c. 2005 Religion News Service
Falwell Remains in Hospital; Aide Sees `Dramatic’ Improvement
(RNS) The Rev. Jerry Falwell remained hospitalized Friday (April 1), but one of his key aides said he had experienced “quite dramatic” improvement from previous days when he stopped breathing and was on a ventilator.
“His improvement today is just quite dramatic and just very encouraging,” said Ron Godwin, president of Jerry Falwell Ministries, in an interview.
The Lynchburg, Va., pastor was admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital on Monday and has been recovering from respiratory arrest. He had also been hospitalized in February.
Godwin said it’s not known how long Falwell stopped breathing but said “it was not enough to cause him any damage.”
“I can tell you, he’s sharp as a razor blade. He has his wits about him and (is) completely in good humor.”
Falwell, the 71-year-old founder of the conservative Moral Majority and the chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, will remain in the hospital at least through the weekend to undergo tests to determine the source of recent heart trouble.
“He did not have a heart attack,” said Godwin. “He’s had no muscle damage to his heart. He has a very strong heartbeat. Nevertheless, now twice in a month, he has had two episodes during which … his heart didn’t function efficiently.”
Godwin said doctors think the respiratory arrest led to a build-up of fluid in Falwell’s lungs. But they have concluded that he did not have a recurrence of pneumonia, which led to a 13-day hospital stay in February.
As doctors continue to observe him, Falwell has been visited by family members and received phone calls, including one from Bush senior adviser Karl Rove, who spoke at Liberty University’s commencement last May.
In the days just before his most recent hospitalization, Falwell, the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, preached twice on Easter Sunday and was on the road with Liberty’s women’s basketball team, which played in the NCAA tournament.
Falwell now seems ready to return to his normal pace.
“He’s bored and says so,” Godwin said. “He’s got a great sense of humor and he’s just enjoying his family.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Warren’s Book Tops Four Best-Seller Lists
(RNS) Pastor Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Life” hit the top spot on four best-seller lists this week, two weeks after an Atlanta-area woman read it to her kidnapper.
The book is the first to reach the number one spot on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Publishers Weekly _ a feat called a “quadruple crown” _ years after its initial publishing.
“I’ve been doing best-seller lists for almost 30 years, and I don’t remember something that has done this well has hit number,” said Daisy Maryles, executive editor of Publishers Weekly.
Maryles said the book’s sales last week likely resulted _ in addition to it being Easter Week _ from news stories that Ashley Smith, an Atlanta area woman, read from “The Purpose Driven Life” to a murder suspect holding her hostage March 13.
Sales of the book surged within three days of Smith’s comments, Zondervan, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based publisher of Warren’s book, said in a statement.
“There is nothing more powerful than the grace of God, which Ashley experienced in her own life and was able to pass on to someone else,” Warren said of Smith, with whom he has been in contact since her ordeal. “I was encouraged but not surprised by her story, as we have heard from tens of thousands of readers who have found similar purpose and meaning to their lives.”
Warren and his wife, Kay, have been giving away 90 percent of the book proceeds to global ministry projects, including programs to combat illiteracy, poverty and diseases like HIV/AIDS, through three foundations they established, said A. Larry Ross, a spokesman for Warren.
Warren is pastor of the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., which will celebrate its 25th anniversary April 17.
Orthodox Jews Mad That Non-Orthodox Converts to Become Israeli Citizens
JERUSALEM (RNS) Orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad have reacted angrily to the High Court’s decision Thursday (March 31) to grant citizenship to some non-Orthodox converts who studied to be Jews in Israel.
The ruling was issued in response to a petition filed six years ago by the Conservative movement. The movement, whose institutions and clergy are not recognized or funded by the government because they are not Orthodox, demanded that converts who study in Israel but who go abroad for their actual conversions be granted citizenship under the country’s Law of Return.
Immediately after the ruling Israel’s top religious leaders, including present and former chief rabbis, announced that “there is no value or weight to `conversions’ performed outside the framework of an Orthodox rabbinical court.” Such conversions, they said, “have no validity, and a person who undergoes such a conversion remains a gentile in every way.”
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar vowed to campaign for an amendment to exclude converts from the Law of Return, which grants citizenship to any person with a Jewish grandparent.
The Chief Rabbinate plans to convene an emergency meeting related to the ruling next week, as does the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, which is expected to debate the court’s ruling and its implications Wednesday.
Several Orthodox Jewish parliamentarians have announced their intention to draft legislation that would override the court ruling. When Israel was founded in 1948 the government placed all authority over religious matters, including marriage, divorce and conversion, in the hands of the Orthodox Rabbinate.
In the U.S., officials of the Orthodox Union, an influential religious organization, questioned the Israeli court’s right to rule on religious issues.
“We are concerned that in issuing its decision, the (High) Court has transcended its jurisdiction and has trespassed into the domain of the religious authority of the Chief Rabbinate,” the statement said.
The Orthodox officials warned that the ruling could “eventually lead to the division of the People of Israel into two camps. There will be a group of halachically valid Jews” _ those considered Jewish according to Jewish law _ “and a group of people who are Jewish only by the ruling of the court. The consequences of this ruling will be tragic.”
_ Michele Chabin
World Relief Selects Car Company Executive as President and CEO
(RNS) World Relief, a Christian organization, has chosen a General Motors executive as its next chief executive officer.
The board of directors for World Relief, the Baltimore-based development arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, unanimously elected Sammy Mah, a businessman and evangelical Christian, on Monday (March 28) to head the organization as CEO and president.
Gordon MacDonald, World Relief board chair, said in a statement that Mah was chosen after a thorough search for someone who embraces the organization mission of helping churches minister to the poor.
“We were seeking a person of humility and fierce resolve, a Jesus servant-leader, and we believe we found those qualities in Mr. Mah,” MacDonald said in a statement.
Mah, 45, was born in the U.S. to Chinese parents. Mah and his wife, Lorelei, have three children and have been active in an evangelical Presbyterian church, through which they have taken groups on numerous mission trips. He has been a General Motors executive for 27 years, managing thousands of employees.
Beginning April 18, Mah will oversee World Relief’s work in 24 countries, partnering with evangelical churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America to provide resources to the poor.
Mah will replace Clive Calver, who left the organization Sept. 30, 2004, after seven years as president. Calver moved to local church ministry.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Quote of the Day: Madonna publicist Liz Rosenberg
(RNS) “It’s funny because she (Madonna) said that she was happy that the pictures of her are out there because her father would be so proud. She said that when she was a girl she wanted to be a nun and she guesses that she’s still a nun at heart.”
_ Liz Rosenberg, publicist for pop icon Madonna, on her recent appearance at a Purim party dressed as a nun. Her husband, Guy Ritchie, was dressed as the pope. Madonna was raised Catholic but now practices kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. Rosenberg was quoted by mtv.com.
DH/MO END
