Wilderness Torah: An American event combining Judaism and New Age

As reported by Emanuel Maiberg of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 29, 2012:

OAKLAND, Calif. (JTA) -- When the sun set on Saturday, Zelig Golden blew his shofar, calling more than a 100 people of all ages and backgrounds to assemble in a giant circle in Bort Meadow, a campground in Chabot Anthony Regional Park.

“All our prophets had their epiphanies in nature,” Golden, 38, told to the crowd, marking the start of Shavuot and a program that he believes could spread across the American and even world Jewish community.

If those gathered wished to receive their own revelation, he said, they had to venture into the wilderness as well.

“Revelation is not a lighting bolt that fills your head with wisdom all at once. It's when you look at a blade of grass and say, that's amazing. When you see the specks of green in someone's eyes,” Golden continued.

After music and dancing, participants were invited to grab the ends of the ribbons hanging from the “Omer Poll.”

They wrapped themselves around the attached 49 strands -- each representing a day between the exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Throughout the weekend long “Shavuot on the Mountain” event, organized by the Bay area-based Wilderness Torah, participants were encouraged to reengage with Judaism, nature and the relationship between the two.

Golden kept his head covered with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat or a knitted head covering, never a traditional kippah. His beard, hosting a few gray hairs, would suit either a traditional rabbi or an outdoorsy type who likes to camp and to keep a warm face.

Golden is a mixture of both, and while it's a collaborative effort today, Wilderness Torah was originally his vision.

Raised in a traditional home in a small Jewish community in Spokane, Wash., he moved to California to attend Berkeley School of Law.

Until 2010, he worked as an environmental lawyer for the Center for Food Safety, protecting farmers from genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

He became depressed, he said, at his job, despite the positive impact he knew it had on the issues he cared about. “I lost my derech,” he said, using the Hebrew word for "path."

His path to spirituality began with a non-religious meditation group for lawyers.

That ignited a spark. “I realized that it was something that was missing from my life and I wanted more of it,” he said.

His search eventually led him to Berkeley's Jewish Renewal community, Chochmat HaLev, or “wisdom of the heart.”

The group partnered with Hazon, the Jewish environmentalist group, and engaged in issues of and programs on sustainability and the environment.

For Sukkot 2007, Golden and a handful of other Chochmat HaLev members organized a camping trip to the Sacramento Valley's Eatwell Farm, their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) affiliate.

While only a few dozen people attended that first event, today Wilderness Torah is an independent organization that sees hundreds of participants in their desert camping expeditions and youth mentorship programs.

The latter include b'nai mitzvah programs that weave Jewish thought with outdoor skills.

At the Shavuot on the Mountain program, a popular joke was that Wilderness Torah events are like the Jewish Burning Man, the annual contemporary cultural held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

It’s another way of saying that these programs are open and welcoming, particularly to all things New Age.

In fact, both festivals aim to establish an idyllic village community in nature, leading to all sorts of creative expressions.

So it was not surprise to see someone strike a yoga pose or break out the Hula-Hoop during a Torah service that took place in the cool shade of pine trees.

But while Burning Man is partly fueled by psychedelics and clothing is optional, Wilderness Torah makes a concerted effort to be a child-friendly, family experience.

Indeed, the many kids in the “Children's Village,” a kind of daycare where they were entertained and educated (with parents allowed to attend their activities), seemed to be enjoying playing outdoors for the entire weekend -- not an Angry Bird in sight.

Most of the younger participants were asleep by the start of the night-long tikkun, or study session. It followed the 10 p.m. Shavuot celebration opening and Havdalah.

With the temperature dropping and the wind picking up, pages with sacred text were blowing in the hands of those who gripped them while reading by flashlight.

The adults broke into several nearby groups began their night of learning.

One, with Golden, studied writings on Shavuot in the Torah and other commentaries. Not far away, Rabbi Daniel Lev guided a group in an activity called “Shema Between the Sheets: Spiritual Intimacy at Bedtime.”

By 5 a.m., a handful of the hardiest had made it to the Shacharit sunrise services, led by Chochmat HaLev's Rabbi SaraLeya Schely.

As that small group prayed, most people remained asleep in the tents dotting the surrounding meadow. Even Golden wasn't in sight, maybe finally allowing himself a few hours of sleep.

Perhaps he was storing energy for what he hopes is next: Spreading the program around the globe.

Indeed, he said that process has already begun.

“What's really exciting is that were being approached from people all over,” he said. “We get requests from Australia, the UK, Canada, Israel. We want to take what we're doing here and spread it across the Jewish world.”

American Conservative rabbis set guidelines for same-sex "marriage" ceremonies

As reported by Associated Press, June 2, 2012:

The Conservative branch of American Judaism has formally approved same-sex marriage ceremonies, nearly six years after lifting a ban on ordaining gays and lesbians.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards issued the ruling Thursday on a 13-0 vote with one abstention, said Rabbi Elliot Dorff, the committee chairman. The panel of scholars approved two model wedding ceremonies and guidelines for a same-sex divorce. Rabbis can adapt the marriage ceremonies for the couples.

"We acknowledge that these partnerships are distinct from those discussed in the Talmud as `according to the law of Moses and Israel,' but we celebrate them with the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages," the legal opinion states.

Conservative Judaism is the second-largest Jewish movement in North America and holds a middle ground between liberal and traditional groups. The Reform and Reconstructionist branches accept gay relationships, while the stricter Orthodox Jewish movement does not. The Conservative law committee lifted the ban on gay ordination in December 2006.

Called the "Covenant of Loving Partners," the Conservative same-sex marriage document bases the ceremonies on Jewish partnership law. In the covenant, the couple pledges to be faithful. A ring ceremony binds the pair.

And as with heterosexual couples, Conservative rabbis should not preside at the marriage of a Jew to a non-Jew.

However, the ceremonies do not include kiddushin, or sanctification, in which a groom "acquires" a bride by giving her a ring, which is considered the core of a traditional Jewish wedding. In recent decades, many rabbis have already been altering that part of the ceremony for heterosexual couples by having the bride and groom exchange rings, to signal equality in the marriage.

"The result is still a Jewish marriage," the legal opinion on gay marriage states.

Dorff, an author of the ruling, said the committee's discussions with gays and lesbians as the ceremonies were developed found a split in opinion that led the two templates for same-sex marriage. One adheres more closely to the traditional Jewish ceremony, while the other doesn't.

The divorce includes a "writ of dissolution" – similar to what is known in traditional Jewish marriage as a "get" – that either partner in the same-sex marriage can request.

Dorff said he did not know how many members of the movement's Rabbinical Assembly perform same-sex marriages. However, many rabbis had already been conducting ceremonies for gays and lesbians that they had developed on their own. Keshet, which advocates for gay and lesbian Jews, has started a public database of rabbis who would perform the ceremony called The Equality Guide.

Jewish and Navajo leaders exchange dialogue about sacred lands

As reported by Edmon J. Rodman of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 29, 2012:

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- A Reform rabbi, a Navajo medicine man and a professor walk into a museum.

It sounds like the opening of a joke, but on a recent May Shabbat at Window Rock, Ariz., capital of the Navajo Nation, it’s the beginning of a cross-cultural discussion that pondered the question “What makes land sacred?”

The dialogue featuring the spiritual leaders of two tribes, Navajo medicine man Johnson Dennison and Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld of the Reform Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, N.M., was held at the Navajo Nation Museum.

Anthropologist Gordon Bronitsky moderated the event with an audience of more than 40 Jews and Navajos.

It was the second in a series of Navajo-Jewish exchanges.

The first program was held in November at Congregation Albert, where the duo wrestled with how each group managed living in “Two Worlds” -- one of tradition, the other of contemporary life.

Bronitsky, the program organizer and a longtime resident of the Southwest, took a Navajo language course in college and knew some Hebrew. The former university professor suspected that when it came to land and sacredness, the two unlikely desert neighbors had some views to share.

Before the second event, Bronitsky observed that the Navajo have a phrase, “dineh bikeyah” (the people’s land), that expresses a feeling of rightful ownership.

It is similar, he said, to when Jews say “Artzeinu” (our land) -- as in the "Hatikvah" verse, “Lihyot ’am chofshi be’artzeinu,” “To be a free people in our land.”

Opening the discussion with “Shabbat shalom,” the kippah-wearing, white-bearded Rosenfeld explained that the Hebrew word for “holy” was “kadosh,” and that the word for profane, “chol,” was the same as the word for “sand” -- something, an audience member later pointed out, that both groups had seen much of.

“The biblical land of Israel is sacred land for the Jews,” Rosenfeld said, sidestepping the charged issue of boundaries.

“It is sacred because God promised it,” added the rabbi, who in his previous pulpit in Anchorage, Alaska, had worked with native peoples.

Dennison, wearing a turquoise necklace typical of the Navajo, greeted the audience in both English and his native language. “You are all welcome to the Navajo land, it is a sacred place,” he said.

