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Episcopalians: News Briefs


From dmack@episcopalchurch.org
Date Tue, 20 May 2003 16:11:45 -0400

May 20, 2003

2003-111

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Study finds coverage of religion in newspapers grows but is less 
accurate

(ENS) A study at the University of Rochester, released April 30, 
finds that coverage of religion in newspapers may have broadened 
but the accuracy of that coverage and the context often remain 
incomplete.

Faculty and students in the department of religion analyzed 12 
daily newspapers, in what they claim is the most exhaustive 
review of religion in the media in the wake of the September 11, 
2001, terrorist attacks. "Since September 11, America's stakes 
in understand the visions and hopes of the world's religions are 
higher now than ever," said Prof. William Scott Green, dean of 
the college and professor of Judaic studies. "For most Americans 
the press is a primary source of information about other 
peoples' religions. Knowing what Americans see every day helps 
explain how--and what--we learn about one another."

"When it comes to religion, the press seems at odds with 
itself," the introduction to the study said. "On one hand, 
religion pervades America's newspapers as part of the background 
on topics from politics and economics to sports and the arts. On 
the other hand, stories about religion itself infrequently 
address religion's beliefs and values."

The study, "Religion in American Newspapers: A Critique and 
Challenge," found that much of the coverage of the Roman 
Catholics is associated with the church's sex-abuse scandals, 
and coverage of Islam is "more than ever identified with 
terrorism." The study asks whether "religion is a topic that is 
too difficult to treat in daily newspapers? Does it pose 
challenges to reporting that other subjects do not? Should the 
press be obligated to cover religion fully?" The answers to 
those questions "raise important issues for the conduct and 
character of American life."

Among the recommendations emerging from the study are:

1. Remember that the context is the key to the complete 
reporting of a story.

2. Make a clear distinction between religion and criminal 
activity associated with that religion, clarifying the context 
whenever possible.

3. Consider a religion section as one way of providing fair, 
comprehensive and interesting coverage.

4. Accentuate religion close to home by using more feature 
stories about local religious groups and individuals.

5. Be balanced in coverage to help readers recognize an 
"accurate perspective on their communities."

6. Reflect both the newspaper's region and country, especially 
in terms of race, gender and religion, to provide balance.

7. Use advisory groups to identify issues that are 
newsworthy--and how the paper is covering current stories.

(The study is available on the web 
http://mail.rochester.edu/~jr012i/paper/contents..)

Russian Orthodox play down reports of papal visit to return 
icon

(ENI) Russian Orthodox Church officials are downplaying reports 
that Pope John Paul II is hoping to visit Russian this summer to 
return a venerated Russian icon.

Some news agencies are reporting the possibility of a papal 
stopover in Kazan, the capital of the semi-autonomous Russian 
republic Tatarstan, in August on the way to Mongolia, in order 
to return the icon of Our Lady of Kazan. The reports were 
bolstered in April when the Russian and Italian prime ministers 
said at a joint press conference in Rome that they would support 
a papal visit to Russia, a persistent dream of the pope.

A papal visit to Russia would be impossible, according to Vitaly 
Litvin, the Russian government's representative to the Holy See, 
without the consent of the Orthodox Church and Patriarch Alexy 
II. In recent years there has been considerable tension over 
what the Russians regard as proselytizing by the Roman 
Catholics. The relations hit a crisis point a year ago when the 
Vatican created four fully-fledged dioceses in Russia. In 
response the Russian government expelled several Catholic clergy 
without explanation.

The Russian church would appreciate the return of the icon, 
according to Archpriest Vsevolod Cahplin, deputy of the Moscow 
Patriarch's Department of External Relations. He noted, however, 
that many objects of similar spiritual, historical and artistic 
value have been returned to Russia by lesser dignitaries. "It 
has never required a personal trip for such high persons as the 
head of a church or a state," he said. "The return of the icon 
should not be a pretext for the pope's visit to Russia."

