c. 2005 Religion News Service
Conservative Rabbi Urges Conversions for Non-Jewish Spouses
(RNS) The head of the Conservative Jewish movement says Jews should focus more energy on reaching out to intermarried couples while urging the non-Jewish member to convert.
Rabbi Jerome Epstein delivered a 35-minute address Tuesday (Dec. 6) to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which was gathered in Boston for its weeklong biennial meeting.
“Although attitudes of welcome and warmth are important and creating Jewish cultural and social connections should be applauded as vital first steps, these acts are hardly sufficient to guarantee Jewish survival. To achieve that end we must focus our outreach. Our goal must be to raise Jewish families,” Epstein said.
Epstein cited an intermarriage rate that has decreased slightly in recent years, particularly in Conservative congregations, but nonetheless has “permanently changed the texture of Jewish American life.”
He explained that in the face of these changes, synagogues must do more than simply welcome interfaith couples _ they must actively reach out to the non-Jewish members of those families and urge them to convert.
To achieve this goal, Epstein laid out his vision, which includes shifting the movement’s focus from “keruv,” the Hebrew word for “to bring close,” to “edud,” which could be translated as “passionate encouragement” or “compassionate urging.”
The “edud initiative” will include educational programs for both parents and children, as well as encouraging summer camp, Jewish day school and Israel experiences for youth. Synagogues are urged to establish keruv/edud committees at their congregations to oversee these efforts.
In late November, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Reform Jewish movement, addressed his denomination’s biennial with a similar message.
“We want families to function as Jewish families, and while intermarried families can surely do this, we recognize the advantages of an intermarried family becoming a fully Jewish family, with two adult Jewish partners,” Yoffie said in his speech.
The Conservative movement claims more than 1.5 million members and 760 congregations.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Muslim Leaders Praise Acquittal of High-Profile Professor
(RNS) Calling it a blow against the guilt-by-association mentality that has dogged the Islamic community since Sept. 11, Muslim leaders are celebrating the acquittal of a Florida professor accused of assisting a violent Palestinian group.
Jewish groups, however, expressed disappointment.
Sami Al-Arian, a high-profile professor fired from his tenured position at the University of Southern Florida in 2003, was cleared Tuesday of eight criminal counts, including terrorist support, while the jury was deadlocked on the remaining nine counts.
“The jurors were able to put their biases aside and look at the case based on evidence, rather than emotion _ something that has been hard to do in the post-9/11 climate,” said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Central Florida office.
David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, also praised the jury for “showing fealty” to the First Amendment right to free speech.
“The prosecution pursued a sweeping guilt-by-association theory, seeking to try Al-Arian for the crimes of the Palestine Islamic Jihad, without offering any evidence that he sought to further any of its illegal acts,” said Cole, a critic of the Patriot Act, the law that allowed for submission of secretly gathered evidence in the trial.
Muslim leaders, however, distanced themselves from Al-Arian’s fiery rhetoric from the 1990s, when he described Jews as “pigs and monkeys” and said “Death to Israel.” Al-Arian has said that he does not support the killing of any civilian.
“He made comments that I would disagree with, but those comments were not illegal,” said Ahmed Rehab, director of communications for the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Chicago office.
Art Teitelbaum, the Miami-based Southern area director of the Anti-Defamation League, said his group was “disappointed” by the verdict.
“We are not in a position to second-guess the jury, but whether Professor Arian is guilty or not, there’s no question that he has applauded terrorism as a legitimate device, and that makes him morally corrupt,” said Marc Stern, assistant executive director of the American Jewish Congress in New York.
_ Andrea Useem
Pope Commemorates Anniversary of Second Vatican Council
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A life free of sin is not “boring,” Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Nov. 8), marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, which aimed to modernize the Roman Catholic Church.
Speaking on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the German pope touched on the council’s reforms but focused his comments on the significance of an 1854 doctrine that says Mary was conceived free of original sin, or “immaculate.”
“Man nurtures the suspicion that God, at the end of the day, takes something away from his life, that God is a competitor who limits our freedom and that we will be fully human only when we will have set him aside,” Benedict said.
“There emerges in us the suspicion that the person who doesn’t sin at all is basically a boring person,” the pontiff said.
Addressing the legacy of the council, Benedict praised former popes for “working ceaselessly for the faithful interpretation and implementation” of the reforms, which led to groundbreaking change in the Catholic Church.
