ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

Obama defends choice of Pastor Rick Warren to speak at inauguration—chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-minister_fridec19,0,7480741.story Calling on Americans to "come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues," President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday defended his selection of conservative evangelical Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, a choice that had angered Obama supporters who see the minister as intolerant to gays. "We're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common," Obama said during a Chicago news conference. "There are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented, because that's what America is about," he said. He noted that veteran civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, would also speak at the inauguration. Warren's selection this week to give the inaugural invocation drew protests from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights group.

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Conservative evangelicals’ wary faith in Obama - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-evangelical19-2008dec19,0,3346975.story Barack Obama isn't in the White House yet, but conservative evangelical Christians are worried that he will threaten their freedom to live according to the Bible and profess it as the literal word of God. If evangelicals don't act now, prayer in schools and on the airwaves would give way to pornography and same-sex marriage, some predict. "We've seen what we feel is a clear rise in hostility among our institutions -- political institutions and media institutions," said Craig Parshall of the National Religious Broadcasters, a Virginia group. "There are those who believe religion is unhealthy for society." Obama has endorsed faith-based initiatives and conversation about the role of religion in public life. Despite objections from gay rights activists, he plans to have the Rev. Rick Warren, a popular evangelical minister from Orange County, deliver the invocation at his inauguration. But conservative evangelicals, who had a great deal of access to the Bush administration and influenced its policies on abortion and other issues, worry that Obama's commitment to listen to their concerns comes with caveats on issues such as same-sex marriage and hiring gays and lesbians.

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O.C. pastor to speak at Obama’s swearing-in - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-warren18-2008dec18,0,489938.story Nationally known author and pastor Rick Warren has accepted an offer to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural swearing-in ceremony, drawing fury from gay rights activists and opponents of Proposition 8. Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, accepted the invitation to participate in the ceremony within the last few days, said Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for the 20,000-member, four-campus mega-church. According to a program released by the Joint Inaugural Committee, Warren will give the invocation immediately after opening remarks by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California). Earlier this year, as the debate over same-sex marriage raged in California, Warren publicly endorsed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Since the proposition passed in November, hundreds of protesters have gathered near his Orange County church to condemn the stance. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights organization that worked against Proposition 8, called the decision to include Warren in the inauguration ceremony a "slap in the face to millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who donated for, worked for and helped elect Barack Obama president." The Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, issued a letter calling the invitation a "genuine blow to LGBT Americans."

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Obama Selects Evangelist for Invocation - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/us/politics/18inaug.html?ref=washington Barack Obama has selected the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, a role that positions Mr. Warren to succeed Billy Graham as the nation’s pre-eminent minister and reflects the generational changes in the evangelical Christian movement.

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A gay Muslim, tested by faith and family - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-muslimgay17-2008dec17,0,1438523.story Aliyah Bacchus returns home to offer a choice: Accept her sexuality -- as she has -- or lose her forever.

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Vatican Ethics Guide Stirs Controversy - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121200774.html The Vatican's first authoritative statement on reproductive science in 21 years triggered intense debate yesterday about some of the most contentious issues in modern biological research, including stem cells, designer babies, cloning, and a host of techniques widely used to prevent pregnancy and to help infertile couples have children.

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Vatican Issues Sweeping Bioethics Document - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2008/12/12/world/international-vatican-bioethics.html?ref=world The Vatican on Friday said life was sacred at every stage of its existence and condemned artificial fertilisation, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning and drugs which block pregnancy from taking hold. A long-awaited document on bioethics by the Vatican's doctrinal body also said the so-called "morning after pill" and the drug RU-486, which blocks the action of hormones needed to keep a fertilised egg implanted in the uterus, fall "within the sin of abortion" and are gravely immoral. "Dignitas Personae" (dignity of a person), an Instruction of Certain Bioethical Questions," is an attempt to bring the Church up to date with recent advances in science and medicine. It said human life deserved respect "from the very first stages of its existence (and) can never be reduced merely to a group of cells."

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Foiling December pranksters, GPS systems and hidden cameras protect mangers and menorahs—chicagot

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-rel-baby-jesus-and-gps,0,3793470.story When Baby Jesus disappeared last year from a Nativity scene on the lawn of the Wellington, Fla., community center, village officials didn't follow a star to locate him. A GPS device mounted inside the life-size ceramic figurine led sheriff's deputies to a nearby apartment, where it was found face down on the carpet. An 18-year-old woman was arrested in the theft. Giving up on old-fashioned padlocks and trust, a number of churches, synagogues, governments and ordinary citizens are turning to technology to protect holiday displays from pranks or prejudice. About 70 churches and synagogues eager to avoid the December police blotter jumped at a security company's offer of free use of GPS systems and hidden cameras this month to guard their mangers and menorahs.