Art experts said in interviews that the icon, kept in the pope's 
apartment, was a revered 18th century copy of the original icon. 
The original, discovered near Moscow in the 16th century after 
the city was conquered by Ivan the Terrible, disappeared from a 
Moscow cathedral in 1904.

Churches see hope in peace moves between India and Pakistan 

(ENI) Church leaders in India and Pakistan have expressed 
optimism about recent moves by the South Asian neighbors to ease 
decades-long tensions between the two countries, both of which 
are nuclear powers.

"This is a very positive sign. We hope and pray that our [Indian 
and Pakistan] governments are able to find lasting peace," said 
Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, president of the National Council of 
Churches in India, which includes 29 Orthodox and Protestant 
churches. "If there is more openness on both sides, we can live 
in peace."

India announced in early May it was appointing an ambassador to 
restore to full strength its mission in Pakistan. Pakistan 
reciprocated and announced plans to release 300 Indian fishermen 
languishing in Pakistani prisons for straying into Pakistani 
waters. The two countries are also preparing to resume road, 
rail and air traffic communications that had previously been 
cut.

The strained relations between the two nations are rooted in a 
long-running dispute over the territory of Kashmir, in the 
Himalayan region. Both India and Pakistan lay claim to Kashmir, 
which has been divided between the two countries since 1949. 
Tensions reached a high point in December 2001 after an attack 
on the Indian parliament by Kashmiri Islamic militants fighting 
for cessation from India. Delhi said the militants were 
supported by Pakistan. 

In the aftermath of that attack, India threatened to attack 
camps it said were in Pakistan, being used to train militants 
for a jihad (holy war) in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Hundreds of 
thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers had lined up on both 
sides of their 630-kilometres-long border last summer. The 
standoff raised fears of a war between the two nuclear powers.

"The people are craving for peace here [in Pakistan]. Even the 
ordinary people are very excited about the latest developments," 
said Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council 
of Churches of Pakistan (NCCP), which includes four major 
Protestant churches in Pakistan. In a telephone interview from 
Lahore, Azariah said that special prayers were being said in the 
churches for "peace in our region." 

US watchdog says religious freedom must be central to US-Saudi 
relations 

(ENI) The US government should make human rights and religious 
freedom a cornerstone of its relations with Saudi Arabia, an 
independent US federal commission has said in a report warning 
that human and religious rights are at risk in Afghanistan.

The yearly report was released on May 13 by the United States 
Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent 
body advising the government on issues related to global 
religious persecution.

It came out one day after a terrorist bombing in the Saudi 
capital of Riyadh that killed at least 34 people, including 
Americans. The bombing has renewed calls within the United 
States for a closer examination of US ties with Saudi Arabia, 
ties that have been strained since the September 11, 2001 
terrorist attacks in the US, and the revelation that many of 
those who hijacked the planes were Saudi nationals.

The religious freedom commission noted claims that the US had 
not sufficiently pressured Saudi Arabia, an ally of Washington, 
on a host of human rights issues. In a statement, Felice Gaer, 
who chairs the commission, said that advancing human rights and 
religious freedom "has not yet been a public feature of the 
US-Saudi bilateral relationship." She added, "The protection of 
religious freedom and other human rights must be an integral 
part of US relations with Saudi Arabia and other countries."

The commission also urged the US government to investigate 
"credible reports" that the Saudi government was funding "the 
global propagation of a religious ideology that promotes hate, 
intolerance, and in some cases violence" and that the US 
government should pressure Saudi Arabia to end any such funding 
efforts.

On Afghanistan, the commission said there were "indications that 
Afghanistan is being reconstructed as a state in which an 
extreme interpretation of Sharia [Islamic law] would be enforced 
by a government which the United States supports." The report 
cited continuing serious human rights abuses and the 
re-emergence of the so-called "religious police" that enforced 
strict religious strictures during the Taliban era. It said such 
developments were taking place without serious opposition from 
the US.

Other countries examined in the report include Vietnam, Russia, 
Laos and Belarus.

The commission was established in 1998 by the Congress and 
approved by former President Bill Clinton. Its members include 
academics and leaders from various religious traditions, 
appointed by the president and leaders of the Congress.

