c. 1997 Religion News Service
National Cathedral sues over film’s use of sculpture
(RNS) Frederick Hart’s artwork was not supposed to be a spur to Satan’s lurid imagination.
So when Hart saw his sculpture”Ex Nihilo _ Creation of Mankind Out of Nothing,”which graces the Washington National (Episcopal) Cathedral, depicted as an erotic work in the film”The Devil’s Advocate,”he filed suit.
On Friday (Dec. 5), the National Cathedral said it has joined Hart in the suit against the Warner Brothers film company and its parent, Time-Warner, for wrongful and illicit use of the cathedral’s sculpture.
They claim the film’s use of the sculpture, which is above the west entrance of the cathedral, is a perversion of a sacred image.”We feel the use and replication of this sculpture in the film not only infringes the copyright in the work, but also wrongly depicts its theological intent,”the Rev. Nathan Baxter, dean of the cathedral, said in a statement.
Hart, in an interview with the Washington Post, said,”At first I felt revulsion, and then an outrage that hasn’t left me. (They are) destroying the meaning of my life’s work.” Hart, 54, is best known for his”Three Soldiers”bronze sculpture on display at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
Liberal Catholic reformers flop on U.S. petition drive
(RNS) The effort by U.S. Roman Catholic liberals to gather 1 million names on a petition calling for church reforms including optional celibacy for priests and ordaining women to the priesthood, has foundered, leaders of the We Are Church umbrella organization have acknowledged.
Instead of the hoped-for 1 million signatures, which were to be gathered by Dec. 1, the group managed to collect only 37,000 names, said Sister Maureen Fiedler, the U.S. coordinator of the drive.”Most Catholics didn’t know the petition existed,”Fiedler told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”The campaign never took off.” She said the group, which had a budget of about $200,000, lacked the resources to reach large numbers of Catholics. There are more than 60 million Catholics in the United States.
The petition drive was launched in Austria in 1995 before spreading to Germany, Britain and other European countries. Internationally, some 2.5 million Catholics _ most from Germany and Austria _ have signed the We Are Church petition.
Fiedler said polling data showed large numbers of U.S. Catholics favor the changes sought by the reformers and campaign organizers initially believed getting 1 million signatures would be”a cinch.” But, she added, the organizers also found that getting names on a petition was different from gettying anonymous responses to a pollster.
WCC official: Greed threatens global warming treaty
(RNS)”The greed of certain rich industries and countries that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels risks destroying any chance for an effective treaty to address the worldwide problem of climate change,”said David Hallman, a top official at the World Council of Churches.
Hallman, a Canadian who heads the Climate Change Program at the Geneva-based WCC, cited the United States, Japan and Canada as resisting proposals that would reduce the carbon dioxide emissions many scientists believe are responsible for a gradual warming of the climate.
Hallman made his comments in Kyoto, Japan, where government officials from around the world have been meeting for the past week in an effort to hammer out a pact to stop global warming.
The effort has been mired in disputes between the United States and Europe and between rich and poor nations.
The European Union has called for an agreement that would cut emissions by 15 percent from their 1990 levels by the year 2010 while the United States _ even as Vice President Al Gore warned global warming could create floods of”biblical proportions”_ wants to stabilize emissions at their 1990 level.
Developing nations argue curbing their emissions will harm economic development.”People and other species are already suffering from the impact of human-caused climate change in vulnerable areas such as the Pacific Islands, sub-Saharan African and low coastal regions,”Hallman said.”Such suffering is going to be much more widespread around the world and in the future unless we rapidly change our values systems and put the life and well-being of the many above the profits and luxury of the few.” The WCC has been active in raising the ethical dimensions of climate change for the past decade and recently initiated a petition campaign in which churches in 23 industrial countries gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for a strong treaty to come out of Kyoto.
Orthodox Jewish leaders take opposing stands on conversion issue
(RNS) Two leading U.S. Orthodox Jewish voices have taken opposing positions in the fray over proposed Israeli legislation that would cement into law Orthodox control over that nation’s Jewish religious life.
The proposed law would give the Orthodox legal final say over all conversions to Judaism in Israel.
Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Israel of America, has announced his group’s intent to spend $2 million on newspaper advertising to counter what he said was the vilification of Orthodoxy by non-Orthodox Jewish groups that has occurred during squabbles over the legislation.
Sherer, a leading figure of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, also rejected any attempt at compromise with Reform and Conservative Jews seeking legal standing in Israel by having their conversions also accepted.
At the same time, Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of New York’s Yeshiva University, modern Orthodoxy’s flagship educational institution, urged acceptance of a compromise to prevent a furthering of the rift between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jewish religious movements as a result of the conversion bill fight.”We should vigorously support compromise produced by the Ne’eman Committee. Communal peace is also a principle of Judaism,”Lamm said during a recent meeting of modern Orthodox leaders in Spring Glen, N.Y., the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service reported Dec. 2.