For Dennison, a medicine man with a master's degree in educational administration, Navajo land is both a homeland where he found “harmony and beauty” as well a place where, he related later, his family could raise a flock of sheep and a herd of goats.

“There is a spiritual and emotional connection to the land,” he said.

Dennison defined Navajo land as lying between “four sacred peaks” that “were established by the holy people as the cornerstones of Navajo country”: Blanca Peak to the east, Mount Taylor to the south, San Francisco Peak to the west and Mount Hesperus to the north...

...As for the Jews' attachment to their holy land, Rosenfeld pointed out that “you don’t have to live on it.”

At the same time, he stressed -- quoting Psalm 137, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither” -- Jews are not allowed to forget their attachment.

Both speakers saw rays of sacredness emanating from the east.

Dennison remarked that the traditional Navajo home, the hogan, was to this day oriented with its entrance to the east.

“The tip of light of where the rising sun first strikes is considered sacred," he said. "First light enters our whole being.”

Rosenfeld saw “spirituality coming from the east,” east being the symbol of Jerusalem. “Jews face east when they pray,” he said.

Several audience members, speaking in Navajo or in English with a bit of Hebrew, also spotted similarities in experience and ritual.

Navajo Lydell James saw a connection between his tribe's Long Walk and the Holocaust. The Long Walk, known as “Bosque Redondo,” was an 1864-66 forced relocation of the Navajo from their historic tribal lands to an area around Fort Sumner, N.M.

“The hurt doesn’t end,” he said.

Laura Jijon, who is Jewish and works with the Navajo as an adult education administrator at the University of New Mexico Extension in nearby Gallup, N.M., cited a similarity to the spiritual significance that Dennison placed on the four directions and the six directions that Jews wave the lulav on Sukkot.

She also pointed out that “the hogan and the sukkah are both sacred dwellings.”

As to the generational challenges facing each group, the rabbi and medicine man acknowledged that their respective people's commitment and sense of holiness about their lands could be at risk.

“We don’t own the land," Dennison said. "It’s a Western concept of marking the land and water. It becomes a property. In the future we could lose sight of the sacredness of the land.

“How do we keep the fire burning?” he asked.

“Is something inherently holy? Only if a community takes it as such,” said Rosenfeld. “Fifty-nine percent of American Jews have not been to Israel.”

Historically, Navajos and other Southwest Indian tribes have long had some ties with Jews.

In the 19th century, Solomon Bibo, a Jewish immigrant from Poland and New Mexico trader, “was the only white man ever to be the chief of an Acoma pueblo,” Bronitsky said.

And before the event Bronitsky, standing before a photo display of Miss Navajo contest winners, pointed to the photo of the second winner, in 1954-55, Ida Gail Organick.

“She was married to a Jewish doctor,” he said.

Colorado's Mexican Indians share a genetic marker with Ashkenazi Jews

As reported by RT News, May 31, 2012:

A population of native American Indians from the US state of Colorado has been found to have a genetic mutation typical of Ashkenazi Jews. The finding suggests the presence of common roots that date back to the days of Christopher Columbus.

­The so-called “Ashkenazi mutation” is a deleterious modification in BRCA1 gene which increases risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Researchers from the Sheba Medical Center in Israel have found it in the DNA of descendants of those Indians who moved from Mexico to Colorado some 200 years ago.

The same very mutation was earlier tracked in Hispanic Americans whose ancestors also arrived in the United States from Mexico and South America.

Computer analysis of genetic data has revealed that the two groups should have a common ancestor – a Jewish person who moved from Europe to the New World as long as 600 years ago. It was the time when Christopher Columbus discovered America, and the Jewish population was expelled from Spain.

In their publication in the European Journal of Human Genetics, the team, led by Eitan Friedman, notes that Colorado’s Mexican Indians do not seem to have any traditions that would link them to Jews.

Genomic study shows that Jews throughout the world share a genetic history

This item is a couple of years old, but still relevant. As reported by Dudi Goldman of Ynet News, June 9, 2010:

A new study, the largest of its kind ever conducted, reveals that the Jewish people shares clear genomic significance. Apparently, the genetic similarity between a Jewish Italian and a Jewish Pole is larger than the similarity between Jewish Pole and a Christian Pole, for instance.

"The Jewish communities share much more (genetic information) between Jews rather than non-Jews in the same geographic area," Dr. Gil Atzmon, co-author of the study and professor of genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Genetics, told the New York Post.

Some 237 Jews of representing the three major Diaspora communities, including Ashkenazi Jews from throughout Europe, Sephardim, and Mizrahim from Syria, Iran, and Iraq, participated in the study.

Shared genetic history

The study found that Ashkenazim share genetic density that could suggest that most of them are ancestors of a small number of original mothers. The researchers noted that the level of relatedness among Ashkenazi Jews is similar to the level of relatedness between fifth-degree cousins.

This is not the first study attempting to isolate a genetic thread among Jews. However, it is the first to show clear and unequivocal genetic significance. The study, titled "The Children of Abraham in the Genome Era," was recently published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

"We found that Jewish communities created their own genetic clusters," said Atzmon.

Genetic analysis from the study showed that two major groups of Jews, Middle Eastern Jews and European Jews, diverged nearly 2500 years ago.

"The study supports the idea of a Jewish people linked by a shared genetic history," explained the study's senior author, Prof. Harry Ostrer of New York University.

"The goal of the study was to determine a genomic baseline,” said lead author Gil Atzmon, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and of genetics at Einstein. “With this established, we’ll be able to more easily identify genes associated with complex disorders like diabetes that are determined by multiple variants across the genome. Armed with this information, we will be better positioned to treat patients.”

Go here to see the original article in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Rabbi ousted from Canada's oldest synagogue

Christian churches aren't the only institutions to have internal divisions, as reported by Michael Posner of The Globe and Mail (Toronto), May 25, 2012:

A bitter controversy has erupted at Canada’s oldest synagogue, after the de facto ouster of its chief rabbi.

Supporters of Rabbi John Moscowitz, of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, are incensed at a recently negotiated deal that will see him step down next month.

Under the accord, Rabbi Moscowitz, 60, will take an unusual, fully paid, three-year sabbatical, effective July 1, although he will return to officiate at High Holiday services this fall.

Official retirement would commence in 2015, but he will continue on staff as rabbi emeritus at an undisclosed salary.

The settlement, said to be worth more than a million dollars, was hammered out in protracted legal negotiations.

“This fight has been going on for a long time and I think John just got tired of fighting,” says Israeli writer and political commentator Yossi Klein Halevi, one of Rabbi Moscowitz’s closest friends.

Many congregants say they are outraged by the decision – and by how the synagogue’s board of directors has handled the issue.

They took particular umbrage to the terse, one-paragraph letter, signed by board chairman Mark Anshan, that announced the sabbatical. After a stream of protests, Mr. Anshan sent out a second letter to congregants, extolling the rabbi’s leadership and quarter-century of service to the community.

Several members have recently announced plans to leave, including long-time members Senator Linda Frum and her husband, real-estate developer Howard Sokolowski...

...Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom – with some 7,000 families – is one of Canada’s most influential synagogues. A series of distinguished rabbis have led the Reform institution, including the late Abraham Feinberg, the late Gunther Plaut (he died this past February), and Dov Marmur (now rabbi emeritus), whom Mr. Moscowitz succeeded in 2000, after 13 years as an associate rabbi.

In addition to Ms. Frum, the synagogue’s membership includes Senator Irving Gerstein, Liberal Party leader Bob Rae, federal cabinet minister Joe Oliver, former Canadian ambassador to Washington Alan Gotlieb, and some of the city’s most prominent and powerful business executives – Onex founder and chairman Gerry Schwartz, and his wife, Indigo CEO Heather Reisman; investor and cultural philanthropist Joseph Rotman; and former National Bank co-chairman Lawrence Bloomberg.

The synagogue has enjoyed a long tradition of social activism. In the 1960s, it championed the cause of civil rights in the United States. In the 1970s and ’80s, it helped spearhead the campaign for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate. In the 1990s, it became a major player in the city-wide Out of the Cold program for the homeless and the indigent.

There is no clear consensus on what served as the tipping point in the Moscowitz affair. Insiders say the anti-Moscowitz camp – led by a cadre of old-guard board members – has been plotting to remove him for years.

In 2005, at his first contract-renewal talks, one group fought to block his reappointment.

In 2007, the rabbi became the focal point of a vicious fight over a proposed $35-to-$50-million synagogue renovation. Mr. Moscowitz endorsed Toronto architect Jack Diamond’s proposal to shift the main sanctuary’s orientation, so that prayer-goers would face east, toward Jerusalem – as they do in most synagogues. At Holy Blossom, they presently face west.

“The old guard won that battle,” concedes Ms. Frum, “and the result is, the place is falling down around its ankles. They won by saying we’d rather it stayed in its tatty condition than that Jews face Jerusalem.”

