RNSbriefs_09_19

RNS News Briefs

Parents seek veto on sexuality teaching in Ontario schools

By RON CSILLAG
c. 2012 Religion News Service

TORONTO (RNS) — A group of conservative Christian and Muslim parents in Ontario want schools to notify them before their children are taught about sexuality, birth control, “environmental worship” and occult practices.

Just days after Ontario passed an anti-bullying law that promotes acceptance of diversity, the parents began distributing a four-page form letter to their children’s elementary schools in and around Toronto.

Titled Choosing to Remain in the Public System, the downloadable form asks that parents be advised prior to their children’s exposure to sex education and discussions about homosexuality, transgender issues and abortion; “environmental worship — placing environmental issues/concerns above the value of Judaeo-Christian principles and human life”; and teachings about occult practices, including witchcraft, Satanism and “wizardry.”

The parents say they want advance notice so they can either withdraw their children before the lesson, or prepare them in advance.

The letter is spearheaded by PEACE (Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity) Hamilton, a Christian parents group. Phil Lees, who heads PEACE, says “hundreds” of the letters have been delivered to schools in Toronto and Hamilton.

“We’ve met with a half dozen Muslim groups and they are very passionate about this too,” Lees said.

Meanwhile, a Greek Orthodox father has sued the Hamilton school board for refusing to warn him when his children’s teachers plan to talk about family, marriage or human sexuality.

Steve Tourloukis told reporters on Sept. 10 that he only wants those issues taught to his first-grade daughter and fourth-grade son “from a Christian perspective.”

Tourloukis is backed by the newly formed Parental Rights in Education defence Fund, which is collecting money for parents who sue school boards over their “unconstitutional suppression of religious freedom and conscience rights.”

“If parents do not beat back this government incursion against parent rights,” the group’s website says, “it will usher in an era of persecution against people of faith like never seen before in Canada.”

School officials say parents can request their child be excused only from certain portions of sex education.

Vatican recalibrates response to Middle East riots, says violence is never justified

By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
© 2012 Religion News Service

The Vatican on Sept. 13 issued the “firmest possible condemnation” for the mob attacks that led to the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya, one day after seeming to blame people who intentionally provoked Muslims.

The Vatican’s chief spokesperson, Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that nothing can “justify the activity of terrorist organizations and homicidal violence.”

His words struck a different tone from the Vatican’s initial reaction on Wednesday, when Lombardi warned against the “tragic results” of “unjustified offence and provocations” against Muslim sensitivities.

“Along with our sadness, mourning and prayers for the victims, we again express the hope that, despite this latest tragedy, the international community may discover the most favourable ways to continue its commitment in favour of peace in Libya and the entire Middle East,” Lombardi said on Thursday.

Lombardi’s first statement on the attacks had been criticized as “outrageous” by conservative Catholic commentator Phil Lawler. “The first order of business, for civilized people, is a clear, unequivocal, and absolute condemnation of the killings,” he wrote on the Catholic Culture website.

Muslim protests across the Middle East, allegedly sparked by an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S., threatened to overshadow Pope Benedict XVI’s delicate visit to Lebanon last weekend.

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, stressed that Benedict is coming as a “messenger of peace.” The region’s “growing tensions,” he added, have “strengthened” his desire to travel there to “promote peace and express solidarity.”

Report says religion at heart of illegal ivory trade

By JEANIE GROH
c. 2012 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Since the ban on international trade of ivory in 1989, the ivory black market has been on the rise, and a National Geographic investigation found that demand for religious art pieces carved out of the precious material has played a considerable role.

"No matter where I find ivory, religion is close at hand," said investigative reporter Bryan Christy, whose article, "Ivory Worship," is included in the new edition of National Geographic magazine, released Sept. 14.

"Elephant poaching levels are currently at their worst in a decade," Christy wrote. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) estimates that at least 25,000 elephants were poached in 2011, mostly for their ivory tusks.

Philippine Catholics use ivory to construct crucifixes, figures of the Virgin Mary and other icons. The province of Cebu is particularly known for its ivory renditions of the Santo Nino de Cebu (Holy Child of Cebu), used in worship and celebration.

Christy said the Vatican has not taken active steps to discourage ivory trade, which primarily comes from illegal sources. "The Vatican has recently demonstrated a commitment to confronting transnational criminal problems ... but it has not signed the CITES treaty and so is not subject to the ivory ban."

"The elephant is a symbol of Thailand and is revered in Buddhism," Christy wrote. Buddhist tradition holds that the Buddha's mother dreamed of a white elephant the night he was conceived, making ivory carvings and amulets even more valuable in some Buddhist cultures.
While China's market for ivory is primarily secular, Buddhist carvings are incredibly popular as well.

Christy found many loopholes to gain access to ivory. In Thailand, native elephant tusks may be used for ivory under certain conditions, and ivory obtained before the 1989 ban may be traded domestically in any country in the world.

"Because this is about faith, and because faith requires suspension of disbelief, ivory traded for religious purposes doesn't garner the aggressive scrutiny it might if it were carved into, say, chess pieces," Christy wrote.