On Character
A nonprofit education program called Character Counts! grows in America and now has 250 member organizations who incorporate Character Counts! tools into their activities, teaching forty million kids six pillars of character: trustworthiness, responsibility, caring, citizenship, fairness, respect. More American schools have adopted the six pillars, some stressing one character trait per month. One result in communities emphasizing this is a sharp drop in school violence.

On Sex and Violence in Media
The Texas Board of Education voted to sell $45 million of Walt Disney Co. stock to protest the sex and violence in its films.

On Homosexuality
Once every ten years, the Anglican church holds The Lambeth Conference, the main forum for debate for leaders of the world’s 70 million Anglicans. A decade ago, they debated sharply on and finally permitted the ordination of women. Churches in New Zealand, Canada, and the USA have elevated eleven women to bishops. Some bishops have, however, threatened to boycott any meetings involving the women bishops.

This year the issue was homosexuality. Some bishops have openly ordained homosexual priests, and two homosexual men had their marriage blessed recently in the USA, most Anglican ministers regard homosexuality as an abomination. The archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, leader of the worldwide communion affiliated with the Church of England, called for more study and reflection, but a showdown took place anyway, resulting in a definitive statement that dominated the agenda. Carey had said, “Homosexuality will be considered calmly, theologically, and in a Christian way,” but he was perhaps still thinking that the English led the discussion due to their weight of membership. That weight of membership has changed. Africa and Asia now have more Anglicans than N. America and Europe do.

Bishop Duncan Buchanan of Johannesburg presided over the debate on homosexuality and was right in predicting that it would “throw its shadow pretty much over the present conference.” Eighty bishops and other church leaders from the Southern hemisphere had met in Kuala Lampur in 1997 and demanded a “clear and unambiguous” stand against sex outside marriage and rules out ordaining non-celibate homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions. U.S. bishops affiliated with the Episcopal Synod in America backed the Kuala Lampur statement, and Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas, promoted the same position being adopted at the Lambeth Conference.

Very much opposed and just as opinionated is Bishop John Spong of Newark, New Jersey, who said that a resolution like this at Lambeth would reflect fear and ignorance rather than the gospel. Archbishop Carey rebuked Spong, saying, “You attack personally those of us who disagree with your opinion and in so doing you distort the theologies and reasons why we are led to conclude that there is no justification for sexual expression outside marriage.”

This year, they came down against homosexuality, which Africa does not suffer gladly. Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, called homosexuals “worse than pigs and dogs” and said they had no civil rights there. Gay activists recently stopped plans by California State Polytechnic University to award Mugabe an honorary doctorate. Mugabe, with nothing to lose, continues his verbal potshots.

African men, like Indians, frequently hold hands and share bedrooms, so many people didn’t recognize homosexuals on the streets. Now the consciousness rises, perhaps aided by Africa’s AIDS epidemic.

When the World Council of Churches recently met in Harare (capital city of Zimbabwe), they invited a gay rights group called Galz to join their human rights session. Conservative local churches and the government objected.

Reverend Canaan Banana, president of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987, is now charged with sodomy and indecent assault. The witnesses, mostly youthful police bodyguards or cooks from 1983 to 1986, were augmented by a key witness sentenced in 1995 to ten years for killing another policeman who had been tauntingly calling him “Banana’s wife.” Banana’s defense has alternated between denying all allegations and calling them malicious lies, yet also saying it was consensual.

On Abstinence
Teresa Barcus, choir director at Twin Cities Apostolic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, attended a meeting at her thirteen-year old son’s school announcing a meeting to preview a new course in sexuality. The school had invited parents to examine the curriculum and take part in an actual lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.

Only about a dozen parents bothered to attend. While waiting for the presentation, she thumbed through pages of instructions in preventing pregnancy or disease, and noticed that abstinence was mentioned only in passing. When the teacher and school nurse arrived and asked if anyone had any question, Sister Barcus asked about this. Many people laughed, and someone suggested that she go bury her head back in the sand. The teacher abdicated responsibility by saying that the school’s responsibility was to teach facts, and the home was responsible for moral training.

After twenty minutes, in which other parents gave their approval, the teacher announced a break for refreshments and asked everyone to put on the name tags by the donuts. Then they could mingle with the other guests. As the people did so, she sat and thought and prayed for guidance in how to convince them to include a serious discussion on abstinence. The teacher again asked her to eat a donut and put on a name tag. She said, “I’ll wait right here.”

After the group reassembled, the teacher said, “Now we’ll give you the same lesson we’re giving your children. Everyone please peel off your name tags. Now, on the back of one of the tags, I drew a tiny flower. Who has it, please?” A gentleman held it up, “Here it is!” The teacher said, “That flower represents disease.” Do you recall with whom you shook hands?” He pointed to a few people. “Very good,” the teacher said. “The handshake represents intimacy. So the two people you had contact with now have the disease.” The parents were laughing and joking. “And whom did the two of you shake hands with?” The point was well-taken, as she showed how quickly disease is spread. “Since we all shook hands, we all have the disease.” Then Sister Barcus spoke up. She apologized for any upset she might have caused earlier, congratulated the teacher on an excellent lesson that would impress the youth, and
said, “But not all of us were infected. One of us abstained.”