c. 2004 Religion News Service
At Request of Jewish Group, Target Pulls Kabbalah `Red String’
(RNS) Target has stopped selling bracelets made popular by pop icon Madonna and other celebrities after a Jewish group said the item commercialized a sacred religious tradition.
The International Society for Sephardic Progress (ISFSP), a Florida-based advocacy group for Jews of Spanish descent, protested when the Target Corp. began selling a red string bracelet it called “Kabbalah Red String.”
The string is believed to ward off evil. It is literally wrapped around what is believed to be the tomb, in Israel, of the biblical matriarch Rachel, who is seen as a protector and mother figure to adherents of Jewish mystical philosophy. The string is then sent to the United States to be sold under the auspices of the Kabbalah Centre, a Los Angeles-based organization.
Controversial in Orthodox Jewish circles for teaching that Kabbalah is not a Jewish philosophy but available to all people, the Kabbalah Centre sells a length of red string that makes between eight and 10 bracelets for $26.
Adherents wear the bracelets until they fall off, a period of time that they believe depends on the amount of evil the person is exposed to.
The ISFSP wrote to Target in early August, asking the company to halt sales of the product. The group noted that the U.S. government had denied the Kabbalah Centre a patent and trademark for “Red String” because of its religious meanings.
Target responded with a letter that stated the string had been removed from the stores and Web site and is no longer advertised or offered for sale. Target did not respond to a request for public comment, but the ISFSP celebrated the decision.
“The Jewish people should not allow the corporate exploitation of their religion,” wrote Shelomo Alfassa, executive director of the ISFSP, in a statement lauding Target’s decision.
“Judaism, as well as Kabbalah, which is an inherent part of our sacred tradition, is not for sale, period.”
Kabbalah Centre co-director Rabbi Michael Berg said the commercial aspect of his center’s work is not a detriment to the ideals of the Kabbalah because all proceeds of the sales benefit the nonprofit organization.
“None of it goes into my pocket,” Berg said in an interview. He said proceeds go to a “Spirituality for Kids” program, which provides free after-school programs in a dozen cities and operates two day schools in the United States. Bracelet revenues also go toward courses offered at Kabbalah Centres worldwide and even telephone lessons for people who do not live near a center, he said.
Berg added that anyone who cannot afford books, red string bracelets or other products his center sells will be given one for free.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Crisis Magazine Publisher Hudson to Resign After Controversy
(RNS) Deal Hudson has announced that he will resign from his position as publisher of Crisis magazine, a decision the Catholic leader made a month after stepping down as an adviser to President Bush’s re-election campaign.
The conservative publisher announced in an e-mailed statement Tuesday (Sept. 21) that he told the magazine’s board he will step down as of Jan. 1 and move on to direct a new Morley Institute that will work to continue financial support for the publication.
The plans come a month after he resigned as a Bush campaign adviser when a decade-old sexual misconduct charge against him resurfaced.
“As you can imagine, the past month has been very difficult for both me and my family,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the recent adverse publicity about me, and the criticism that followed, influenced my decision. As long as I remain publisher of Crisis, I’ll be a source of controversy.”
Hudson, who said the decision was “my call,” added that the controversy had caused “great pain” to his family members.
“The plain fact is, I’m tired of being a lightning rod.”
Hudson said earlier that he was questioned by a Catholic newspaper about sexual harassment charges filed against him by a student while he was an assistant professor at Fordham University, a school he left in 1995.
“No one regrets my past mistakes more than I do,” he said in a column posted in mid-August on the Web site of National Review Online.
Prior to his previous resignation, Hudson was an adviser to the White House and a close associate of White House political adviser Karl Rove.
He plans to work on a book on how Catholics can be politically involved.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Anti-Abortion Activists Try to Energize Voters
(RNS) A wide array of anti-abortion activists, including officials of many religious groups, gathered in Washington on Thursday (Sept. 23) to call on Americans to vote for candidates who oppose abortion in the upcoming election.
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, announced that his Staten Island, N.Y.-based group would spend $1 million to involve Catholic priests and lay people in political strategizing against abortion prior to the Nov. 2 election.
“What America will decide on Nov. 2 is what type of government it wants to be _ the type that claims authority over innocent human life, or the type that recognizes that there are rights no government can tamper with, and truths no court can change,” said Pavone, who hosted the news conference at the National Press Club.
Asked if he was specifically campaigning for President Bush’s re-election, Pavone said: “That’s the conclusion that many people can draw and certainly we want people to draw conclusions. … The message is more about abortion than about any particular candidate.”
