New 'Nuns on the Bus' tour coming to Charlotte

Another "Nuns on the Bus" tour -- this one promoting comprehensive immigration reform -- will hit the road next week.

One of its first stops: Charlotte.

On May 31, the Catholic sisters will be at St. Peter's Catholic Church, 507 S. Tryon, in uptown Charlotte. The 7 p.m. event in Biss Hall is open to the public, and co-sponsored by several other Catholic parishes in the Charlotte diocese.

The first "Nuns on the Bus" tour made headlines in 2012 for its election year promotion of social justice issues. Its leader, Sister Simone Campbell, even came to Charlotte to speak at the Democratic National Convention. She heads Network, a social gospel lobbying group that speaks up for the poor and elderly.

Campbell won't be with the group in Charlotte. But we're told that Sister Rose Marie Tresp from the Sisters of Mercy in Belmont will join the tour in Charlotte. Word also is that the group may meet with U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., while in the state.

On June 1, a 10 a.m. faith roundtable is also scheduled for Charlotte, according to the Nuns on the Bus website. But no details are yet available.

This three-week tour will cover 6,500 miles, 53 events, 40 cities, and 15 states -- more than twice the distance of last year's tour. It starts Tuesday, May 28, in New Haven, Conn., and will end June 18 in San Francisco.

Other stops along the way include Durham; Greenville, S.C.; and Charleston.

"NETWORK Nuns of the Bus: A Drive for Faith, Family and Citizenship" will lobby for immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants, mostly Hispanic, who entered the United States illegally; speeds up processing of already-approved immigrants; protects the rights of immigrant workers; and ensures family unity.  

In championing immigration reform at a time when Congress is addressing the issue, the nuns are in line with the U.S. Catholic bishops. Leaders of the American church have long pushed for changes in immigration.

Latinos make up a rapidly growing percentage of the U.S. Catholic Church, including in the 46-county Diocese of Charlotte.

Last year's "Nuns on the Bus" was more controversial, partly because of Campbell's open support for President Barack Obama's health care reforms, even as the U.S. bishops opposed key elements of the White House plan. And the sisters' group was among those U.S. nuns singled out last year by the Vatican for their "radically feminist themes."

-- Tim Funk

Samaritan's Purse sends help to Oklahoma

A Disaster Relief Unit from Samaritan's Purse will be deployed Tuesday morning to the Oklahoma City area, which was hit with tornadoes Sunday and Monday.

The Boone-based Christian relief agency reported on its Web site Monday that staff members from the N.C. headquarters left Sunday to get a close-up view of the damage and needs in the affected area.

Then there was more devastation Monday.

The Disaster Relief Unit is a tractor trailer rig filled with equipment and supplies. It will be the group's base of operations in Oklahoma City.

The mile-wide twister leveled homes, businesses and schools in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

This is the second time Samaritan's Purse has responded to a tornado hitting Moore. A storm there in 1999 had the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface -- 302 miles miles per hour. It killed 41 people.

Samaritan's Purse and the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which sends chaplains to disaster areas, were already in the Southeast responding to tornadoes that hit Hood County in north Texas last Wednesday night.

-- Tim Funk

Nun who kissed Elvis coming to Charlotte

How many nuns can say they once kissed Elvis?

Only one, that we know of. And she’s coming to town in September to speak at the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte’s annual Eucharistic Congress.

Dolores Hart was a 19-year-old actress in 1957 when she made her Hollywood debut opposite the King in “Loving You.”

She paired with Elvis Presley again in “King Creole,” and starred in other movies with Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn and others.

But in 1963, Hart walked away from Tinseltown – and her fiancé, an architect – to become a Benedictine nun.

Fifty years later, she’s now Mother Dolores, the prioress at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn. (abbeyofreginalaudis.org).

Her story was told in “God is the Bigger Elvis,” a riveting documentary that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 and later shown on HBO.

