InterVarsity Chapter Drops Suit Against Rutgers University

InterVarsity, Rutgers reach agreement on student leadersThe Rutgers InterVarsity Multiethnic Christian Fellowship has dropped its lawsuit against the university after the two institutions reached an agreement on student leadership requirements.

In a joint statement (available at both the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Rutgers websites), the groups say that “the university assured the fellowship that its voting members are permitted to take into account both their own religious beliefs and those of candidates when selecting and voting for their leaders under university policy. Accordingly, during continuing discussions, [the institutions] were able to settle upon a leadership selection process that adheres to university policy and also assures the fellowship’s ability to select and maintain leaders compatible with the purposes of the group. The university has approved the organization’s constitution.”

Last September, the university said the group would no longer be considered a “registered student organization” because its constitution violated the university’s anti-discrimination policies.

“This agreement places Rutgers at the forefront in demonstrating that the principles of inclusivity, diversity, free association, and free expression are complementary, not contradictory,” Emmet A. Dennis, Rutgers vice president for student affairs, says in the statement.

Michelle DeRitter, president of the InterVarsity chapter, was also quoted. “I can state unequivocally that Christian students can come to Rutgers and participate as equal and valued members of the university community,” she said.

The Alliance Defense Fund, which funded the InterVarsity chapter’s lawsuit, claimed total victory. In a press release, it said the settlement is “fully in favor of the religious student organization … Under the settlement the university assures the evangelical Christian organization that the fellowship is not violating university policies by requiring that leaders have a credible profession of faith and concur with the fellowship’s statement of faith.”

The joint statement, however, doesn’t seem to go quite that far. The policy says voting members of the group are allowed to take religious beliefs into account when choosing leaders. It does not say that those who disagree with the fellowship’s statement of faith can be banned from holding leadership positions. That seems to be at the core of some of the other InterVarsity disputes around the country, including a fight at Tufts University in 2000.

Still, David French, the attorney who represents InterVarsity chapters in all these disputes, is pleased with what happened at Rutgers. “This resolution is good for both sides,” he says in the Alliance Defense Fund press release. “True diversity is enhanced by the presence of a Christian voice on campus, and that voice cannot exist without basic constitutional protections. This settlement helps the University achieve diversity and the students retain their freedoms.”

War with Iraq:

Baghdad prays as U.S. bombs drop | For Roman Catholic author James Douglass, a veteran crusader for nonviolence, how was it to be in a Baghdad under bombardment by his own nation? (Associated Press)
Iraq’s heritage | The war and archeology (David Klinghoffer, National Review Online)
179th chaplain heads to Mideast | Keith Bohley, a chaplain with the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard, doesn’t know where his next official service will be staged (News Journal, Mansfield, Oh.)
Churches to join in nationwide prayer about war | Working through the National Prayer Committee, a coalition of religious leaders in all 50 states, local pastors are spreading the word through a vast e-mail network (The Sun, Bremerton, Wash.)
If you want to effect change, play by the rules | Neither Wesley nor Luther expected to remain on the payroll while they railed against the establishment. Nor should Methodist pastors who tilt at windmills in Iraq while neglecting their flock (Virgil Van Camp, Amarillo [Tex.] Globe-News)
Americans should pray about war, ministers say | As leaders of churches in the area, ministers around North Branch have taken the task of guiding their congregations through the theological troubled waters of wartime (North Central Minnesota Post Review)

Iraqi aid and relief:

Relief groups lash Pentagon | Military is accused of endangering aid by trying to control it (The Charlotte Observer)
Charlottean at Iraqi border waiting to help | Charlotte’s Ray Branch, who works with Samaritan’s Purse, lives for this (The Charlotte Observer)
Muslims: Franklin Graham’s aid is unwelcome | Graham’s aid group accused of seeking to convert Iraqis to Christ (The Charlotte Observer)

Interfaith relations:

Muslims reach out to other believers in Beaverton | They’re scared of Baptists (The Oregonian)
Jewish, Christian leaders unite | Campaign is a project of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, whose co-chairmen are Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and campaign strategist Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader who often provides political advice to the Bush administration (The Washington Times)
Rowan Williams to attend summit in Gulf | Archbishop will be one of several Christian and Muslim leaders (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Mayor of New York rips biased Muslim textbooks | What Is Islam All About charges that many Jews and Christians lead “decadent and immoral lives.” (New York Daily News)
Students speak out against religious extremists | Many University students were upset about comments made by evangelist Donnie Morris who made his third visit to campus Monday afternoon (The Crimson White, University of Alabama)

Church and state:

Maryland Senate bars minister from offering Christian prayer | David N. Hughes was barred from giving the opening prayer in the Maryland Senate yesterday after he refused to do so without invoking the name of Jesus—and violating the body’s guidelines for public prayer (The Baltimore Sun)
Attorney takes aim at cross above Ventura | Religious symbol on city parkland violates Constitution, says S.F. lawyer representing group of county residents (Ventura County [Calif.] Star)
Elkhart County ready to defend new Ten Commandments suit | Display also includes the Mayflower Compact, the Constitution and an American flag (South Bend [Ind.] Tribune)
Commission criticized for prayers at meetings | The Cobb County man who took on the school system over evolution has turned his attention to county commissioners, demanding that they stop praying publicly before their meetings (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Church life:

