Religious Leaders

NEW DELHI, India -- Summoning all his moral authority, Pope John Paul II tried yesterday to persuade leaders of other religions here that interfaith understanding should lead them to recognize the Roman Catholic Church's right to evangelize."

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.

Maryland's top religious leaders united in force yesterday to support a "religious freedom" bill before the General Assembly that opponents maintain would go far beyond rights historically protected under the law.The legislation would establish in Maryland law religious protections that were lost on the federal level in June when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law restricted the circumstances under which government...

Sponsors of legislation designed to bolster protections for members of religious groups withdrew the proposal yesterday, saying they were unable to resolve problems with the measure in the remaining three weeks of the General Assembly session.Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's Democrat, and Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, pulled the legislation, which opponents maintained would have granted rights far beyond those historically protected under the law.In withdrawing the measure, Miller acknowledged that the bill "has possible unanticipated consequences."

In a week in which the president of the United States publicly admits to adultry and says he misled the American people about it, religious leaders composing their sermons for this weekend certainly have plenty to talk about.For rabbis and ministers whose job it is to lead and instruct their congregations in the moral realm, it is a teachable moment."You can't ignore it," said the Rev. John Sabatelli, pastor of Christ Church, a Lutheran congregation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. "What I plan to tell the congregation is: He was wrong.

In an effort to make use of a little-known provision in the law that overhauled welfare, a group of Christian leaders plans to ask the nation's governors Tuesday to collaborate with churches in creating anti-poverty programs and to redirect federal welfare money to church-based initiatives.The welfare law that was passed last year included a provision called "charitable choice," intended to encourage states to involve local religious groups in revising welfare programs.The provision allows so-called faith-based groups to receive government money without having to hide or compromise their religious character.

Some rolled out borrowed cots and opened spare bedrooms, so that pilgrims from across the land might have a place to lay their heads. Others chartered dozens of buses, so that brothers could come to know each other -- even as they set out on a journey to understand themselves.With the Promise Keepers rally expected to draw hundreds of thousands of Christian men tomorrow in Washington, Baltimore-area churchgoers and religious leaders are putting the final touches on plans to get the faithful to the revival.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, looking ahead to his second inaugural, called yesterday for a new "spirit of reconciliation" in Washington and across the country.The nation's continued progress is at stake, he said, as is its place in the world through the next century."How can we prove in America that we can all get along -- without giving up our basic beliefs but in finding a ground of mutual respect?" the president asked about 100 national religious leaders at the White House. "It seems to me that may be the single most significant decision facing the United States."

OWINGS MILLS -- Authorities have ruled that a woman found dead in her bedroom with a knife in her chest Aug. 29 committed suicide.JoAnne Bonicker, 26, of the first block of Chins Court was found dead by her husband, Michael, 27. She had a single stab wound. The house showed no sign of forced entry, and the bedroom where Bonicker was found was not disturbed.County police spokesman Bill Toohey said the state medical examiner ruled the death a suicide based on an examination, evidence found at the scene, and interviews with family and friends.

In a closed-door meeting with religious leaders yesterday, Gov. Parris N. Glendening refused to suspend Maryland's welfare reform plan, prompting clerics to call for churches and other non-profit organizations not to aid the effort."

The Rev. Lee Hudson is preaching at the State House this week, urging legislators to protect God's creation from global warming pollution. Hudson is lobbying on behalf of 210 Lutheran congregations in Maryland as he tries to persuade the General Assembly to pass a bill to require a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gases statewide by 2020. Other religious leaders - including those of the Presbyterian Church in Central Maryland, the state's Episcopal Diocese, the Unitarian Church, and several ministers and rabbis acting individually - also have come out in support of the Global Warming Solutions Act. "All of the things that we say in the Genesis story, that God made creation and it was good.

