TruthBook Religious News Blog

Posted on Fri, Dec. 29, 2006

By Alexandra Alter

McClatchy Newspapers

One of the most widely watched films in the world has no megastars, narrative twists or special effects. It bombed at the box office in 1979, earning a scant $4 million in U.S. theaters -- less than its $6 million budget.

Yet the film went on to be translated into 950 languages and screened in 235 countries and has supposedly been seen some 6 billion times, reaching wider audiences than blockbuster movies such as ET, Star Wars and Titanic.

You may have never heard of Jesus, a docudrama of the life of Christ created by Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and John Heyman, a British filmmaker and financier.

But directors of the Jesus Project, an Orlando, Fla., nonprofit foundation created to promote the film, claim it has led to 200 million conversions, making it one of the most potent evangelism tools since the Bible.

And if the makers of Jesus were shopping their script in Hollywood today, they would probably be banking on commercial as well as spiritual gains.

The staggering success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which grossed $371 million domestically, forged an unexpected new alliance between conservative Christians and Hollywood, blurring the line between evangelism and entertainment and inspiring a new generation of biblical epics.

Movie executives quickly seized on the apparent revelation that faith sells.
Evangelicals still vilify portions of the film industry for promoting violence and sexuality, but now also see an effective medium for spreading their message to mainstream American audiences. This year, U.S. Christian leaders are praising some filmmakers for ``finally putting Jesus Christ back into Christmas.''

Last month, The Nativity Story, a $65 million project from New Line Cinema about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, became the first feature film to premiere at the Vatican. Advanced screenings were held for hundreds of congregations around the United States.

The movie, which opened Dec. 1 in 3,000 theaters nationwide, is one of several religious films to hit theaters this year. Others include The Color of the Cross, a film that depicts Jesus of Nazareth as a black man; One Night With the King, an adaptation of the biblical story of Queen Esther; and Facing the Giants, a feature film about a Christian high school football team that was produced -- in a likely Hollywood first -- by a Baptist church's ``filmmaking ministry.''

How did the entertainment industry -- champion of such irreverent Christmas fare as the South Park special featuring Jesus pinning Santa in a fight -- produce a film such as The Nativity Story, which Ted Baehr of the Christian Film & Television Commission called ``a sacred movie and a divine revelation?''

Many attribute Hollywood's abrupt spiritual awakening to a worldly rather than divine inspiration: the financial impact of The Passion. Sensing a successful formula, production companies have gone into overdrive in a rush to sweep up the faith-based market.

The Weinstein Co. recently struck a deal with Impact Productions, a Christian production company, to finance, co-produce and distribute their films. FoxFaith, a new division of 20th Century Fox that caters to the faith-based market, will release at least six religion-themed films next year, said Steve Feldstein, senior vice president of corporate and marketing communications for Fox Home Entertainment.

Good News Holdings, a Christian multimedia company, acquired film rights to Anne Rice's best-selling novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt for a tentative December 2007 release. The company, which plans to make Christ the Lord on an estimated budget of $40 million, is also developing a series of Christian-themed horror movies, according to its Web site.

To promote its religious titles, Fox has strung together a network of 90,000 churches, ministries, and Christian groups nationwide, Feldstein said. He quickly added that the company isn't looking to spread Christian values. Rather, Fox hopes to gain access to what it sees as an underserved and lucrative niche market.

According to CBA, an evangelical Christian trade group, the Christian market is a $4.2 billion industry.

For growing numbers of Christians entering the film-making business, big-name production companies can help them reach a much larger pool of potential converts.
David Bruce of Hollywood Jesus, a popular Web site that reviews movies from a Christian perspective, said Christians who once fought what they called the depravity of the entertainment industry by boycotting films are now getting behind the camera themselves.

``Instead of throwing rocks, they started to wonder if they couldn't contribute something,'' Bruce said.

Acrimony between conservative Christians and Hollywood hasn't completely evaporated in the post-Passion era, however.

Earlier this year, thousands of Christians around the country picketed movie theaters to protest The Da Vinci Code, which they called an affront to their faith.
Film studios have continued to churn out movies with critical or satirical views of Christianity in recent years, including Saved, a feature film about a Christian high school that depicted Christian teens as sex-crazed, brainwashed hypocrites; Jesus Camp, a controversial documentary about a fundamentalist summer camp in North Dakota for Pentecostal kids; and Deliver Us From Evil, a documentary about a Catholic priest in California who admitted to molesting young boys and girls.

Hollywood didn't always treat religion in tones that were mocking, controversial and, in films such as The Last Temptation of Christ, mildly heretical. In the early days of studio film, the two most popular subjects were religion and romance, said Peter Gilmour, an associate professor of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago who teaches a film class called ``Jesus: Reel to Real.''

By the 1960s, Hollywood's appetite for religious films started to fade. Around the same time, Christians who were alarmed by the secularization of the mainstream media began to build a parallel entertainment industry through religious television networks.

Now that Christians are crossing into the mainstream, establishing their own screenwriting programs and Los Angeles film festivals, the secular and religious entertainment industries seem poised to merge.

But theologians such as Robert Johnston, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and author of Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue, remain skeptical that Christian movies will transcend the sentimental and literal tone that have so far defined them.

Based on the limp reviews and weak box office sales that greeted The Nativity Story and other religious films this year, some have begun to ask whether the success of The Passion can be replicated.

``It's yet to be seen whether FoxFaith can find half a dozen quality Christian films to market each year,'' he said. ``The jury is out.''

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Scientists study how religion affects behaviour

Emerging scientific field studies how belief in God can promote intolerance or altruism

Wency Leung, Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, December 29, 2006

VANCOUVER - The science of religious belief is a relatively new field of study that is gaining in popularity as researchers seek to explain behaviour such as violent martyrdom, or altruism, University of B.C. professor Ara Norenzayan said in recent interview.

Norenzayan, a social psychologist who has been studying behaviour related to religious belief for five years, said scientists are interested in finding explanations for peoples' belief in religion, and in determining the consequences of faith.

Norenzayan's work is spotlighted in The Next Big Thing in 2007, and Beyond, UBC's annual survey of experts.

Psychologists and philosophers have long linked religious belief with people's anxieties about mortality, Norenzayan said, but recent scientific studies have been able to demonstrate that link, he said.

Research participants, who were reminded of their mortality either by writing about what happens when they die, or by reading stories in which the character died, were more inclined to believe in religious or supernatural explanation, he said.

And reminders of mortality, such as seeing death on television, or passing a funeral parlour, "can temporarily elicit religious sensibility in people," Norenzayan said.
The science of faith and spirituality is growing at a time when fundamentalism is on the rise across the spectrum of religions, including Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism, he said.

He also noted that the U.S., the most powerful, and among the most highly educated countries in the world, is also one of the most religious, with over 80 per cent of the population believing in God.

There's a growing need for an understanding of fundamentalist movements based on observation, rather than on intuition or faith, because of fundamentalism's apparent link with violence, Norenzayan said.

From Norenzayan's research, he found faith in God does not make people less tolerant of those who don't share their beliefs.

Rather, so-called "boundary-setting" tendencies, or dogmatism, seem to be the culprits, he said.

Research participants who agreed with the statement: "My God or belief is the only true one," were more likely to support violence.

In another study, Norenzayan and fellow researchers found that Muslim Palestinians who prayed frequently were no more or less likely to support suicide attacks than those who did not.

However, he wrote in the UBC report: "Those who frequently attended mosque were more likely to endorse violent martyrdom."

Norenzayan said attendance at a synagogue or mosque likely contributes to boundary-setting.

"It's 'my group versus the other group,' whereas prayer [itself] doesn't have that affect on people," he said.

Secularization, however, doesn't make people more tolerant, he said, especially if they are emphatic in their belief that God does not exist.

"Are we better off in a world where people believe in God less? I don't think so," Norenzayan said.

He added that in other experiments on altruistic behaviour, reminders of the presence of God increased people's generosity toward strangers.

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

The Scandal of Forgiveness

Want to shock your neighbors? Try forgiving them.

Stan Guthrie | posted 12/28/2006

The grisly, premeditated shooting of 10 Amish girls—five of them fatally—by Charles Carl Roberts at a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, on October 2 was shocking. The Amish response, however, was even more so.

The bloody incident ended with Roberts—who apparently intended to sexually assault the girls first—taking his own life when police stormed the building. Within hours, the Amish community publicly forgave this outsider and expressed loving concern for his widow and three children. Many of the mourners at Roberts' funeral were Amish.

"Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need," the killer's widow, Marie Roberts, wrote the Amish later. "Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world."