Kaduna riots: Christian Association of Nigeria needs N4.5bn ($35million) to rebuild churches | According to CAN, the figure comprises 130 churches destroyed during the February and May 2000 religious riots, valued at N3 billion, and another 130 churches valued at N1.5 billion vandalised during the November 2002 disturbances in connection with the Miss World Beauty Pageant (This Day, Lagos, Nigeria)
Weak economy beneath the steeple | “Ask and you shall receive” does not always hold when times are tough (The New York Times)
Church ushers assemble with pride | At revival in Evanston, league puts spotlight on a low-profile job (Chicago Tribune)
Lutheran pastors’ pay called inadequate | A new report shows that more than half of Lutheran pastors are being paid even less than church guidelines suggest (Los Angeles Times)
Signs and wonders | The boom in new church signs started nationally about 10 years ago and spawned an industry to meet the growing demand (The Racine [Wisc.] Journal Times)
In liturgy, man serves, God wills | “Liturgy is the regular communal processing of our life and our experience through an alternative set of metaphors, symbols, narratives, memories, and hopes,” theologian Walter Brueggemann wrote in Interpretation and Obedience (David Waters, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis)
Presbyterian Church plans to lay off 10 workers | Denomination had to make up shortfall in budget (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
Ministers urge Christians to treat others with love | Christians oppose Ku Klux Klan rally (The Greeneville [Tenn.] Sun)
Vicar hits at holiday holy days | Jill Warren says people use Holy Week as an excuse to just have a holiday (Express & Star, U.K.)
Hard work & hope | Churches keep the faith as Union City grapples with slow economy, job losses (Erie [Pa.] Times-News)
Following Christ into the future | It is one thing to present a vision for the future shape of the Church. It is another to find practical ways of realizing that vision—and another again to establish a process which moves a large complex organization forward (Helen McLeod, The Evening News, Edinburgh, Scotland)
Church’s majority plans to stay put | 25 percent say they’ll follow James Merritt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, to a new church (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Faith and belief:

Their response to adversity distinguishes true Christians | God informs his followers that they will suffer—it is inevitable—but the response that Christians have to suffering is what is important (The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.)
Doth pride fall before gluttony? | How we stack up when judged by the Seven Deadly Sins (Gerald Owen, National Post, Canada)
Groping at shadows in a darkened room | All religions are truthful in far more important ways than some of their propositions are false (Chris McGillion, The Sydney Morning Herald)
Students need to enjoy being young | Honestly, it doesn’t matter what you believe, just so long as you believe something (Amanda Anthony, The Exponent, Purdue U.)
The lure of the back pew | Those who sit there may be keeping spiritual distance (Deseret News, Salt Lake City)
Low standing in the pews | Only 20 per cent of Victorians over 15 attend a place of worship at least once a month (Times Colonist, Victoria, Canada)
Arizonans aren’t big on church | Fewer than half attend, survey says (The Arizona Republic)

Health and sickness:

How to visit the sick | Combine levity with brevity, chaplain advises (Religion News Service)
Influential Philippine church leader hospitalized for convulsions, mild stroke | Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin helped oust two presidents over alleged corruption (Associated Press)
Fifteen parishioners from Colo. church hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning | Snow was blocking vents (Associated Press)
Church schools India HIV victims | Two HIV-positive children in India have begun attending a Bible school after being continually being forced out of community schools over the past two years (BBC)
Faith leaders gather to coordinate HIV/Aids activities | Over 150 faith leaders from various beliefs gathered in Johannesburg today to further a national faith-sector initiative in the fight against HIV/AIDS (BuaNews, Pretoria, South Africa)
AIDS is God’s challenge, says South African health minister | “Perhaps HIV and Aids is God’s way of challenging us to care for our people, to support the dying and to appreciate the gift of life,” Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said (The Guardian, London)

Vatican sex glossary:

Vatican’s last word on safe sex – No | A new “ethical glossary” issued by the Vatican warns against safe sex and says that condoms do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Italian gays blast Vatican’s new sex glossary | A controversial new Vatican glossary of sexual terms says homosexuals are not normal and that countries which allow gay marriages are inhabited by people with “profoundly disordered minds.” (Reuters)
New church glossary angers gay community | Just a day after the release, gay groups were calling the 900-page glossary “vicious” and “irresponsible” (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Outrage at Vatican ethics dictionary | The Vatican published an ethical dictionary yesterday saying homosexuality has “no social value”, warning against concepts such as “safe sex” and “reproductive health” and insisting that condoms don’t protect against sexually transmitted diseases (The Guardian, London)

Books:

Paradise on Earth | A close reading of the pope’s surprisingly secular poetry (Slate.com)
An ex-priest bears witness to his former vocation | One could call The Other Side of the Altar a memoir, but that would not do justice to the wisdom and reach in author Paul Dinter’s interpretation of the Roman Catholic Church (Jason Berry, Chicago Tribune)
Kirk faces unholy row over English hymn cull | Selecting the 750 hymns to be included in the new edition has taken eight years and resulted in 250 being dropped, the majority of them from England (Scotland on Sunday)
Faith in numbers ‘blooming’ at local churches | But who’s counting? The Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, that’s who (The Jackson [Tenn.] Sun)
Protestant witness for Pius XII | Real historians will soon refute the likes of Harvard’s Daniel Goldhagen and John Cornwell, the author of the scandalous book, Hitler’s Pope (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)

Other stories of interest:

Could U.S. 666 Be a highway to hell? | New Mexico state lawmakers want to change highway’s designation (The Washington Post)
Pepsi says Gonzalez was wrong to kick its can | Fayetteville City Councilwoman called for boycott over Dr. Pepper’s “One Nation … Indivisible” tag (The Fayetteville [N.C.] Observer)
People claim to see image in Peckville | Marian apparition on basketball backboard (WNEP, Scranton, Penn.)
A Salvadoran town’s dream rises slowly from the rubble | In San Agustin, devastated by 2001 quake, ‘We are reborn’ (The Washington Post)