CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Feeding The Hand That Bites
From the church’s perspective, the idea of seeking reconciliation between criminal offenders and their victims is biblical. Officials within the justice system have warmed to the idea because it has provided relief to overcrowded prisons and crammed court dockets. For these and other reasons, the concept of victim-offender reconciliation, which has its roots in the Mennonite church, has increasingly come to be recognized as a good idea.
The process is simple. A volunteer meets separately with the victim and the offender, eventually bringing them together to determine jointly, within the context of forgiveness and justice, what should be the consequences of the crime.
According to the Mennonite Central Committee, the concept has grown nationwide; in California most of the programs have remained church-based. Last year a VORP (Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program) in its seventh year of operation in Fresno County received 536 referrals. Said Mike Neimeyer, the Mennonites’ VORP director in Orange County, “Programs tend to take on values of their funding source, so we are totally church-based and take no public funds.”
ABORTION
About Face
It turned into a no-win situation for the Dayton Hudson Corporation, a department store chain with headquarters in Minneapolis. First, apparently influenced by the announcement of a boycott by the Christian Action Council, the company decided to cancel $20,000 in educational grants to Planned Parenthood.
Hundreds of people miffed by the withdrawal of funds began registering their votes in the form of shredded credit cards returned to Dayton Hudson, which last year reported $13.6 billion in sales. The company reconsidered the issue. It appeared there would be financial consequences whatever it decided. Last month officials announced it will resume giving to Planned Parenthood: an $18,000 contribution to a pregnancy-prevention program.
SOCIAL VALUES
Fornication Dealt A Blow
Layle French, a member of the Evangelical Free Church, says he feels he was doing his duty as a Christian when, in 1988, he reneged on his offer to rent a house to a woman after he discovered she planned to live there with an unmarried man.
The Minnesota Human Rights Department sued on the woman’s behalf. Though it acknowledged French had acted based on sincerely held religious beliefs, the agency alleged discrimination based on the woman’s marital status.
Two Minnesota courts agreed, and ordered French to pay damages. But in a 4-to-3 ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court, as reported in the Twin Cities Christian, reversed those lower-court decisions. In his majority opinion, Justice Lawrence Yetka noted the state has a statute prohibiting fornication. “At the very least,” Yetka wrote, “before the state imposes sanctions on each, it must repeal the fornication statute.”
Yetka observed in his decision that “[t]his generation does not have a monopoly on either knowledge or wisdom.” He cited various social epidemics, including drug abuse, child abuse, a growing underclass, and children “growing up with no one to guide them in developing any set of values.” He called for taking stock of the social order before “abandoning fundamental values and institutions … that have formed the foundation of our civilization for centuries.”
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Briefly Noted
Passed: By the Michigan legislature, a veto-proof bill that requires girls 17 years of age and younger to have parental consent for an abortion. A similar bill was vetoed earlier this year by Gov. James Blanchard. But the proposal was sent back to the legislature after Right to Life of Michigan garnered 330,000 signatures on a petition. And according to the state’s constitution, legislation originating with a petition cannot be vetoed.
Upheld: By Florida’s Supreme Court, the right of a person who is dying to refuse forced feeding. The court also ruled that guardians of such persons may make decisions for people who are not competent to act on their own. This is apparently inconsistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Nancy Cruzan, in which the high court denied the comatose woman’s parents the right to end forced feeding.
Named: As executive director of the Wheaton, Illinois-based Christian Camping International, Robert W. Kobielush, who for the last four years has been an independent consultant for camps and retreat centers. The organization is composed of nearly 1,000 Christians camps, conferences, and retreat centers in the U.S.
Formed: The first fully racially integrated congregation in the history of the 40,000-member Church of the United Brethren. It happened when the Prescott United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio, merged with the all-black charismatic Fountain Life Fellowship. The pastors of the congregations will serve as copastors of the new church.
Headed to trial: Possibly as soon as January, the legal dispute between Focus on the Family and Gil Alexander-Moegerle, James Dobson’s former radio cohost (CT, Feb. 3, 1989, p. 42). Judge Theodore Piatt last month dismissed parts of the lawsuit, saying it was inappropriate for the courts to address matters of religious principle. However, he denied Focus’s request that all charges be dismissed, clearing the way for the trial on Alexander-Moegerle’s allegations of infliction of mental distress, invasion of privacy, and interference with economic advantage.
