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.”

USA: The Supreme Court in 1962 called school prayer unconstitutional, and in 1985 said laws allowing a moment of silence in an attempt to restore school prayer are also unconstitutional. More than half of the states have voluntary or mandatory moments of silence. Indiana University law professor Daniel Conkle says federal courts generally rule that ‘moment of silence statues are permissible as long as they are not clearly tilted in the direction of actually encouraging students to use this moment for prayer.’

In 2007, Illinois state Representative Will Davis sponsored a measure for mandatory moment of silence that ‘shall not be conducted as a religious exercise but shall be an opportunity for silent prayer or for silent reflection’ and says the intent ‘was never about trying to put prayer in schools,’ but giving students a chance to ‘settle down at the beginning of the day is not a bad thing.’ The measure took effect 2007 October 11 when the state legislature over-rode a veto by Governor Rod Blagojevich. The measure caused consternation in some schools—a school board in Evanston decided to ignore it.

Then Rob Sherman, an activist atheist and talk show host, filed a lawsuit—his daughter is a freshman at Buffalo Grove High School. Judge Robert Gettleman said schools can’t enforce this because the practice attempts to reinstitute school prayer. Most schools don’t enforce it anyway, so the judge’s statement won’t change anything. Meanwhile, Sherman’s lawyer Gregory Kulis says he’ll request an injunction barring moments of silence in schools statewide or a ruling that the law violates constitutional separation of church and state.

State Senator and Democrat Jeff Schoenberg says religion should be practice ‘in our homes, in our houses of worship, not in our schools’ and hopes the legislature will drop the issue. School superintendent Tom Schneider says his schools ask students to be silent for fifteen seconds before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and few parents or students have complained, but decisions on impacting students’ lives positively should be made locally.

USA: Age bias is as wrong as race bias. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission receives complaints, alerts employers, leads to either reconciliation or a lawsuit. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act covering workers 40 years and up says complaining workers must file an EEOC ‘charge’ at least 60 days before appearing in court. Meantime, the EEOC is to tell the employer of the prolem and try to resolve the dispute informally.

In 2002, FedEx workers complained, led by Patricia Kennedy, who completed the EEOC questionnaire but not also the more formal ‘charge’ form on time. The EEOC is siding with the workers, saying the questionnaire filled the requirements. A judge threw out a lawsuit because the formal charge wasn’t filled out on time. The US Court of Appeals reinstated the case in 2006, saying Kennedy had fulfilled the basic requirements in her first filing, even though the EEOC didn’t notify the employer. FedEx appealed to the Supreme Court.

Assistant Solicitor General Toby Heytens said the justices should defer to the EEOC’s interpretation of its regulations. Supreme Court Chief Justic John Roberts said, ‘Why should we defer to an agency regulation with the people in the agency hardly ever follow it?’ The Court is angry with the EEOC for not telling her the correct procedures. Roberts said to the FedEx lawyer, ‘I just don’t understand your leap from government incompetence to saying the worker loses.’ Justice Clarence Thomas, who chaired the EEOC during 1982-1990, sat in his customary silence, rocked in his chair, looked at the ceiling. Justice Antonin Scalia said EEOC regulations are confusing and contradictory and ‘My main concern in this case, however the decision comes out, is to do something that will require the EEOC to get its act in order, because this is nonsense. This whole situation can be traceable back to the agency and, whoever ends up bearing the burden of it, it’s the agency’s fault, and this scheme has to be revised.’ Justice Ruth Ginsburg said if the responsibility had been Kennedy’s to inform the employer, ‘you would have a much stronger argument, but federal law places that burden on the EEOC.’

The EEOC has clarified its bureaucratic policy since 2002.
Results of the case: 17,000 age discrimination claims each year with the EOCC might now be able to file age-bias lawsuits.

Books and magazines have inspired ministers for centuries. Paul Hasser of Centre for Liturgy of St. Louis University, Missouri, USA, says he as a boy saw priests read Sunday sermons directly from books.

How times change! Now the Internet, also, with sermons posted online provides inspiration and sometimes temptation to copy without attributing the original author, but the ethics of the people now demand honesty in stating which thoughts are one’s own and which are not. E. Glenn Wagner (pastor of evangelical Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA) and Robert Hamm (pastor of United Church of Christ in Keene, New Hampshire, USA) both admitted plagiarizing whole sermons, and both resigned.

Now, in Poland, a priest caught plagiarizing can face stiff fines or even three years in prison, so Wieslaw Przyczyna and other editors affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church published To Plagiarize or Not to Plagiarize to show priests how to use other sermons while not quoting verbatim without crediting sources. He says, ‘You need to give a clear signal: the text is not mine.’

PROTECTING CREATIVITY v OPPORTUNITY. Thomas Jefferson, inventor and America’s first commissioner of patents, said government should protect inventions ‘worth to the public and embarrassment of an exclusive patent.’ Business method patents, such as Priceline’s for selling airline tickets by auction, were first recognized in 1998.

LIBEL and SLANDER. Is or is not a critical statement, if accurate, still libel or slander? English libel law says a plaintiff must only prove the statement defamatory; the defendant must justify it, usually as being true or fair. In America in 1733, a court case acquinted a defendant on grounds that his statement was true. British law has reached lengths such that a Ukrainian tycoon sued in London an American-owned Ukrainian paper that had only 100 British subscribers. If anyone wonders how Britain came to this pretty pass, one need only peruse the British tabloids.

FREEDOM. America emphasizes freedom as an ideal more than any other nation. ‘Liberty or death.’ ‘Live free or die.’ ‘Land of the free.’ ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty! I’m free at last.’ Woodrow Wilson and George Bush both said they had a mission to spread freedom.

Freedom House, founded in 1941 by Americans worried about fascism, now watches freedom worldwide, and points out that in America:

a. ‘the number of documents classified as secret has jumped from 8.7m in 2001 to 14.2m in 2005, a 60% increase’;

b. ‘decades-old information has been reclassified. Researchers report that it is much more difficult and time-consuming to obtain information under the Freedom of Information Act’;

c. ‘Government whistleblowers have repeatedly been punished or fired—even when they have been trying to expose threats to national security that their bosses preferred to overlook’ and sites examples of Richard Levernier, border agents and airport baggage-handlers and security people, and that the Office of Special Counsel, ‘established to enforce laws designed to protect the rights of such people, is widely regarded as “inept and even hostile to whistle-blowers”.’

d. America’s incarceration rate was 1.39/1000 people in 1980, 7.5/1000 by 2006. 5.6m Americans (1/37 of the adults) has been in jail. More prisons are built, yet prisons operate at 131% of capacity. America also bans felons, and sometimes ex-felons, from voting, such that at any time 2% of America’s adults can’t vote due to past criminal convictions.

e. And American can get crazy about this: ‘Christopher Ratte, professor of archaeology, recently tried to buy his seven-year old son a bottle of lemonade at a baseball game. He was handed a bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, an alcoholic drink, by mistake. Officials noticed the boy sipping the drink and immediately whisked him off to hospital. He was fine. But the family was condemned to legal hell: the police at first put the seven-year-old into a foster home and a judge ruled that he could go home only if his father moved out. It took several days of legal wrangling to reunite the family’ (Economist 2008 May 10, p47).