He said the $1 million that will be spent on the Priests for Life campaign _ including media programs and ads, sermon samples and voter guides _ has already been raised through grass-roots fund-raising efforts.
Pavone and others said their efforts are aimed at local and regional elections as well as the national one.
Dozens of other speakers representing a range of religious, racial, ethnic and political persuasions took turns at the microphone to state their agreement that abortion should be a decisive issue as people go to the polls.
Several women spoke briefly of their personal experience with abortion. Carrie Gordon Earll addressed the issue on behalf of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“As a public service, society should sacrifice and change for women, not force women to sacrifice their children and their dignity in order to succeed,” said Earll.
Other participants included representatives of politically affiliated groups such as the Libertarians for Life and Democrats for Life and speakers of Protestant, Orthodox and Muslim faiths.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Evangelicals to Discuss Response to Islam
(RNS) Coming together for their first world summit on evangelism in 15 years, 1,700 Christians will gather Sept. 29-Oct. 5 in Thailand to find faith-spreading strategies for a world transformed since 1989.
The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization will tackle 31 challenges to evangelism, ranging from poverty to AIDS and a rise in religious nationalism. With a goal of reaching a world made tense by Sept. 11 and its aftermath, these leaders will brainstorm how best to engage non-believers in these uneasy times.
The question “is not `How do we convert Muslims?”’ said Roger Parrott, president of Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., and chairman of the meeting. “It’s `What is the evangelical response to the Muslim community?’ Until the evangelical community can get the right posture toward the Muslim world, I don’t think God is going to bless anything we do in evangelism.”
Participants speaking 58 languages are coming from 130 countries to Thailand, a largely Buddhist nation, which Parrott said was chosen largely for its convenient location for the developing world. About half of those in attendance come from Western Europe and North America. The other half are from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. For the Lausanne Committee, the meeting marks the fourth summit since 1974.
Once gathered, this assembly of mostly evangelical missionaries, pastors and academics will grapple in small groups with the issues laid before them. Among the topics are how to work with nontraditional families, residents of new urban slums and people who learn via spoken words and pictures.
At the conclusion, groups proposing new pathways will present their suggestions at a plenary session. From there, strategies will be translated and circulated to as many churches as possible worldwide.
“This is not about position papers,” Parrot said. “It’s about concrete action plans.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Under Pressure From Jewish Groups, Wal-Mart Pulls Anti-Semitic Book
(RNS) Retail giant Wal-Mart has agreed to stop selling the anti-Semitic book “The Protocols on the Learned Elders of Zion” after receiving complaints from Jewish groups.
Wal-Mart said in a statement Friday (Sept. 24) that “we have made a business decision to remove this book” based on “significant customer feedback.”
Wal-Mart had been selling the book, a discredited tale of a world Jewish conspiracy, on its Web site.
In early September, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, sent a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott after one of the Jewish human rights group’s supporters alerted Cooper’s office.
“One of our members sent us a link to the site,” said Cooper in an interview.
The “Protocols” has been widely dismissed for years as a forgery created by Russia’s pre-Soviet czarist police, yet the book is read and believed today in anti-Semitic circles and was a part of the founding of the Islamic militant group Hamas.
“Hamas quotes directly from the `Protocols’ in its 1988 charter,” Cooper said. “It’s part and parcel of its founding documents. They invoke it.”
The Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Web sites also sell the book but with content warnings that were lacking on the Wal-Mart site. Cooper said he did not think Wal-Mart intentionally was trying to “make a buck” off the “Protocols” but speculated that the book somehow found its way into the retailer’s extensive online selling bin without proper scrutiny.
“I have no doubt that there was no conscious decision at all by Wal-Mart,” said Cooper.
Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman said Wal-Mart’s decision to drop the book made sense.
“I would guess that part of their thinking was, `This is another headache we don’t need,”’ said Foxman. “The (online) description of it sounded like it was a regular nonfiction book. But it’s a notorious forgery that continues to be part of the anti-Semitic arsenal.”
Foxman had advocated that Wal-Mart carry a “Protocols” disclaimer similar to those on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble sites. Cooper suggested the book itself be removed and then replaced online with one or several of the annotated deconstructions of the “Protocols,” which include chapter-by-chapter refutations.
“This is a white-hot, third-rail, alive hate tract,” said Cooper.