In awe, most media observers, at least for a moment, dropped their prevailing storyline that religion is, at best, irrelevant to truly important matters and, at worst, dangerous. Bruce Kluger of USA Today noted, "For a change, what we saw was religion in its best light."

But not everyone was convinced. "[H]atred is not always wrong, and forgiveness is not always deserved," wrote Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, who is a Jew. "I admire the Amish villagers' resolve to live up to their Christian ideals even amid heartbreak, but how many of us would really want to live in a society in which no one gets angry when children are slaughtered? In which even the most horrific acts of cruelty were always and instantly forgiven?"

Forgiveness is always scandalous. Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian held in a Nazi concentration camp for harboring Jews, thought she had forgiven her enemies after the war. But during a speaking engagement in Munich, Germany, she met a former member of the dreaded SS who had leeringly "guarded her" at a shower stall. He offered his hand.

"Her hand froze at her side," the late author and academian Lewis Smedes related. "She thought she had forgiven all. But she could not forgive when she met a guard, standing in the solid flesh in front of her."

Ten Boom is not alone. Even the Amish have acknowledged that in the weeks following the murders they continue to struggle to offer complete forgiveness. We should not demand that those who have been terribly wronged quickly offer "cheap grace." Forgiveness and healing often take time.

Yet sooner or later, forgive we must. Jesus forgave his unrepentant enemies from the Cross and taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors."

What then is forgiveness? Smedes, who was a professor of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, defined forgiveness as an inner response to evil that (when possible) finds fulfillment in outward reconciliation. In his classic CT article "Forgiveness—The Power to Change the Past," Smedes identified three stages:

• Suffering. Contra Jacoby, forgiveness does not mean we passively and unemotionally accept evil. No, the very concept acknowledges that evil has been done and that suffering has resulted. Smedes wrote, "Forgiveness happens only when we first admit our hurt and scream our hate."

• Spiritual surgery. "In the creative violence of love," Smedes wrote, "you reach into the unchangeable past and cut away the wrong from the person who wronged you; you erase the hurt in the archives of your heart."

• Starting over. Smedes noted, "It is the beginning of a new journey together. We must begin where we are, not at an ideal place for reunion. … Nasty questions are unanswered. The future is uncertain; we have more hurts and more forgiving ahead of us."

Smedes also said forgiveness is often a group project. As the Amish demonstrated, belonging to a Christian community committed to a forgiving lifestyle can help us forgive when the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Yes, forgiveness is hard, but with God nothing is impossible. Ten Boom learned this lesson in Munich: "Ashamed, horrified at herself, she prayed: 'Lord, forgive me, I cannot forgive.'" Indeed, ten Boom later wrote, God empowered her to grasp the guard's hand and filled her heart with love.

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Parents Television Council: Less Religion on TV This Year

By John Eggerton

The Parents Television Council says that there were only about half as many treatments of religious topics in broadcast primetime TV in 2005-2006 as there was depicted the year before.

But of the ones that were on TV, more (35%) treated religion negatively than positively (34%), according to the PTC staff of reviewers. Reality shows actually had more positive portrayals (60%) than negative, which PTC President Brent Bozell attributed to real people speaking their real minds.

In scripted shows, by contrast, 96% of the treatments were negative, PTC said. Bozell said that was the key finding, demonstrating that "when Hollywood [TV writers] write scripts, they attack that which 84% of Americans support."

That was a reference to the 84% of adults--according to a Zogby poll--who said they were not offended by refernences to God or the Bible.

Positive portrayals included piety, prayer and praising God. One example given was of Danni leading a group prayer on CBS' Survivor: Guatemala. One negative example was a Grey's Anatomy episode in which a young patient needing a new heart feels guilty that someone has to die to supply it. A priest tells him: “God wants you to live. That’s why He sent you the heart. Justin replies: “I’m not stupid, okay? God didn’t send me the heart. There’s no such thing as God.”

Following Fox's with 50 percent negative portrayals (Family Guy was the big offender, with House also cited), there were 40 percent on NBC; 33 percent on UPN, about 33%; 30 percent on ABC and 29 percent on CBS. The WB had the lowest with 21 percent, but the low negetives were helped by the high positives found in Seventh Heaven.

CBS had the most pro-religious incidents at 47% (there is also a neutral category, which is why the negative and postive scores don't total 100%); WB followed with 41.3%; then ABC at 37.7%. NBC at 27.8%; Fox at 27.2%; and UPN 19.3%.

According to PTC, there were 1,425 depictions of religion, which averages out to 1.6 hours of television.

Likely contributing to the decrease in religoius portrayals were the absence from regular production of Joan of Arcadia, Doc, and Sue Thomas: FBI, all of which were in the previous survey.

PTC wasn't the only group with religious TV portrayals on its mind Thursday. The American Family Association has asked its members to e-mail CBS with complaints over the December 11 episode of Two-and-a-Half Men in which Charlie Sheen modifies a Christmas carol to fit his joy over an upcoming date.

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Religion writers rate Amish response, Muhammad cartoons as biggest stories

By Jason Kane
Religion News Service

The Amish community, which inspired the world with acts of forgiveness after a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting, has been named the newsmaker of the year by the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) and Beliefnet.

The Amish were also rated the year's top newsmaker in a separate poll of RNA members. One hundred forty-nine journalists voted between Dec. 8 and 12 to select the 10 most important stories of the year, and the single biggest newsmaker.

The RNA's top 10 stories were ranked as follows:

1. Muslims throughout the world react violently after the publication of Muhammad cartoons in several European nations. Christians and Muslims are killed when riots erupt in Nigeria.

2. Pope Benedict XVI touches off more Muslim anger by referencing a centuries-old quote linking Islam and violence during a speech. He apologizes and calms the uproar during a trip to Turkey.

3. The Episcopal Church infuriates conservatives during its General Convention by electing Katharine Jefferts Schori - who supported the consecration of an openly gay bishop - as the first woman to its top post. Several dioceses throughout the nation adopt measures that set the stage for secession from the denomination.

4. Evangelical Ted Haggard resigns as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and is dismissed as pastor of his Colorado Springs, Colo., megachurch after he is accused of engaging in gay sex and using drugs.

5. Many Republican candidates backed by the religious right are defeated in the fall elections, with a significant number of voters claiming morality was one of the strongest motivators in their decision-making at the polls.

6. Religious voices grow louder for peace in Iraq as conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims rises. Israeli incursions in Lebanon aimed at curbing attacks by Hezbollah ignite more strife in the Middle East, and Christian churches reconsider efforts to pressure Israel on the Palestinian question.

7. The schoolhouse murder of five Amish girls in Nickel Mines, Pa., highlights the Amish community's ethic of forgiveness when several Amish attend the killer's funeral.

8. (tie) The film "The Da Vinci Code" hits theaters, prompting more outrage over Dan Brown's novel. Religious critics cite controversial plot lines, including Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene and conceiving a child.

8. (tie) Same-sex marriage bans pass in seven of eight states voting on the issue during the midterm elections. Arizona becomes the first state to defeat such a ban. New Jersey's Supreme Court decides that same-sex marriage couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual couples.

10. President Bush vetoes a bill calling for expanded stem-cell research. Progress is reported in efforts to create stem-cell lines without destroying embryos.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Year In Review: Home Churches Growing Increasingly Popular as Worship Alternative

December 19, 2006

(AgapePress) - Church and culture analyst George Barna, founder of The Barna Group, says millions of Christians are leaving conventional churches to meet in homes.

According to the researcher, about 50 million American adults meet in home churches at least once a month, and the numbers choosing this option are on the increase.

Barna says home churches are a growing trend among Christians who want to "be" the church, not just attend church. Many who join such groups do so, he explains, because they are seeking greater depth in relationships and more commitment to spirituality than they may have found in traditional church settings.

Home churches often do not have traditional settings and can vary, depending on what the members contribute from week to week or what they feel led to discuss and pray about at any given time. Barna himself started attending a home church a year ago, and he admits that this style of fellowship can have its weaknesses.

"There are some challenges, of course," the Christian researcher says. "You've got the possibilities of bad teaching and errant theology creeping into the process, but we already have that happening in churches today. So we're going to have a lot of the same challenges that we've always had -- it's just an issue of who's going to resolve them."

Barna predicts that the home-church movement will continue to grow. He also predicts this increasingly popular alternative to traditional churches will prompt many Christians to take their faith more seriously and to avoid depending on clergy for spiritual growth.

