For daring to believe and preach that all will be saved, Bishop Carlton Pearson has generated controversy. Bishop Pearson's "gospel of inclusion," which he prefers to "universalism," has put him at odds with both evangelicals and many mainline Christians who hold that salvation is conditional on a faith decision for Christ. Bishop Pearson will speak of his faith journey at our annual meeting on March 24^th.

"It's an important issue," Thomson Matthew, Dean of the School of Theology and Missions at Oral Roberts University, was quoted in the Tulsa World as saying. "If all are saved, why do evangelism?" Bishop Pearson argues that "the message the world needs to hear is not that people need to accept Christ to be saved, but that God loves them and has already reconciled them to himself."

Agenda for the meeting includes reports from the president and treasurer, election of members to the board, and honoring of founding member and spokesperson, Bill Wiseman. The meeting will conclude with Bishop Pearson's address and discussion.

CHANGE IN BYLAWS AND PROPOSED SLATE OF NOMINEES

Bylaws were amended by the board of directors February 20 to read that board members may serve 3 consecutive 2-year terms effective with the April 2002 enactment of TIA, Inc. bylaws.

Proposed new board members to be elected at annual meeting

Barron, Mike - has accepted

Johnson, Arlene - has accepted

McArtor, Keith - has accepted

The Tulsa Interfaith Alliance has had an e-mail alert/information service for several years. We use this service to disseminate information on issues affecting the separation of church and state, as well as peace and justice. We try to give information to our members that is not readily available elsewhere. We also inform our members of pending legislation and actions they may do to support our mission.

Recently we changed our list server to yahoo groups. The group is not interactive and only the moderator is able to make postings. If you wish to submit an article or item, include it in the body of an e-mail (no attachments please) and send to Barbara Santee at sanitee@juno.com. If you wish to be added to the list, contact her with your e-mail address.

Available at your local bookstore is Ted Foote and Alex Thornburg's Being Disciples of Jesus in a Dot.Com World (Westminster John Knox Press).

Subtitled "A Theological Survival Guide for Youth, Adults, and Other Confused Christians," Ted and Alex's book will be of interest to our interfaith constituency in its addressing the issue of religious distinctiveness in a pluralistic world.

Working with such provocative images as "faithful eccentricity" and "nonsectarian discipleship," this reviewer was reminded of Howard Thurman's comment, "I want to be me without making it more difficult for you to be you."

Ted Foote is the pastor of John Calvin Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, and secretary of the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance. Alex Thornburg is on staff of the First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, working in campus ministry at OSU.

"Challenges Facing the Church Today" will be the subject of a free lecture by Richard McBrien, renowned theologian, author and TV commentator, on Sunday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. in the Tulsa Convention Center Auditorium, 6th Street and Houston.

Fr. McBrien is the University of Notre Dame Crowley-O’Brien Professor of Theology and past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. A book signing will follow the lecture.

CONGRATULATIONS, EVA!

The Tulsa Interfaith Alliance celebrates the recognition that has been given member Eva Unterman, selected to receive this year's Pinnacle "Spirit" Award. Presented each year to commemorate Women's History Month, the Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women and the Tulsa Women's Foundation honor and recognize distinguished women for their contributions to improve life for all Tulsans.

PRESIDENT PLAYS THE CHRISTIAN TRUMP CARD

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance

March 2003

President Bush often reminds me of a first year seminary student who, after one course in theology, thinks his particular view of faith answers all of life's most complex problems. As a Baptist minister for over 40 years, I hold sacred the beliefs and moral principals inherent in my faith, yet as a Christian I can tell you the President does not always speak for me, nor can he claim to speak for all Christians in America. Christians like all other people of faith are incredibly diverse in their thoughts and political ideas.

Just as religious leaders must refrain from trying to dictate the political beliefs of their congregants, political leaders must disdain the misguided illusion that they speak as prophets of God's will. It is not remotely within the realm of the President's executive duties to voice and advance particular sectarian priorities.

Yet at this week's National Religious Broadcasters convention, the President sat by and listened approvingly to himself being described as God's chosen man for this hour in our nation. He then made one statement that I find deeply disturbing: he linked an imminent American attack on Iraq to his understanding of Christian morality, saying that this attack would be, "in the highest moral traditions of our country". How can he say that when for four centuries Christians refused to serve in the military?

