NEW YORK (AP) - Unease with Pope Benedict approach to Islam has
led a U. S. Muslim group to decline joining in an interfaith event
with him Thursday evening.
Other U. S. Muslim leaders expressed similar concerns about the
pope, but pledged to participate in the Washington gathering,
saying the two faiths should do everything possible to improve
relations.
Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain and Hindu leaders are to take
part in the meeting.
But Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public
Affairs Council, said the event seemed "more ceremonial than
substantive" and his organization would not participate.
The pope has been praised by supporters for his frankness in
approaching Islam and interfaith dialogue in general, but critics
have called him insensitive.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U. N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says
he's looking forward to a wide-ranging discussion with Pope
Benedict on issues ranging from climate change and fighting poverty
to disarmament and promoting cultural dialogue.
Ban noted that the pontiff will visit the United Nations on
Friday, exactly one year after he met Benedict at the Vatican and
issued an invitation.
He said with all of the world's challenges, "We need really
strong spiritual support from the pope. "
Benedict is scheduled to meet with the secretary-general before
addressing the General Assembly, where all 192 U. N. member states
are represented. He also will meet privately with the assembly and
Security Council presidents and address U. N. staff.
The Vatican's U. N. observer said last week that the pope will
call for dialogue based on fundamental human rights that are
nonnegotiable.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal commission says North Korean
refugees suspected of meeting with religious groups in China are
often marked for harsh interrogation, torture and long detention
without trial after Beijing forces them to return to the North.
A report by the U. S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom calls for nations to press China to stop repatriating
believers who face persecution.
One refugee told the researchers that although freedom of
religion is guaranteed by law, "in reality, it is considered as a
threat to the system, a hotbed of security problems, and opium" of
the people.
California Congressman Ed Royce said at a commission hearing
that the U. S. and others should use the upcoming Beijing Olympics
to "leverage focus" on China's treatment of North Korean
refugees.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court has ruled that a New
Jersey school board was within its rights to tell a football coach
he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team pray before
games.
From the time Marcus Borden became coach at East Brunswick High
School in 1983, he was deeply involved in team prayers. For a time,
he even led them.
In 2005, school officials received complaints and asked him to
stop.
He then sued the school board seeking to be allowed to bow his
head and kneel when students led their own prayers. A lower-court
judge found that should be allowed.
But a three-judge panel of the U. S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals
has reversed that decision, with two of the judges finding that
Borden's actions would appear to endorse religion.
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - They don't know where they're staying.
They don't know if there's a courtroom large enough to hold them
all. And they don't know who their clients are.
But some 350 lawyers are converging on San Angelo, Texas, to
represent the hundreds of children and parents caught up in this
month's raid on a polygamist church's compound.
They're providing their services free of charge. One attorney
calls it "billable hours for your soul. "
A marathon court hearing is set for Thursday in one of the
biggest child-custody cases in U. S. history. State officials
contend the youngsters were being physically and sexually abused,
and they want to place the children in foster care or put them up
for adoption.
JERUSALEM (AP) - A senior rabbi and his helpers have removed
thousands of handwritten notes placed into crevices between the
ancient stones of the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The notes were placed there by visitors who believe their
requests will find a shortcut to God by being deposited at
Judaism's holiest site.
The removal operation is carried out twice each year: before the
Passover festival which begins this weekend and at the Jewish New
Year in the fall.
The Western Wall was part of the retaining wall of the Temple
Mount, where the Jewish Temples stood in Biblical times. Rabbi
Shmuele Rabinowitz says the notes will be buried on the Mount of
Olives, across a valley from the Old City of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The rabbi who oversees Jerusalem's Western Wall
says some of its stones need to be restored, but the main Muslim
authority at the disputed holy site objects.
Judaism's holiest site also is the third most sacred site in
Islam.
Rabbi Shmuele Rabinowitz says small stone blocks on top of the
wall are sliding apart. He hopes to have them fixed this summer.
But the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, says
the wall is part of the attached Al Aqsa mosque. He warns any
Israeli action there would be viewed as aggression.