In particular, the council replaced the Latin Mass with local language ceremonies and called for dialogue with other faiths and denominations.
Implementation of the reforms, however, remains a deep source of controversy among many Catholics who disagree over whether the “spirit” of the council called for greater liberalization of church government.
As a reform-minded “pertitus,” or theological expert, the then Rev. Joseph Ratzinger played a key role in the council sessions, advising Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne who led the push for more “collegiality,” or power-sharing between Rome and local diocese.
Years later, Ratzinger would begin to question the legacy of the council, expressing concern that it had unleashed a drive for liberalization that undercut church tradition.
As the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II, the then Cardinal Ratzinger cracked down on several theologians and churchmen who challenged traditional church teaching.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Oregon Case Raises Legal Question of Who Owns a Church
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) After hearing more than three hours of sometimes heated debate, a U.S. bankruptcy judge will decide who owns the pews that Catholics in Western Oregon sit in each Sunday.
The issue argued before Judge Elizabeth Perris on Tuesday (Dec. 6) is whether parish property belongs to individual parishes or to the Archdiocese of Portland, which encompasses 124 parishes, three high schools and about 400,000 parishioners.
The ruling will be closely watched nationally for the precedent it could establish for all religions regarding church property disputes. In Portland, the issue is whether the parishes’ estimated $500 million in real estate, cash and investments is available to pay millions of dollars in child sexual-abuse claims.
Perris has set no timetable, although she is expected to rule within the next several weeks. It’s also possible that she will skip a ruling and order a trial instead. A trial would enable her to consider factual evidence, in addition to the purely legal arguments that lawyers have presented so far.
Sexual-abuse plaintiffs first posed the property ownership question to Perris in August 2004. That was one month after the Archdiocese of Portland became the nation’s first Roman Catholic diocese to file for Chapter 11 protection in the wake of multimillion-dollar sex-abuse lawsuits.
The bankruptcy came the same day that the archdiocese was scheduled to go to trial in a $135 million sex-abuse lawsuit involving the late Rev. Maurice Grammond. The archdiocese had already made settlements totaling $53 million for more than 130 previous claims. The bankruptcy froze dozens more claims seeking hundreds of millions more in damages.
Tuesday’s hearing covered ground from obscure real estate law to broad constitutional questions of religious freedom.
_ Steve Woodward
Muslim College Worker Who Condemned Homosexuality Wins Appeal
(RNS) A Muslim graduate student and university employee has won an appeal to have a letter removed from his permanent file that reprimanded him for sending an e-mail condemning homosexuality.
Jihad Daniel, a graduate student and employee at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., sent the head of the women’s studies department a one-paragraph note last March. He complained about a mass e-mail she sent announcing an on-campus showing of a film about a lesbian relationship.
Daniel, who is Muslim, e-mailed the professor asking not to be included in any further announcements about events involving homosexuality.
“These are perversions,” Daniel wrote the professor. “The absence of God in higher education brings on confusion. That is why in these classes the Creator of the heavens and the earth is never mentioned.”
The professor filed a complaint, and officials on the Wayne campus found Daniel guilty in June of violating state discrimination and harassment regulations. A formal reprimand from William Paterson President Arnold Speert was placed in Daniel’s employment file.
The case gained national attention when the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based civil rights group, stepped in to help Daniel appeal the reprimand.
Daniel, 63, was told Tuesday (Dec. 6) he won his appeal, and the letter would be removed. He was, however, verbally reprimanded for sending a personal e-mail while at work.
“Nobody should have to go through what Mr. Daniel did merely for expressing religious beliefs in a nonviolent and non-threatening way,” David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said in a statement. “The harassment charge was ridiculous from the beginning, and the many attempts to pass the buck on upholding the First Amendment were deplorable.”
Campus officials declined to comment on the case.
“We don’t discuss personnel matters,” said Stuart Goldstein, a William Paterson University spokesman.
_ Kelly Heyboer
N.J. Governor Who Resigned Under Scandal Finds Gay-Friendly Church
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Former Gov. James McGreevey, who struggled to square his Catholic faith with his political positions even before he declared himself a “gay American” last year, has been regularly attending services at Episcopal churches.
