National & World News
Aug. 1, 2003
Pan-Methodist bishops take concern for children to capital
By Joretta Purdue*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) – Children’s Defense Fund staff have urged a group of Methodist bishops to speak out on several pieces of legislation in Congress that would affect poor children.
This is a "most dangerous time" for poor children in terms of legislation in Congress, said Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund. "People are not aware of the systematic, across-the-board war against children."
The bishops, representing the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation’s Children in Poverty initiative, met July 30 with children’s fund officials. The commission comprises representatives from the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal and United Methodist churches. Members of the first two denominations were unable to participate in the delegation.
Edelman and other children’s fund staff discussed concerns about legislation affecting the Head Start, child tax credit and welfare-to-work programs.
The previous week, the House of Representatives passed by one vote a bill that would change the funding and management of Head Start, which helps children from low-income families prepare for elementary school.
Shelley Water Boots of the children’s fund noted that the bill originated from a White House request that the whole program be funded by block grants to the states. This, she said, would take away the federal standards. The proposal was scaled down to include no more than eight states as a test, but Boots said as many as half the children in Head Start could be affected, depending on the states chosen. A waiver provision could also increase the number of states beyond eight.
Block grants would disrupt the decades-long federal-to-local funding pattern that has been an important part of maintaining standards and accountability, Boots said. It would also make the money vulnerable to other needs in hard-pressed state budgets, she said.
New bills were introduced in the Senate July 28 and 29 to offer alternatives, and senators are trying to be bipartisan in order to avoid the contentiousness of the House, Boots said.
Edelman, speaking by phone to the group, accused the Republicans in the House of wanting "to end Head Start as we know it" by using the block-grant approach.
The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 will drain funds needed for children, Edelman continued.
"In America, we don’t have a money problem; we have a values and priorities problem," she declared. The dramatic increase in the federal deficit puts all age groups at risk and is part of an attempt to starve government programs, she said. The Bush administration is trying to take the society not just to pre-Great Society status but to the days before the New Deal, she said.
Taking aim at other legislation, Edelman said that failure to include the working poor in the child tax credit program unjustly excludes 12 million children. Democrats and some Republican supporters are trying to expand the child tax credit program to include low-income families, but the effort is stalled in the House of Representatives. The first rebate checks for the child tax credit are to be distributed Aug. 1.
"The people who need it the most will be getting nothing," Edelman lamented.
Shannon Brigham-Hill, a Children’s Defense Fund lawyer, told the bishops that her agency also favors reauthorizing the current welfare program, which was extended because lawmakers could not agree on new legislation when it came up last year. Brigham-Hill said that problems in a new bill passed by the House include an increase in the number of work hours required of parents, including those with children under age 6, coupled with insufficient money to fund day care even for those children already enrolled.
Any success of the welfare-to-work bill "has been overtaken by lack of job availability," she said.
"We have seen a rise in extreme poverty," she noted. Extreme poverty means household cash income is less than half the amount of the federal poverty line. For example, that would include a family of three with less than $7,064 income in 2001.
She noted that in 2001, despite the previously booming economy, the number of African-American children in extreme poverty was at its highest level in 23 years – nearly 1 million.
During their visit to Washington, the bishops met with legislative aides of senators from their areas and together talked with an aide of Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) about his committee work on Head Start and issues related to Africa. Alexander introduced a bill earlier in the week that would make 200 outstanding Head Start programs "centers of excellence" with increased funding for additional tasks.
The bishops later turned to the question of how they and other bishops could further their initiative on Children in Poverty. Suggestions included encouraging congregations to provide resources to help people obtain the benefits for which they qualify. Edelman had said in her call that if everyone received the benefits they were eligible for, poverty would be reduced 20 percent, and 70 percent of the people would be lifted out of extreme poverty.
United Methodist Bishop Don Ott coordinated the group’s visit to Washington. Others from the United Methodist Church were Bishops Violet Fisher of the New York West Area and George Bashore of Pittsburgh. Bishops Marshall Gilmore of Dallas and Ronald Cunningham of Memphis, Tenn., represented the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
*Purdue is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in Washington.
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July 31, 2003
‘Potter’ books have relevance for Christians, editor says
By Linda Green*
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – The "Harry Potter" book series, which have stirred debate among some church folk because of their focus on magic, are specifically relevant to Christians, according to an editor at the United Methodist Publishing House.
