TruthBook Religious News Blog

A new survey shows the majority of Americans think religion is "under attack" and "losing its influence" in American life.

According to the poll, American Attitudes Toward Religion In the Public Square,
* 64 percent agreed with the statement that "religion is under attack" in America, and
* 80 percent of those who identify themselves as fundamentalist/evangelical/charismatic Christians, were in agreement.

"Unfortunately, too many people believe that religion is under attack in America, when in fact according to all measurements, religion is stronger in the United States than in any other Western country," said Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman.

The poll also found
* 53 percent of respondents believe that religion is "losing" influence in American life, while
* 35 percent said it is "increasing influence."

Among those who think religion is "losing" influence,
* 60 percent are evangelical/fundamental/charismatic Christians, while
* 33 percent of that same group said religion is "increasing" in influence.

On the topic of intelligent design, the theory that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher being, 56 percent favor the teaching of intelligent design or creationism, alongside the theory of evolution in public schools.

Among fundamentalist/evangelical/charismatic Christians,
* 70 percent favor creationism, compared to
* 28 percent who opposed it.

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Friday, November 18, 2005

Does prayer heal?

Science looks at the role faith plays in maintaining good health

For thousands of years, spiritual leaders and healers were one and the same. Religious orders founded the first hospitals, and it wasn't until the 1800s that medical science finally broke free of faith. But the separation of body and spirit was pursued vigorously by medical science as it advanced. Sigmund Freud went so far as to compare religion to a neurosis.

Now the pendulum is swinging back ... a bit. Scientific evidence that prayer and faith can protect health has been building slowly over the past few decades. This controversial inquiry divides into two major questions: Can a person's spiritual faith and practice affect his or her health? And can religious or spiritual practice — particularly intercessory prayer — affect the health of those being prayed for?

The first is a complicated puzzle; scientists must try to tease out the benefits of religious participation from other health factors such as diet, exercise and family history. As for the second, intercessory prayer suggests divine intervention at work, and there's no lab test for that.

RELIGION AND RELAXATION

To make a case for the health benefits of faith, prayer would have to activate a healing mechanism in the body. Herbert Benson, MD, of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston and Harvard Medical School has discovered one possible mechanism. In 1970, Benson and colleagues at Harvard described the relaxation response, a simple technique where, through rest, deep breathing and repetition of a word, people can change their physical and emotional reactions to stress — reactions that can lead to high blood pressure, heart trouble and insomnia. He also found that prayer could elicit the relaxation response.

"We can effectively treat any disorder —to the extent that stress is contributing to it — by a once- or twice-daily elicitation of the relaxation response," he says.

But this isn't strictly a religious phenomenon. Recent research shows that stress-management tools, exercise or transcendental meditation can have similar heart benefits.

* "It doesn't matter where the relaxation comes from. The mechanism is within us," says Benson. "Your own belief system will determine whether you believe it's God-given or whether it's evolution-derived."

Harold G. Koenig, M.D., agrees, but he also believes that religion offers benefits beyond those of meditation and exercise. As co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University, Koenig has produced dozens of journal articles on spirituality's role in healing and has edited the Handbook of Religion and Health, a scholarly volume that makes the case that religious people live longer, healthier lives.

Koenig has been searching for biological evidence that prayer or religious practice tacks on years. In 1997, he found that regular churchgoers had low levels of interleukin-6, a protein linked to inflammation. Research has shown that chronically high levels of the protein can indicate increased risk of many types of disease, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Another kind of prayer

When most people think about prayer and healing, they think of asking for good health or relief from disease.

But another type of prayer asks for nothing, but gives thanks for what has been received. And though gratitude hasn't received as much research attention, there are hints that thankfulness — whether or not it's expressed in prayer — may have its own power.

In one study, psychologists Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., of the University of California, Davis, and Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., of the University of Miami, found that volunteers who kept weekly "gratitude journals" exercised more regularly and reported fewer aches and pains than people asked to record hassles or neutral events. In another study, the volunteers were people with debilitating neuromuscular disease. This time, Emmons and McCullough found, keeping a gratitude log didn't reduce physical symptoms, but it did increase the amount of sleep the participants reported getting (by half an hour) and improve its quality.

