Fuller Officials Oppose Bombing Iraq

Nearly two dozen Fuller Theological Seminary faculty members and officials, including President Richard Mouw, have sent a letter to President Clinton urging new diplomatic initiatives with Iraq rather than bombing.

“Bombing can wait; initiatives to save lives can’t,” said the letter signed by 23 people at the evangelical campus in Pasadena. “Children are dying of malnutrition and of lack of medical care every day.”

Drafted by ethics professor Glen H. Stassen, the statement from Fuller, the second-largest seminary in North America, is one of the few on the Iraqi crisis from a theologically conservative Christian institution.

Earlier, U.S. Catholic bishops and officials of the National Council of Churches and several of its mainline Protestant denominations urged diplomacy over military action.

The 11-point letter from Fuller Seminary to the White House argued for lifting general sanctions on civilian and medical goods to Iraq while maintaining other embargoes and restrictions. “Persuasion will achieve its aim much more effectively if Iraq believes that if they allow the inspections, the trade embargo will end soon and Iraq will be able to feed their people again,” it said.

Signers included faculty members William E. Pannell, David Augsberger, Miroslav Volf, Cecil Robeck, David Scholer and Nancey Murphy.

Meanwhile, current events have prompted the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles to host an interfaith rally at 7 p.m. Sunday opposing U.S. bombing. It will feature talks and readings from Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures. Speakers at the center, 434 S. Vermont Ave., will include Dr. Maher Hathout of the host center, the Rev. Ed Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills. (213) 383-3443.

Also, three best-selling authors of inspirational books, including Marianne Williamson of Santa Barbara, will take part in a prayer and meditation service “calling for divine resolution of the crisis in Iraq” today in Washington at a Methodist church. The others are James Redfield and Neale Donald Walsch. Similar services will be held in other cities, a spokeswoman said.

LENT

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Looking ahead to Easter, Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians will enter the introspective Lenten period next week, many attending Ash Wednesday rites at local churches.

Easter this year falls on April 12 for Western Christianity. Eastern Orthodox Christians will observe Easter a week later.

The ashes put on parishioners’ foreheads on Ash Wednesday symbolize the penitential and reflective themes of a liturgical season mostly widely observed in Catholic and old-line Protestant denominations with special programs, prayers and charity.

For instance, six pastors of the San Fernando Valley congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will take turns at one another’s pulpits in Wednesday night Lenten services March 4 through April 8. In Costa Mesa, St. Joachim Catholic Church will have Friday night Lenten soup dinners and discussions along with opportunities to donate to charitable and mission causes.

RELIEF

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Medicines valued at $200,000 were airlifted from Los Angeles International Airport early this week as part of interfaith efforts to get emergency relief to thousands of earthquake victims in northeastern Afghanistan. A 6.1-magnitude quake and aftershocks are thought to have caused 4,500 deaths and left thousands homeless. The medical supplies, donated by MAP International, a Christian agency based in Brunswick, Ga., were added to other supplies assembled by Knightsbridge International, a Los Angeles-based humanitarian relief group.

Donations are also sought by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross at (800) HELP NOW and by Islamic Relief Worldwide, whose U.S. field office is in Burbank, (818) 238-9520.

BOOKS

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The newest book from Russell Chandler, a religion writer for The Times from 1974-91, is “Feeding the Flock: Restaurants and Churches You’d Stand in Line For” (Alban Institute), which will be available early next month. His wife, Marjorie Lee Chandler, last year published a book called “After Your Child Divorces: Rebuilding Family Bonds” (Zondervan). The couple divide their time between homes in Solvang and Sonora, Calif.

DATES

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What Buddhism can and should contribute to bioethics debates over human cloning will be explored in a lecture Monday night at Hsi Lai University in Rosemead by Ananda Guruge, director of religious studies and professor of Buddhist studies at that campus. A former Sri Lankan ambassador to France and the United States, Guruge also teaches courses in Buddhism and Hinduism at Cal State Fullerton. The free talk is at 7:30 p.m. at Hsi Lai University, 1409 N. Walnut Grove Ave. (626) 571-8811.

