c. 2006 Religion News Service
Robertson Says He’s Now a Believer _ in Global Warming
(RNS) The overwhelming heat that blanketed much of the East Coast in early August has convinced religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that global warming is a reality.
“It is the most convincing evidence of global warming I’ve run into in a long time,” Robertson said Thursday (Aug. 3) during his “The 700 Club” television show. He previously had been critical of claims about the dangers of climate change.
Robertson’s reaction to the hot weather is the latest pronouncement in a year that has featured different sets of evangelical leaders issuing statements and counter-statements about whether or not global warming is a serious, human-caused threat.
“I have not been one who believed in this global warming, but I tell you, they’re making a convert out of me with these blistering summers,” Robertson said on his show the day before his Thursday statement.
“And it is getting hotter, and the ice caps are melting, and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air. And I think we really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of this planet, we need to do something about it.”
The Rev. Jim Ball, spokesman for the Evangelical Climate Initiative, welcomed Robertson’s change of heart and said his comments demonstrate “the kind of leadership we need to move beyond the vague concern of some religious figures.”
In February, Ball’s group issued a “call to action” signed by more than 80 leaders that urged evangelicals to address climate change. It plans to hold a series of educational forums on college campuses.
In late July, the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance issued a rebuttal to the initiative’s statement that questioned its assumptions that global warming will be catastrophic and that human emissions of carbon dioxide are one of its primary causes. It was signed by more than 100 evangelical theologians and scientists.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Christians, Jews Mourn Death of Dutch Ecumenist
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Christian and Jewish leaders have joined Pope Benedict XVI in mourning the death of Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, a longtime champion of increased dialogue between the Catholic Church and other faiths.
Willebrands died Aug. 2 in Denekamp, Netherlands, at 96, leaving a legacy that traces the Vatican’s evolving embrace of other faiths and Christian denominations.
Willebrands, known informally as the “Flying Dutchman,” was a key participant in the Second Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s, helping to craft the 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate that repudiated anti-Semitism.
Benedict sent a letter of condolence to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, which Willebrands headed 1969-89, praising the late cardinal for his work in ecumenical relations.
“He contributed to the development and intensification of the dialogue between all the churches and ecclesiastic communities,” the pope wrote.
Willebrands’ death also prompted condolences from Russian Orthodox leader Alexy II, patriarch of Moscow, who generally maintains icy relations with the Vatican. Alexy said he was “grieved” by the death of Willebrands, whom he described as an “outstanding church leader” and “a gifted theologian and diplomat.”
Willebrands also served as the first president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With Jews, playing a lead role in organizing the late Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Rome’s main synagogue in 1986.
“Not only did Cardinal Willebrands help shepherd the ideal of building a new positive relationship between Jews and Catholics into official church policy, he spent his career working to put those ideals into practice,” said Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Rabbi David Rosen, director of interreligious relations for the American Jewish Committee, described Willebrands as “the captain of the Catholic-Jewish ship.”
“Under Cardinal Willebrands’ leadership the Catholic-Jewish relationship was institutionalized in a way we take for granted today,” Rosen said.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Canadian Muslim Leader, Citing Death Threats, Steps Down
TORONTO (RNS) The prominent, outspoken director of a leading Canadian Muslim organization has quit, citing anonymous threats and pointed criticism from other Muslim organizations.
“It’s not just for me. It’s for my wife and my daughters,” Tarek Fatah, the longtime head of the moderate Muslim Canadian Congress, said in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper.
“Part of it is also to get out of the limelight.”
Fatah also quit the Congress’ board, severing all official ties with the organization he helped found.
Fatah has filed a report with Toronto Police detailing what he says are a number of threats he has received since 2003. A police investigation is under way.
Fatah has been one of the most familiar voices in the media. He gave dozens of interviews following the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects in Toronto in early June. Many Muslims have accused Fatah of monopolizing the media spotlight.
Fatah’s unpopularity among conservative segments of Canada’s 650,000-strong Muslim community is well known. He has been a vocal advocate of gay rights for Muslims and the inclusion of secular voices in the Muslim community. He publicly opposed the adoption of Islamic law tribunals in Canada.
Fatah’s views “are diametrically opposed to most Muslims’. His point of view contradicts the fundamentals of Islam,” said Wahida Valiante of the Canadian Islamic Congress, without elaborating.
In late June, Fatah was named by the Canadian Islamic Congress as one of four people who are “anti-Islam.”
Fatah said he has been attacked physically and verbally, once at an Islamic conference in 2003, when dozens of young Muslim men mobbed him, and earlier this year, when he was accosted on the street by a man who accused him of being an apostate. His car windows were smashed.
_ Ron Csillag
Bush Names New Head of White House Faith-based Office
WASHINGTON (RNS) The White House has announced that Jay Hein, the president of an Indianapolis-based international think tank, has been chosen as the new director of the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.
Hein, president of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, will succeed Jim Towey, who left the post to become the president of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., on July 1.
“Jay has long been a leading voice for compassionate conservatism and a champion of faith and community-based organizations,” President Bush said in a Thursday (Aug. 3) statement. “By joining my administration, he will help ensure that these organizations receive a warm welcome as government’s partner in serving our American neighbors in need.”
Hein also is vice president and chief executive officer of the Foundation for American Renewal, a charity that provides grants and other support to community-based organizations.
Prior to his leadership of the Sagamore Institute, Hein was executive director of Civil Society Programs at the Hudson Institute, now based in Washington. He previously worked as a welfare reform policy assistant to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Arizona Superior Court Judge Steve Conn
(RNS) “I personally find this to be an abominable belief on the part of anyone, and I find it very hard to accept how someone can subscribe to a religion that allows them to have multiple wives at the same time. But there are many religious beliefs that I have a hard time dealing with.”
_ Arizona Superior Court Judge Steve Conn, after sentencing Kelly Fischer, a member of a Mormon splinter group that practices polygamy, to 45 days in jail for having sex with one of his “celestial wives” when she was underage. Conn was quoted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
KRE/PH END RNS
