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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 435
April 27, 2001
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up, religious groups mobilize to call attention to the suffering in Sudan.
And a Christian college where all the students major in government.
MR. MICHAEL FARRIS: We want to raise winners and people who know how to do what's right and really lead the country.
ABERNETHY: Plus, my interview with the archbishop of Canterbury on Christian-Jewish relations.
DR. GEORGE CAREY: Let's look at the differences, let's see how far we can travel together.
ABERNETHY: Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us.
ABERNETHY: George W. Bush said his new administration would listen closely to religious groups, and this week, 100 days since his inauguration, the president got an earful. Administration officials heard from religious leaders on a host of issues both domestic and foreign. Some of the loudest voices urged more U.S. action in the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. An increasingly diverse coalition led by church groups is mobilizing new efforts to end the ongoing suffering in that Horn of Africa nation. Kim Lawton reports on the grassroots campaign and this foreign policy dilemma.
KIM LAWTON: In front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, cries for an end to genocide, persecution and slavery in Sudan. The church alliance for a new Sudan promises regular protests and acts of civil disobedience to ratchet up attention for their cause. They're also urging the U.S. government to take stronger steps to end the suffering.
Unidentified Woman: We're demanding so much more from our government.
LAWTON: For the past 18 years, Sudan has been locked in a civil war between the national Islamic front government in the north, and the largely Christian and animist south. More than two million people have been killed and four million displaced, most in the South. According to human rights groups, civilian targets, hospitals, schools and churches are routinely bombed. Women and children are abducted and sold into slavery. Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, is one of the leading voices urging a solution.
MR. FRANKLIN GRAHAM (Samaritan's Purse): In the Sudan, I have black brothers and sisters in the same faith and they're being persecuted and somebody needs to speak out on their behalf.
LAWTON: Surprisingly diverse allies are speaking out with him. Singer Michael Jackson says he'll go to Sudan next month to call attention to ongoing slavery. A delegation representing the U.S. Catholic bishops visited the region earlier this month. One of the delegation members shot this video. They called on the U.S. government to help negotiate an immediate U.N.-monitored cease-fire. Others are urging even stronger action.
MR. GRAHAM: The United States needs to take the lead here morally and do everything in its power to use as an economic power, diplomatic power, to bring this to an end and I believe at the last resort, we always have the military option.
LAWTON: There's widespread agreement the situation in Sudan is desperate. The problem for policymakers is deciding what to do about it. Some foreign policy experts say the complexity of the situation demands a pragmatic approach.
DR. STEVE MORRISON, Ph.D. (Center for Strategic and International Studies): We need to show leadership. There's no question and I think that's a point of consensus. The question is what has been attempted and why did it not generate results and what are the alternatives now?
LAWTON: The Bush administration is trying to hammer out a Sudan policy that addresses the religious, political and tribal factors fueling the conflict. A policy that takes into account what America can and would be willing to do.
MR. GRAHAM: This is evil and the United States, regardless of how complex issues are, we should not stand by and just say, "Well this is complicated and we need to think about this before we do anything." Listen, two million people have died here.
LAWTON: Morrison cautions that any American action must be well thought out so it doesn't backfire.
DR. MORRISON: What is the level of investment that would be required to reverse the situation? And if we're not really prepared to do that, but talking rhetorically in that area, is that having inadvertent, very negative consequences?
Crowd: (In unison) Give us peace! Give us peace!
LAWTON: As officials debate the next diplomatic steps, grassroots activists are pledging to keep up the pressure so the people directly affected by those policies aren't forgotten. I'm Kim Lawton in Washington.
ABERNETHY: The administration has also been busy answering questions about CIA involvement in the accidental downing of an American missionary plane in Peru. Two Americans were killed. The incident occurred after a Peruvian air force jet mistook the missionary plane for a drug trafficker and shot it down. A CIA surveillance plane had alerted the Peruvian air force suspecting the missionary plane might be ferrying drugs. President Bush has suspended a joint U.S.-Peru anti-drug program and the Senate Intelligence Committee may conduct its own investigation of the incident.
Latin America is an increasingly dangerous place for American missionaries, many of whom serve in remote areas. Since 1985, there have been at least eight incidents there in which U.S. missionaries were abducted or killed by drug traffickers or guerrilla fighters. We asked the overseas ministry study center in New Haven, Connecticut, how many American missionaries there are now in all countries? The answer, about 40,000 Protestants and 6,000 Catholics who serve at least a year; 97,000 Protestants who go out for from two weeks to a year; and at any one time, about 35,000 Mormons. Also, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are more than 33,000 Christian missionaries from other countries now serving here.