Gratitude has surprising force, says psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., former president of the American Psychological Association. Seligman is the guru of positive psychology, which focuses on bolstering emotional strengths. One of the exercises he's developed is the "gratitude visit," which requires you to think of someone who made an important difference in your life, write up the story of how he or she helped shape you, then visit that person to share the story. Expressing thanks in this way has a lasting impact, Seligman says: A full year later, tests show, you're likely to be happier and less depressed than before the visit.

BY ERIK NESS

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Most believe in Genesis, but want evolution taught

Most Americans believe God created humans on the sixth day of the universe, yet they also overwhelming want science-based evolution taught in public school, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

Half of the 1,005 adults interviewed support the suggestion that public schools should also teach intelligent design, the notion that God played a role in the evolution of humans. But only 17 percent said they believe in intelligent design when asked their opinion of humanity's origins.

* 54 percent said they believe "God created the universe and humans in a six-day period,"
* 23 percent said "humans evolved from other animal species through natural selection," and
* 17 percent said "God caused humans to evolve from other species."
* 6 percent were undecided.

Joseph Howard, director of the Catholic Medical Ethics Advisory Council and an exponent of intelligent design, said he is troubled that so many Americans take a literal view of the Bible. "Have they studied ancient Hebrew? For people to sit around and pretend they can understand the Book of Genesis is ludicrous," Howard said.

Yet Americans also embrace science when asked to take a clear position on whether pure Darwinian evolution should be taught in the science classrooms.

* 69 percent agreed with the notion that "evolution is what most scientists believe, so it should be taught in public science classes."
* 23 percent said they believe "scientists are wrong, so evolution should not be taught."
* 11 percent were undecided or suggested teaching both views.

The survey found education, religion and political ideology have strong influences on whether Americans believe in evolution, a literal interpretation of Genesis or something in between.

* Nearly two-thirds of people who failed to finish high school believe humans were created in a single day, compared to
* less than a third of people with post-graduate educations.

* Protestants, especially people who believe they've been spiritually born again, are especially likely to believe the biblical story of creation literally.
* Catholics were less likely to believe this.
* People with no religious preference overwhelmingly do not believe this.

The survey was conducted by telephone Oct. 9-23 at the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

By Thomas Hargrove and Guido H. Stempel III
Scripps Howard News Service

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Harvard Interfaith Council Urges Dialogue

A revitalized Harvard Interfaith Council (HIC) met for the first time this year on Thursday, drawing about 100 people to discuss religion over chocolate fondue.

Among the crowd were guest speakers Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 and Dean of Harvard Divinity School William A. Graham, as well as leaders of the Harvard Baha’i Association, Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship (HRCF) and Dharma. Representatives from The Pluralism Project, a Harvard-based research endeavor focused on religious diversity, also participated in the event.

“To have them all in one room, you realize that there is a real possibility for integrated religious community,” HIC Chair Om L. Lala ’06 said.

The event opened with an introduction of the HIC board and brief speeches from Gross and Graham.

“This is a terrific learning environment,” Gross said, adding that it is a challenge for people to come together and learn about religion.

Graham noted that interreligious dialogue can often end up one-sided, but said that service projects can effectively bring people together.

“The world needs the capacity of people of different faiths to work together with the great problems that face humanity,” Graham said.

HIC’s most recent effort was Belief in Action, a day of volunteer service in May 2005 that united students from various religious organizations with service groups in Cambridge.

HIC, originally dedicated to small discussions of religion, collapsed in 2003 once founding seniors graduated, according to Lala. He was able to revive the group in the fall of 2004.

The group now aims to promote campus-wide interreligious dialogue by holding events that support varying beliefs. Lala also said he wants to increase HIC’s influence by creating additional events like Belief in Action.

“We want a sustainable, more proactive group,” he said. “It needs to be a more long-term collective resource.”