Leaders Who Left Traditional Churches: Why They Chose to Go 'Home'

South Carolina home-church leader Doug Shales vows he will never go back to traditional church, which he left more than a year ago to start meeting with about 20 other believers of a variety of ages and church backgrounds. Every Sunday evening, they meet in his home to eat, worship, pray, and teach one another from the Bible. There is no preacher and no structured format for the group's services.

Shales says he left the traditional church because he felt its structure was contrary to the model he found in scripture. "To me, I just could not reconcile it at all with anything biblical to just have three or four people ministering to three or four hundred, and having the spiritual life of those three or four hundred pretty much hanging on what those three or four people give them," he says.

"It's just not the way that I understand the Holy Spirit wants to work in our lives," the home-church leader says. So, instead, he and the other members of his small congregation seek understanding, mutual accountability, and spiritual growth together.

Shale says most problems faced by the home church are logistical. For instance, he notes, members have to consider issues such as how to give and how to grow new churches. But in many ways, he notes, the size of these congregations can contribute to a more intimate style of problem-solving that involves everyone.

Author and former pastor, Rev. Chip Brogden, a home-church leader in North Carolina, considers home churches a necessary part of the Christian community. He believes this style of Christian fellowship is filling some of the gaps left by traditional churches.

Brogden says home churches can be a place for those who have been hurt by the traditional church or for those who do not want to be distracted from Christ by a complex church structure. But he cautions Christians not to differentiate themselves from one another based on what kind of structure they choose for their worship and association with fellow believers.

"Whether they're in the church building or outside of the church building, we're all still brothers and sisters," the North Carolina minister says. "We're just going about the life of Christ and how we see the life of the body of Christ differently from the more traditional way of going about it."

Home churches allow Christians to see the body of Christ as more than just a local fellowship, Brogden says. Also, he adds, such churches give members the chance to gather with believers of different denominational backgrounds from their own.

Obviously, home churches serve a function that their members consider desirable and perhaps vital to their spiritual nourishment and well being. And if many believers who have chosen to leave traditional churches for what this alternative has to offer are any indication, the home-church trend has already begun to change the face of contemporary Christianity.

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Barna Lists the 12 Most Significant Religious Findings from 2006 Surveys

Researcher George Barna narrowed his yearly religious surveys to the top 12 most significant or surprising findings and highlighted religious faith to be a hot issue in people's lives still today. And the future of America's faith looks more diverse than ever.

The 12 most noteworthy outcomes, in the order listed in the Barna report, are:

1. Although large majorities of the public claim to be “deeply spiritual” and say that their religious faith is “very important” in their life, only 15 percent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life. As alarming as that finding was, its significance was magnified by research showing that pastors on average believe that 70 percent of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life. (Jan. 10)

2. Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity. Among the most common of those endeavors are using a Ouija board, reading books about witchcraft or Wicca, playing games involving sorcery or witchcraft, having a “professional” read their palm or having their fortune told. Conversely, during the past year fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers had received any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural. (Jan. 23)

3. The notion of personal holiness has slipped out of the consciousness of the vast majority of Christians. While just 21 percent of adults consider themselves to be holy, by their own admission large numbers have no idea what “holiness” means and only one out of every three (35 percent) believe that God expects people to become holy. (Feb 20)

4. The growing movement of Christian Revolutionaries in the U.S. distinguished themselves from an already-select group of people – born again Christians – through their deeds, beliefs and self-views. Revolutionaries demonstrated substantially higher levels of community service, financial contributions, daily Bible study, personal quiet times each day, family Bible studies, daily worship experiences, engagement in spiritual mentoring, and evangelistic efforts. They also had a series of beliefs that were much more likely than those of typical born again adults to coincide with biblical teachings. Their self-perceptions were also dramatically different than that of other born again adults. (March 6)

5. Involvement in a house church is rapidly growing, although the transition is occurring with some trepidation: four out of every five house church participants maintain some connection to a conventional church as well. (June 19)

6. Evaluating spiritual maturity remains an elusive process for clergy as well as individuals. Across the nation, the only measure of spiritual health used by at least half of all pastors was the extent of volunteer activity or ministry involvement. Adults were no more consistent in their self-examination of their spirituality. (Jan. 10)

7. Most Americans have a period of time during their teen years when they are actively engaged in a church youth group. However, Barna’s tracking of young people showed that most of them had disengaged from organized religion during their twenties. (Sept. 11)

8. A comparison of people’s faith before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack showed that five years after the momentous day, none of the 19 faith measures studied had undergone statistically significant change. Those measures covered aspects such as religious behaviors, beliefs, spiritual commitment and self-identity. (Aug. 28)

9. Seven out of ten parents claim they are effective at developing the spiritual maturity of their children, but the Barna survey among 8-to-12-year-olds discovered that only one-third of them say a church has made “a positive difference” in their life; one-third contend that prayer is very important in their life; most of them would rather be popular than to do what is morally right. In fact, “tweeners” (those ages 8 to 12) deem their family to be vitally important in their life, but just 57 percent said they look forward to spending time with their family and only one out of every three say it is easy for them to talk to their parents about things that matter to them. (Sept. 30)

10. Relatively few people – just one out of every six – believe that spiritual maturity is meant to be developed within the context of a local church or within the context of a community of faith. (April 18)

11. Five of the highest-profile Christian leaders – Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes – were unknown to a majority of the population. Most of those leaders were also unknown to most born again Christians. (Nov. 27)

12. The faith contours of America continue to shift substantially over the course of time. The proportion of adults who are born again has risen dramatically in the past quarter century – from 31 percent to 45 percent. During the past two decades, every spiritual behavior has fluctuated significantly, with recent upsurge in Bible reading, church attendance, and small group involvement. (March 27)

Barna followed four consistent themes among the top 12 findings.

"First of all, Americans are very comfortable with religious faith," Barna noted. "Most adults and even teenagers see themselves as people of faith. Toward that end, they have definite opinions about religion; they possess well-honed beliefs, and invest substantial amounts of their time, money and energy in religious activities. Faith and spirituality remain hot issues in people’s lives. The mass media, through news and feature stories, also play a role in keeping spiritual issues in the forefront of people’s minds.

“Second,” he continued, “people do not have an accurate view of themselves when it comes to spirituality. American Christians are not as devoted to their faith as they like to believe."

Third, "very limited effort is devoted to spiritual growth," Barna stated in the report. "Most Americans experience ‘accidental spiritual growth’ since there is generally no plan or process other than showing up at a church and absorbing a few ideas here and there. Even then, few people have a defined understanding of what they are hoping to become, as followers of Christ.”

Overall, the most intriguing finding that Barna highlighted was the Revolutionary community – deeply spiritual people departing form the conventional forms and communities of faith.

"The Revolutionary community – which incorporates divergent but compatible groups of people who are seeking to make their faith the driving force in their life – is reshaping American faith in ways which we are just beginning to understand," he pointed out.

What does the future of Americans' faith look like?

Barna listed diversity, bifurcation and media.

He predicts that new forms of spiritual leadership and different expressions of faith are forthcoming. Emerging generations will emphasize relationships and experiences more than doctrine and more micro-faith communities that are built around lifestyle affinities will form.

The researcher also expects a widening gap between the intensely committed and those who are casually involved in faith matters.

Plus, media will increasingly influence faith in America. New technologies will significantly reshape how people experience and express their faith and the ways in which they form communities of faith.

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Most Inspiring of 2006: Why the Amish Won

With an act of radical forgiveness, a grieving community showed the world an alternative response to violence.

This year’s 12 most inspiring people once again proved the power of individuals to act with love, courage, and forgiveness in the most challenging situations. We asked you to choose between some tremendously inspiring folks, and we were in for some surprises. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who spoke against racism and anti-Semitism, and "green" evangelical Rev. Richard Cizik, who works to save the environment, were knocked off in the first round.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that a homeless Detroit man, Charles Moore, who returned $21,000 in savings bonds he found in the trash to their rightful owner, defeated billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett, who this year gave the biggest charitable donation in history. Some of you wrote that Moore’s story reminded you of the New Testament lesson of “the widow’s mite.” Moore gave everything he had, because of his deeply grounded sense of honesty and integrity, shattering stereotypes about homeless people in the process.

Some other truly remarkable people lost by a slim margin. Elissa Montanti, the “saint of Staten Island,” who with single-minded devotion cuts red tape to get prosthetic limbs and medical help for war-maimed children, lost narrowly to Todd Corbin, a marine who courageously saved the lives of his unit in Iraq. One remarkable teenager—Adam Zuckerman, who is already one of the country’s most outspoken activists for Darfur—was edged out by another teen, Jason McElwain, an autistic boy whose amazing final-quarter shots for his high school basketball team proved that disability is no impediment to achieving your dreams. Another inspiring child, Bindi Irwin, daughter of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin who has taken up her father’s mantle of wildlife preservation, was chosen over wheelchair-bound actress, Kathleen Traylor, who started a theater where the disabled showcase their formidable acting talents.

