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Episode no. 1141

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up — in most states murderers can be put to death. Now the Supreme Court is considering whether those who rape children can also be executed.

Representative PETE SCHNEIDER (Former State Representative): They’re horrendous crimes. You steal their childhood, you steal their soul.

ABERNETHY: And with help from an Indiana church, this American doctor opened a small HIV clinic in Kenya 10 years ago. He now has 18 clinics treating 60,000 patients a year.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy. It’s good to have you with us.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The two presumptive presidential candidates met with religious leaders this week. On Tuesday, Barack Obama held a closed door meeting with about 40 faith leaders, including megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes and evangelist Franklin Graham. They discussed issues from poverty and human rights to abortion and gay rights.

Meanwhile, in New York John McCain held a private meeting with Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

According to a new political survey from the Henry Institute at Calvin College in Michigan, significant numbers of religious voters remain undecided. Despite some dissatisfaction with McCain, a majority of evangelicals did say they’ll probably end up voting for him. And for the first time in polling history, the survey found that more mainline Protestants now identify themselves as Democrats than as Republicans.

Joining me with more is RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY managing editor Kim Lawton. Kim, welcome. Tell us more about that Obama meeting with some big names in American religious life.

# # #

KIM LAWTON (Managing Editor, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY): It was officially an off-the-record meeting but we found out some details about it. There were representatives from across the Christian spectrum there: Catholic leaders; mainline Protestant leaders. But the majority of the people there were evangelicals. And you had some people like Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham. You had Rich Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals. T.D. Jakes, the big megachurch pastor and author was there. They talked very candidly with Senator Obama about a range of issues. The Senator talked about his own spiritual journey. And they asked him questions about what he believes — theological questions I’m told. Some people asked him some pretty tough questions about things like abortion, gay rights. Not everybody in the room will probably vote for Obama — probably never voted for a Democrat. But they came away being impressed, I’m told, with how he handled himself. And at the end of the meeting, they all prayed with him. Some of them actually laid hands on him in that traditional Christian practice.

ABERNETHY: And about the evangelicals — they used to be the core base of the hard Religious Right — now still heavily for McCain?

Ms. LAWTON: But not quite at the same levels as they were for George Bush in the last election. And I think that’s what’s got some people interested. There are a large number of evangelicals, about 18 percent, still undecided. And we’re hearing from some of the leaders of the movement that they’re just not that enthused about the McCain campaign and about John McCain. And so, I think the Republicans have a big challenge in trying to make sure that that base is energized because indeed they represented 40 percent of George Bush’s total vote in the last election. So they need those evangelical votes.

ABERNETHY: Kim, many thanks. There’s more on the campaigns’ faith-based outreach strategies and the Calvin College survey on the “One Nation” page of our Web site at pbs.org.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: At the Vatican, Pope Benedict hosted President Bush. The meeting included a stroll through the Vatican gardens. The Pope’s representatives said Benedict wanted to show Bush his gratitude for the cordial reception the Pope received at the White House in April.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered a strong apology to indigenous people for the government’s past abusive treatment. Harper spoke in the House of Commons to an audience that included those who had been removed from their families as children. Until the 1970s, Canada enrolled indigenous children in Christian schools that forced them to abandon their native culture and spiritual beliefs. Many of the students were also physically abused. Harper said the policies, quote, “created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize.”

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The nation’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, and his longtime partner, Mark Andrew, were officially joined in a civil union in New Hampshire last weekend. After the civil ceremony, the two held what they called a “worship service of thanksgiving.” Same-sex civil unions have been legal in New Hampshire since January.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The Southern Baptist Convention has a new president: Johnny Hunt, a megachurch pastor from Georgia. Hunt was elected at the convention’s annual meeting, held this week in Indianapolis. He’s a theological conservative who wants Southern Baptists to focus more on evangelizing. The number of baptisms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has gone down in seven out of the last eight years.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The Supreme Court ruled this week that all 270 foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo have the right under the U.S. Constitution to challenge their detention in federal court.

Another High Court decision excepted soon could expand the death penalty. Right now, 36 states permit capital punishment for murder. Should that penalty be extended to those who rape children? Criminologists say people are punished to prevent them from committing another crime, as a deterrent to others, to rehabilitate them and as retribution — revenge. Does revenge for child rape justify execution?

Tim O’Brien begins his report from New Orleans, and his story contains some material that may be disturbing.

VOICE OF FEMALE ANCHOR (ABC 26 News 1998 file footage): Today, safety shattered in a quiet neighborhood. A child raped. The teens who did it — on the run.

VOICE OF MALE ANCHOR (ABC 26 News 1998 file footage): An eight-year-old Girl Scout raped in her Harvey neighborhood is recovering from surgery tonight.

VOICE OF MALE REPORTER (ABC 26 News 1998 file footage): People who live in the Woodmere subdivision are hoping for peace of mind. The thought a rapist is on the loose . . .

TIM O’BRIEN: The brutal rape of a small child galvanized this normally tranquil community just outside New Orleans and horrified the neighbors.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: There’s got to be some maniac running around out here.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I wouldn’t have never thought that someone would live on my street and do something like this.

Sheriff HARRY LEE (Jefferson Parish, LA, during 1998 press conference): I’m in my 18th year as Sheriff and I’ve seen a lot of bad things happen, and this is probably the worst.

O’BRIEN: So bad, that Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee put up $5,000 of his own money for information leading to an arrest.

In addition to the psychological trauma, the eight-year old girl also suffered severe physical injuries. The city of New Orleans rallied to help including the New Orleans Saints football team, which launched a fundraising drive to help defray the child’s mounting medical expenses.

KAREN TOWNSEND (Reporter, ABC News 26, from 1998 file footage): Sheriff Lee says the prime suspects in this case are two black teens.

O’BRIEN: The manhunt became so intense, Sheriff’s deputies began stopping all young black males in the neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: They made me take my shirt off. And, you know, it’s cold out here, you know?

VOICE OF FEMALE REPORTER: What were they looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Just tattoos, any little marks.

O’BRIEN: The victim had told police her attackers were two black teenagers. But the story fell apart and suspicion began to shift to the child’s stepfather Patrick Kennedy who had called co-workers on the morning of the rape seeking advice on how to remove blood from a white carpet.

It turned out, Kennedy also had been accused, although never convicted, of sexually molesting four foster children in his care. They were removed. His eight-year-old stepdaughter eventually said that it was Kennedy — six-feet-four, 375 pounds — who had raped her and then told her to blame it on the teenagers.

CHILD VICTIM: First, he told me that he was going to make up a story and I better say it.

O’BRIEN: And, she said, it wasn’t the first time Kennedy had sexually molested her.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Did Patrick Kennedy do something to you just that one day or did he did he do anything any other times?

CHILD VICTIM: He did more than once. I think five (holds up five fingers).

PROSECUTOR: More than once? You think five?

CHILD VICTIM: “Um-hmmm.”

PROSECUTOR: Okay. Do you remember how old you were the very first time he did something?

CHILD VICTIM; (shakes her head “no”)

O’BRIEN: Three years earlier the Louisiana legislature overwhelmingly passed a law authorizing the death penalty for anyone who rapes a child under the age of 12. The jury agreed unanimously: Patrick Kennedy deserved nothing less. The law was introduced by then state Representative, Pete Schneider

(to Rep. Pete Schneider): Is this the kind of guy you had in mind when you passed this law?

Representative PETE SCHNEIDER (Former Louisiana State Representative): Absolutely. Someone who would brutally rape a child — and rape is wrong no matter whom it is done to, but in a situation like this, I believe the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for the crime.

O’BRIEN: Kennedy’s court appointed lawyers disagree, and have taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing if the death penalty for rape isn’t cruel, it certainly is unusual — violating the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

BILLY SOTHERN (Capital Appeals Project): Mr. Kennedy is one of only two men on death row in the state of Louisiana for the crime of child rape. Indeed, Mr. Kennedy and this other individual are the only two men in the United States for the crime of child rape who’ve been sentenced to death.

O’BRIEN: The U.S. Supreme Court, more than 30-years ago, found the death penalty unconstitutional for rape — that death is disproportionate to the crime.

BARBARA WALTERS (Anchor, ABC Evening News, from 1977 file footage): Good Evening. Our top stories: The Supreme Court says the crime of rape should not be punishable by death.

O’BRIEN: But that case involved a 16-year old married woman. Louisiana contends the rape of a child is much worse and that the Court’s earlier opinion shouldn’t apply when the victim is so young.

Rep. SCHNEIDER: Twenty-nine percent of the rape cases in this country — and it’s probably underreported — are committed on 11-year-olds and younger. Twenty-nine percent!!! And they’re horrendous crimes. You steal their childhood, you steal their soul. You hurt the world when you do something like that to a child.

O’BRIEN: We may never know to what extent, if any, the death penalty actually deters but there’s clearly another theory behind this Louisiana law. Call it revenge, or retribution, or a thirst for simple justice, which, if left unfulfilled, may encourage others — loved ones — to go out and find it on their own.

Sex offenders may be the least likely to be deterred and their crimes are the most likely to bring retribution.

Jeffrey Doucet suspected of kidnapping and molesting an 11-year old Baton Rouge boy. When sheriff’s deputies brought Doucet back to Louisiana, the boy’s father — Gary Plauche — was waiting at the Baton Rouge airport with a gun.

Believing they could never get a conviction, prosecutors allowed Plauche to plead guilty to manslaughter with a suspended sentence.

The State’s Attorney General Buddy Caldwell says it’s the state that must exact the retribution — not loved ones — and that the Louisiana law makes it less likely they”ll try.

(to LA Attorney General Buddy Caldwell): Even if it doesn’t deter others — that’s an open debate — but even if it doesn’t, you say the death penalty in cases like this is justified?

BUDDY CALDWELL (State Attorney General, LA): I believe it absolutely is.

O’BRIEN: Retribution alone is enough?

Mr. CALDWELL: Retribution alone is enough.

O’BRIEN: Some of your opposition, including the Catholic Church, will quote the Bible and say, “Vengeance is mine so sayeth the Lord.”

Mr. CALDWELL: Well, we see a lot of people that don’t have a clue. But I think most people understand, even liberals have children that if they’re raped and mutilated like in a lot of these cases, they would be for the death penalty, whether they say so or not. It’s always the other guy.

O’BRIEN: It’s a retributive function of the law?

Mr. CALDWELL: I think so.

O’BRIEN: Ironically, a number of child advocacy groups are siding with the defendant in this case, telling the Supreme Court the death penalty for child molesters is counter-productive.

Judy Benitez, who heads the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault, says Louisiana’s law may discourage children from coming forward and give the molester an incentive to kill his victim.

JUDY BENITEZ (Executive Director, Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault): If they’re not facing any harsher punishment for killing the child and raping them then they are for — and I say this sort of facetiously — for just raping them, you know the state can’t kill them but once, So what are they going to do? And this way they don’t leave a living witness.

O’BRIEN: Patrick Kennedy’s lawyer says if retribution is the goal, life in prison is retribution enough.

Mr. SOTHERN: The alternative punishment here in Louisiana for the crime of child rape is life without the possibility of parole at Angola penitentiary. It’s “you die at Angola.” So it’s not like the alternative punishment for this is somehow lenient. The alternative punishment in this instance is extraordinarily harsh.

O’BRIEN: Both sides agree the law does make it easier for prosecutors to negotiate a plea agreement with the defendant for life in prison, sparing the child the trauma of having to testify at a trial.

The question for the Supreme Court, however, is not whether this is a wise law or even a good law or whether it even makes any sense at all, only whether it’s such a bad law as to violate the standards of decency of a civilized nation as embodied in the U.S. Bill of Rights.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Tim O’Brien in Washington.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: At the start of this year, in Kenya, in East Africa, terrible, largely tribal violence took more than a thousand lives and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. But there were a few compounds of safety, among them the clinics run by an American doctor. There, Kenyans of different tribes found common ground in their Christian faith. Such sanctuary was one of the many outgrowths of a ministry that began with one small anti-AIDS clinic and now serves 60,000 patients with the back-home support of a church in Indiana. Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: From its location on the edge of the city, the North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis boasts a number of global ties.

Reverend KEVIN ARMSTRONG (Pastor, North United Methodist Church, Indianapolis, speaking to Joseph Okuya from Kenya): Joseph, please come here and join me as we welcome you.

DE SAM LAZARO: None are closer than those to Kenya.

Rev. ARMSTRONG (speaking to Mr. Okuya): As you know we’ve been praying with and for you, for the people of Kenya. It helps us to know a little bit from you, how are things now?

DE SAM LAZARO: The honored guest told of the deadly post-election violence in his country.

JOSEPH OKUYA: Of course, we see that at the peak the leaders have made some kind of an agreement. But down in the grassroots, it’s still smoldering.

DE SAM LAZARO: The Kenya connection traces back almost two decades to one couple from this congregation. In recent months, Joseph and Sara Ellen Mamlin have brought them news from the frontlines of a distant conflict.

Dr. Joseph Mamlin first visited here in the late �80s to set up an exchange program between his employer, Indiana University School of Medicine and a med school in the western Kenyan city of Eldoret. He returned a decade later to a worsening AIDS problem here and decided stay on and set up a small HIV clinic — or so he thought.

Dr. JOSEPH MAMLIN: It grew to where I had 1,500 patients out of this one room and just lying all around on the ground. We had the largest village-based HIV clinic in Kenya. And we were just working out of this one room. And then I was home visiting my children and grandchildren years ago and someone called my wife and asked to meet her at JC Penney at a shopping mall. And she just anonymously handed her a check and said, “Joe needs a clinic.” And this is what you see here. This is all from an anonymous donor in Indianapolis from the church.

We had the National Minister of Health, and the U.S. Ambassador dedicating, but, that’s not the real dedication. Here I see a beautiful lady coming by here. This is Rose Beargen. She’s one of the very first patients I treated here, many years ago. And I’m the one looking sick now instead of her. And — but she was essentially dying of PCP pneumonia. She was almost a dead woman.

DE SAM LAZARO: Today she runs the clinic’s outreach program. The miracle of her recovery began in this pharmacy. It’s well-stocked with antiretroviral drugs for HIV, thanks to a major grant from the U.S government’s “President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief” or PEPFAR.

Dr. MAMLIN: Look what we have here. This is PEPFAR in action. People who’ve been in this business and watching people die in Kenya will walk in a room like this, they will cry. To see this umbilical cord to life, made available by the American people free of charge for all of these patients, is a miracle. And it’s just simply wonderful.

DE SAM LAZARO: Today, some 60,000 patients receive care in 18 regional centers. Mamlin notes only two American doctors work alongside several hundred Kenyan colleagues and staff — a staff so dedicated he says, that many were on the frontlines of emergency care during the turmoil. None of the acrimony from the ethnic violence that followed December’s elections spilled into the compounds of their clinics.

HENRY MUITIRIRI: I think in the organization we didn’t have any inciter who could come and incite us to fight. We work as one.

DE SAM LAZARO: Many employees took shelter in the project’s compound. Even though they were from tribes fighting each other on the outside, they drew on faith to stay together inside.

PANINAH MUSULA: We had a Christian group. We had prayers. We had to sing together. We had to pray together. That united us that we could not rise against one another.

SAMMY KIMANI: We need to believe that we can have peace back and we need it. We had hope.

DE SAM LAZARO: But all around them the devastation did not spare even churches — the toll not just in death and property damage but also interruption in the careful drug regimens for AIDS patients.

Dr. MAMLIN (talking with patient): You missed two days.

UNIDENTIFIED PATIENT: There was no means to come here.

Dr. MAMLIN: I want you to know that missing your medicine even two days is dangerous. I know you could do nothing. It’s not your fault.

DE SAM LAZARO: The most immediate challenge was in tracking down the thousands of patients who fled the violence, making sure they were supplied with their drugs. Many scattered into makeshift camps for displaced people, some of which still remain.

Thirty-seven-year-old Purity Wambui took shelter in this church. She got a coveted indoor spot since she has a newborn. That makes life easier, but hardly easy.

PURITY WAMBUI: The health becomes deteriorated because you have nothing to eat. Before we used to have balanced diet but now it’s hard to get that balanced diet. We just rely on maize and yellow peas; milk�milk is a dream.

