Religious Leaders

A coalition of religious leaders joined Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at a rally Monday to call for a higher minimum wage, saying Maryland lawmakers shouldn't wait for the economy to make a full recovery before taking action. Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of Beth Am Synagogue and Jews United for Justice said the Book of Proverbs calls on the faithful to "speak up" and "seek economic justice" for all. He told the crowd of more than 200 that contributing to charitable causes isn't enough.

As people of different faiths gathered Sunday at the Baltimore Basilica for a prayer service for peace in Iraq, Archbishop William E. Lori implored the crowd to keep praying after news of the crisis no longer dominates headlines. "This suffering has deep, deep roots, and it will require our faithful attention for a long time to come," the Baltimore archbishop said during the one-hour ecumenical and interreligious service that included religious leaders from Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.

Gov. Martin O'Malley on Tuesday kicked off the second year of an expanding initiative aimed at getting faith leaders - specifically men - involved in combating domestic violence, especially during a coordinated weekend in October. O'Malley addressed an audience of some 90 religious leaders at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis on Tuesday and discussed his administration's effort to reduce violent crime against women and children. The administration has set a goal of reducing such crime by 25 percent by 2018 - to build on the 23 percent drop between 2006 and last year.

Sectarian violence in Iraq has worsened dramatically in recent days, especially for Christians in the war-torn nation, prompting Pope Francis to appoint an envoy to meet with religious and government leaders in Iraq as well as with those Christians who have been forced from their homes in fear. "The news reports coming from Iraq leave us in dismay and disbelief: thousands of people, including many Christians, driven from their homes in brutal manner; children dying of thirst and hunger in their flight; women taken and carried off; violence of every kind; destruction of historical, cultural and religious patrimonies," the pope said.

They have the governor's backing and a rewritten bill, but advocates of legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland have made little progress in quieting the concerns of many faith leaders who adamantly oppose the legislation. "Society should protect and strengthen marriage and not undermine it," said the Rev. Derek McCoy, who heads the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a new coalition aimed at stopping the measure. "There are many Marylanders who believe marriage should be defined as between one woman and one man. " He was among a series of pastors who offered that message Tuesday at a packed hearing on Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

Religious leaders gathered Wednesday morning to ask the Baltimore City Council to support a controversial package of taxes proposed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to help plug a $121 million budget gap. The brief news conference organized by the BUILD interfaith coalition marked the first public event supporting Rawlings-Blake's tax package, which has drawn fierce opposition from retailers, beverage distributors, hotel owners and a host...

Religious leaders in Maryland, along with many thousands of others around the world, are taking sides as the debate heats up over preparations for next month's United Nations population conference in Cairo, Egypt.Baltimore Archbishop William H. Keeler is the chief spokesman in the United States for the official Roman Catholic concern that the conference -- with the backing of the Clinton administration and many non-Catholic church groups -- will endorse abortion as a basic human right.As president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Keeler has led the attack on parts of a draft plan for the Cairo session, which he said urges that contraceptives and abortion "be provided to unmarried minors without parental knowledge or support, and envisions the widest possible distribution of condoms."

BEIJING -- A high-profile delegation of U.S. religious leaders began arriving in Beijing yesterday for a three-week tour of China to examine the state of religious freedom here, one of the most volatile human rights issues in American diplomacy.While it is being described as private, President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China agreed to the mission during their summit meeting in October, and the White House picked the three-man delegation: a Jewish leader, an evangelical Protestant leader and a Roman Catholic archbishop.

Religious leaders can best advance the cause of civil rights by encouraging their congregations to vote in this year's elections and to participate in the census, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume told a smattering of national church representatives yesterday. Several dozen ministers and rabbis gathered in Baltimore for a two-day National Religious Leaders Summit called to reaffirm ties between churches and synagogues, the African-American community and the Baltimore-based civil rights organization.

Maryland high school students will soon be hearing about the importance of academics from a new group of adults: the religious community. The state's religious leaders are scheduled to announce this morning that they're joining the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education's "Achievement Counts" campaign. The program -- which in the past has relied on radio campaigns and classroom speakers -- will seek to encourage ministers, priests, pastors and rabbis to talk to students about the value of working hard in school.

