c. 2008 Religion News Service

Jewish leader calls Hagee an `extremist’

WASHINGTON (RNS) The head of the country’s largest Jewish movement called prominent Texas pastor John Hagee an “extremist” and urged fellow rabbis to shun his high-profile support of Israel.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, denounced Hagee, a national evangelical leader, televangelist and head and of the Christians United for Israel, at a Wednesday (April 2) gathering of Reform rabbis in Cincinnati.

Yoffie criticized Hagee for fostering religious intolerance between evangelical Christians and other faiths, and for exacerbating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by vigorously opposing a two-state solution.

What Hagee and his allies “mean by support of Israel and what we mean by support of Israel are two very different things,” Yoffie said. “Their vision of Israel rejects a two-state solution, rejects the possibility of a democratic Israel, and supports the permanent occupation of all Arabs now controlled by Israel.”

“On Israeli-Palestinian politics, John Hagee and the Christians United for Israel are extremists,” Yoffie said. “They do not represent most evangelicals, do not represent most Republicans and do not represent the American heartland.”

A spokesman said Hagee was traveling in Israel and unavailable for comment. The spokesman said Hagee hoped to respond to Yoffie’s remarks at a later point.

Hagee, a global media mogul who reaches millions of Americans through radio and TV broadcasts, recently endorsed Sen. John McCain’s White House bid, and several Catholic groups have urged McCain to denounce what they think are Hagee’s anti-Catholic statements.

Hagee founded Christians United for Israel in 2006 and has stated that “Bible-believing Christians” offer strong political and financial support for Israel as a central tenet of Christian theology. He heads a church of 19,000 in San Antonio.

Some of Hagee’s statements have upset Muslim and Christian groups. And many Jews are uncomfortable with Hagee’s view of Jesus’ Second Coming, which posits that Jews will either accept Jesus or face eternal damnation.

His controversial statements often put Jewish groups in a quandary over whether to accept the group’s generous financial assistance. Some of the donations are earmarked for Israeli victims of suicide bombings and rocket attacks in Israel.

Yoffie said that American Jews should “refrain” from participating in Hagee’s Israeli-oriented programs and activities.

_ Jonathan Rubin

Ministry launches `adopt a terrorist’ prayer campaign

(RNS) An Army Reserve chaplain has decided to do his individual part in the war on terror: He’s co-founded an Internet ministry to pray for terrorists.

“Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer” was launched in March and features a catalog of photos of people designated by the FBI or the State Department as participants in or sponsors of terrorism.

“In a sense, it’s a spiritual conflict and we’re not using spiritual resources,” said Thomas Bruce, a co-founder and spokesman for the ministry at http://www.myatfp.com. “I felt that the church of Jesus Christ was not engaged.”

Bruce, whose ministry is based in Colorado Springs, Colo., said he was inspired to start the effort after attending a conference of Christian military ministries last year. Soon, he will have to leave the work to other co-founders _ who include a retired school administrator and a retired Coast Guard officer _ when he is deployed to Iraq.

Bruce’s voice is on the two-minute YouTube video that promotes the idea of praying for terrorists.

“If they start converting, as did the Apostle Paul, then terrorism as a strategy for advancing militant Islam will fail and the whole world will know something spectacular about the one true God,” he says in the video.

The Web site encourages readers to choose from a catalog of dozens of photos of people labeled as “at-large” or “captured” terrorists or terrorism sponsors. Each photo includes a link to more information, such as an FBI poster.

“Select and pray daily for a change in the heart of your chosen terrorist!” the site recommends. “Enlist others to join this initiative!”

Bruce said he has received mostly positive reactions to the project.

“Some people are very enthusiastic and can’t wait to participate,” he said. “No one has told me that it’s stupid or wrong, but some have told me it won’t be for them.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Leaders urge Obama to make religion speech

WASHINGTON (RNS) The first Muslim elected to Congress on Thursday (April 3) urged Sen. Barack Obama to show “transcendant leadership” by tackling issues of religion _ including allegations that Obama is a Muslim _ in the same way he addressed racial divisions.

“Religious pluralism is under threat,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said at a forum on Capitol Hill. “A candidate who could pull off a speech (on religion) that would allow us to be who we are, and at the same time tolerate others and be proud of the religious diversity of this country would be a great service.”

According to a Pew Research Center poll published last month, one in 10 Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, despite denials from Obama and his campaign and his well-publicized membership at a Chicago megachurch.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical leader, praised Obama’s handling of his former pastor’s controversial statements in his March 18 speech on race, and called on the senator to “do the equivalent” on relations with Islam.

“He should say, `I am Christian, but this is my stance toward Muslims,”’ Wallis said during the forum, sponsored by the World Economic Forum and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.

“Religion can appeal to our demons or our angels,” Wallis said. “It would be risky to give a speech on religion, but if that speech appealed to our better angels, it would be an act of leadership.”

John Esposito, a professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University, said that it may be “politically understandable” why Obama has not focused the Muslim issue, he will ultimately “lose out” if he does not address it head-on.

“Just as his minister gave him the occasion to set out an inspiring vision (on race), he has the opportunity to show us what America is about as a multi-religious society.”

Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim studies, said Obama could use a speech on religion to consolidate his popularity among American Muslims. Obama’s Kenyan grandfather was a Muslim.

“He could say, `My Christian faith calls me toward tolerance and inclusion,’ rather than just emphasizing his Christian faith and distancing himself from Muslims,” she said.

_ Andrea Useem

Blair says religion is a force for good or bad

LONDON (RNS) Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, kicking off his new campaign to foster interfaith understanding, said a globalized world allows religion the choice of healing divisions or accentuating them.

Blair, a recent convert to Catholicism, spoke Thursday (April 3) at London’s Westminster Cathedral about the “vital” need for the world’s religions to interact and co-exist without losing their distinctive identities.

Religion can either “encourage peaceful co-existence by people of faith coming together in respect, understanding, and tolerance,” Blair said, or “work against such co-operation by defining people by difference, those of one faith in opposition to others of a different faith.”

Noting that there are “extremists in virtually every religion” and those who think scientific discovery challenges religious faith, Blair argued that “science and faith, reason and faith should never be seen as opposites but as bed-fellows.”

And pointing to the shift of economic and political power from Europe and America to Asia, Blair said a globalized world would be “immeasurably poorer, more dangerous, more fragile and above all more aimless” without a strong spiritual dimension.

Blair’s new foundation will work to help religious groups meet the Millenium Development Goals to combat disease and poverty _ “in many ways the litmus test of the world’s values.”

The initiative also aims to educate believers about other faiths, especially what other faiths “truly believe, not what we often mistakenly think they believe.” Blair’s work will focus on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

“If people of different faiths can co-exist happily, in mutual respect and solidarity, so can our world,” Blair said.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Author Deal Hudson

(RNS) “He said, `Deal, how can people think I am anti-Catholic when my wife is an ex-Catholic, and a third of my congregation are former Catholics?’ I bit my tongue. … When we met later … I explained that Catholics don’t like being reminded of all those who have left the Church.”

_ Author Deal Hudson, writing in a column on InsideCatholic.com about his recent three-hour conversation with Rev. John Hagee, pastor of a San Antonio megachurch, who has been criticized for stances viewed as anti-Catholic.

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