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Episcopal Church leader says those who defected ‘are no longer Episcopalians’ - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-episcopal5-2008dec05,0,7356324.story The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church declared Thursday that church members who joined a newly formed conservative denomination "are no longer Episcopalians," even as she predicted that the exodus had largely run its course and would not trigger further large-scale defections. In her first public comments since a coalition of 700 parishes announced the formation of a new North American church Wednesday, the Most. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori also reiterated that church property must remain in Episcopal hands, a position disputed by breakaway leaders.

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Episcopal Church: Conservatives upset by liberal views form rival dioceses - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-episcopal4-2008dec04,0,6569890.story Hundreds of conservative Episcopal congregations in North America, rejecting liberal biblical views of others in the denomination, formed a breakaway church Wednesday that threatened to further divide a global Anglican body already torn by the ordination of an openly gay bishop. Leaders of the new Anglican Church in North America said they took the extraordinary step to unify congregations and dioceses that had fled the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada over issues of Scripture. The 700 renegade churches, mostly from the U.S., had already expressed their displeasure by placing themselves under the jurisdiction of Anglican leaders in vast, self-governing foreign provinces.

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Conservative Anglicans in Common Cause Partnership issue constitution, laws—chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-angry-anglicans-04-_dec04,0,5929491.story Conservative Anglican leaders unveiled on Wednesday the constitution and laws for a new organization intended to replace the Episcopal Church as the American arm of the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide. The move is the most telling sign yet that the debate over the role of gay and lesbian Christians has torn apart the first church to appoint an openly gay bishop. Central to the new organization's constitution is a declaration that the Bible is regarded as the "final authority and unchangeable standard." The new organization says the Bible's complex messages about issues such as the ordination of women call for conversation. But the group says the Bible gives a clear message that homosexuality is a sin. Dubbed the Common Cause Partnership, the leaders represent 100,000 Anglicans who believe the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a long-term relationship, violated the authority of scripture.

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Inquiry Set on Mormon Aid for California Marriage Vote - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us/politics/26marriage.html?ref=us California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church neglected to report a battery of nonmonetary contributions — including phone banks, a Web site and commercials — on behalf of a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage. Roman Porter, the executive director of the Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees California campaign finance laws, signed off on the investigation after reviewing a sworn complaint filed on Nov. 13. The complaint, filed by Fred Karger, founder of the group Californians Against Hate, asserted that the church’s reported contributions — about $5,000, according to state election filings — vastly underestimated its actual efforts in passing Proposition 8, which amended the state’s Constitution to recognize only male-female marriage. Broadly speaking, California state law requires disclosure of any money spent or services provided to influence the outcome of an election. Mr. Porter said the announcement of the investigation was not “a determination on the validity of the claims or the culpability of the individuals,” but that the claims had been reviewed by a lawyer for the commission and its chief of enforcement and deemed worth pursuing. Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued a statement Tuesday saying it had received the complaint and would cooperate with the investigation. Frank Schubert, campaign manager for the leading group behind Proposition 8, said the accusations were baseless and made by a “rogue group.”

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U.S. Muslims Taken Aback by a Charity’s Conviction - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us/26charity.html?ref=us American Muslim groups responded with uncustomary silence on Tuesday to the news that leaders of a Muslim charity shut down by the federal government had been convicted in a retrial of money laundering, tax fraud and supporting terrorism. The case against the charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, had long revealed a divide among Muslim Americans, leaders say. Some saw the prosecution of the foundation primarily as evidence of anti-Muslim bias by the American government, while others suspected that the charity might indeed have operated as an overly politicized money funnel for Hamas in the 1990s. The federal government declared Hamas to be a terrorist group in 1995. When the government shuttered Holy Land, which was based in a suburb of Dallas, and seized its assets in 2001, it was said to be the largest Muslim charity in the United States.

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Gay-marriage debate roils, unites Mormons - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/24/gay_marriage_debate_roils_unites_mormons/ This has been a stormy year for Mormons in the United States. First, there was the candidacy of Mitt Romney for president, which brought to the surface a deep strain of anti-Mormonism in American culture. Then, there was the raid on a group of schismatic polygamists in Texas, which reminded America of Mormonism's uncomfortable history. And now, there is a wave of protest, rolling across the country from west to east, in which some gay rights advocates have targeted Mormons because of their church's support for a successful California referendum to overturn same-sex marriage. Ironically, the protests appear to be helping repair a rift within Mormonism caused by the election. The church's outspoken support for Proposition 8 exposed an unusual level of disagreement in the ordinarily harmonious Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Internet facilitated grass-roots organizing by the minority of Mormons who support same-sex marriage. But a smattering of anti-Mormon acts since Election Day - the burning of a Book of Mormon, a mailing of packets of white powder to Mormon sites, and some anti-Mormon invective expressed on signs and in sloganeering - has helped rally a denomination with a long history of persecution.