Five years later, the restoration has yet to begin – and resentment lingers.

Some observers say Mr. Moscowitz was out-of-step with the liberal traditions of the synagogue – most noticeably, perhaps, in his increasingly right-wing tilt on issues involving the Middle East.

“I think what happened is that [board chair]Mark Anshan managed to galvanize the opposition to John, based on his political conservatism and religious traditionalism,” says Mr. Klein Halevi. “Holy Blossom was classical Reform and John offended those sensibilities. He broke the mould by understanding the implications of the collapse of the Oslo Accords and by bringing in more Hebrew and greater respect for Halakha [Jewish law] This was very painful for the old guard.”

Canadian politicians are increasingly pro-sodomy

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

More evidence that the judgement of God upon Trudeaupia (still officially known as Canada) is already under way, as reported by Andy Radia of Yahoo News, May 30, 2012:

Something significant is happening in the province of Ontario.

Ontario's Liberal government did an about face and is now telling publicly funded Catholic schools that they must allow their students to call anti-homophobic clubs "gay-straight alliances".

The change in the Liberal government's new anti-bullying bill — the Accepting Schools Act — is part of a government initiative to create a "safe and accepting climate" in all schools.

It's not only a bold move by premier Dalton McGuinty, but an indication that it's no longer taboo for Canadian politicians to proactively support gay rights.

Canada is no longer the country it was in 1970's, when police across the country used to raid gay bathhouses and arrest patrons.

We are far removed from 1975, when a special joint committee on Immigration Policy recommended that "homosexuals no longer be prohibited from entering Canada".

Canadians - including our politicians - have evolved.

Pride day celebrations now take place across the country with politicians from all political stripes.

Even the Conservatives - not known for their enthusiastic support of the LGBT community - in recent years have shown signs of being more 'gay-friendly.'

Several Conservative MPs, including Cabinet ministers Vic Toews, John Baird and Rona Ambrose, appeared in an "It Gets Better" video released last year dedicated to the memory of Jamie Hubley, an Ottawa teenager who killed himself after battling depression and taunts about being openly gay.

And, earlier this year - after a fury over a legal loophole that could have meant the end of gay marriages of foreigners in Canada - Stephen Harper came out and said said his government has no plans of revisiting the issue of same-sex marriage.

The politicos may be buoyed by public opinion.

It appears the vast majority of Canadians believe that gay rights should be protected.

Out of the 1,007 Canadians that responded to an Angus Reid poll in March, 59 per cent agreed that same-sex marriage should continue to be legal, as opposed to 14 per cent that believe same-sex couples should no longer receive legal recognition.

There will always be segments of the population opposed to gay-rights legislation, but McGuinty is showing that politicians are now less concerned about those voter groups.

It should be kept in mind, as far as polls are concerned, that pollsters can obtain the result they want by phrasing the question in a certain way; and the dirty little secret of pollsters (admitted by Ipsos-Reid in a presentation to prospective recruits a dozen or so years ago) is that 70% of the people they contact refuse to talk to them.

White House regrets Obama's mention of "Polish death camp"

Don't you think this story would have received much more attention and the remark in question much more criticism if it had been made by Dan Quayle instead of B. Hussein Obama? As reported by Ron Kampeas of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 30, 2012:

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The White House expressed its regrets about President Obama's use of the term "Polish death camp."

In a statement Wednesday morning, Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said the president "misspoke" during his presentation of a posthumous Medal of Freedom a day earlier to Jan Karski, a Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to report German atrocities in his country.

"He was referring to Nazi death camps in Poland," Vietor said. "We regret this misstatement, which should not detract from the clear intention to honor Mr. Karski and those brave citizens who stood on the side of human dignity in the face of tyranny."

During the ceremony, Obama said of Karski, "Fluent in four languages, possessed of a photographic memory, Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale, and smuggled him into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first accounts of the Holocaust and imploring to the world to take action."

Poles insist on the term "Nazi death camps" to describe facilities such as Auschwitz and Sobibor.

In a tweet reported first by BuzzFeed, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said that Obama "will apologize for this outrageous error," ascribing it to "ignorance and incompetence."

Other officials also weighed in with outrage on social media.

Holocaust historians say the record of Polish behavior during the Holocaust is vexed and contradictory. There was much collaboration with the Nazis, and the resistance did little to protect Jews until 1942, reflecting the pervasive anti-Semitism that infected the country before the German invasion in 1939.

Karski himself in his first dispatches fretted that native Polish anti-Semitism would frustrate efforts to save the Jews. In a February 1940 dispatch quoted in The Holocaust Encyclopedia, Karski said that Nazi anti-Jewish measures were creating "something akin to a narrow bridge upon which the Germans and a large portion of Polish society are finding agreement." A Jewish-Polish resistance would encounter "serious resistance" among large parts of Polish society, he reported.

On the other hand, once the scope of the genocide became clear, some of the Polish resistance sought to rescue Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League in a statement Wednesday praised the White House for its "regrets" on the matter.

"The misnomer 'Polish camps' unjustly implies that the death camps in Poland were built in the name of the Polish people rather than by the Nazi regime," the ADL said. "While the White House acknowledged that the president misspoke, the administration should turn this mistake into a teachable moment for American public and explain more fully why the expression 'Polish death camps' offends our strong ally, Poland, and distorts the history of the Holocaust."

More than 90 percent of Polish Jewry's prewar 3.5 million Jews was wiped out in the Holocaust, and efforts by Jews to return to their homes after the war were in some cases met by pogroms instigated by neighbors who had taken over their properties.

The tiny community that persisted in postwar Poland lay low, in part because anti-Semitism was still pervasive. Only in recent years, after the fall of communism, has the community undergone a minor revival.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews arrested for disrupting infrastructure work in Galilee

As reported by Maor Buchnik of Ynet News, May 30, 2012:

Six ultra-Orthodox men were arrested for disrupting infrastructure works taking place near Habakkuk's Tomb in the Galilee. The offenders claimed they were trying to prevent the desecration of Jewish graves located in the area.

The ultra-religious group arrived at the construction site, which is being supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) due to concerns the work could damage archeological artifacts, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the police, the protesters called members of the construction crew "robbers" and interrupted their work. The officers who responded on the scene arrested six of the protesters, aged 25-30, all of whom reside in central Israel.

An IAA official said he was unfamiliar with the details of the incident.

On Tuesday, unidentified assailants desecrated an ancient synagogue located at a national park near Tiberias. The vandals shattered antique mosaics and daubed slogans on the walls. The IAA said that the incident came in response to archeological works that the assailants believe are damaging to Jewish burial sites.

Late last year, unidentified vandals torched a receptacle containing antique artifacts located in an archeological dig near Afula.

An activist belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Atra Kadisha movement, which opposes the archeological works, said at the time that the exploratory projects violate an agreement reached between rabbis and the IAA.

50 years ago: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is executed in Jerusalem

On May 31, 1962, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, 56, was executed in Jerusalem. On December 15, 1961, a three-man Israeli court panel had sentenced Mr. Eichmann to death by hanging, four days after being convicted of all 15 charges against him. The charges were:

1/Causing the enslavement, deportation and murder of Jews;
2/Causing the deaths of millions of Jews;
3/Putting millions of Jews in ghettos, labour and concentration camps with the aim of destroying them (the Jews, that is);
4/Sending thousands of Gypsies to extermination camps;
5/Causing the inhuman treatment, deportation and murder of Jews in Axis-occupied areas;
6/Inflicting physical and mental harm on millions of Jews;
7/Planning a program for sterilization of Jews;
8/Deporting 100 Czechoslovakian children from Lidice to Poland, where they were killed;
9/Persecuting Jews on religious, racial, political and national grounds;
10/Appropriating Jewish property by force;
11/Deporting over 500,000 Poles;
12/Deporting 14,000 Slovenes;
13/Being a member of the SS;
14/Being a member of the Nazi Security Police;
15/Being a member of the Gestapo.

Go here to see an article about Gabriel Bach, the prosecutor in Mr. Eichmann's trial.

Ambrose University College hires Jesuit-educated contemplative spirituality proponent as its new president

Ambrose University College in Calgary, Alberta is the denominational school for both the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada and Church of the Nazarene Canada. I've been suspicious of Ambrose's direction ever since it adopted its name in 2007.

I previously posted on Ambrose's affinity for contemplative spirituality here and here; the reader may want to consult those posts for background information. For more on contemplative spirituality and spiritual formation, search those terms at Lighthouse Trails Research Project. For more detailed information on lectio divina, go here and here.

Ambrose University College issued the following announcement on May 7, 2012:

The Board of Governors of Ambrose University College announced today that Dr. Gordon T. Smith has been appointed the next President. Dr. Smith’s term will commence August 1st, 2012.

Currently the President and CEO of reSource Leadership International,
Dr. Smith previously served as Academic Vice President/Dean and Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College.