DE SAM LAZARO: Nonetheless she’s grateful — not just for drugs that have kept her alive �but for provisions the Indiana partnership distributes to her entire family. It’s the middle step in restoring patients, says Mamlin.

Dr. MAMLIN: When I first pick up a patient who’s wasted, they look up at me and you can tell even if they say nothing, they just want the drugs so they can live. And about six or eight weeks when they see that they’re living they kind of look back at you and say, “I’m hungry!” And then, let another two or three months go by as they are walking around and looking normal, they wonder, “How do I get back on my feet and become a whole person again?”

DE SAM LAZARO: That takes clinics into matters far beyond the immediate medical needs. Each day there are tough calls to make on how to disburse limited funds.

Dr. MAMLIN (speaking to patient): You have no school fees?

DE SAM LAZARO: Mamlin turned down this mother’s request for school fees.

Dr. MAMLIN (reading request from patient): “To whom it may concern.” That’s usually my middle name. No, you have to see Diana, the social worker. There are so many of these it’s impossible for me to do all of them

DE SAM LAZARO: The next patient, a tailor named Clement, was luckier.

CLEMENT (speaking to Dr. Mamlin): When I went out to vote but when I came back they looted my house.

DE SAM LAZARO: Luckier that is, for someone who’d lost all his belongings, including his sewing machine.

Dr. MAMLIN (to Clement): I have some friends in U.S. And they’ve donated a little bit money for me to use. So I’m going to qualify you for that. And I’ll get you a machine and I’ll get you materials to get back in business.

CLEMENT: I thank you very much, sir.

Dr. MAMLIN: Do you want to reconstitute immune systems or do you want to reconstitute lives? And those are two totally different problems. And we’ve decided to go after lives. We’re taking care of the poorest of the poor.

DE SAM LAZARO: It’s a choice that may be rooted in faith, but faith is a matter Mamlin does not share publicly.

Dr. MAMLIN: I have much more concern about what needs to be done as an expression of whatever faith system we have. I guess I’m raised in tradition that tends to avoid putting things like that on your shoulder.

Rev. ARMSTRONG: There’s a wise old church leader who said, “Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words.”

DE SAM LAZARO: Back in Indianapolis, pastor Armstrong says what began as a public health program has also spawned numerous exchanges between worship communities here and in Kenya. For the Hoosiers, he says it’s widened their understanding of a distant land and a complex epidemic and it’s helped them spiritually.

Rev. ARMSTRONG: Who are the people you want your children to learn the Christian faith from? The Mamlins would be at the top of that list. And so for us to be able to find some way to be alongside them in their journey not only was a way for us to strengthen our friendship but also for us to deepen our own faith.

DE SAM LAZARO: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: : In Jordan, archaeologists say they may have found the world’s oldest Christian church. The researchers were digging under an ancient church where they found a cave with evidence of even earlier Christian worship, possibly from the first century. Worshippers may have used the cave to hide from persecution. Christian leaders in Jordan hailed the discovery, but historians said further study is needed.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Finally, Golf Digest is issuing an apology after offending the American Sikh community with an article featuring a golf guru. The article used the image of a South Asian man holding a golf club and wearing a golf glove. Alert readers noticed the man looked suspiciously like Sikhism’s fifth prophet, Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Sikhs protested, calling the image a desecration. Manjit Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund says they’re pleased with Golf Digest’s quick response — especially, he says, because golfing is huge in the Sikh community.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: That’s our program for now. I’m Bob Abernethy. There’s much more on our Web site, including an exclusive interview that Fred de Sam Lazaro did while he was in Kenya with a Quaker minister who described religion’s role in that nation’s recent turmoil. Join us at pbs.org.

As we leave you, scenes from a ceremony in China to remember the victims of last month’s earthquake. Thousands of Chinese wrote messages to the victims on waterproof shells, and, with candles in each one, set them afloat.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1140

KIM LAWTON, guest anchor: Coming up — a new blood test may make it possible to know who’s likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease — but should people do it?

And a modern day circuit rider, spreading the word of God to churches that don’t have a full-time pastor.

Plus Buddhist techniques of meditation and mindfulness.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Welcome. I’m Kim Lawton sitting in for Bob Abernethy. Thank you for joining us.

Political history this week as Barack Obama became the first African-American to be the likely Democratic nominee for president. In his victory speech, Obama urged that religion not be used as a wedge in this campaign. But religion has already provoked enormous debate. After months of controversy, Obama finally withdrew his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ. He said his family will probably not search for a new church home until after November. The apparent final straw was a guest sermon by a Catholic priest, Father Michael Pfleger, who mocked Hillary Clinton. In the wake of the incident, Chicago Cardinal Francis George relieved Pfleger of his pastoral duties for a couple of weeks.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Meanwhile, Obama again reached out to the Jewish community with a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC. He reaffirmed a strong commitment to Israel. John McCain also spoke to the group, supporting a divestment campaign against Iran as a matter of, quote, “moral clarity.”

# # #

KIM LAWTON: In Rome, world leaders at a United Nations summit on the global food crisis pledged to fight spreading hunger and unrest. Much of the summit was bogged down in politics, but the group did agree to reduce trade barriers and increase agricultural production. Many in the humanitarian community said the pledge did not go far enough. They also criticized the participation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad had requested a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI while he was in Rome, but the pope turned him down. The Vatican said Benedict did not have enough time to meet with all the leaders who wanted to greet him during the food summit.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Benedict will have time for President Bush next week. Just two months after the Pope visited the White House, Bush will stop by the Vatican next Friday. This will be their third meeting.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Five hundred Muslim scholars, clerics and political leaders from fifty nations gathered in Mecca in the first step toward a worldwide interfaith summit. The meeting was organized by Saudi King Abdullah. It was intended to promote reconciliation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims before the leaders begin talks with Christians and Jews. Abdullah told the gathering that Islam has to banish extremism and embrace coexistence.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: In this country, legal obstacles have been cleared for gay marriages to begin in California later this month. The state supreme court refused to delay its landmark decision allowing same-sex marriage, even though the issue will be on the ballot in November. The court’s ruling allows anyone, not just California residents, to marry there. Already some churches and reform synagogues have announced plans to conduct same-sex weddings. They say they’ve been flooded with requests.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: We have a story today about a potential moral dilemma for children of Alzheimer’s victims. If there were a test that could predict whether they were going to get the incurable disease too, should they take it? And what would they do if the test were positive? Bob Faw of NBC News has our report.

BOB FAW: As a surgeon, he was brilliant and beloved. But as his daughter watched in horror, Alzheimer’s robbed Jerome Donald Davis of his faculties and very identity.

SUSAN DAVIS: It’s a terrible thing to witness. It’s unspeakable. And the people who love you are in unbelievable pain. And it’s a terrible loss of dignity. And it’s protracted. And nobody can help. Medicine can’t help and science can’t help.

FAW: Eva Finelle’s mother — her best friend — now with Alzheimer’s, doesn’t even recognize her daughter.

EVA FINNELLE: She’s been the most wonderful person in my whole life. I’m living in a situation where I’m mourning somebody who’s still alive. And it’s an ongoing, everyday sadness that never goes away. I miss my mother and she’s still here.

FAW: The children of parents with Alzheimer’s live in mourning for them and in dread for themselves, any time even the simplest act is botched or memory fails.

Ms. FINNELLE: Every time those things happen to me, I wonder — is this — this is about the age my mother started showing signs of different things going wrong.

Ms. DAVIS: It’s in the back of my mind when I’m standing, like everybody, in my kitchen thinking to myself, “Why did I come in this room?” I know that happens to everybody. But it chills me when it happens to me.

FAW: The fear is understandable since Alzheimer’s often runs in families.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1 (to Unidentified Woman #2): And what day of the week is today?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I’ll guess.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: That’s fine.

FAW: Five million Americans are afflicted by the disease for which there is no treatment and no cure. As Dr. James Burke of Duke University points out, its effects on the brain are devastating.

Dr. JAMES BURKE (Director of the Clinical CORE, Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Duke University Medical Center): So, this is a normal brain. It weighs over two pounds. And this is an Alzheimer’s brain that’s lost probably about 50 percent of the total brain weight.

FAW: Now a promising blood test is being refined, which in time could accurately predict even years before symptoms occur who will develop Alzheimer’s. It’s a breakthrough, which ethicist Nancy Kader says could be liberating.

NANCY KADER (Center for the Study of Ethics): I think the patient kind of has a personal responsibility to learn these kinds of things so that they can prepare themselves and prepare their loved ones.

FAW (to Ms. Kader): So, if I don’t take the test, then in some way I’m shortchanging my family?

Ms. KADER: Absolutely. I think that it’s a little bit shortsighted to just think of it in terms of myself — what do I want to know about myself, versus what do the others around me need to know in order to help me make the right choices?

FAW: Indeed, for some, like Eva Finelle, the decision to take such a test is easy.

Ms. FINNELLE: I want to know. I want to know. I don’t want my family, my children to go through what I’ve gone though. It would give me preparation time to do what I want to do, to say what I want to say, to get my affairs in order, so to speak, for when I can’t think for myself.

FAW: For others though, like Susan Davis almost as old now as her father was when he started showing signs of the disease, the prospect of such a test is agonizing.

Ms. DAVIS: Hit the music…

FAW: Now a successful producer at North Carolina Public Radio and the mother of two, Susan Davis says that learning she might develop Alzheimer’s would not be a source of comfort, but alarm.

Ms. DAVIS: I could find this out. And it really means nothing. It means nothing until they know what it means or until they can do something.

FAW (to Ms. Davis): Knowing that you might get it, it wouldn’t be helpful?

Ms. DAVIS: You know what this would do? This might drive me crazy.

FAW: Most of all, says Davis, if she learned she’ll develop Alzheimer’s that would be a cruel, ethical dilemma: wait for the disease or take her life?

Ms. DAVIS: What’s worse for my kids? To watch me deteriorate or to try and understand that I took myself from them before I deteriorated? I mean, it’s two lousy options. Who knows which of these traumas is better to overcome: your mother killing herself; or your mother dying this excruciating death?

FAW: The moral quandary facing Davis and how others might respond when confronted with the same kind of news, troubles doctors like James Burke.

Dr. BURKE: The downside to symptomatic or early symptomatic testing is that there is no intervention that we can do at this time. Taking away people’s hope is not something to be done lightly.

FAW: And, says Burke, since some patients cannot handle the emotional burden those test results might reveal . . .

Dr. BURKE: I would not perform the test because I wouldn’t feel confident about what you do with the results.

FAW: And with more tests predicting more diseases, questions are raised about how test results will be used. This man has not been tested for Alzheimer’s, but when his insurance company learned several of his relatives have the disease.

JOHN: We were denied because of Alzheimer’s in the family.

FAW (to Unidentified Man): They told you, point blank?

JOHN: Yes. Yes.

FAW: And even the prospect that he might develop Alzheimer’s has already cost him dearly.

JOHN: The few friends that I’ve told in the past are no longer friends. You know, because they, I had one put it to me as, “You know, why would we want to get attached to somebody that’s not going to be here, you know?”

FAW: It’s an ethical minefield then which will continue to explode. By the year 2050, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to triple. So many afflicted, some say we now need to redefine our entire approach to the disease.

Ms. KADER: It’s something that we’re all going to face at some point. If we don’t have Alzheimer’s we may still — there are other reasons we may begin to lose some of our faculties as we age. And so I think we need to look at it as the whole spectrum of life.

Dr. BURKE: Maybe we’re expecting too much of the brain. We don’t expect the heart to function the way it did when you were 20. We don’t expect the liver and the kidneys to function. And so I think that we should expect some age-related changes. But because the brain so much determines who we are, it really places questions on our personhood.

FAW: Sometimes even defining “personhood.”

JOHN: I live with it everyday — think about it everyday.

FAW (to John): How frightened are you?

JOHN: A scale of one to 10 — nine-and-a-half.

FAW (to John): The odds are against you?

JOHN: Extremely.

JOHN’S WIFE: I’m just praying that it doesn’t happen — that it’s not going to occur.

FAW (to John’s Wife): And if the test shows that it did?

JOHN’S WIFE: Then everything would change.

FAW: Just as a new diagnostic tool, charting what can happen to the brain heralds another kind of change: knowledge, bringing relief to some and to others, fear.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Bob Faw in Durham, North Carolina.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: They were once called circuit riders — itinerant preachers who went from town to town in 19th-century America to spread the Gospel. A few are still around today, although they’ve switched from horseback to automobile. They serve the same purpose they always have: to bring spiritual support to people with no fulltime minister. Lucky Severson caught up with David Brown, a modern-day circuit rider in Mississippi.

LUCKY SEVERSON: Sunday morning at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi; Pastor David Brown had already driven 80 miles in his aging Chevy when he arrived in this old Civil War town, past the cannon, past the graves of the war dead.

Bethlehem is a small but proud congregation founded by former slaves in 1866. This is the first stop of what for Pastor Brown will be a very long day.

Pastor DAVID BROWN: OK, I got three services today. I know I’ve got to go from nine o’clock until nine o’clock. That’s 12 hours.

SEVERSON: The service, which began at 11, won’t end until after one. He’s got two more before the day is done. In all, Brown is pastor of seven churches in Mississippi and Louisiana. On days when he’s not there, they go to Sunday school. But, he visits each church at least once month, with all his heart and soul.

Pastor BROWN (singing before congregation): Yeah, I been sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but I got somebody. He takes me in His arms. He rocks me when I’m weary. He tells me that I’m his own. Oh He’s all right. He’s all right. Oh yeah!

SEVERSON: He gets pretty worked up when he preaches doesn’t he?

MATTIE BROWN (Congregation Member, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Vicksburg, MS): Yeah he does. He’s a powerful preacher. He’s a God-sent man.

SEVERSON: The tradition of circuit riders, or pastors on horseback, began with Methodist preachers in the early 19th century. After the Civil War, former slaves were allowed to have churches on the plantations. But the congregations were too small and too poor to afford full-time preachers.

Hollywood portrayed the circuit rider as a tough guy who rode into town . . .

(film clip from “Pale Rider)

. . . took on the bad guys . . . .

UNIDENTIFIED MAN (from film “Pale Rider”): Sarah, he saved my life.

SEVERSON: . . . and lo and behold, he turns out to be a preacher.

CLINT EASTWOOD (from film “Pale Rider”): Good evening. Hope I’m not the cause of all this excitement.

SEVERSON: The reality was not so glamorous. In their lifetime, the preachers often traveled thousands of miles on horseback from one small town to another. No one seems to know how many circuit preachers there are today.

After lunch at a fast food joint, Pastor Brown is on the road again — 30 miles to his next stop across the Mississippi River back into Louisiana. He was one of 12 children, with preachers and deacons on both sides of the family. He says it’s in his blood.

Pastor BROWN: You think about it sometimes. You get real worn out and you think about what I could do better. This is what the Lord has given you. That keeps you going.

SEVERSON: His wife Gwendolyn thinks he goes too much.

GWENDOLYN BROWN: He doesn’t say “no” a lot. Sometimes he’s overbooked. But he feels he owes it to the community because God has called him to do a mission.

SEVERSON: He often works late into the night preparing his sermons — a different one for each church.

This is pastor Brown’s second stop of the day, the Pleasant Grove Baptists Church number two in Tallulah, Louisiana. The congregation here is very small and would have a difficult time supporting a fulltime preacher. So, for the people here, Pastor Brown is a godsend.

What are you going to talk about here?

Pastor BROWN: I’m going to talk about “Not without God.” Without God, it’s impossible to do anything.

SEVERSON: Tallulah had seen better days before the saw mill closed, and the jobs moved away. But the pastor tells his people not to give up on God.

Pastor BROWN (preaching to congregation): I come to tell you this afternoon the world’s greatest need is God, not gold, but God. Not silver, but salvation. Not lumber, but love. Not gas, but grace. I come to tell you this afternoon, without God, we just can’t do nothing.

SEVERSON: Brown likely would have made a better living if he had become a mortician as he originally planned. His earnings as a circuit preacher amount to whatever is in the collection plate, which is usually not enough. His wife has cancer. He has high blood pressure, diabetes and no health insurance.

Pastor BROWN: You’ve got to believe that at the end of the day the Lord’s going to provide enough for me, for what I need next week. When we praise, we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So I expect him to provide for me and my family what I’m going to need this week. And then next Sunday he’ll provide again for the next week. And it’s always happened that way for 31 y ears.