Vijay Yanamadala ’07, HIC vice-chair, said the group also has a global mission.

“In the past few years, so many hate crimes have been caused by misunderstandings about religions,” Yanamadala said.

Don Larsen, the pastor at the University Lutheran Church and a representative from the House Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, agreed that HIC served a greater international pursuit.

“The world’s peace is dependent upon people learning to respect one another’s religious peculiarities,” Larsen said. “Through meetings like this, people can go beyond what is comfortable to explore what may seem alien and perhaps threatening.”

HRCF President Kristen Heyburn ’06 said the meetings also give religious groups the opportunity to discuss common obstacles, such as a lack of space.

“A lot of groups have similar needs,” she said.

In December, HIC will host a panel discussion on Abrahamic and Eastern religions. In February, the group will hold an event that explores the use of art in worship and spirituality. A revitalized Harvard Interfaith Council (HIC) met for the first time this year on Thursday, drawing about 100 people to discuss religion over chocolate fondue.

Among the crowd were guest speakers Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 and Dean of Harvard Divinity School William A. Graham, as well as leaders of the Harvard Baha’i Association, Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship (HRCF) and Dharma. Representatives from The Pluralism Project, a Harvard-based research endeavor focused on religious diversity, also participated in the event.

“To have them all in one room, you realize that there is a real possibility for integrated religious community,” HIC Chair Om L. Lala ’06 said.

The event opened with an introduction of the HIC board and brief speeches from Gross and Graham.

“This is a terrific learning environment,” Gross said, adding that it is a challenge for people to come together and learn about religion.

Graham noted that interreligious dialogue can often end up one-sided, but said that service projects can effectively bring people together.

“The world needs the capacity of people of different faiths to work together with the great problems that face humanity,” Graham said.

HIC’s most recent effort was Belief in Action, a day of volunteer service in May 2005 that united students from various religious organizations with service groups in Cambridge.

HIC, originally dedicated to small discussions of religion, collapsed in 2003 once founding seniors graduated, according to Lala. He was able to revive the group in the fall of 2004.

The group now aims to promote campus-wide interreligious dialogue by holding events that support varying beliefs. Lala also said he wants to increase HIC’s influence by creating additional events like Belief in Action.

“We want a sustainable, more proactive group,” he said. “It needs to be a more long-term collective resource.”

Vijay Yanamadala ’07, HIC vice-chair, said the group also has a global mission.

“In the past few years, so many hate crimes have been caused by misunderstandings about religions,” Yanamadala said.

Don Larsen, the pastor at the University Lutheran Church and a representative from the House Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, agreed that HIC served a greater international pursuit.

“The world’s peace is dependent upon people learning to respect one another’s religious peculiarities,” Larsen said. “Through meetings like this, people can go beyond what is comfortable to explore what may seem alien and perhaps threatening.”

HRCF President Kristen Heyburn ’06 said the meetings also give religious groups the opportunity to discuss common obstacles, such as a lack of space.

“A lot of groups have similar needs,” she said.

In December, HIC will host a panel discussion on Abrahamic and Eastern religions. In February, the group will hold an event that explores the use of art in worship and spirituality.

By RACHEL BANKS
Contributing Writer

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Bentley Professors Bring Spirituality & Meditative Practices into Business Education

Bentley professors become the students during a series of workshops in Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 designed to help them integrate methods such as quiet meditation, reflection, mindfulness, and centering prayer into their courses.

The project, "Embedding Contemplative Practices into Bentley's Curriculum", was made possible by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Bentley is one of only three schools in the country, out of 51 applicants, to have received the grant. The two other schools are Brown University and the City University of New York.

Professor of Management Joe Weiss received the grant, a Contemplative Program Development Fellowship, and will lead several workshops throughout the school year. "The workshops and campus talks are designed to inform, instruct, model and also create a comfort zone that will enable professors to experiment with different contemplative methods and even design courses that combine these practices with their specialty areas. Students seem more ready for deeper, more soulful learning/teaching approaches than we are!" says Weiss.

