RELIGION HEADLINES WED 9-16

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  The defeat of an assisted suicide bill in England this month can be credited, in part, to a coalition of clergymen and doctors.  The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, condemned the legislation as did the Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally.  Medical colleges, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, raised serious concerns, saying there were “too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness.”  This is the second time a suicide bill has been defeated in England, with the House of Lords striking an earlier version down last year.

(  )  The Iranian people are receiving an honor for their resistance to the Islamic government in Tehran.  The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom will award its biennial Freedom Prize to the Iranian people November 7th at St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, Germany.  The Foundation says “We seek to honor the desire for freedom of the many hundreds of thousands of people who have risked their lives to overthrow the criminal mullah regime.  These extraordinarily courageous people deserve the full support of everyone for whom freedom, self-determination and democracy are among the highest ideals.”

(  )  One of the more conservative religious schools in the country is reporting record enrollment.  Officials at Dallas Theological Seminary say they have hit their highest fall enrollment ever, with 2,657 students signed up for the Fall semester.  The milestone comes at a time of significant change across higher education and theological education in particular.  DTS spokesman John Dyer says “The seminary market is in massive flux right now, so having stability and even a little bit of growth is a real blessing from the Lord.”  The school was founded in 1924 specifically to counter liberalism in the American church.

(  )  A coalition of more than 50 Jewish organizations around the globe have signed a declaration stating that opposition to Zionism amounts to anti-Semitism.  The declaration states that “Zionism is part of Jewish identity.  We will not allow others to define it for us.”  William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, says that “Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people and the expression of our right to self-determination in our ancient homeland, Israel”.  Here in the U.S. Jews are having a vigorous debate over Zionism and its various definitions.