SEVERSON: He augments his meager income by selling CDs of his sermons. He also preaches at revivals throughout the region. But his job as pastor demands much more than one day a week.

(speaking to Pammy Hall): If you have need of a preacher during the week, is that a problem if he’s not here?

PAMMY HALL: Oh no. If you need him and you call him and he knows about it, he may not get the call when you call him, but if he knows that you need him, he will call you back and he will be there.

SEVERSON: During the week when he’s not preaching, he marries people and buries people, often traveling many miles. On this day he’s making a house call to pray with a man who just had an eye operation.

Pastor BROWN (praying at Mitchell house): We pray for this family. We pray for all who come through these doors. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray Amen. Amen.

SEVERSON: At one point he was getting so many speeding tickets the state threatened to suspend his license for seven years. Now he gets along well with the state police.

MITCHELL FAMILY (in unison): Amen.

Pastor BROWN: Most of them knew my car, you know what I mean.

SEVERSON: There goes Pastor Brown, speeding down the road?

Pastor BROWN: Yeah, speeding again. He tells me, “You’d better slow it down pastor.” Sometimes they pull up alongside, point their finger at me and stuff like that.

SEVERSON: His third service of the day — back in Vicksburg at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. By now it is late afternoon. As with most churches he pastors, there are fewer members today than a few years.

Pastor BROWN: I’ve had people ask me, from the larger congregations, “Why do you preach so passionately to a few people, like you do when there’s a crowd of people?” I say, “Everybody’s just as important. There’s just more of them. That’s the only difference.” They have souls that need to be fed, and they have needs that need to be met. And the Word has to get to them. I look at it as a life and death situation.

SEVERSON: And as the churches get smaller, and Pastor Brown gets older and wearier, members get worried.

HOOVER YOUNGER (Congregation Member, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Vicksburg, MS): I told him, I said, “I can understand you’re getting old. I done reached old–but still more work to be done.

WILLIE HENRY SMITH, SR (Congregation Member, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Vicksburg, MS): I would to God that Reverend Brown would stay here for a lifetime. But as you know, we’re all going to pass off the scene. After he’s gone, we’re still going to have somebody else here to carry on. But see — because the church must go on. You still got to have somebody else that you can put your trust in and believe in.

Pastor BROWN (singing before congregation): When I come down, down to my last month, come down to my last hour, come down to my last minute, my last second, I want Jesus! I want Jesus! I want Jesus! I want Jesus. Oh, I want Jesus!

SEVERSON: This was his third sermon and he’s still wound up.

Pastor BROWN: It’s a passion. It’s a love that you develop for the people. This is something you just can’t quit. They say, “Well, how do you get into the ministry?” I tell them that the ministry gets you. You don’t get the ministry. It gets you.

SEVERSON: Finally, another Sunday, done. Tired but satisfied.

Pastor BROWN: I guess this is it for today. Well, I’m going to head back to Monroe.

SEVERSON: It’s 7:30 in the evening, and he still has an 80-mile drive home. The churches count on him to return, sometime soon. But someday he’ll cross the Mississippi River and he won’t come back. Who will take his place?

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Vicksburg Mississippi.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: On our calendar, the Jewish holiday of Shavuot begins at sundown on Monday.

Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: : Every year, in New York’s Central Park, the Buddhist magazine Tricycle sponsors a demonstration of Buddhist practices called “Change Your Mind Day.” That refers not to conversion but to exploring ways to become more mindful, more fully aware. And, to meditate. We talked with Jane Smith, an architect, about the kind of Buddhism she practices — Zen.

JANE SMITH: I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition and loved it. But then, when I came to New York, I thought, I’ve got to figure out a way to be able to handle these stresses that I’m taking on. And so, I started thinking what can I do in order to release the tension and yet still be able to embrace the joy of doing what I really love to do, which is the architecture, and the creative skills and the challenge of being in an intense workplace and taking on New York? So, I really went on a quest.

The Zen practice and the Buddhist tradition is based on nature and space and simplicity. It really was life-changing, mind-changing for me. One of the big differences for me, between the two traditions, is the idea of how we’re born. In the Western tradition, there is the idea of original sin. The Eastern tradition comes from the point of view that we’re born perfect, and every moment is really complete and perfect.

Now, my practice is part of my day-to-day life. I get up very early in the morning, and I sit for a half an hour, with my legs crossed.

When you do meditation practice, there’s a lot of pain. You’re sitting there, cross-legged, which is not a Western way of sitting. You look at the pain in the knee, and you witness, “That’s pain in my knee.” It’s really amazing that, as you look at it, in this kind of non-judgmental, not clenching around it, freaking out, it starts releasing.

And that’s the same thing with our thought. Things come up — the stresses that are coming up through the day. But, as something comes up, the practice is to allow it to be there, like the clouds that move overhead. The clouds come and you see them and then they pass away. And so, if an anxiety comes up, I look at it, and by looking at it, it really, it diffuses and moves on. And then I have a moment of, and maybe it’s a small moment, of just peace and relaxation. But, it clears my head. It makes me realize again, what’s important to me in life — being aware of every sound and everything that’s going on around you. And as you do that, you let go of the difference between yourself and the other things out there. You become the sounds on the street. But again, it doesn’t last because we’re in our human nature. And, our human nature is to keep pushing ourselves down, being really tough on ourselves. And I’m, you know, boy, I’m big on that one.

How do you not be a bystander in your life, but to be an active participant in your life? What I get from Zen Buddhism is the ability to live this life, this moment, now. To really appreciate everything as it happens in front of me, and to be able to have the tools to embrace it. That’s it; that’s it for me.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Finally, Golf Digest is issuing an apology after offending the American Sikh community with an article featuring a golf guru. The article used the image of a South Asian man holding a golf club and wearing a golf glove. Alert readers noticed the man looked suspiciously like Sikhism’s fifth prophet, Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Sikhs protested, calling the image a desecration. Manjit Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund says they’re pleased with Golf Digest’s quick response — especially, he says, because golfing is huge in the Sikh community.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: That’s our program for now. I’m Kim Lawton.

There’s much more on our Web site, including more on religion and politics on our One Nation page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

As we leave you, music from one of David Brown’s congregation in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user’s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon WNET-TV’s copyright or proprietary interests in the material.

Listen to this episode now:
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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1139

KIM LAWTON, guest anchor: Coming up — the inadequate response to the global food crisis.

And the overall number of Catholic monks and nuns has been going down, but we found a place filled with dedicated young nuns.

Sister CHRISTIANA MICKWEE, O.P.: No, I will not be marrying a spouse. But my very body and blood is united to God in a way that isn’t offered to everyone in the world.

LAWTON: Plus, the former Hollywood executive who’s saying hundreds of Cambodian children from a life of scavenging in a trash dump.

SCOTT NEESON: I no longer have 401(k), but I have all the coconuts I can drink and eat. It’s a trade-off.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Welcome. I’m Kim Lawton sitting in for Bob Abernethy. Thank you for joining us.

New alarms were sounded on many fronts this week about the spiraling global food crisis. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is sponsoring an international summit in Rome next week on the crisis. In a report released in advance of the meeting, the UN agency said 22 already poor nations are now at particular risk. Most are in Africa, but the list also includes countries in Asia and, in this hemisphere, Haiti. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a possible surge in food-related riots and other violence as hunger and desperation continue to grow.

We’ll have more on this in a few moments.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Myanmar’s military dictatorship has finally eased restrictions on many foreign aid workers coming in to provide relief after the deadly cyclone four weeks ago. The UN, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders and other groups now have representatives in the country trying to reach some of the two-and-a-half million people in need. The Myanmar government, though, dismissed reports of widespread suffering. Leaders called the survivors self-reliant and suggested they find vegetables in the wild and fish in the rivers if they could not get, quote, “bars of chocolate donated by the international community.”

# # #

KIM LAWTON: In China, relief efforts continue for the five million left homeless after the catastrophic earthquake. The Chinese government said rebuilding in the devastated region will be a long and arduous process. Humanitarian work is being hampered by bad weather and the threat of landslides.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Concerns are rising about the fate of six Baha’i leaders who were arrested in Iran on May 14. International Baha’i representatives said the leaders have not been heard from since. The six are all members of the Baha’i’s national coordinating group in Iran. A seventh member of the group was arrested in early March, and her whereabouts are also unknown. The Iranian government says they were all arrested for security reasons. Iranian Baha’is have frequently suffered persecution since their faith was founded in Persia in the early 1800s. With about 350,000 members, Baha’is are Iran’s largest religious minority.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: In this country, the Texas Supreme Court decided in favor of parents from the polygamist sect that was raided by authorities. The justices supported a lower court decision that said the state had no right to remove and take custody of more than 400 children from the compound. They said the children should be sent home within a reasonable period of time. The state had argued that the children are in danger of abuse.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: President Bush met with the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the Mormons. Bush met Thomas Monson at the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, while he was on a five-state fundraising trip. The White House press secretary said Bush made a point to meet with LDS leaders because he believes they help communities and, quote, “spread the word of love.”

# # #

KIM LAWTON: As candidates they may disagree a lot, but this week John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton released a joint statement accusing the Sudanese government of atrocities against civilians in Darfur. The statement was intended as a symbolic message to Sudan that America’s next president, whoever he or she may be, will maintain a hard-line policy on human rights abuses in Darfur.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: New York’s governor said his state will recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. The decision will not legalize gay marriages in New York, but it will extend marriage benefits to same-sex couples who’ve been married elsewhere. That may soon include California, where officials are set to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples on June 17. If the state supreme court does not take further action, California will become the second state after Massachusetts to allow gay marriage.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: Now, back to the global food crisis. Joining me today is Tony Hall, the former Ohio Congressman who was also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations humanitarian agencies in Rome.

Ambassador Hall, welcome. When these leaders meet in the summit in Rome next week, what is it that they need to do? What can they do to address this crisis?

TONY HALL (Former Ambassador and Congressman): Well, they need to do three things. They need to outline what the problem is — and the problem is immense. Two, they need to make commitments of new resources to the hungry people in the world. And three, they need to follow-up on these commitments that they’re going to make there. And, the third one is the most important, because I’ve attended these conferences before and we have a tendency to forget the third one when we come back and say, “Well, we committed to this — what are we going to do?”

LAWTON: And they don’t do what they committed?

Ambassador HALL: They don’t do it. And, I remember we wanted to cut hunger in half — we want to by the year 2015. And so there’s a series of steps we have to do. We’re not even coming close.

LAWTON: Well indeed, how immense is the problem right now?

Ambassador HALL: We’ve got about 850 million people in the world today that are near starvation. What’s going on in the world today with the food prices going up is going to add another hundred million. I think you are going to start to see in the next four or five months horrendous stories, more riots. It’s a major, major problem.

LAWTON: And in the U.S. we are also concerned about rising fuel prices, which has contributed to the problem; rising food prices — and people here are worried about — hunger might grow here. How does the U.S. balance how much we commit to here — taking care of people here — and how much we commit to these people overseas?

Ambassador HALL: Well, hunger here is important. We’ve got about 37 million people that go to bed maybe two or three days out of every month without food. So, it is important. And we commit about $60 billion dollars domestically to those kind of programs — school lunch programs, nutrition programs, food stamps, etc. Overseas, we commit about five billion dollars worth of money and food. And that’s to really address this problem of 850-950 million people. So, about five percent of our resources that we allocate towards poor people goes overseas.

LAWTON: And you think we should do better?

Ambassador HALL: We can do much better. I think most people in the country believe that it’s about 50/50 — 50 percent stays here, 50 percent goes overseas. But, it really is about five percent. And we can much better.

LAWTON: And for you, what’s the primary ethical issue at stake here?

Ambassador HALL: I think the ethical issue is as a country and as an individual, are we “our brother’s keeper?” And, I think the answer is, “Yes.” I think that — you know, I’m a person of faith — I like to think that. And, there’s over 2,500 verses in the Bible that deal with the issue of helping the poor, the sick, the hungry. And, I think the way God set it up is that he set it up that we are to address this issue. And that he works through us. His “Plan B” — well, I don’t know what “Plan B” is. “Plan A” is the way he set it up. And that’s the way I want to go and I think that’s the way we need to go as a country and as an individual.

LAWTON: Okay, Ambassador Tony Hall, thank you very much.

Ambassador HALL: Thank you.

LAWTON: We’ll continue this conversation online on our Web site at pbs.org.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: The number of Roman Catholics in religious orders around the world has continued to decline. According to the latest Vatican figures, in 2006, there were just over 945,000 monks and nuns around the world, down about 7,000 from the year before. In the U.S. the numbers have also been going down, and the average age, rising. But there are a few places where the reverse is true. Betty Rollin found a Dominican teaching order in Nashville filled with dedicated young nuns.

BETTY ROLLIN: They are the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee — a traditional order that began in 1860. Their day begins at 5 a.m. with meditation followed by a mass. Meals are held in silence; their vocation is to teach.

The sisters here have come from different states and different backgrounds, most of them raised Catholic, some not.

In 1965, there were about 180,000 nuns in America. By 2007, that number dropped to 63,000 with an average age of 70. The average age of the Dominican Sisters is 36. Their numbers have increased so steadily in the past 15 years that they have had to build a 100,000 square-foot addition to the property.

The sisters here — the first year postulants, the second year novices, and those, who after seven years have taken their final vows — all say they have been called by God and that they are in love.

Sister KATHERINE WILEY: When you’re a little girl, you’re planning your wedding, you’re playing bride. But just to allow the Lord to transform my heart to see that, I would still be a bride, but I would be His bride.

Sister CHRISTIANA MICKWEE, O.P.: When you have fallen in love with God, everything doesn’t seem quite so important anymore because God, the creator of the world has asked you to be his bride. No, I will not be having sex. No, I will not be having children. No, I will not be marrying a spouse. But my very body and blood is united to God in a way that isn’t offered to everyone in the world.

Sister AMELIA HUELLER: A woman wants to give herself so totally to one man, to hold nothing back, to be so intimate with him and to bring forth life with him. It took me awhile to understand–well, “understand” is the wrong word — but to see that God will fulfill all of that, that He was asking me in a total way to give myself totally to Him.

ROLLIN (to Sr. Hueller): How do you know that this God that you’ve given everything to is really there?

Sr. HUELLER: Because it’s whom I am in love with. And when you fall in love with someone, it has to be a someone. You can like something a lot. You can say, “I love this or that.” But when you are falling in love — and a woman knows when she is in love–it has to be a person.

ROLLIN: Sister Amelia Hueller was brought up in a non-religious home and converted to Catholicism.

Sr. HUELLER: I finished high school, I went to college in Washington, D.C., for four years and I came up against relativism: the idea that we can’t — people said that we couldn’t know what was good, what was bad, what was true. So I really began questioning where truth comes from? Where does goodness come from? I know I have values. Who gives them to me? And so between that moment and here, it was a process of, “This is scary, I don’t understand this. I don’t see why I would be called. How can I be called? I am so normal.”

ROLLIN: After seven years of study and contemplation, Sister Christiana Mickwee took her final vows last summer. She teaches fifth grade at a parochial elementary school.

Sr. MICKWEE: For me, it wasn’t so much a voice, per se, but through prayer — just in the silence, just letting Him be there and finding out, really asking Him, “What do you want from me God?” I mean I really had everything I could have wanted in the world and there wasn’t anything that I was trying to get away from.

ROLLIN: Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, who has been a Dominican nun for 23 years, helps direct the order’s educational program.

Sister CATHERINE MARIE HOPKINS, O.P.: Very rarely do people come and say, “I’ve always wanted to be a sister.” You know, I always found that very suspect. You know, usually, it was, “I was going through life very happily and suddenly this strange idea came and I tried really hard to eliminate it.” In my own life that was the case.

ROLLIN: This life is not for everyone who comes here. Who is most likely to remain?

Sr. HOPKINS: I would say those who are most comfortable with themselves — the young person who would have made a good wife and mother, who would have made a good career person. They’re not the loner. They’re not the introvert necessarily, although we have all personality types in the religious life.

ROLLIN: Colleen Carroll Campbell, who is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy.” Ms. Campbell found that the conservative orders, like the Nashville Dominicans, are the ones that are attracting young people.

COLLEEN CARROLL CAMPBELL (Author, “The New Faithful”): These are orders where the sisters still wear their full-length habits, where they still gather to pray seven times a day, where they still live what is really a very traditional religious life.

