c. 2007 Religion News Service

Church Leaders Visit Tehran in Hopes of Defusing Nuclear Tensions

WASHINGTON (RNS) A delegation of 13 U.S. Christian leaders is in Iran this week (Feb. 17-25) to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to foster dialogue between Iran and the U.S. and promote a diplomatic solution to tensions between the two countries.

The group has arranged meetings with Christian and Muslim religious leaders, women serving in the Iranian parliament and former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Several delegation members met with Ahmadinejad during his trip to New York City last fall, when the idea for the visit to Iran was born.

The trip was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group. Others participating include Sojourners/Call to Renewal; the Episcopal, Catholic and United Methodist churches; the National Council of Churches and Pax Christi USA.

The leaders also hope to use person-to-person exchanges between Iranians and Americans to help each group overcome cultural and religious stereotypes.

“People in our country and people in their country have many misunderstandings,” said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee. “We want to try to forgive each other and come to an understanding about how we can go forward in a peaceful way.”

David Robinson, the executive director of the Catholic organization Pax Christi USA, said he believes the trip will help change persistent stereotypes about Iranians.

“We have a real opportunity to have dialogue, to get past the enemy images that have been in the U.S. culture for over 30 years now, since the hostage crisis,” Robinson said. “Overcoming (these stereotypes) … could very well help to overcome the growing tension between our nations.”

The delegation also hopes to address Ahmadinejad’s comments denying historical evidence for the Holocaust and a recent conference he held in Iran on the subject.

“We are very concerned about his remarks,” McNish said. “We were concerned about the conference. We believe the Holocaust is a historical fact, and one of history’s greatest human tragedies, and we believe we need to continue to engage him on this.”

McNish said the group was “not enthralled” with some of Ahmadinejad’s answers to their questions about his position on the Holocaust and Iran’s nuclear ambitions during their meeting in New York. However, she added that “the key to the whole trip is that dialogue and diplomacy are the key to the future” for Iran and the U.S., not “threatening rhetoric” by either side.

_ Katherine Boyle

Professor Pulls Book With Controversial `Blood Libel’ Claim

JERUSALEM (RNS) The author of a controversial new book that says a small number of Jews living hundreds of years ago may have ingested the blood of Christian children has asked his publisher to stop distributing the book.

The book, “Easter of Blood,” by Italian Jewish professor Ariel Toaff, has resurrected charges of “blood libel.” Toaff said Thursday (Feb. 15) he wants to “re-edit those passages which comprised the basis of the distortions and falsehoods that have been published in the media.”

Toaff teaches at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. His book has deeply upset Jews around the world, who say it spreads unsubstantiated and dangerous claims that a group of Jewish zealots living in the Italian city of Trento between the 11th and 14th centuries consumed the blood of Christian children to avenge widespread Christian persecution of the Jews.

For centuries, Christians and others have used the blood libel claim to justify the torture and murder of Jews. Jewish leaders now fear Toaff’s book will spur anti-Semitism.

Jewish leaders, including Toaff’s own father, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome, have denounced the book, stressing that its blood libel assertions are based on statements made by Jews subjected to torture.

“There has never existed in Jewish tradition any permission or custom for using human blood for ritual purposes. Such a practice is considered with horror,” senior Italian rabbis said in a joint statement. “It is absolutely improper to use centuries-old statements, extracted under torture, to formulate singular and aberrant historical theses. The only blood shed in these stories is that of many innocent Jews.”

In a statement, Bar Ilan University said it “condemns and repudiates” charges based on Toaff’s book circulated in the media.

Toaff said he was “astounded by the sheer force of these misrepresentations, which turned what is a research book into a vehicle used to harm Judaism and the Jewish people and, God forbid, as a justification for blood libel.”

The historian said he will donate all earnings from the book’s publication to the Anti-Defamation League.

“I will never allow any Jew-hater to use me or my research as an instrument for fanning the flames, once again, of the hatred that led to the murder of millions of Jews,” Toaff said.

_ Michele Chabin

Biblical Translator Bruce Metzger Dies at 93

(RNS) Bruce Metzger, a revered biblical scholar who was both respected and sometimes criticized for championing the use of modern language in translating the Bible, has died at the age of 93.

Metzger, a long-time professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and a towering figure for students who used to joke that he had actually written the Bible himself, died of respiratory failure Tuesday (Feb. 13) in Princeton, N.J.

Metzger is likely to be best remembered as the editor of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, a work first introduced in 1989 and which eliminated many, though not all, of the Bible’s masculine pronouns. It became the standard text used in many colleges, seminaries and divinity schools.

