NEWS OF
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
AND CONFLICT
DURING 2000-DEC

Sponsored link.

We also have a list of religious tolerance news
items for this month.

 | 2000-DEC-4: Indonesia: Religious massacres
continue: According to Newsroom: 2
In Indonesia's eastern Maluku province, attacks on Christian villages
by Muslim warriors have left more than 50 people dead. "The
most deadly attack came on the same day that provincial leaders were
planning ways to stop bloodshed during the upcoming religious holiday
season, when sectarian attacks often are sparked." |
 | 2000-DEC-7: India: Christians attacked:
According to Newsroom: 2
"A spate of attacks on Christians across India has
prompted New Delhi's new Catholic archbishop to seek immediate action
from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. 'The Christian community is
concerned about the incidents of violence against minorities,
especially against Christians. In the last five days as many as five
incidents against the Christians have taken place,' Archbishop Vincent
M. Concessao wrote in a letter to the prime minister on Saturday
[DEC-2]. Religious minority leaders have accused the prime minister's
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of fomenting an
environment in which hundreds of attacks on minorities have occurred
since it came to power in 1998. The government, however, generally has
treated the incidents as 'simple law-and-order problems'." |
 | 2000-DEC-7: USA: Distribution of "Jesus
Film" called offensive: According to Maranatha Christian
Journal:14
Networks of local churches in the U.S. are distributing unsolicited
copies of the "Jesus Film" via the U.S. Postal
Service to homes and apartments in their area. This is a video
originally produced 20 years ago by Campus Crusades for Christ.
It is based on the Gospel of Luke. Problems surfaced in May when
400,000 copies were distributed in Palm Beach County, FL -- an area
with a sizeable Jewish population. Some recipients attached bricks to
the video, and refused delivery. This increased the return shipping
charges. Rabbi David Eliezrie of Congregation Beth Meir HaCohen-Chabad
Center in Westminster expects over 1 million copies to be distributed
in his area. He told a reporter: "While I respect the right of
freedom of religion, I resent the effort of certain Christian groups
to evangelize the Jewish community. And I'd prefer that they focus on
their own religious brethren." Hussam Ayloush, executive
director of the Southern California Council on American-Islamic
Relations commented: "As a person who believes in God, I don't
approve of such tactics because it might offend people who don't
appreciate God's message." John Erickson, president of
Interfaith of Topeka, KS, and a Roman Catholic priest said: "I
don't for a moment doubt the sincerity and good intentions of those
who do such things. But I question the effectiveness of bringing
people to Christ. The best way to do that is the personal living of
the gospel, treating people with justice and dignity and respect." |
 | 2000-DEC-7: Moluccas (Spice Islands): Muslims
massacre over 100 Christians: According to ReligionToday: 3
Islamic troops attacked four villages in NOV-28 giving the people the
choice of converting to Islam or death. 93 died; over 700 converted.
Similar attacks earlier in the week left 54 villagers dead and two
churches destroyed. This brings the total deaths to over 4,000 during
the past two years. The government was slow to respond to the
atrocities. |
 | 2000-DEC-8: Russia: Salvation Army to be banned:
According to ReligionToday: 3
The Salvation Army has successfully registered with the Russian
government in five cities in Russia. But their application has been
rejected in Moscow, the Russian capital, because they are seen
as an unwelcome foreign military organization. Unless it wins an
appeal to the Russian Supreme Court, it will have to shut down its
operations there. |
 | 2000-DEC-12: Australia: Spanking of students being phased out:
Prior to 1995, schools in this country were allowed to use straps,
canes, or lightweight wooden paddles to hit students as a method of
discipline. Since 1995, a new state law has forbidden such corporal
punishment. 51 private Christian schools in the state have complied
with the law, with some reluctance. The remaining two private
Christian schools in New South Wales, Sunderland Shire Christian
School and Nambucca Valley Christian Community School,
refuse to conform to the law. They state that they are simply
disciplining children according to biblical principles, and that state
interference outlawing this practice is unacceptable. The government
has given Sunderland Shire Christian School until 2001-MAR to
comply with the law; the deadline for Nambucca Valley Christian
Community School is the end of December. If they do not comply,
then they will be de-certified. This would mean a loss in funding and
denial of the right for their students to take public examinations.
The latter are necessary for students to obtain an official graduation
certificate.
Duncan McInnes, heads the New South Wales Parent’s Council. He
said that corporal punishment is "... a moral issue and schools
should have the right to decide for themselves. There are enough
safeguards in the child protection legislation to ensure they are not
being abused physically." , Neville Pollard, education
director for Christian Community Schools, a state umbrella
organization, defended corporal punishment. He said: "If given
lovingly and carefully, it’s a very viable method of punishment."
|
 | 2000-DEC-14: Italy: Pope to meet Fascist sympathizer:
According to AANEWS:
"As thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Rome
in protest, the Vatican confirmed that Pope John Paul II will go ahead
with plans to meet tomorrow with Austrian far-right political leader
Joeg Haider. Holocaust survivors, Jewish organizations, World War II
partisans, and diverse political groups are charging that the Vatican
meeting legitimizes a man frequently compared to Hitler. The Holy
See's decision to follow through on the meeting between the pontiff
and Mr. Haider has been a lightening rod for critics who see the
Vatican as unwilling to distance itself from odious sympathizers, and
take responsibility for its past wrongs. Earlier this month, for
instance, the Vatican asked U.S. authorities to intervene and dismiss
a lawsuit naming it as a party in aiding Nazi expatriates at the end
