NATION

National Catholic Reporter, March 30, 2001 by Gill Donovan

Gay-friendly churches retain ties to Atlanta Baptist association

Two Atlanta Baptist churches that have welcomed homosexuals survived a second attempt to oust them from the Atlanta Baptist Association. The move March 12 to oust Oakhurst Baptist Church and Virginia-Highland Baptist Church fell short of the two-thirds vote required, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The decision keeping the churches in the association affirmed a previous vote earlier in the year.

But at the same meeting, the association amended its constitution to exclude any church that "knowingly takes or has taken any action to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior."

In a related matter, the executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention voted March 13 to drop all funding of the association after Dec. 31. The decision, tied to the association's retaining of the gay-friendly churches, follows a vote in February by the state convention's administrative committee that recommended the cutting off of funds.

Poll: Religious groups, states uninterested in charitable choice

Religious organizations have shown little interest in the 1996 "charitable choice" legislation that invited them to compete for government welfare funds, an Associated Press survey shows.

Five states have been aggressive users of the 1996 welfare law provision, which President Bush hopes to expand to other governmental programs. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia say they have awarded no government welfare contracts to religious groups that would not have been eligible otherwise. Fourteen states reported sporadic use of charitable choice.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, Bush's Health and Human Services secretary, admits the notion has been hard to sell. Just one religious program in Wisconsin has received government money to help welfare recipients, the AP reported. "We opened it up and we didn't have as many applications as we thought there would be," he said.

The five states that have been the most involved with charitable choice -- Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Texas -- have spent hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars under the provision.

A recent New York Times/CBS News poll gauged public interest in charitable choice. When U.S. adults were asked what they thought of the federal government giving money to religious organizations to provide social services, 66 percent said it was a good idea and 30 percent said it was a bad idea. When asked what they thought of government money going to religious organizations such as the Church of Scientology, the Nation of Islam and the Hare Krishnas, 29 percent said it was a good idea and 64 percent said it was a bad idea.

Historic 200-year-old torah taken in Denver burglary

A 200-year-old torah that survived the communists and then the Nazis has fallen victim to a burglar in Denver. Valued at $35,000, the torah was stolen within the last month from an east Denver synagogue.

The torah, which is a scroll containing the first five books of the Bible written on parchment, was taken from a locked cabinet at Talmudic Research Institute. The building also houses the Bais Medrash Kehillas Yaakov Synagogue.

Denver Police Detective Mike Greer said there are no suspects and no evidence of break-in of the cabinet where the torah, in a blue velvet bag, was stored. He could give no precise date as to when it was taken.

The torah was a gift to the synagogue from Dimitri Gershongorin, whose Ukranian grandfather had protected it for years. Once, the grandfather, who was a tinsmith, made a tin box for the torah and hid it in a potato cellar.

The family managed to save the torah even as the Nazis were confiscating the holy scrolls and burning them in public squares, said Rabbi Howard Hoffman, a member of the synagogue. The scroll was one of the few possessions the Gershongorins were able to keep when they escaped from Eastern Europe.

Speaker tells Presbyterians to reconsider attitudes towards Jews

As the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues to wrestle with the fallout from a conference speaker who questioned the role of Jesus Christ in salvation, a prominent church theologian has told Christians they need to re-evaluate their views toward Judaism and the idea that the New Testament supersedes God's covenant with the Jews.

The Rev. W. Eugene March, speaking at a recent three-day symposium at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, said Christians need to stop thinking that Jews and other non-Christians are outside of God's plan of salvation. "God does require of us exclusive allegiance, but that does not automatically define or limit God's relationship to others," March said, according to Presbyterian News Service. "We simply do not know how God relates to that theoretical person all alone on an island who has never had any opportunity to learn of God."

March was one of the drafters of a 1987 church statement on Christian-Jewish relations. He said Christians should be sensitive to Jewish history by referring to the Old Testament as the "Primary" or "Early" Testament, and using calendar terms such as B.C.E. -- before the Common Era instead of B.C. -- before Christ.