Dr. Smith brings to Ambrose experience from a three-decade career in Christian higher education. A distinguished author and pastor, Dr. Smith earned his Master of Divinity degree at Canadian Theological Seminary and a PhD in Philosophy from Loyola School of Theology, Manila, Philippines.

The Board of Governors was assisted in selecting the next president by the unanimous recommendation of the search committee, as well as by the public input the search committee solicited prior to undertaking the search. Through town hall meetings, and both direct and online submissions, the search committee gathered valuable feedback that supported the search process.

The Ambrose Board of Governors also received ratification of Dr. Smith’s appointment from the founding denominations: the Board of Directors of The Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Board of Governors of Canadian Nazarene College.

It came as no surprise to this blogger that an internet search revealed Ambrose's new president to be a proponent of contemplative spirituality, and alarm bells went off in my mind when I noticed Loyola School of Theology in Dr. Smith's resume. I'd never heard of the school, but I suspected that it was named after Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and my suspicions were were confirmed by their website:

LST: A Jesuit, Filipino, and Asian Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology

For half a century, Loyola School of Theology (LST) has been providing quality theological and pastoral education under the direction of the Society of Jesus.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online defines Jesuit as:

1: a member of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1534 and devoted to missionary and educational work

2: one given to intrigue or equivocation

The "Spiritual Exercises" of Ignatius of Loyola have long served as a foundation and introduction to contemplative spirituality. I haven't read any of Gordon T. Smith's books, but a quick glance at descriptions of some of his books leaves no doubt that Dr. Smith is a proponent of contemplative spirituality, and in particular, the "spiritual exercises" of Ignatius of Loyola:

Alone with the Lord

A guide to a personal day of prayer

This small booklet is intended to teach Christians how to spend a full day in the presence of Christ. Readers are given the opportunity to practise various spiritual disciplines and then to journal what God is speaking to them.

The Voice Of Jesus
A comprehensive exploration of the place of discernment in the life of the Christian and of the church.

Jesus takes it for granted that you will hear his voice. But how do you hear it? How do you separate it out from the cacophony of other voices you hear everyday, including those of your own desires? Is your experience of Jesus' voice something purely subjective, or is it something you can talk about with others and have them confirm?

Building on the rich spiritual tradition that spans the diversity of history and theology from Ignatius Loyola to John Wesley to Jonathan Edwards, Gordon T. Smith helps open your ears and heart to the depths of the inner witness of the Spirit. By learning to attend to the Spirit, Smith urges, you will learn to hear and heed the voice of Jesus in everyday life.

Written with warmth and wisdom, this book speaks to the mind and heart of every Christian who longs for a closer, more intimate walk with Jesus. The pro-Jesuit site Evangelicals on the Ignatian Way listed The Voice of Jesus among its recommended books.

Dr. Garry Friesen, a professor at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon, had this to say about another of Dr. Smith's books:

Listening to God in Times of Choice: The Art of Discerning God's Will

Author: Gordon T. Smith
Publisher: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.
View: Synthesis of Traditional and Wisdom Views

The Forward is by a Jesuit who lauds the book's insights from John Wesley and Ignatius of Loyola. Smith's doctoral dissertation compared Wesley and Ignatius. The book is about the "art of discerning God's will." The main theme is that God relates to us as a friend and we must learn to listen to God's voice in our innermost being.

Smith positions himself between the traditional view ("Blueprint school", 15) and the Wisdom view (or "school" illustrated by Decision Making and the Will of God, 16). He rightly notes that what I call the traditional view "is recent in historical terms" (102). Smith goes back further in spiritual history to try and correct both views.

Smith rejects the traditional view which undercuts "the presence and voice of God in the times of choice" (16)." But his descriptions of the voice of God sound exactly like the traditional view: "prompting", "impressions", "still small voice", "inner witness", "subjective" speaking, "hearing God's voice", "peace of God".

His mystical orientation is clear. "God does not have a mouth; he does not speak audibly. Rather, God 'speaks' to us through our feelings, impressions left on our minds" (52). This description is much different than the biblical examples which he gives to show that God speaks to us (17-18). His examples don't argue for impressions: Abraham Gen. 12; Samuel 1 Sam. 3:10; Balaam Num 22:21-23; Philip led by an angel Acts 8; by a prophet Acts 13:2. Smith has substituted impressions for the biblical examples of direct revelation by prophet and even audible voice...

...Smith also differs from the traditional view concerning the certainty which you can have of God's guidance. The traditional view says that you can be certain, but Smith says, "In this life we will not have absolute, unambiguous peace and rational certainty that we have divine guidance" (65). If we are not sure, then we must "trust God and make our choices despite the lack of absolute certainty. We cannot wait until every questions is resolved before we act" (67).

Smith is realistic about how subjective his method is. Discussing the peace of God, he says, "But consolation may be from God, or it may reflect the deceitfulness of the Evil One, masquerading as good. Or it could reflect our own confused desires and misguided motives. It may even reflect nothing more than what we had for breakfast" (57).

Smith strongly urges the reader to "Test everything" (57). This helps transform his mysticism into something more like "discerning". He encourages the believer to test every feeling, impression or sense of peace. The believer's mind must be washed with Scripture, and motives must get a "ruthless" examination to be sure God's glory is the goal (64). Reason must evaluate the impressions. "Reason .. guides us--but reason comes to terms with the feelings and impressions that are left on our inner person." Our impressions should be judged by the church and he recommends a "clearness committee" (82).

His conclusion to the method of discernment is "(1) rational consideration of the options and obstacles, (2) extended time in prayer and reflection, and (3) accountability and discussion with others" (85). This is a careful process, and it is hard to imagine a sinful or foolish impression making it through the tests. The process seems to narrow you down to impressions that are wise and godly. And who is against that? I do not call such impressions the pure voice of God (nor give them authority), but anything that is wise and godly can be followed with confidence...

...His mysticism has so much muscle that it is almost palatable.

On July 20, 2011, Dr. Smith posted a paper titled Theological Education as Formation in Wisdom, which includes the following:

And the genius of a spiritual practice is the realization that transformation is incremental. Practices foster a knowledge of God, of self, of the and other and of the created order. They are a means by which we know the grace of God by which we are transformed and made new. These “patterned activities”, to use the language of Dykstra and Bass gradually and incrementally lead to transformation. And critical to this discussion is that these are not merely activities of an individual, but of a community. But the fruit of these practices is known over time, as slowly but surely the truth, wisdom, is formed within us.

But this is not a new conversation or new insight for the church. This contemporary discussion of the “practice” of theology is but a newer version of an ancient conversation, one that is eloquently captured by the brilliant study of the quest for learning and wisdom within the monastic tradition: John Leclercq’s The Love of Learning and the Desire for God. This study of monastic culture may well be more relevant than ever, partly because the monastic movement is rightly providing a counter balance to the pragmatism of western (and Evangelical) approaches to theological formation and, further, because in a post-Christian secular society, the monastic cultivated practices that may well have remarkable relevance for the church and for theological education today. Leclercq reminds us that the genius of the monastic movement was the unqualified affirmation that the purpose of study and learning and indeed of all spiritual practice is union with God in Christ...

...Second, the monastic movement made engagement with the Scriptures foundational to all learning. And yet, it is not biblicism, for their study of the Scripture was complemented by their engagement with the theology and wisdom of the church fathers – one might say that what anchored their learning was the primacy of the Scriptures, yes, but a study that was guided by the theological heritage and tradition of the church.

It is important to affirm, though, that their study of Scripture was never as an end in itself; one came to Scripture from prayer and the Scriptures in turn informed their practice of prayer. And thus the whole contemporary practice of ‘lectio divina’ is really an ancient practice, fostered by the monastic movement and an essential spiritual practice for the church today and for every student in a theological school: the capacity to read the Scriptures in prayer, with attention to grammar and exegesis, but with ultimate attention to the one who is revealed through the ancient text.

And third, what impresses us from Leclercq’s study of monasticism is that for all his celebration of the monastic approach to learning, he does not pit monasticism against scholasticism. To the contrary, he affirms that scholasticism is almost a necessary counterpart to monastic culture, with the scholastic diligent focus on the grammar of Scripture, and the recognition of the need to draw on non-Christian sources for our learning, including philosophy. Bernard of Clairveaux insisted that we are not wise until we live in the fear of God and are drawn up into the love of God. And thus monastic theology is the essential
completion of scholastic theology.15 And yet Leclercq also noted that monastic theology needed
scholastic theology in order to engage the times, the culture, and social and intellectual context in which theology is to be lived and expressed. And Leclercg has an oh-so-brief a appendix in which the theological work of St. Anselm is celebrated and celebrated precisely because his genius was that he was both a scholastic – a first class scholar on the public stage – but also deeply monastic, a lover of God and a man of prayer.

