Rules for conscience-driven health care providers
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued proposed rules on protecting health care workers who object to performing certain procedures, including abortion, for religious or moral reasons, the Religion News Service reported. 
The proposed rules were released Aug. 21 by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
The RNS said the 42-page document is available for public comment for the next 30 days and organizations on both sides of the abortion issue are urging their supporters to contact Health and Human Services.
According to the RNS story, several groups are already weighing in on the matter.
“Planned Parenthood continues to be concerned that the Bush administration’s proposed regulation poses a serious threat to women’s health care by limiting the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged abortion opponents to thank Leavitt for his action, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the proposal will “help protect religious organizations and individuals.”
To read a news release about the proposal and the document itself, click here: Regulation Proposed to Help Protect Health Care Providers from Discrimination.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Military chaplain wants YOU…
Uncle Sam may have wanted you at some time or another, but there is now an Army chaplain who has a request.
Capt. Graham B. Glover is asking Americans to come together in prayer on Sept. 7, the Sunday before Sept. 11.
Glover is leading the non-denominational “Prayer for Our Troops” to unite Americans in prayer to support the men, women and families of the U.S. Armed Services.
He has a prayer that is posted at www.AmericaUnitedInPrayer.com and he wants people of all faith traditions to join in collective prayer by signing their names in support. 
The goal is to have at least 1 million names by Sept. 7.
Glover currently serves as the battalion chaplain to the 1st Battalion-41st Field Artillery, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division in Ft. Stewart, Ga.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Shane & Shane headed to Shawnee
Popular worship duo Shane & Shane will perform at Oklahoma Baptist University’s annual “Saturday in the Park” Saturday at Woodland Park in downtown Shawnee.
The event is free and also features Oklahoma’s own, contemporary Christian recording artist Jami Smith.
“Saturday in the Park” is OBU’s “welcome back to school” celebration.
Dale Griffin, the university’s campus pastor, said students requested both Shane & Shane and Smith and the artists they wanted to headline the annual back-to-school bash.
Activities start at 1 p.m. A Battle of the Bands will begin about 1:30 p.m. Bands interested in battling it out should contact Rick Cordova at rick.cordova@okbu.edu. The winning band will be honored before the evening’s concert at 7 p.m.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Faith in the voter’s booth
I was struck by the simplicity of Richard Land’s (pictured at right) message when I visited with the Southern Baptist Convention leader during his visit to Oklahoma City this week.
I interviewed Land briefly at last year’s convention annual meeting in San Antonio and had been to previous news conferences where the president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission held sway. I had always enjoyed talking to him because he doesn’t mince words nor does he appear to hesitate to speak exactly what’s on his mind (every reporter’s dream come true!).
So when I asked him to explain his general message to Southern Baptist these days I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was so simple and direct:
Register to vote.
Find out where you need to go vote.
Become informed about the candidates and …
Vote.
Land said that is the essence of his message — and he implores his audience of evangelicals (Land said one in three Oklahomans is a baptized member of a Southern Baptist church) to vote according to their Judeo-Christian value system.
The message is getting through, he said.
Land said Americans see the necessity of the seperation of church and state — a point emphasized by the country’s founding fathers. Americans don’t want government-sponsored faith, but they do want people of all faiths to have an opportunity to make their point in the public square, Land added.
He predicted that this will be borne out come the presidential election in November.
Meanwhile, here’s a heads up about a new prayer initiative that Land’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is leadin.
The Nashville, Tenn.-based commission is partnering with the SBC’s North American Mission Board for a prayer initiative calling all Southern Baptists to engage in a time of prayer for personal spiritual revival and national renewal this fall.
The initiative, called the “40/40 Prayer Vigil,” will feature 40 days of prayer beginning Sept. 23 and concluding with a dedicated 40 hours of prayer that will begin at 4 p.m. Oct. 31 and end at 8 a.m. Nov. 2.
For more information, go to ilivevalues.com.
Faithful Five for Aug. 23-24
Here’s my “faithful five” — five events going on in the faith community this weekend. If what you read below intrigues you, go check it our for yourself:
1. Fun in the park. Eastpointe Community Church’s SummerFest gets under way at 5 p.m. Saturday, in partnership with the City of Choctaw. SummerFest will be held at Choctaw Creek Park in Choctaw and feature food vendors, animals, a rock wall, inflatables, horseback riding and a battle of the bands. There also will be live music. Admission is free, but there is a $5 charge for all-day access to the inflatables.
