Religious Leaders Meet Carter

Rabbi Marc Taneabaum, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, said that he and a group of other religious leaders and sociologists met with President Carter at Camp David Tuesday night “at the request of the President to explore what we could contribute to the common welfare of the American people as it faces one of the great watershed crises of our time.”

Those meeting with Carter examined a number of practical issues, Tanenbaum said here today after returning from Camp David. The Issues included “the need to gain energy independence from the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) cartel and its threat to the autonomy of American foreign policy; the need for effective conservation; the need for alternative sources of energy” and “how to help American people recognize that the era of superabundance is coming to an end and the urgent need for modifying lifestyles that puts on end to waste, materialism and self-indulgence.”

Tanenbaum said he was hopeful that as a result of the Camp David meeting “major Christian and Jewish bodies will play a central and constructive role in enabling our people not only to survive but to prevail.”

Other members of the group who met with Carter were: Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York representing the U.S. Catholic Conference; Claire Randall, general secretary, National Council of Churches; Father Theodore Hesburgh, president, Notre Dame University; Robert Bellah, professor of sociology and comparative studies, University of California at Berkeley; and David Reisman, professor of social science, Harvard University.