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View from the Pew  Mary Adamski |
Religion in 2003
Conflict, calamity and criticism make news. That's no surprise to people who read or watch news reports, and certainly not to the people who gather and package information.
So why is it such a year-end downer to contemplate the list of top 10 religion news stories of 2003? Items on the Religion Newswriters Association annual list fit the negatives-make-news pattern. The list might well be introduced with that tired comedian line, "There's good news and there's bad news."
Many of the national and international news stories selected in a poll of print and broadcast journalists who write about faith have local impact, or at least deserve a Hawaii footnote.
Religion reporters overwhelmingly voted that the election of the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop was the top religion news story of the year. The choice of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who has lived with his male partner for 13 years, set off threats of a schism in the 2.3 million-member American church and in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Robinson was also named Religion Newsmaker of the Year, beating out Pope John Paul II, deposed Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and National Council of Churches President Robert Edgar. More on the runners-up later.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pope John Paul II held up his head as Slovak President Rudolf Schuster, right, stood beside him during a welcoming ceremony for his visit to Slovakia in September. The pope celebrated his 25th anniversary this year amid speculation about his failing health.
Hawaii's nine delegates to the Episcopal National Convention in August all voted with the majority to confirm the New Hampshire choice. Not all of the 12,000 local Episcopalians agree. Two congregations and an unknown number of individuals are expressing their displeasure at the collection basket. But unlike the international furor, with African and Asian churches rebuking the Americans and an American alliance of conservative Episcopalians seeking to overthrow the existing structure, local church folks actually voted at their state convention in October to not even discuss the divisive subject.
"I thought it was an interesting side of the style of how things are done here," said the Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick, canon of the Hawaii diocese. He said there were questions, but not dispute, at his three-lecture series on the subject attended by about 125 people earlier this month. He is taking his lectures on the road to the Big Island next year, and summing it up in writing for the diocese's Web site.
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the legality of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
About one-third of the 240 members of Religion Newswriters Association participated in the poll conducted Dec. 12-16. Their ranking of 2003 events on religion front continues:
>> 2. The United States' war on Iraq splits religious communities. The National Council of Churches, reflecting most mainline denominations, oppose it while many evangelical Christian churches support it. President Bush, who often displays his Christian beliefs, has cold-shouldered Robert Edgar ever since the head of the ecumenical group of 35 denominations visited Iraq in January, returning with the message that Iraqis did not want war. Meanwhile, religious groups sponsor a variety of Iraq relief efforts.
>> 3. Christian churches are roiled about the definition of marriage being addressed by courts and lawmakers on several fronts. The Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned a gay-marriage ban, and a state constitutional amendment on marriage is proposed. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban against homosexual sodomy in Texas. The highest court in the Canadian province of Ontario legalized gay marriage.
Hawaii voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 that affirmed that the Legislature has the right to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples. But some local churches are performing services that bless same-sex unions. And gay rights groups here still hope to change lawmakers' minds. But not in an election year!
>> 4. A granite monument of the Ten Commandments was removed from the Alabama Judicial Building in November, and its leading proponent, Chief Justice Roy Moore, was removed from office by that state's judicial ethics panel. But there's a debate over separation of church and state that hasn't ended.
>> 5. The Roman Catholic Church is beginning to implement plans to combat priestly sex abuse, but not quickly and fully enough for its critics. The Boston archdiocese is still the epicenter, with Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley of Palm Beach chosen to succeed retiring Cardinal Bernard Law, and convicted sex abuser John Geoghan killed in prison.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Rev. V. Gene Robinson was named Religion Newsmaker of the Year as he set off debate by becoming the first openly gay elected bishop in the Episcopal Church.
>> 6. Pope John Paul II celebrated his 25th anniversary, but there are growing concerns within the church about his frail health and debate about his eventual successor.
>> 7. The slumping economy has forced many denominations to downsize programs because of budget cutbacks.
>> 8. The May General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to retain the "fidelity and chastity" clause in its Book of Orders. The debate on a motion to delete the language was actually about whether noncelibate gays may be ordained, action now banned but defied by some individual congregations. The assembly elected its first female moderator.
>> 9. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a California case that challenges the inclusion of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Christian groups have characterized the attempt to delete the phrase as an atheist assault.
But Hawaii Buddhists provided the perspective of a minority that is protected from discrimination by the philosophy of separation of church and state. A 2002 resolution of the Hawaii State Federation of Honpa Hongwanji Lay Associations convention called for restoring the pledge to its original language, minus the phrase added in 1954 as a slap at "godless communism."
The Buddhists said: "The surest way to protect the rights of every citizen and the integrity of religion in America is to keep the government neutral on religious matters. A secular Pledge of Allegiance does not mean that we are a nation hostile toward religion; it means we have a government that respects our freedom of conscience and allows Americans to make up their own minds about matters of faith."
>> 10. New York Lutheran minister David Benke, who was suspended by vote of his peers because he participated in an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was reinstated as head of the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod by an appeals panel. At issue was an 1847 church constitution clause forbidding "syncretism," the mingling of Christian and non-Christian beliefs. A similar case involving Valparaiso University ended in an apology.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A granite monument of the Ten Commandments was removed from the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala.
Honolulu was the scene of many interfaith assemblies as people 9/11. But there was one end of the spectrum of Hawaii's faith community clearly absent from such gatherings: The evangelical and Pentecostal churches and nondenominational Christians won't be found in prayer with Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers or native religion practitioners.
A local minister told me that just to sit in the same service with such people would be to affirm their beliefs have merit, whereas the only acceptable path to God is through Jesus Christ.
Conflict, calamity and criticism on the religion beat. Where, oh where does it start but with people of faith?
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Religion Calendar
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