Teens attending the international Youth ’03 event watched Josh Tinley take Harry Potter to "confirmation class." During a workshop at the July 23-27 gathering, Tinley showed how the Potter tales deal with themes of good versus evil, and he discussed them in the context of the Christian storytelling tradition.
"Harry Potter has renewed the interest in storytelling, and as Christians, storytelling is important," Tinley said. "We have to realize that until a lot of the books in the Bible were written, they were carried on by people who sat around and told stories."
The popular series by J.K. Rowling is about a teenage boy who discovers that he’s inherited magical powers. He goes off to a boarding school for wizards to learn about his abilities and how to distinguish between good and evil.
With the popularity of Harry Potter among teens and adults, a debate has emerged among Christians about whether the books are appropriate reading or whether they endorse witchcraft and black magic – practices forbidden by the Bible.
Potter spends much of his time fighting dark forces for the cause of good, justice and mercy, which are biblical themes, Tinley noted. Culturally relevant stories, he said, are those that are familiar or well known and that communicate a message or teach lessons.
"Everything from Hamlet to Star Wars to the Three Little Pigs are relevant," he said.
Particularly important to Christians is that the Potter tales have returned people to the art of storytelling, prompting many people who never read for pleasure to pick up a book, he said.
Many books in the Bible do not read like history or newspaper articles, he noted. "They read like stories and have a lot of drama, and you want to know what happened."
The gospels are a great example, Tinley said. The gospel writers had numerous ways to tell the story of Jesus but chose to do so in a narrative, he said. Jesus also used stories or parables to convey messages or make a point.
Christians are familiar with the Old Testament books of Daniel, Job, Ruth, Jonah, but Tinley astounded the teens in the workshop when he said biblical scholars contend that the books "are ancient fictional stories that were told about these cultural heroes that all the ancient Hebrew people would have known about."
What is fascinating about that theory, Tinley said, is the idea that these fictional stories were so powerful and important that Jews and later Christians included them in their scriptures.
He added that while Esther is a book in the Bible, it does not mention God. "But there is something about the story. It is so strong that Jews and Christians alike said it was going (into their holy books). Even though it does not mention God, it says something about God in the stories."
The Harry Potter books do not mention God either, but they are filled with Christian themes, some of the teens said, in defense of one of their favorite characters.
Three themes throughout the Potter books – the power of sacrificial love, befriending the poor and marginalized, and the prevalence of justice – are also commended in the Bible, Tinley said.
The controversy among Christians about Potter centers on the language, he said. Although sorcery and witchcraft are in the book, "Harry brought the real world and the magical world together." Potter was born with special powers and did not use them for evil.
What the books have done is force people to look beneath the surface and find the Christian themes. Potter and his friends do not blatantly do anything related to the occult, Tinley said. "He just happened to be born with these special powers."
How does Harry Potter relate to the Gospels? Both talk about sacrifice, he said.
"Look at the sacrifice Jesus made of his life," Tinley said. "Though Potter is not on the same scale, (sacrifice) is represented over and over in the books because you see people putting themselves through all sorts of ordeals to try to serve others and to try to serve a greater good."
The heroes in Rowling’s books show concern for the poor and the oppressed, the teens said.
"The books illustrate that you should not judge people by their powers and abilities but on how they use their abilities to deal with situations," Tinley said. Potter uses love, courage and perseverance time and time again.
"Fictional stories can be relevant to faith and storytelling," he said, "and can be used to pass on that faith."
*Green is United Methodist News Service’s Nashville, Tenn., news director.
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July 30, 2003
Gathering endorses Division on Ministries with Young People
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – Following three days of soul-searching, debate and prayer, a churchwide youth convocation voted to endorse General Conference legislation that would create a Division on Ministries with Young People.
Held every two years, Convo is a youth-led national event where United Methodists ages 12 to 18 discuss concerns, set priorities, worship, study the Bible and enjoy fellowship. Business is conducted in legislative assemblies made up of three youth and one adult from each annual (regional) conference.
Consideration of the legislation, proposed by the denomination’s Shared Mission Focus on Young People, was a major item on the agenda of Convo ’03. The United Methodist Youth Organization sponsored the July 23-26 gathering.
Much of the discussion around the new division focused on concern that the national convocation would no longer be mandatory in the denomination’s Book of Discipline and an important voice of the youth would be lost.
Jay Williams, co-chair of the Shared Mission Focus on Young People, made an impassioned plea for the group to endorse the new division.
"This is about you, about making the church a better place for young people," he said. "This new division will give us an opportunity to be at the table with the general church."
