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Through sermon tips and bulletin inserts that provide context for Bible passages, the church hopes to "minimize tensions with the Jewish community," said Bishop Christopher Epting, head of ecumenical and interfaith relations for the Episcopal Church.

Particularly during Holy Week, when biblical texts about Jesus' death are read in church, there can be "misunderstandings in the pews" about the role of Jews in Jesus' crucifixion, Epting said.

"The texts without explanation can lead people to an anti-Semitic point of view," according to Epting. "Commentary and education material will help people understand the context in which these things were said." …

"Nobody's talking about changing the Bible," [Mass. delegate Byron] Rushing said. "But we are a liturgical church, and like all liturgical churches we pick and choose the parts of Scripture we use in our services. That's different from thinking Scripture itself should be revised."

To summarize: the Episcopal "church" isn't saying parts of the Bible should be removed; just that some parts shouldn't be read aloud. As it turns out, only some Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

4. Bishop: Christianity not being removed from U.K. prisons
Peter Selby, the Church of England's bishop to prisons, and Phil Wheatley, director general of HM Prison Service, are criticizing news reports that the innerchange Freedom Initiative was removed from Dartmoor over religious diversity issues. (See last week's Weblog posting.) The Church of England Newspaper reports that Selby

said the Inner Change programme failed on five different counts to obtain approval from the Prison Service, arguing that the experience of the programme in the US had been mixed, "and there have been concerns about its ability to integrate with general chaplaincy provision."

And in his letter to The Telegraph, Wheatley writes that InnerChange was nixed because it was ineffective:

The figures quoted on reoffending rates have been shown by a number of academics to be inaccurate. There is some evidence that those who attend an IFI programme and do not complete it are slightly more likely to reoffend than those who have never been on one.

But The Church of England Newspaper reports that Dartmoor prison officers say InnerChange was having an effect on inmate behavior, though it has only been in place for less than a year. InnerChange volunteer Maureen Bridge, in a letter to The Telegraph, writes, "We have seen for ourselves how the programme has affected the men who are taking part; their outlook, their behaviour, even their appearance has in most cases undergone transformation."

"It may be that there are some things wrong with it," Charles Moore writes in The Telegraph. "It would be surprising if a project that started out saying it needed three to five years had got everything right in a few months." But it's clear, he says, that InnerChange faced religious discrimination. He quotes a report from the Area Psychologist, who was asked to examine the program. InnerChange's teaching that "the root of offending is in individual sin," she fretted, "lacks basis in specific scientific research. … The place of anti-social behaviour in the concept of good and evil, god [sic] and the devil may not encourage self-responsibility in a manner which enables the individual to make sophisticated choices when faced with complex situations in their lives." Furthermore, she said, InnerChange was run by people who believe that their version of Christianity is "right."

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July (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50