c. 2003 Religion News Service
Bush Distances Himself From Military Official’s Religious Remarks
(RNS) President Bush declared Wednesday (Oct. 22) he does not agree with controversial statements made by a defense undersecretary, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says he has no plans to remove the lieutenant general during an investigation of his remarks.
Reports about comments made by Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin in church speeches have led to requests for his reassignment as well as defense of his right to free speech. Among other comments, Boykin said terrorists were trying to destroy the United States “because we’re a Christian nation.”
Bush, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, said the matter came up when he met with Muslim leaders in Indonesia.
“I said he didn’t reflect my opinion,” the president said. “Look, it just doesn’t reflect what the government thinks. And I think they were pleased to hear that.”
The White House went a step further, issuing a “global message” Thursday that declared: “Comments on religion by an American general weren’t the views of the president or those of the American government. We recognize that Islam is a peaceful religion which teaches respect and tolerance.”
Rumsfeld, who announced Tuesday that an inspector general will investigate the situation, said Wednesday he did not intend to ask Boykin to step down during the probe.
“He has requested an inspector general review of the matter, and I think that was an appropriate thing to do,” Rumsfeld said. “And we’ll let that play out.”
Members of Congress have issued statements and written to Rumsfeld with opposing views on the status of Boykin, who apologized to those he offended.
In an Oct. 17 letter, Virginia Sen. John Warner, Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat member, recommended an inspector general review to determine if Boykin’s behavior was appropriate.
Levin said Wednesday he and Warner think Boykin should be reassigned temporarily pending the outcome of the investigation.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who had earlier called for a reassignment or reprimand, said Tuesday that such a review is “insufficient to deal with the growing controversy.”
In a letter dated Wednesday to Rumsfeld, Rep. Tom Tiahrt, R-Kan., and 16 other House members said removing Boykin would be an “injustice” and he should be retained in his current position.
Religious leaders also continued to comment.
The Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners magazine, told Boykin in an open letter published in the SojoMail e-newsletter that he is “a product of bad theology and church teaching.”
While the American Humanist Association said that Boykin should be removed from his position, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said senators criticizing Boykin should be more worried about Muslim chaplains assigned to work with detainees at the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Seminary Adopts Statement Against `Open Theism’ Before Scholars Meet
(RNS) The trustees and faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have adopted a resolution opposing “open theism” ahead of a meeting of evangelical scholars where a vote will be taken on whether to exclude members who support that belief that God does not fully know the future.
“Open theism’s denial of God’s exhaustive definitive foreknowledge constitutes an egregious biblical and theological departure from orthodoxy and poses a serious threat to evangelical integrity,” reads the resolution adopted unanimously by the trustees of the seminary in Louisville, Ky., at an Oct. 14 meeting.
The trustees also affirmed that God has “the knowledge of all future free choices and actions of his creatures.”
The seminary’s faculty passed a similar resolution on Oct. 8.
The Evangelical Theological Society, which meets this year in Atlanta from Nov. 19 to 21, has been discussing open theism over the last few years. A majority of members attending the society’s 2001 meeting approved a resolution rejecting open theism.
Last year, Roger Nicole, a charter member of the society, brought charges against two fellow members who are considered advocates of open theism. He believes that John Sanders, of Huntington College in Huntington, Ind., and Charles Pinnock, a retired professor from McMaster Divinity College in Ontario, Canada, should be expelled because their writings are incompatible with the doctrinal basis of the society.
“If there’s a two-thirds vote to sustain the charge, then that individual will be dismissed from the society by the vote,” said James Borland, secretary/treasurer of the society.
Borland predicted more seminaries and other religious entities may take a stand on the issue of open theism.
“I think many are looking to the Evangelical Theological Society to set … the tone for it,” he said. “Some just don’t want to kick anyone out of anything for any reason.”
In June, delegates to the annual meeting of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches passed a resolution rejecting open theism.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jewish Interfaith Director Says Jews Must Engage Muslims
WASHINGTON (RNS) American Jews must engage Muslims around the world or risk abandoning them “to their most extreme influences,” the new interfaith affairs director for the American Jewish Committee said.
David Elcott, who was named to the post last month, said American Jews face a “time of huge anxiety” with growing anti-Semitism but said they must not retreat from dialogue.