ROLLIN: The new nuns say they were hugely affected by Pope John Paul II, who reached out to young people in his world youth days and rallies, entreating them to remain faithful to the traditional teachings of the Church.

Ms. CAMPBELL: Young adults really saw in Pope John Paul II someone who was calling them to something the world never dared called them to — and that is sacrifice, self-denial, laying down their lives at the feet of Christ and asking Him, “What do you want me to do with my life?” And for a lot of these young women when they ask that question, following John Paul’s example, what they heard is that, “I want you to give up everything and follow me as a consecrated woman.”

The younger sisters we’re seeing tend to be very firmly in support of the Pope in terms of Catholic teaching, including on the non-ordination of women. So this is kind of an interesting reversal here and often it is referred to by some of the older Catholics as, you know, the “young fogies” because they’re in many ways more traditional than their elders. There’s an element of reaction there. After Vatican II, there were many good changes. There were a lot things that got tossed out prematurely: the devotional life-almost completely obliterated; liturgical music and the liturgy itself just became very entertainment oriented.

ROLLIN: Regimentation, rules, sacrifice — all part of convent life. But those who are here speak mainly of their joy.

Sister HUELLER: With sacrifice can come great joy. We know that sacrificing is not opposed to being happy. In fact, it can be our path to happiness. So sadness, no; sacrifice, yes.

Sr. MICKWEE: The joy I see in my sisters is far greater than the joy I see in many of the people that I grew up with.

ROLLIN: Colleen Carroll Campbell thinks that their initial passion may fade but that the joy these young women feel will sustain them and encourage others to a more religious life.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Betty Rollin in Nashville, Tennessee.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: In 2006, we first told the story of Scott Neeson, an Australian-born American citizen, who gave up a rich life as a Hollywood movie executive to go live in Cambodia. There, he helps poor children escape their lives as trash pickers. Recently, producer Trent Harris went back to Cambodia to see how Neeson and his kids are doing. Lucky Severson reports.

LUCKY SEVERSON: He takes this walk practically everyday, through the slum that surrounds the Steung Meanchey landfill outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Thousands live here amidst the filth and stench.

SCOTT NEESON (with little boy): He’s playing with his own syringe here. Oy, it’s not a good idea.

SEVERSON: They spend their days picking through the chemical waste and broken glass, searching for anything of value. Human scavengers — many are children. It’s where we first found Scott Neeson two years ago.

Mr. NEESON: When I first came here, I had nightmares. I had terrible dreams for a week or two afterwards. And I think some of the things I’ve seen out here are just horrendous.

SEVERSON: Neeson first came to Cambodia on a backpacking trip in 2003. What he saw changed the course of his very comfortable life. He was a Hollywood big shot: President of 20th Century Fox International.

Mr. NEESON: It was a really glamorous life. You know, I had the Porsche.

SEVERSON: And a big house?

Mr. NEESON: Yeah, a five bedroom home that was worth a few million dollars. I had the Porsche and a big old boat.

SEVERSON: You were a man of means?

Mr. NEESON: I was a man of means and luxuries. And yet, I sort of enjoyed it, but I wasn’t particularly happy.

SEVERSON: So he started the Cambodian Children’s Fund, the CCF, a live-in school where kids from the dump can learn reading and writing and about a world they never dreamed of. It’s a sparkling place with healthy food and clean, smiling faces. His goal in the beginning was to care for about 40 kids. When we saw him last in September 2005, the number had grown to 118.

Back home, colleagues like Mitch Yankowitz we’re still waiting for him to come to his senses.

MITCH YANKOWITZ: I thought Scott would be back in Los Angeles in 12 months, kind of the stereotypical midlife crisis for a highly stressed senior executive, but Scott really proved me wrong.

Mr. NEESON (by coconut tree): I no longer have a 401k, but I have all the coconuts I can drink and eat. It’s a tradeoff.

(speaking to girl): Hello!

SEVERSON: Two years later, the former highly stressed senior executive still takes his daily strolls through the tin shanties, but now he’s rarely alone. He’s become a pied piper — a symbol of hope in a heap of despair.

Mr. NEESON (speaking to boy): We’re going to buy you some pants one day. Just for the hell of it we’re going to buy you some pants.

SEVERSON: They’re like his extended family. He seems to know every little kid and every mom and dad. And by now, they know him.

UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOL GIRL #1: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOL GIRL #2: How do you do?

SEVERSON: Today, the CCF cares for and schools over 300 children — almost 10 times his original goal and it may be the best education Cambodia has to offer. Imagine, coming from this — to this. The school uniforms were contributed by an Italian designer.

Mr. NEESON (to girl): Hey you. Her older sister is at our vocational center right now studying to be a hairdresser and she wants to come and join — don’t you?

SEVERSON: Neeson rose to the top ranks of Hollywood, even though he never even graduated from high school. Maybe that’s why he is so obsessed with education. It drives him crazy when he can’t accommodate all the kids who just want to learn.

Mr. NEESON: I haven’t come up with a good answer for that yet. It’s so sad. We’re just at capacity. Boys like this — all he wants to do is study. That’s all he wants to do.

SEVERSON: Joseph Mussomeli is the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia.

JOSEPH MUSSOMELI (U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia.): I think he’s inspired a lot of people here. Even some jaded Westerners who have become cynical about everything — when they see what Scott has done in really just less than three years, they’re always just amazed.

SEVERSON: What he has done is quite remarkable. And it reaches beyond the second new school, and the third and the fourth. Neeson wants to lift the entire community out of the rubble.

Mr. NEESON: Now, the kids here are learning how to bake bread. In fact, most of them bake bread easily — they’re doing croissants and the more difficult things. That’s a fabulous sign, the “CCF’s Star Bakery Phnom Penh,” and this is our fabulous “baker girls.”

SEVERSON: The baker girls are attending the new vocational school. They bake as many as 175 loaves of nutrient-enhanced bread each day, much of which goes to the families at the dump.

Mr. NEESON: I love this place. Right here is the makeup class. The girls are being trained for hair dressing and makeup. That’s they’re chosen profession.

SEVERSON: And then there are the sewing classes where kids make bags out of garbage.

Mr. NEESON: So that’s the bags themselves. This is an old fish food sack. The women and men that work here, four or five hours a day, working with the bags and three hours a day learning reading, writing, English and computer.

SEVERSON: These teenagers are also learning design. Neeson wants them to create their own clothing lines. Eight of his vocational graduates have found good paying, full-time jobs, including this young lady working in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant.

Mr. NEESON: And, she’s been here quite a few months saving her money. And last month, she bought the family their house and the land they’re on.

SEVERSON: Marie Cammal has worked with homeless children in Cambodia for many years. She says what Neeson is doing will make a difference.

MARIE CAMMAL: Because when you change the life of one child of Cambodia, in Cambodia, that means you save at least two or three generations ahead. You give education to one boy or one girl — that means this boy and this girl will have a better job and will feed 15 people in their family, within their family. Yes, but we need a lot of guys like him.

SEVERSON: What drives Neeson is the deep satisfaction he gets when he sees the transformation in these kids’ lives.

Ambassador MUSSOMELI: It’s like this is the big romance of his life. He came here unexpectedly fell in love with the country and the people and it has given him a reason to live.

SEVERSON: This is CCF’s new community center. Neeson like to call it the “Steung Meanchey Country Club,” because it’s an exclusive club. Only families from in and around the dump can be members.

Mr. NEESON: It provides a sense of community to become a member and to be able to meet you neighbors probably for the first time. You can sit around, you can talk, watch movies — because currently there’s no sense of community. People sit under their houses, they’re drinking alcohol, and there’s a terrible, terrible level of domestic abuse.

SEVERSON: He hopes the Center will give the families a sense of community pride, and for those who break club standards, a sense of community shame.

Mr. NEESON: On the other side, of course, is if there’s bad behavior in terms of domestic violence, then we can rescind club membership.

SEVERSON: Actually the community center offers perks some country clubs don’t — a day care center for example. The reason most toddlers are wandering through glass and chemical waste is because mom is working at the dump and dad, if he’s around, is often drunk.

Mr. NEESON (to boy): Oy, be careful there, be careful. Oh man, this kids got some serious parasites going oh, huh. What do you do the kid, you know got these drunken guys here and you don’t want to hand the baby back. She needs to go to a doctor.

SEVERSON: What pleases him most is his HMO plan — free health care for all the families living and working at Steung Meanchey, one of the best health care plans in the country. He arranged it through an American charity called “Hope Worldwide.” The medical center treats everything from cuts and bruises to diseases that would often be fatal.

Ambassador MUSSOMELI: I mean, on a very grass roots level, Scott is doing more for this country. He’s changed the lives of several hundred children and probably several thousand families. When people see him they have to think good thoughts about America.

SEVERSON: Except for his fund-raising efforts in America, Neeson is focused on only one thing — giving these kids a chance And he says as long the contributions keep coming, he won’t rest until he does.

Mr. NEESON: I don’t know how you rest actually. There’s nothing worse than awareness, unfortunately. Nothing worse than having your eyes open.

SEVERSON: While producer Trent Harris was with Neeson at the site, he spotted a little girl who could not find a smile.

Mr. NEESON (to Thet): Come on honey, come on, it’s time to go home.

SEVERSON: Her name is Thet. At first, she was bewildered and scared, overwhelmed by all the food. This is her most recent picture. It’s why Scott Neeson left Hollywood.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson reporting.

# # #

KIM LAWTON: That’s our program for now. I’m Kim Lawton.

There’s much more on our Web site, including my extended interview with Ambassador Tony Hall. And there’s more about religion and politics on our “One Nation” page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user’s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon WNET-TV’s copyright or proprietary interests in the material.

Listen to this episode now:
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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1138

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up — the Texas child custody battle — the Court of Appeals says state officials were wrong to take into custody more than 460 children in a polygamist sect. What comes next?

And Tom Monaghan, the Domino’s Pizza billionaire who has now founded a new Catholic university. He calls it a saint factory.

TOM MONAGHAN (Chancellor, Ave Maria University): I can’t think of anything more important that I can do with my resources.

ABERNETHY: Plus, a priest who blesses motorcycles at a special Mass for bikers. And he’s got his own Harley.

Father MARK GIORDANI (Rector, St. John the Baptist Cathedral): Just exhilarating, the sense of freedom, the sense of enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy. It’s good to have you with us. Charitable organizations in the U.S. are reporting a phenomenon they call “donor fatigue.” Experts say the global food crisis and natural disasters in Asia have overwhelmed potential donors. So far, Americans have given far less to relief efforts to help survivors of the Myanmar cyclone and the Chinese earthquake than they’ve given after previous overseas calamities. Philanthropic organizations say the weak economy may be discouraging giving, but they also say the drop in contributions fits a pattern of what happens when Americans are faced simultaneously with more than one far-away tragedy.

Meanwhile, aid groups say the needs remain urgent. In Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, there are two-and-a-half million survivors who need help. But aid workers may soon have more access to them after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with leaders of the military dictatorship and said the government has pledged to allow all aid workers into the country.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In China, a three-day mourning period for the victims of the earthquake. More than 80,000 people are dead or missing, and international relief workers have joined a massive Chinese government and volunteer effort to help the millions left homeless.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Iraq, the U.S. military apologized for the actions of a soldier who used a Qu’ran for target practice. Officials asked tribal leaders for forgiveness. Iraqis found the Qu’ran riddled with bullets and with graffiti scrawled on its pages. The military said the soldier, who also apologized, has been disciplined and removed from duty in Iraq.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In London, the British Parliament agreed to allow researchers to use hybrid embryos, embryos that combine animal eggs and human DNA. The vote came after a lengthy public debate over the research that supporters say may lead to medical breakthroughs. The Catholic Church has been one of the staunchest opponents. Church officials called it a, quote, “monstrous attack on human rights.” In the U.S., the creation of hybrid embryos is allowed but cannot receive public funding.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Texas, the Court of Appeals this week said state officials were wrong, did not have enough evidence to justify removing more than 400 children from the compound of a polygamous Mormon sect. The state had done this last month and dispersed the children to foster homes. Some of the mothers then sued to get their children back.

Wade Goodwyn has been covering the story for National Public Radio and he joins us now from Dallas. Wade welcome. Why did the Texas judge think officials had to take all the children away from their parents?

WADE GOODWYN (Correspondent, National Public Radio): Well, because the state brought forward evidence that it claimed that they had numerous, underage pregnant teens or underage teens who had already given birth a few multiple times. And they said that they believe there was widespread sexual abuse in this — at this ranch. And the judge agreed and seized all the children.

ABERNETHY: And then what did the Court of Appeals say?

Mr. GOODWYN: The Court of Appeals said, “Not so fast, Judge Barbara Walther.” The Court of Appeals did not believe that the state had proven that each individual child was in immediate danger of physical abuse. And the Court of Appeals said unless the state can prove that, the children have got to go back to the mothers.

ABERNETHY: And so are they going back now? Will they go back now?

Mr. GOODWYN: Maybe. The Texas Child Protective Services is going to appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. They have evidence of underage, pregnant teens. I think they’re going to want to try that evidence in a different court. And while that happens, I think the children will stay with the state.

ABERNETHY: Do the authorities know in all cases which children belong to which parents?

Mr. GOODWYN: I think mostly they do. It has been difficult for the state to find out who belongs to whom. There’s been resistance by the mothers and fathers and children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And, the state has done DNA testing, the court has done DNA testing and that will come back in about two to three weeks. But by at that time, it may be a mute point if all the children are back with their parents by then.

ABERNETHY: Now Wade, polygamy is against the law. Why doesn’t the state just shut the whole place down?

Mr. GOODWYN: Well, it is against the law. It’s a felony in Texas. But it seems that state officials in Utah, Arizona, and now in Texas, are reluctant to prosecute for polygamy. Sexual abuse of an underage teen is another issue. But, there seems to be a general feeling of “live and let live” among consenting adults because if the state wanted, I think, they probably could bring charges. Those are just charges that are hard to prove in court when no one wants to testify.

ABERNETHY: What have you been hearing around from people you talk to in the community? What do they say and think about what’s going on?

Mr. GOODWYN: Well, you hear everything. People are on all sides of this issue. It does not break down neatly into political lines. Conservatives feel both ways about it; liberals feel both ways about it. I think men in general tend to side more with the state being — seeing it that the state has been too aggressive. Women tend to be more concerned about the child’s sexual abuse. But, even inside of that, it doesn’t break down into neat groups anyway.

ABERNETHY: Wade Goodwyn of NPR news, many thanks.

Mr. GOODWYN: My pleasure.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: We have a story today from southwest Florida about a new town and a new university, both named Ave Maria and both founded by Tom Monaghan, a rich man who says his mission in life now is to help turn out men and women who will be faithful and effective Catholics. Monaghan also founded Domino’s Pizza, but he says his “saint factory,” as he calls the university, is more important than selling pizzas and making money. Phil Jones reports.

PHIL JONES: What was once tomato growing farmland in southwest Florida has grown into something dramatically different. A 100 foot-tall, $24 million-dollar house of worship has risen — the centerpiece for a new town with a population goal of 25,000 and a new university, Ave Maria, the dream of a very rich man, Tom Monaghan, who wants to produce more than diplomas.

TOM MONAGHAN (Chancellor, Ave Maria University): We don’t want to be a diploma factory. We want to be a saint factory.

JONES: Monaghan’s “saint factory” offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, including a doctoral program in theology. Its goal: to create the next generation of Catholic leaders. Enrollment now is fewer than 500. He wants 5,000 in 20 years.

Who is Tom Monaghan? Well, he’s as close to being a self-made man as any mortal can be. His father was a truck driver who died before Monaghan was five. Monaghan ended up in a series of foster homes and an orphanage. He dreamed of becoming a priest one day, or a ballplayer or an architect. Instead, he ended up selling pizzas and became a billionaire.

Mr. MONAGHAN: In the orphanage, I kept saying to myself, “Why’d my daddy have to die? Why’d my daddy have to die?”

JONES: For a poor boy who lived on a farm and went to school with manure on his shoes, life would get better — much better. Monaghan turned one pizza shop in Michigan into the nationwide Domino’s brand with 5,000 stores. He says he took pride in having his own jet, helicopter, luxury cars and big house. Then one day, he saw through his pride.

Mr. MONAGHAN: Pride is a source of all sins. And I figured I must be the biggest sinner in the world because I certainly got a lot of pride and a lot of ego.