_ David Finnigan
BBC to Drop `Popetown’ Cartoon Series Offensive to Catholics
LONDON (RNS) The BBC has announced it will not broadcast “Popetown,” a cartoon series set in the Vatican featuring sinister cardinals and a childish pope.
The Thursday (Sept. 23) decision was welcomed by Roman Catholic officials.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster, said: “I raised this issue with the BBC. I am very happy they have heeded my wishes and the concerns of Roman Catholics.”
Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth, chairman of the bishops’ strategic communications committee, also expressed relief.
“It was obviously going to be a controversial program which would have caused offense, not least among the Catholic community who hold the person of the Holy Father in the highest regard and affection,” said Hollis.
“Any attempt to belittle or diminish his status as the leader of the Catholic Church is totally unacceptable, and not only to Catholics.”
According to the BBC’s publicity material, issued when the series was first announced two years ago, in Popetown “cardinals are sinister, corrupt and mysteriously wealthy, and the pope is an infuriatingly childish 77-year-old whose every fickle whim must be indulged.”
The series would have been shown this year on BBC 3, one of the BBC’s new digital channels which has a potential audience of about 6.5 million.
_ Robert Nowell
Report Accuses Mainline Protestant Groups of Singling Out Israel
WASHINGTON (RNS) A conservative watchdog group released a report Monday (Sept. 27) asserting that mainline U.S. Protestant organizations criticize Israel for human rights practices more than any other foreign country. But mainline groups contested the report’s methodology and conclusions.
The Institute on Religion and Democracy report said it examined official statements by mainline groups and found that 37 percent of all criticisms of human rights violations were directed against Israel, with 32 percent against the United States and the remaining 31 percent against 20 other nations.
“Israel is certainly responsible for some human rights abuses, as are all nations,” said IRD President Diane Knippers in a statement. “But an extreme focus on Israel, while ignoring major human rights violators, seriously distorts the churches’ message on universal human rights.”
The IRD report examined criticisms found in resolutions, press releases and articles from 2000 to 2003 by the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, along with the U.S. National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.
The report said that the church groups did not criticize at all what IRD categorized as the “worst of the worst” human rights abusers, such as China, Libya, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
The Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said the report erroneously assumed that all that the NCC says about human rights gets reported in news releases and resolutions, ignoring, among other things, its 1963 human rights policy, which was reaffirmed in 1995.
“The most unfortunate part of the IRD’s report is its apparent attempt to hurt Jewish-Christian relations by quite blatantly planting seeds of suspicion that the main churches are anti-Semitic,” said Edgar. “The IRD wrongly and dangerously equates any criticism of the government of Israel and its policies with anti-Semitism.”
A spokesman for the United Methodist Church dismissed the credibility of the IRD report, describing it as part of a policy of criticism by the group.
“It’s totally predictable that they’d put this out just before the presidential election,” said Jim Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society. “It is an attempt to convince people that major churches are somehow anti-Israel, anti-U.S.”
_ Itir Yakar
Graham Confirms Health Improved for Fall Crusades
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham has confirmed that his health has improved enough for him to continue with plans to preach in Kansas City, Mo., and Los Angeles this fall.
“I feel better than I expected to at this point and I am thankful that God has strengthened me for continued ministry,” Graham said in a statement released Thursday (Sept. 23). “I appreciate everyone’s prayers on my behalf and I look forward once again to bringing a message of God’s love and forgiveness to the people of Kansas City and Los Angeles.”
The evangelist suffered two serious falls that resulted in surgeries earlier this year for partial hip replacement and the repair of a pelvic fracture.
On top of health challenges, Graham has joined other Americans in enduring recent hurricanes. The home he shares with his wife in the mountains of western North Carolina suffered minor damage after Hurricanes Frances and Ivan.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who continue to recover from these devastating storms, and especially with those who have lost loved ones,” he said.
Graham’s next crusade is set for Oct. 7-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, followed by the Los Angeles crusade, to be held Nov. 18-21 at the Rose Bowl.
“We are not just reaching out to touch hearts but also homes to make a difference in the lives of the impoverished and needy in the urban setting,” said the Rev. Jack Hayford, co-chair of the Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade, in a statement.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Week: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles
(RNS) “Personally for me it’s been a time of great spiritual renewal. I know the priests, when I talk to them sometimes, a lot of priests say, `I wish it would all go away.’ … And I said, `That’s where you’re missing it. This is our ministry now. Our ministry is to heal victims and heal the church.”’
_ Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, reflecting on the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
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