The mosque compound is built atop the site of the Biblical
Jewish temples. Quarrels over the site have set off violence and
have scuttled several rounds of Mideast peace efforts.
SEATTLE (AP) - The Dalai Lama has wrapped up his five-day visit
to Seattle with a panel discussion on spirituality and compassion
with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu of
South Africa.
There were no demonstrators outside Tuesday's event, a day after
hundreds protested outside the basketball arena where the Tibetan
Buddhist leader received an honorary degree. Monday's demonstration
was the largest show of pro-Chinese support during his visit to
Seattle.
Tutu listed Tibet as one of the troubled areas in the world, and
praised the Dalai Lama for keeping a "joyous" nature after 50
years of exile.
This weekend, the Dalai Lama is to speak at the University of
Michigan and meet with a senior U. S. official about the situation
in Tibet.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Christians could proclaim their faith
on their license plates under a bill making its way through the
Florida Legislature.
The specialty plates would feature a cross over a stained-glass
window. The words "I Believe" would be at the bottom of the
plate.
Floridians would pay an extra $25 for the plate. The money would
go to a nonprofit group in Orlando called "Faith in Teaching" to
support faith-based education.
Critics say the Christian message belongs on a bumper sticker,
but putting it on license plates would violate separation of church
and state.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Some scientists are urging Florida's
Legislature to reject a bill that would protect teachers from being
fired if they present information challenging evolution.
The legislation comes in response to new science standards that
require Florida teachers to present evolution in more detail.
The scientists believe evolution is a scientific fact and argue
that the "Academic Freedom" bill would let teachers present
Intelligent Design or Biblical Creationism as an alternative.
Advocates of Intelligent Design say life and the universe are
too complex and finely tuned to have evolved by chance. But critics
say Intelligent Design is religion posing as science.
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - Texas officials who took 416 children
from a polygamist church compound into state custody have sent many
of their mothers away as a judge considers the massive
child-custody case.
Marissa Gonzales, spokeswoman for the state Children's
Protective Services agency, says that of the 139 women who
voluntarily left the compound with their children since an April
3rd raid, only those with children 4 or younger have been allowed
to remain with them. Gonzales says, "It is not the normal practice
to allow parents to accompany the child when an abuse allegation is
made. "
She says the other women were given a choice: Return to the
Eldorado ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect, or go to another safe
location.
Gonzales says some women chose the latter.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - A safari park in Israel has changed its
animals' diet in preparation for the Jewish Passover, which starts
on Saturday.
The eight-day Passover begins on Saturday, but officials at
Ramat Gan Safari in Tel Aviv have already made the zoo kosher for
the holiday. So instead of foods made with flour, the orangutans
are being fed unleavened bread, or matzo.
Safari curator Amalia Turkel says the orangutans appear to enjoy
the novelty.
Passover commemorates the Jewish people's Biblical exodus from
Egypt to the promised land.
SEATTLE (AP) - Prosecutors at the trial of a man accused of
shooting up the Seattle Jewish Federation two years ago, killing
one woman and wounding five, say he was not insane but had a
deliberate plan to make a blood-soaked political point.
Naveed Haq has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to
charges of murder and attempted murder in the July 2006 attack. If
convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
Prosecutor Erin Ehlert played a recording of a 911 call in which
Haq, who is Muslim, asked to be connected to CNN and said he was
making a point about U. S. support for Israel and the war in Iraq.
Haq's defense lawyer says Haq believed God sanctioned the
attack, which suggests he was insane.
NEW YORK (AP) - An advocacy group says Sikhs in New York City
suffer harassment and discrimination.
The Sikh Coalition has issued a report surveying cases of bias,
racial profiling and other kinds of discrimination against Sikhs.
The report says Sikhs have been mistaken for Muslims in the
aftermath of the Nine-Eleven terrorist attacks even though they
practice a separate religion. Many Sikhs wear turbans for religious
reasons.