Professor Weiss holds a master's of divinity from Union Theological Seminary. In 2002, he pioneered the first course in Spirituality and Management at Bentley called "Life Calling & Career Strategies: The Spiritual Journey" which earned him Bentley's Innovation in Teaching Award. He notes that he includes a mindful approach in his MBA leadership course, management consulting and executive coaching. Weiss believes the grant allows Bentley to follow through on its commitment on educating "the whole person" and to offer students the skills essential to professional success, "In today's workforce, creativity is one of the most sought-after capabilities. How do you foster creativity? By listening and nurturing the voice within, gaining a deep sense of self-confidence, and becoming who you are in the fullness of your gifts."

The new faculty workshops begin amid a growing scholarly interest in incorporating body, mind and spirit into business and business education. Schools including Stanford, Columbia and Notre Dame also offer courses that encourage spiritual exploration within the context of the workplace. At Bentley, professors in fields such as Management, Marketing and English have already begun to use contemplative practices in their classes. Weiss' recent article on spirituality and leadership is "Calling, New Careers, and Spirituality," with Tim Hall, John Haughey, and Michael Skelly, Vol. 5 , Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations (Elsevier) vol. 5, no. 3, 25-37, 2004.

Bentley is a business school. Centered on education and research in business and related professions, Bentley blends the breadth and technological strength of a university with the values and student focus of a small college. Our undergraduate curriculum combines business study with a strong foundation in the arts and sciences. A broad array of offerings including MBA, Master of Science and certificate programs at the McCallum Graduate School, emphasize the impact of technology on business practice. Enrolling approximately 3,900 full-time undergraduate, 335 adult part-time undergraduate, and 1,300 graduate students, Bentley is located in Waltham, Massachusetts, minutes west of Boston.

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ENGLAND: Britons 'back Christian society'

Many Muslims want to Britain to retain Christian values

Most Britons describe themselves as Christian despite not attending church regularly, a BBC survey has found.

The poll taken for BBC News 24's Faith Day examines how belief in religions is shaping British identity.

More than two-thirds of the 1,019 respondents said they were Christian, but only 17% regularly went to church.

Almost 75% of respondents said the UK should retain Christian values - including 69% of Jews, and nearly 50% of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.

According to the poll, some 67% of those questioned described themselves as Christian - 59% of men and 75% of women.

The next largest religious group was Muslims, making up 3% of respondents. More than a fifth of people said they did not believe in any religion.

Among the general population, 14% said they attended a religious service once a week or more, while 60% attended at least once or twice a year. Some 28% of people said they never attended a service.

Some 44% of those who said they had no faith agreed that the UK should retain a Christian ethos.

More women than men thought that Christianity was important to Britain.

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Sunday, November 13, 2005

Dalai Lama: Science needs morality

Exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama told a meeting of scientists Saturday in Washington that decisions about how to apply science can no longer be left to individuals.

During a 10-visit to the U.S. capital, he told the annual convention of the Society for Neuroscience that science must be guided by moral principles.

'It is no longer adequate to adopt the view that our responsibility as a society is to simply further scientific knowledge and enhance technological power and that the choice of what to do with this knowledge and power should be left in the hands of the individual,' he said in a prepared text.

The monastic leader is the author of a new book, 'The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality'.

During his speech Saturday to 14,000 convention goers, he departed from his prepared text in both Tibetan and English, the Post said.

'It is all too evident that our moral thinking simply has not been able to keep pace with such rapid progress in our acquisition of knowledge and power,' he said in the prepared speech.

He specified that the 'fundamental ethical principles' that he advocates for scientists were not an argument to meld science and religion.

'Rather, I am speaking of what I call secular ethics that embrace the key ethical principles, such as compassion, tolerance, a sense of caring, consideration of others, and the responsible use of knowledge and power,' the Dalai Lama said. 'Principles that transcend the barriers between religious believers and non-believers, and followers of this religion or that religion.'

