c. 2007 Religion News Service

Advisers Resign, Rabbis Cancel Visit Over Carter’s `Palestine’ Book

(RNS) Fourteen members of an advisory group to the Atlanta-based Carter Center have resigned in protest over former President Jimmy Carter’s recent book and statements on the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.

At the same time, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), a group that represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis, canceled a visit to the Carter Center during the group’s scheduled March convention in Atlanta.

In a letter to Carter made public Thursday (Jan. 11), the one-time members of the advisory panel known as the Board of Councilors accused the former president of turning “to a world of advocacy, even malicious advocacy.”

“In your book, which portrays the conflict between Israel and her neighbors as a purely one-sided affair with Israel holding all of the responsibility for resolving the conflict, you have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side,” the one-time members said.

“We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position,” their letter said. “This is not the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support.”

The resignations were prompted by anger over Carter’s recently published book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” which is critical of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, and in remarks Carter has since made defending the book. Last month, former Carter Center Director Kenneth W. Stein resigned as a center fellow, saying the book is biased and marred with factual mistakes.

Carter has defended the book as fair and thorough. There was no immediate comment from Carter over the resignations, although the center’s executive director, John Hardman, thanked the former members for “their years of service and support … in advancing peace and health around the world.”

Among those signing the letter were William B. Schwartz Jr., who served as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas during the Carter administration, and Michael Coles, the chief executive of Caribou Coffee Company, the nation’s second-largest coffeehouse chain.

The resignations were welcomed by the Atlanta chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, which said those leaving the advisory group made a “principled stance by taking action to be faithful to their values.”

_ Chris Herlinger

Anglican Panel Sides With Fort Worth Diocese on Ordaining Women

(RNS) The global Anglican Communion’s top advisory panel said the Episcopal Church should clarify its policy on women’s ordination and emphasize that dioceses may elect bishops who will not ordain women.

The Panel of Reference, a 13-member international body appointed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to settle theological disputes, posted the report online Jan. 8, according to Episcopal News Service.

While the 2.2-million member Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, the Panel of Reference does not have the power to enforce its decisions.

The Episcopal Church decided to permit women’s ordination in 1976. In 1997,it decided that “no one shall be denied access to the ordination process … on account of his or her sex.”

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori _ the first woman to hold the job _ and Williams should discuss clarifying the Episcopal Church’s policy on women’s ordination, the panel said.

The diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, told the panel that the 1997 policy could mean their next bishop would have to accept women’s ordination. The Panel of Reference recommended changing the law “to make it absolutely clear” that women’s ordination is permitted, but not mandatory.

Forth Worth is one of three Episcopal dioceses that does not ordain women, and one of seven that has rejected Jefferts Schori’s leadership. The Right Rev. Jack Iker, bishop of Forth Worth since 1995, said “we are gratified that our conscientious position has been vindicated.”

The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, president of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus, said the panel’s report demonstrated “a flagrant disrespect for the Episcopal Church and our constitution and canons.”

“While we’re dismayed and distressed, we also realize that the Panel of Reference … has no legal or binding authority in the Episcopal Church,” said Kaeton, who is is rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul in Chatham, N.J.

Under what the Forth Worth diocese calls its “Dallas Plan,” parishes seeking a female priest, and women seeking ordination, may be placed under the oversight of the neighboring diocese of Dallas, which allows female clergy.

_ Daniel Burke

N.J. Says Clergy May Opt Out of Gay Civil Unions

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Members of the clergy, unlike mayors and other public officials who perform marriages, cannot be legally required to preside at ceremonies for same-sex civil unions, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said Thursday (Jan. 11).

The issue stems from a new law that allows civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. The unions convey all rights of married couples except for use of the word “marriage.”

The Attorney General’s Office had previously said mayors, deputy mayors, judges and township committee chairs who make themselves “available generally” to perform marriages also must be “available generally” to preside at ceremonies for civil unions, or they would be violating the state’s discrimination law.

But the law is not meant to apply to clergy, according to the seven-page advisory opinion by Attorney General Stuart Rabner.

Religious figures are not public officials in the legal sense, the advisory says, and their refusal to perform civil unions does not make the arrangement less available to people.

Citing a state statute that says religious organizations can marry people “according to the rules and customs of the society, institution or organization,” Rabner wrote, “It is apparent that the Legislature intended to permit members of the clergy to exercise the solemnization authority in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Most religious groups do not allow clergy to marry gay couples or bless same-sex couples. Exceptions include Episcopalians, Unitarians, and rabbis in Reform and Conservative Judaism.

_ Jeff Diamant

`United 93′, `Little Miss Sunshine’ Among Bishops’ Top 10 Films

(RNS) From the shadows of World Wars I and II to prim and proper turn-of-the-century England, the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ top 10 movies of 2006 are an eclectic grouping linked by themes of faith, community, family and a repudiation of violence.

The list includes tales of overcoming adversity, such as “Akeelah & the Bee,” the story of an 11-year-old from the inner city competing in a national spelling bee; “The Pursuit of Happyness,” about a father’s struggle to care for his son and make a life for himself beyond the city streets; and “Little Miss Sunshine,” the tale of one girl’s cross-country journey to compete in a beauty pageant, aided by her quirky family.

The list, which is published every year, was compiled by reviewers Harry Forbes and David Dicerto for the U.S. Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting.

“There was a surfeit of superior films in 2006 with solid moral underpinnings,” Forbes said in a statement. “From powerful anti-war films to inspirational true-life (though highly disparate) stories to a superior adaptation of a literary classic, they ran the proverbial gamut.”

The bishops also released a list of the year’s top 10 “family films” that included “Cars,” “The Nativity Story,” “Aquamarine,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Eight Below,” “Everyone’s Hero,” “Flicka,” “Happy Feet,” “Lassie” and “Opal Dream.”

The top 10 overall films (with excerpts of reviewers’ comments) include:

_ “Akeelah & the Bee”: “Inspiring messages about conquering fears, winning by honest means, the strength of community, and, above all, the beauty and potency of words.”

_ “Babel”: “Conveys an admirable message about a shared global humanity and the senselessness of violence.”

_ “Flags of Our Fathers”/“Letters From Iwo Jima”: “Dramas that tell the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the American and Japanese perspectives respectively.”

_ “Joyeux Noel”: “Tells a powerful message about the senselessness of war.”

_ “Little Miss Sunshine”: “A refreshingly offbeat tale that … comes over as an extremely positive validation of family and genuine values.”

_ “Miss Potter”: “The kind of quality film that’s all too rare.”

_ “The Pursuit of Happyness”: “The protagonist nurtures his son under trying circumstances with admirable decency throughout.”

_ “Sophie Scholl”: A “quietly powerful testament to bravery while examining themes of freedom of conscience and peaceful resistance to tyranny and imparting a strong anti-war message.”

_ “The Painted Veil”: “The love story, spiritual journey and final redemption of its heroine, are movingly conveyed.”

_ “United 93”: “A testament to heroism and a vivid cautionary tale, sensitively handled.”

_ Katherine Boyle

Quote of the Day: Christian Medical Association CEO David Stevens

(RNS) “By stressing the educational level of sperm and egg donors, this center is preying on parents who have fallen victim to the false notion that babies are a status symbol, and that intelligence, race or appearance are somehow measures of worth. Do we really want to grade babies like meat in a supermarket?”

_ Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association, reacting to news of a Texas fertility clinic willing to offer infertile couples and single women the opportunity to order embryos based on detailed information provided about them.

KRE/LF END RNS