Volume 3, June 15, 2000
National News
HOUSE GRANTS POPE MEDAL -- The US House of Representatives voted 416-1 to award the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civillian honor, to Pope John Paul II. Citing the Pope's contributions to the freedom and dignity of every individual and his contributions to the fall of the Soviet Union, HR 3544 authorizes up to $30,000 for the creation of the medal. If the Senate also passes the measure bronze duplicates of the medal honoring John Paul II will be available for sale to the public.
UNIFICATION CHURCH ACQUIRES UPI As a part of its on-going effort to bring about change in the media, Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) has purchased the international news wire service United Press International (UPI). UPI, which has struggled in recent years, joins The Washington Times newspaper, The World and I magazine and half-a-dozen other newspaper and magazine operations around the world that have been bought in recent years by Moon. The Unification Church teaches that Moon and his wife were sent by God to complete the work that Jesus left undone.
THE FUTURE OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES - The board of directors of the financially-strapped National Council of Churches (NCC) voted this week to help form a new pan-Christian organization made up on current NCC members plus the Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and conservative Protestant church bodies that are currently not members. The NCC said that it has begun the process of contacting non-member churches about joining the new group, and that the NCC may, or may not, continue to exist alongside the new body that it hopes to help form. All of this was caused by financial troubles.
PRESBYTERIANS BLESS SAME-SEX UNIONS-The Permanent Judicial Council, highest judicial panel of the 2.5 million-member the Presbyterian Church (USA), ruled this week that PCUSA churches may conduct " holy union" religious ceremonies blessing gay unions as long as those unions are not understood to be marriage. The ruling is the first decision by a major US church body that will allow the blessing of the ceremonies such as those created by the passage of Vermont's civil unions law, set to take effect July 1. The decision of the court is binding unless the General Assembly of the PCUSA overturns it.
ADVENTIST ATTORNEY CONCERNED BY GROWING TREND OF RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IN LAND ZONING DECISIONS
Sacramento, CA, USA .... [ANN] Lower levels of federal legal protection for religious activity mean that local churches are experiencing greater difficulties in dealing with local zoning authorities, says attorney Alan Reinach, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Adventist Church in California. "Faith and civil rights groups from across the spectrum are becoming more concerned at the power of local authorities to levy excessive fees as a condition of building a church, to place land use restrictions on church property, or even to zone the church out of town," says Reinach. Reinach cites the recent case of the El Cajon Seventh-day Adventist Church, near San Diego, which is relocating from its downtown facility to a new suburban location. "El Cajon has a long history of ministry to the city's homeless population," says Reinach. "Its building plans were in readiness and approved, but they were challenged by a neighbor of their new suburban location, who expressed concern that the church would bring the homeless into their neighborhood." "We hoped that the city would see that the church was planning to take their ministry 'to the streets' and that a restriction on the land use permit was both unconstitutional and unnecessary," says Reinach, "especially since the church planned to buy a van and to bring the food and clothing to the downtown area where the homeless are. Sadly, the city did not see it that way." Caring for the homeless is central to the Christian mission of an Adventist church, says Reinach, who will evaluate the possibility of a legal challenge to the restriction. "What happens now if a homeless person actually comes to worship at the church? Will the church violate the law if it invites that person to potluck? Offers some clothing? Invites them to return?"
International News
JAPAN PRIME MINISTER BACKTRACKED CLAIMS- Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori backtracked from a claim made earlier this month that Japan was a "divine nation" whose center was the emperor. In his retraction he indicated that he was not endorsing any specific religion and did not believe that the emperor was a god, a feature of pre-war Japanese faith. Mori said that the he supports the separation of church and state in Japan.
INDONESIA - RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE CONTINUES:with 34 people killed and around 70 more injured last week when a group of Muslim raiders in boats attacked a Christian village on the island of Halmahera. Of the dead 26 were Christians and the rest Muslims. Around 2,500 have died in fighting between Christians and Muslims in the provinces previously known as the Spice Islands in the last year and a half. Meanwhile UN officials on East Timor this week condemned attacks by Catholic Christians on the small Muslim population of that island. Muslim officials said that Catholics on the island threw rocks at Muslims and their homes "all day and all night." The Associated Press cited one UN official as saying that the anti-Muslim violence was more political than religious since the Muslim group opposed separation of the island from Indonesia.
INDIA - BOMB EXPLODED DURING A CHRISTIAN FESTIVAL IN ANDRA PRADESH-The press continues to note rising violence against Christians. This week a bomb exploded during a Christian festival gathering in the southern province of Andhra Pradesh, injuring 30. This was the first incident of anti-Christian violence in that province and may signal that the problem is spreading from the north to other parts of the country. Recently, elsewhere in India, a Catholic priest was attacked, beaten, and threatened with death by a gang of youths, and several huts used by Christians for worship and prayer have been torched. In an even more troubling development, a government minister recently admitted taking part in a gathering to celebrate a welcome for 3 youths who were arrested for attacking Christians in the village of Abhona on May 9. He also helped to organize the legal defense for the attackers.
