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NEWS OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT & INTOLERANCE DURING
2002-JAN
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2001-JAN-3: Canada: Anglican Primate concerned about role of
religion: Archbishop Michael Peers delivered a sermon at the Christ
Church Cathedral in Ottawa ON Canada on New Year's Day. He warned that the
country seems to be moving toward a secular society, devoid of any mention
of religious faith. He pointed out the memorial service on Parliament Hill
in Ottawa. it was held in response to the 9-11 terrorist attack, and was
attended by hundreds of thousands of people. He said that the government
deliberately excluded any mention of religion. ACNS reported: "Many
Anglican bishops, the national church's executive council and the Canadian
Armed Forces' chaplaincy committee decried the absence of religion from
that memorial service. The military chaplains had even been asked by the
federal government for an 'appropriate protocol for a prayerful interfaith
response to the terrorist attacks'." But their suggestions were not
followed. 8,11 |
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2002-JAN-3: India: Eight Year-Old Sacrificed By Temple Priest:
According to Times of India: In a most unusual
incident, a temple priest confessed to chopping off the head of a eight
year-old boy with a dagger in order to propitiate a deity by human
sacrifice in a town in the Bijnor district of India. The boy from
Kalagarh had been reported missing after he had gone to the Shiv temple
to play with his friends. |
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2004-JAN-4: VT: Supreme court rejects lawsuit: The Vermont
Supreme Court unanimously dismissed two lawsuits brought against the
legislation that created
civil unions for gays and lesbians in
the state. One suit was by a group of town clerks. They charged that
they had been forced to violate their religious beliefs by being required
to issue civil union certificates to homosexual couples. The other was by
some Republican legislators who argued that the vote in the legislature
should be nullified because a group of Democratic legislators had
organized an informal office pool concerning the voting on the civil union
law. The "pot" was about $15.00. The suit argued that the pool gave the
participating legislators an economic stake in the outcome of the vote;
thus they should have excused themselves from the vote. If they had, then
the bill would not have been passed. |
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2002-JAN-4: Christian Coalition settles racial discrimination case:
The Washington Times and Baptist Press reported that The
Christian Coalition reached an out-of-court settlement of a
multimillion-dollar racial-discrimination lawsuit by its black employees.
The Coalition will pay the plaintiffs about $325,000; the workers
have promised to remain silent about the case. 12 |
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2002-JAN-10: Northern Ireland: Protestant/Catholic violence flares
again: Catholic and Protestant rioters have once more threatened the
Roman Catholic Holy Cross Primary School in Belfast. 17
police officers were injured. 13 |
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2002-JAN-11: CA: Controversial art work: The Traditional Value
Coalition's news service reported that the Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights has protested artwork at Copia --
a new food, wine and art museum in California's Napa Valley. The
museum allegedly displays figurines of the Pope and several nuns
defecating. League spokesperson, Patrick Scully, said: "This exhibit is
insulting. It's gratuitous. It's unnecessary." Copia spokesperson,
Peggy Loar, said that the display "symbolize the cycle of eating and
fertilization of the earth, which is requisite for future existence." |
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2002-JAN-18: Ritual murder reported in Germany:
According to a British magazine, The Telegraph, Manuela Ruda,
23, and her husband Daniel Ruda, 26, have been charged with murder. The
article associates the alleged perpetrators with the
occult scene, goth culture,
Satanism, and vampirism. The Satanic connection
appears to involve Gothic Satanism -- an extremely rare religious belief
that is unrelated to religious Satanism. Gothic Satanism is based on
belief about Satanism that was promoted by the Christian church during the
Renaissance. It involves inverted cross symbols, selling one's soul to
Satan, and engaging in ritual murder. From vampirism, the Rudas seem to
have picked up the practice of drinking blood, sleeping in coffins and
visiting cemeteries. The Rudas talked about glowing eyes, a glowing knife
used as a murder weapon, a glowing victim, "Several witnesses have
testified that the couple suffered from personality disorders. They could
both face long terms at secure psychiatric institutions." Data is
sketchy at this time, but it appears that the Rudas were motivated more by
their psychotic mental ilness(es) than by the occult, goth culture,
Satanism or vampirism. 14 |
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2002-JAN-13: Assembly of God pastor attacks Islam: Maury Davis,
pastor of the Cornerstone Church in Nashville TN delivered a the first of
a four-part sermon series on the "evils of Islam." Later he
received 150 calls of support and two in opposition. The Trinity
Presbyterian Church posted a notice on their church sign, saying: "Islam
is not a threat: Prejudice is." Rev. Janet Hilley, spokesperson for
the Covenant Association -- a local 100 member pastors' group -- said: ''Our
concern is also that this will give people who are already angry and
prejudiced against the Muslim community license for violence.'' The
Islamic Center of Nashville issued a statement saying that "The
Muslim community is disappointed after listening to the last Sunday's
sermon. Pastor Maury is misrepresenting Islam with inaccurate historical
facts and distorted exegesis of the Koran and thereby misleading his
congregation with wrong information. At the pulpit, he has a
responsibility of presenting the truth. The Islamic Center of Nashville
has made and continue the efforts of explaining and educating anyone
interested about Islam in the proper way and with accurate information.
Islam is a part of the fabric of America and it is time for those who
don't know to come and learn about the truth according to the way Muslims
understand their religion.'' Hussein Ibish, communications director
for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said: ''In spite of
all the calls for tolerance since Sept. 11, these kinds of comments are
spreading in the Christian right.'' D.C.Pastor Davis' sermon series
will be broadcast on the Christian cable channel: Inspiration Network
in 2002-APR. 15 |
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2002-JAN-27: VA: Grace prohibited at military institute: Two
students of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) objected to the
student-led, non-denominational Christian prayer given before meals.
This had been a 50 year tradition at the Institute, which is run by the
state. With the help of the ACLU, they sued the VMI in 2001-MAY. A U.S.
district judge ruled for the plaintiffs, because the "grace" violated
the principle of separation of church and state. The decision will be
appealed. 16 |
References:
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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
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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
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Reuters is "the world's leading financial information
and news group. Their web page is at: http://www.reuters.com/
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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
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EWTN News carries Roman Catholic news from Catholic World
News, Vatican Information Service, ZENIT, CWNews.com. See: http://www.ewtn.com/news/
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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
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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/
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Anglican Communion News Service provides information from an
Anglican perspective. See: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/index.html
A companion Episcopal News Service is at: http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens/
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AANEWS is distributed by American Atheists.
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CNSNews.com -- Cybercast News Service -- is a conservative
news source. Their home page is at:
http://www.cnsnews.com
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"Canada trying to suppress religion in public arena, warns
Primate: 'Faith and culture are intimately connected'," ACNS,
2001-JAN-8 newsletter.
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"Christian Coalition Settles Racial Discrimination Lawsuit,"
ReligionToday news summary, 2002-JAN-7.
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"Riots close Catholic school," News.com.au, 2002-JAN-10, at:
http://www.news.com.au/common/
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Hannah Cleaver, "Satanic killers tell of blood drinking rites,"
at:
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/
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Anita Wadhwani, "Christians at odds over sermon on 'Evils of
Islam'," Tennessean.com, 2001-Jan-19, at:
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/
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Charles MiVille, "Federal Judge: No More Prayer at VMI," Focus on the
Family, at:
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/A0019416.html
Copyright © 2002 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2002-JAN-4
Latest update: 2002-JAN-27
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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