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Gay marriage: Conservative court faces pressure from all sides of Proposition 8 issue - Los Angeles

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-me-prop8-supreme-court19-2008nov19,0,7603226.story Six months ago, California's highest court discarded its reputation for caution and ended the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Now the moderately conservative state Supreme Court is being asked to take an even riskier step -- to overturn the November voter initiative that reinstated the gay-marriage ban and possibly provoke a voter revolt that could eject one or more of the justices from the bench. The court is under intense pressure from all sides. Its first response to the challenges may come today, when the justices meet privately in a weekly conference to decide which cases to accept for review. Legal scholars say case law does not give the court a clear path for overturning the voter-approved measure. The state high court -- six Republicans and one moderate Democrat -- generally defers to the will of the people. Only twice has the court rejected initiatives on the legal grounds cited by opponents of Proposition 8. Despite the uncertainties, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said publicly that he expects and hopes that the state high court will reject Proposition 8.

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Mormon Church feels the heat over Proposition 8 - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mormons17-2008nov17,0,3771395.story Protesters have massed outside Mormon temples nationwide. For every donation to a fund to overturn Proposition 8, a postcard is sent to the president of the Mormon Church. Supporters of gay marriage have proposed a boycott of Utah businesses, and someone burned a Book of Mormon outside a temple near Denver. "It's disconcerting to Latter-day Saints that Mormonism is still the religious tradition that everybody loves to hate," said Melissa Proctor, who teaches at Harvard Divinity School. As an indication of how seriously the Mormon leadership takes the recent criticism, the council that runs the church -- the First Presidency -- released a statement Friday decrying what it portrayed as a campaign not just against Mormons but all religious people who voted their conscience. "People of faith have been intimidated for simply exercising their democratic rights," the statement said. "These are not actions that are worthy of the democratic ideals of our nation. The end of a free and fair election should not be the beginning of a hostile response in America."

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At U.N., Bush Says Faith Leads to ‘Common Values’ - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111301921.html Employing unusually vivid religious imagery for the secular United Nations, President Bush on Thursday praised the "transformative and uplifting power of faith" and said religious belief "leads us to common values." Addressing a two-day interfaith conference that has prompted mixed reactions from other leaders, Bush said religious belief "changed my life" and "sustained me through the challenges and joys of my presidency." He also suggested faith can transform relations between nations and cultures. "One of my core beliefs is that there is an almighty God, and that every man, woman and child on the face of this Earth bears his image," Bush said. ". . . I know many of the leaders gathered in this assembly have been influenced by faith as well. We may profess different creeds and worship in different places, but our faith leads us to common values."

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Calif. activist accuses Mormon church of not fully reporting aid it gave to gay marriage ban—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-gay-marriage-mormons,0,2256327.story A California gay rights activist filed a complaint Thursday accusing the Mormon church of failing to report the full value of the work it did to support the state's new ban on same-sex marriage. Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate, submitted the complaint to the enforcement division of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the agency that regulates campaign activity. Karger alleges that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ran out-of-state phone banks, produced commercials and provided other services that must be reported as contributions to the Proposition 8 campaign. "Let's be transparent here. If they are going to play in the political process, they need to abide by the rules like everyone else," he said.

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U.N. Faith Forum Denounces Intolerance, Extremism - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111202670.html World leaders, senior diplomats and religious figures condemned extremism and terrorism Wednesday at a U.N. conference on interfaith dialogue that brought Israel and Arab countries together to promote tolerance. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the event's chief sponsor, opened the meeting with a call for greater understanding in the Middle East, saying that religious and cultural differences in the region have "engendered intolerance, causing devastating wars and considerable bloodshed." "Terrorism and criminality are the enemies of every religion and every civilization," said Abdullah, in his first address before the U.N. General Assembly as Saudi Arabia's leader. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the speech, and President Bush will address the conference Thursday.

