C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y by the Editors of ReligionToday

January 6, 2000

Why are a respected priest and rabbi appearing on a shock-jock radio program? To reach the unreached, they say. …Catholic priest Tom Hartman and Rabbi Marc Gellman, both of Long Island, N.Y., have dispensed good taste and reason as a broadcasting team for more than 10 years. They appear regularly on the interfaith Faith & Values/VISN network and on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The men, both 52, are friends and lead congregations on Long Island. Their popularity prompted N.Y. Gov. George Pataki to ask them to preside at the memorial service for the victims of a TWA plane that crashed off Long Island in 1996. ….They recently began appearing on the radio show of Don Imus. The notorious shock-jock, on the airwaves for more than 25 years, holds top ratings among morning shows through insults and name-calling. …Some listeners are wondering why Hartman and Gellman sully themselves by associating with Imus. They say they are trying to reach people who do not attend church or synagogue. They also are trying to reach out to Imus. Gellman told the National Catholic Reporter that he will continue on Imus’ show because “I believe in Don Imus’ heart; I don’t always believe in his mouth.” …The clergymen talk to Imus off the air, and say they have seen him change greatly, including finding help for his addictions to alcohol and drugs. Hartman described him as “pathologically shy” and “looking for authenticity.”

$850,000 provides a little justice, but barely covers a pastor’s legal bills, he says. Wenatchee, Wash., pastor Robert Roberson (see link #1 below), his wife, and Honnah Sims, a Sunday school teacher at the Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer, were accused of sexually abusing children, but later acquitted. They accepted the settlement from the state Department of Health and Social Services last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said. …The Robersons and Sims charged state social workers with interfering with their children and failing to adequately supervise an investigation of the sex-abuse charges. That resulted in malicious prosecution, false arrest, and false imprisonment, they said. They were acquitted in a criminal trial in 1995. …More than 60 adults were arrested in 1994-1995 in connection with almost 30,000 counts of child sex-abuse against 43 children. Judges and prosecutors criticized the investigation as overzealous and abusive, the Post-Intelligencer said. Children who made accusations later recanted and said they had been coerced. More than a dozen people who were convicted or who pleaded guilty have had their cases reviewed or dismissed by appeals courts. …The state admitted no liability in the settlement. “This isn’t a vindication — that has come from the appellate court cases that have freed all these other people,” Roberson said. The decision does help restore the reputation of those involved, he said. “In that way it’s an excellent win. It turns over another rock to shine the spotlight on justice.”

Burdensome student loans don’t have to keep doctors off the mission field. The shortage of medical missionaries is “staggering,” but it’s not because doctors lack the conviction or vision to serve others, SIM International (see link #2 below)

said. Most can’t serve because they have to earn enough to pay the monthly installments on their student loans. …A ministry helps young doctors to become medical missionaries. Project MedSend (see link #3 below) assumes the monthly payments of educational loans “to enable career missionaries to begin their ministries years sooner than if they had to first work off their debt,” SIM said. Project MedSend ministry is affiliated with the Christian Medical and Dental Society and works in cooperation with more than a dozen mission organizations. It has issued 84 grants thus far.

Christians in Egypt want the police investigated. More than 100 people protested peacefully in a Cairo court building Jan. 5, then met with Maher Abdel Wahed, an assistant to the state prosecutor, to submit a formal complaint, U.S. Copts, a human rights group, said. The complaint requested an investigation of the heads of police in Dar El-Salam and al-Kosheh and said they should be tried for negligence. ….At least 20 Christians have died and scores of shops and houses have been destroyed by angry Muslims, news reports say. The violence, which started as a business dispute Dec. 31 in al-Kosheh, spread to two other villages in Dar El-Salam. Christians accuse the police of failing to protect them, U.S. Copts said. The group has asked the United Nations to help protect the Christians and to provide material aid.

A ministry is uniting Christians around study of the Bible. Community Bible Study International (see link #4 below), which helps Christians start 8- and 16-week Bible studies in their homes, will help Catholic and Orthodox communities hold the courses, the ministry said. It presently helps mostly Protestants. …As believers from all branches of Christianity study the Bible, “we will see a great unified force – Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox – all working together for one common goal: to know Jesus through the Scriptures and become more like Him,” ministry head Paul Young said. David Warner, a former Protestant who has joined the Catholic Church, will head the ministry. “His strong ties with both evangelical and Catholic church leaders suit him well,” Young said.

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