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["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

NewsBytes
Monday, July 20, 1998 
William C. Winslow, Editor
(212) 870-2137
<winsloww@ucc.org>
On the Web:  <http://www.ucc.org>

Welcome to NewsBytes

Welcome to UCC NewsBytes, the headline news service from
the United Church of Christ. Updated weekly, it is produced by
the UCC Office of Communication, 700 Prospect Ave.,
Cleveland, OH 44115; (216) 736-2200 - William C. Winslow,
Editor, (212) 870-2137 or e-mail <winsloww@ucc.org>.

Pistol packin' parsons in Kentucky 

Kentucky has the dubious distinction of being the first state to
allow armed clergy in church. The law allows clergy and other
church officials to carry concealed weapons in church, allegedly
to protect against theft of church collection moneys. Signed into
law by Gov. Paul Patton on Good Friday but taking effect just
now, it has already drawn calls for repeal from major faith
groups. 
      "Give them the offering," United Church of Christ minister
Nancy Jo Kemper said on NBC's "The Today Show" of
would-be robbers. "For hundreds of years, the church has been
a sanctuary away from the horrors of the rest of society, a place
where weapons were not allowed," she told the national TV
audience. "I think it is an affront to a gospel of peace and truth, a
gospel of love." Kemper, executive director of the Kentucky
Council of Churches, is trying to persuade the attorney general
that the bill has internal contradictions and that the state
Assembly should repeal it. 

UCC executive slams anti-gay newspaper ads 

Full page ads in some of the nation's major daily newspaper
claiming that religious counselling can make gays straight offers
"false hope," says William R. Johnson, a United Church of Christ
minister and expert on sexuality issues. 
      "Sexual orientation cannot be changed," says Johnson. "I am
saddened that the old chestnut of 'reparative therapy' for
homosexuals has again reared its ugly head." The ads are
sponsored by the Christian Coalition and other religious right
groups. 
      Johnson points out that both the American Medical
Association and the American Psychological Association have
repudiated "reparative therapy" claims. He thinks the religious
right timed the ads' publication to coincide with anti-gay political
efforts on Capitol Hill. Johnson is an executive with the United
Church Board for Homeland Ministries. 

Links: 
For full news release, including text of Johnson's
statement: <http://www.ucc.org/headline/h071698a.htm>.

Web site of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,
including "Answers to Your Questions about Sexual Orientation
and Homosexuality," from the American Psychological
Association: <http://www.pflag.org>.

UCC body influences FCC vote on personal
attack rules 
Arguments filed by the UCC Office of Communication heavily
influenced a recent Federal Communications Commission
decision to keep rules requiring broadcasters to air responses on
personal attacks and political editorials. Since the 1980s the
industry has been trying to get rid of the rules, while the Office of
Communication has argued that such rules foster robust and fair
debate on important issues. 
      "This is a victory for free speech and for access to the
airwaves by the public, which owns them," says the Rev. Arthur
Lawrence Cribbs Jr., executive director of the Office of
Communication. Broadcasters are expected to appeal. 

The church office is a pioneer in telecommunications
advocacy. The full text of the news release can be found here:
<http://www.ucc.org/headline/h1063098.htm>.

The Federal Communications Commission Website:
<http://www.fcc.gov>.

Cuban seminarians ask end of embargo 

When a group of United Church of Christ seminary students met
their Cuban counterparts on a solidarity trip to the Caribbean
island recently, they heard a message loud and clear: End the
embargo. It's killing people and not hurting the government. 
      At a joint worship service, the Cubans asked their American
colleagues to "pray for the Cuban people. We are united under
one God." 
      The Yanks visited four Protestant seminaries in Castro's
Cuba. Forty-six percent of those professing a faith say they are
Protestant, says the Rev. Ted Braun, a UCC pastor who has led
18 study groups to the island. 

David takes on Goliath 

When an Indianapolis nursing home evicted 60 of its Medicaid
paying residents in favor of private, higher paying residents, they
didn't reckon with the wrath of Ruth Grove, a feisty 90-year-old
resident and member of Ellenberger United Church of Christ,
Indianapolis. She blew the whistle on Wildwood Health Care
Center's grab for greed. First, she alerted United Senior Action,
a state-wide senior citizen watchdog group. Then she called in
the national media. Tom Brokaw picked it up. So did The Wall
Street Journal. The flak caused the nursing home's corporate
owner, Vencor, to rescind its policy and invite the ousted
oldsters back. "I've always been a bit of an activist," admits
Grove.

The full text of the news release can be found here:
<http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/eviction.htm>.

CLERGY VIEWS        
Wrong words, right meaning
One Sunday, an eight-year-old girl was learning the 23rd Psalm
in her church school class. Instead of the right words, she said,
"The Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want." Although she got the
words wrong, she caught the real meaning! Are there not those
among us who are so anxious about the gifts of God that we miss
God Himself? 
      Yes, all we need in life and meaning is God! 

-- The Rev. William Hickerson, pastor of Ebenezer UCC in
Levasy, Mo., reprinted from The Pace, church newsletter 

GOOD NEWS
Kudos to the Rev. Kathi Wolfe, Falls Church, Va., recipient of a
$10,000 Rosalyn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health
Journalism award. Despite being legally blind, Wolfe is a
successful freelance writer. She will use the award for a project
on mental illness and the aging. She was once on the staff of the
UCC Office of Communication.