ABERNETHY: Missionaries of a different sort are training at the new Patrick Henry College in Virginia. The students are Christians who aspire to careers in politics and public service. The college was founded especially for Christians who had been schooled at home. For its students, as Betty Rollin reports, Patrick Henry College is an answered prayer.
MS. JENNIFER DEAN: I hope I'm not forgetting anything.
BETTY ROLLIN: This is a big day for Jennifer Dean. She's leaving home for the first time to go to college and mother is weeping, all the more because Jennifer, along with her brother and sister, have been home schooled.
MRS. DEEMS: I've had all three of them, you know, under my wings.
Unidentified Man #1: We thank you so much for all your blessings and all you've done for us, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
ROLLIN: Like many families, who home-school their children, the Deans are evangelical Christians and were thrilled to find the perfect college for their daughter. Patrick Henry is a private Christian college in Purcellville, Virginia, which opened last October with about 90 students. The college is adamant about not accepting federal funding. Everyone is a government major, consistent with the college's special mission. Former Virginia legislator and lawyer, Michael Farris, is president.
MR. MICHAEL FARRIS: We are trying to raise a generation of leadership and of Christian leadership in particular. People who are out in public life making a difference. We want to raise winners and people who know how to do what's right and really lead the country.
MS. DEAN: That's the most important thing for me. Weaving my Christian values into what I believe about government and then going out after that and using that foundation when I get a job.
ROLLIN: Every student and very professor and every member of the staff, including the kitchen help, must be Christian and all must sign a Statement of Faith, a kind of contract of religious intent. Daily chapel is compulsory. Tobacco and alcohol are banned. Dating is permissible only if both sets of parents approve. All courses are taught from a traditional evangelical Christian perspective.
MR. FARRIS: Every one of the professors and every one of the courses is expected to integrate the Christian world view wherever the Christian world view speaks to that course.
ROLLIN: Which is to say that God is the creator of all things; Jesus, God's son, is the source of salvation; and that the Bible is the inspired word of God. At Patrick Henry, that world view embraces the politics of the religious right. For example, in American government courses, if the subject of abortion comes up, the pro-choice point of view is discussed, but endorsed by no one. Evolution is mentioned as just a theory, an unproven theory. Even in a literature class about Hemmingway, the Christian world view of feminism is introduced.
NICK HIGGINS (Student): I would say a modern feminist would tell her to be more like Brett, just go off and trade off a new guy every few months to get immediate fulfillment versus a lifetime of fulfillment.
ROLLIN: In this class at Patrick Henry, no one contradicts that view of feminism.
AUDREY JONES (Student): The Christian world view is believing in Jesus as your Savior, that people are sinners, naturally bad. We're all born with the same nature which has to be controlled.
ROLLIN: Since nearly everyone here has been Christian-based home schooled, the religious and political perspective in college sits well with them as does the fact that the student body is exclusively Christian.
JENNIFER HOWARD (Student): It's incredibly uplifting to be around Christians. It's just encouraging, it's enforcing what I believe.
ROLLIN: In fact, students who tried secular colleges found them distasteful.
ERIC VANDERLEY (Student): I became, you know, rather disturbed with the way a lot of people were viewing the world. For example, abortion and euthanasia and a lot of those issues that have become relevant in our society today.
MS. JONES: I was going to go to the University of California, San Diego. They were standing up for a lot of diversity, which it made it apparent that everything was accepted except the Christian world view.
ROLLIN: Do you think it's possible for non-Christians, for atheists, agnostics, Jews and Hindus, to be good virtuous people?
MS. JONES: I would say up to a certain point, but there's a certain power that you have. You can do something that's totally -- would hurt you politically or financially just because you know that, that's what your Lord would want.
ROLLIN: And that's a Christian thing?
MS. JONES: Mm-hmm. I just feel like we're out here to change the world. We're getting an education to prepare us and we're just kind of getting stronger to influence it in a good way and I feel like it's a training ground, kind of like a boot camp.
ROLLIN: Kind of a Christian boot camp?
MS. JONES: Yeah.
ROLLIN: Barry Lynn is the executive director of Americans for Separation of Church and State. In his view, a Christian boot camp is exactly what this country doesn't need.
DR. BARRY LYNN: I think this university is part of a movement to demonize public education, demonize government that is not run along strictly biblical fundamental Christian lines, and to basically say, "We have all the answers, and indeed, the only answers for what makes a good and just society." That is incredibly arrogant and it's completely outside the tradition of American pluralism.
ROLLIN: Dr. Stephen Boch, president of the National Association of Scholars, likes the idea that Patrick Henry includes the classics in its curriculum.
