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Religion News in Brief

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)--The Re-Imagining Community, a group that developed out of a controversial 1993 meeting of radical Christian feminists, appears to be dissolving.

The group's seventh gathering last weekend, held at a University of Minnesota campus, drew about 200 devotees, compared with 2,200 at the original Re-Imagining conference.

The organization has no plans to hold future meetings and indicated its small office at the Minnesota Church Center is likely to shut down.

At the Re-Imagining conferences, all held in Minnesota, mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics celebrated feminine images and names for God, and challenged Christianity's patriarchal traditions.

Conservatives organized to fight such concepts within the United Methodist Church and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), denominations that aided the original conference.

The intensity of the Re-Imagining movement has subsided, some participants said, or has diffused into other expressions of radical feminism in congregations, seminaries and organizations around the country.

``I know Re-Imagining will always be with us. It will re-emerge and bubble up all over the place,'' said Mary Bednarowski, who teaches at a United Church of Christ seminary in New Brighton, Minn.

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http://www.reimagining.org

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Operation Rescue leader moves office from Texas to North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)--The leader of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America has moved from Dallas to Concord, N.C., to continue his fights against abortion and homosexuality.

The Rev. Philip ``Flip'' Benham, 55, has staged many publicized anti-abortion events in the past decade. The conservative Protestant minister won fame in 1995 by baptizing Norma McCorvey, the anonymous ``Jane Roe'' in the Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion.

Benham is now a common figure outside Charlotte abortion clinics. At the group's annual conference in Charlotte July 12-20, participants plan to hold a funeral for aborted fetuses and read the Bible in front of churches and mosques.

Benham, who operates from a two-room office, says local pastors give little support. ``The evangelical church has been asleep here in Charlotte,'' he said. ``It's as if they've got this awkward peace with the abortion industry.''

In addition to his anti-abortion activism, Benham disrupted a recent gay and lesbian festival in Charlotte, screaming throughout a commitment ceremony for more than a dozen couples.

Still, he said he cheered last month's capture of Eric Rudolph, who is accused of bombing two abortion clinics, a gay nightclub and an Olympics event.

``This man was no anti-abortionist,'' he said. ``This man was mad at the world.''

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http://www.operationsaveamerica.org

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Cabinet ministers meet Hindu leader over India's disputed Muslim site

NEW DELHI, India (AP)--Two Indian cabinet ministers met a Hindu religious leader Sunday, attempting to settle a bitter dispute over the site of a 16th century Muslim mosque that was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners, the Press Trust of India reported.

Hindu activists tore down the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. Afterward, some 2,000 people were killed in nationwide Hindu-Muslim clashes.

Newspaper reports say an unreleased compromise would have Muslims give up their claim to the Ayodhya site, which Hindus consider the birthplace of the god Rama. Muslims say there's no proof of that. In return, Hindus would give up sites claimed by Muslims in Varanasi and Mathura.

Muslim leaders are scheduled to consider the proposal July 6.

Meanwhile, the High Court in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state, has given government archaeologists until next week to determine whether a temple existed at the site of the Ayodhya mosque.

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Evangelical group sues to hand out fliers in Maryland school

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP)--Montgomery County school officials are fighting an attempt by Child Evangelism Fellowship to distribute fliers to students at two elementary schools, with the Justice Department's civil rights division supporting the religious group.

The fellowship sponsors after-school meetings with Bible-based activities. It is appealing a ruling that temporarily blocks their meetings, and the county--in turn--is challenging the appeal with arguments due in September.

A federal district judge barred the fellowship from sending home permission slips with students at elementary schools in Rockville and Damascus, Md. The forms invited students to ``Good News Clubs'' offering ``Bible adventures, missionary adventures, games, singings and much more!''

The case is one of several the fellowship has taken to court to promote its Good News Clubs in public schools. The group won a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that schools must give the clubs equal access to school space on the same basis as other voluntary meetings.

The schools' attorney said the Constitution's ban on ``establishment of religion'' would be violated if schools ``forced teachers to pass out proselytizing materials'' or ``recruitment fliers.''

A spokesman said the Justice Department regards the forms as informational, not recruiting tools.

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Louisiana court dismisses ACLU bid to end church sales tax exemptions

NEW ORLEANS (AP)--An American Civil Liberties Union fight against Louisiana's sales tax exemption for churches and other religious groups is a state tax matter and doesn't belong in federal court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

A U.S. district judge earlier struck down the exemptions, saying they were given for a religious purpose and violated separation of church and state.

The three-judge appeals panel said the ACLU could pursue the matter in state court.

Three exemptions are at issue. A 1996 law exempts churches and synagogues from paying sales taxes on purchases of Bibles, song books and religious textbooks. Exemptions were added in 1998 to cover religious camps and retreats, and purchases by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order.

Citing U.S. Supreme Court principles, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court in 1999 threw out sales tax exemptions for religious publications. The U.S. Supreme Court did not review the case so there is no nationwide precedent.

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Maryland inmates study to go from prison to pulpit

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP)--About 30 inmates at the Maryland Correctional Training Center are studying to go from prison to the pulpit.

They are taking a two-year course for master's degrees from Covenant Theological Seminary of Tallahassee, Fla. (which is unconnected to a Presbyterian Church in America school of the same name based in St. Louis).

The idea for the program, launched last November, came from former inmate Tony Pavlo, who was released in 2001 after serving time for armed robbery. He was taking Covenant classes under the tutelage of an evangelical Protestant pastor in Rockville, Md., and said he wished the same opportunity were available to those behind bars.

The Rev. Gerald Banks, chaplain at the medium-security prison, took the idea to warden Michael Stouffer, who approved.

``It is great to be able to be a blessing to your community, rather than a curse,'' Pavlo said.

Since tuition is beyond the reach of most inmates, Rockville church members give donations and sponsor fund-raisers to defray the students' expenses.

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http://members.tripod.com/trinityreform/seminary.htm

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Hundreds line up to see Juan Diego relic in Wisconsin

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP)--A tiny scrap of cloth from a cloak worn by a man who said he saw the Virgin Mary centuries ago attracted hundreds of Roman Catholics last weekend eager to glimpse the relic.

The ``Tilma of Tepeyac,'' on loan from the Los Angeles Archdiocese, is on a 20-city tour. The La Crosse display occurred at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The tilma, or Aztec Indian cloak, was said to be worn by Juan Diego at the time of the Virgin Mary's appearance to him in 1531 that led to Mexico's Guadalupe shrine. He was canonized a saint last year.

Mexico City's archbishop sent a small piece of the cloak, encased in a blue locket, to the Los Angeles archbishop in 1941.

AP-NY-06-26-03 1325EDT

Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

 

   


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