That work was an extension of the Revised Standard Version (RSV), released in its full version almost 40 years earlier and which eschewed much of the archaic language of the King James Bible. Metzger served on the translation team for the RSV, which was the first to use material from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The turn to modern language and the goal of trying to eliminate much of the Bible’s non-inclusive language did not always sit well with some theological conservatives _ though some feminist scholars were critical as well, saying the new version did not go far enough in removing masculine references to God.

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today pointed out that Metzger believed that some extra-biblical books were “inspired” but not canonical. That belief, some evangelicals said, appeared to undermine the contention that biblical scripture is inerrant, Christianity Today reported.

Nonetheless, both theological conservatives and liberals praised Metzger as a giant in his field.

Darrell Bock, a research professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, said Metzger was “one of the great Christian statesmen and New Testament scholars of the last century.” Eileen Lindner, the deputy general secretary for the National Council of Churches (NCC), which holds the copyright to both the RSV and NRSV, said Metzger’s “enthusiasm for the Bible as an ever-present guide for Christians (was) second only to his scholarship about the Bible.”

Metzger, an ordained Presbyterian minister, was professor emeritus of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary at the time of his death. He was a graduate of Lebanon Valley College, Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University.

_ Chris Herlinger

NYC Valentine’s Day Condom Distribution Draws Bishops’ Ire

(RNS) New York City Catholic leaders are criticizing the city health department’s Valentine’s Day distribution of condoms, saying it degrades society.

The subway-themed condoms debuted on Wednesday (Feb. 14) when volunteers handed out an estimated 150,000 free samples to people during their morning commute. The packaging mimicked the distinctive designs of the New York subway system.

Cardinal Edward Egan, head of the Archdiocese of New York, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn said in a joint statement: “Our political leaders fail to protect the moral tone of our community when they encourage inappropriate sexual activity by blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms.”

The two bishops said the cost of the distribution could have been better spent fostering “what is true and what is decent.”

The city has promoted the condoms with new marketing slogans “New York City: We’ve got you covered” and “NYC condoms. Get some.” In an effort to increase condom use in the city, the campaign will supply the condoms free of charge at subways, phone booths and other public places.

New York City’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said, “Condoms can prevent HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancies.”

He said while “abstinence is fail-safe,” for sexually active people, “using a condom is key to staying healthy.”

DiMarzio and Egan added that the only way to protect against these diseases is through abstinence before marriage and fidelity between married couples. They called the city’s plan to encourage condom use “tragic and misguided.”

_ Melissa Stee

Town, Church Shocked by Sexual Abuse Case Against Woman, 84

THE DALLES, Ore. (RNS) A rosy-cheeked 84-year-old church volunteer with a penchant for gardening and a reputation for kindness pleaded guilty Thursday (Feb. 15) to charges of having sexual intercourse with an 11-year-old boy in her care.

Georgie Audean Buoy was arrested almost a year ago. Buoy, who was 82 at the time of the offense, was sentenced to three years in prison, and the district attorney felt compelled to offer proof to the doubters.

“We have a taped confession,” said Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley. “Anyone who wants can ask me for a copy of it.”

Leslie Wolf, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said Buoy serves as a reminder that the identities of sex offenders often surprise people once they become known.

“Most sex offenders don’t have any criminal record at all,” she said, “and that’s why we trust them.”

David Clear, pastor of the Covenant Christian Community Church where Buoy has been a member for more than 20 years, said she greeted parishioners on Sundays and opened her house to anyone who needed a place to stay.

“We are obviously supportive, but this is not the Audean that we have known for the last couple of decades,” he said. “It completely deviates from the person that we have known.”

Buoy told detectives when she was arrested last February that she took in as many as 30 foster children for temporary stays, usually less than a month, over a two-year period.

Officials at the Oregon Department of Human Services said Buoy was not a foster parent for the agency. It’s not clear why or under what circumstances the child was placed in Buoy’s care.

In the summer of 2004, she took in the 11-year-old boy for three months. She told detectives that she heard the boy had been abandoned as a baby. Buoy described the boy as very mature, saying he seemed more like 15 or 16.

At the time, Buoy was living alone with her husband of nearly 45 years. Elmer “Ed” Buoy, whose health problems forced him to sleep in a different bedroom. Audean Buoy acknowledged that she was lonely.

She and the boy would stay up late watching TV in her sewing room. Buoy said hugs led to kisses and eventually to sexual contact when he would crawl into her bed.

During an interview with detectives from the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office and the Oregon State Police, Buoy confessed to one encounter of sexual intercourse. The boy, who told a counselor about the sexual contact after he left the home, said there were more encounters.

Buoy pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree attempted sexual abuse as part of a plea agreement that spared the now 14-year-old victim from testifying. She could have faced a maximum sentence of 200 months.

