A 35-year-old church with a predominantly Black congregation was heavily damaged by fire this morning in Enid, Oklahoma, the latest in a string of such fires. The fire was described as suspicious. Yesterday, in Greeleyville, South Carolina, at the new home of the Mt. Zion AME Church, which was burned last year, President Clinton called for Americans to stand as one against the forces of hatred.

President Bill Clinton: “We have to say, all of you who’ve been afflicted by this, we know that we’re not going back to those dark days, but we are now reminded that our job is not done. I pledge to you I will do everything I can to prosecute those responsible for the rash of church burnings, to prevent future incidents, to help communities to rebuild. But Americans must lead the way.”

Republicans accused Clinton of using the Black church burnings as a campaign issue. Church members say the two men charged with the Mt. Zion burning are suspected members of the Ku Klux Klan. And the Southern Baptist Convention is offering prayers, money and volunteer labor to help the congregations of Black churches which were destroyed by fire. The Baptists have been meeting in New Orleans. Southern Baptists in Florida already have raised $50,000 to help rebuild the churches, and a collection among convention delegates yesterday was to raise more money for the cause. Last year, the predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution apologizing for past and present racism in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention voted yesterday to ask its 15.5 million members to boycott Walt Disney Company’s products and theme parks for allegedly disparaging Christian values. The nonbinding resolution approved by the 19,000-plus delegates sharply criticized the company for extending health benefits to same-sex partners of gay employees and for distributing what it called “objectionable materials” that it said undermined Christian values.

In Washington, a House committee yesterday passed a bill to restrict gay marriages, barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions and letting states take the same stand if other states legalize them. The bill, which President Clinton has said he will sign, was prompted by a pending court case in Hawaii that might legalize same-sex marriages in the state. If so, other states would have to recognize such marriages performed in Hawaii.

In Philadelphia yesterday, a panel of federal judges issued the first major ruling on free speech on the internet. The decision blocked enforcement of the Communications Decency Act, a new law banning indecent material on the web. Paul DeRienzo reports.

Paul DeRienzo: “The availability of vast amounts of pornographic materials on the net, and the ease with which children outstrip their parents’ knowledge of the medium, prompted congressional conservatives and liberals alike to attempt to extend laws banning so-called indecent speech on the internet. Indecent materials are normally protected by the First Amendment, but in some cases, such as radio and television broadcasting, those protections have been weakened in the interest of protecting children. One of the arguments made by supporters of the CDA is that children are more sophisticated than parents when using computers, and therefore parents need the government to step in. But in their decision, the judges wrote, as chaos is the strength of the internet, chaos and unfettered speech are the strength of liberty. In New York City, the American Civil Liberties Union, which played a leading role in challenging the law, held a news conference to praise the judge’s decision. ACLU head Ira Glasser says proponents of the CDA forget today’s children are tomorrow’s parents, and the First Amendment is part of their heritage, as well.”

Ira Glasser: “We could not have tolerated a law which made it a crime for Barnes & Nobles to put no books on their shelves except those that were suitable for children, and for the government to decide, to boot, what was suitable for children. That problem has existed before the internet. It will exist before the — after the internet. And as far as the kids being more sophisticated, well, maybe that’s true for this generation. But the kids who are sophisticated today will be the parents tomorrow. And they will be just as sophisticated and have just as sophisticated technology. And this is a decision and this is a medium that’s going to last for more than one generation. It’s a bogus issue. It’s been a bogus issue from the beginning. This was a political stunt, and the court has exposed it as such.”

Paul DeRienzo: “Opponents of the CDA admit there’s a lot of offensive material available on the internet, but they say laws already exist prohibiting child pornography and hardcore obscenity. But a spokesperson for the conservative Family Research Council, Kristen Hanson, says the panel of judges were too liberal.”

Kristen Hanson: “It’s kind of like leaving a loaded gun in a playground. And what else should we expect? The panel was handpicked by the ACLU. It’s a sweeping, radical decision, and that allows adults to knowingly send and display pornography to minors on the internet. But we do think that it will be overturned, either by the Supreme Court or the full court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”

Paul DeRienzo: “If the injunction goes to the Supreme Court, a decision could come by this time next year. For Pacifica Network News, I’m Paul DeRienzo in New York.”

Republicans yesterday elected Mississippi’s Trent Lott to be their new Senate majority leader, voting 44 to 8. Lott said he plans to follow in the path of his predecessor, Bob Dole.

Sen. Trent Lott: “We do want to control the size and scope of government. We do want to return decisions back to individuals and state and local governments. We do want entitlement reform for the security of those programs and the future of our children being able to rely on that. We do want to control the rate of growth of government.”

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is a close ally of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.