of World War II, and hiding gold and other valuables expropriated from
victims of the clerical fascist Ustashi Catholic government in the
former Yugoslavia." 10 |
 | 2000-DEC-18: USA: G.W. Bush asked to not use Bible:
According to Associated Press:
Spokesperson Anne Nicol Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion
Foundation asked President-elect George W. Bush to recognize the
constitutional principle of separation of church and state by not
using a Bible during his oath of office in January and not referring
to a god during his inauguration. She said: "I think that it
would be a very good thing if he did pay attention to the
Constitution, especially given all the post-election ruckus." I
think people are critical." |
 | 2000-DEC-18: U.S.: President Bush becomes president-elect:
The Electoral College selected George W. Bush to be the next president
of the U.S. He will take office in mid-January. If he carries through
with his election promises, one early decision will be to terminate
federally funded stem cell research in the U.S. That will satisfy
conservative Christians who generally regard the pre-embryos from which
stem cells are extracted to be human persons. It will offend religious
liberals who regard pre-embryos as non-persons; they will regret the
loss of stem cell research that offers such promise in the alleviation
of human suffering. It will allow other
countries to achieve a massive lead in biotehnology. |
 | 2000-DEC-19: UK: Stem cell research approved: According to
MSNBC: In a free vote, members of parliament voted 366 to 174 to
permit stem cell research in their country. Yvette Cooper, the junior
health minister, told the House of Commons "In embryonic stem
cells may lie the key to healing within the human body...These
regulations do not raise any new moral issues beyond those that have
already been debated and discussed in the present law. Parliament is
not being asked to cross the Rubicon today." Opposition to
the bill was based upon the belief that stem cell research will lead
to human cloning. One conservative MP stated: "For the first
time we are saying to the scientific community that we shall create
cloned human beings." This appears to be a misunderstanding
on the part of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
and other pro-life groups; stem cell extraction and cloning share a
few mechanical techniques, but are otherwise unrelated:
 | Cloning leads to the creation of an embryo that will develop
into a newborn. |
 | Stem cell research removes an embryo's stem cells, thereby
destroying an embryo. These cells are then used to develop the
tissue of a single organ. Stem cells are incapable of inducing a
pregnancy and resulting in the birth of a newborn. |
It is not clear from the press reports whether those opposing stem
cell research who are raising concerns about cloning are:
 | Merely misinformed about the nature of stem cells, or |
 | Are exploiting the public's fear of cloning in order to generate
opposition to stem cell research. |
Under the bill, human cloning will remain illegal. 15 |
 | 2000-DEC-19: Netherlands: Gay marriage approved: According
to Reuters: The Dutch upper house of parliament passed two bills that
had been previously approved by the lower house in 2000-SEP. Effective
2001-APR, marriage and adoption in the Netherlands will be open to
both heterosexual and homosexual couples. This is the first country in
recent history to have legalized gay and lesbian marriages.
 | The bills were strongly opposed by a number of Christian
religious parties who felt that the bills attack marriage between
one woman and one man. |
 | The bills were strongly approved by religious liberals and
groups promoting equality justice and opportunities for gays and
lesbians. Onno Hoes, a spokesperson for one such group, COC,
said: "We're the first country in the world where there is
no distinction made [in marriage] on the basis of gender." |
The Senate statement said: "As far as possible, homosexual
marriage will have the same consequence as heterosexual marriage."
Among other things, this means that spousal support obligations would
also apply to same-sex marriages. |
 | 2000-DEC-22: Italy: Drive to re-criminalize
"witchcraft:" According to Xenit.org:
An anti-cult group, the "Anti-Witchcraft Telephone" group estimates that
there are four million families suffering from what they call "false
saviors." This apparently includes individuals adversely
affected by either new religious movements, or black magic. Group volunteers
are promoting a petition to have a law reinstated that would make
witchcraft a crime once more. It was illegal until a witchcraft law
was repealed in 1981. The group is often met with derision and attack
from skeptics. It is not clear which of the 17
different varieties of "witchcraft" that they are
opposed to. The pope was asked to hold a special
audience for victims of black magic and new religious movements in
December. He refused, and said that there is no need for new laws in
Italy to deal with new religious movements. |
 | 2000-DEC-28: North Carolina: Firm rejects town because of
allegations of religious intolerance: According to Asheville
Citizen-Times, Asheville, NC: 16 Lawrence
Erlbaum, president of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., a
publishing company, was considering relocating his business to
Asheville. He was "impressed by the cultural diversity, natural beauty and
the apparent high quality of life. The availability of the Asheville-Buncombe Technical
Community College to assist in training what we project to be about 200 in our work force was also a real plus."
But he has noticed recent news reports of religious intolerance from
the area. "Our organization has typically employed workers
from diverse groups, with cultural heritages that include those of
Asian, African and Middle East descent. These highly skilled people
would be managerial employees that would have to relocate, train
workers, and manage the new facility. It is clear that many of our
employees and especially their children would not be comfortable in
your community or schools." Erlbaum mentioned specifically
the "we shall pray" rallies "that flaunt the Supreme Court
and the constitutional separation of church and state in order to impose their own religious views on minority groups within the
community." Also of concern were other local religious
schisms, and the mayor's proclamation of "the lordship of Jesus Christ awareness
week." |