The new division would be a part of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship and include a Network for United Methodist Youth, a Network for United Methodist Young Adults and a Network for United Methodist Workers with Young People.
The new division would also include more representation from the central conferences – the church’s regional units outside the United States.
Those two points caused concern for some delegates.
Sarah Dennis, a delegate from the Tennessee Conference, asked, "How much representation will the youth in the United States be losing? Why not just make Convo a more international body?"
"This is so much larger than Convo," Williams said. "It is not only old people who are afraid of change. We young people get scared and nervous too. I ask you to live by faith about this new way of doing things."
Another delegate was concerned about so much representation from members of the Board of Discipleship.
"I am not going to lie to you; it is a risky move, especially with the Board of Discipleship," Williams said. "Some think we will lose our autonomy, but the flipside to that is we will be in on the conversation at the agency level.
"I have been working on this legislation since 2000," Williams said. "The process is very difficult. All I can do is pray and ask you to trust the moving of the spirit as we work to represent you all in dreaming a new church."
The resolution passed with 94 votes for, 44 against and five abstentions. However, the group did pass an amendment to the petition, supporting legislation that is inclusive of youth and young adults on an international basis but maintaining national youth convocation.
At the end of the meeting, chairperson Pavielle Chriss said she understood why the proposal took so much discussion.
"I have been working on this since 2001, and it took a lot of discussion, charts and diagrams for me to understand the proposal. I just wish they could have trusted more that we had the best interest of youth in mind."
The group also adopted a two-year priority focusing on outreach. The group adopted the theme: "Beyond Me: Opening our minds, our hearts, our doors and our table to the people of God."
"Who are we to say someone is excluded from God’s table?" asked Katy Schwartz, a delegate from Missouri. "We need to bring people to God and serve them supper."
In other business the group:
- Adopted a proposal asking each annual conference to increase its giving to the Youth Service Fund by 7 percent. Money from this fund is given as grants to projects that serve youth.
- Asked for representation from the youth organization on the Committee on Personnel Policies and Practices under the Board of Discipleship.
- Heard a report on homosexuality and learned a national dialogue for youth and youth adults will be held Oct. 18-19 to discuss this issue.
New representatives to the steering committee were also elected during jurisdictional meetings. Elected for Convo ’05, listed by annual conference or state, were:
- Jena Currier, youth, Troy Conference.
- Kelly Minter, adult, Eastern Pennsylvania.
- Chase Simpson, youth, Memphis.
- Jack Blair, adult, Tennessee.
- Luke Wetzel, youth, Kansas.
- Betty Caruthers, adult, Kansas.
- Katie Van Lonkhuyzen, youth, West Michigan.
- Lauri Bowman-Beach, adult, East Ohio.
- Devin Mauney, youth, Desert Southwest.
- Marcey Balcomb, adult, Oregon-Idaho.
Caucus members elected are:
- Ana Tongaofa, Pacific Islander.
- Nathan Thomas, Native American International.
- Christa Scott, Black Methodists for Church Renewal.
- Erica Granados De La Rosa, Methodist Associated to Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans.
- Elise Francisco, National Federation of Asian-American United Methodists.
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July 30, 2003
A star is born at Youth ‘03
By Kathy Gilbert*
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – Look out Kelly and Ruben, here comes Cord!
Cord Doss, a 15-year-old from Rustburg, Va., became Youth ’03’s "American Idol" when he took the stage on the night of July 26 and belted out "I Can Only Imagine," to a crowd of 9,000-plus screaming fans.
"They were screaming so loud, I couldn’t even hear myself!" he said.
Doss’ moment of fame came after three days of "Star Search" competition held in the United Methodist Board of Discipleship’s Soul Tone stage, one of the many places youth could visit during the July 23-27 international gathering held at the University of Tennessee.
Doss competed with more than 100 other talented youth to take the top spot.
"It was awesome. It was my dream come true," said a beaming Doss soon after his performance.
"I was just standing off stage telling myself to be myself, to just sing," he said. "Everything was going through my mind at once."
Potential stars found out about Star Search when they received their registration packets July 23. No one really came prepared to compete – no one, that is, except Doss’ mother.
"My mother always brings CDs," Doss said. "She is always prepared for me to sing." She even took him out shopping for the new red shirt and jeans he wore on stage. "My mom just went crazy shopping."