JONES: Monaghan is no longer on anyone’s list of richest men. In the past decade, he says he’s committed at least $400 million dollars to Catholic higher education. Monaghan gives his own money and raises more, claiming to have more than 40,000 donors. And at fundraisers he talks about his “big” vision.

Mr. MONAGHAN (speaking at fundraiser): So fasten your seat belts. I don’t want anybody to get whiplash here. So, we’re going to go fast forward to 2077. We’ll probably have over 2,500 priests — and not just ordinary priests — good priests. A lot of those priests are going to become bishops. We’re going to have about 2,000 sisters that come out of Ave Maria. And how about this one — 45,000 great Catholic marriages!

JONES: There are three masses a day on campus — five on Sundays. Underage drinking is forbidden. So is premarital sex. Students live in single sex dormitories.

BILL WATERS (Freshman, Ave Maria University): Everyone thinks, “Oh it’s Ave Maria — you know it’s real closed. It’s like a bubble. You know, we don’t do anything. Everybody’s all home schooled; there’s normal people here.

LINA WILLIAMS (Sophomore, Ave Maria University): We have the foundation in faith here that I very much find important for me in my life. It’s good to come here and find the real truth, get grounded in that, and then go out and see what the world has to say.

JONES: But what about academic freedom — research, learning, teaching, free inquiry — no matter where it leads? Ave Maria’s mission statement says it is to be “an institution of Catholic higher education that will be faithful to the Magisterium” — the Magisterium being the teaching authority of the Church: the bishops and ultimately the Pope. But it’s not clear who has final authority over what is taught: the faculty, the local bishop or Tom Monaghan?

Mr. MONAGHAN: The Bishop has the final say on things to do with the liturgy and with the theology that’s taught here, and the spiritual leadership of our students, of our faculty and of our staff. He doesn’t have responsibility for the academics.

JONES: It remains to be seen just what academic freedom will mean at Ave Maria. The relationship between the university and the local bishop has been an uneasy one. For months, mass could not be said in this house of worship because Bishop Frank Dewayne had not consecrated it as a church. He finally came this spring, dedicating it as a “quasi-parish” where the sacraments can be performed, but not as a full “parish” with a pastor.

Bishop FRANK DEWAYNE (speaking at press conference): There were, I think, surprises along the way for the officials of the university when I said, “You know, the Church has to do it this way.”

JONES (during press conference): Who has the authority over this church right now? Does the church? Mr. Monaghan.? I mean, who is in charge?

Mr. MONAGHAN: (points to bishop and smiles)

JONES: In the town of Ave Maria, there are Catholic schools for kindergarten through high school. Non-Catholic public schools are coming. Some stores are open, but the sluggish economy has caused delays. Although there’s not a pharmacy yet, there had been controversy when Monaghan said the town drug store would not be allowed to sell contraceptives. He’s now backed away from that.

Mr. MONAGHAN: I never saw this is an exclusively Catholic town. I wanted, to the extent I could, make it family oriented — no massage parlors, no adult bookstores, pornography or things like that, that would be in my mind anti-family.

JONES: The housing bust has slowed residential development; only a few hundred homes have been built. The town’s private developer insists it will be independent of both the Church and Tom Monaghan.

BLAKE GABLE (Vice President, Barron Collier Company): The community will be whatever the residents and the people who live here determine that they want for their community. I mean that’s not something — I can’t impose my views on 25,000 people.

JONES: Jeanne Rush, who has opened a women’s fashion boutique, says she’s not been told what she can or can’t sell.

JEANNE RUSH (Boutique Owner): I have short shorts. I have tank tops. I have sheer tops. We’re all happy people enjoying the fruits of what Tom Monaghan inspired us to do in our lives.

JONES: Monaghan plans to move the Ave Maria Law School, now in Michigan, to the Florida campus. But some faculty members have taken Monaghan to court, alleging he reneged on a promise never to relocate.

The University is awaiting accreditation. And the bishop has yet to declare it a Catholic university. Observers say Ave Maria’s biggest challenge will come when Monaghan, who is 71, passes on, or runs out of, money.

RICHARD YANIKOSKI (Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities): At that point, the question will be is it attracting enough students? Is it financially capable of succession once Tom Monaghan passes from the scene? Is it going to be able to attract the quality of faculty over the long term? And, in his particular model, will the surrounding community that he has developed retain the character that it has at the time that it’s first inhabited?

JONES: A recent survey of U.S. Catholics found that no more than 12 percent support so-called “hard core, traditional, conservative” Catholicism. But that’s still a lot of Catholics and many of them, like Tom Monaghan, are committed.

Mr. MONAGHAN: I can’t think of anything more important that I could do with my resources, with the experience that God gave me and the 38 years of fairly intensive business experience — to use it for something that’s a lot more important than selling pizzas or making money.

JONES: Monaghan says that for him, the most important thing in life has always been to be a good Catholic.

Mr. MONAGHAN: I don’t want any legacy. I don’t even think about that. I just want to get a small air-conditioning unit when I get into purgatory, if I get there.

JONES: Monaghan describes his personal story as rags to riches to rags. The question yet to be answered: “Will Ave Maria eventually turn out to be the Promised Land he dreams of?”

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Phil Jones, Ave Maria, Florida.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The Internal Revenue Service has concluded that the United Church of Christ did not violate U.S. tax laws when Barack Obama addressed the denomination’s 50th anniversary gathering last June. After an investigation, the IRS said Obama’s speech was not political campaigning that would jeopardize the denomination’s tax-exempt status.

The IRS also said a California Southern Baptist pastor’s endorsement of former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was personal and did not endanger his church’s nonprofit status.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Meanwhile, Obama was back in a religious setting this week. He visited a synagogue in Boca Raton, Florida, where he tried to address Jewish concerns about his foreign policy positions, especially regarding Israel.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Also this week, John McCain rejected the endorsement of two religious leaders. Texas megachurch Pastor John Hagee had already apologized for statements he had made about Catholics, then audio surfaced of him suggesting that the Holocaust was part of God’s will to help the Jews establish the state of Israel. Hagee said those statements were misconstrued.

McCain also rejected the endorsement of Ohio Pastor Rod Parsley for comments he made about Islam.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The worldwide Anglican Communion has been on the brink of schism for years over issues surrounding homosexuality, and U.S. Episcopal leaders this week admitted an important meeting this summer will likely not offer any official solutions to the crisis. In a break with the past the Lambeth Conference, a once-every-decade gathering of global bishops will not hold any votes or issue any resolutions on controversial issues. Instead, U.S. leaders said the meeting will feature small group discussions.

Bishop KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI (Episcopal Presiding Bishop): It’s a global conversation. It’s not going to legislate. It’s not going to make final decisions about anything.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: This Memorial Day weekend, as happens each year, half a million motorcycle riders are expected in Washington, D.C., from all over the country. They call the event “Rolling Thunder.” The bikers will parade in honor of Americans who have died in war, or are missing or have been prisoners of war.

Earlier this month, in preparation for the riding season, several thousand bikers descended on Paterson, New Jersey, to have their bikes blessed by a Catholic priest who is also a biker and who ministers to all those who ride. Lucky Severson was there too.

LUCKY SEVERSON: They come to downtown Paterson, New Jersey, year after year the first Sunday of May, to this special motorcycle Mass to get their bikes blessed. It’s a diverse bunch, from all walks of life, some rough and tough — some you might not expect. Gloria Tramontin Struck, for instance, 83 years old, is the longest serving member of the “Motor Maids” women riders.

GLORIA TRAMONTIN: They think everybody is a Hell’s Angel. I’m a great grandmother. I go to church every Sunday.

SEVERSON: This year, as many as 2,000 bikers from all over the Northeast showed up, and like Johnny M. and Johnny B., they take the blessing very seriously.

(speaking to both men): Getting your bike blessed, is that important?

JOHNNY M: Very important.

JOHNNY B: Absolutely.

SEVERSON: Why?

JOHNNY B: Well, you’ve got to have God on your side, you know.

SEVERSON: The Mass is conducted by the man who started this tradition 39 years ago when Richard Nixon was president. That’s him, Father Mark Giordani, gliding in on his Harley Davidson Road King. As far as they’re concerned, he’s one of them but with much better connections.

Father MARK GIORDANI (Rector, St. John the Baptist Cathedral, praying at altar): Heavenly Father we ask you to bless us as we kick off the riding season. Father, be with us as we experience the thrill of the open road and the marvel of the motorcycle.

SEVERSON: Many who attend Father Mark’s bike blessing don’t attend church regularly or at all.

Fr. GIORDANI: But you know, they read the Bible. They say their own prayers. And they offer prayers for those who are sick, so there is a special connection with God in their own unique way. I mean, what does God really want from us? A loving, humble heart — so uncomplicated.

SEVERSON: The altar is on a flatbed truck parked between the Paterson County Jail and the St. John the Baptist Cathedral where Father Giordani is now the rector. He’s from Italy and when he first came here, he graduated from a Vespa motor scooter to his beloved Harley.

Fr. GIORDANI: It’s just exhilarating — the sense of freedom, the sense of enjoying the beauty of God’s creation. And it’s just a powerful and magnificent gift for me.

SEVERSON: For the bikers, Father Mark’s gift is the blessing he gives. David Bov� is a believer.

DAVID BOVÉ: I got blessed last year and a week later I had another motorcycle that I didn’t have blessed and I crashed. Tomorrow is going to be my first day back to work after a year after getting run over.

SEVERSON: After the Mass and Communion, Father Mark gets down to the business of blessing humble bikes as well as those that make a lot of noise. Eighty-one-year-old Frank Brown, Sr. is not a Catholic but it doesn’t matter.

FRANK BROWN, SR.: I go to all churches, you know. And when the holy water’s hitting me, it’s alright with me too. In fact, I move in a little closer so I can get a dash.

Fr. GIORDANI: Sometimes they ask for a double blessing. I say, “Well, you’ve been blessed already.” And they want more holy water.

SEVERSON (to Fr. Giordani): I thought you were pretty liberal with that holy water today.

When he first arrived in Paterson, he asked to be assigned to the poorest parish. Today his congregation has grown to 3,000, the majority Hispanic. He’s also the chaplain of the county prison, the Paterson police and sheriff’s office. And 10 days before 9-11, he became the chaplain to the New York/New Jersey Port Authority. And then there’s his motorcycle mission, which reaches people who sometimes feel unwelcome at church.

Mr. BOVÉ: We’re ostracized just for our hobby, our mode of transportation. And it’s nice to be in a group of people that kind of look like me. We all have the same mindset.

SEVERSON: Like Bruce Hazelman riding for 40 years.

BRUCE HAZELMAN: Bikers aren’t bad people. They’re just normal people that have a hobby and want to ride their motorcycle.

SEVERSON: Nobody loves to ride more than the biker priest. And it’s pretty clear that his “hog” belongs to an unusual rider.

(to Fr. Giordani): So, you’ve got the whole story of Christ on the fender of your Harley Davidson?

Fr. GIORDANI: Basically, that’s right. We have the Nativity. We have the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, and, of course, the Holy Spirit on the tank which branches out to the saddle bags.

SEVERSON: Is this what Jesus would drive?

Fr. GIORDANI: I think if he were physically present here on earth today, definitely this would be his choice.

SEVERSON: Hard to imagine this machine would be an evangelical tool, but he says it has an impressive record, like the time he came across another biker in Nova Scotia who asked if he could confess.

Fr. GIORDANI: And then he ended up saying, “It was the most beautiful day of my life. I never felt such freedom, such peace in my heart. Why did I carry this garbage all these years? Why didn’t I make a connection with God before?”

SEVERSON: Father Giordani says he has been blessed by his association with bikers: the time, for example, 10 years ago when he was diagnosed with a rare tongue cancer. One biker set up an altar in his garage to pray for Father Mark’s healing.

Fr. GIORDANI: “God,” he says, “You know I don’t know why Father Mark is sick. He works for you. I could see me being sick, but you know, I know so much about you from Father Mark. And I’ve taught others about you through him. I’ve never asked a favor from you in the past –never. And I promise you, I will never ask a favor from you in the future. Oh God, I only want to ask you one thing: that you heal him; that you make him well because if you don’t do it, you are history.”

SEVERSON: And the rest is history. Father Mark’s cancer has been in remission for several years. And God willing, he will be back for another blessing next year. So will the bikers.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Paterson, New Jersey.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: That’s our program for now. I’m Bob Abernethy. There’s much more on our Web site, including more about religion in politics on our “One Nation” page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

As we leave you this Memorial Day weekend, scenes from Arlington National Cemetery where soldiers placed flags at more than 260,000 graves.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user’s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon WNET-TV’s copyright or proprietary interests in the material.

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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1137

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Moderate Muslim televangelists in the Middle East preaching a combination of piety and modern life.

Unidentified Man (working in lab): Just go ahead and stick it. . .

ABERNETHY: Also, should police be able to use the DNA of an innocent relative to lead them to a criminal.

MITCH MORRISSEY (District Attorney, Denver): There will be some people that will be talked to that may have nothing to do with this is not unusual when you look at police work.

Professor JEFFREY ROSEN (George Washington University Law School): They would hold people accountable not for wrong doing, but for wrong being.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy. It’s good to have you with us.

A growing call by humanitarian groups for the United Nations to take more action in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where the isolationist military dictatorship continues to block most international aid. Caritas International and other aid groups say they have been able to reach some victims, but other reports suggest the military is confiscating donated food. The death toll is climbing beyond 100,000 and the Red Cross said as many as two-and-a-half million are in urgent need of food, water, and shelter. Friday, health officials warned of widespread disease outbreaks and said lack of clean water would be the, quote, “biggest killer” in coming days.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In China, the government and international aid agencies are asking for supplies to help rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there last Monday. Tens of thousands were killed and millions left homeless. It’s estimated that 10 million people were directly affected. The Dalai Lama and Pope Benedict offered public prayers. Samaritan’s Purse, Church World Service, and World Vision were among the groups urging donations.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Israel, a week of festivities, protest, and violence. The country continued celebrating its 60th anniversary and hosted dignitaries, including President Bush. Bush offered his support for the Jewish state and encouraged leaders to work harder for peace for the Palestinians. Bush also toured Masada, the historic site where Jews killed themselves to avoid capture by the Romans in 70 AD.

In the West Bank, Palestinians marked the anniversary with protests. They call the founding of Israel the “catastrophe” and point to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948.

Also during Bush’s visit, a rocket fired from Gaza hit a crowded shopping center in southern Israel, wounding dozens.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: It’s common to hear and read stories about Islamic fundamentalists and their rigid interpretation of the Qu’ran. But we have a story today about transformation in the Islamic Middle East — moderate Muslims challenging the fundamentalists. The contest is being played out on satellite TV channels where young Muslim televangelists are preaching a combination of piety and modern life. Kate Seelye has our special report from Cairo.

KATE SEELYE: At a cultural center in Cairo, there’s a buzz of excitement. Thousands of youth have gathered — but not for a concert or a play. They’ve come to hear a lecture by a young Muslim preacher.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Moez Masoud.

SEELYE: He’s 29-year-old Moez Masoud, a former advertising executive who turned to religion the death of several close friends. Masoud opens his lecture with a prayer and an appeal.

MOEZ MASOUD (Muslim Televangelist, speaking to audience, through translator): It’s not good to separate religion from life because life will turn into a jungle. Let’s take a closer look at religion and it won’t seem as so gloomy.

SEELYE: The audience is captivated by his message: it’s a call for compassion and love as well as tolerance.

Mr. MASOUD (speaking in Arabic to audience, through translator): Islam respects the principle of freedom of opinion, as long as the opinion is respectful of Islam.

SEELYE: Often referencing the Qu’ran, Masoud jumps from topic to topic. One moment he’s gently poking fun of religious fanatics, the next he’s talking about the beauty of art. Tonight he focuses on music. Is it allowed in the Qu’ran?

Mr. MASOUD (speaking in Arabic to audience, through translator): Is it really mentioned you shouldn’t play certain instruments? Or does it depend on the religious interpretation? There is a belief that certain instruments might be used for a good cause.

SEELYE: And then the highlight of the night: a musician comes on stage and sings about the beauty of marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICIAN (singing in Arabic)

SEELYE: The audience loves it. Afterwards, many say Masoud’s message gives them hope.