References:
- DayWatch is a daily service of Maranatha Christian
Journal. It provides "a daily summary of news headlines
with a Christian perspective..." The newsletter is free on
request. Their web site is at: http://www.mcjonline.com
- Newsroom is a service of Worldwide Newsroom Inc.
Their articles are written by "a network of journalists, scholars and
other professional contacts in country." You can subscribe to
their free service from their website at http://www.newsroom.org/
- ReligionToday provides free newsletters to which you can
subscribe at: http://www.ReligionToday.com.
These summaries are part of GOSHEN.net, which also includes LiveIt.net,
Devotionals.net, ChristianShareware.net, ChristianClassifieds.net,
ChristianMessageBoards.net, BibleStudyTools.net, MediaManagement.net,
WorldNewsToday.net, WebCastGuide.net, and
ChristianCollegeGuide.net
- Reuters is "the world's leading financial information
and news group. Their web page is at: http://www.reuters.com/
- Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): E-mail: cair1@ix.netcom.com
URL: http://www.cair-net.org To
join CAIR-NET, CAIR's read-only mailing list: Send subscribe
cair-net in the body of a message to majordomo@cair-net.org
- EWTN News carries Roman Catholic news from Catholic World
News, Vatican Information Service, ZENIT, CWNews.com. See: http://www.ewtn.com/news/
- Ecumenical News International (ENI) in Geneva Switzerland
distributes news free religious news highlights to subscribers. They
can be contacted at PO Box 2100, CH - 1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland.
Telephone: (41-22) 791 6087/6515. Fax: (41-22) 788 7244 Email: eni@eni.ch.
Their web site is at http://www.eni.ch
- ZENIT.org is "an International News Agency based in
Rome. Our mission is to provide objective and professional coverage of
events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic
Church for a worldwide audience, especially the media." Their
web site is at: http://www.zenit.org/english/
- Anglican Communion News Service provides information from an
Anglican perspective. See: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/index.html
- AANEWS is distributed by American Atheists.
- China Crisis News Bulletin #60, 2000-SEP-25, Falun Dafa
Information Center. They publish regular information on the Falun Gong
via fax. Their Email is faluninfoctr@nycmail.com.
Their web site is at http://www.faluninfo.net
- Covenant News disseminates "Today's news for today's
[Christian] church." See: http://www.CovenantNews.com/index.html
- U.S. Newswire is "the leading national wire service for
distribution of full text news." They have a web site at: http://www.usnewswire.com/
- "Distribution of 'Jesus' video called offensive,"
at: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00b/20001206d.htm
- "Britain okays embryo cell research: Opposition calls it a step
toward human cloning," MSNBC, at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/505792.asp
- Mark Barrett, "Firm rejects Asheville," Ashville
Citizen-Times, at: http://www.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?news&20001228_n9.txt
Copyright © 2000 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-DEC-4
Latest update: 2000-DEC-29
Author: B.A. Robinson

| |
|