3 who influenced religion

During Black History Month, the Daily News is looking at the accomplishments of some of the influential but less-celebrated African-Americans who made their marks in American history.

These are men and women who inspired the dreams, fanned the flames and stood in the thick of revolutionary change, but are often short-changed in the history books.

Here are three such individuals.

Adam Clayton Powell Sr. 1865-1953

He was the grandson of slaves, the father of a flamboyant namesake congressman and a towering figure in his own right.

As a boy, Powell, a Virginia native, is said to have learned the alphabet in a day. A year later, he was reading from the Bible.

A grandfather nudged Powell toward the ministry and he eventually served as pastor of churches in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The pastorate that made him famous, however, was at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City.

Under Powell's leadership, Abyssinian practiced a social gospel that did not limit itself the pulpit and pews; the church operated a facility for the aged, helped feed the poor and agitated for racial and economic justice.

By the mid-1930s, Abyssinian claimed 14,000 members, making it the largest Protestant congregation in the United States.

Mamie Smith 1883-1946

Bessie Smith was better known, but Mamie got there first.

Her hit, "Crazy Blues," recorded in 1920, was the first blues vocal ever recorded and also the first recording by an African-American woman.

Despite that distinction, Smith did not think of herself primarily as a blues singer - she was a vaudevillian who sang many different styles.

The Cincinnati-born vocalist spent the '20s and '30s barnstorming across the United States with her Jazz Hounds, a band that included such luminaries as James "Bubber" Miley and Willie "The Lion" Smith.

Matthew Alexander Henson 1866-1955

On the day in 1887 that he first met explorer Robert Peary, Henson, though only about 21 years old, already had experience as a stevedore, seaman, bellhop and coachman.

Peary thought Henson might make a valuable valet on Peary's attempt to become the first man to reach the North Pole.

Peary soon discovered that Henson's abilities and experiences made him even more valuable as a colleague.

As Peary once put it, "I couldn't get along without him."

The men mounted seven expeditions to the Arctic, including the last, in 1908 and 1909, when they finally stood together at the top of the world, the first explorers to do so.

Religion News in Brief

LONDON - Muslim women should be allowed to wear a veil in British courts, as long it does not interfere with court proceedings, senior judges said in guidelines published Tuesday.

Decisions on whether to allow the full facial covering, known as the niqab, should be made on a case-by-case basis, the Judicial Studies Board's Equal Treatment Advisory Committee said.

The guidance was issued after an immigration judge adjourned a case in Stoke-on-Trent, in central England, last November because he could not hear a Muslim lawyer who refused to remove her veil. The case resumed after her firm sent another lawyer to represent her client in court.

Forcing a woman to choose between participating in a court case or removing her veil could have a "significant impact on that woman's sense of dignity" and could exclude and marginalize her, the panel said.

The issue of face-covering veils has stoked debate over religious tolerance and cultural assimilation in Britain, which is home to 1.6 million Muslims.

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw provoked a stir in October when he said he requested _ but did not insist _ that Muslim women remove face-covering veils during one-on-one meetings. Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the time that veils were seen as a "mark of separation."

Southern Baptist baptisms drop for 2nd straight year

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ The number of baptisms in Southern Baptist churches has fallen for the second consecutive year despite a push by top leaders to evangelize.

At the same time, national membership increased by less than 1 percent, but more churches were built, according to the 2006 profile of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, a Southern Baptist agency that conducts the annual survey, said the findings show that denomination has not been effective in "stepping up to the task of sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world."

Baptisms dropped from 371,850 to 364,826, or 1.89 percent, last year, the lowest annual total since 1993, according to Baptist Press. In 2005, baptisms decreased by 4.15 percent.

National membership reached 16,306,246, up by nearly 36,000 in 2005. The number of churches across the country increased by 524, or 1.2 percent, to a total of 44,223.

The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Biden says Democrats must convince voters on faith issue

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) _ Democrats must convince voters that the party is comfortable with religion or else risk losing the presidential race next year, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden said.

"I think my party has to demonstrate that it's not afraid to deal with the faith issue, and has a candidate who the public thinks knows there's something bigger than he or she is and is comfortable with that," said Biden. "We treat it like a third rail within our party."

Biden, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke April 20 during a taping of Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press" program.

Biden said Democrats don't have to demonstrate deep religious faith, but they must make clear their understanding of religion's role in the nation's life. He said religious Americans accepted President Clinton, flaws and all, because he understood the importance of faith for the country.