In the second round of voting, Lance Corporal Todd Corbin of Ohio was named one of the final three. He is an outstanding example of heroism under pressure. On patrol in Iraq, Corbin saved the lives of many of the men in his unit, carrying people off the field of battle under heavy fire. At one point, he carried his wounded patrol leader over his shoulder while returning enemy fire with his free hand. When he drove away—in a 7-ton truck with three flat tires—he had the entire remaining platoon safely inside. His courage is only equaled by his modesty and faith. In an interview with Beliefnet, he explained, “The way I was raised, you always put yourself out for other people because there is going to come a time when you are down and are going to need someone to help you up. It is the core of my family values.” He added, “I always say people should not credit me with what happened on May 7, but credit God.”

The other two final candidates showed the kind of radical forgiveness that some have called miraculous. Both finalists suffered the horror of having of having family members brutally murdered. Immaculee Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, hid in a tiny bathroom for three months and emerged to find her parents, siblings, and thousands of countrymen dead. At first unable to pray because of her anger, Immaculee surrendered “everything to God” and in a vision understood what Jesus meant when he said “Forgive them, Father, for they don't know what they do.” She prayed for her enemies and the anger was lifted. She reached out to her father’s killer, and has been lecturing all over the country on the power and importance of forgiveness. Her inspiring example is a beacon for many Beliefnet users.

The Amish of Nickel Mines, Pa.—a pacifist religious community in rural Lancaster County who practice a simple farming life without modern conveniences much the same as their 17th century Swiss-German forbears—suffered a shocking intrusion into their world when a local milkman, Charles Roberts, invaded a one-room schoolhouse, shooting 10 young girls, leaving five of them dead. During the ordeal, one of the girls, 13-year-old Marian Fisher, offered to be killed first in hopes that the others would be spared. (View video: A Young Girl's Sacrifice.) A Beliefnet member wrote of this event: “I cannot ignore this unbelievable act of love by a girl this young. In my mind, this little girl did no more or no less than Jesus did for us on the cross.” Within hours of the shooting, the families of the children not only expressed their forgiveness of the killer but reached out to his family, giving food and raising money for his wife and children.

In a Beliefnet video interview, Herman Bontrager, a spokesman for the Amish of Nickel Mines, explained, “The Amish believe that we must forgive because we ourselves need to be forgiven. [They're] trying to live the way Jesus lived. He turned the other cheek, he told us to love everybody, to love our enemies." A Beliefnet member noted, “The message of forgiveness, rather than vengeance, goes to the heart of how we should behave toward each other. This is an extreme example of how true faith and true forgiveness can be awe-inspiring. If the Amish can forgive the man who killed their children, how much more should the rest of us be able to forgive the petty hurts and perceived insults we receive each day?”

For the incredible example of living faith on the part of an entire community that lost its children, the majority of Beliefnet users cast their votes for the Amish. And the editors of Beliefnet follow their lead by naming the Amish of Nickel Mines, Pa. the Most Inspiring People of 2006.

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Monday, December 25, 2006

Even today, the hope for peace remains strong

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and the ever-present promise of Santa's generosity so fresh in mind, it is all too easy to forget the special birth that so many celebrate today.

Yet he might feel right at home, in some respects, in today's world. His world echoed with the sounds of armed conflict -- the marching cadence of Caesar's legions. Indeed, it was because Caesar Augustus decreed that the people of Judea be taxed, each in his own city, that his parents found themselves in Bethlehem when it was time that he be born. The world of his time was no stranger to oppression, misery and uncertainty.

Thus, the song the shepherds heard while tending their flocks in the chill, starlit hours of that first Christmas night must have been balm for their spirits and warmth for their hearts.

The words and the signs they foretold, of a baby lying in a manger -- a king of kings in the humblest of surroundings -- have blazed for generation upon generation through the long centuries like the star of Christmas itself

It is a troubled world that observes Christmas this year. The marching legions of Jesus' time have been replaced by the forces of terrorism and continued violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and pockets of Africa.

In the nation's capital, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group has provided a host of noteworthy recommendations for dealing with the war in Iraq, with an eye toward orderly withdrawal of our troops as the Iraqi government assumes more responsibility for its own governance and security. President Bush and a new Congress owe the American public serious consideration of its options, and all others on the table.

In the meantime, thousands of U.S. troops, including some from Central Washington, will miss Christmas at home. They deserve and need our thoughts and prayers as we continue to hope for their return home.

As we pause and reflect on this special day, we feel the need for calm, measured responses to any challenges, at home and abroad. We have history on our side in dealing with terrorism and tyrants and their cowardly assaults on innocent people.

But we also continue to monitor excesses in the name of national security that would trample on the individual rights that are the core values of this nation.

As we celebrate the season of peace, we look ahead with anticipation of an end to war. We have just completed one of the most active elections in recent memory, one that could easily be seen as a national referendum on the war in Iraq. Democrats swept to control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 and, obviously, change is in the offing. But rather than just knee-jerk reactions to failed policies, let proposed changes in Congress be measured and meaningful in shaping new approaches for dealing with national and international priorities.

Closer to home, we deal with the vagaries of winter, with the hope that plenty of snow in the mountains will be the harbinger of a robust spring, brimming reservoirs and a bountiful harvest. Now if spring would only put on some speed in getting here.

Christmas 2006. We still may hope and pray -- and work -- for peace on Earth, good will toward all.

Now more than ever.

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The Magi: Wise men, wizards or wanderers?

By Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS - In the children's Christmas play at Salem-in-Ballwin United Methodist Church this year, sheep grazed as Joseph led Mary into the stable, and the four wise men brought gifts to the baby Jesus.

About 20 smiling parents and grandparents sat on folding chairs in the church's fellowship hall, some holding camcorders, others gripping green programs adorned with white snowflakes. They applauded and laughed as the children put on the play, which was based on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The Christmas story is a narrative familiar to most Americans, regardless of religion, and to the world's 2 billion Christians. It's the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. As told in Matthew, it is the story of a true king, God-made-man to redeem the sins of everyone.

But the author of Matthew's Gospel does not specify how many wise men appeared in Jerusalem asking for "the child who has been born King of the Jews." The traditional number of three magi was derived over the centuries from the three gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh - they offered the child as they knelt before him.

Millennia after the fact, believers are free to guess how many magi visited the baby Jesus that day. The members of the Salem-in-Ballwin church decided not only to have four magi, but that they would not all be men. And so a girl joined three boys in blue, green, red and purple robes with brown magi headwear held in place with gold bands.

The magi appear only in Matthew's Gospel. They are replaced in Luke's Gospel with shepherds, and neither Mark's nor John's Gospel includes the story of Christ's birth. In his book "The Birth of the Messiah," the Rev. Raymond E. Brown summarized the 12 verses of Matthew's Gospel featuring the wise men.

"The magi from the East, representing the Gentiles, receive God's revelation about the birth of the Messiah through a proclamation in nature, a star," he wrote. "They come to Jerusalem and are further enlightened about the place of the Messiah's birth through the Jewish Scriptures. They go to Bethlehem to pay him homage with gifts, and then return another way."

These three kings of orient are, in fact, not kings at all. "Magi" comes from the Greek word "magoi," meaning sorcerers or astrologers - the scientists of their day. Scientific theories attempting to explain the Star of Bethlehem have historically included a supernova, a comet, or most often, a planetary alignment of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

"These were men who searched the sky for signs," said the Rev. John Paul Heil, professor of New Testament who recently left Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis to teach at Catholic University of America in Washington. "They were learned people who would advise kings as to what was going on in the heavens."

In later centuries the magi themselves began to be depicted as kings.

Later Christian tradition gave the magi names - Melchior, Balthasar and Gaspar - and since the 12th century their purported bones (some say their skulls) have been encased in the Shrine of the Three Kings now in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

But the characterization of the magi as kings "is quite contrary to what Matthew thinks about kings," said Heil. Especially when contrasted with the role of King Herod in the narrative. Herod, duped by the magi whom he'd sent to find the newborn Messiah for him (but who never reported back to him on Jesus' whereabouts), killed all the children in Bethlehem who were 2 years old and younger, an event known as the massacre of the innocents.