As Gov. Martin O'Malley has extended a welcoming hand to immigrant children fleeing Central America, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony G. Brown and Republican rival Larry Hogan have staked out starkly different positions on whether he is doing the right thing. Brown, O'Malley's lieutenant governor, is backing the governor's actions in joining with religious leaders to help federal efforts to resettle unaccompanied minors while they await immigration hearings. Hogan opposes O'Malley's position.

Gov. Martin O'Malley on Tuesday kicked off the second year of an expanding initiative aimed at getting faith leaders - specifically men - involved in combating domestic violence, especially during a coordinated weekend in October. O'Malley addressed an audience of some 90 religious leaders at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis on Tuesday and discussed his administration's effort to reduce violent crime against women and children. The administration has set a goal of reducing such crime by 25 percent by 2018 - to build on the 23 percent drop between 2006 and last year.

Regarding the thousands of Central American children fleeing to our country, where are America's religious leaders ( "America's refugee crisis," July 9)? For too many Americans, our so-called "Judeo-Christian values" seem to always stop at race and the Rio Grande. With the notable exception of the Catholic Church and those religious-based organizations trying to bring some humanitarian sanity to the situation, religious leaders in this country are silent when they should be shouting "for shame" at our racism and xenophobia.

A coalition of religious leaders joined Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at a rally Monday to call for a higher minimum wage, saying Maryland lawmakers shouldn't wait for the economy to make a full recovery before taking action. Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of Beth Am Synagogue and Jews United for Justice said the Book of Proverbs calls on the faithful to "speak up" and "seek economic justice" for all. He told the crowd of more than 200 that contributing to charitable causes isn't enough.

Editor: Someone once wrote that "war is hell!" Is this a worldwide, unnoticed, undeclared war now in existence? If there is a World Wide War, why is there only silence, why isn't the media reporting it? If there is a World Wide War are the Political and Religious Leaders of the World asleep? Were there books written about World War II that accused America's leaders of being asleep at the beginning of the war? During World War I there was a slogan "The War to End All Wars", yet, approximately 21 years later World War II began.

I expect the Catholic bishops to hold the line on abortion and contraceptives. No surprise. ("Catholic bishops vow to hold line," Nov. 14.) Too bad, over the years, the bishops did not speak out as fervently about the "unjust war" the United States waged on Iraq where thousands of military, civilian men, women and children died. Too bad, that the bishops were not as fervent in exposing and excommunicating the pedophile priests in their midst. Too bad the bishops did not send letters to all the churches about the slanderous, vitriolic, unfounded accusations about President Barack Obama.

Beneath signs reading "Say no to church taxes," Baltimore religious leaders and congregants rallied outside City Hall yesterday to protest city plans for an energy tax on churches and other nonprofit organizations. "We consider a vote for this measure as a vote against us," said the Rev. Gregory B. Perkins, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, a group of predominantly African-American clergy. Perkins organized the rally. About two dozen church leaders and an equal number of church members gathered around Perkins as he spoke with reporters for about 15 minutes.

As images and news about the war in Iraq have loomed in recent weeks, Howard County religious leaders have been focusing on messages of peace. Members of many area churches and synagogues have been straddling the fine line between support for U.S. troops overseas and discussing whether the war is just. Whether their members have supported the war or opposed military action, many congregations simply prayed for a peaceful and just resolution. "Our congregation is very divided about this particular war," said Rabbi Sonya Starr of Columbia Jewish Congregation.

Roman Catholic bishops convening in Baltimore joined students and volunteers Sunday to transform a Harbor East hotel corridor into a food-packing operation to benefit West African orphans and battered women. Measuring out thousands of plastic bags of dry soy protein, rice, vitamins and dried vegetables, enough to feed six people, the volunteers worked alongside the humanitarian effort's sponsors, Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now, as well as the bishops. "This is so much more fun than sitting in meetings," said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., who is also Catholic Relief Services board chairman.

While visiting friends in the Baltimore area, I saw Dan Rodricks ' column "A priest speaks up for same-sex marriage" (Nov. 4). As a Catholic priest myself, I am dismayed by Archbishop William E. Lori's assertion that "preaching ... requires subordination of personal views to the word of God" in response to the Rev. Richard T. Lawrence's nuanced distinctions. It was precisely Jesus' personal views that led him to freely and frequently dissent in interpreting Torah Law (word of God)