Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR70 Compare Versions

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1	1	81R20578 MMS-F
2	2	By: Huffman S.C.R. No. 70
3	3
4	4
5	5	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, The Ecumenical Patriarchate, located in modern-day
7	7	Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, in the Republic of
8	8	Turkey, is the Sacred See that presides over a community of
9	9	self-governing churches of the Orthodox Christian world; and
10	10	WHEREAS, The See is led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,
11	11	who is the 269th direct successor of the Apostle Andrew and who
12	12	holds titular primacy as primus inter pares, "first among equals,"
13	13	in the community of Orthodox Churches worldwide; the Orthodox
14	14	Church has been in existence for nearly 2,000 years and numbers
15	15	approximately 300 million members around the world, with more than
16	16	2 million members in the United States; and
17	17	WHEREAS, The government of Turkey refuses to recognize the
18	18	international status and the rights and religious freedoms of the
19	19	Ecumenical Patriarchate, the head of the Greek Orthodox Christian
20	20	Church, which is a minority religion in Turkey; and
21	21	WHEREAS, The government of Turkey and Turkish prime ministers
22	22	have limited the candidates available to the Holy Synod for
23	23	selection as the Ecumenical Patriarch to Turkish nationals who have
24	24	performed mandatory military service in the Turkish armed forces,
25	25	and they continue to insist that any new spiritual head of Orthodox
26	26	Christians, including Orthodox Christians in Texas and throughout
27	27	the United States, be approved by them; because of selective
28	28	enforcement of laws and regulations, the once large eligible
29	29	community of Turkish citizens of the Orthodox faith has declined to
30	30	only approximately 2,500 persons, most of whom are elderly; and
31	31	WHEREAS, Before its closure, the Theological School of Halki
32	32	was the only educational institution for Orthodox Christianity in
33	33	Turkey; the school was closed in 1971 by Turkish authorities under a
34	34	law requiring that higher education in religion and minority
35	35	training be controlled by the state; and
36	36	WHEREAS, The United States Congress passed a resolution
37	37	expressing its sentiment that the Orthodox Theological School of
38	38	Halki in the Republic of Turkey should be reopened in order to
39	39	promote religious freedom; and
40	40	WHEREAS, The government of Turkey has reneged on its
41	41	agreement to reopen the Theological School of Halki, thus impeding
42	42	training for Orthodox Christian clergy within its borders; and
43	43	WHEREAS, In recent years, the government of Turkey has, in
44	44	violation of the inalienable rights of all peoples, confiscated
45	45	more than 90 percent of the properties of the Ecumenical
46	46	Patriarchate and has placed a 42 percent tax, retroactive to 1999,
47	47	on the nonprofit Balukli hospital, which is run by the Ecumenical
48	48	Patriarchate; and
49	49	WHEREAS, The dissolution of the spiritual head of Orthodox
50	50	Christian Churches in the coming decades is inevitable if Turkey
51	51	continues its policy of interference in religious matters, despite
52	52	the government's stated policy of being purely secular in its
53	53	dealings; and
54	54	WHEREAS, All Christians in our state, in the United States,
55	55	and around the world stand to lose this nearly 2,000-year-old
56	56	Sacred See, where the text of the New Testament was codified, the
57	57	canonical structure of the Christian church was established, and
58	58	the Nicene Creed was written and first pronounced; the
59	59	disappearance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate would mean the loss of
60	60	a crucial link between Christians and their religious history,
61	61	sacred texts, and religious forebears; and
62	62	WHEREAS, The disappearance of this See would also mean the
63	63	end of a crucial link between Christians and the Muslim world; at a
64	64	time when individuals hostile to the United States are attempting
65	65	to create conflict between Christians and Muslims, the continuing
66	66	presence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey is a powerful
67	67	testament to the coexistence of these two faiths in Istanbul since
68	68	1453; and
69	69	WHEREAS, Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
70	70	on America, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical
71	71	Patriarch Bartholomew, gathered international religious leaders
72	72	and produced the first statement signed by Muslim leaders that
73	73	condemned the attacks as "anti-religious"; and
74	74	WHEREAS, The importance of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
75	75	to the United States is reflected in the record number of
76	76	Congressional cosponsors of the measure that bestowed on him
77	77	America's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal of
78	78	Honor--an award also given to George Washington, Winston Churchill,
79	79	Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Pope John Paul II; and
80	80	WHEREAS, The European Union, a group of nations with a common
81	81	goal of promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples, began
82	82	accession negotiations with Turkey on October 3, 2005; and
83	83	WHEREAS, The European Union defined membership criteria for
84	84	accession to the European Union at the Copenhagen European Council
85	85	in 1993, obligating candidate countries to have achieved certain
86	86	levels of reform, including stability of institutions guaranteeing
87	87	democracy, adherence to the rule of law, and respect for and
88	88	protection of minorities and human rights; and
89	89	WHEREAS, The Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into effect in
90	90	1999, affirms that the European Union is founded on the principles
91	91	of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental
92	92	freedoms, and the rule of law; Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty
93	93	enables the European Council to take appropriate action to combat
94	94	discrimination based on religion or belief; and
95	95	WHEREAS, Turkey's current treatment of the Ecumenical
96	96	Patriarchate is inconsistent with the membership conditions and
97	97	goals of the European Union; and
98	98	WHEREAS, The United States has long been a beacon of hope for
99	99	vulnerable and disenfranchised people around the world, and the
100	100	State of Texas has long valued and defended the principles of
101	101	democracy, individual liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of
102	102	religion; as citizens of conscience of this great land, we bear both
103	103	the responsibility and the honor to raise our voices against
104	104	injustice in behalf of those unable to speak for themselves; now,
105	105	therefore, be it
106	106	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
107	107	hereby express its support for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and urge
108	108	the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations, as
109	109	leaders of the international community, to encourage the government
110	110	of Turkey to cease its discrimination against one of the oldest
111	111	institutions in Christianity, the Ecumenical Patriarchate; and, be
112	112	it further
113	113	RESOLVED, That the State of Texas call on the government of
114	114	Turkey to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on religion
115	115	and to immediately grant the Ecumenical Patriarchate appropriate
116	116	international recognition, the right to determine ecclesiastic
117	117	succession, and the right to train clergy of all nationalities;
118	118	and, be it further
119	119	RESOLVED, That the State of Texas call on the government of
120	120	Turkey to pledge to uphold and safeguard religious rights without
121	121	compromise; and, be it further
122	122	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
123	123	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
124	124	the United States ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, to the
125	125	ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States, to the
126	126	presidents of the commission, parliament, and Council of the
127	127	European Union, to the secretary general of the United Nations, to
128	128	the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
129	129	senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
130	130	Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this resolution
131	131	be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to
132	132	the Congress of the United States of America.