DR. STEPHEN BOCH: The fact that they are reading primary sources at least guarantees that the authors of those texts will have a chance to speak to them.
ROLLIN: Still, Boch fears the academic consequences of a college with a religious and political mission.
DR. BOCH: The losses -- that you begin to think about how you are preparing students to win political battles rather than how you're preparing minds to think.
MR. FARRIS: I don't want to give someone who doesn't hold my philosophical view the best training on how to be a leader in the country. I might be raising up the wrong -- you know, the captain of the wrong team.
ROLLIN: Patrick Henry has been accredited by the Common Wealth of Virginia to enroll students. By the end of the year, the college hopes to get accreditation to award degrees. Meanwhile, Michael Farris has big plans for the future. In 10 years, he expects to have 1200 students and a law school.
MR. FARRIS: In fact, my pipe dream is that 15 years from now, one of our students walks down the aisle at the Academy Awards to receive the Oscar for best picture of the year and gets a call from his college roommate who is president of the United States and that's the vision and we don't want to take second place. We want to raise winners and people who know how to do what's right and really lead the country.
ROLLIN: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Betty Rollin.
ABERNETHY: Before they graduate, Patrick Henry students venture out into the world of public affairs by doing a required apprenticeship. About half of their credits are earned interning on Capitol Hill or in other public policy jobs.
ABERNETHY: More debate about stem cell research as scientists reported new advances. This week, the Bush administration canceled the National Institute of Health's meeting which had been scheduled to review federal funding requests for this controversial research involving human embryos. President Bush has stated his opposition to using federal funds for research that relies on cells that come from human embryos or aborted fetuses. The administration has ordered a review of the funding program expected to be completed this summer.
ABERNETHY: Reverend Leon Sullivan, a renowned civil rights leader and Baptist preacher, died this week. He was 78 years old. Sullivan was best know for creating the Sullivan principles, an international code of business conduct, that helped end the part height in South Africa. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, commented, "Reverend Sullivan showed us all how much one individual can do."
ABERNETHY: On our persecution watch, Chinese authorities continued to crack down on that country's underground Roman Catholic church. This week, rights groups reported the Chinese authorities arrested more than 20 Roman Catholics in April. Among those detained, 79-year-old Bishop Shi Yang Zang, who previously spent 30 years in jail. Also arrested was 82-year-old Bishop Pai Matea. It's estimated that 12 million Chinese remain loyal to the underground Roman Catholic church.
ABERNETHY: This week, the first comprehensive study of U.S. Muslims revealed a growing faith community. The Mosque study project was sponsored by four U.S. Muslim organizations. It found that in the last five years, the number of U.S. mosques increased 25 percent to more than 1200. Most of those saw an increase in regular attendance. The study found on average more than 400,000 Muslims attend Friday prayers nationwide and about 2 million U.S. Muslims attend local mosques at least twice a year.
ABERNETHY: Couples planning a Jewish wedding can turn to a new manual for help. The reform branch of Judaism has issued a guide to traditional Jewish weddings and how they've been reinterpreted by liberal Judaism. Included in the content, advice on planning interfaith marriages, same sex unions, and remarriage after divorce. Reform Judaism decided to allow individual rabbis to perform same sex unions last year. The guide also gives a history of Jewish wedding customs and a step-by-step checklist for participants.
ABERNETHY: The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, was in Washington this week, giving a lecture at the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral. The subject was Jewish-Christian relations. Dr. Carey also called on President Bush and helped officiate at a worship service.
Dr. Carey leads the world's 63 million Anglicans, more than two million of them American Episcopalians. He's an evangelical who believes Christians should try to convert others so they can be saved. But should that be done with Jews who already have their own covenant with God? If so, how? The complexity of that was clear when the archbishop and I sat down to talk.
DR. GEORGE CAREY: I believe that every Christian has a duty, an obligation, to share his or her faith with others. What I'm very concerned about is the character of our witness, our sharing with Jewish brothers and sisters. The character of our witness must be gentle, must be loving, must be understanding of what we owe to Judaism. I would personally, normally, never take the first step, but I would wait for my Jewish friend to ask about the Christian faith. Then I would feel it would be right to share that faith with him.
ABERNETHY: But not to actively try to convert that person?
DR. CAREY: Well, that is not my style, of course. But I mean, because I love my faith, I love my Lord, I want to share him with others, I will wait for opportunities when I can do that in the most appropriate way.
ABERNETHY: Archbishop, do you think salvation is available to Jews?