In the 17th century, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible rendered "magoi" as the English "wise men" instead of "astrologers." The identification of the magi as wise men or eastern kings stuck because later Christians "were uncomfortable with the depiction of the magi as astrologers," said James A. Kelhoffer, professor of New Testament at St. Louis University.

For the author of Matthew, it is the magi's identity as gentiles that is crucial, according to most biblical scholars. As the first characters to speak in Matthew, the magi are strategic to the author's mission of promoting the concept that the birth of Christ was an event that would change the lives of gentiles and Jews alike.

"For Matthew's original readers, the modern equivalent expression for who the magi were would be `pagan unbelieving philosophers,'" said Jeffrey A. Gibbs, professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. "These are the least people you'd ever expect to know a new king of the Jews had been born." Which, said Gibbs, is precisely Matthew's point: "They are unexpected candidates for faith."

Not all scholars agree that Matthew's author intended the magi as symbols of pagan sin driven to their knees at the sight of the true God.

"There is not the slightest hint of conversion or of false practice in Matthew's description of the magi; they are wholly admirable," wrote Brown. "They represent the best of pagan lore and religious perceptivity which has come to seek Jesus through revelation in nature."

Even the last line of the magi verses in Matthew - "And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road" - has long held meaning for theologians. In the fourth century, St. Augustine wrote that "the Magi didn't return to the Orient by the same route they arrived on. Learn from the past. If you want to change your life, then change your way."

Some pastors attempting to make sense of the magi's theological importance for their flocks see this last point as the most important lesson they can teach.

"For me they represent worshippers," said the Rev. Thomas W. Wyrsch, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland parish in St. Louis. "When the magi saw the star, they moved, and in doing so they changed their lives. The magi can inspire us to do something, to get up off the couch, to change our lives."

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Foreigners are few in Bethlehem for Christmas

BETHLEHEM, West Bank:

Hundreds of people packed the Church of the Nativity on Monday to celebrate Christmas at Jesus' traditional birthplace, but few foreign tourists were among the worshippers, putting a damper on the holiday cheer.

Bells pealed, and decorative lights shone in Manger Square. But most of the visitors were Palestinian Christians or Israeli Arabs. Foreign visitors, who are critical to Bethlehem's economy, were largely absent, apparently deterred by recent Palestinian infighting and years of conflict with Israel.

The tensions did little to dash the spirits of foreign pilgrims who made the journey to the Holy Land.

"The experience was incredible," said Nick Parker, 24, of Goodland, Kansas, who was visiting Bethlehem for the first time. "I could feel the true spirit of Christmas here in Bethlehem."

Father Larry Sullivan, 40, a Roman Catholic prelate from Chicago, said Christmas in Bethlehem was all the more special because of the sense of unity that emerged from the conflict.

"It was a very moving experience," said Sullivan, who was also on his first visit to Bethlehem. "The spirit of Christmas is filled with great enthusiasm and great happiness, people from all walks of life coming here to share this experience."

For local residents, the atmosphere was gloomier
Shop owners, who make most of their income during the Christmas season, complained this year was among the worst in memory.

The subdued Christmas adds to the woes of Bethlehem, which already is suffering from international sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led Palestinian government as well as Israel's separation barrier. The massive barrier encloses Bethlehem and separates it from neighboring Jerusalem.

"The economic situation is very much affecting the Christmas atmosphere here," said Mary Bader, who came to celebrate from Jerusalem.

The Israeli army said a total of 12,000 people had traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations. Most of the travelers appeared to be Christians living in Israel.

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism said 3,500 foreign pilgrims arrived in Bethlehem this year — only a small fraction of the tens of thousands who would arrive before Israeli-Palestinian violence broke out in late 2000. The diminished number of visitors is a big blow to the city of 30,000.

Israel says it built the barrier to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli population centers. Palestinians view the structure, which dips into parts of the West Bank, as a land grab.

In his homily at midnight Mass in Bethlehem, Sabbah appealed to Palestinians to halt their recent "fratricidal struggles" and called for an end to Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed as well.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI voiced a similar message on Monday, taking note of the recent meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"With deep apprehension I think, on this festive day, of the Middle East, marked by so many grave crises and conflicts, and I express my hope that the way will be opened to a just and lasting peace," Benedict said in his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" speech — Latin for "to the city and to the world."

"I place in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which we have witnessed in recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments," the pontiff added, speaking from a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square.

This Christmas is the first under a Palestinian Authority governed by the militant Islamic group Hamas. To alleviate Christian fears ahead of the holiday, Hamas promised that it would send $50,000 (€38,000) to decorate Manger Square in the center of town for the holiday. It was not clear if the money ever arrived.

With every Christmas, the Holy Land's Christian community shrinks a bit. The native Palestinian Christian population has dipped below 2 percent of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem, down from at least 15 percent in 1950, by some estimates. Bethlehem is now less than 20 percent Christian.

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

On what date was Jesus born?

There are three basic references to the year and the month of the birth of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, the apostles tell of the Magi following the star from the east, and the shepherds with their flock out in the fields. The third reference comes from the dating of the founding of Rome.

The Magi

The Magi were astrologers and probably came from Persia or southern Arabia. They are believed to be linked with the priesthood of Zoroastrianism, who practised astrology. The 5th Century BC historian Herodotus attested to the astrological prowess of the priests of Persia. (The Bible does not give the number of magi that visited Jesus. The number of three was derived from the three (types of) gifts they presented.) Which star did the Magi follow?

In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was styled as the King's Planet, representing the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians; Zeus to the Greeks; Jupiter to the Romans. The ringed planet Saturn was deemed the shield of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented epochal events. Jupiter encountering Saturn in Pisces would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine.

The astronomer Kepler noted in the early 17th century that every 805 years, Jupiter and Saturn come into conjunction, with Mars joining the configuration a year later.
Since Kepler, astronomers have computed that for ten months in 7BC, Jupiter and Saturn travelled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of that year, they were conjoined. Mars joined the configuration in February of 6BC.

The Chinese had more exact and more complete astronomical records than the astrologers of the Middle East, particularly in their tabulations of comets and novae. In 1871, astronomer John Williams published an authoritative list of comets derived from Chinese annuals. Over March and April 5BC, Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some 70 days near the constellation Capricorn, and would have been visible in both the Far and Middle East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky. This could have been the Magi's astral marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list is a tailless comet - which could have been a nova - that appeared over March and April in 4BC in constellation Aquila, which was also visible all over the East.

The star that the Magi followed - the Star of Bethlehem - could be any of the astral markers that appeared in 6, 5 and 4BC.

The shepherds

Luke 2: 8: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

In Palestine - as in the rest of the Middle East at the time - shepherds stayed with their flocks in the fields only from Spring to Autumn. They brought their sheep in during the winter to protect them from the cold and rain. It is thus unlikely that the shepherds went to Bethlehem in December.

The Bible does not mention the celebration of Christ's birthday, and the early Christians seem not to have celebrated His birthday. However, to avoid persecution, they would hang holly on their doors during December just as the Roman pagans did for Saturnalia, their feasts honouring their god of harvest. Likewise, in September, during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah), they would borrow some of the custom to protect themselves, carrying on with their own customs behind closed doors. This added to the speculation that early Christians celebrated the birth of Christ in September. It is noted that Jerusalem swelled from about 100,000 people to over 1 million during the Feast of the Trumpets, which meant that there would have been little room at the inns of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns.

The dating of the founding of Rome

In the 6th Century, the Roman monk-mathematician-astronomer named Dionysis Exeguus (Dionysis the Little) reformed the calendar to pivot around the birth of Christ. He dated the Nativity 753 years from the founding of Rome, calculated to the date King Herod died. But Dionysis miscalculated, because Herod died only 749 years after the founding of Rome, thus 4BC.

Herod, who ordered all the babies in Bethlehem younger than 2 years killed, was, of course, alive when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. So we know that Jesus was born in or before 4BC, as astronomers point out when referring to the Star of Bethlehem.

Christmas today

The reference to the birth of Jesus "two thousand years ago" is wrong in two ways: a. there was no year 0, thus we have had only 1998 years since Dionysis (incorrectly) calculated the year of the Nativity. b. Dionysis's calculation was off by at least 5 years, as mentioned above.

In the year 274AD, solstice fell on 25th December, and Roman Emperor Aurelian proclaimed the date as "Natalis Solis Invicti," the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. In 320 AD, Pope Julius I specified the 25th of December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ. In 325AD, Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Christmas as an immovable feast on 25 December. In 354AD, Bishop Liberius of Rome officially ordered his members to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December.