The President of the United States is the political leader of the nation, not the religious leader. Just as religion should not be a test for any political candidate for public office, religion should not be a tool of any political leader in a public office. In no way should the President of the United States politicize religion, or by the use of religious language from one particular religious tradition, alienate citizens from other traditions or no tradition.

The distinction that I see between the language in President Bush's statements and the kind of historic civil religion that had previously existed in America, is that President Bush is drawing from a very particular faith tradition, Evangelical Christianity, and is using that language to advance policies and to make arguments for the support of his various initiatives.

That language, whether used in statements to comfort, challenge, or guide the nation, leaves out whole segments of Americans who don't understand its meaning and who don't identify with, or in many instances even agree with, its substance.

Using this language, the President has escalated every issue to a kind of transcendent religiously-morally substantive subject. Through this language, the President is telling people who disagree with or question his public policies that these are not just political issues, these are moral issues. That's akin to playing the Christian trump card.

Democracy has been crippled. No longer can Americans practice healthy debate. By employing this language, the President has succeeded in framing every American who questions his policies as opposing good, good that ought to triumph over evil. When everything is absolutized in this way, debate stops: the moment there is a difference of opinion it's not just another idea, it's an expression of evil.

How dare any politician, including the President, even implicitly suggest that God is a kind of mascot for the nation. Affirmation of a particular faith tradition must never be made a litmus test for measuring patriotism.

The Interfaith Alliance has elected Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi, as the Chair of its Board of Directors,

"At this particular moment in history, when religion is often cited as the cause, rather than the solution, to conflict, Arun Gandhi’s insightful and prophetic leadership is invaluable," said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance. "His family history and personal ministry contribute inestimably to promoting a positive and healing role of religion in public life, especially in establishing religion as a resource for conflict resolution."

SCHOLARS GROUP ISSUES STATEMENT ON RETHINKING CHRISTIAN FAITH IN RELATION TO JUDAISM

The Christian Scholarship Group on Christian– Jewish Relations, an association of professors in U.S. colleges, universities, and seminaries, has issued a statement calling on Christians to embrace a view of Judaism and the Jewish people that acknowledges that "God’s covenant with the Jewish people endures forever." The statement, entitled A Sacred Obligation, points to needed reforms in Christian teaching, worship, and practice to replace the age-old "teaching of contempt" towards Jews with a new "teaching of respect."

The ten theses are as follows:

1. God’s covenant with the Jewish people endures forever.
2. Jesus of Nazareth lived and died as a faithful Jew.
3. Ancient rivalries must not define Christian-Jewish relations today.
4. Judaism is a living faith, enriched by many centuries of development.
5. The Bible both connects and separates Jews and Christians.
6. Affirming God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people has consequences for Christian understandings of salvation.
7. Christians should not target Jews for conversion.
8. Christian worship that teaches contempt of Judaism dishonors God.
9. We affirm the importance of the land of Israel for the life of the Jewish people.
10. Christians should work with Jews for the healing of the world.

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Tulsa Interfaith Alliance is developing a web page. It's a homepage with seven links to relevant areas of interest that TIA works on. We would love to have you visit and make suggestions to this work in progress. Until we are up and running, send comments to Barbara Santee at sanitee@juno.com

Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, will speak on "The Growth of an American Surveillance Society" Saturday, March 22^nd at 7 p.m., All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria. Mr. Steinhardt will show that there are no longer any technological barriers to the Big Brother regime envisioned by George Orwell and that legal and political barriers are being systematically weakened in the name of homeland security.

"The Warsaw Ghetto and Jewish Resistance" will be the theme of this year’s Interfaith Holocaust Commemoration, to be held at Congregation B’nai Emunah at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 10^th. The event coincides with the 60^th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The featured speaker will be William Donat, who was a young child when German soldiers pressed him and his parents into the Warsaw ghetto. During the Ghetto’s final days, his parents desperately worked to secure a haven for him. A Catholic couple first harbored William in their apartment, then moved him to a Catholic church orphanage. Meanwhile, his parents survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and several concentration camps, and the family was reunited after the war.

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