Doss is a member of Timberlake United Methodist Church and is active in his youth group there. His favorite Scripture is Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
Looking out into the crowd, he found some of his new fans had T-shirts made that summed up his moment in the spotlight: "What does it feel like to sing for 9,000 people? I can only imagine."
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.
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July 30, 2003
Former slave urges young people to free others
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)—Francis Bok has survived the unimaginable.
For 10 years, from the age of 7, he lived as a slave. He was treated like an animal, beaten every day and given rotten food to eat.
"It was very difficult to survive, but I stayed strong in my heart," he said. "I always prayed for God to save me."
Bok was introduced to the 9,000-plus United Methodist youth gathered on the campus of the University of Tennessee for the international Youth ’03. His friend, Jay Williams, a young person committed to abolishing slavery, brought Bok on stage July 26 to give youth a chance to hear about slavery that still exists today.
"Over 27 million people live as slaves today," Williams, co-chair of the denomination’s Shared Mission Focus on Young People initiative, told the crowd. "The CIA reports that 50,000 people are living as domestic or sex slaves in the United States. Slavery is not over."
The huge Thompson-Boling Arena, packed with 12- to 18-year-olds, was silent as Bok told his story.
The story began on a morning in 1986, when 7-year-old Francis went on an errand for his mother. He left his home in Southern Sudan, near Nyamllel, because, at last, his mother was going to let him go to market to sell beans and eggs.
"I was so excited," he said. "I promised my mother I would listen to her and not go off and play."
It was the last time he saw his mother and the rest of his family. About an hour after he left for the market Arab militia soldiers killed his entire family. Those same soldiers came riding into the market leaving a trail of blood behind them as they shot the men and started capturing the women and children.
"I was very confused," he said. "I tried to run but a horseman grabbed me and tied me to a donkey. A 12-year-old girl was screaming because her family had been killed; they cut off her head.
"I learned to be quiet."
Bok was taken north and given to an Arab named Giema Abdullah as a slave. His welcome was a beating from the family, even the children. They called him "abeed" – black slave.
"I could not understand why these children were beating me and the people were watching and not helping me. At first I cried, then I became very mad."
When he was 17, Bok decided he would rather die than continue to live as a slave. He ran away only to be captured and arrested by the Sudanese police. After five months, he was released from prison and he managed to escape to Egypt.
He went to the United Nations Refugee Office and in 1999 he was flown to the United States. From there he was found and rescued by the American Anti-Slavery Group. He now lives in Boston and works with the group on behalf of his people who are still suffering as slaves in Sudan and other parts of the world.
He has spoken to Congress, to President George W. Bush and to schools, colleges and churches across America.
"What good is freedom if you don’t use it to help others?" he asked.
"Each of you can make a difference," he told the young people. "Share this with your family, friends, congressional leaders, your congregations and your pastors.
"When I was living as a slave to Giema Abdullah, I would lie awake at night and think, ‘How am I going to be free? Is someone going to come free me?’
"Today in Sudan and around the world there are children who cannot sleep, who lie on the ground, and they wait for strong people to come and free them."
He told the youth to be those strong people.
St. Martin Press will publish his autobiography, Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity – and My Journey to Freedom in America, in October.
For more information on the American Anti-Slavery Group, go to www.iabolish.com.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.
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July 30, 2003
Teens get guidance for living straight in a crooked world
By Linda Green*
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – Bad company, a bad compass and bad comprehension are three reasons people make bad decisions.
During a workshop at Youth ’03, instructor Duffy Robbins gave young people strategies for making "Straight Choices in a Crooked World." The international youth event, sponsored July 23-27 by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, drew 9,000 people together to learn how to grow in faith and do ministry in their communities.
Society gives teens all sorts of answers to their questions, noted Robbins, chairperson of the youth ministry program at Eastern College in St. David’s, Pa. "In a world where you are getting the wrong answers, how do you know when someone is giving you the right answer?"
People make bad decisions when they are surrounded by others who constantly make bad choices, he said. "Bad companions ruin good morals."
A defective compass also causes people to err, he said. Today’s culture suggests there is no such thing as right and wrong, and "there are no convictions."
People make "dumb or crooked" decisions because they are "fooled by appearances," he said. With bad comprehension, someone might make a choice that feels well thought out, but after it’s made, "you realize that you did not see the whole picture."
The Scripture reminds us to walk by faith and not by sight, he said, and bad decisions often are based solely on what is seen. "Packaging influences our decisions," Robbins said. When sin entered the Garden of Eden, it did so in a tree that looked good to the eye, he said.