And then, fourthly, we must beware of succumbing to the common stereo-type that monasticism was
about disengagement and not about the call of the Gospel and of the church to mission and specifically to mission to the city and to the urban poor. In a sense it was about disengagement; one stepped aside from the demands of the world for study, prayer, contemplation and the focused practices of a disciplined Christian community. While what I have just described might be an accurate description of the Benedictine tradition – though even there, one must be cautious, in that this particular monastic tradition did have an extraordinary commitment to hospitality – this observation is simply not accurate for later monasticism. I think of the Friars, who left the cloister, whose houses of life and worship were located in
the very heart of the cities, and whose lives – think of the Franciscans and the Dominicans, for example – were marked by profound commitment to the urban poor, in word and deed.

And then we have the Society of Jesus, the first apostolic order, that left the monastary, yet sustained the commitment to prayer, study but always with the resolve to be, as they put it, “contemplatives in action.” It would not be an overstatement to describe this order as the greatest missionary order in the history of the church.

Sacred Listening: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola
By James L. Wakefield was published in 2006. This book has a front cover endorsement by Eugene Peterson, endorsements by Open Theology heretic Greg Boyd and Jesuit Armand Nigro, and this by Gordon T. Smith:

James Wakefield has provided us with a remarkably helpful introduction to praying with the Spiritual Exercises, readable and eminently helpful, insightful and practical. Also notable: he builds on the best scholarship on the Exercises and makes it accessible to Christians of all traditions.

Gary Gilley has provided a review of this book from a solidly biblical point of view.

Among recent lectures delivered by Dr. Smith were one on March 9-10, 2012 to the contemplative Urban Sanctuary in Edmonton, and this:

February 22: Beirut, Near East School of Theology: “What Can Evangelicals and Protestants Learn from Ignatian Spirituality?”

Thomas H. Green, S.J., a professor of philosophy and theology at Loyola School of Theology, is the only speaker listed at Open Hearts, Open Minds. He and Dr. Smith conducted this joint seminar (joint seminar, that is, not debate):

DISCERNMENT, VOCATION AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

A joint seminar by Fr. Thomas H. Green S.J. and Rev. Dr. Gordon T. Smith
May 12, 2007 at the Bayview Glen Alliance Church

One of the great insights of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, was in the area of discovering God’s will for our lives. His rules for discernment, incorporated into his famous work, “Spiritual Exercises,” continue to be studied, discussed and practiced today, some 500 years after they were first written. In the last few decades, there has been a resurgence of interest in retreats following the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius and in the whole area of spiritual formation and spiritual direction. Our whole-day seminar this year brings together two of the leading experts on these topics and promises to be not just informative and challenging but perhaps even life changing. Join us for a day of learning, reflection and fellowship with others on the spiritual journey.

In addition to promoting contemplative spirituality, the new president of Ambrose University College promotes sacramentalism and the social gospel. In the paper Theological Education as Formation in Wisdom, which I cited earlier, Dr. Smith goes so far as to praise liberation theology, which is just Marxism in Christian (especially Roman Catholic) dress:

When we speak of mission, we speak, at the very least, of the following:

That the mission of God is the restoration of the beauty and glory of the created order, and, even more, of the fulfilment of creation. Thus those who identify with the mission of God will speak of the concern of the church for the environment.

Also, to speak of the mission of God is to reference the one to whom all authority has been given: Jesus the Christ, who now reigns above and is inaugurating a kingdom of justice and peace.

Then also to speak of the mission of God is to speak of the church as an instrument of God to witness to and embody this kingdom. This, of course, suggests that the church is not an end, but a means to an end; and though an necessary end, it suggests that “church growth” or “denominational extension” are not at the heart of the mission of the church.

When this missional vision has been picked up by theologians and educators in theological schools in the global south what has emerged is a common theme around what is often spoke of as “transformational” leadership and ministry. And what in particular has been highlighted is that we cannot speak of mission without a commitment to justice, compassion and social responsiblity: that we witness to the reign of Christ through word and deed.

Probably no voice has emphasize the relationship between wisdom and social responsibility as profoundly as that of the liberation theologians of Latin America. Jon Sobrino, for example, speaks of “political holiness”. Our vision of life and work and wisdom must be through the lens of the in-breaking of the reign of Christ, Sobrino insists; and if we are discerning we will see that the God of all mercy, embodied in the radical mercy of Jesus, has what Sobrino and his liberationist colleagues speak of as a “preferential option for the poor”, and that indeed the poor are the locus of God’s presence in the world. Voices like that of Rene Padilla have rightly observed that when the vision of liberation theologians is one-sided and only speaks of economic justice, that it is essentially a half truth. But if the alternative is to only speak of“personal salvation” all we have is another half truth. A Padilla puts it: God loves justice, and nobody that has been born from God can remain indifferent to exploitation and injustice, poverty and huger that afflict his neighbour.” To Padilla’s credit, he was sounding this prophetic word as a lonely voice in 1974 at Laussane I, the first of three major conferences on evangelical global mission, and he was still insisting on this perspective at Laussane III, in South Africa in 2010.

I was struck recently work of the Virgina Fabella (Filipina, Maryknoll sister). In conversation with other Asian women theologians, including Chung Hyun Kyung of Korea, she speaks of doing theology in recognition of the salvific value of women’s active suffering as she cogently describes the poor women of Asia who are doubly oppressed – because of class and gender. But what her wisdom calls for is an active solidarity with these women wherein a passive identification with Christ’s sufferings leads to a struggle, in the name of Christ, on behalf of the suffering poor.

In May of 2011 I participated in a conference sponsored by the Asia Theological Association that brought together theologians and educators from Asia, Latin America and North America. And one could not miss that those from Asia and Latin America pressed the point: theological education with integrity needs to take account of the deep suffering that is found in the cities of Asia and Latin America. Urban theological education in the city has to respond to the cry of the city. And it needs to equip pastoral leaders to be agents of spiritual and social transformation in the city. And these were Evangelical theologians and church leaders insisting on this – voices that in the past might have emphasized, as Padilla put it, “personal salvation” and evangelism and church growth. Now we are seeing an insistence on the essential counterpoint between word and deed. As Leslie Newbigen has stated somewhere, when you only have half the truth you really have no truth at all and that thus we cannot pit social responsibility
against each other.

And so this leads me to ask how our approaches to theological education, in both the West and the global south will bring together partnerships with compassion ministries and active approaches to social justice. Wisdom is not ultimately wisdom until it is practiced; it is not a matter of mere knowledge, but of knowledge lived, in truth and in justice. And contemporary approaches to theological education in the global south and, increasingly in the rest of the world, are recognizing that this needs to be integral to a theological curriculum.

See my post Ambrose University College and "Transformation," and search the term at Lighthouse Trails Research Project.

Ambrose University College continues to offer courses in contemplative spirituality.

The following are listed in Ambrose's 2012-13 calendar. The number in parentheses indicates the number of hours of instruction per week, while the letter denotes how often the course is offered: A=annually; B=biennially; O=occasionally.

REL 360 Spaces of the Heart (3) A
An advanced study dealing with selected disciplines and rhythms of the spiritual life. The content of the course includes the discussion of the nature of spirituality and the practice of various contemplative spiritual disciplines and rhythms such as meditation, fasting, solitude, silence, journal keeping, autobiographical writing, discernment, waiting and suffering.

REL 361 Streams of Christian Spirituality (3) O
A survey of the various paradigms in which the spiritual life has been understood and experienced in the Christian church from apostolic times to the present. Special emphasis is given to certain movements within Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism that have focused on the nurture of the spiritual life.

REL 364 Prayer Paths to God: The History and Practice of Christian Prayer (3) B
An advanced course which studies the historical theology and practice of Christian prayer as it pertains to understanding the role of prayer within the spiritual life. The course is taught from an ecumenical perspective and includes a prayer practicum in the lectio divina (praying with scripture).

REL 365 Into the Wasteland: Exploring the “Desert/Wilderness” Experience in Christian Spirituality (3) B
An examination of the “desert/wilderness” experience in various traditions of Christian spirituality. An integrated biblical/historical/theological/formational approach to the subject is used to assist the student in understanding the nature and purpose of the “desert/wilderness” experience in the spiritual life of the church and the individual. A special feature of the course is a one-day guided silent retreat. Note: Class Limit of 20 students

REL 366 Spiritual Companions (3) B
An advanced course that gives consideration to the practice of spiritual direction in various Christian traditions from ancient to modern times and the influence of outstanding spiritual mentors of the twentieth century. Attention is also given to the nature, objectives and dynamics of spiritual direction as experienced in a practical context.

REL 368 Exploring the ‘Dream Experience’ in Christian Spirituality (3) B
This course will survey the significance and understanding of the “dream experience” in both eastern and western Christian traditions. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the dream in the spiritual journeys of prominent Christians, the dream and death experience as well as developing a Christian approach to dream interpretation integrated with an understanding of one’s own spiritual journey.
Note: Class Limit of 20 students.