A former Catholic altar boy, McGreevey, 48, said at a recent Hackensack fundraiser that for the past several months, he’s been splitting time between the Church of the Holy Comforter in Rahway, N.J., and St. Batholemew’s Church in Manhattan.
McGreevey would not say whether his attendance at the two Episcopal churches signaled a break from the Roman Catholic Church, and he declined to answer additional questions posed by a reporter.
“I’m just here to support a good cause tonight,” he said.
McGreevey was a “guest of honor” along with actor Matthew Broderick at the fundraiser, held to raise cash for “Claiming the Blessing,” a national group that promotes a greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church.
McGreevey was invited to the fundraiser by Louie Crew, a prominent figure in the Episcopal Church and the founder of Integrity, an Episcopal gay and lesbian group.
Asked whether it was appropriate to honor McGreevey, who resigned in scandal last year after publicly acknowledging an extramarital affair with another man, Crew said McGreevey had made a “horrible mistake” but that he had “paid a huge price.”
Crew, in making a toast at the fundraiser, touched on McGreevey’s exit from government and on the long-running speculation, dating to his days as mayor of Woodbridge, that he might be gay. Addressing McGreevey, Crew said, “You know what it means to go from presumed to no longer presumed.”
The Episcopal Church is far more liberal on gay rights than the Catholic Church. Throughout his political career, McGreevey highlighted his Irish Catholic roots, but some of his personal beliefs _ including support for abortion rights and the death penalty _ run counter to church teachings.
The divide between McGreevey’s political positions and the church’s stance came to a head in April 2004, when Trenton Bishop John Smith singled out the former governor for criticism.
At the time, McGreevey said the Vatican was forcing on politicians a “false choice between one’s faith and the importance of governing in an open, democratic society.”
_ Jeff Diamant and Mark Mueller
World Council of Churches Says Global Warming a Spiritual Crisis
(RNS) The World Council of Churches on Friday (Dec. 9) told a major environmental meeting in Montreal that global warming and climate change is not only a technological and economic issue but a spiritual crisis as well.
The statement was prepared for presentation at Friday’s final session of the United Nations-sponsored Nov. 28-Dec. 9 meeting of some 90 nations on extending the Kyoto Protocols aimed at reducing global warming by reducing emissions from fossil fuels.
Some 10,000 official delegates, observers, environmentalists, business representatives and religious leaders are attending the meeting.
It used a refrain _ “We would like to light a candle” _ to introduce each section of the seven-paragraph statement outlining the international ecumenical organization’s views on the controversial issue of global warming and how it should be combated.
The United States, for example, has not ratified the Kyoto accord and President Bush has said it would be an economic disaster if implemented. The accord came into force in February, without the United States’ participation.
“We would like to light a candle because we want to remind us all of the pain and disaster that is already suffered in various regions of the Earth due to climate change,” the WCC statement said. It said climate change had already caused forced migration of people and said future disasters could affect people living in the Artic and the Pacific islands.
“We would like to light a candle because by burning down the candle we want to remind us all that time is running out,” the statement said in another section.
“We pray that an agreement may be reached for negotiating equitable and sustainable targets for post-2012,” the WCC said.
However, it seemed unlikely the final document that will be adopted by the UN delegates at the end of the session would have any of the commitments called for by the WCC.
Instead, the delegates appeared to be near an agreement outlining a vague road map extending the Kyoto Protocols _ without a timetable or new goals. Currently, the agreement calls for emission cuts of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by the 2008-2012 period. The Kyoto agreement expires in 2012 but requires that participants begin talks now.
_ David E. Anderson
Membership Trends Look Grim for Canadian Anglicans
TORONTO (RNS) A grim new report says the Anglican Church of Canada is losing 13,000 members each year and faces extinction by the middle of this century if trends are not countered.
Membership in the Anglican Church has fallen by 53 percent over the past 40 years and continues to drop by 2 percent a year, the steepest recorded decline of any mainstream Canadian church, the study says.
The report, presented in October to a closed-door meeting of the church’s House of Bishops, is a wake-up call, concedes the primate of the Canadian Anglican Church, Andrew Hutchison.
“It’s causing us to refocus our efforts on issues that we haven’t been able to address effectively in recent years,” Hutchison told the National Post newspaper.
He said that for several years the church has thrown its “energy and attention” into settling abuse cases at Indian residential schools, at the expense of “Church development.”