(The report is available on-line at: www.uscirf.gov)

Reformed churches warn against 'wealth accumulation for the 
few'

(ENI) At a time when the eight leading industrial nations (G-8) 
are preparing for a summit where the world economic order will 
be the centerpiece, churches in the southern hemisphere are 
warning that economic relations between rich and poor countries 
have reached a crisis point.

The world economy has provoked "crises of debt, trade, 
marginalization, insecurity, economic inequality, unemployment 
and the destruction of the environment" in many countries, said 
leaders of Reformed churches from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean 
and Latin America in a statement. Their declaration came ahead 
of a June meeting in Evian, France, of the leaders of the G-8 
countries (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, 
Russia and the United States), also known as the Group of Eight.

In their statement, the 27 church leaders cautioned that the 
world economy had entered a "new stage of capitalism" 
characterized by "deregulation and speculative investments" 
which had "destructive effects" on their national economies. The 
statement was drafted by representatives of members of the World 
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) from the southern 
hemisphere who met in Buenos Aires at the end of April.

The church leaders rejected the world's dominant economic model, 
saying it had made the economy "a totalitarian faith system of 
wealth accumulation for the few, endangering life as a whole on 
our planet. This system is a structural sin." Poor countries had 
no effective say in the decisions of the world financial bodies 
that determined the way of life for those countries, they said.

"We were unanimous in our recognition of the negative effects of 
the IMF [the International Monetary Fund], World Bank and WTO 
[World Trade Organization] and their domination and exclusion of 
the Southern nations," they noted.

Seong-Won Park, executive secretary of WARC's department of 
cooperation and witness, said the statement reflected a certain 
tradition in the Reformed churches (Congregational, 
Presbyterian, Reformed and United) of taking strong stands on 
pressing issues of the day. "The Reformed churches historically 
speaking have taken very decisive action against explicit 
injustices--political, social and economic," he said.

In 1934, representatives of Reformed and other Protestant 
churches took a formal stance against Nazism during the Third 
Reich in Germany, and in 1982, the WARC general council declared 
that theological support for the apartheid system in South 
Africa was a heresy.

But taking a stance against an intangible form of injustice, 
Park acknowledged, was more difficult than standing up against 
"clear, tangible, objective enemies such as Hitler or 
apartheid." What's different about today's world economy is that 
"now your colleagues are your competition. Human rights, life 
are not the centre of concern, but profit," Park said. "The 
neo-liberal economic model excludes people and is being promoted 
to the level of idolatry." 

These shoes not made for selling, say Danish Christians 

(ENI) A Danish supermarket chain has withdrawn from sale sandals 
featuring images of Jesus and Mary, after an outcry from Danish 
Christian groups.

The sandals went on sale on May 12 in the Kvickly chain which 
has branches throughout Denmark. But on May 14, in the face of 
protests against the pictures on the sandals' upper soles, the 
chain's owners, Coop Denmark, stopped selling the footwear. The 
supermarket chain received more than 200 complaints from members 
of Denmark's Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

"We Catholics pray to Jesus and Mary and now they want us to 
walk all over them," said Johannes Gram Kulis, a priest at the 
Vordingborg parish south of Copenhagen, the Agence France-Presse 
news agency reported. "That's blasphemy and a serious and 
indecent violation of the religious sentiments of believers."

Feelings about the sandals ran so high that in the university 
town of Aarhus members of a Christian group destroyed several 
pairs.

"It was never our intention to offend people's beliefs, but 
apparently that was the case, and we were surprised by the scale 
of these protests," the chain's spokesperson, Jens Nielsen, told 
journalists. "Some priests claimed that people would step on 
Jesus and the Virgin Mary when wearing the sandals."

The reaction to the sandals going on sale surprised many 
commentators because Denmark is said to be one of the most 
secularized societies in the world. Still, those who did buy one 
of the 4000 pairs of sandals sold before they were withdrawn 
appear to have acquired an investment. The sandals are now said 
to have doubled in value.

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