REL 371 The Church and Contemporary Spiritualities (3) B
This is a course designed to acquaint the learner with a number of influential alternative spiritualities within Western culture and to challenge the student to consider carefully the role of the Church, particularly in the light of these approaches to spirituality. Beginning with a brief history of Christian spirituality, the course then will consider some major features of contemporary spirituality outside the institutional Church, with special attention being given to the nature and function of ritual, myth/narrative (sacred texts), symbolism and sacred space. Finally, the course will move the student towards an understanding of some of the ways in which the Church can or needs to respond to the spiritual quests within contemporary society.

Charles Nienkirchen teaches REL 365; here's an example of what Dr. Nienkerchen emphasizes:

Bridging Church and Academy: Cross-Pollinating at the Midwest CMA Prayer Retreat

March 10, 2012 - At the Elkhorn Resort and Conference Centre in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Dr. Charles Nienkirchen shared insights on renewal and spiritual vitality at the annual Canadian Midwest District Prayer Retreat. 158 pastors, spouses and district staff from Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba engaged with Dr. Nienkirchen in public conversations, private half-hour spiritual direction sessions, and two keynote presentations. The cornerstone talks were entitled The Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Call to Transformed Living…Nothing Less and Living Heartfully: The Key to Spiritual Living with Vitality and Longevity.

Despite his full teaching schedule, Dr. Nienkirchen relishes opportunities to connect with the church outside the classroom: in fact, he views the integration as part of his overall vocation. “Doing church retreats keeps me in touch with the pulse of those who are actually walking the sidewalk of church ministry in a variety of societal contexts where they have to respond to the many faces of human need. It also allows for these church workers to hear an ‘outside voice’ and receive some fresh stimulation and possibly new perspectives through an experience of continuing education.”

With an ecumenical retreat ministry that spans more than 25 years, Nienkirchen has personally invested in exploring Christian spirituality. Sabbaticals in Oxford, England; the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem; Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary in South India; and attending a School for Spiritual Directors at a New Mexico Benedictine Abbey have taken him to spiritual and physical deserts to learn more about prayer and spiritual renewal.

It's obvious that Gordon T. Smith is a perfect fit for Ambrose University College; the college will undoubtedly continue in its leftward and Romeward direction under Dr. Smith's leadership.

March 7, 2020 update: Finally, after all these years, I've gotten around to my long-overdue addition to this post concerning the suspicious circumstances surrounding the departure of Gordon T. Smith's predecessor as president of what is now Ambrose University. The History & Traditions page of Ambrose's web site states:

Dr. George Durance resigned as president in 2009 and Dr. Gordon T. Smith was introduced as President on August 1, 2012.

The perceptive reader will notice that there is no mention of the period between Dr. Durance and Dr. Smith. To paraphrase a famous passage from the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

"Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the mention of Howard Wilson in the history of Ambrose University."

"President Wilson wasn't mentioned in their history."

"That was the curious incident."

The following articles may help to fill in the gap; the links are now dead, but I'm leaving them in as evidence that they once were available. Dr. Durance was succeeded by Howard Wilson, a native of western Canada who occupied an executive position at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. As reported by Fuller Theological Seminary, July 23, 2009:

Howard Wilson, Fuller’s executive vice president for administration, has been appointed president of Ambrose University College in his native Canada. After 12 years of service at Fuller, Wilson concludes his tenure on July 24, to begin his new role in Calgary August 4.

On July 22, a festive send-off event at Fuller’s Pasadena campus—complete with a Canada-themed Jeopardy game, maple-flavored refreshments, and decorations in Canadian red and white—celebrated Wilson and his many accomplishments at Fuller.

Wilson joined Fuller in 1997 as director of admissions. He served as vice president for student life and enrollment management and vice president for student life and administrative systems before being appointed executive vice president for administration. In recent years he has served as project manager for several significant building projects on campus: the Chang Commons housing facility, a student services building, and, most recently, the David Allan Hubbard Library which opened in May 2009.

“Thank you for the many significant contributions you have made to Fuller Theological Seminary,” Provost Sherwood Lingenfelter said to Wilson at the send-off event. “Most at Fuller don’t realize the many, many things Howard has been involved in over the years. He has been a real blessing to all of us, and it is great to see how God has used his magnificent gifts here at Fuller—and will continue to use them in his new position at Ambrose.”

Wilson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, and a Master of Divinity from Providence Theological Seminary in Manitoba, Canada. He has worked in higher education administration for the past 23 years in several capacities, including service at the executive level at LeTourneau University and Providence College and Theological Seminary in addition to Fuller.

Wilson has always been deeply committed to students and their needs. In addition to his other duties at Fuller, he served as mentor to the All Seminary Council student government body and taught courses in leadership development.

Wilson also served as an elder at Glenkirk Presbyterian Church in Glendora, California, and was active in leadership in the Presbytery of San Gabriel, where he led an effort to plant a Mandarin-speaking Presbyterian congregation. He is on the board of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education, and has filled volunteer leadership positions with the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities and the North American Coalition of Christian Admissions Professionals. He is married to Vivian and has two daughters in college.

As reported by NCN News in 2009:

Alex Baum, chair of the Ambrose University College Board of Governors, announced May 4 that after an extensive international search, Howard Wilson has been appointed as president of Ambrose University College effective August 1.

"Our Board of Governors is very pleased that Mr. Wilson has agreed to assume the role of president at Ambrose," Baum said. "Mr. Wilson has an extensive background in Christian higher education at the undergraduate and seminary levels, as well as pastoral experience. We look forward to the strong leadership he will provide in helping Ambrose fulfill its mission to educate students who will serve Christ in the church and in the world."

Commenting on Wilson's appointment, Franklin Pyles, president of The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, said, "We are happy to welcome Howard Wilson and his wife, Vivian, back to Canada to lead the Ambrose team. Howard's deep experience with the various levels of administration, his profound walk with God, his interface with issues facing the church today, combined with his personal interest in students, creates an expectation in all of us of leadership that will take Ambrose into the future with great strength. We are so grateful for God's provision in giving us a new president and I personally look forward to working with him in the immediate future."

Clair McMillan, national director of The Church of the Nazarene Canada, said, "I join with the entire Church of the Nazarene Canada and our friends in The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada in offering congratulations to Mr. Howard Wilson on his election as the next president of Ambrose University College. Mr. Wilson comes to us with a wealth of experience in local church ministry as well as in Christian higher education."

Wilson is presently executive vice president for Administration at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Previous administrative responsibilities at Fuller included vice president for Student Life and Administrative Systems and vice president for Student Life and Enrollment Management.

Prior to his service at Fuller, Wilson was dean of Enrollment Management at LeTourneau University, dean of Students at Providence College and Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba, and senior pastor at Bethesda Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

He received his formal education at LeTourneau University and at Providence Theological Seminary where he was the top graduating student.

Wilson has also served in a variety of professional organizations, including:
North American Coalition of Christian Admissions Professionals
Commission of Chief Enrollment Officers, Council of Christian Colleges and Universities
Student Personnel Administrators Network, Association of Theological Schools
National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education
He has consulted widely with educational institutions in strategic planning, administrative structure, website development, and education marketing, including Biola University, Aquinas School of Theology, Claremont Graduate School, and Washington Theological Union.

Wilson is a Canadian citizen, born in Winnipeg, and is married to Vivian (27 years). They have two children, Naomi, a junior at Houghton College (New York), and Bethany, a high school senior. Wilson is an ordained elder and deacon in the Presbyterian Church and is presently a member of Glenkirk Presbyterian Church in Glendora, California.

Wilson will succeed George Durance as president. After more than 12 years as president, Durance announced last summer that the 2008-2009 academic year would be his last and he would return to missionary service.

Riley Coulter, former president of Nazarene University College and former co-president of Ambrose, currently serves as the school's chancellor. According to Ambrose's web site, Coulter represents Ambrose at Nazarene gatherings across Canada and is also directly involved in providing continuing education for Nazarene pastors...

Howard Wilson resigned as president in July 2011, just two years into a four-year term; his resignation was so sudden that they didn't have a replacement ready, and chancellor (and former president of Canadian Nazarene College) Dr. R. Riley Coulter served as interim president until Dr. Smith was installed. As reported by Ambrose University College, July 12, 2011:

President Wilson’s resignation was announced to the Ambrose constituency on July 11, 2011.

Mr. Wilson was appointed by the Ambrose Board of Governors and the denominational boards of directors in April 2009 and he transitioned full-time to Ambrose in August 2009. During his time at the institution he made a significant contribution to the spiritual ethos on campus and underscored the commitment to Christ and students with the “Ambrose is all about Jesus…all about students” values stone that sits in the foyer of the academic building on campus. Part of that commitment to students expressed itself in his support of efforts to move the Ambrose Lions athletic teams to the next level with membership in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference, achieved earlier this year.