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Display of Religious Tenets Debated - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111201431.html The way Summum tells it, when Moses first came down from Mount Sinai, he didn't have the Ten Commandments in his hands: He was holding the Seven Aphorisms. The aphorisms are the guiding principles of Summum, a religious organization that operates from a pyramid in Salt Lake City and practices mummification. The group's founder, Summum "Corky" Ra, asked that the sayings be displayed near a Ten Commandments monument in a public park in Pleasant Grove, a Salt Lake suburb. The city said no, triggering a court fight that yesterday wound up before the Supreme Court. The justices debated whether the city violated Summum's First Amendment rights and must erect the aphorisms, sayings such as "Summum is mind," "Everything vibrates" and "The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left."

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Conference cuts funding for ACORN - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/12/conference_cuts_funding_for_acorn/ The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is permanently cutting off all funding for ACORN in the wake of an embezzlement scandal and allegations of voter registration fraud and political partisanship. The national nonprofit, with more than 1,200 local affiliates, attempts to organize low-income people to advocate for improvement in their communities. Bishop Roger P. Morin of New Orleans said yesterday that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an antipoverty program run by the bishops' conference, decided that it could no longer be certain of ACORN's integrity or accountability. The bishops had been giving $1.1 million a year to 41 ACORN affiliates.

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‘Budha Boy,’ Ram Bahadur Bamjan, receives devotees in Nepal - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-budha13-2008nov13,0,3375791.story The teenage boy revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha sat silently in the jungle as he blessed his devotees today with a light tap on the head, which they consider the touch of the divine. His face was still, his long hair spilled over his white robe, and he never said a word. The followers of Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005, when believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree. Bamjan re-emerged this week to meet his followers, who have come by the thousands to see him in the jungles of Ratanpur, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Katmandu. "I got a chance to see God today," Bishnu Maya Khadka, a housewife, said after receiving Bamjan's blessing today. "They say he is Buddha, but for me he is just God."

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From Tiny Sect, Weighty Issue for Justices - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/washington/11sect.html?_r=1 Across the street from City Hall here sits a small park with about a dozen donated buildings and objects — a wishing well, a millstone from the city’s first flour mill and an imposing red granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Thirty miles to the north, in Salt Lake City, adherents of a religion called Summum gather in a wood and metal pyramid hard by Interstate 15 to meditate on their Seven Aphorisms, fortified by an alcoholic sacramental nectar they produce and surrounded by mummified animals. In 2003, the president of the Summum church wrote to the mayor here with a proposal: the church wanted to erect a monument inscribed with the Seven Aphorisms in the city park, “similar in size and nature” to the one devoted to the Ten Commandments. The city declined, a lawsuit followed and a federal appeals court ruled that the First Amendment required the city to display the Summum monument. The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the case, which could produce the most important free speech decision of the term.

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O’Malley heartened, worried by election - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/11/omalley_heartened_worried_by_election/ Forty years ago, in the weeks just after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a young friar named Sean O'Malley joined thousands of other civil rights activists in a rainy vigil on the National Mall in Washington. Today, as much of the nation celebrates the first election of an African-American as president, O'Malley is visibly moved by the moment, but also horrified by what he sees as Barack Obama's "deplorable" record on abortion rights. "When I was in high school, I joined the NAACP and did voter registration in black neighborhoods when I wasn't old enough to vote myself, and I was there at Resurrection City after Martin Luther King was murdered, and living in the mud with thousands of people on the lawn of the Lincoln Memorial and having off-duty redneck policemen throwing canisters of tear gas at us and shouting obscenities," O'Malley, now the cardinal-archbishop of Boston, said in an interview yesterday, his eyes welling with tears. "So, to me, the election of an Afro-American is like the Berlin Wall falling. I mean, for my generation, I suppose young people today can't appreciate that, but to me it is something very big."

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Praise and Politics - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902296.html To stand beneath Second Baptist's soaring ceilings is to see the cost that change sometimes exacts. The church lost many members to the rising cost of D.C. housing, and condo construction has literally shaken the historic building to the point of cracking its walls, pushing away more members who find it "depressing" to see their beloved church in disrepair, Terrell said. Obama's victory didn't appear to be the only thing on people's minds. "I'm in the car business, so that's how I'm doing," Carrol Jackson, the chairman of the deacon board, said before services began. "But the Lord will provide." Terrell spent almost as much time preaching about the economy as he did about the historic election, and that's saying something in a church that was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The crescendo of his sermon came near the end, when he used Obama's well-known slogan to get people to focus on prayer. "I don't know what job you're trying to get, but YES, JESUS CAN! I don't know what you're looking for, but YES, JESUS CAN!" Helen Harris, who was celebrating her 95th birthday at a post-service luncheon, wasn't fixated on political milestones.

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