Calling for a Worldwide Moral Standard

Scholars generally avoid using the moral standards of one religious group to condemn the practices of a spiritual community with a different tradition, observes a University of Redlands sociologist.

“Many claim that anything anyone does in the name of religion is ‘right’ if that religion says it is,” said James V. Spickard, an associate professor who heads the university’s sociology department.

But what if a religious leader has sex with a follower under the pretense of spiritual therapy? And what about clitoridectomy, the ritual removal of the clitoris that in some African traditions is central to a woman’s rite of passage?

In a paper to be delivered today at the Assn. for the Sociology of Religion meeting in New York, Spickard says religious groups need to adopt a worldwide moral standard that recognizes individual choice within religions, and seeks to curtail physical abuses and human rights violations.

As much as some religious groups try to avoid worldly intrusion, the fact remains that “religions are part of society, not independent of it. . . . They govern part, not all, of people’s lives,” Spickard wrote in an article last year for the journal Religion and the Social Order.

And because modern societies are complex and include an array of religious ideas and practices, religious bodies must accept that their followers will know of divergent views, and ultimately may choose to adopt them.

The right of individuals to make private religious decisions should be affirmed worldwide, Spickard says. That would mean an end to some religiously justified abuse, he said.

“When women come to the United States seeking asylum on the grounds that clitoridectomy violates their individual rights, they should be admitted, even though clitoridectomy violates no law in either [their country] or the United States . . . [and] violates no international human rights code,” Spickard said. “It is still a violation of the individual autonomy necessary to . . . modernity.”

PEOPLE

Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. will be the main speaker and receive an award Friday at the 10th annual Southern California lay banquet of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

CME Bishop E. Lynn Brown of Los Angeles will present Cochran and Carl Douglas, his law firm colleague in the successful defense of O.J. Simpson on murder charges, with awards for community service. A spokesman for the bishop said Cochran, a Baptist, has contributed heavily to several charities aiding battered women and the homeless.

The fund-raising dinner at the Proud Bird Restaurant in Los Angeles will benefit the efforts of the predominantly African American denomination “to finance the expansion of our ministries [to] Hispanics and Asians, which represent our vision for a new, multicultural Christian witness in Southern California,” the bishop said. For more information, call (213) 294-3831.

* The Congress of Racial Equality will honor 10 men and women pastors in a black-tie dinner Friday night at Los Angeles’ Doubletree Hotel. The honorees include the Rev. Michael Beckwith of the Agape Church of Religious Science, Santa Monica; Beverly “Bam” Crawford of Bible Enrichment International Fellowship Church, Inglewood; the Rev. E. E. Cleveland of Ephesians Church of God in Christ, South-Central Los Angeles, and Father Charles Andrus of St. Brigid Catholic Church, Los Angeles.

“We find that pastors are pressing to find ways to keep young people off the streets and out of harm’s way,” said Celes King III, state chairman of CORE, which has had a long history of civil rights activism. Greg Ketter of Fox Channel 11 News will emcee the dinner at the hotel, 5400 W. Century Blvd. Tickets are $55 and $75. (213) 298-8777.

DATES

Three prominent Los Angeles rabbis from Judaism’s three largest branches will lead a community study session Aug. 25 at the University of Judaism on the theme of repentance during September’s High Holy Days. Rabbis Jacob Ott (Orthodox), Joel Rembaum (Conservative) and Isaiah Zeldin (Reform) will lead the class, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. The fee is $18. For registration, call the university’s continuing education department at (310) 476-9777, Ext. 246.

* World Vision’s Youth Ambassadors, a 50-voice choir of young adults from 50 nations, will perform at 9 a.m. Sunday at Malibu Presbyterian Church, 3324 Malibu Canyon Road. (310) 456-1611.

* Doreen Virtue of Newport Beach, author of “I’d Change My Mind if I Had More Time” and frequent talk show guest, will lead a motivational workshop Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Church of Religious Science, 10000 Paramount Blvd., Downey. Tickets are $25. (310) 928-6469.

* As a part of Pasadena Presbyterian Church’s free weekly “Music at Noon” series, guitarist David Ellis, a USC music graduate, will perform Wednesday from 12:10 to 12:40 p.m. on the patio of the church at Colorado Boulevard and Madison Avenue. A $3 donation is asked from those who partake of a sandwich buffet. (818) 793-2191.

* William J. Prince, one of six general superintendents heading the Church of the Nazarene, will preach nightly in a six-day, old-fashioned camp meeting at two Pasadena churches. From Tuesday through Saturday evening, the meetings will be at Bresee Church of the Nazarene, 1480 E. Washington Blvd. The final rally will be at 6 p.m. next Sunday in Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. (818) 794-7104.

* Cal Lutheran University, which opened in Thousand Oaks 35 years ago, will inaugurate its first endowed teaching position this fall--a visiting professorship called the Gerhard and Olga J. Belgum Chair of Lutheran Confessional Theology. Robert Goeser, longtime professor of church history at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, will teach classes on Martin Luther and the Reformation era.

FINALLY

Olympic sports fever, deli-style, continues Sunday at a synagogue in Irvine.

The bagel toss, bagel golf, bagel bowling and bagel Tic-Tac-Toe are among the games open to families at the second annual Southern California Bagel Championships hosted by Shir -Ha-Ma’alot, 3652 Michelson Drive.

Proceeds will benefit the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Orange County. Admission to the four-hour event, which begins at 11 a.m., is $5 for adults, $3 for children 12 and under. (714) 857-2226.

Participants will also taste and vote for their favorites among an array of bagels (not those used in the competition) and spreads.

Notices may be mailed to Southern California File, c/o John Dart, L.A. Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or faxed to religion desk, (818) 772-3385. Items should arrive about three weeks before the event, except for spot news, and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.

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CONFERENCE

More than 1,200 people involved in positive-thinking, metaphysical philosophies such as Religious Science are expected to attend the 81st annual gathering of the International New Thought Alliance, which will open Wednesday at the Wyndham Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.

Singer and actress Della Reese, a pastor of her own metaphysical congregation on Los Angeles’ Westside, will speak on “Your Healing Power” at the meeting’s closing session at 7 p.m. Aug. 25.

Leadership of the International New Thought Alliance will pass at the meeting from longtime president Blaine Mays of Mesa, Ariz., to the Rev. Michael Beckwith, founding pastor of the 4,500-member Agape Church of Religious Science in Santa Monica. Beckwith and Tom Costa, a Religious Science pastor in Palm Desert, will speak at the Wednesday night opening.

Other conference speakers include author-lecturers Marianne Williamson and Barbara Marx Hubbard.

On Aug. 24, questions of ethics in the creedless “new thought” movement will be discussed at 1:30 p.m. by Charles Throckmorton of Madeira Beach, Fla. “In ‘new thought’ we celebrate individual freedom, but that does not mean we are free from acting ethically,” said Throckmorton.

Admission is $200, or $28 for single sessions. (602) 830-2461.