In some parts of the Roman Empire (mostly the Eastern parts), solstice was celebrated on 6 January, the last festival day for those who started solstice on 25 December. (Saturnalia was held over 12 days.) The Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe celebrate Christmas on 6 January.

Merry Christmas!

The most likely year that Jesus was born, is 6BC, probably in the month of March. There was no year 0 (zero) recorded, so the 2nd millennium celebration of the birth of Jesus should have been held in March 1995.

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Christmas Star: Symbol of hope and good fortune

The story of Biblical star aims to instill in us hope, joy and spirituality.

The Christmas story with the angels, shepherds, wise men and the star has gripped people all over the world in the last 20 centuries.

The history of the Christmas star is simply found in two Biblical accounts, one in Matthew, and one in Luke. They provide the basic information needed to reconstruct Mid-Eastern history and astronomical events in order to discover exactly what occurred in the night sky on that first Christmas day when Messiah was born in the cave at Bethlehem among the cattle and horses.

Church historians and theologians have often concluded that the Christmas Star was a mighty angel. An event as momentous as the incarnation of the Son of God at Bethlehem would surely merit a unique "sign" the heavens.

The Gospel of Matthew says the star informed the magi of the birth of the King of the Jews and actually led them to Bethlehem once they had arrived in Jerusalem. The star of Bethlehem has been the subject of scholarly discussion ever since the first centuries after Jesus' birth.

Some believed it was a supernova explosion, others a comet or a conjunction of planets associated with specific constellations that would herald the birth of a king in Israel. Some have suggested that none of these astronomical events can adequately account for all that Matthew tells us within the context of his worldview.

The stars that appear in the sky today are the same ones that were there two thousand years ago.

Some star gazers suggest that if we move the birth of Jesus to the springtime of 6 B.C., we can attribute the star to the time the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were close together in the heavens. They formed a triangle in the group of stars known as Pisces.

Still, many people prefer to believe that the strange star did appear, and that it was simply a miracle and throughout the world today, the Christian holiday has usually begun with the appearance of the first star of Christmas Eve.

Today, a Christmas without stars hung around the houses, streets, shops and churches is unimaginable.

There are countries, where the festival of star is celebrated along with Christmas. The Festival of the Star is held in Poland. Right after the Christmas Eve meal, the village priest, acts as the "Star Man" and tests the children's knowledge of religion.

In Alaska, boys and girls carry a star shaped figure from house to house and sing carols in hopes of receiving treats. In Hungary a star-shaped pattern is carved in a half of an apple and is suppose to bring good luck.

The Christmas star symbolizes high hopes and high ideals - hope for good fortune, hope for reaching above selfish thoughts. For all human beings, regardless of religion, stars have special meaning for all share the heavens, no matter what barriers keep them apart on earth.

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Americans Back Bethlehem -- But are Not Sure Where it is

Two nation survey: America vs. Bethlehem.

BETHLEHEM, Dec. 20 /Christian Newswire/ --
Press Conference: 12pm noon, Thursday 21/12/2006, Furno Hall, Millennium Building, Bethlehem University. Bethlehem, Palestine.

Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, a pre-Christmas survey of US perceptions of the town has shown.
Only 15 per cent of Americans realize that it is a Palestinian city with a mixed Christian-Muslim community, lying in the occupied West Bank.

The nationwide survey, carried out by top US political pollsters Zogby International, canvassed 15000 American respondents. The poll was commissioned by the campaign organization Open Bethlehem to coincide with a survey carried out in Bethlehem itself – canvassing 1000 respondents from the three urban centres of Bethlehem, where the population splits almost equally between Muslims and Christians.

The surveys have put the spotlight on the plight of the town, which has been fast losing its indigenous Christian population since the construction of the Israeli wall plunged Bethlehem into economic crisis.

The two surveys show that American perceptions of the town are wildly at odds with the perceptions of those who live there.

While the Christians of Bethlehem overwhelmingly (78%) blame the exodus of Christians from the town on Israel’s blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9%) to blame it on Islamic politics and are reluctant (7.4%) to blame Israel.

And while four out of ten Americans believe that the wall exists for Israel’s security, more than nine out of ten Bethlehemites believe it is part of a plan by Israel to confiscate Palestinian land.

The Zogby survey shows strong support for the town in the US, where 65.5% of the population want the UN to list it as a world heritage site. Americans are also strongly in favor (80.6%) of Bethlehem retaining a strong Christian presence.
Americans are also ambivalent about the Israeli wall, with 31.5% in favour of it, with another 31.6% opposed.

But more than two-thirds of Americans believe Bethlehem is unsafe to visit, while 80% of Bethlehemites consider their town safe for visitors.

While the US survey showed that Americans are skeptical about Muslims and Christians living contentedly alongside each other – only 17% thought they lived together in peaceful coexistence – the Palestinian survey showed they do: around 90% of Christians said they had Muslim friends, and vice-versa.

The Israeli government could well be shaken by the discovery that Americans’ tolerance of the wall would be strained by the discovery that it separates communities and families, cuts Bethlehem off from Jerusalem, and requires the seizure of privately-owned land.

US Christians, meanwhile, are likely to be shocked by the discovery that seven out of ten Christians in Bethlehem believe Israel treats the town’s Christian heritage with brutality or indifference.

The Bethlehem poll, which was carried out by the Palestinian Centre for research and Cultural Dialogue, shows on the other hand that more than two-thirds (73.3%) of Bethlehem’s Christians believe that the Palestinian Authority treats Christian heritage with respect. That result will surprise some who believe that the election of Hamas has strained Christian-Muslim relations in the town.

Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem’s Chief Executive, says:

“The choice is stark. Either the wall stays and Bethlehem ceases to be a Christian town. Or Bethlehem retains its Christian population – in which case the wall has to come down. The international community needs to wake up to what is happening and choose.”

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Book Review: The Language of God

A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

By Francis S. Collins
Free Press. 294p $26

In The Language of God, Francis Collins has written more of an apologia for his personal religious beliefs than an argument for religious belief itself. Were Collins not one of the leading scientists in the world, having directed the International Human Genome Project, which successfully completed mapping the human genome in 2000, this defense of religious belief by a scientist would probably not have the appeal that it clearly possesses, particularly in a time when science and religion appear to occupy at best parallel universes. In contrast, Collins is convinced an integration of the two is possible. Science, he insists, offers deep and reliable understanding of our material existence. But compelling questions like why is there a universe at all, which in Collins’s estimation is beyond the reach of science, require answers too. And the goal of this book is to show that the answers provided by religious faith are real answers, compatible with and complementary to science. If so, in fairness to this argument, he might have observed that without science we would not know there is a universe and, as a consequence, it would not occur to us to ask why.

This intelligent book has even greater appeal because the author is a person of deep religious faith even as he is grounded intellectually and spiritually in science. He is that rarity who practices what he preaches. But it was not always that way. The son of free-thinking parents, Collins had little interest in religion, in contrast to his enormous interest in science. By the time he was pursuing his doctorate, his agnosticism had given way to atheism. But then came his decision to abandon doctoral studies and enter medical school at the University of North Carolina. There his first exposure to medical genetics and bedside conversations with patients who had deep religious beliefs made a lasting impression. One conversation in particular appears to have been a turning point of sorts. When asked what he believed in, Collins could only say, “I’m not really sure.”

That prompted him to undertake an intellectual journey with the goal of confirming his atheism. Instead, though, he abandoned it for belief in God and the conclusion that science and religious belief are quite compatible. This occurred despite four issues that were of particular concern to him—namely, God as mere wish fulfillment, the harm that has been and continues to be done in the name of religion, the compatibility of human suffering with the notion of a loving God, and miracles.

Instead of rejecting religion, Collins concluded that the human yearning for God is too deep-seated to be an invention, and the truth of religion is too compelling to be rejected because of the hypocrisy of some who profess religion.

But it is Collins’s response to the problem of miracles that illuminates most clearly his frame of mind. Those rejecting any need for religion might do so on the grounds that everything, even the most unlikely, can, in the final analysis, be explained by the laws of nature. But this is not true about the origins of the universe, which, Collins insists, cannot now and will not be explained by the laws of nature, implying that this may be the mother of all miracles! In other words, while it is the scientific consensus that the universe began at one moment—the so-called Big Bang—what preceded this moment remains uncertain and beyond the reach of science to determine. To reinforce this point, Collins cites Stephen Hawking’s observation that explaining why our universe emerged from the Big Bang is difficult unless it was the act of some God intent on creating human beings like us.

