'God Squad' audience to grow: friendship is 'another calling from God.'

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 1, 1995 by Dick Ryan

A Catholic priest and a Reform rabbi, who characterize their friendship as a "communications marriage," are crossing a new threshold of religious communications with the invitation to begin appearing as a regular component of ABC's "Good Morning, America."

Since they first met each other eight years ago, Msgr. Tom Hartman and Rabbi Marc Gellman have written two books together (Where Does god Live?: Questions and Answers for Parents and Children and How Do You Spell God?) and created the nationally distributed television show, "The God Squad," that brings the two into 26 million homes twice a week. They've also been regular guests on a "shock jock's" talk show.

And now their audience will expand further with the ABC announcement that the network plans to have the pair appear on "Good Morning, America" about four times a month.

The spiritual leader of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, Long Island, with a doctorate in medical ethics, Gellman comes off as the intellectual while Hartman, the director of radio and television for the Rockville Centre diocese on Long Island, is more pastoral in his approach to ideas and people. Each, however, has an easygoing, bantering style that has created an appealing chemistry. They have also developed a deep friendship, which Hartman has referred to as "another calling from God."

The question has arisen as to whether other priests and rabbis have accepted their celebrity or criticized them for compromising their beliefs as rabbi and priest. "You know, we expected some flak at the beginning but it never happened," the 48-year-old Gellman said.

"There are some people who feel that their religious leaders occasionally dilute their faith, but we don't believe that our faith, as a Jew and a Catholic, should ever be diluted," Gellman said. "If you look at Judaism and Christianity honestly, you will come to understand that they are both spiritually generous religions, not jealous or spiritually constricted. There is a spirit of warmth, openness and inclusiveness in both Christianity and Judaism. For instance, Tom believes that I am saved because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Now, I don't believe that he died for my sins, but I am not offended, insulted or demeaned by Tom's belief."

There are other issues, too, where these two men intensely disagree with each other, on and off camera. Gellman is in favor of capital punishment while Hartman is not. The rabbi does not believe in intermarriage while the priest continues to perform them and bless them.

And there are other issues, too, that they have confronted on the air. A few years ago when the controversy over an Auschwitz convent drew international headlines, Hartman asked, "Why would a rabbi scale the walls and intimidate this group of sisters who are very caring, prayerful people?"

"What you don't understand, Tom," Gellman replied, "is that the cross those sisters put up was, for so many Jews during the time of the Crusades, a source of death and destruction.

The 49-year-old Hartman recalled, "I immediately responded that given that, maybe the convent should be taken down. And Rabbi Gellman simply said, 'No, maybe the answer is putting up a synagogue alongside the convent.' It was a very special moment for both of us, but also for the people watching."

Some have objected to Hartman and Gellman becoming regular visitors to the Don Imus radio talk show, "Imus in the Morning," that is heard daily around the country and commonly features obscene, vulgar language. Gellman was prepared to defend the choice.

"First of all, we've raised that issue ourselves right on the air with Imus and, at one point, actually quit in objecting to the language," the rabbi pointed out. "But Imus insisted that we remain and promised and carried out 'a window of purity' while we're on the air. And he's kept his word. We have been in his face about this problem so that he also agreed to always conclude our time on the air with a serious prayer. That also has become part of the format. I think we've helped change some of the program, at least a little."

"Religious leaders," Gellman said, "always have the choice of mixing it up in the public media and accepting the diminution of purity involved in that choice for the sake of reaching people who otherwise might not be reached by their message of hope. The choice is either living like the Amish and Hasidic Jews or living like most Christians and Jews actually live."

"They're so natural," Alan Wurtzel, a senior vice president at ABC and the head of "Good Morning, America," said. "And what I really appreciate is the approach they take to religion. They are very serious but their presentation doesn't take itself seriously."

Wurtzel hopes to have Gellman and Hartman appear twice a month on Sunday morning and also twice more during the month. "We've always felt that religion should be presented more on television, not in a heavy-handed way, but in a way that people can relate to. And Tom and Marc do just that."

In his network office in New York, Wurtzel said, "The problem for religion on television is that we've always 'preached to the converted,' the people who would always watch a religious program anyway. But today, there is a renewed interest in religion in the broadest sense, an interest in values. And people are simply searching but not in the traditional places. That's why we like Fr. Tom and Rabbi Marc. They strike a terrific tone on television, and they are very interesting people."