c. 2003 Religion News Service
Jewish Leaders Say Concerns Over `The Passion’ Were Justified
(RNS) Jewish leaders, who were alarmed by a draft script of Mel Gibson’s movie about the death of Jesus, said their initial fears were justified after attending a private screening of “The Passion.”
Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, previewed the movie Friday (Aug. 8) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Korn said the film threatens to “turn back the clock” on decades of progress between Christians and Jews.
“Sadly, the film contains many of the dangerous teachings that Christians and Jews have worked for so many years to counter,” Korn said in a statement.
Abraham Foxman, national director for the ADL, said “the film, if released in its present form, will fuel the hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate.”
Specifically, Korn said the film portrays Jews as “blood-thirsty, sadistic and money-hungry enemies of God” who forced the decision to execute Jesus. Korn said the film “oversimplifies history” and incorrectly depicts the Jewish high priest controlling the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
The ADL first raised concerns about the film with Gibson in March. After an independent group of Catholic and Jewish scholars cautioned in June that the film could portray Jews as “bloodthirsty, vengeful and money-hungry,” the ADL urged Gibson to revise the movie.
In response, Gibson threatened to sue, saying the scholars were unfairly judging from a leaked script. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops apologized to Gibson that some Catholic officials had joined in the critique.
The scholars refused to release their report and agreed to return copies of the script under threat of legal action from the actor/director. “To be certain, neither I nor my film are anti-Semitic,” Gibson said on June 13.
A spokesman for Gibson’s production company, Icon Productions, could not immediately comment on the ADL’s charges.
Several Christian leaders, meanwhile, have praised the movie. Gibson showed highlights from the film to Catholic bishops and the Knights of Columbus in Washington. The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, called the film “a love story,” while Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine, called it “the rebirth of great Catholic art in our time.”
“The movie is not anti-Semitic and does not need to be changed,” said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League. “Revisionist history is dishonest history and must be resisted.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
U.S. Army Appoints New Chief of Chaplains
(RNS) The U.S. Army has appointed Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) David Hicks as its new chief of chaplains.
Hicks, 61, who previously served as the deputy chief of chaplains, has almost 30 years of Army chaplain service.
He succeeds Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Gaylord Gunhus, who served as the chief of chaplains since July 1999, the Army said in an Aug. 5 announcement. Hicks’ new role became official at a July 17 ceremony.
In his new position, Hicks will oversee about 2,200 active duty, National Guard and Reserve chaplains from 120 faith groups serving worldwide.
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Hicks also has served as command chaplain at U.S. Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and in other positions in Germany, New Jersey, Georgia and Alaska.
“I am humbled and honored to be given the opportunity to lead the Army Chaplain Corps,” Hicks said in a statement. “As a new private years ago, I was brought to the ministry by the spiritual leadership and support of a Fort Campbell, Ky., Army chaplain. It has been a great journey and honor to carry the mantle of service as an Army chaplain by bringing hope, compassion and courage to soldiers and their families.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Presbyterian Youth Want to Talk About Sex, Just Not All the Time
(RNS) Young members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), like their cohorts in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, want their church to talk about sex _ just not all the time.
More than 500 high school students met in Louisville July 28-Aug. 3 for the Presbyterian Youth Connection Assembly. The delegates defeated a resolution that called on the larger church to “postpone the issue of the ordination of homosexuals.”
The youth also voted to “affirm the call of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered persons to all areas of ministry.” The 2.5 million-member church does not allow noncelibate gays and lesbians to serve as church officers.
Youth delegates said they do not want the church to become so focused on sexuality that it neglects other important issues. The church’s General Assembly voted in May to defer all questions on gay ordination to a task force on theological diversity.
“While the committee agrees that this issue should not take center stage, we feel it should stay on the table, as painful as it may be,” said A. J. Piccone of the Hudson River Presbytery in New York, according to the Presbyterian News Service. “We seek to discern God’s will throughout continued discussion.”
On July 23, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s youth organization voted overwhelmingly to welcome members of all sexual orientations and to be listed as a “Reconciling in Christ” organization that is gay-friendly.
The Presbyterian youth delegates also approved a statement on abortion that said, “We may not know exactly when human life begins, and have but imperfect understanding of God as the giver of life and of our human existence, yet we recognize that life is precious to God, and we should preserve and protect it.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
First Group of Cuban Jews Since Castro Took Power Visits Israel
(RNS) The first group of Cuban Jews to visit Israel since Fidel Castro’s rise to power has recently visited the Holy Land.
Ten Cuban Jews made an Aug. 7 pilgrimage to the site where the biblical Jewish Temples stood, after a year of tough negotiations with the Cuban government. Cuba has not maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since ties were severed after the 1973 Middle East war, the Associated Press reported.
The Cuban government was hesitant to allow the Jews to make the trip for fear they would not return.
The 10-day tour was organized by an Israeli government-funded program called “Birthright,” a project that brings around 15,000 young Jewish adults to Israel from around the world.
“I feel like I am walking in the Bible,” William Miller, a Jewish community leader from Havana, told the AP. “You read about all these places and now we are here.”
Miller said the trip marks an important step toward reviving Cuba’s Jewish community, which has dropped from 15,000 before Castro’s 1959 revolution to about 1,200 today.
Organizers said it took more than a year to convince the Castro government to allow the group, originally made up of eight young Jews, to visit Israel. Cuban authorities finally agreed and asked two Jewish community leaders to accompany the group to ensure that everyone returned.
“We just had to explain to the government why it was important for us as Jews to come to Israel. They understood,” Miller told the AP, noting that the Castro government has good relations with Cuba’s Jewish community.
Christians Urge U.S. to Use Influence to Protect Faith in India
(RNS) Indian Christians have asked the United States to do more to protect religious rights in India, where there has been a resurgence of attacks against religious minorities, an Indian evangelical bishop said during a meeting with State Department officials last Friday (Aug. 8).
At a meeting on Capitol Hill, Bishop Ezra Sargunam, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Church of India, submitted a memorandum on behalf of the Social Justice Movement of India highlighting alleged human rights violations.
Noting that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has changed tactics toward religious minorities by introducing legislation such as the Anti-Conversion Law, which punishes Indians who convert to Christianity by revoking the rights and privileges accorded to certain tribes and castes upon their conversion, Sargunam asked U.S. officials to exert pressure on the Indian government to counter what he called a dangerous trend.
In addition to the Anti-Conversion law, the bishop cited recent attacks on Christian priests. While performing a routine weekly Mass, a priest of the Capuchin order was assaulted near Bangalore by Hindu activists and supporters of the BJP, Sargunam said.
Sargunam also pointed to the recent arrest of the Rev. Suresh Thackaray in Gujarat, on allegations of desecrating a Hindu idol, as evidence that attacks on Christians are on the rise.
The U.S. administration’s reluctance to address the continuing human rights violations against religious minorities, Dalits or members of the untouchable caste, and other oppressed groups has been a source of frustration for Indian Christians, Sargunam said.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has not been permitted to conduct an official visit to India, a spokesperson said during last week’s meeting.
_ Alexandra Alter
Quote of the Day: Ralph Plumb, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles
(RNS) “There is still a mind-set that the homeless are substance abusers who have made bad life decisions. But more and more, they are individuals responding to a catastrophic financial event. The homeless are us. They’re regular folk.”
_ Ralph Plumb, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, quoted by USA Today.
DEA END RNS
