c. 2007 Religion News Service

Robertson’s son takes reins of Christian Broadcasting Network

(RNS) Gordon Robertson, the son of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, has been elected as the new chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The elder Robertson told CBN directors that he would remain as board chairman but wanted to “relinquish his duties as chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network, effective immediately,” the network said in a statement released Monday (Dec. 3).

Pat Robertson, who will turn 78 in March, has been the ministry’s CEO since he founded it in 1960. In his role as CBN’s chairman, he will continue to be actively involved in the ministry and to serve as president of Regent University.

The younger Robertson, 49, was voted unanimously by the board as CEO of the corporation and vice chairman of the board. He spent 10 years in corporate and real estate law before joining CBN. He has led CBN’s Asia operations and serves as the executive producer and a co-host of “The 700 Club,” CBN’s flagship program.

On Monday’s edition of the program, Pat Robertson announced the transition to his viewers.

“I thought that some of this day-to-day operation, it was important to pass down the line especially to somebody a little bit more adept at figuring out the new technologies coming at such a bewildering speed to all of us,” the elder Robertson said.

Gordon Robertson said of the transition: “It’s a lot easier when you sit on the shoulders of a giant.”

But his father added that he has no plans to leave soon.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Pat Robertson said. “I’ll still remain chairman. But I’m just so thrilled that somebody of this caliber could be the successor at such time that the Lord decides to walk me off the stage.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Man faces charges for trying to `cleanse’ woman of evil spirits

PRINCETON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (RNS) Saying that it would drive the “evil spirits” from her body, a New Brunswick, N.J., man used a syringe to inject mercury into the arm of a local woman last week, police said.

The man, Joaquin Ramirez, 24, was arrested Nov. 26 and later charged with aggravated assault and practicing medicine without a license after the woman became ill from mercury poisoning, police said.

Police said the injection was supposedly a ritual in Santeria, a religion practiced in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Often criticized for its practices involving animal sacrifice, Santeria involves several uses for mercury, according to several Web sites that describe the religion.

Police said the woman, whose identity was not released, agreed to allow Ramirez to inject mercury into her right forearm on Nov. 22 in an effort to cleanse her of evil spirits.

After the injection, she began to feel ill and her right arm became sore and swollen, police said.

The woman underwent two days of treatment at the University Medical Center at Princeton to clear the mercury infection from her arm, police said.

After repeated questioning, she finally told police of the mercury injection and Ramirez was arrested, police said. During questioning, Ramirez claimed he did not know that mercury was toxic, police said.

Ramirez was released from jail after posting $10,000 bail, police said.

Court rejects blasphemy case against Jerry Springer opera

LONDON (RNS) A Christian activist group has lost its battle in Britain’s High Court to prosecute a BBC executive and a producer under the nation’s blasphemy laws for televising “Jerry Springer _ The Opera” nearly three years ago.

The two-judge court on Wednesday (Dec. 5) upheld a lower court ruling that the musical, based on Jerry Springer’s racy U.S. talk show, could not be considered blasphemous since it did not target Christianity, but rather attacked the talk-show program genre itself.

“The play had been performed regularly in major theaters in London for a period of nearly two years without sign of it undermining society or occasioning civil strife or unrest,” the High Court said in its ruling.

Stephen Green, director of the activist organization Christian Voice, had appealed to the High Court to continue his blasphemy case against BBC Director General Mark Thompson and the opera’s producer, Jon Thoday.

Green argued that in depicting Jesus Christ as “a little bit gay” and including scenes set in Hell with Jesus and Satan, the show had “clearly crossed the blasphemy threshold.”

He also cited the record 63,000 complaints that the BBC received when the musical was broadcast on BBC-2 television in January 2005.

But the High Court judges said it was “reasonable” to conclude that “Jerry Springer _ The Opera” could not be considered blasphemous since it did not make Christianity a direct target.

Green immediately announced he intended to take his case to the House of Lords, Britain’s final avenue of appeal, because the High Court’s ruling amounted to a “carte blanche to blaspheme.”

The BBC applauded the court’s decision, saying “we believe the work, taken in proper context, satirizes and attacks exploitative chat shows and not the Christian religion” and that “the court’s judgment today vindicates that decision in full.”

_ Al Webb

Vatican, Israel report `promising progress’

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Israel and the Vatican have made “promising progress” in long-running talks over the Catholic Church’s legal and tax status in Israel, according to Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See.

“There has been very, very promising progress,” Oded Ben-Hur told Vatican Radio on Monday (December 5). “We’re about 85 percent done.”

Yet Ben-Hur downplayed hopes for an imminent solution, noting that the “road is long, very complex and full of details that the public doesn’t know.”

The two parties meet on Dec. 12 in Jerusalem for the latest session in a process that has lasted nearly 14 years. The Vatican and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1993. Under that agreement, Israel promised to regularize the legal status of church activities within its borders.

Two major issues remain unresolved, however: the Vatican’s property claims and its right to tax exemption in the Holy Land. As a result, church properties ranging from holy shrines to modern hospitals have continued to languish in legal and fiscal limbo.

In recent years, local and regional governments have begun pressing for back taxes on Catholic hospitals and other properties that are not traditional houses of worship, which are generally tax-exempt.

Negotiations also aim to establish the Holy See’s official status as a major landowner in Israel. At issue is whether Israel will cede jurisdiction over religious properties from the executive branch to the courts.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Quote of the Day: Gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson

(RNS) “I always wanted to be a June bride.”

_ Openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, telling students at Nova Southeastern University in Florida of his wedding plans. Robinson and his partner Mark Andrew plan to enter into a civil union in New Hampshire in June. Robinson was quoted by University of Miami News Service (Dec. 4).

KRE/CM END RNS