The report calls for better training for law enforcement
officers and educators.
Sikhism is several hundred years old and traces its roots to
western India.
NEW YORK (AP) - Ted Turner, who once called Christianity a
"religion for losers," now says he regrets his past criticism of
religion, and sees faith as a positive influence.
In the 1980s, the CNN founder wrote his own version of the Ten
Commandments and in 2001 asked employees who observed Ash Wednesday
if they were "Jesus freaks. " He apologized at the time.
Turner now says he does not consider himself agnostic or
atheist, as he had sometimes described himself previously. He says
he prays for sick friends because "it doesn't hurt," and
maintains several churches on his properties for employees and
others who live nearby.
Turner says, "I'm sure God, wherever he is, wants to see us get
along with one another and love one another. "
NEW YORK (AP) - Ted Turner has launched a 200-million-dollar
partnership with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria in
Africa.
Turner's United Nations Foundation, which he started in 1997
with a 1-billion-dollar donation, launched the anti-malaria project
with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and the United Methodist Church, which have a
combined 15 million U. S. members.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also has provided a
10-million-dollar grant that will help promote the campaign in
churches.
Turner said he regrets criticizing religion in the past, and now
sees it as a "bright spot" in the world.
NEW YORK (AP) - The lawyer for a Methodist minister who visited
Iraq in 2003 to protest the pending U. S. -led invasion says federal
prosecutors have agreed to a reduced penalty.
His attorney says the Reverend Frederick Boyle, who pastors a
church in New Jersey, will pay a small fraction of the $6,700 fine
the government had imposed.
Boyle says he made the nine-day trip with a Christian peacemaker
team to pray with the Iraqi people.
At the time, U. S. government restrictions effectively barred
American citizens from traveling to Iraq except in limited
circumstances. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Boyle, who wouldn't disclose the amount he'll have to pay, said
the settlement stipulates that he will face no criminal prosecution
for his trip.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A federal judge has quoted the Bible while
rejecting a Christian school's attempt to sue its way into the
Texas state league for public school athletics.
Cornerstone Christian School of San Antonio -- founded by the
Reverend John Hagee -- had accused the University Interscholastic
League of excluding it and other private schools out of religious
bias.
The UIL denied that and noted that Cornerstone was eligible for
other leagues.
In his ruling, Judge Fred Biery said Cornerstone joining the UIL
would be like getting "a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle. " He added, "Having not followed the proverb, 'Physician,
heal yourself' nor having treated others as it would like to be
treated, Cornerstone has reaped what it has sown. "
UNDATED (AP) - Officials say many employers are unclear about
religious rights in the workplace.
Federal law requires companies with more than 15 people to
"reasonably accommodate" an employee's religious beliefs unless
they can show that it would cause an "undue hardship" on
business. Examples of accommodation include shift swaps, flexible
scheduling or working through lunch to leave early.
But employers generally do not have to pay workers for religious
time off. And so long as religious needs are accommodated, the
employer is not required to meet specific requests preferred by the
worker.
Federal officials say workers are not required to provide proof
of their religious beliefs to employers, such as notes from a
member of the clergy.
Last year, there were about 2,900 religious discrimination
filings with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
WASHINGTON (AP) - On this third anniversary of the death of Pope
John Paul II, a Catholic scholar notes that the subsequent papacy
of Benedict XVI has been surprising in several ways.
George Weigel says Benedict has been more popular than
people expected -- more the wise and gentle grandfather than the
enforcer that some feared he would be.
Weigel says Benedict also has been surprisingly bold, notably in
dealing with the Islamic world.
A third surprise, according to Weigel, has been Benedict's
unwillingness to shake up the Vatican bureaucracy -- a task he may
be leaving to his successor.
Benedict begins a U. S. visit to Washington and New York the week
after next.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Missouri Supreme Court has barred
a man from suing a Catholic religious order for abuse he allegedly
endured as a high school student in the mid-1980s.
The court ruled that the deadline to sue had passed by the time
Robert Visnaw finally filed suit against the Marinist Province two
decades after the alleged acts.