"When Clinton sat in my Catholic church, people didn't think he was a paragon of virtue, they thought he respected them, they thought he was comfortable with them," Biden said.

Vice President Al Gore, when he ran for president in 2000 against George W. Bush, was far more reluctant to talk about faith and never connected with voters on the issue, Biden said, even though "Al Gore was as pure as the driven snow, fidelity was everything about him."

Biden has barely registered in polls, even though he sought the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election cycle and campaigned heavily in Iowa before dropping from the race. He said many people are making a mistake by treating those early polls seriously. He said most voters are willing to change their minds.

Monument dedicated to victims of clergy abuse in Catholic diocese

GRAND MOUND, Iowa (AP) _ A monument honoring the victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests has been placed near a small eastern Iowa parish where a predator once served.

Parishioners of the SS. Philip & James Catholic Church in Grand Mound unveiled the granite monument last Sunday. They and members of a group called Catholics for Spiritual Healing raised the $4,000 needed for the creation and placement of the 3 1/2-foot-high monument.

The torch and flame design depicts an angel and a small boy carrying a Bible.

The verse is from Luke 12: "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."

The monument is inscribed, "dedicated to our children who survived abuse by those we trusted."

It will be placed in the yard outside the parish, the last stop in the 40-year career of James Janssen, a former priest who worked in the church from 1980 to 1990. Janssen was accused of sexually assaulting about a dozen boys in six parishes over three decades. The church placed him on indefinite leave in August 1990 and defrocked him in 2004.

Deacon David Montgomery, spokesman for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, which includes Grand Mound, said Bishop Martin Amos was invited to the ceremony but had previous commitments and couldn't attend.

"He's very pleased that they're doing this," Montgomery said.

Diocesan leaders have asked every parish to have a statute or item "signifying the importance of protecting God's children and reminding everyone of the scars of abuse."

The Diocese of Davenport has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of abuse claims.

Malaysia's Muslim men shirk financial duties to divorced wives, activists say

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Many Malaysian Muslim men who divorce their wives are ignoring their responsibility to provide for their children because the Islamic legal system fails to punish them, a women's rights group says.

Sisters In Islam said women who were unable to get their ex-husbands to pay child support comprised nearly one-third of the 214 complaints it received in the first three months of 2007, adding that those cases constitute "only a small fraction of what is happening."

"Mothers are forced to beg from their children's fathers so that their children have sufficient food, clothing, shelter and education," the group said in an April 21 statement.

Sisters In Islam said Malaysia's Muslim women are suffering a lack of legal protection in a wide range of issues such as polygamy, where men who take multiple wives sometimes neglect the economic and emotional welfare of their families. Some Muslims interpret Islamic teaching as allowing a man to marry up to four women.

The Islamic Shariah Court is the legal authority in disputes involving families, morality and religion for Muslims, who form nearly 60 percent of the 26 million people in Malaysia, which has Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.

Monks call for Buddhism to be Thai national religion as Muslim insurgency rages in south

BANGKOK, Thailand: Hundreds of monks rallied in Thailand on Tuesday for Buddhism to be enshrined in the constitution as the country's national religion, amid a worsening Islamic insurgency in the Muslim south.

More than 2,000 people have died since 2004 in the country's three southernmost provinces along the Malaysian border in an insurgency fueled by concerns among Muslims that they have been discriminated against, especial in educational and job opportunities, in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.

The call from the monks revives a debate that dates back to 1997 when a campaign to make Buddhist the national religion was dropped amid concerns that it would divide the country.

The issue is heating up again as a new constitution is being drafted by a committee appointed by coup leaders who ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September.

The coup leaders have promised to put a new constitution to voters in a referendum as early as September.

Along with holding a silent rally outside of Parliament, monks sent a representative Tuesday to meet with Prasong Sunsiri, the chairman of the constitutional drafting committee, to press their demands that Buddhism be included.

"It must be pointed out that this national religion campaign is taking place amid widespread paranoia within the clergy against Islam following the southern violence," Sanitsuda Ekachai, a columnist for the English daily Bangkok Post, wrote earlier this month. "There has also been wide distribution of leaflets alleging that Islam is a threat to Thai Buddhism."

More than 90 percent of Thailand's 64 million people are Buddhists, and the remainder are either Muslim or Christian.