FAITH BRIEFS: Church changes to Unitarian

Bishop Carlton Pearson, who has been publicly criticized for teaching that all people will go to heaven, has folded his Oklahoma church into a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Pearson’s New Dimensions Worship Center began meeting at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Okla., in June, the Tulsa World reported. Pearson said he and his family would make All Souls their home church, and he encouraged New Dimensions members to worship there as well.

After leading what once was a prominent charismatic church, Pearson said he chose All Souls because of its inclusive atmosphere, accepting gays, blacks and people of all beliefs or none.

“I wanted a place where my people could find safe harbor,” he told the Tulsa newspaper. “They’re already outcasts in the evangelical charismatic community.”

Senior Minister Marlin Lavanhar of All Souls said the addition of several hundred people with a black Pentecostal worship style has enlivened his mostly white congregation. “The ‘amens’ and the ‘right ons’ pull something out of you when you preach,” Lavanhar told the Tulsa World. “There’s a lot of laughter and tears. We’ve never been so free in worship.”

Within the past decade, Pearson lost the bulk of his congregation after embracing a universalist theology. He was denounced by the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops, and his church’s buses were not allowed access to his alma mater, Oral Roberts University.

—- Adelle M. Banks

Rabbis to draft labor standards

As the Conservative and Reform Jewish movements work to create a seal of approval for labor practices at kosher food companies, a group of Orthodox rabbis has decided to draft their own guidelines for workplace standards.

The Rabbinical Council of America, the New York-based governing body of Orthodox rabbis, has charged a task force of a dozen business ethicists and experts with coming out with the guide by January. In contrast to the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek initiative, which plans to create a supplemental seal to certify kosher foods as produced through fair wages and ethical conditions, the Orthodox guide will only expect companies to comply with existing government laws.

The guide will also provide a list of Jewish principles companies can voluntarily adopt “as a matter of corporate social responsibility,” said Rabbi Basil Herring, RCA executive vice president.

In Iowa, the giant Agriprocessors meatpacking plant was recently charged with thousands of child labor violations, prompting some Jews to boycott its products.Rabbi Morris Allen, head of the Hekhsher Tzedek initiative, said the news showed the Orthodox movement had begun to recognize the importance of ensuring that certified foods are ethically as well as ritually kosher.

But with 3,000 companies with factories in 80 countries receiving kosher certifications, it’s impractical to make rabbis responsible for workplace standards, Herring said. The RCA guide will help by requiring that companies obey existing laws at a minimum, if they want to keep their kosher certifications.

—- Nicole Neroulias