 Mother Dolores, who’s still a voting member of the Academy, even showed up on the red carpet on awards night in L.A. In that setting, surrounded by actresses wearing the latest gowns from this or that designer, she made quite a fashion statement in her traditional nun’s habit.

Mother Dolores is finally offering her own account of her life in a new book, “The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows.”

In Charlotte, she’ll talk about her life as an actress and a sister.

She may even mention the time she met Pope John XXIII. It was 1960, and she was in Italy playing St. Clare in a movie about St. Francis of Assisi. In the 13th century, Clare gave up a comfortable life to follow Francis and establish an order of nuns.

“I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clare,” she told the Pontiff. He responded in Italian, “Tu sei Chiara!” Translation: “No, you are Clare!”

Apparently, that brief conversation was instrumental in her later decision to give up all the glamor, money and fame for a cloistered convent, her home ever since.

Mark your calendar: Mother Dolores will speak at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Charlotte Convention Center (Hall A) in uptown. It’s free and open to the public.

For more on the Charlotte diocese’s 9th annual Eucharistic Congress, which is expected to draw 10,000 people, visit www.goeucharist.com.

Also of note

On Saturday (May 18), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte will confer 55 master’s degrees and 10 Doctor of Ministry degrees.

 Speaking at the 10 a.m. commencement at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3400 Beatties Ford Road, will be Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby and author of “Faith in America: The Powerful Impact of One Company Speaking Out Boldly.”

-- Tim Funk

Pittenger sends Graham's IRS allegations to House

U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., said Wednesday he has forwarded Franklin Graham's charges of IRS harassment to the House Ways & Means Commitee.

In a statement sent to reporters, the Charlotte congressman said the alleged targeting of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Boone-based Samaritan's Purse could be addressed on Friday, when the House committee is scheduled to question the IRS commissioner.

Franklin Graham heads both organizations, and he wrote the Tuesday letter to President Barack Obama charging that someone in the Obama administration "was targeting and attempting to intimidate us" for political reasons.

But Pittenger cast the IRS reviews of the two charities as a "questionable investigation" of 94-year-old Billy Graham, who's now retired.

"Billy Graham's life and ministry have been built upon a bedrock of the strictest ethics and highest moral standards," Pittenger said in his statement. "If these allegations are true that the IRS targeted the BGEA, the IRS should be held accountable for forcing two respected ministries to divert donations to defend a politically-motivated attack."

The elder Graham was prominently featured in full-page newspaper ads the BGEA took out last year to urge N.C. voters to approve a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage and support candidates who stood for "biblical values."

Franklin Graham told the president in his letter that the ads were paid for "with designated funds given by friends of our ministry for this purpose."

The IRS visited the offices of the BGEA and Samaritan's Purse last October for reviews of the tax year ending in 2010, Graham said in his letter.

After the election, the IRS did notify Graham to affirm the two N.C. charities' tax exempt status.

Still, Graham told Obama he's now convinced that the reviews of his groups were part of a broader targeting of conservative groups by the federal tax agency.

-- Tim Funk    

Some churches explore scouting alternatives

Evangelical and other churches opposed to the Boy Scouts' proposal to admit gay members for the first time are looking for scouting alternatives to sponsor.

So says Religion News Service (RNS), In a story this week, RNS reported this week that decades-old religious alternatives -- with names like Pathfinders, Royal Ambassadors and Royal Rangers -- are fielding calls from people concerned about the Boy Scouts' proposed new direction.

The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America are scheduled to meet May 22-24 to vote on the proposal to let gay boys be members. Plans unveiled last month called for continuing the ban on openly gay adults serving as Scout leaders.

RNS  reported that leaders of the Pathfinders -- a scouting group affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church -- have gotten inquiries in the wake of the upcoming Boy Scout vote.