“It’s time to engage, and that means going into places where we are not going to feel comfortable,” Elcott said in an interview with Religion News Service. “Unless we’re willing to do that, we should go back” into isolation.
Elcott will direct interfaith relations for the AJC in the United States, and will work with Rabbi David Rosen, who oversees international interfaith relations for the AJC from Jerusalem.
Elcott said Jews must also build better ties to mainline Protestant churches, who have sparred with Jewish groups over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Elcott also hopes to expand talks with Mormons, evangelicals and Hindu groups.
Muslims are a special concern for Elcott. He said last week’s comments by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that “Jews rule the world by proxy” shows the need for better relations.
“If I can’t engage them, then I’ve abandoned them to the most extreme influences,” he said. That includes Hindu groups in India who are resisting the growth of militant Islam in the world’s most populous democracy.
Elcott, who was raised in the Conservative movement, is married to a Reform rabbi and attends an Orthodox synagogue. He also has ties to the small Reconstructionist movement and served for 16 years as vice president for the Center for Learning and Leadership, a New York Jewish think tank, before becoming a private corporate consultant.
Elcott said most people are “hard-wired for goodness” and religions can help facilitate that. “How is it possible to be a faithful believer and be a pluralist at the same time? Being an advocate of my people and my tradition does not need to entail the negation of any other belief system.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Outgoing Disciples Leader Blasts Bush on Foreign Policy
(RNS) The outgoing leader of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) fired hard at President Bush for allowing the nation’s foreign policy to be run by “schoolyard bullies.”
The Rev. Richard Hamm officially retired from heading the 804,000-member church last weekend during the church’s General Assembly meeting in Charlotte, N.C.
At a prayer vigil for peace on Sunday (Oct. 19), Hamm blasted Bush and the “small group of ideologues (who are) running our nation’s foreign and domestic policy.”
“Our government has, in some ways, been pandering to our collective feeling of being scared little kids, demanding our own way in a big, scary world,” he said. “But now, in the face of all that is happening in Iraq, we are all beginning to see that the world today is a place for adults, not schoolyard bullies.”
In the weeks leading up to the start of war with Iraq, Bush declined to meet with mainline Protestant leaders who almost universally opposed the war. The only religious leader with misgivings about the war to meet with Bush was a personal emissary from Pope John Paul II.
“What concerns and offends me more is the fact that he would not even receive a delegation of his own bishops,” Hamm said. Bush is a United Methodist.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Hamm said the United States has withdrawn into isolationism and xenophobia, “drawing lines in the sand one after another” and ignoring “treaties and the United Nations Charter that we helped to write.”
“When the United States turns in on itself and ignores the rest of the world, except to exploit it economically, we breed enemies, enemies so resentful that they are willing to fly airliners into our buildings,” Hamm said.
The Disciples confirmed the Rev. W. Chris Hobgood to fill out the remaining two years of Hamm’s term as interim president and general minister. Hamm stepped down, citing fatigue.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Church of Scotland Set to Elect First Woman Moderator
LONDON (RNS) Next year the Church of Scotland’s general assembly will for the first time have a woman moderator.
Only two names have been put forward for consideration by the committee to nominate the moderator when it meets on Oct. 28.
One is Alison Elliot, an Edinburgh elder who is director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh and who was convener of the Kirk’s Church and Nation Committee from 1996 to 2000. The other is the Rev. Valerie Watson, minister of a group of six parishes near Kelso, Scotland.
Over the past few years many members of the Church of Scotland have thought it high time for the general assembly to have a woman moderator, and last year there was a public protest when no woman made it to the short list of three.
The moderator, who holds office for a year, chairs the annual meeting of the general assembly and during the rest of the year acts as an ambassador for the Kirk, visiting presbyteries at home and churches overseas as well as making an annual visit to the British Parliament around St. Andrew’s day, Nov. 30.
Strictly speaking, the moderator cannot speak for the church _ only the general assembly can do that.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Clergy sex abuse victim John Harris.
(RNS) “I signed because I had to, because it was the best thing to do for my own mental health. But it feels like signing a deal with the devil.”
_ John Harris, who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, on signing on to an $85 million settlement with church leaders. Harris will receive between $80,000 and $300,000. He was quoted by The Christian Science Monitor.
DEA END RNS