DR. CAREY: Salvation is given to us, I believe, through Jesus Christ, and that is why he said, "Go into the world and preach the gospel to share it with others," so that's available to everybody. The burden on my contention is that I believe that God has already a relationship with the Jewish people so therefore, it's much more complex in the case of Jews.
ABERNETHY: Do you feel that unless Jews convert to Christianity, they cannot be saved?
DR. CAREY: No, I wouldn't want to say that. We must approach it from the viewpoint of a cross, which for me, is not a symbol of power. I mean this is a cross, another symbol of power, it's a symbol of service, of suffering. And therefore, is an invitation to Jews and everyone, consider the claims of Jesus Christ for yourself and let's walk together on a journey to serving other people in our world today, and if you want to follow him as Jesus of Nazareth, then no one would be more delighted than I. But I want to respect that I've got a lot to learn from you as well.
ABERNETHY: The Holocaust shattered the faith of many Jews. What do you say to Holocaust survivors and others who cannot understand how a just God could have permitted that genocide?
DR. CAREY: I think that is the most awful, haunting question of all of what theologians call theodicy. How can we account for God's silence during the Holocaust? There is something about the cross which tells me what God is like, and that is he suffers with us. He was there in the Holocaust.
ABERNETHY: There's been so much anti-Semitism over the centuries. The charge commonly was that Jews killed Christ. What do you say about that?
DR. CAREY: The early Christians, the first Christians all too easily assumed it was the Jewish ranks that put Jesus to death. I think that, that's a bazaar interpretation. For me, it's the human race. They were not the Jews that did that, it was us.
ABERNETHY: Would it be fair to say that we have irreconcilable differences over the question of who Jesus was?
DR. CAREY: Yes.
ABERNETHY: But we have so much in common. We just need to get on with things and do what we can together.
DR. CAREY: Well we do have great differences. I mean the person, Jesus Christ, is the very heart of it. I regard Jesus Christ as the way to the Father and as the human face of God, and the Jew would look at that person differently. The Jew may well respect Jesus as a faithful Jew even. But we -- I don't think we need to rightly say there are irreconcilable differences and we walk away from one another. Let's look at the differences. Let's see how far we can travel together and walk together, understand one another better, and share a responsibility for the world in which we live.
ABERNETHY: Archbishop, as you look at the broad trends in the world, how do you think the tide is running between a religious view of the world and secularism?
DR. CAREY: I'm quite worried about the state of our world. I think the western world, particularly, has gone far more for life style and less for life substance. There's so much brokenness, broken relationships, substance of life and what really makes for good living of justice and peace and holiness of life. These things are -- seem to be rather contemptible and I think the religious way of looking at things has still a vital role to play in our society. Therefore, our churches must recover their vigor in proclaiming a clear, faithful people today. But not a simplistic faith, a faith actually that can be intellectually satisfying as well.
ABERNETHY: Last week, Dr. Carey celebrated his 10th anniversary as Archbishop of Canterbury.
ABERNETHY: Finally, a master organist who can trace his musical roots all the way back to Johann Sebastian Bach. Born in Germany, Harald Rohlig is in a direct student-teacher line which reaches back to the famous composer. He's performed in and composed for some of the world's greatest churches including Notre Dame and Westminster Abby. For the past 46 years, Rohlig has been teaching students of his own at a small Methodist college in Montgomery, Alabama. Recently, he gave a concert on an organ he personally designed. It's been expanded, newly restored, and installed in the Huntington College chapel.
MR. HARALD ROHLIG: Don't get scared. This is going to be pretty powerful right here.
ABERNETHY: Harald Rohlig says the power in his music comes from a source higher than himself.
MR. ROHLIG: I see God first and foremost as the creator of music. He speaks clearer to me through music than through anything else.
ABERNETHY: Rohlig says this faith is what he tries to convey to his music students. The same faith that helped him during his years as a prisoner of war in France at the end of and following World War II. During that time, he was asked to fill in for the organist in a French cathedral where he played under the watch of an armed guard. One day while playing that organ, Rohlig says he had an epiphany that allowed him to make sense of the excessive killing he saw as a member of the German air force.
MR. ROHLIG: This whole human dilemma came to my mind, prisoners of war, wars, Hitler, concentration camps, all of this shot through while I was playing and at the same time what shot also through was that all this has an ultimate meaning which I'm not privileged to know yet. Since this moment at the organ, everything became so clear mainly that God has an ultimate purpose. That much I know, and that was a wonderful moment.
ABERNETHY: That's our program for now. I'm Bob Abernethy. To find out more about RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, log on to pbs.org or America Online, keyword: PBS. As we leave you, more music from organist Harald Rohlig.
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© 2001 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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