is near Rooster Rock which has long been used for Native vision quests. He will conduct a sunrise observance and a later ritual at noon. An organizer, Leona Jacobs, said "Mother Earth is dying around us and we must help Her. If you are unable to attend, please have a ceremony at your power spot in your area". [Although not noted in the article, the ritual is appears to be synchronized with the Summer Solstice]
• Newspaper Sunday Times, South Africa, 1996-JUN-16
  Victims of a Rural Society Bewitched by Fear of Sorcery
  The Northern Province Council of Churches in South Africa has organized a Summit on Witchcraft in Pietersburg. [In Africa, the term witchcraft refers to the use of black magic or sorcery to harm or kill other people. It has no connection with North American and European Witchcraft of Wicca, a earth-based benign religion.] The Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft, Violence and Ritual Killings of the Northern Province's Ministry of Safety and Security issued a report in May which showed that thousands of people have been accused of witchcraft, have been run out of town and have lost their property. More than 300 have been killed by vigilante mobs in the last ten years. They are being accused of "shape-shifting" themselves from human form into bats and birds, of converting people into zombies, and of causing death by calling down lightning or through the use of toxic medicines.

  Ten farms have been set up in the Northern Province to hold hundreds of refugees who have been found guilty of witchcraft by traditionalist kangaroo courts. One concern is the Suppression of Witchcraft Act (1957) which does not differentiate between most forms of traditional African healing and sorcery (black magic); it bans both practices.

• Magazine The United Church Observer, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN
  Online Rights a Looming Quandry
  Brad Lavenne is a United Church of Canada youth ministries coordinator in Ottawa, ON. He was writing a WWW site for United Church youth, and asked permission from the Church to include a copy of the United Church Creed in his home page. The creed is the church's basic statement of faith. Although it is regularly printed in church bulletins, newsletters, in advertisements and even on Christmas cards, it appeared that the church currently has no guidelines regarding the Internet. So Mr. Lavenne's request was turned down. As it happens, two United Church congregation in Grand Valley ON have already put the creed on their joint Internet home page; it apparently never occurred to them to first ask permission. See them at http://www.interlog.com/~nworthy/church/
• Newspaper (lead article) Los Angeles Times, 1996-JUN-14
  Baptist Boycott of Disney; column by Dana Parsons
  "Conservative religious groups complain - often with justification - that they are portrayed as out-of-touch, intolerant extremists. Taking on Disney - the one name in America most associated with the family - is not the way to dispel that image.... Perhaps there's nothing like betrayal to fire one's emotions.... [Disney] has betrayed its trust by treating homosexuals just as it treats heterosexuals. That qualifies as blasphemy in some Southern pulpits, just as interracial marriage did a generation ago.... I'm sure we could search the archives and find a question asked much the same way years ago when Southern churches called for boycotts of hotels or restaurants that served blacks."

  Dana Parsons then linked the present situation with the Southern Baptists' support for slavery when it was originally founded, and its repudiation of that stance last year. He speculates: "Are they in the midst of another journey, this one moving toward embracing their gay brothers and sisters? Today a boycott threat; tomorrow a show of hands and an apology? We can only wait and see."

• Newspaper (lead article) Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1996-JUN-14
  Same-sex health benefits ordered in Canada
  A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of two gay civil servants who are each involved in committed relationships. One of them had been posted to Indonesia. The Federal government was willing to pay for the relocation and immunization shots for his cat but not for his partner. The other was denied family health benefits for his partner.

  The Tribunal gave a number of Federal government departments 60 days to search out any laws, regulations or directives that deny equal benefits to gay or lesbian employees. One such law is the Income Tax Act which currently defines a "spouse" as being a person of the opposite sex. They are also required to propose a plan to eliminate employment benefits discrimination against homosexuals. This would include bereavement leave, medical coverage, dental coverage, and insurance plans. Pensions may not be currently covered by the ruling because of a separate, unrelated legal challenge. The government expects that 1 or 2% of employees would apply for coverage.

  [The tribunal justified its decision on the basis that gay couples support "traditional family values". They presumably means love, commitment, monogamy, and a desire for mutual support. But this precise phrase has almost always been used in the past by conservative Christians to oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians.]