Visnaw argued that his lawsuit should be allowed because he did
not remember the sexual nature of the abuse by a school official
until 2005.
But the Missouri Supreme Court said Visnaw had previously
recalled other physical details of the abuse, so he could have sued
far sooner than he did.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont's Corrections Department has
agreed to pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Jewish
former inmate who said he was denied traditional food including
matzoh at Passover and was blocked from observing the holidays of
his faith.
Gordon Bock filed suit in 2005, alleging religious
discrimination.
Bock charged that Corrections Department personnel "knowingly,
willfully and maliciously withheld basic religious accommodations
that would have facilitated religious observance. "
A federal magistrate ruled in November that Bock "produced
enough evidence to make a reasonable inference of malice. "
SIOUX FALLS, S. D. (AP) - A convicted killer's federal lawsuit
seeking ritual items for the practice of an ancient European
religion has been thrown out of court.
Darrell Hoadley's handwritten complaint asked for a toy sword
and 22 other items to fulfill his role as counsel elder of the
Asatru religion at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
Hoadley had said he sued prison staff because they denied some
of his requests while members of other religions received similar
privileges.
Prison officials already permit several items for Asatru
followers, including a wooden hammer, and a judge ruled that
Hoadley's opportunity to practice Asatru was not "meaningfully
curtailed. "
COOPERSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Authorities have charged a charged a
church member with fatally shooting another woman in January inside
the Pennsylvania church they both attended.
Prosecutors allege that 65-year-old Mary Jane Fonder shot
42-year-old Rhonda Smith out of jealousy.
Smith was found with a gunshot wound in Trinity Evangelical
Lutheran Church in rural Springfield Township. She died later at a
nearby hospital.
Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry says Fonder had
"very strong feelings" for the church pastor. She says the
defendant was jealous of the attention the victim was getting from
the pastor.
Fonder was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder.
SEATTLE (AP) - A prosecutor says much of a taped statement by a
man charged in a shooting rampage at the Jewish Federation of
Greater Seattle will be inadmissible at his murder trial because
detectives ignored his requests for a lawyer.
King County Prosecutor Don Raz acknowledged at a hearing that
nearly two-thirds of the 55-minute interview was obtained in
violation of defendant Naveed Haq's constitutional right to
counsel.
Haq is accused of storming into the Jewish charity in July 2006,
killing one woman and injuring five others. He railed against the
Iraq war and Israel during the rampage.
Surviving victims have identified Haq as the shooter, and he was
arrested outside the building.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
WESTON, Wis. (AP) - "My sister-in-law, she's very religious,
she believes in faith instead of doctors. "
That's what the aunt of a Wisconsin girl told emergency
dispatchers in a 911 call last Sunday, just hours before the
11-year-old died from an undiagnosed but treatable form of
diabetes. The girl's parents had chosen to pray for her instead of
taking her to a doctor.
The girl's mother says the family believes in the Bible and that
healing comes from God.
In the 911 call, the girl's aunt said, "We've been trying to
get her to take her to the hospital for a week, a few days now. "
Police are investigating, but a former Wisconsin Supreme Court
justice says parents cannot be charged with abuse or neglect if in
good faith they selected prayer to treat a child's disease.
ARVADA, Colo. (AP) - Police say the gunman at the Youth With a
Mission training center with 45 people inside was able to fire off
15 rounds, killing two, before he was locked outside last December.
The center's Dale Lambert says, "Praise God the door closed,
more people didn't die. "
Details of the shooting by Matthew Murray were contained in
investigative documents and 911 tapes released by police in Arvada,
Colorado.
A separate report released earlier this month by Colorado
Springs police documented another shooting about 12 hours later at
New Life Church, where two sisters were killed.
A former police officer working as a volunteer security guard at
New Life shot and wounded Murray, who then committed suicide.
Murray had been a missionary trainee at the Arvada center in
2002.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Critically injured in a highway
crash that killed five others, mourned as dead by relatives after
an identity mix-up, Whitney Cerak wonders why God saved
her life.