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Americans idolize model family but see limits, study shows

A new survey, commissioned by the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, shows that even as Americans have become more accepting of nontraditional family structures, their view of the ideal family has remained the same—a heterosexual couple, married for life, with children.

Findings released to the press show "that there is a significant gap between what we call beliefs and reality" about the family, said pollster Anna Greenberg, who designed the survey. "Nearly everyone in this country supports what we would call the 'traditional family,'" Greenberg continued, noting that 71 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, "God's plan for marriage is one man, one woman, for life."

However,
* only 22 percent of respondents agreed that divorce is a sin,
* 49 percent said it is OK for couples to live together without intending to get married, and
* 40 percent agreed that it is "a good idea for a couple who intend to get married to live together first."

A large majority of respondents remain opposed to marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples.

"There's a very strong—some might even say romanticized—vision of what family life should look like," Greenberg told reporters. "Yet, there is a very strong realization of what family life actually looks like."

For instance,
* 52 percent of respondents said that divorce is "usually the best solution when a couple can't seem to work out their marriage problems." That figure included
* 38 percent of those in "traditional marriages," defined as a heterosexual couple in their first marriage with children at home.

The survey found that less than
* 20 percent of respondents were never-divorced married couples with children at home. Another
* 27 percent were married and never divorced but with no children living at home.

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Do you know what your kids are watching? TV sex scene on the rise

If it sometimes seems to you that everyone in prime-time is getting it on, the Kaiser Family Foundation says you may be right. A Kaiser survey released yesterday shows that the number of sex scenes on TV has doubled since 1998.

Meanwhile, safe sex messages have leveled off. Only 14 percent of shows with sexual content included discussions of contraception, abstinence or other “safer sex” messages. That number has remained stagnant since the last Kaiser survey in 2002, but was a 5 percent increase from 1998.

“Kids who have repeated exposure to sexual content become sexually active at an earlier age. The research is absolutely there,” said Tim Winter, executive director of the Parents Television Council.

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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Spirituality: A sense of self

Spirituality is often overlooked in youth work. Ana Paula Nacif finds out why and looks at how projects can successfully incorporate this element into their work.

The cornerstone of youth work is to encourage young people to realise their potential. But whereas fostering physical and mental wellbeing are relatively straightforward, when it comes to spirituality, the lines begin to blur.

According to National Occupational Standards overseen by the Lifelong Learning UK sector skills council, youth workers need to understand their spiritual self, know the difference between spirituality and religion, and be able to provide activities enabling young people to relate to the world in a spiritual way.

Yet the confusion between where spirituality ends and religion begins means that many youth workers are unsure about whether they should bring that dimension into their work.

The National Youth Agency consultation paper Spirituality and Spiritual Development in Youth Work has put a spotlight on the issue and sparked a debate on spirituality's role in youth work.

According to Maxine Green, the paper's author, the overwhelming response - from those working in secular and religious settings - shows the importance of spirituality.

Loss of self

"People are saying that we must not lose spirituality," she says. "You have youth workers on the ground meeting young people for whom spirituality and faith are a huge issue. Young people are told that if they do well in exams and get good jobs, they will be OK. But there is another level."

One of the main issues facing youth workers is how they can bring spirituality into their day-to-day work with young people, and whether it should be separate or part of a holistic approach to fostering young people's wellbeing.

London Youth, a charity that supports young people and youth clubs, has set up London Youth's Diversity Group to explore the issues that affect young people's wellbeing and spirit. Tracie Trimmer, director of projects and interventions at London Youth, says: "We address issues of spirituality for young people with a focus on valuing and celebrating diversity."

But, apart from encouraging diversity, Green explains that spirituality can be fully integrated into the work already being done by youth workers.

"We are not going to 'do spirituality'. Spirituality is not something you do with young people," she says. "As youth workers, we see spirituality as something to help young people develop, something that they can contribute as strong agents for initiating changes in our society."

Current youth work techniques such as art, music and other creative work, as well as group discussions, can incorporate spirituality. Training can also help youth workers feel more comfortable about spirituality and ease tensions around the boundaries between spirituality, faith and religion.