MOHAMMED (through translator): I used to have some extremist ideas about faith, but when I heard Moez, so many things changed in my life. In my view so many things were wrong, wrong, wrong until I met him.

SEELYE: Masoud’s ideas are breath of fresh air for many young Arabs. In stark contrast to Islamist fundamentalists, he tells them they can be good Muslims and also enjoy life.

Mr. MASOUD: A lot of the Islamic faith is presented to them as only religious — meaning only outward things. It’s presented as a bunch of do’s and don’ts. And you know, with just globalization and a lot of the quote on quote, “Western culture” finding its way here, if Islam is not presented in its most expansive interpretation and really to just used, you know, every day in the coolest way possible, then there is no way people are going to approach it.

SEELYE: But Masoud doesn’t just encourage youth to believe, he also urges them to be active.

Mr. MASOUD: You’re also here to develop Earth and to make sure there’s charity and to make sure that everyone is eating and to make sure that there’s hospitals, and to just play God’s role on Earth.

SEELYE: Masoud began preaching about eight years ago after graduating from the American University of Cairo. In 2002, he landed his first TV show, but it was this program that introduced him to millions. “The Right Path” launched in 2007 on a popular religious satellite channel. Every week, Masoud travels the world, discussing issues like drugs and dating. He tries to help Muslim youth better understand the West. In one episode, he condemned the 2005 London bombings.

Mr. MASOUD (on “The Right Path,” speaking Arabic, through translator): The Qu’ran says the one who kills or spreads corruption, kills all humanity.

SEELYE: Masoud isn’t alone in calling for greater tolerance and reform. He’s one of a new wave of moderate Muslim preachers. Their goal: to mobilize Arabs and improve their societies. The most famous of them is Amr Khaled. Khaled started as an accountant but rose to fame about seven years ago with a TV show that encouraged piety and community activism. Khaled is now so popular in the Muslim world that his Web site gets more hits than Oprah Winfrey’s.

Abdullah Shleifer teaches media at the American University of Cairo. He says many young Muslims, like those at this university, don’t relate to traditional religious scholars. They’re turning to what Shleifer calls the “New Preachers” like Masoud and Khaled for guidance.

Professor ABDULLAH SHLEIFER (American University of Cairo): The new preachers share with their audience modernity. They have clarified, no doubt, their own inner discourse on how you can be moderates and pious. And by modern I don’t mean, you know, using appliances. I mean a modern lifestyle that at the same time is a pious lifestyle, you know. And that’s very difficult for people and particularly when you’re getting images coming in from MTV where modernity means anti-piety.

SEELYE: Shleifer says the new preachers are using a very modern tool to get their message across — satellite television. There are now more than 300 satellite channels in the Arab world. They reach tens of millions, and they’re allowing voices like Masoud’s and Khaled’s to target large numbers of people.

Amr Khaled’s latest show airs on this channel — Risala. It’s a new, 24-hour religious station run by Tarek Suweidan, a Kuwaiti cleric. It airs talk shows and religious call-in programs. Today Suweidan hosts a show called “Wasatiya”– “In the Middle.” Suweidan says Risala brings fresh voices and opinions to Arab audiences with a specific goal in mind.

Sheikh TAREK SUWEIDAN (Station Director, Risala): We want them to be more moderate. We want them to be more modern. The second thing that we would like to change is the interests. Many off our youth, their interest is marginal. They care about things that have no real effect in their lives, in the future, or the modernization of the Arab world.

SEELYE: Suweidan says Risala has the power to help transform the region.

Sheikh SUWEIDAN: Satellite TV is the most powerful weapon in the hands of the Islamic revival today.

SEELYE: And that revival is taking place against the backdrop of increased religious fervor here. In the past decade, mosque attendance has exploded. Most Muslim women have donned the headscarf. Some are even starting to wear the all enveloping niqab.

Widespread poverty, political stagnation, and loss of hope have all fed the boom in religion. In poor neighborhoods like these, fundamentalist imams are increasingly popular with their promises of a better afterlife. They are known as Salafis, and they’ve also benefited from the media revolution. The Salafis dominate the many religious channels in Egypt and preach a rigid morality as well as a paranoia about other faiths and cultures like this cleric, Mohammed Hassaan.

MOHAMMED HASSAN (on TV, speaking in Arabic, through translator): Recent events have been exploited by Jews and their supporters to stab Islam.

SEELYE: So in today’s Egypt who has the greatest impact — the fundamentalists or the new preachers? Khalil Anani is a scholar with the Al Ahram Institute and an expert on Islamist movements. He says the Salafis are very influential among the poor, but the new preachers also play an important role.

KHALIL ANANI (Al Ahram Institute): I think the main task off this new preacher phenomenon is to spread tolerance and the values of coexistence and to be civilized in your thinking. This is the most important benefit now to decrease the tension between the West and Islam.

SEELYE: But Anani doesn’t think the new preachers, like Moez Masoud, will have much lasting impact.

Mr. ANANI: They are a temporary phenomenon. They have no organizational or institutional bodies. They won’t be effective in the future of Egypt.

SEELYE: American University of Cairo professor Abdullah Shleifer strongly disagrees.

Prof. SHLEIFER: I don’t think Moez is a temporary phenomenon. I think his message so meets the growing concerns of this new young portion of the mainstream that is, is becoming the mainstream as they grow. He is in rapport actually, now with television, with millions and will be in rapport with still greater millions and this is not a passing fad. This is part of the transformation of Arab society.

SEELYE: Back in his Cairo apartment, Masoud relaxes with his guitar. He’s playing a song he wrote, “Coffee for the Heart.” It’s about spiritual rejuvenation.

Mr. MASOUD: So, what I’m doing right now is at least, you know, trying to put the light back into the attempts to religiously revive any thing because religion, when misunderstood, can take on a very dark form.

SEELYE: Masoud isn’t worried about the impact he’ll have. He’s pretty confident that with time more and more Muslims will discover what he calls “the right path.”

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Kate Seelye in Cairo.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In this country, a major decision on gay rights. The California supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. The 4-to-3 decision overturns a voter-approved ban on gay marriage and sets California on course to join Massachusetts in allowing full marriage rights for gay couples. Gay rights groups celebrated the decision, but religious and social conservative groups vowed to fight it by putting a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the California November ballot.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Washington, Congress passed a controversial farm bill by a veto-proof margin. The $300 billion five year plan extends generous subsidies to farmers and also increases money for food stamps, food banks, and emergency food aid; and the bill includes a pilot program to support farming in foreign countries in need. The Christian advocacy group Bread for the World praised the bill for the increases in aid, but said it doesn’t do enough to limit U.S. subsidies and change policies that stymie agricultural development abroad.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Texas, members of the polygamist sect that was raided by state authorities last month are battling with officials to reunite their families. Many of the parents are petitioning the court and lobbying local legislators to allow them more access to their children and to regain custody. Texas took more than 450 children after the raid and sent them to foster care facilities around the state. Siblings have been separated from each other and mothers separated from their children, except for about 20 mothers of infants who have been allowed to remain with their babies. The state argues that if the children are returned to their parents now, all of them are at risk of abuse.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: We have a report today on a conflict between solving crimes and protecting privacy. It’s called “familial searching.” Police can now take DNA from a crime scene and compare it to millions of DNA samples in a government database. If there is even a partial match, that could lead to the criminal by way of his or her family members if their DNA is in the database. And they could be completely innocent. Should that practice be legal? Lucky Severson reports.

Unidentified Man (working in lab): Stick it right back in there. Okay, and we’ll close it up right there. And this is the same thing, these are . . .

LUCKY SEVERSON: Three years ago, Pearl Wilson’s son Charles died in a Maryland prison while awaiting sentencing for rape. But for his mother, her son lives on.

PEARL WILSON: My son lives in me and I in him. And his blood is my blood and my blood was in him.

SEVERSON: Though Charles is dead his DNA still sits in a databank. By law DNA has to be gathered from all felons. Some states even take it from arrestees. The DNA profiles remain there indefinitely.

Ms. WILSON: I’m worried about them continuously holding my son’s DNA in that database.

SEVERSON: Attorney Stephen Mercer, who specializes in DNA issues, says Pearl Wilson has reason to be worried. He’s trying to get her son’s DNA expunged from the database because he’s concerned it might be used at some point for what is called familial searching, a new technology that has been used sparingly so far in the U.S. The most notable case was the so-called “BTK” serial killer, Dennis Rader. After 30 years and 10 murders, the BTK killer was finally caught after police obtained a DNA sample from his daughter that almost perfectly matched the DNA from her father’s crime scenes.

STEPHEN MERCER (Attorney): DNA between persons who are related is vastly more similar than DNA between persons who are unrelated. So when the government has the DNA of one family member, in effect, they have the DNA of that person’s siblings, children and parents.

SEVERSON: Here’s how it works. DNA from a crime scene is run against the nearly six million samples on file. If there’s a partial match, it likely means that a relative of someone in the database is guilty of a crime. This kind of testing could open up a whole new realm of possibilities for authorities. But critics warn that is could mark the beginning of dragnets, sweeping in people who are completely innocent and possibly violating their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Sonia Suter is a bioethics professor and she’s concerned that people will see only the benefits of familial testing and not the threat to personal privacy.

Professor SONIA SUTER (George Washington University Law School): There’s a lot of kinds of uses of this — of these samples that sound great. They look good on programs like “CSI” but they might involve probing too deeply into very personal information. Could the police decide they want to do broad scale research on these samples, and start investigating the samples for links to certain kinds of illnesses, or certain kinds of propensities for behavior?

SEVERSON: Professor Suter says familial testing without safeguards may be only the beginning of a very slippery slope.

Prof. SUTER: I think people might start to feel differently about this if they imagined all of the information that could potentially be obtained. And it will only get easier to do as we identify more genes. It will only be cheaper as the technology advances.

SEVERSON: Constitutional law professor Jeffrey Rosen says the use of familial testing could signal a dramatic challenge to American civil liberties.

Professor JEFFREY ROSEN (George Washington University Law School): There’s a very profound moral lesson. My mother taught it to me actually. She said, “You should be responsible not for what you think but what you do.” And yet that idea is really being challenged by an idea of genetic surveillance that would hold people accountable not for wrong doing, but for wrong being.

MITCH MORRISSEY (District Attorney, Denver): There is no privacy right that is being violated by doing familial searching.

SEVERSON: Mitch Morrissey, the District Attorney of Denver is a vocal advocate for familial searching. He says it’s just another tool to track down leads, the way police use partial license plates and fingerprints.

Mr. MORRISSEY: The idea that there will be some people that will be talked to that may have nothing to do with this is not unusual when you look at police work.

SEVERSON: Familial testing could help bring many more criminals to justice says medical geneticist Frederick Bieber, who works with law enforcement on DNA issues. He co-authored a study published in Science magazine.

Dr. FREDERICK BIEBER (Medical Geneticist): Based on simulations, our data suggest that it could increase the yield of investigative leads by 40 percent. So it could substantially increase the number of cases that can be resolved through added investigative leads. Why? Because of the sad reality is that crime or habits of crime are often found more commonly in family members than in unrelated individuals.

SEVERSON: Statistics indicate crime does run in families: 46 percent of inmates, in one recent survey, said they had a blood relative also in jail. One black man in nine between the ages of 20 and 34, according to a recent Pew estimate, is now behind bars. With databanks getting larger because of familial testing, critics like Stephen Mercer worry that police will be even more likely to target those areas and those minorities whose only guilt is living in the wrong place.

Mr. MERCER: For minority populations who are already disproportionately in the database, you’re approaching a scenario where nearly a majority of some populations — minority based populations — are going to find themselves under genetic surveillance by the government.

Mr. MORRISSEY: Many, many of these crimes are crimes against persons of color — people that live in the same neighborhoods. And I talk to those people and those people want these crimes solved.

TONY LAKE (Chief Constable, Lincolnshire Police, England): I do think that the plight of victims is much underplayed.

SEVERSON: Tony Lake is the chief constable of the Lincolnshire Police in England. The United Kingdom has used familial matching since 2002.

Mr. LAKE: It is perfectly reasonable and absolutely right, that the rights of suspects should be considered and, as we maintain, is paramount when they aren’t actually under investigation. But, so too do the victims have rights. So too do the family of victims have rights. So yes there are some very, very difficult issues which we’ve got to confront here. But frankly the bottom line is we believe it is a risk worth taking and it is a process well worth doing.

SEVERSON: Police in the UK have resolved murders and rapes and other cases by tracing the perpetrator through a relative’s genetic profile. One case involved a man who had been raping and terrorizing women for 20 years. Known as the “shoe rapist,” police finally discovered who he was when a DNA sample from one of the rapes was a close match to his sister, whose DNA profile was in the data base for a minor infraction.

Mr. LAKE: The way that we operate in the United Kingdom is that unless there is some other substantial evidence the use of DNA on its own will not be run by the Crown Prosecution Service, the equivalent of your state prosecutor. They simply will not entertain running on the basis of DNA evidence only.

SEVERSON: U.S. authorities say they will also require other supporting evidence. But opponents argue that the FBI has been known to overstep its bounds in other investigations. And even though agents may be held accountable for overzealous prosecution, by then the damage to someone’s reputation has been done.

Ms. WILSON: I have not been in trouble a day in my life. They could come to my family members and even me. It is violating rights of innocent people.

SEVERSON: Pearl no longer needs to worry about her son’s DNA coming back to haunt the family, because Maryland has become the first state to ban familial testing. But several other states, with California in the lead, intend to approve familial searching, and that appears to be the national trend.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Rockville, Maryland.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: On our calendar, Buddhists around the world mark their most important religious day of the year on Tuesday. Vesak commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death.

And on Friday. Bahai’s celebrate the Declaration of the Bab, the anniversary of the day in 1844 that one of the founders of the faith, a young Persian merchant, declared himself to be the messiah.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Finally, the Vatican’s chief astronomer says believing that aliens exist does not contradict a faith in God. Father Jose Funes told the Vatican newspaper that extraterrestrial life may exist, and if it does, the beings are God’s creatures. He said that humans should consider them, quote, “extraterrestrial brothers.”

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: That’s our program for now. I’m Bob Abernethy.

There’s much more on our Web site, including more about religion and politics on our “One Nation” page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user’s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon WNET-TV’s copyright or proprietary interests in the material.

Listen to this episode now:
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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1136

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up — the government wants to build a wall through this border town to keep out illegal immigrants. Residents complain it will split their Mexican and U.S. communities.

Mayor CHAD FOSTER (Eagle Pass): As if I were to put a wall up between my house and my brother’s house.

ABERNETHY: Also, the argument about how the U.S. should help the world’s hungry — with commodities or with cash?

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy. It’s good to have you with us.

Humanitarian groups from around the world are working to reach survivors of the deadly cyclone that last week devastated Myanmar, also known as Burma. Donations are pouring in from across the globe, but much of the aid can’t reach the survivors because Myanmar’s isolationist military dictators have been withholding visas from aid workers for fear of outside political influence. Food, clean water and temporary shelters are piling up in bordering countries. Humanitarian officials say the impasse is endangering the one million survivors in need of emergency help, among them many who were injured.

U.S. relief has so far been blocked. President Bush and other world leaders have called on the Myanmar government to loosen its restrictions. Aid workers who were already there say it’s been difficult to reach the worst-hit regions. They’re also warning of widespread starvation, because the cyclone and tidal wave whipped through Myanmar’s main rice-growing region.

ABERNETHY: David Beckmann of Bread for the World.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Myanmar’s crisis comes as many other countries are facing their own food shortages. Leaders of Asian countries meeting last week declared that one billion people in Asia are being affected by the worldwide spike in food costs. In Africa, in Somalia and elsewhere, new protests broke out over the prices.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: New political symbolism this week for the Olympic torch. A team carrying the flame scaled the summit of Mount Everest. There, a Tibetan woman held the torch and, with her Chinese teammates, shouted “Long live Tibet! Long live Beijing!” The torch relay will now traverse China until the summer Olympics begin in August. Several international legs of the tour were disrupted by protests against China’s crackdown on Buddhist Tibet.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Also this week, the Chinese sent a gesture of goodwill to the Vatican in the form of the China Philharmonic Orchestra performing for Pope Benedict. Many analysts say the concert is an effort at better relations between communist China and the Vatican.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Earlier at the Vatican, Pope Benedict met with Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who said the two discussed Christian relations with Islam at their closed-door session. Williams is a long-time supporter of interfaith dialogue, but Benedict has been criticized for causing tensions with the Islamic world. The Pope is scheduled to meet with Muslim scholars later this year.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Vatican officials have asked Catholic dioceses worldwide to stop sharing their church registries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. The Mormon Church has used Catholic parish records to trace the genealogies of its members, and sometimes to baptize the member’s relatives as Mormons after they’ve died. They believe the posthumous baptisms will allow family members to be reunited in heaven. Mormon officials have said that the baptisms are an offer of membership that anyone in the afterlife can reject.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Israel, countrywide celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state. Israelis marked Independence Day with picnics and barbecues. Official celebrations included elaborate military tributes. The events took place as peace negotiations with Palestinians have stalled. Security was tight to prevent terrorist attacks. Several world leaders, including President Bush, will gather in Israel next week for more celebrations.