The Residence and Education Centre will be an enduring symbol of President Wilson’s tenure at Ambrose. In the fall of 2010 the Board of Governors gave final approvals to the construction project which is now nearing completion and will be home to residence students in September.

We appreciate President Wilson’s time of service at Ambrose and trust that, as he moves on to a new challenge, he and his family will experience God’s leading.

The suddenness of Pres. Wilson's resignation (and lack of an immediate replacement), and the following article, from the Calgary Herald, July 13, 2011, indicate that scandal was involved:

School officials are staying silent on the sudden resignation of Howard Wilson as president of Ambrose University College, a private institution.

"There's no way we can say it was this or that without spilling everybody's dirty laundry," said spokesman Wes Campbell.

A disagreement between the president and the school's board of governors led to the resignation, he said, without elaborating.

According to the government, Ambrose receives public funding only for its diploma degrees and as an independent institution, is not required to make its hiring and firing decisions public.

The Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Ambrose's magazine Anthem, the first issue published after President Wilson's resignation, includes a column by chancellor and acting president Coulter, but no mention of President Wilson's resignation--in fact, no mention of Mr. Wilson at all. The only places at the Ambrose website where you'll find any mention of Howard Wilson are the pdf reproductions of the Fall/Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 issues of Anthem, which contain his columns. Otherwise, Mr. Wilson has been so "disappeared" from Ambrose's history that it reminds this blogger of the way the Soviet Union used to alter photographs to remove individuals who had fallen into disfavour and/or been executed.

Gordon T. Smith's installation as president of Ambrose University College was attended by five previous presidents of Ambrose and/or its predecessor schools, Canadian Bible College/Canadian Theological Seminary and Nazarene University College. The Fall/Winter 2012 issue of Anthem mentions the ceremony; go to page 19, and you'll see a photo of Dr. Smith with his five predecessors. Conspicuous by his absence--from the photo, and apparently, from the ceremony--is Dr. Smith's immediate predecessor, Howard Wilson, despite the fact that he was known to still be living in Calgary at the time. To quote Sherlock Holmes out of context, "Most singular! Most remarkable!"

Mr. Wilson remained in Calgary for two years after his resignation before obtaining employment elsewhere. That in itself isn't suspicious; he may have been collecting remaining salary from Ambrose, and may have been content to stay in Calgary until his daughters graduated. However, when Mr. Wilson did obtain another position, it was as a vice president of Dordt College (which became Dordt University in 2019), an institution in Sioux City, Iowa affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. As reported by Dordt College, March 22, 2013:

After a national search, Dordt College has named Howard Wilson, formerly the president of Ambrose University College and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, its new vice president for enrollment management. Wilson, who has 25 years of experience in higher education, spent 12 years at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he was “mentored and nurtured in the Reformed worldview” by Dr. Richard Mouw. He held several leadership roles at Fuller, his final position being executive vice president for administration.

“We’re pleased to welcome Howard to the Dordt College community,” said Dordt College President Dr. Erik Hoekstra. “His lifelong alignment with Dordt’s mission and his experience in a variety of institutions of higher education will bring a wealth of experience to our campus.”

Wilson has led enrollment efforts at a number of institutions of Christian higher education. He comes to Dordt at a time when the college has experienced healthy and increasing enrollment even while some private institutions are experiencing enrollment concerns.

“Howard joins an outstanding admissions team at Dordt College,” Hoekstra adds. “His leadership—combined with the skills, talents, and energy of our current staff—will be a wonderful combination.”

Wilson sees that Dordt, with its strong academic reputation, clear commitment to a Christian perspective in all aspects of the college, and a supportive constituency, is likely to thrive in the years ahead. “I believe that Christian education is the most complete and satisfactory form of education, in that it develops the whole person, engaging the mind, heart, and spirit,” Wilson says.

Along with his academic credentials, Wilson is an advocate of the LEAN management system. He currently also is a licensed minister in the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada and has served as an ordained deacon and elder in an evangelical Presbyterian congregation. He received his master of divinity degree, as well as an honorary doctor of divinity degree, from Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba. He earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration with an industrial management emphasis from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.

Wilson and his wife, Vivian, live in Calgary, Alberta, and will relocate soon to Sioux Center. They have two daughters, Naomi, 24, and Bethany, 22.

Howard Wilson is still at Dordt University, as Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer. To go from vice president of a major seminary in the United States to president of a college in his home country of Canada, to--after a premature resignation and two-year interval--vice president of what some might call a "cow college" in Iowa is a downward career move, which this blogger finds very suspicious.

20 years ago: The death of Sam Kinison

On April 10, 1992, Sam Kinison, 38, a former Pentecostal preacher who had become a popular standup comic, was killed in a highway accident in California when hit by a drunk driver. Mr. Kinison, who was twice-divorced, had married his third wife just five days earlier, and was driving with cocaine and other substances in his system.

Mr. Kinison, like his father, became a Pentecostal preacher, but, unlike Moses, chose to reject the things of eternity in order to "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Hebrews 11:25b). Mr. Kinison abandoned preaching and became a comedian of the foul-mouthed, politally-incorrect variety that was in vogue in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I never heard or saw his act, since I did not then, and do not now, care for that kind of comedy. In addition to his appetites for alcohol and drugs, Mr. Kinison fathered a child out of wedlock by the wife of his best friend and opening act, Carl La Bove--which wasn't revealed until years after the La Boves got divorced. Mr. La Bove got sick of paying child support for years, and DNA tests overwhelmingly indicated that Mr. Kinison was the child's father.

Sam Kinison is remembered by his family--with an official website--and is, I suspect, forgotten by, or unknown to, just about everybody else, with the possible exception of students doing research into late-20th century popular culture and its more vulgar aspects. I wouldn't want to trade places with him.

South Korean Christians love Israel

As reported by Michael Orbach of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 25, 2012:

KFAR MENACHEM, Israel (JTA) – It’s become a mainstay of Saturday nights on the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem.

Between the crowds of Israeli revelers and American teens at the frozen-yogurt shops, a group of Koreans singing hymns vies for attention.

It’s one of the most public signs of Israel’s small but growing community of South Koreans, many of whom come to the Holy Land because they are evangelical Christians. Not far from Ben Yehuda, there is a Korean restaurant on nearby Shamai Street and five small Korean churches.

“Israel reflects the truth of the Tanach,” Yung Doo, a Korean man in his late 30s who moved to Israel two years ago with his family to pursue a graduate degree in Bible studies, said, using the Hebrew word for Bible. “This is the land of David and Saul.”

While official estimates are hard to come by, South Korea’s ambassador to Israel, Ilsoo Kim, estimates that there are about 800 Koreans in about 300 families living in Israel. The number, he said, has been growing in recent years. They mainly reside around the French Hill and Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area.

“Many have lived here quite a long time,” Kim said. “This reflects their feelings.”

Most Koreans in Israel are visitors to the country on multiyear student visas. Many study Bible at Israeli universities or at Holy Land University, a Christian graduate school that caters to Asians. Roughly 30 percent of Koreans are Christian.

A handful have come to Israel to stay. Kim OK Kyung, 67, is a gregarious Korean-American transplant who arrived from New Jersey three years ago with her husband, a pastor, who had just retired from his church.

“There is no place in the world like Jerusalem,” said Kyung, who calls herself Hannah, after the mother of the biblical Samuel, and peppers her speech with quotations from the Bible.

“He who blesses the children of Abraham will be blessed and he who curses Israel will be cursed,” she said, citing a passage in the Bible often quoted by evangelical Christians. “The president of Iran cursed Israel. I want to see what will happen to him.”

Some Koreans here have had difficulties adjusting to life in the Jewish state.

“It’s not easy to approach Israelis,” said Eunah Hur, who spends her day learning Hebrew in Jerusalem and attends a messianic church near her apartment. But it’s possible “to have good relationships. Israelis are warm and loyal,” she said. “We have a specific word for these relationships – ‘jung.’ It’s different from love and friendship.”

There are a number of similarities between Israeli and Korean cultures: a strong focus on education, a proficient high tech-sector, compulsory military service for males and, perhaps most importantly, an existential threat from neighbors.

“The North invaded once in 1950,” Kim said. “Then the 1967 war took place and people saw what Israelis were doing: overwhelming their enemy’s forces. Our teachers told us to learn from Israel. If [the North] invades, we have to do the same thing. Our memory of Israel started that day.”

Both Israel and South Korea also are in similar straits due to their limited natural resources, he said. “Without natural resources how can you have results? Human capital,” Kim said.

South Korea and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1962. Today, the trade volume between them is roughly $2.5 billion annually; it is especially heavy in automobiles and cell phones. In 2007, Korea-based Samsung acquired Transchip, an Israeli chip design firm that specialized in image sensors in digital cameras. Israeli streets are filled with Korean-made Hyundais and Kias. Korea also buys Israeli weapons to the tune of almost $50 million a year, according to Kim.