2. After the break up. A free Divorce Recovery Workshop will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Crossings Community Church, 14600 N Portland. Hot breakfast will be provided. Pre-registration is required, so sign up now. The workshop will be led by pastors Jeff Stewart and Ron Mahn. For more information, call 302-1293 or go to www.crossingsokc.org.
3. What do you know about Krishna? Oklahoma City area Hindus are celebrating Krishna Jayanthi, the celebration of the birth of Krishna, one of the greatest enlightened Hindu masters. According to Hinduism, Krishna was the eighth child of his parents Vasudeva and Devaki. Their first six children had been killed and the couple had been thrown in jail, but on the day of Krishna’s birth the jail guards mysteriously slept and the baby was able to be carried safely away. Learn more about Krishna at the Vedic Temple’s celebration at 4 p.m. Saturday at 3048 N Grand Blvd. For more information, call 833-6107.
4. Singing in Seminole. The 38th annual Seminole Gospel Sing will wrap up Saturday at Seminole Music Park, 1 mile south of Seminole on Highway 377. The four-day event will conclude with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Earlier in the day — 10 a.m. — a talent contest will be held. For more information, call (918) 445-2400. Be sure to bring your own lawn chairs.
5. Showcasing shofar and shawl. Calvary Temple Church is hosting “Mission Israel,” a fundraiser for missions to and for Israel. The night of dinner, dancing and music is Saturday and activities get under way at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 and a shofar and a prayer shawl will each be raffled. Call 627-3417 for details.
Greeting cards draw flak
Hallmark Cards has drawn the ire of a national Christian women’s organization, according to a news release from Christian Newswire.
Leaders with Concerned Women for America said they are unhappy about a new line of Hallmark greeting cards which the organization claims celebrate “gay marriage,” although Hallmark, they said, is ”playing it safe with generalized images such as two tuxedos (Hallmark card image shown at right is courtesy of The Associated Press) and taglines like ‘one promise, two hearts’,”
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said, “Hallmark is jeopardizing its brand as a family-friendly company. Customers used to be able to trust Hallmark to produce quality products that were safe for all ages. Now parents will need to steer their kids from Hallmark’s section of the greeting card aisle and away from its previously heartwarming movies for fear that they too will push homosexual messages.”
Janice Crouse, director and senior fellow of CWA’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, said Hallmark is negating its image as a wholesome company that promotes American values and pro-family principles in its products “by latching onto the latest fad generated by the homosexual special interest groups.”
There will be more on this issue in the future, I’m sure.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Faith a sore spot at the Olympics?
I remember archery lessons in my freshman PE class in high school.
I really recall how bad I was at it and how grateful I was that I never had to do it again.
The sport is on my mind today after I read a recent story in the New York Times about U.S. Olympic archery coach Kisik Lee (pictured at right) stirring the waters, so to speak, at the games in Beijing.
It seems that Lee is a Christian and has baptized several people, including several of his archers, prior to the games in Beijing.
According to the Times, the United States Olympics Committee is concerned that Lee may have imposed his faith values on the U.S. archers who competed in Beijing. At least one archer’s parent, according to the story, was not happy with Lee on this issue, but was afraid that her child might draw some sort of retaliation if she spoke out.
Here’s what Lee had to say, responding to charges that he tried to impose his faith on his team. His comment was the Religion News Service’s Quote of the Day on Wednesday.
Read the Times story by clicking here: “For Coach, God and Archery are a Package Deal.”
What do you think? Did Lee go too far?
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
More on religious freedom and China
I know that everybody has been entranced by the Olympics in Beijing.  Along with the spectacular athletic games, we’ve also seen the topic of religious freedom brought to the forefront, particularly in light of the Chinese government’s tight reins (or outright ban) on anything that does not sanction. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy regularly sends out an e-newsletter “Face of Freedom, ” a weekly analysis of the status of religious freedom around the world. This newsletter also informs readers of sensitive events and brewing crises that affect fundamental rights across the globe.
I thought I’d share one item that caught my eye today. The institute’s president Joseph K. Grieboski (pictured at right) recently appeared on public radio’s Interfaith Voices, a national program devoted to fostering interfaith dialogue and discussing current events through the perspective of different religious traditions. He discussed religious freedom in China and tried to explain the Chinese government’s basis for denying citizens religious freedom. To listen to the entire segment, click her to go online to Interfaith Voices.