By Collins’s own admission, C. S. Lewis’s discussion in Mere Christianity of the moral law as a clue to the meaning of the universe has been a major influence in shaping his understanding of the relation between science and religion. Lewis argues that evidence for a universal sense of right and wrong, regardless of time, differing cultures or religion, should prompt us to ask where it came from.

According to Lewis, just as the architect of a house cannot be any part of the house, the source of the moral law could only be found outside us but is experienced as a command within urging us to behave in a certain way. This command, Collins argues, as though to complete Lewis’s thought, points to the existence of God.

But we might recall that when Cicero discussed natural law, he described it as a consonance between right reason and nature. It therefore applies universally and without exception, and we have only to look inward to explain and interpret it. In other words, the law, whether in what it commands or in what it prohibits, is universal by virtue of its origin in the nature common to human beings. And even if, as Cicero also asserts, God is ultimately its author, natural law is universally discernible without recourse to some belief in God. The Catholic Church goes further, teaching that the authority of natural law is not contingent on belief in God.

Viewed in this light, Hawking’s suggestion that the Big Bang implies something theological has a Delphic quality to it. Instead of understanding it to mean our universe is ultimately inexplicable without God, is it not just as reasonable to understand it to mean that God is unthinkable without our universe? When Einstein said it was impossible to be a scientist without knowing the external world is real, he also said that such knowledge comes to the scientist not by reason but by an intuition remarkably like faith. In other words, if the scientist feels she knows anything, it is because consciously or unconsciously she believes she can know at all. As Collins discusses it here, his language of God appears to draw the same plausible inference.

T. Patrick Hill

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Holiday controversy a sign of the season

By Helen T. Gray
McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Earl Martin of the Olathe, Kan., School District remembers when five- and six-foot Christmas trees bearing ornaments adorned each classroom.

Thirty years later, "Our practice is there might be a main holiday tree on display but not a lot of individual trees, and the ornaments would not be religious," said Martin, director of elementary education and a former school principal.

In Kansas City, Kan., Wyandotte High School has what is called a "winter tree," not a Christmas tree, and "generic songs" are featured in the winter program. The students "want to sing (gospel singer Kirk) Franklin and Mariah Carey," principal Walter Thompson said, "but they have too much religion. We wouldn't use that music, even if it is allowed, because we don't want to offend anyone."

In the Northwest, when a rabbi complained the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had Christmas trees but no Hanukkah menorah, the 14 trees were taken down and then put back up after a national uproar.

This time of year, constitutional controversy has become almost as customary as Hanukkah and Christmas.

In one corner is what's known as the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, which has been taken to mean that the federal government should not mandate a national religion. In the opposing corner are the First Amendment's next two clauses, which protect the rights of people to speak freely and to tend to their religions of choice, if they have one.

Every year, keepers of the public square and public schools find themselves trying to make their way between the two, sometimes misunderstanding or misinterpreting what is and is not allowed. Here are but two:

True or false: Students are not allowed to sing religious Christmas songs in public schools.

False.

One of the biggest misunderstandings among public school officials is "that religion must be forcibly removed from the school environment," said Erik Owens, assistant director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
For example, at one area elementary school a line referring to "Parson Brown" was changed in the otherwise secular song "Winter Wonderland" because "parson" is another term for pastor or minister.

The Alliance Defense Fund, one of several Christian groups that have organized against what they say is an assault on Christmas, has published a paper entitled "Constitutional Rights of Students, Teachers and Public Schools to Seasonal Religious Expression."

In it, the group argues the U.S. Supreme Court has held that many religious activities, contrary to what some think, can be constitutionally allowed as freedom of speech and expression. These include calling a school break "Christmas Vacation," instead of just "winter break"; closing on religious holidays; allowing teachers and students to say "Merry Christmas" instead of only "Happy Holidays"; displaying religious symbols such as nativities and menorahs; and allowing students to opt out of such activities.

The American Civil Liberties Union is usually cast as the villain in these disputes, but its stated policy is that the ACLU "works to ensure that people remain free to choose which religious beliefs (or none) they wish to express and that governments, school boards and legislatures do not become involved in deciding which religious beliefs should be promoted or in spending taxpayer dollars to support religious activities and symbols."

Brett Shirk, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, said the organization believes that "citizens should never be forced to express beliefs they do not hold, like making Jewish kids in a public school sing Christmas songs." Likewise, he said, "no one should be prohibited from voluntarily expressing holiday greetings." Shirk said the organization also contends that publicly funded displays should express all beliefs of people in that municipality.

Phillip Hammond, retired professor in the religious studies department at the University of California-Santa Barbara, said a public school is free to engage in activities that might seem religious to some people if it has a secular purpose for doing so.

"For example, the school choir at Christmas time sings hymns, which gives the children the opportunity to sing, and the music is pegged to the season," he said. "So no one needs to say they are doing that because they are Christian. They are doing that because they are singers."

Alan Brownstein, law professor at the University of California-Davis, said some school officials play it too safe.

"For example, there are school administrators who say we can't have any religious music or you can't say `Christmas,' " he said, "and that pushes the attempt to respect the constitutional requirements far beyond what the law demands."

True or false: Municipalities cannot allow residents to put up holiday displays on public property.

False.

Groups such as the Christian Defense Coalition, Faith and Action, Generation Life and several members of Congress have joined in the Nativity Project, calling for faith communities across the country to apply for permission to set up nativity scenes in front of their city halls or state capitol buildings. One group, the Thomas More Center, has arranged for several hundred lawyers to assist if legal action is necessary.

"The free speech provisions of the First Amendment give private citizens the right to express their religious beliefs in spaces designated as public forums," Owens said. "In these places, such as town squares, private citizens may be allowed to erect displays that might be unconstitutional for the government to put up."

But this still puts pressure on local government.

"Governments must be careful to convey a nonreligious message in the overall context of religious displays they sponsor," said Joseph M. Knippenberg, professor of politics at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Even if the display has private sponsorship, he said, it cannot appear that the government endorses the efforts of the private group or individual to celebrate the exclusively religious aspects of the holiday.

What happens next Hanukkah and Christmas season hinges on the Supreme Court, Knippenberg said.

"If we had a Supreme Court willing to accede to the commonsensical notion that neither a creche nor a Christmas tree coerces anyone's conscience, but rather merely acknowledges a community's celebration, inviting all to join, appreciate or respect it, we might actually have a chance at achieving the rich pluralism and unity our founders promised.

"Until then, we're consigned, at best, to confusion and, at worst, to the kind of timidly bland homogeneity that leads people to refer to holiday trees and businesses to enjoin their employees to be careful about wishing anyone anything other than a `Happy Holiday.' "
---
© 2006, The Kansas City Star.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Got The Holiday Blues? Try Positive Psychology

Dec. 15, 2006
by Matt Pene

The holiday season is a time filled with happiness - family gatherings, parties, presents and resolutions for the upcoming year. But for people dealing with depression, the holiday season is a very difficult time. Psychologists, such as Baylor University's Dr. Michael Frisch, are now treating depression and other mental health problems by focusing on the other end of the spectrum - what's positive in a person's life.

This new type of treatment is simply called "positive psychology" - the study of how to improve a person's happiness and quality of life.

Frisch has put forth the newest and, some say, the most comprehensive approach to positive psychology in his new book, "Quality of Life Therapy."

At October's International Positive Psychology Summit in Washington, D.C., Frisch presented some of his most interesting findings about happiness and quality of life:

• As much as 50 percent of your happiness is inherited from your parents. The other 50 percent is made up of 16 specific areas, which range from health to goals to relationships.

• For many, faith and one's spiritual life are vital to happiness and fulfillment. Frisch said having faith allows people to be optimistic, which is a key trait found in generally happy people.

• Helping others and strong, rewarding relationships with loved ones and friends also are key factors.

• The physical setting of your home and other areas of life such as recreation, play and interaction with others can influence your life satisfaction.

• People who are more materialistic and place being rich as a high value tend to be more pessimistic and unhappy. Frisch found that while money can't buy happiness, happiness can buy you money.

"Happier people seem to have more initiative and productivity at work, and their customers and bosses are more satisfied, which can lead to a raise in pay," said Frisch, an internationally recognized positive psychology practitioner and researcher.

The positive psychology approach was recently tested empirically in a controlled clinical trial and found effective by an independent researcher at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston. Moreover, Frisch's approach is now being taught in university psychology programs across the nation.

Positive psychology teaches a person how to apply his or her strengths, along with new psychology skills, to specific areas in their life in order to increase their overall happiness. Frisch's approach asks participants to rate the importance and satisfaction they feel in 16 different areas as part of the Quality of Life Inventory, a test he created.