Cerak spent five weeks in a coma after the April 2006 accident
while the parents of Laura Van Ryn stood vigil by her side,
believing she was their daughter.
Authorities in Indiana had confused the two young women
following a collision between their Taylor University van and a
truck on Interstate 69. Their blond hair and even some facial
features were similar.
In the epilogue of a new book written by the families whose
lives were intertwined in an ordeal of joy, sorrow and faith, Cerak
writes, "I'm the only person I know who's listened to her own
funeral. "
Cerak's parents had declined to view the body they believed was
their daughter's. The Van Ryns, meanwhile, thought that their
daughter's appearance had been altered by facial injuries. Only
when she began slowly regaining consciousness and spoke her name
did they realize the mistake.
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) - One of the nation's top conservative
Republican Catholic legal scholars has endorsed Democratic Senator
Barack Obama for president.
Constitutional law professor Douglas Kmiec, who
served in the Reagan administration and in Mitt Romney's
presidential campaign, says he believes Obama can unite the country
and inspire Americans to overcome racial and religious divisions.
Kmiec supports the Catholic teaching that abortion is a grave
moral evil, but also considers the war in Iraq to be a life issue.
Kmiec says the church was troubled by arguments for a "pre-emptive
war" that has proven costly in both lives and treasure.
Kmiec, former dean of the Catholic University law school, now
teaches at Pepperdine University.
GENEVA (AP) - The top U. N. rights body has passed a resolution
proposed by Islamic countries saying it is deeply concerned about
the defamation of religions and urging governments to prohibit it.
The European Union said the text was one-sided because it
primarily focused on Islam.
The U. N. Human Rights Council, which is dominated by Arab and
other Muslim countries, adopted the resolution on a 21-10 vote over
the opposition of Europe and Canada.
EU countries, including France, Germany and Britain, voted
against. EU diplomats have said they want to stop the growing
worldwide trend of using religious anti-defamation laws to limit
free speech.
The document which was put forward by the Organization of the
Islamic Conference "expresses deep concern at attempts to identify
Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations. "
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A Missouri collection company has agreed to pay
$65,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former employee, a Muslim
woman who claimed she was fired for refusing to remove a religious
head scarf.
The suit was filed by the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission on behalf of Mariam Soultan, who formerly worked at
Client Services Incorporated in suburban St. Louis. The agreement
requires a revised dress code policy for the company, informing
employees of the right to religious accommodation.
The EEOC says Soultan was told no exceptions could be made to a
dress code prohibiting head wear. She asked to be allowed to wear
the scarf required by her religion.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Mormon church is sending an envoy to
Arkansas to meet with descendants of victims of the 1857 Mountain
Meadows Massacre.
Three months ago, the Mountain Meadows Association, the Mountain
Meadows Massacre Descendants and the Mountain Meadows Monument
Foundation petitioned the church to seek National Historic Landmark
status for the site in southwestern Utah.
The Mormon church has twice rejected previous appeals to seek
landmark status for the site, where 120 members of a
California-bound wagon train were killed after being tricked into a
fake truce by a local Mormon leader.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A Nevada prison chaplain has been
placed on paid leave in what she believes is retaliation for her
defense of inmates' religious practices and beliefs.
The state corrections chief confirmed that Jane Foraker-Thompson
is on administrative leave "pending completion of an
investigation," but offered no further details.
The chaplain said she believes one of the reasons for the action
against her may be her response to three lawsuits filed by
prisoners alleging violations of their religious rights.
Foraker-Thompson says she refused to deny any wrongdoing by Nevada
State Prison administrators.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is
calling for talks between Muslims and Christians and Jews, who he
calls "our brothers. "
At a seminar on "Culture and Respect of Religions" in the
Saudi capital, Abdullah said the three monotheistic religions "all
believe in the same God. "
It's the first such proposal from ultraconservative Saudi
Arabia, which has no ties to Israel and bans public non-Muslim
religious services.