A recent story in Baptist Press, RNS said, offered tips on how Southern Baptist churches can start a Royal Ambassadors program for elementary school boys. Another scouting group: The Royal Rangers, affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

Churches have long been the major sponsors of Boy Scout troops. And though most Americans favor removing the ban on both gay Scouts and gay Scout leaders, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll, many conservative churches oppose the proposed change because of their teaching that homosexual behavior is a sin.

According to the RNS story, Roman Catholic and United Methodist churches are still mulling the Scouts' proposed change.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosts more Scouts troops than any other organization. Also known as the Mormons, the church has said it is "satisfied the (Boy Scouts of America) has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort with the proposed resolution."

-- Tim Funk

Poll: Most Americans favor ending Boy Scout ban on gay members, leaders

Most Americans -- 63 percent -- back a plan by the Boy Scouts of America to admit gay scouts for the first time, according to a new Washington Post-ABC New Poll.

Almost as many -- 56 percent -- oppose the Boy Scouts' plan to continue to exclude openly gay adults from the ranks of scout leaders, the poll found.

The scouts' National Council is scheduled to meet later in May to vote on the plans, which were unveiled last month.

Seven of 10 scout groups are chartered by religious institutions, including some (Catholic, Mormon, Protestant evangelical) that officially consider homosexual behavior a sin.

But the poll found that 56 percent of Catholics oppose the Boy Scouts' plan to bar gay adults from serving as Scout. Protestants were more closely divided, with 49 percent supporting the ban and 47 percent opposing.

Among atheists, agnostics and those with no church affiliation, 75 percent opposed excluding gay adults from serving as Scout leaders.

Pollsters also broke down the results along partisan lines: 68 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents said they opposed the plan to ban gay leaders, while 61 percent of Republicans supported barring them.

-- Tim Funk

Muslim teen has a few words of advice

When Noura von Briesen heard about the Boston bombings, her first reaction was: "Please, God, do not let it be a Muslim who did this."

Von Briesen, 18, grew up in Charlotte. Now she's a freshman at Duke University, studying mechanical engineering. And she's Muslim.

Her initial reaction, she wrote in a letter published in the Duke Chronicle, the campus newspaper, is the same one she's had following "every attack or shooting that has occurred in the United States since 9/11, and I guarantee I’m not the only Muslim who reacts this way."

In her letter, which she sent before the bombing suspects were identified, von Briesen also joined with "the millions of people across the country in praying for the victims of yet another horrible attack on innocents."

We now know that the alleged Boston Marathon bombers were, indeed, Muslims. And on their long list of victims – way below the murdered and maimed, to be sure – I would add Muslims such as von Briesen. They will again have to endure the harassment and suspicion of people who blame every one of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims for the evil actions of a few hateful extremists.

 In her letter, von Briesen, who wears a hijab, or head covering, counted the ways she has had to pay for the terror committed by those who misrepresent her 1,400-year-old religion: "I cannot walk down a street in rural North Carolina without receiving death glares, as if I am some kind of monster. I cannot stop and pray in public without having the word terrorist yelled at me. I cannot go through airport security without being 'randomly selected' and having my hijab checked for bomb dust. I cannot hear of an incident such as this without the heart-wrenching fear that someone will ask how ‘my people’ could commit such an act."

 Clearly, some young Muslims in the U.S. have become radicalized – including in North Carolina. It was Samir Khan, a Charlottean as recently as 2009, who once edited the al-Qaida magazine that allegedly taught the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston how to build a bomb.

But casting suspicion on all Muslims is like bunching Charlotte Christians with abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph or cross-burning Klansmen.

So, how can we replace fear and bigotry with understanding?

Last week, I called von Briesen – I profiled her Charlotte family a few years ago during Ramadan – and she offered some advice:

• Get to know some Muslims. Her own circle of friends includes Christians in her dorm.
• Go beyond the lurid headlines and learn something about Islam.
• And engage in dialogue. "What I wish," she said, "is that if people have questions, they would come and talk with a Muslim about it."

-- Tim Funk