• News Release Walt Disney Co., 1996-JUN-12
  Concerning Southern Baptist Boycott
  The public relations office at Disney issued the following statement immediately after the Southern Baptist Conference authorized a boycott: "We find it curious that a group that claims to espouse family values would vote to boycott the world's largest producer of wholesome family entertainment. We question any group that demands that we deprive people of health benefits and we know of no tourist destination in the world that denies admission to people as the Baptists are insisting we do." [We tend to side with Disney. The company has had an impressive record producing high quality movies promoting "traditional family values". The concept of depriving people of health and dental care on the basis of sexual orientation is as profoundly immoral as depriving blacks or red-heads of needed health care. And one can imagine admission people at a theme part demanding to know a person's sexual orientation before admitting them. The company would be knee deep in law suites before the day was over].
• News Service Associated Press, 1996-JUN-12
  Southern Baptists Threaten to Boycott Disney
  Almost all of the approximately 13,000 delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention voted in favor of authorizing a boycott of Walt Disney movies, products and theme parks, unless Disney changes some of its policies. The church seems to have had three complaints:
  • Disney allows gay and lesbian events at its theme parks
  • Disney grants family health benefits to all of its employees who are in committed relationships (homosexual and heterosexual alike)
  • Some Disney subsidiaries produce "controversial adult-themed movies" .
  The resolution said in part: "In recent years, the Disney Co. has given the appearance that the promotion of homosexuality is more important than its historic commitment to traditional family values." [The Baptists will now try to negotiate with Disney to restore "special rights" to its heterosexual employees at the expense of its gay and lesbian employees. If this and other requests fail, the boycott will begin.]
• News Service Reuters, 1996-JUN-13
  Divorce in Ireland
  By a very slim margin, voters in Ireland recently passed a referendum to legalize divorce. Anti-divorce campaigners asked the Supreme Court to overturn the referendum, citing excessive promotion by the government. They failed in their attempt 5 to 0.
• News Service Anglican Communion News Service, 1996-JUN-12
  March for Jesus
  "Organisers of the Global March for Jesus said that millions of people in 170 countries took part in marches in more than 2000 cities on 25 May." . This is an annual march which was first held in London, England in 1987. It became a global event in 1994. The largest march was in Sao Paolo, Brazil where two million Christians marched; about one million took part across the US. Marchers are primarily Evangelicals. [One negative aspect of the march which was not mentioned by the News Service is that Roman Catholics and Christians from other denominations are specifically excluded from the march in some cities].
• News Services Associated Press & Scripps Howard 1996-JUN-12
  Abortion Controversy Envelops Robert Dole
  Robert Dole resigned as leader of the US Senate in order to concentrate on his campaign for President. He proposed altering the Republican Party's anti-abortion election plank by attaching a "declaration of tolerance" towards viewpoints other than a strict "pro-life" stance. Conservative Republicans have "expressed anger and resentment" at the suggestion. Mr. Dole's aids sought a compromise by suggesting that the declaration be placed in the preamble to the abortion plank where it would carry less weight. Mr. Dole has since insisted that it go in the "plank" itself. Patrick Buchanan called that "morally absurd". Ralph Reed, director of the Christian Coalition has indicated their opposition as well.
• Newspaper The Globe and Mail, Toronto ON 1996-JUN-12
  Tribute for a Fallen Sikh Hero
  Talwinder Singh Parmar will be honored as a fallen hero in the fight for an independent Sikh homeland. The three day event will begin in Surrey BC on JUN-14. It is being organized by Babbar Khalsa, a fundamentalist Sikh group dedicated to the formation of the state of Khalistan. The late Mr. Parmar is highly regarded as a preacher, missionary and freedom fighter by many Sikhs. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have a different view: they believe that he was primarily responsible for the crash of an Air-India jet on 1985-JUN-22 which killed 329 persons. 278 were Canadians, making the crash the worst mass murder in the history of Canada.
• Newspaper The Globe and Mail, Toronto ON 1996-JUN-10
  Black Church Burnings
  President Clinton spoke out against a wave of racially motivated arson against at least 30 black churches over the past 18 months. Mr. Clinton will visit the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville SC, which was torched a year ago. The FBI and ATF have 200 agents assigned to the cases.
• Newspaper Bogota, Columbia newspaper 1996-JUN-3
  666 and the Anti-Christ
  June 6 is the 6th day of the 6th month of a year ending in 6. That spells out "666" - the number associated with the anti-Christ. A number of Protestant churches in Columbia suggested that the anti-Christ would appear at this time. In the 5 days preceding June 3, 10,000 children were baptized in the working class neighborhoods of Bogata, presumably for their own protection. The Roman Catholic church appealed for calm.
• News Service Reuters 1996-JUN-4
  Pope urged to rethink birth control
  Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of Germany and an active Roman Catholic revealed during an interview that he had discuss contraception several times in private with the Pope. On 1995, almost 1.5 million Roman Catholics in Germany signed a petition calling for church reforms that would ordain women, end celibacy in the priesthood, and remove restrictions on birth control. This is more than one out of three Catholics in the country.
• News Release International Association for Religious Freedom 1996-JUN-1
  IARF Triennial Congress
  The IARF has promoted the rights of every person to enjoy religious freedom since it was founded in 1900 CE. Their next triennial congress will be held on 1996-AUG-2-8 in Won Kwang University, Iksan City, Republic of Korea. Main topics will be:
  1. Taking responsibility for economic cooperation and justice.
  2. Promoting goodness and harmony through religious practice.
  3. Understanding the relationship of religion to culture.
  4. Teaching about the faith traditions of others.
  5. Living in harmony with nature and with one another.
• Newsletter Religion Watch 1996-MAY issue
  Religion Watch is a newsletter that monitors trends in contemporary religion. It is published monthly except for a combined July and August issue. Their phone number is (516)785-6765. Email at relwatch1@aol.com; Subscription rates to US individuals are $19.95 per year.

  Topics covered in their May issue are: Theologians and Scientists Gearing Up for Genetic Wars?, Churches Targeting No Fault Divorce, New Papal Election Rules, How Distressful are 'Cults'?, Prayer Found to have Negative Effect in Alcoholic Study, Harassment of Muslims Intensifies after Oklahoma City, Mainline Memberships Decline While Contributions Increase, Political Gap Grows Between Protestant Clergy; SBC Conservative Clergy Take Up Politics while Moderates Withdraw; Index of Religious Commitment Reaches 10 Year High; Immigration Cushioning German Church Decline; High Rate of Atheists in Austria; Mormon World Expansion Keeps American Accent?; Universal Church Grows at Home [Brazil] and Abroad; 'Third Wave' Evangelicals Seek Middle Ground in China Conflict.

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