"We are developing ideas and practices to integrate it into the work, so youth workers can feel more confident," says Green. "There are tensions and the way forward is through communication. If we find the subject sensitive and we back off, it only polarises the community."

Despite the challenges, Bishop Roger Sainsbury, chair of The National Youth Agency, believes youth workers have a key role to play. "Spirituality is a journey of discovery and youth workers need to encourage young people on this journey, rather than preach at them with set answers." But he emphasises that, although spiritual development should be included in youth work, it must be done in the context of social, moral, cultural, mental and physical development programmes.

To be able to deliver this kind of integration, Portsmouth Youth Service is carrying out research with young people and youth workers. It is also investigating ways to link spirituality with emotional intelligence and mental health.

Sharon Court, outreach and development worker at Portsmouth Youth Service, is doing the research and organising workshops for youth workers and other professionals to equip them with the skills they need to include spirituality in their work. She believes that spirituality and youth work are compatible.

"Youth work is the best-placed profession to deal with spirituality because it takes a holistic approach," she says. "It deals with the whole person, accepts where they are at and it is flexible."

The main findings of The National Youth Agency consultation on spirituality have not been published yet, but a range of issues have been provisionally identified. These will provide a basis for further discussions.

- The debate about spirituality and youth work is important

- Young people must be involved

- Some respondents voiced concerns about fundamentalist teaching

- How spirituality can be incorporated into the youth work curriculum and how youth workers should be supported and trained

- Spirituality is often seen as a concern of the individual, but the role of communities and social cohesion should also be considered

- Spirituality and spiritual development is a complex area and both secular and faith organisations can contribute

www.nya.org.uk.

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Friday, November 04, 2005

Development of spirituality will enable us to overcome the socio-economic crisis in Russia

The spiritual condition of the individual in Russia is an obstacle for overcoming the socio-political crisis in Russia, stated Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.

‘The harmonious development of the individual was and is the primary problem of today’s Russia, and this development is impossible without solid spiritual foundations and clear ethical guidelines’, the metropolitan said during the ceremony in which he was made honorary doctor of the Russian State Social University.

He reminded the audience that in the Soviet period the spiritual values were ousted from the social realm as a result of confrontation between church and state.

And while the development of the Third World, according to the metropolitan, is impeded by the absence of qualified specialists, the obstacle in Russia with her rich scientific potential and tremendous reserves of material resources is ‘the problem of human personality and its spiritual condition’.

‘Faith gives people the vitality and spiritual strength to overcome hardships, to achieve their goals, to fulfill their duties. That is why a modern secular society needs so much the cooperation between the Church and the world of science and politics’, His Eminence believes.

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Sociology professor given $1 million for church study

A UA sociology professor is about to find out what kind of role churches, synagogues and mosques play in society, after receiving more than $1 million for the research.

Mark Chaves, sociology department head and professor, received the grants to continue the National Congregations Study, the first nationwide survey of its kind, from the Lilly Endowment, the National Science Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Chaves said he surveyed 1,200 religious congregations in 1998, and now he plans to survey the congregation officials about its range of activities and programs, social services, worship styles and membership characteristics.

“Religion is an important part of American society and culture and it’s important to study the role that religious groups and organizations play in our society,” Chaves said.

About 40 percent of Americans regularly attend a religious congregation and not enough is known about the effect religion has on our society, Chaves said.

“We don’t really know about what they do and how that role is changing,” Chaves said.

The findings came as a surprise to Father Bartholomew Hutcherson, director of the Saint Thomas More Catholic Newman Center, who said he was sorry to hear few social services were being offered.

“Social services and social justice is one of the pillars of Christian faith,” Hutcherson said. “If social services aren’t being provided by churches, that is probably a reflection of American society.”

By following up on the first study’s information, the researchers expect the next study will show what changes religious congregations have gone through over time, Anderson.

“We don’t have that kind of data in the field right now,” Anderson said.

The results will likely be published in 2007, Chaves said.

By Laura Ory
Arizona Daily Wildcat