The king, who met with Pope Benedict in November, said Saudi
Arabia's top clerics have approved the talks, which would be aimed
at addressing the weakening of the family, increasing atheism and
"a lack of ethics, loyalty, and sincerity for our religions and
humanity. "
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - A human rights group says
Brazilian ranchers and loggers have put a $500,000 price on the
head of a bishop who defends poor settlers and Indians in the
Amazon region.
The Indigenous Missionary Council says the shadowy consortium
has a detailed plan to kill Bishop Erwin Krautler, an Austrian
national who has worked in the largely lawless Brazilian state of
Para since 1980.
Powerful Amazon business interests have criticized the
69-year-old Krautler, who often protests land grabbing, debt
slavery and environmental destruction.
A Para state police spokesman says the bishop has been under
police protection since last year.
Krautler presides over the diocese where American nun Dorothy
Stang was gunned down in 2005, following a dispute with ranchers
who wanted to develop a piece of land she was trying to preserve.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A bill that has received final legislative
approval would let Mississippi prison inmates do public service
work for churches.
The final version of the bill passed the state House on Monday
after passing the Senate last week. It now goes to Governor Haley
Barbour.
State law already allows inmates on work-release programs to
perform tasks for city, county or state government or nonprofit
charities.
The bill that would authorize inmates to work in churches does
not specify that they could perform public service duties in
synagogues, mosques or other places of worship.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - After religious divisions paralyzed a
state commission on hate crimes, Illinois lawmakers created a new
version.
But seven months later, Governor Rod Blagojevich has not appointed anyone to the overhauled
Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes.
The original commission fell apart over Blagojevich's
appointment of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad, a high-ranking
Nation of Islam official.
Her appointment went largely unnoticed until she invited fellow
commissioners to a speech by Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan, where he reportedly made disparaging remarks about Jews
and gays.
Five Jewish members of the commission then resigned in protest.
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin congregation has voted
to let families send their children to the church's school for free
whether they belong to the church or not.
Pastor Tim Lamkin says members of Zion Lutheran Church in
suburban Milwaukee hoped to stimulate enrollment, which has
declined from about 130 in the early 1990s to 47 students today.
The vice chairman of the Association of Lutheran Secondary
Schools says many parochial schools offer free or reduced tuition
to members of their churches, but few if any have ever offered free
tuition to nonmembers.
DALLAS (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that leaders of a
Southern Baptist seminary who believe women are Biblically barred
from teaching men were within their rights when they released a
female professor.
Sheri Klouda, now a professor at Taylor University
in Indiana, was the only female professor teaching at Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary's School of Theology when officials
decided not to renew her contract in 2006. Klouda claimed seminary
officials breached an oral contract guaranteeing she would remain
employed if her performance was favorable.
Seminary officials maintain Klouda was not dismissed but was
told she would not be granted tenure. They said their actions were
based on ecclesiastical decisions protected under the First
Amendment's religion clauses. Judge John McBryde agreed and
dismissed Klouda's claims.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A federal judge has prohibited a Texas
school district from allowing students to vote on whether to have
prayers at graduation.
The ruling by Judge Sam Sparks is included in an agreement
reached by the Round Rock School District and Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, which filed suit after a majority
of seniors at three district high schools voted to have prayers at
their graduations.
Sparks' judgment forbids the school district from holding any
vote by students to have a prayer, benediction, invocation "or
other religious communication" in any graduation unless the U. S.
Supreme Court rules that such votes can be held.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - More than 60 faith leaders have joined
environmental groups in urging Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine to
oppose a coal-fired power plant that Dominion Virginia Power wants
to build.
The ministers, rabbis and theologians signed onto a letter from
an environmental group leading the fight against the proposed plant
in Wise County.
The religious leaders state in the letter to Kaine that speaking
out against the coal-fired plant is their moral responsibility as
part of their "good stewardship of God's creation. "
A spokesman for the power company responded, "Dominion believes
we are good environmental stewards and we have a record that
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