After years of legal wrangling, the federal government last month offered a $1.9 billion compensation package to tens of thousands of aboriginal Canadians who attended church-run Indian residential schools.
Observers say the worldwide Anglican Church’s protracted debate over homosexuality is also thinning the pews.
The Canadian report, prepared by Keith McKerracher, a volunteer adviser to the church, shows that between 1961 and 2001, Anglican dioceses’ rolls in Canada plunged from 1.36 million to 642,000.
And the decline is accelerating: Membership fell by 13 percent from 1981 to 1991, and by a further 20 percent between 1991 and 2001.
McKerracher says his warning to Anglican bishops was clear: “My point was, `We’re declining much faster than any other church. We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That’s 2 percent a year. If you take that rate of decline and draw a line on the graph, there’ll only be one person left in the Anglican Church by 2061.’
“The church is in crisis. They can’t carry on like it’s business as usual.”
McKerracher suggested the church conduct marketing research to find out why people are fleeing. “But I don’t think the Anglicans will do anything. They talk things to death.”
_ Ron Csillag
Happy/Merry Chrismukkah!
(RNS) Hanukkah starts at sundown on Christmas Day this year, and to Ron Gompertz that means the “mother of all Chrismukkahs.”
Gompertz, a Jew from New York City, and his Christian wife, Michelle, launched Chrismukkah.com last year, offering for sale a host of cards, T-shirts, ornaments and other items blending Christmas and Hanukkah icons.
“We got opposition from the pundits of the religious right, both Christian and Jewish … for what we thought was a lightweight, whimsical tribute to harmony,” Gompertz says.
But Chrismukkah.com has only increased its offerings, and Gompertz says business so far is three times better than last year.
Chrismukkah’s target audience is interfaith families. It’s a market other card companies have noted as well.
Owner Kathy Doll at Kathy’s Hallmark in Lower Paxton, Pa., carries six cards blending Christmas and Hanukkah greetings. That’s more than Hallmark made last year, she said.
“Basically we pretty much sell out of them. That’s why they increase the number,” she says.
The Hallmark cards are all fairly serious. Chrismukkah.com is less reverent. “We aim to arouse your secular senses,” the Web site says. “We pray our inspirational collection … will do just that.”
_ Mary Warner
French Poll of Muslims Finds Anti-Semitism, Attachment to French Values
PARIS (RNS) Nearly half of practicing Muslims among France’s ethnic immigrant population are likely to be anti-Semitic, a new study finds.
Forty-six percent of practicing Muslims _ compared with 30 percent of non-practicing Muslims _ have anti-Semitic views, the survey said.
“It’s a concern,” said Vincent Tiberj, a researcher for the study billed as the one of the most holistic to date of France’s Muslim population.
But the wide-ranging survey by the Institute of Political Studies in Paris also shows that a large percentage of Muslims aren’t particularly religious, and many strongly ascribe to the country’s official separation of church and state.
Those surveyed were generally better educated than the average French person, and more to the political left.
“These new French are generally well integrated. There’s a real attachment to the values of French society,” said Tiberj.
The findings come at a time of soul searching in France following three weeks of violence last month, largely by ethnic North African youths. The unrest cast doubt on French efforts to integrate generations of immigrants and their offspring _ many of them of Muslim origin.
The study surveyed roughly 1,000 naturalized French citizens and first- or second-generation immigrants over the age of 18. It found that about 59 percent described themselves as Muslims. Among those, only about one in five said they went to mosque regularly.
Those who described themselves as Muslims, however, tended to hold strong views on a number of social mores. Four out of 10 approved of installing separate swimming hours for women and men in public pools. About the same number condemned homosexuality.
The new survey underscores the heterogeneous nature of French immigrants of ethnic origin _ who often are simply categorized as Muslims, Tiberj said.
“It’s time French think differently” he said. “They need to realize that being French isn’t necessarily being … Catholic. That there are many types of French with different religions, different colors, different stories.”
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Quote of the Week: Catholic League President Bill Donohue
(RNS) “They’d better address this, because they’re no better than the retailers who have lost the will to say `Merry Christmas.”’
_ Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League, reacting to the 2005 White House Christmas card that includes “best wishes for the holiday season” but no mention of Christmas. He was quoted by The Washington Post.
END RNS