Buoy must turn herself on Feb. 29 to begin serving her sentence. Hoeing weeds in her garden on Thursday, she had little to say. “I feel fine,” she said. “There’s nothing else I can share.”

_ Aimee Green, Robin Franzen and Kathleen Blythe

Commission Denies Press Reports of Moving Anglicans Under the Pope

ROME (RNS) An Anglican-Catholic commission has warned that doctrinal disputes within the Anglican Communion are an obstacle to unity between the two churches.

An upcoming report by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission lays out areas of doctrinal agreement and disagreement between the two churches and outlines ways to continue ecumenical dialogue.

But, contrary to reports in the British press, officials said the report does not lay out a plan for Anglicans to unite under the pope. The commission said “talk of plans to reunite the two communions is, sadly, much exaggerated.”

The commission chairmen _ a Catholic archbishop from Australia and an Anglican bishop from South Africa, rejected press speculation that Catholic leaders might view disputes within the Anglican Church as an opportunity to draw conservative Anglicans closer to Rome.

The document, “Growing Together in Unity and Mission,” was leaked to the Times of London on Monday (Feb. 19). Final copies of the report are expected in April, and early versions were distributed to Anglican leaders meeting in Tanzania to discuss ongoing divisions over human sexuality.

The report acknowledges disagreement among Anglicans over those issues and the ordination of women priests. It says the “present context” of dispute would make it premature to issue a formal Anglican-Catholic statement of shared beliefs, which was the goal set by Anglican and Catholic bishops who launched the commission in 2000.

In their rebuttal to the Times report, the commission’s co-chairmen said the Vatican’s ecumenical office “has consistently spoken of the value of the Anglican Communion remaining a Communion.”

_ Francis X. Rocca

Bishop Cancels Contracts With Cell Phone Company Over Porn Access

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) The Catholic archdiocese for Greater Vancouver has ordered its 140 parishes and schools to cancel their mobile phone contracts over their phone company’s decision to directly sell adult content on its cell phones.

“I am directing Catholic churches and schools to not renew their mobile phone contracts with Telus and seek an alternate phone provider that does not facilitate the downloading of pornography through its own network,” Archbishop Raymond Roussin announced Friday (Feb. 16).

“It seems that the telecommunications industry in North America is now ready to cross a line that brings the problem of accessibility to pornographic material further into the public realm,” said Roussin, who oversees almost 400,000 Catholics in Greater Vancouver.

Telus Mobility last month became the first major wireless carrier in Canada or the U.S. to offer pay-per-download adult content to its domestic clients. The practice is already widespread in Asia and Europe.

“So pervasive is the problem of pornography in our society today,” Roussin said, “and so lucrative are the profits from this segment of the industry, that mobile phone providers are willing to take substantial risks in terms of their image.”

A Telus spokesman said it is “disappointing” that the archbishop doesn’t acknowledge Telus’ record of community service. Telus has repeatedly defended itself by saying adult content is already available for free on cell phones through the Internet.

Telus charges between $3 and $4 for still images and short videos. Telus subscribers must go through a number of steps to access adult content, including supplying a credit card number and going through an age-verification process. Telus also says it ensures that the downloadable material is legal.

_ Douglas Todd

Overseers Report Haggard’s `Improper Relationships,’ Planned Move Away

(RNS) The overseers of Ted Haggard’s former Colorado megachurch say Haggard had “improper relationships” and will move out of the church’s vicinity to continue counseling.

“We have done extensive fact-finding into his lifelong battle with a `dark side’ which he said … has been a struggle for years,” the board of overseers wrote in a letter to New Life Church in Colorado Springs that was released Sunday (Feb. 18).

“We have verified the reality of that struggle through numerous individuals who reported to us firsthand knowledge of everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships.”

Haggard was removed as pastor in November after allegations surfaced of his involvement with a male escort. Haggard, who also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, acknowledged sexual immorality but denied charges that he had used methamphetamine.

The overseers _ all pastors of other churches _ said despite Haggard’s “enormous personality,” they determined it was best for Haggard to leave Colorado Springs so he could seek “the recovery of his personal family life and his personal Christian life.”

“Ted’s presence is so large, and his wrongful conduct so tangled, that his church and its leadership would become distracted by his continuing presence,” they wrote.

They said Haggard and his wife, Gayle, are “cooperating fully” with the board’s recommendations. The church’s trustees have paid for 21 days of counseling for the couple and have decided to financially support Haggard’s family throughout this year.

The five-member board of overseers said Haggard “will need years of accountability to demonstrate his victory over both actions and tendencies.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Week: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

(RNS) “There was a great saint who said God was evident when bishops are silent.”

_ Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, speaking during a Tanzania meeting of Anglican leaders. He was quoted by The New York Times.

END RNS