* With a one-day goal of $4 million, about 5,000 volunteers will make phone calls Sunday to potential donors to the United Jewish Fund of the Jewish Federation. The callers will operate from four sites: the Westside Jewish Community Center ([213] 761-8319) and University Synagogue ([310] 828-9521) in Los Angeles’ Westside as well as offices in West Hills ([818] 587-3200) and Torrance ([310] 540-2631). Donations support humanitarian, social and educational services in Los Angeles and in Israel and 58 other countries.

* A symposium marking the assassinations 50 and 30 years ago, respectively, of nonviolence advocates Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will be held next Saturday afternoon in Cerritos. The panelists will be the Rev. James Lawson of Holman United Methodist Church, philosophy professor Joseph Prabhu of Cal State L.A., historian Vinay Lal of UCLA and Sudarshan Kapur of Denver, author of “The African American Encounter with Gandhi.” The three-hour symposium, starting at 1:30 p.m., will be at the Cerritos Public Library, 183rd St. and Bloomfield Ave. (714) 447-8448.

* British Rabbi Jeffrey M. Cohen, spiritual leader of a 2,000-family synagogue in England, will give three talks on traditional prayer and contemporary spirituality next Saturday at Beth Jacob Congregation, 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. The Orthodox synagogue appearance is co-sponsored by the Orthodox Union, a nationwide body observing its 100th anniversary. (310) 777-0225.

FINALLY

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Biola University, an evangelical liberal arts campus in La Mirada: 1--Has a name that’s an acronym, 2--was located for more than half of its 90 years under a “Jesus Saves” sign in Los Angeles, 3--was founded by the same oilman who started Union 76 Co., or 4--all of the above.

All are true statements. Biola stands for Bible Institute of Los Angeles, which was founded in downtown Los Angeles in 1908 by oil entrepreneur Lyman Stewart and was located from 1913 to 1959 at the Church of the Open Door at Hope and 6th streets, known for its neon “Jesus Saves” sign.

Now with an enrollment of more than 3,000 students in undergraduate and graduate degree programs, the liberal arts campus is observing Founder’s Week through next weekend with guest speakers and forums.

The Rev. Charles Swindoll, a former Fullerton pastor who is now president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and the Rev. E.V. Hill of Los Angeles’ Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, are among speakers at the 9:30 a.m. weekday chapel services. Christian higher education in the next millennium will be discussed at a weekend conference starting at noon Friday and featuring theologian J.I. Packer of Regent College, Vancouver, Canada, evangelical historian George Marsden of the University of Notre Dame and Dallas Willard of USC’s philosophy faculty. (562) 906-4548.

Notices may be mailed for consideration to Southern California File, c/o John Dart, L.A. Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311; faxed to Religion Desk (818) 772-3385; or e-mailed to john.dart@latimes.com

Items should arrive two to 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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HUNGER

More than half a million American teenagers, including many church-affiliated youths in the Southland, will give up food for 30 hours next weekend as part of the annual World Vision 30-Hour Famine, say organizers of the global campaign to spotlight hunger.

In addition to consuming only water and fruit juices from 1 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. the next day, the participants will try to identify with the hungry of the world through social service activities, according to spokeswoman Cathy MacCaul. Among the activities:

* Youths from 10 Los Angeles area churches--Baptist to Church of God and Holiness congregations--will be sorting and repacking donated children’s clothing at an inner-city warehouse for shipment to the African country of Malawi, where it will be sold to support World Vision-linked ministries.

* In Glendora, 40 youths from the Glenkirk Presbyterian Church will be painting a baseball park and fixing a house in a low-income neighborhood.

* Sixty teenagers in San Diego will work in an orphanage in Tijuana and sleep in cardboard shelters.

This is the sixth year for the weekend famine organized by World Vision U.S., a ministry once based in Southern California and now operating out of Seattle. (800) 7FAMINE.