Hyounju Ji, who lives in Kibbutz Kfar Menachem, is one of an estimated 40 Koreans in Israel married to Israelis. As a volunteer at the kibbutz 13 years ago, she met the man who would become her husband. She married him over her parent’s objections.

“Korea is a really closed society. They don’t like mixed couples,” she said. “Israeli and Korean character is very similar. They’re both so proud of their people and want to keep their uniqueness.”

On May 10, while Israeli Jews marked Lag b’Omer, many Koreans in Israel gathered at Kfar Menachem to host their own celebration. Many were taking a day off from Bible-related graduate programs to observe Family Day in Korea and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Israel.

They played games of Jokgu, a competitive mix between soccer and tennis, and ate a meal with homemade kimchi, Tok Pokkum rice soup, and a Korean-style barbecue called bulgogi.

Helen Kim, a sociologist at Whitman College in Washington State and a second-generation Korean-American who studies the relationships between Asians and Jews, said she is not surprised by the Korean identification with Israel.

“There is a massive evangelical presence in Korea,” she said. “There is a general acceptance or understanding and looking to as Jews as really smart, well-educated, financially strong people. For a country that has experienced a lot of economic and political change over such a short time that hasn’t always been on the upswing, it’s not surprising that they would look to Jewish texts and to the Jewish people as examples of a people that have weathered the worst of all storms for close to 6,000 years.”

Haredi Orthodox extremists suspected in attack on 4th century synagogue in Tiberias

As repoted by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 29, 2012:

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An ancient mosaic on the floor of a fourth century synagogue in Tiberias was irreparably damaged.

Some of the mosaic tiles at the Hammat Tiberias synagogue in northern Israel were smashed into tiny pieces and other parts were deeply scratched in an attack that occurred between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Graffiti also was sprayed on the site.

The damage reportedly will cost millions of dollars to repair.

Haredi Orthodox extremists opposed to archeological excavations of ancient graves are suspected of causing the damage, according to reports. Graffiti at the site read, "on each grave -- a site” and “a response over the years.”

The mosaic is the earliest such synagogue mosaic to have been discovered in Israel.

Rare ancient jewellery discovered at Megiddo

Trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry unearthed (Photo: Associated Press)

As reported by The Associated Press, May 28, 2012:

Israeli archaeologists have discovered a rare trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry, including a ring and earrings, hidden in a ceramic jug near the ancient city of Megiddo, where the New Testament predicts the final battle of Armageddon.

Archaeologists who unearthed the jug during excavations at the site in 2010 left it in a laboratory while they waited for a molecular analysis of what was inside. When they were finally able to clean it, pieces of gold jewelry – a ring, earrings, and beads – dating to around 1,100 BC poured out.

Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, who co-directed the dig, said that the find offers a rare glimpse into ancient Canaanite high society. He said the fact that the jewelry was found inside the jug suggested that the owner hid them there.

Finkelstein said the jewelry likely belonged to a Canaanite family. "We can guess that it was a rich family, probably belonging to the ruling elite," he said.

Tel Aviv University called the trove "among the most valuable ever found from the Biblical period," adding that one piece in particular, a gold earring decorated with molded ibexes, or wild goats, is "without parallel."

It said in a statement this week that the objects were either owned by Egyptians living in the area or inspired by the Egyptian style of the period.

Aren Maeir, an archaeologist at Bar Ilan University, said that because the raw materials used are not from the area, the find "tells us about international relations ... and about technical traditions used at the time."

Megiddo was an important trade center in ancient times. According to the New Testament, Megiddo will be the site of the final apocalyptic battle between good and evil.

Oldest evidence of Bethlehem's existence unearthed in Jerusalem

As reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 23, 2012:

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The first and oldest ancient artifact providing tangible evidence of the existence of the city of Bethlehem was discovered during archaeological excavations in Jerusalem.

A clay seal, called a bulla, was discovered in soil near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem inside the City of David archaeological park. The bulla, measuring about 1.5 cm, included three lines of ancient Hebrew words including the words Beit Lechem, which is Bethlehem.

"This is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible, in an inscription from the First Temple period, which proves that Bethlehem was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods,” according to Eli Shukron, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The bulla was likely affixed to a tax shipment of silver or agricultural produce sent from Bethlehem to the King of Judah in the eighth or seventh century B.C., according to Shukron.

Bethlehem is mentioned in the Bible as the place where the foremother Rachel was buried. It was also the site of King David's anointing.

6th century Christian relic found in Jerusalem

(Photograph)

As reported by The Associated Press, Nov. 1, 2011:

Israeli archaeologists say they have found a tiny, 1,400-year-old token of Christian faith among the remains of an ancient road in Jerusalem.

The finding, an exquisitely made 0.8 inch-by-0.6-inch (2 centimeter by 1.5 centimeter) box of bone with a cross carved on the lid, was likely carried by a Christian believer around the end of the 6th century A.D.

When its lid is removed, the remains of two portraits are still visible in gold and paint - a man and a woman, possibly Jesus and Mary.

Archaeologist Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday that the box is the first well preserved example of its kind and is important because it shows that icon use was not limited to church ceremonies in Byzantine times.

See also this article.

Israeli rabbinical court rules that man's correspondence on Facebook constitutes infidelity

As reported by Itay Blumenthal of Ynet News, May 28, 2012:

A woman who presented the rabbinical court with extremely suggestive correspondence between her husband and other women on Facebook convinced judges that his actions constitute infidelity.

The court subsequently ruled that the husband must pay damages of NIS 150,000 shekels (roughly $40,000.)

The man and woman, who are both in their 30s, met on a dating website. After some months they decided to turn a new leaf in their lives, get married and raise together their children from previous marriages.

Yet six months after the marriage, the woman discovered that the husband continued to correspond with other women on the dating websites and on Facebook and decided to divorce him.

At court, the woman accused the husband of causing the marriage to fail. “He had physiological problems in bed,” she told judges. “He refused to take pills, drank alcohol and smoked pot.”

The woman also charged that for a long time the husband avoided looking for work, instead spending long hours in front of the computer. The husband for his part claimed that his wife refused to have marital relations with him.

“She would not shower, and had telephone conversations with another man,” he claimed.

Attorney Amir Zvulun, who represented the woman, presented the rabbinical court with extremely suggestive correspondence from the man to other women on Facebook to prove that he was unfaithful to his wife.

Rabbinical court judges said the husband’s response to the wife’s accusations proved that he admitted to what he did. His claim that he was not caught “with his pants down” was rejected by the court.

The judges ruled that the husband caused the failure of the marriage and in a precedent setting ruling ordered him to pay damages.

This ruling is in line with concerns expressed by Orthodox rabbis at an assembly of haredi Orthodox Jewish men that filled Citi Field in New York--home park of the New York Mets baseball team on May 20, 2012. As reported by Ben Sales of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 21, 2012:

NEW YORK (JTA) -- ..."The Internet even with a filter is a minefield of immorality," said Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman, a haredi Orthodox lecturer and rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Meor Yitzchok in Monsey, N.Y. "This issue is the test of the generation. Your strength at this gathering will determine what Judaism will look like a few years from now."

The rally to caution haredi Orthodox Jews about the dangers of the Internet drew a crowd of more than 40,000 men to the stadium, most of them wearing black hats. The group organizing the rally, Ichud HaKehillos LeTohar HaMachane, or Union of Communities for Purity of the Camp, barred women from attending -- consummate with the haredi practice of separating the sexes.

In Yiddish and English speeches, rabbis from haredi communities in the United States, Canada and Israel decried the access that the Internet gives haredim to the world outside their community. Speakers called the Internet “impure,” a threat to modesty and compared it to chametz, or leavened bread, on Passover.

Almost no rabbi directly addressed pornography, which is prohibited by traditional Jewish law. Several speakers also lamented the Internet’s potential to distract men from learning Torah.

To a man, each of the rabbis who spoke said that Jewish law forbids Jews from browsing the Internet without a filter that blocks inappropriate sites. The speeches in Yiddish were broadcast with English subtitles on the stadium’s JumboTron.

Rabbi Yechiel Meir Katz, known as the Dzibo rav, compared the threat of the Internet to the dangers that Zionism and the European Enlightenment posed in the past to traditional Jewish life.

“A terrible test has been sent to us that has inflicted so much terrible damage” on haredim, Katz said. The Internet poses a greater threat to haredim than secularism did, he said, because “in previous challenges we knew who the enemy was. Today, however, the challenge is disguised and not discernible to the naked eye.”

The crowd ranged in age from small children to senior citizens. One participant, Yitzchok, said that although the speakers focused on the Internet problem rather than solutions, the event was “inspiring.”

“This is a beginning,” said Yitzchok, 43. “They’re coming to raise awareness. Every situation is different, everyone requires some filter.”

While haredim must limit their internet access, "many people do need to use it," he added.