c. 2007 Religion News Service
List of Top 50 Rabbis Raises a Few Eyebrows
NEW YORK (RNS) Many versions of a common Jewish joke boil down to a basic punchline: two Jews will always have at least three opinions. So it’s no surprise that the list of “America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis” unveiled Monday (March 26) in Newsweek has prompted a few raised eyebrows among readers.
The rankings, compiled by Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, News Corp.’s Gary Ginsberg and Jay Sanderson of JTN Productions, include 18 Reform, 17 Orthodox, 10 Conservative, three Reconstructionist and two Renewal rabbis.
The businessmen used a point system that rewarded rabbis with international reputations and large constituencies, granting the top spot to Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Critics say the subjective list favors Los Angeles and New York, downplays local influence and ignores religious scholarship.
This list also mixes rabbis that lead congregations with ordained men who are not practicing rabbis, such as the No. 2 slot’s Yehuda Krinsky, head of the Chabad movement’s emissary program.
At the same time, it excludes lay leaders of major religious institutions, such as Jewish Theological Seminary’s Arnold Eisen, who recently announced the school’s decision to begin accepting gay students.
“Perhaps it would be more `scientific’ to restrict the list to congregational rabbis,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, an expert in American Judaism at Brandeis University.
Sarna, an Orthodox Jew, also questioned Yehuda Berg’s inclusion as an Orthodox rabbi. Berg, who earned the No. 4 spot, founded the Kabbalah Centre, a controversial center in Los Angeles that has attracted many non-Jews.
No female rabbis were named in the top 10 list; only five made the list at all. A better list of 50 influential Jews, Sarna said, is compiled every year by The Jewish Daily Forward.
“That list includes rabbis and lay leaders and is, therefore, more revealing of the power structure of the American Jewish community,” he said.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Soulforce Members Arrested at Seminary Sit-in
(RNS) A dozen members of the Christian gay rights group Soulforce were arrested Monday (March 26) outside the office of a seminary president who recently said he would support medical treatment to change the sexual orientation of a fetus from homosexual to heterosexual.
Twenty-two members of Soulforce tried to visit the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr. at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Twelve were later arrested and charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor, Soulforce said.
In a March 2 entry on http://www.albertmohler.com, Mohler said he would support the idea of changing the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb if such a treatment were to be developed.
“… Where President Mohler sees distortion, we see diversity,” the protesters said in a statement read outside Mohler’s office during their “Equality Ride” to Christian college campuses.
“As it stands, his voice is terribly misguided in believing that God does not affirm the identities of gay and transgender people.”
In his blog, Mohler advised Christians: “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin.”
Mohler later said in an interview that he was referring to a possible hormone treatment and not arguing for genetic therapy.
When the protesters were not allowed to see Mohler, they staged a sit-in. Seminary spokesman Lawrence Smith said he asked students to leave because “they were disrupting seminary business.”
“This wasn’t about trying to create dialogue,” Smith said. “It was about trying to attract attention.”
Kyle DeVries, a spokesman for the Equality Ride, said the arrested protesters were released by early Tuesday morning. He said there have been three dozen arrests during Soulforce’s travels across the country. The ride started on March 7 and is scheduled to conclude on May 1.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Archbishop of Canterbury Says Slavery Reparations Should be Paid
LONDON (RNS) Saying that apologies don’t go far enough, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has suggested the Church of England should consider paying back the money it once received as compensation when the hundreds of slaves it owned were freed.
Williams said Monday (March 26) that the church and other organizations profited from the “historic legacy” of compensation after Britain outlawed slavery in the early 19th century. The leader of the Church of England said the church still has a “responsibility” to make amends in some fashion.
The immediate problem, he said, is in deciding where the money should go, or how much money might be involved. “I haven’t got a quick solution to that,” he conceded.
The archbishop made his suggestions during a radio debate marking the 200th anniversary of Britain’s abolition of slavery _ although it was another 26 years, until 1833, that the slaves themselves were actually freed.
The British government paid 20,000 pounds _ equivalent to nearly $3 million today _ to Anglican organizations and individuals for what was described as “loss of property and revenue” when the slaves were freed.
“While it sounds simple to say, all right, so we should pass on the reparation that was received” when the Church of England, on orders from the government, freed its slaves, “exactly to whom?” Williams asked. “Exactly where does it go?”
“So I haven’t got a quick solution to that,” but “I think we need to be asking the question and working at it,” he said. “That’s, I think, (what) we’re beginning to do.”
Anti-slavery campaigners in Britain have been calling for years for reparations to be made to the descendants of slaves, or said the money should be used to help pay off the debts of African nations.
The Church of England’s record in the slave trade included the 665 slaves for which the Anglican bishop of Exeter and three business colleagues were paid nearly 13,000 pounds in 1833.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, an Anglican group, received another 8,828 pounds from the British government when the society’s slaves were freed from its plantation in Barbados.
_ Al Webb
Vatican Employees to Get a Day Off, Bonus Check, for Pope’s Birthday
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his 80th birthday on April 16 by giving Vatican employees the day off, and a bonus of $655 each (500 euro).
The payment of bonuses on special occasions is a Vatican tradition. In 2005, employees of the Holy See received 1,000 euro upon the death of John Paul II, and another 500 euro when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to succeed him. In 1978, when the 33-day pontificate of John Paul I created the “year of three popes,” four such bonuses were paid over a period of less than three months.
Holidays, too, are a common way of marking important anniversaries at the Vatican. The third week in April this year will be an especially short one for the Holy See, since offices will close again on April 19, the second anniversary of Benedict’s election.
Benedict, who at age 78 was one of the oldest men to be elected pope, is still far from being a contender for the position of longest-lived pontiff. That distinction goes to Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at the age of 93
The pope’s birthday festivities will begin on April 15 with a Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Then on April 16, Benedict will join some 10,000 guests in the Vatican’s largest audience hall for an evening orchestral concert in his honor.
Benedict, an accomplished pianist and lover of classical music, will hear a program of works including Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major and Anton Dvorak’s “New World” symphony. The pope’s native land of Germany will mark the occasion with a commemorative postage stamp.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Quote of the Day: Author and News Correspondent Juan Williams
(RNS) “Too often the church today is slow to speak forcefully about right and wrong, about out-of-wedlock births, about AIDS, about acceptance of criminal behavior, even about being a good parent. If we can just get the church to find its voice, it will (be) a powerful part of the solution.”
_ Juan Williams, author of “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That are Undermining Black America _ and What We Can Do About It.” The National Public Radio correspondent and FOX News analyst was quoted by World magazine about the role of black churches.
KRE/CM END RNS