For more information about the institute, click here: Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
Carla Hinton Religion Editor
|
Did you watch Rick Warren’s civil forum?
Did you get to tune in to pastor and author Rick Warren’s civil forum featuring presumptive presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain?
Are you interested in hearing more about the forum and Warren’s 
thoughts about leadership? Go to Beliefnet.com for Warren’s post-forum interview.
Here’s a wrap-up (from an official news release sent out by Warren) of Warren’s related sermon that he delivered on Sunday:
“I am not an expert on politics, but I know a lot about leadership,” Warren said. “The guidelines for choosing a leader our nation needs and that God blesses are based on biblical qualities found in Proverbs.”
Warren dug deep into the Book of Wisdom, providing numerous Scripture references describing how God blesses leaders who “live with integrity, serve with humility and share with generosity,” pulling from his experience in training more than 500,000 pastoral leaders around the world.
“Today, most leaders are interested in image – what people think they are; but true leadership involves integrity, based on character and confidence, which is the number one need for leaders in America,” Warren said. “Integrity doesn’t mean perfection – no one is perfect – but it does mean being honest, which leads to credibility and trust.”
According to Warren, the second biblical quality for leadership is humility, which is marked by service to others. “True leaders are known by how they serve, not how many serve them,” he said. “Too many leaders start out in service that quickly evolves into ‘serve us.’ Humility doesn’t mean denying one’s strengths, but rather being honest about one’s weaknesses. Humility is not thinking less of oneself, it is thinking less about oneself, and the way to do that is to think of other people.
“The worst sin one can have is pride, which makes us enemies of God,” Warren added. “Humility is a declaration of dependence. Our president needs to be humble, and we should look for leaders who admit their dependence on God.”
With music intermixed between Warren’s points, multi-Grammy and Dove Award winning singer Michael W. Smith gave a warm praise anthem, “I’m Deep in Love With You Lord,” further centering the congregation’s focus on how to apply this morning’s sermon in their lives.
According to Warren, the third characteristic for a leader of influence is generosity. “Generosity is love in action,” he said. “You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving; it is important that a leader give both his time and his money for others.”
Warren also noted that generosity involves compassion, and urged his audience to look at a leader’s compassion for others. “America is one of the most blessed nations in the world, and we need to be a blessing to others,” he said. “In a leader you are looking for someone who will speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
The purpose of Warren’s sermon wasn’t to tell his congregants how to vote, but to provide them guidance from a biblical foundation in considering candidates for office – not just the presidency, but also senators, congressman, governors on down to electing local officials.
Warren then challenged congregants on things they can do between now and the election in November. “First pray – for the candidates, for yourself and for wisdom,” he said. “Second, check the candidates out – not just their position on issues, but also their character and competence. Third, register to vote. Fourth, and above all, vote.
“If you are saying, ‘I don’t like either candidate, maybe I won’t vote,’ then I say you need to move to another country,” Warren concluded. “Because if you don’t, you are giving up a privilege which people died to make possible.”
“Seventh Heaven” producer keeping busy
Remember “Seventh Heaven,” that quirky television show about a pastor and his family?
The executive producer of the show, which ended its long run (first on FOX and then on the CW) a few seasons ago, is Brenda Hampton and she has a new TV show that is gaining popularity.
It’s called “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and it revolves around Amy Juergens (portrayed by actress Shailene Woodley, pictured above), a teenager in high school who is pregnant.
The first time I watched the show I was intrigued by the subtle and not-so-subtle messages that are sent out via the characters and the various scenarios they find themselves in.
I noted to my own teens that someone involved with the writing of the show had to be a Christian because I sensed an underlying foundation that tied in with biblical principles.
Thus I’m blogging about the show here.
I’m writing a story (not for Religion) about the show and wanted to hear from others who may be watching it or have already tuned it out, for whatever reasons. I figure that some “Seventh Heaven” fans may have found out that Hampton is behind it and tuned in because of that.
So, if you know about the show (it airs Tuesday evenings on the ABC Family Channel) and would like to comment about it, send me an e-mail at chinton@oklahoman.com.
Just let me know what you think about the show, the premise and the characters thus far. Are you a parent watching it with your teens? Are you a teen or young adult watching the show because you liked “Seventh Heaven”? Let me know.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