A rarely-seen section of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be displayed for that occasion. The segment, from Psalm 133, reads: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: We have a story today about other people wrestling with the notion of brotherly dwelling. They’re Americans and Mexicans whose community is about to be bisected by the fence the government is building along the Rio Grande, and that fence has dramatized major questions about immigration policy.

Lucky Severson reports from Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedra Negras, Mexico, across the river.

LUCKY SEVERSON: He seems to know everyone here in Piedras Negras, Mexico even though Chad Foster is actually the mayor of the town across the border — Eagle Pass, Texas. He crosses the bridge connecting the two towns and two countries, sometimes several times a day.

Mayor CHAD FOSTER (Eagle Pass): Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras have grown up together, you know. I’ve got as many friends in Piedras if not more than I have in Eagle Pass. And we really are two countries but we’ve historically been one community.

SEVERSON: It’s the future that worries the mayor, especially if the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, is allowed to build a wall that would, in the mayor’s view, divide the two towns. DHS has filed dozens of suits against Texas individuals and communities, including Eagle Pass, to force them to give up land for the wall.

(to Mayor Foster): And this is where the wall would go?

Mayor FOSTER: Absolutely, this is the alignment.

SEVERSON: And what would the golf course become?

Mayor FOSTER: In essence, we’re ceding our golf course to Mexico. We’re fencing it out.

SEVERSON: The wall would cut through the Eagle Pass golf course and a city park, which may be the greenest piece of land in the whole county. It would also eliminate a planned development along the Rio Grande River.

It’s not only the idea of the government confiscating their land that troubles the people of Eagle Pass. It’s the wall itself. They’re afraid of what it will do and won’t do, and what it symbolizes.

Father JAMES LOIACONO (Pastor, Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church): Think of the Berlin Wall — what did that say about the government of East Germany?

SEVERSON: Father James Loiacono, pastor of Our Lady of Refuge, says every symbol speaks about the people who propose it.

Fr. LOIACONO: What are we saying about ourselves when we propose a wall? How can we put a wall between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras when we’re the same family?

Mayor FOSTER: It’s separating families. I guess that’s the best description. I mean, it’s as if I were to put a wall up between my house and my brother’s house.

SEVERSON: The mayor says 95 percent of the people of Eagle Pass oppose the wall, but there are some who favor it, like Charles “Dob” Cunningham.

CHARLES CUNNINGHAM (Resident, Eagle Pass): There’s someone, looks like on horseback, coming across. See, he’s up to no good. Oh, I’ve been robbed many, many times as anybody on the border has been robbed.

SEVERSON: Cunningham owns more than a mile of land along the Rio Grande. He retired after more than 40 years with the border patrol, most recently as director of the Eagle Pass Port of Entry. He says there has been a lull in the number of illegal crossings, thanks in part to air and ground patrols and the ever-present surveillance cameras.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM: You see, this tower has two cameras and the camera that should be looking at him is broke.

SEVERSON: Cunningham says when the cameras that overlap the border work, they help catch “illegals.” But the $65,000 cameras with night vision don’t always work. It’s one reason he favors a wall, or fence, along some parts of the Texas border, but says Congress and Homeland Security are mistaken if they think the wall will solve immigration problems.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, they’re stuck way up there in Washington and a lot of them don’t have a grasp of the actuality of what’s happening.

Mayor FOSTER: It’s not securing the border. It’s conveying a false sense of security to the interior citizens of the United States. In border patrol’s estimation, it’ll take two to four minutes to breach the border fence or border wall.

SEVERSON: Father James has offered a sanctuary to many undocumented aliens going or coming across the border. He says it’s his sacred duty as a Christian.

Fr. LOIACONO: Exodus 20:19, it says “You shall not molest or bother the resident alien in your land for you once were aliens in a strange land.” And all through the Old Testament and the New Testament this is an imperative — not just a suggestion — it’s an imperative.

SEVERSON: Albert Ellis got so upset with Father James for aiding illegal immigrants, he walked out of church.

ALBERT ELLIS: And one day I went into his office and I told him, I said, “You know you shouldn’t be helping these people.” I said, “If I help them I go to jail, you know.”

SEVERSON: Ellis is a former border patrol agent who favors a wall, but says it won’t stop illegal entry.

Mr. ELLIS: I think we could have spent some of that money for the walls on detentions camps, you know. Just be able to put them in jail awhile, maybe they’ll slow down some, you know.

SEVERSON: This is the House of Pilgrimage in Piedra Negras. It’s affiliated with the Catholic Church, and has offered sanctuary to about 35,000 illegal immigrants since it was founded in the early 1990s, according to the director, Magdalena Galan.

MAGDALENA GALAN (Director, House of Pilgrimage, Piedra Negras): I’ve seen them cry. I’ve seen people that they have to leave their families and they cry over that because they leave them with somebody else to take care of their children while they come to try to feed them over here in the United States — get money to feed them.

UNIDENTFIED IMMIGRANT (singing “Born in the USA,” as other immigrants clap): I was born in the USA. I was born in the USA.

SEVERSON: And most of these men here, are they from Mexico?

UNIDENTIFIED IMMIGRANTS (answering in Spanish)

SEVERSON: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.

Most of the men in this room came from south of Mexico. Some looked for jobs here before discovering that jobs and wages in Mexico were no better than in their own countries. Some have walked 20 days to get to Piedras Negras. They plan to sneak across the border into the U.S. in the coming days.

I don’t want to leave home. I wouldn’t want to leave my family and go to another country. They’re willing to risk a lot to do that. Why? Most men here had the same answer: when they can get a job in their country, they can earn about 50 cents and hour — not enough to feed a family.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM: It’s a terrible situation. We have personally given money to illegals who have come by our house. We’ve fed them. We’ve clothed them. We have a great empathy for them. We feel sorry for them. If I was in their shoes, I’d be here the next morning.

SEVERSON: Cunningham says the first thing that needs to happen is for Mexico to fix it’s economy so people won’t feel the need to leave the country.

Father James says he understands why many Americans are angry and frustrated, and that there will never be a completely fair and just solution. He says his views are guided by Scripture and tradition — that it is not only the moral duty of a father to care for his family, it’s a human right, and one Americans should recognize.

Fr. LOIACONO: A man who is starving to death and who’s family is starving to death and can’t find work, takes bread out of the supermarket. He didn’t steal. It’s necessary for life. And so out of charity and justice, we have to recognize that he is not a thief.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM: I’m well aware of these religious people and I think I’m a religious person. But the churches aren’t paying taxes and they’re not being affected by the vast movements of people and the drugs, and the sociopaths, and these criminals that come across.

Mayor FOSTER: I live within a quarter of a mile of the river. We’re not afraid. There’s never in the history of the world been a known terrorist to come out of Mexico. The only terrorist that we know of came out of Canada and they came across ports of entry. They did not come between the ports.

(driving in truck, watching border agent): He’s looking to see if he can find any footprints coming across this.

SEVERSON: The number of agents working along the border has increased dramatically. In Mayor Foster’s view, all the agents and cameras and border patrols won’t fix the problem without fixing U.S. immigration policy first.

Mayor FOSTER: Well, if you have a kitchen sink that has a busted pipe, rather than fix the pipe, we’re sending in more mops. Well let’s fix the pipe, which is immigration reform.

SEVERSON: Albert Ellis thinks that the best fix is to enforce the laws that are already on the books.

Mr. ELLIS: This is a country of laws, you know. And if we don’t enforce them, we’re going to end up like Mexico.

SEVERSON: In Father James’ church there is a statue of Christ that was found floating in the Rio Grande River. For Father James and his parishioners, it has become a sacred artifact.

Father LOIACONO: I gave it the name “The Undocumented Christ” because we don’t know where this Christ figure came from. And so it’s undocumented. But it also came wet because it came in the river. It came homeless to us. And to me, it’s Christ identifying as undocumented.

SEVERSON: Father James thinks “The Undocumented Christ” is more than just a symbol.

Father LOIACONO: And I think in a real sense perhaps we could see this as God’s message to our nation. How shall we treat those who come to our border? And what does the wall really mean? What is it saying — “Jesus stay out”?

SEVERSON: Congress, Homeland Security and many Americans have a different view. They think the wall sends a powerful message, one they approve of: “Illegal immigrants stay out.”

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Eagle Pass, Texas.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Washington, several Christian leaders unveiled what they called an evangelical manifesto. In it, they urge evangelicals to broaden their religious-political agenda to encompass such issues as racism and poverty as well as traditional concerns such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Dozens signed on to the manifesto, including the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Some prominent conservative evangelicals did not sign it and criticized the effort for deflecting attention from what they consider the most pressing needs.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Between tragedies such as the one in Myanmar and the disastrous worldwide rise in food prices, a question long debated by relief experts has become urgent: what’s the best way for the U.S. to help the hungry?

Under the billion-dollar-a-year “Food for Peace” program, the government sends others surplus commodities, such as wheat and corn. Would it be more economical and effective to send cash instead? Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Malawi in Southern Africa.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: At about ten-thirty each morning, some 800 children in the southern Malawi village of Kasungu break from their studies for porridge. The principal says attendance climbed 50 percent since the meal program began three years ago. In this country of 13 million, beset by chronic hunger, it’s the only reliable meal of the day for most kids.

BRIGHTON MTIKOMOLA (Principal): They haven’t eaten anything else, so when they come here, take this sort of food — now and then they take this sort of food — then it makes them increase their performance.

DE SAM LAZARO: They have more energy?

Mr. MTIKOMOLA: Yeah, more energy.

DE SAM LAZARO: The soy or maize for the feeding program is mostly donated by many countries, but the largest contributor is the United States, through a program called “Food for Peace.” It began in the 1950s as a means to use U.S. grain surpluses to help countries hit by food crises.

But today Food for Peace has grown into a $1.2 billion-dollar program and it has critics who say U.S. food aid may actually stifle African farmers and perpetuate dependence in recipient countries and they say Food for Peace benefits American private contractors more than the hungry.

The United States is the world’s single largest food aid donor but there are intermediaries: agribusinesses and shipping companies, which by law have to be American. And they consume a good part of the U.S. food aid dollar. The general accountability office says two-thirds of that U.S. food aid dollar goes toward administrative overhead.

Last year one of the largest private food aid charities, Atlanta-based CARE, decided it would stop accepting U.S. food donations in 2009.

CECILY BRYANT (Country Director, CARE, Malawi): We felt very strongly that the inefficiency and the waste that was happening throughout the current system just had to be addressed. And if we didn’t take a stand and try and make a change then this would just continue.

DE SAM LAZARO: Bryant argues it would be much more efficient if U.S. assistance came directly in the form of cash. The money could be used to train farmers and to buy grain locally — cutting cost and delivery times while developing markets for African farmers. In fact several aid agencies generate cash to run just such programs by selling donated American commodities to African wholesalers and traders. The practice is called monetization.

UNIDENTIFIED CARE EXTENSION AGENT (speaking to group of farmers through translator): This is where we grow soya beans. You need 75 centimeters between ridges for highest yields.

DE SAM LAZARO: On this day, care extension agents used test plots to demonstrate new crop varieties and types, like soy beans — a high protein crop that is growing in acceptance here in Malawi.

Ms. BRYANT: Food alone isn’t going to change anything in the long run. We’re working with farmers to teach them to harvest greater yields, to be able to market surplus once they reach that level.

DE SAM LAZARO: Despite Malawi’s problems with poor roads and storage and uneven food distribution that leave many hungry, there have been overall grain surpluses. Rains have been good for two years and subsidies have helped farmers buy seeds and fertilizers. President Bingu Mutharika says Malawi must lessen its dependence on charity.

President BINGU WA MUTHARIKA: We now have had the success — two successive years of surplus. When I took over, we were told Malawi was poor and that we must go to the rest of the world and beg that we are poor and the world will feel sorry for us. I said, “No, that’s not the way the world in globalization works.” People will come to Malawi to invest in opportunities if we are helping ourselves and they want to be part of that success story. Nobody, nobody wants to be part of a failing story.

So are they looking forward to a good harvest this year?

DE SAM LAZARO: Indeed the United Nations’ food aid agency, the World Food Program, is now using cash it gets from non-U.S. donors to increase local purchases of grain. But for many farmers, the concept of a surplus is new — one they almost fear jinxing.

MARY ELLEN MCGROARTY (World Food Program, meeting with farmers): So they don’t anticipate having a surplus this year?

DE SAM LAZARO: These growers weren’t sure how to answer a simple question from an agency better known for giving away rather than buying food.

Ms. MCGROARTY (meeting with farmers): Let them understand that we’re not seeing where we can deliver food to. We’re looking to buy food.

DE SAM LAZARO: Despite such local difficulties, the World Food Program bought 90,000 tons of grain from Malawi last year.

DOMENICO SCALPELLI (World Food Program): That’s a huge amount of food and it’s the biggest amount — the largest amount — we’ve bought ever from Malawi. A lot of it was not only for Malawi. But a lot of it also went to Zimbabwe, it went to Democratic Republic of Congo. We bought food even for West Africa. So, and that was because the price was the best at the time and the quality was good, competed internationally. Part of the philosophy behind it is to try and bring up local farmers and traders to a point where they can, in fact, compete internationally.

DE SAM LAZARO: It’s a goal some in Washington support. The Bush administration has proposed that a quarter of U.S. food grain be sent in cash. And that idea has the support of many Democrats in Congress. But it gets nowhere in the influential House and Senate agriculture committees, whose members come predominantly from farm states. They’ve insisted that all assistance remain in the form of U.S.-grown commodities and shipped on U.S. flag carriers.

Representative Earl Pomeroy, a North Dakota Democrat, says cutting agencies a check instead of sending grain or cooking oils could do more damage in some developing countries.

Representative EARL POMEROY (D-ND): You go into some of these small economies with a check, buy a bunch of commodities for food aid, you’ve just drove prices out of sight. You hurt everybody else.

DE SAM LAZARO: More importantly, Pomeroy says he fears any changes could jeopardize fragile congressional support for what remains the world’s largest food aid program, even though it accounts for just $1.2 billion of the $280 billion-dollar U.S. farm program.

Rep. POMEROY: One of the things about the structure of our program is that it’s been able to sustain congressional support through all kinds of political circumstances. Even in the years I’ve been in Congress, I’ve seen very different environments relative to the receptivity of members of Congress to supporting foreign aid.

Ms. MCGROARTY: So, for purchasing, we want to be targeting associations. I mean, it’s impossible for us to deal individually with each farmer and each farm.

DE SAM LAZARO: World Food Program officials say they make local purchases carefully. They reject criticism that this causes prices to rise. But they’re not about to reject Food for Peace donations.

Mr. SCALPELLI: I am asked this question quite a bit, and I’m not going to bite the hand that helps feed essentially a million Malawians today. And the United States government is indeed the number one largest donor to Malawi still.

DE SAM LAZARO: Other food aid agencies, unlike CARE, say they must continue to monetize their U.S. donations.

(to Nick Ford): Would you not prefer just straight cash assistance?

NICK FORD (Catholic Relief Services): Absolutely. And that’s going to be a much more efficient use of the American taxpayers’ money. We still have a service to provide the target communities for our development activities. Monetization provides resources that do address the root causes of hunger and poverty in these countries

DE SAM LAZARO: What all sides agree on is that more food aid — whether in cash or food — is needed. Only 30 percent of Malawi’s children receive even this spartan daily school meal and that number could fall as global food prices continue their record rise.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Lilongwe, Malawi.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: On Our Calendar, for Christians in the West, this Sunday is Pentecost. It marks the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, enabling them to preach in many languages.