The progress was slight but still significant, religious leaders in Maryland said yesterday of the outcome of the peace talks in Annapolis. All major issues that have prevented peace and the creation of a Palestinian state in the past remain unresolved. Israeli and Palestinian representatives agreed only to keep talking with the goal of reaching resolution by the end of next year. But talk, in this case, between these groups, is not so cheap, local religious leaders said. "Even to come to an agreement like that is very positive," said Irma Hafeez, president of the Montgomery County Muslim Council.

As the State Department finalizes the agenda for the Middle East summit in Annapolis, it should consider including some last-minute participants who have the clout to build authentic support for the peace process. We suggest that they include the region's most senior Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders in these and all future talks. These courageous leaders have joined together to form a Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land with the express purpose of removing religion from the conflict and putting it into the peace process.

Religious leaders in Maryland are sharply divided on the question of same-sex marriage, a fact that is likely to weigh heavily in an anticipated debate on the issue this winter in the General Assembly. Religious leaders bring podiums, votes and organizations to a hot-button issue that is both religious and political. When the Maryland Court of Appeals rejected same-sex marriage in a 4-3 ruling last week, "friend of the court" legal briefs from religious groups were among the stacks of material urging support for each side.

Jason Poling was shifting uncomfortably in his seat while watching the new film Jesus Camp, the same way he does while watching the TV mockumentary The Office about a dysfunctional workplace - except the film was real. Poling, the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville, said he worried about how his neighbors and friends would perceive the film, about a North Dakota camp, that began arriving in theaters last week. "As an evangelical, I'm concerned that people see this as an accurate representation rather than a sliver of evangelicalism ... and see that as normative for everybody," Poling said.

VIENNA, Austria -- Iranian political and religious leaders sounded defiant yesterday in the face of the accord between major world powers demanding that Iran suspend its nuclear program in exchange for a package of incentives but stopped short of saying they would reject the deal. Much of what was said repeated past statements, and none of it addressed specifically the incentives and penalties agreed to here Thursday by permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said international pressure "would not bear fruit" and obliquely accused Israel of being behind the effort to censure Iran, in comments to the official Iranian news agency.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- When it comes to buying condoms, Gideon Byamugisha prefers to dart in and out of the drugstore, leaving his car engine running for a quick escape. But invariably, after watching a rattled clerk triple-bag his purchase or enduring disapproving glares from fellow customers, Byamugisha goes out and turns off the motor, returns to the store and tells his story. "It's the collar," said Byamugisha, a canon with the Anglican Church of Uganda. "They look at me and think: Sin has gone deep when even a man in a collar is buying condoms."

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite Muslim religious leaders heated up their anti-American rhetoric during prayers yesterday as sectarian violence continued and talks aimed at creating a new Iraqi government faltered. The occasionally vitriolic sermons, often delivered by clerics close to the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, were the latest sign of souring relations between U.S. political and military leaders and the country's majority Shiites, who initially welcomed the U.S.-led ouster of the Sunni-led government of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Maryland will become the focus of the volatile national debate on gay rights today, as a Baltimore Circuit Court judge hears arguments challenging the state's prohibition of same-sex marriages. On the eve of the legal fight over whether Maryland's marriage law discriminates against same-sex couples, a diverse group of about 50 religious leaders gathered yesterday at a Bolton Hill church to pledge their support for what they called the couples' fundamental rights of marriage. Maryland is one of at least six such states - the others are Washington, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California - with pending legal challenges to marriage laws.

A group of 15 religious leaders marched into a city meeting yesterday to accuse City Council President Sheila Dixon of sidestepping her campaign promise to support redevelopment efforts in a blighted East Baltimore neighborhood. Members of the faith-based nonprofit organization known as BUILD, or Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, strode to the podium at the start of yesterday morning's Board of Estimates meeting, temporarily taking the session over. The peaceful hijacking, mainly by pastors sporting yellow BUILD buttons, was designed to pressure Dixon into fulfilling a pledge the group says she made to support a $50 million bond to help rehabilitate Oliver.