When you launch an app from Apple's X11's launch menu, it doesn't get fink's init script beforehand. This is easily shown by the fact that they aren't in the path; I had to put them as /sw/bin/appname. This is a problem in some apps in that their font selection and font smoothing won't show through, for example, this is evident in all GTK2 apps. Also, apps will lack sound. However, if launched from an xterm, they'll be fine, as the xterm runs the init script for fink. The solution is to use a path through a script for launching the apps, but running the init first.
You can call this file whatever you want, and store it wherever you want, but I called it .x11launch.sh for easy location, and so it'd be hidden. Inside the script, I have:
#!/bin/sh
source /sw/bin/init.sh
$@ &
Then in my X11 app menu I have:
sh ~/.x11launch.sh appname
Modify the appname to match your program, and the file/location for what you called the script, and it should be fine. I get font smoothing in Pan and GQView, and sound in FreeCiv, without launching from a terminal this way.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030810041738494