The Ne’eman Committee is a panel established by the Israeli government to seek a compromise on the conversion issue.
Since Israel’s founding, Orthodox Jews have had defacto control over Jewish religious life there, including conversions. But recent court victories have given the non-Orthodox a legal foothold, prompting Orthodox politicians to propose legislation that would reverse the legal rulings.
The issue has polarized the Jewish world, enraging America’s Reform and Conservative leaders who have spent more than $2 million of their own money to attack Orthodox leaders and push for religious pluralism in Israel. In addition to publishing newspaper ads, U.S. Reform and Conservative leaders have made repeated trips to Israel to lobby on behalf of their cause.”Reform and Conservative leaders are trying to brainwash the Israeli public to accept their movements”as legitimate”versions”of Judaism, Sherer said at his organization’s recent annual convention held in Parsippany-Troy Hills, N.J.
Although both Sherer and Lamm are traditionalists who adhere strictly to Jewish religious law, Lamm’s modern Orthodox movement has historically been open to working with non-Orthodox Jews on non-theological issues. Sherer’s ultra-Orthodox group shuns most contacts with non-Orthodox Jews.
Public policy group turns down recognition of Christian caucus
(RNS) A group of Christian public officials say they may go to court to force the National League of Cities (NLC) _ a trade association of urban government officials _ to recognize their caucus as a constituency group within the organization.
The Christian Public Officials Caucus, a group of 100 urban officials who want to stress Christian principles and morals when making public policy, said they are being discriminated against on the basis of their religion by the NLC, USA Today reported Monday (Dec. 8).
The 1,450-member NLC focuses on improving the state of municipal government. It currently recognizes constituency groups representing Hispanics, Asians and gays, USA Today said.”Whoever thought that Christians would be a persecuted minority?”Cynthia Davis, a member of the caucus said.
Christian caucus members said recognition would give them a voice in shaping NLC policy, but NLC officials said that would be inappropriate.”It’s not appropriate for an organization of elected officials to have as a constituency group a religious-based organization,”said Donald Borut, NLC’s executive director. He said the NLC did give the Christian caucus space on its annual meeting program and a room to hold its own meeting. But the NLC will not officially recognize the organization.
Caucus members held a vote at a Thursday (Dec. 4) meeting and decided to bring their case to the American Center for Law and Justice, the Virginia Beach, Va., legal advocacy group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.”We don’t want to be confrontational, but we do want to do what is right,”said Dave Wood, a caucus member and councilman from League City, Texas.
World Vision ships aid to famine-stricken North Korea
(RNS) World Vision says it has sent the first of three new shipments of relief supplies to famine-stricken North Korea.
More than $100,000 in clothing and wool cloth left World Vision’s Pittsburgh distribution center for the communist nation Wednesday (Dec. 3), officials of the evangelical relief agency said.
North Korea has suffered famine conditions, economic decline, natural disasters, malnutrition, disease and starvation for the past few years and a host of U.S. and other religious and humanitarian groups are responding to the need while pressing world governments to boost their aid.
Since 1995, World Vision has provided more than $5.3 million in assistance in food, seed, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals to North Korea.
Calvin’s `Institutes’ translated into Russian
(RNS) John Calvin’s”Institutes of the Christian Religion,”one of the foundational documents of the Reformed wing of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation have been translated into Russian for the first time.
The new translation is being published by CRC Publications World Literature Ministries, an arm of the Christian Reformed Church.”This project is so significant because it has the potential to get people into a serious study of the Bible like no other project,”said John De Jager, director of World Literature Ministries.”The belief of significant leaders in the Russian community is that a serious study of the Bible can lead to establishing biblical principles within Russian society,”he added.
Calvin’s seminal book provides a systematic view of the theology and meaning of Reformed Christianity.”Today many Russian Christians are asking for help in understanding the Reformed view of faith and life,”De Jager said.”They know that John Calvin helped to systematize that view, and they want to read his writings for themselves.”
Place named new head of Catholic Health Association
(RNS) The Rev. Michael D. Place has been named the new president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association.
Place most recently served as a policy development official for the Archdiocese of Chicago and was the senior adviser to the archbishop on health-care issues.”The association and the Catholic health ministry will greatly benefit from Place’s organizational awareness and analytical thinking, as well as his personal commitment to the values that the ministry contributes to the delivery of health care in this nation,”said David Lincoln, chair of CHA’s 25-member board.
Place replaces John Curley Jr., who retired after 18 years in the post.
CHA is the national association representing more than 1,200 Catholic hospitals and other health facilities and organizations nationwide and has an annual budget of $13 million.
Quote of the day: Church consultant and author Lyle Schaller
(RNS)”The critical issue in society is a shortage of competent leadership with the kind of passion that generates followers. This is also the critical issue for churches. What in your churches are you doing to produce leaders for the next generation? We have shifted from producers to consumers.” Church growth consultant and author Lyle Schaller at a Dec. 3-5 conference sponsored by the Leadership Network on the topic”What’s Next?”
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