He told the teens they could make wise choices if they "stop, look and listen."
Before making a decision, he told the teens to stop and think ahead, then backwards. "Ask yourself, ‘Where do I want to end up?’" He suggested they draw a diagram mentally or physically and give themselves options, and then choose the best one and think about the results. "If I don’t like the consequences, I should not make that choice."
Robbins told the youth to "look for the lie." Although many people are "pretty savvy," they are also easily fooled, he said "This is a world that will lie to you all the time, and the problem is that lies do not always look like lies." He added: "Satan perverts life. He takes something that is good and makes it evil."
The word of God is the light in a dark world, Robbins said.
Scripture contains two types of guidance – precepts and principles, he said. The Bible is filled with stop signs or "thou shall nots" and yield signs that allow you to make the call. "God has given the boundaries, and you make the decisions based on his principles."
He cautioned the teens that the yield signs may mean one thing on this day and another thing another time. "You don’t go to the Word of God and let your fingers do the walking and say this is the will of God for me." He told the teens that they have to think about what they’ve read.
"When I’m trying to make straight choices, I have to be very careful and have the light in my hand. … When you want to make good decisions, stop, look and listen."
*Green is United Methodist News Service’s Nashville, Tenn., news director.
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July 28, 2003
Forum emphasizes need for peace in Korea
By Brenda Wilkinson*
NEW YORK (UMNS) – Marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, a United Methodist forum called on congregations to support peacemaking efforts for North and South Korea in the year ahead.
The Korea Peace Forum, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, adopted a statement of "Advocacy and Action for Peace in Korea." The forum was held July 23, four days ahead of the anniversary of the 1953 signing of the armistice.
In opening remarks, the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the board, acknowledged the many lives lost and families divided by the Korean War. Hostilities lasted from 1950 to 1953, but a formal peace treaty was never signed afterward.
Those at the forum stressed the need for preventing another war on the Korean Peninsula and discussed efforts to reunite people in the Democratic Republic of Korea in the North and the Republic of Korea in the South. About 40 people – primarily Korean and Korean-American clergy, laypeople, scholars and activists – attended the event.
The Rev. S. Michael Hahm, president of the Korean-American National Coordinating Council, reflected on the agony that the prospect of war brings to his community.
"It would be devastating," he exclaimed, pointing out that many Korean Americans have relatives in both North and South Korea. "Our sons and daughters also serve in the Armed Forces of the United States, including in South Korea, where the U.S. still maintains some 37,000 troops."
The forum affirmed the United Methodist Church’s resolution, "Korea-Peace, Justice and Reunification," adopted in 1988 and amended in 2000. The church states that peaceful reunification should be a formal U.S. policy goal and that the United States should negotiate a "comprehensive peace settlement" in Korea. The statement can be found in the denomination’s Book of Resolutions.
Members of a Board of Global Ministries fact-finding team that visited North Korea last year were among the speakers at the forum. The team included Hahm; director Mary A. Baldridge of the Baltimore-Washington Conference; the Rev. Youngsook Kang, board staff executive over Mission Context and Relationships; and the Rev. Paul Dirdak, who heads the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
During their visit, delegates said they were frequently asked questions about the inclusion of North Korea in the "axis of evil" reference made by President Bush in January 2002.
Team members said they heard numerous pleas for reunification during their stay, and they observed the need for more humanitarian aid.
Baldridge highlighted the importance of continued support for Christians with whom they worshipped in North Korea.
Warnings were sounded by Professor Charles K. Armstrong of Columbia University, who specializes in modern Korean, East Asian and international history, and Leon V. Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York.
Armstrong, author of The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 and other works on Korea, chronicled the events that he believes led to North Korea’s distrust of the United States. "We must remember that views of the world are shaped by historical circumstances," he said.
Likewise, Sigal challenged participants in a presentation titled, "North Korea Is No Iraq." "There is a great divide in American foreign policy-thinking between those who believe that we have to push other countries around to get our way in the world and those who think that cooperation can sometimes reduce threats to our security," he said.
Day closed the forum on an optimistic note. "As United Methodists, we have been consistent and in the right place on these issues for a long time," he said. He stressed the importance of being persistent in contacting U.S. politicians at both the local and national levels in support of peace in Korea.
"Now is the time to step forward," he said. "Let us not be fearful but confident that we can make an impact."
*Wilkinson is a retired staff writer for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
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