The Washington National Cathedral is celebrating Pentecost and its own centennial by illuminating its exterior. The images are being projected on the cathedral’s walls from sunset to midnight this weekend.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: That’s our program for now. I’m Bob Abernethy. Happy Mother’s Day. There’s much more on our Web site, including more about religion and politics on our “One Nation” page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

© 2008 WNET-TV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user’s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon WNET-TV’s copyright or proprietary interests in the material.

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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 1135

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up — Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and the messages of the black church.

And more controversial days ahead for Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Plus, remembering the late Shlomo Carlebach, the counterculture rabbi whose melodies live on long after he no longer sings them.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy. It’s good to have you with us. The global food crisis is escalating as high food prices are forcing humanitarian organizations to scale back operations. At the United Nations, leaders are appealing for more than $750 million dollars in new aid. At the White House, President Bush called on Congress to provide funds to help alleviate the emergency.

We spoke about the world food crisis with Reverend David Beckmann, president of the Christian anti-hunger lobbying group Bread for the World. He is a Lutheran pastor.

Reverend DAVID BECKMANN (President, Bread for the World): Routinely, 850 million people in the world are undernourished. But over the last 12 months the prices of the world’s basic staples — rice, corn and wheat — have all shot up by about two-thirds. So about another 100 million people are being driven into hunger. It’s partly that incomes have been going up in Asia and so there’s new demand for food in Asia. There were bad harvests in some important agricultural countries. Higher oil prices have also helped to drive up food prices. In our country, we’re using corn now increasingly to produce ethanol, that’s part of it. We ought to take a look at our ethanol policy, and maybe slow it down or modify it some because it is contributing to hunger around the world and that wasn’t — that clearly wasn’t our intention.

The effects of this hunger crisis are really grim. In Haiti, for example, many people are filling up their children with cookies made out of mud. There’re certain muds that have a bit of nutritional value in Haiti and so they take that mud with oil and sugar and make cookies, and gag that down. There’s a lot of desperation. And then that’s showing up in political unrest, in food riots and other unrest in about 30 countries.

We need more food aid for hungry people. Food aid goes especially to camps. These are the most desperately poor people in the world. And the money that’s been appropriated for food aid is not going as far. So rations in Darfur, for example, have been cut in half. The other thing that needs to happen is a strengthening of global agriculture, especially agriculture in the poor countries. The hidden hope in this crisis is that it can be solved especially by agricultural development in poor countries. There are about 100 million people, really poor people, who are suffering hardship because of the high food prices. But there may be 600 million equally poor people who are struggling to make a living in agriculture in poor countries. So if we can invest in agricultural productivity among those poor people, they can help to bring down the food prices and at the same time improve their own livelihoods.

I think this hunger crisis really is a religious issue because if we know anything about God, we know that God listens to the prayers of hungry mothers who can’t feed their kids. When that mother sighs and asks for help we know that God is there. And so responding to those mothers by the hundreds of millions is a profoundly religious act. It is sacred work.

ABERNETHY: David Beckmann of Bread for the World.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging the State Department to consider China one of the world’s worst violators of religious rights. The Commission’s new report says China regularly subjects religious minorities to abuse. Meanwhile, activists and faith-based groups continue to protest China’s human rights violations and its crackdown on Buddhist Tibet. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was one of the religious voices urging world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Senator Barack Obama this week denounced several recent controversial statements by his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. On Monday, at the National Press Club in Washington, Wright addressed a crowd of both journalists and supporters and spoke out defiantly about recent criticism of him.

Reverend JEREMIAH WRIGHT: This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It’s an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African American religious tradition. And why am I speaking out now? In our community we have something called “playing the dozens.” If you think I’m going to let you talk about my mama and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious tradition, and my grandma, you got another thing coming.

ABERNETHY: Some of Wright’s criticisms of the U.S. government offended many listeners, among them Senator Obama who interrupted his campaign in North Carolina to attack Wright the next day.

Senator BARACK OBAMA: I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate. And I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.

ABERNETHY: So what does all this say about the black church, or better, churches? Harold Dean Trulear is a professor of applied theology at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington. He joins us from Philadelphia.

Professor Trulear, welcome.

Dr. HAROLD DEAN TRULEAR (Professor of Applied Theology, Howard University School of Divinity, Washington, D.C.): Thanks for having me.

ABERNETHY: Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama seem to represent two of many different traditions in the black churches. Would you just quickly tick off what the major traditions are?

Dr. TRULEAR: Well with respect to the approach to social issues, we would talk about the prophetic tradition. We would talk about community services. We would talk about individual services. And then we would also talk about churches that believe that spirituality and social issues don’t mix.

ABERNETHY: Let me ask you about the prophetic tradition — not prophetic in the sense of predicting the future — but prophetic in the sense of speaking out against those in power when you think they’re wrong. How prevalent is that?

Dr. TRULEAR: Well, it use to be central to the black church tradition in that the black churches were born out of discrimination in the North, when blacks were put out of white churches, and slavery in the South, when Negro spirituals included words like, “Go tell Pharaoh let my people go.” It’s resurrected to a center stage in the work of Martin Luther King who saw himself in the prophetic tradition. And now it exists along a variety of strands as our society has become more complex.

ABERNETHY: Is Jeremiah Wright a typical representative of the prophetic tradition?

Dr. TRULEAR: I would say he’s an exemplar because there are people who model their ministries after his.

ABERNETHY: Even though he can be profane and even though he can say things that a lot of people think are wildly wrong, mistaken?

Dr. TRULEAR: Well, many people thought the Biblical prophets were wildly wrong and mistaken. Many people thought that Jesus was wildly wrong and mistaken. So, that alone would not be sufficient to dissuade people from emulating him as a prophet.

ABERNETHY: Another tradition, another strand — and perhaps it’s represented primarily by younger people, maybe by Obama himself — is one that speaks more of reconciliation, of creating unity and looks ahead with hope rather than back with anger. How strong is that tradition?

Dr. TRULEAR: I think it’s very strong especially among the younger generation, as you mentioned. It also has to do with a certain historical naivete that has lost sight of the fact that there are still very many disaffected people in our nation and abroad. And any attempts towards reconciliation are going to have to take that disaffection into account.

ABERNETHY: I wanted to ask you what it’s going to take to bring about this unity that everyone hopes for?

Dr. TRULEAR: I think it’s going to take conversations that bring the disaffected to the table — that take into consideration that there’s a lot of hurt, there’s a lot of anger that’s not just historic but also exists today in many inner-cities, in many poor communities. Those are the people that Reverend Wright believes he speaks for and their concerns are going to have to be addressed if reconciliation is going to be true and not just papered over and ephemeral.

ABERNETHY: Many thanks to Harold Dean Trulear of the Howard University School of Divinity.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In other news, a different controversy over religion and politics in New York City. Roman Catholic Cardinal Edward Egan criticized former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for taking Communion at a Mass last month during Pope Benedict’s visit. Cardinal Egan said Giuliani should not have taken Communion because he supports abortion rights, a stance that contradicts church teaching.

Egan did not mention that Giuliani has also divorced and remarried, apparently without an annulment, which Catholic teaching says should bar him from receiving Communion. Giuliani said he would meet with Egan, but that his faith is a personal matter.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Mainline Protestant denominations continue wrestling with issues surrounding homosexuality. The highest court of the Presbyterian Church USA this week found that a California minister did not violate church teachings when she officiated at the weddings of two lesbian couples. The court said since the church officially defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, the ceremonies weren’t really weddings. The court said PCUSA ministers may offer blessings to same-sex unions.

Meanwhile, United Methodist delegates meeting in Texas voted to maintain church policies that declare homosexuality, quote, “incompatible with Christian teaching,” and they refused to recognize or celebrate same-sex unions. The delegates did approve a measure to strengthen efforts against homophobia.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: Next month marks five years since the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire elected that denomination’s first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, a move that has brought the U.S. Episcopal Church and the entire worldwide Anglican Communion to the brink of schism. Robinson has a new book coming out discussing his experiences and his controversial plans for the future. He spoke with Kim Lawton.

Bishop GENE ROBINSON (Diocese of New Hampshire, U.S. Episcopal Church): And this is my partner, Mark Andrew.

KIM LAWTON: In 2003, with his longtime partner Mark Andrew at his side, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and in the worldwide Anglican Communion which the U.S. Church is part of. Now Robinson is planning another ceremony likely to roil the waters again.

In June, Robinson and Andrew will have their relationship officially recognized at the New Hampshire statehouse. Then they’ll walk across the street and have the union blessed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Bishop ROBINSON: Frankly, a legal civil union, which the state of New Hampshire has allowed as of January 1, gives my partner and me some 400 of the protections that out of 1,100 that are accorded to heterosexual couples.

LAWTON: Because of strong opposition to homosexuality in many parts of the Anglican Communion, U.S. Episcopal bishops have agreed to quote “exercise restraint” in approving the blessing of same-sex unions. But they also pledged to provide for the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian Church members.

Bishop ROBINSON: We’ll keep the service private. It will not be in your face, so to speak. And yet, at the same time, I deserve the same kind of pastoral care from the Church that other couples do in my own diocese. So I’m trying to walk a fine line there.

LAWTON: The Bishop has continued to receive death threats since his election. Security was high for his consecration service where he wore a bullet-proof vest. Because of his ongoing safety concerns, Robinson says he wanted to have his union officially recognized before he heads to England in July for the Lambeth Conference, a once-every-10-years gathering of Anglican bishops.

Bishop ROBINSON: I’m just not willing to go to Lambeth and once again put myself potentially in harm’s way without protecting this person I’ve been with for 20 years as best I can. I think it’s something any husband or wife would do.

LAWTON: After some conservative Anglican bishops threatened a boycott, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams excluded Robinson from formally participating in the Lambeth gathering of more than 800 Anglican bishops from around the world.

Robinson is upset by this but says it has actually freed him up to still go and be a more vocal activist at sessions outside the official conference.

Bishop ROBINSON: I think I go with a greater sense of focus on gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people around the world. I think they are looking to me to represent them and be their voice in some way. I’m sure that’s not what the Archbishop of Canterbury was hoping for. And I suspect he would prefer me not to come at all.

LAWTON: U.S. bishops are planning two unofficial meetings where international bishops can meet Robinson.

Bishop ROBINSON: I know there are so many bishops around the world who have never had the opportunity to sit and talk with someone who is both openly gay and Christian.

LAWTON: Robinson says he’s discouraged by the divisions and what he sees as a lack of listening across the Communion. But in his new book, “In the Eye of the Storm,” he writes of the spiritual lessons he has learned amid the controversy.

Bishop ROBINSON: I don’t remember a time in my life when God seemed any more present, almost palpably close. Prayer has almost seemed redundant to me because God has seemed so close during all of this. It will surprise both conservatives and liberals how orthodox I am.

LAWTON: But determining what actually defines Anglican orthodoxy will be a major point of debate at Lambeth and well beyond.

I’m Kim Lawton reporting.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: In Israel, solemn observances of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. People throughout the country stood at attention while sirens sounded in memory of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: We remember the Holocaust today with a profile of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a Jewish troubadour in the 1960s and ’70s who preached love and peace and whose music has become a staple of religious observances in Jewish synagogues and homes. Carlebach was a Holocaust survivor who refused to lose his faith in God and in humankind.

Our reporter is Menachem Daum, in New York. He says every melody in this story was composed by Shlomo Carlebach.

Rabbi SHLOMO CARLEBACH: After the Holocaust it’s so easy to be angry at the world and it’s so easy to condemn the world. But we have to continue to love the world. We have to.

(Clip of Shlomo Carlebach in concert, playing guitar)

MENACHEM DAUM: In response to the Holocaust Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach stressed the power of joy and the ability of every individual to become God’s partner in fixing the world.

(Clip of Shlomo Carlebach in concert, playing guitar and whistling)

Voice of Rabbi CARLEBACH: The most important thing today every person has to do is to cleanse their hearts from anger. And the only way of getting rid of anger is when you fill your heart with a lot of joy.

DAUM: Carlebach was quite unorthodox for an Orthodox rabbi — giving up the pulpit to spread his message through music. While often at odds with the Jewish establishment, alienated young Jews of the ’60s and ’70s responded to his universal teachings. And he became known as the “rebel rabbi” of the Jewish counterculture.

Rabbi CARLEBACH (clip from concert, singing “The Song of Sabbath”): Let’s teach the whole world to sing a song of Shabbos. In cold Siberia this is what keeps them warm — they sing a song of Shabbos.

(in interview): You have to be so strong in this Jewishness that nothing in the world should move them, to un-Jewish them. But on the other hand, it has to be completely connected to every human being in the world.

(Clip of Shlomo Carlebach in concert playing guitar and humming)

Professor ARI GOLDMAN (Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism): Shlomo had some way to electrify people and to inspire people. He felt, you know, one person at a time, he could change things.

CONCERT ANNOUNCER: Let’s hear it for Shlomo Carlebach and Ritchie Havens.

(Clip of Shlomo Carlebach and Ritchie Havens in Crown Heights, New York concert)

DAUM: Shlomo devoted much of his final years to improving the relationship between Jews and others. He was determined that hatred should never be passed on to new generations. He therefore performed for Jews and non-Jews at such places as Germany, Russia and Poland.

Many Jews, especially Holocaust survivors from Poland, condemned Carlebach for reaching out to the Polish people.

VOICE OF JEWISH SURVIVOR: They had hatreds towards the Jews. How can you make peace in a situation like that?

Rabbi CARLEBACH (on bus tour): I bet you know we are coming to Poland. And it’s like we have the privilege of the Polish people look at us. So maybe we can really bring them a little message from heaven that there’s hope for the world, because everybody wants the world to be better. Nobody wants the world the way it is. The only thing is nobody shows them a picture of a better world. If we can walk around and show them some good pictures — you know, the best picture is the way one human being greets another, that’s all there is to it.

(singing during concert in Poland): You know, my beautiful friends, I’m the first time in Poland and I had the sad privilege to be in Maidanek. But when I walked away I was full of hope.

CAMP GUIDE: They shot 18,000 Jews in Maidanek in one day and burned the bodies.

Rabbi CARLEBACH (singing during concert in Poland): When I walked the gas chambers it was clear to me — dawn was breaking. I want you to know, my beautiful friends, don’t ever give up on the world, don’t ever give up on any human being because we all are God’s image.

MONIKA KRAJEWSKA (Artist and Writer): We are Polish Jews and we have Polish friends. And many of those friends fell in love with Rabbi Carlebach. This is simply because of his message of love and peace. And, it’s not words like you read in the newspaper or statements made by politicians. But you feel it.

(1995 Clip of Pope John Paul II in Giants Stadium listening to performance of Shlomo Carlebach’s song, “Because of My Brothers and Friends”)

DAUM: Rabbi Carlebach died in 1994. A year later, his song of peace that he sang at every concert was chosen to honor Pope John Paul II.

(Clip of audience singing and clapping at the Pope John Paul II Concert in New York)

NESHAMA CARLEBACH (Rabbi Carlebach’s Daughter at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, performs “Because of My Brothers and Friends” during a Martin Luther King Day Concert): I think my father would have loved it. I think he would have loved just the feeling of the worlds coming together because that’s really what Martin Luther King was wanting to accomplish –and definitely what my father was wanting to accomplish.

(Clip of Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir performing “Because of My Brothers and Friends” with Ms. Carlebach)

Prof. GOLDMAN: The Jewish world embraced him after his death. When he was alive he was often a pariah. And, I don’t think anyone could have imagined the kind of impact that his music would continue to have these many years after his death. It’s remarkable.

(Clip of Shlomo Carlebach in concert, playing guitar and whistling)

Voice of Rabbi CARLEBACH: This person asks me: “What’s your message?” So I said: “My message is nothing you don’t know — the only thing is we got to do it.” Everybody knows it, but we never do it. My message is that: “there’s one God. We are one world. We are all brothers and sisters.”

DAUM: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Menachem Daum.

# # #

BOB ABERNETHY: That’s our program for now. I’m Bob Abernethy.

There’s much more on our Web site, including Kim Lawton’s interview with Gene Robinson and more about the Jeremiah Wright controversy on our “One Nation” politics page. Audio and video podcasts of the program are also available. Join us at pbs.org.

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