The 16 areas are:

1. Health

2. Self-esteem

3. Goals, values and spiritual life

4. Money

5. Work

6. Play

7. Learning

8. Creativity

9. Helping

10. Love

11. Friends

12. Children

13. Relatives

14. Home

15. Neighborhood

16. Community

"Overall happiness is like a salad and, in that, different people like different ingredients," Frisch said.

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Monday, December 18, 2006

Interfaith families keep peace by sharing traditions

By Cassandra Spratling
Detroit Free Press

DETROIT -- The exterior of the D'Amore-Braver home glows with sparkling Christmas lights, adding a festive flair to their street in a Troy, Mich., subdivision.

A new blue-and-white tablecloth imprinted with menorahs, stars of David and dreidels -- symbols of Hanukkah -- covers the circular coffee table in the living room.

While they decorate, the family listens to a CD that -- like their decorations -- celebrates both Christianity and Judaism.

While many families are getting ready for the busy holiday season, the challenges multiply for those in which the spouses are of different faiths, such as the D'Amore-Bravers.

Arnie D'Amore-Braver, 55, is Jewish. His wife, Andrea D'Amore-Braver, 48, was raised Catholic.

The family attends the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, Mich., but celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that began at sundown Friday.

Like other interfaith couples, they have found that sharing in and respecting each other's faiths and traditions keeps the spirit of the season alive in their households. Rather than diminishing one religion or the other, observing both holidays allows them to learn about and experience other cultures. Plus, it doubles the fun.

More than 28 million adults -- 22 percent of all couples married or living together -- were in mixed-religion unions in 2001, according to a book released this year, "Religion in A Free Market" by professors Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

The percentage of Jews married outside their faith rose from 13 percent before 1970 to approximately 47 percent in 2001, based on data from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, sponsored by the United Jewish Communities, the organization representing North American Jewish federations and communities.

"The reasons relate to the greater assimilation of Jews in the general culture," said Micah Sachs, managing editor of InterfaithFamily.com. "There has been a decline in anti-Semitism. And in the past 10 to 15 years, at least, the general culture has promoted more multiculturalism and there's been greater geographic mobility of people of all faiths."

Different families have different approaches to the December holidays.

The D'Amore-Braver family celebrates both, but the Karim family of Detroit does things a little differently. Isaac Karim, 68, a Muslim, does not celebrate Christmas, but he buys gifts during the Christmas season for his wife of 26 years, Barbara, 64, who is Baptist.

Karim joins his wife's family for Christmas dinner but leaves decorating their home to Barbara. She goes to the Muslim Center of Detroit, where he worships, for special events.

He feels no qualms or conflicts about living in a home decked in Christmas finery.
"A few of my buddies were just discussing this," he said. "In Islam, we believe that God is in control of everything. So that means he controls all religions. So I don't have a conflict with any other religions."

Not everyone agrees that a person committed to one faith should celebrate the holidays of another faith.

The D'Amore-Bravers recalled that one year, one of Arnie's Jewish friends was appalled to learn that Arnie was decorating a Christmas tree with his family.

"He asked, 'How could you have that Teutonic symbol in your house?' " Arnie said.

"My response was, A: I enjoy it; and B: it's Andrea's tradition," said Arnie, human resources manager for John Carlo Inc., a road building company. "We need to be egalitarian in our relationship."

Rabbi Miriam Jerris, of the Society of Humanistic Judaism, also runs the Wedding Connection, a company that offers counseling and helps plan ceremonies for interfaith and other couples.

She says celebrating both traditions doesn't diminish one religion or the other.
"The difficulty with some couples is that if you force a spouse to choose, one of them has to deny who they are and he or she may end up with feelings of resentment, loss and mourning."

When it comes to making relationships work during the holidays or at other times there's no one right answer, she said.

She advises couples to talk about the issues facing them, then devise their own traditions based on what works for them..

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The Secret Of `The Secret' Is Out

Power Of Positive Thinking CD Is Popping Up All Over The Place

The film's trailer is urgent and haunting. A swell of chanting builds over a slick sequence of mythical imagery - burning candles illuminating sacred-looking texts, a cast of shadowy characters hovering over a mysterious scroll.

"A year ago, my life had collapsed around me," comes an accented female voice. "I'd worked myself into exhaustion, my father died suddenly and my relationships were in turmoil. Little did I know at the time, out of my greatest despair was to come the greatest gift."

The gift, the viewer learns, is a centuries-old secret to life, purported to be coveted and suppressed through the ages. "Why doesn't everyone know this?" the voice whispers. "All I wanted to do was share the secret with the world."

It's a provocative movie clip. And one that does the trick. Who doesn't want in on a juicy secret?

But if moviegoers want the answer, they aren't going to find it in traditional movie theaters.

"The Secret" is a 90-minute film eschewing the conventional movie advertising and distribution route, relying instead on a clever viral marketing campaign that has successfully harnessed the Internet and word-of-mouth buzz to reach the masses.

A meld of sweeping cinematic imagery and sit-down interviews with a host of writers, philosophers and scientists, the film can only be viewed through online streaming video, for $4.95, or purchased as a DVD, at $29.95, through the website, thesecret.tv, and selected stores.

That doesn't happen with most films, generally made for pure entertainment, he says.

"This is an entertaining film," he says, "but it has a much deeper meaning."

Since its April release, "The Secret" has sold more than half a million DVDs and more than 100,000 online views. But producers estimate millions have seen the movie. Compare that to Hollywood blockbusters, and it seems paltry. But in the viral world, and in the budding genre of spiritual cinema, Rainone views it as a success - and a phenomenon he still considers in its infancy.

That buzz is beginning to spread from niche groups and into the mainstream. CNN's Larry King devoted two episodes to the film last month, and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" featured it last week. And while the producers have no plans for widescreen cinema release, spontaneous screenings are cropping up around the country - from intimate dinner parties to large gatherings at churches and community centers. (The producers allow such mass screenings under two conditions: that the film is shown in its entirety and at no charge.)

So just what is this big secret stirring so much commotion?

Rhonda Byrne, as Australian filmmaker whose story begins the movie, says its principles are tucked in the words of the greatest thinkers, writers and leaders throughout time - Plato, Albert Einstein and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., among them.

It's the law of attraction. The power of positive thinking.

Like a magnet, the film says, the thoughts and images held in one's mind determine what is attracted to them and, ultimately, the quality of life they live. Go anxiously through the day with a negative loop of thoughts in your mind, anticipating bad things will happen, and they will. Approach that same day with positive thoughts, anticipating good things, and they'll be drawn to you.

It's a philosophy the 25 teachers in the film say they have seen applied successfully to all aspects of life - finances, career, health and relationships.

"Deep down, every single person knows this. Every person knows, deep down, life is not meant to be hard," says Byrne, who came upon "the secret" after the string of misfortune she describes in the opening. In September 2004, she began reading a century-old book called "The Science of Getting Rich" and continued her studies from there.

In fact, she says she used the secret to make "The Secret." After a string of failed projects, her accountant reported her company was weeks from going broke. But Byrne was determined to launch the film project. Not knowing how she would cobble the resources for what would be a $3 million endeavor, she says she and her crew focused daily on the end result and held an unwavering faith the film would be made.
Byrne says the resources drew to her - the finances, the participants, even the distribution method - and the film was completed by January 2006.

It might sound like hocus-pocus to some, says Mike Dooley, one of the film's speakers.
"But these principles, these laws of the universe - some would call it quantum physics - are as predictable as gravity," says Dooley, an author and international speaker who owns an inspirational website and retail business, Totally Unique Thoughts (www.tut.com).

It's a powerful, if controversial concept, considering we have tens of thousands of thoughts each day, says author Hale Dwoskin. Those thoughts, he says, literally create our daily existence.

"Most people are living life as victims - victims to life, victims to their inner landscape," says Dwoskin, who has taught his Sedona Method for 30 years. (www.Sedona.com) "But you don't have to be a victim. You can hold in mind what you want, and in doing that, your world does shift."

Thinking negative thoughts about mounting debt or a dead-end job, these teachers say, will only ensure more debt and more years of unfulfilling work. The antidote is to visualize what it would look, feel and be like to have checks come in the mail or to have your dream job - and to believe with absolute faith these things are headed your way.

"There's very little argument right now that most people are suffering way more than they need to," Dwoskin says. "Remember the old movie "Network"? and the line `I'm mad, and I'm not going to take it anymore'? Planetarily, that's where we're at. People have had enough of the old. They're ready to find new alternatives."

Viral marketing campaigns aside, that's what veteran producer Stephen Simon believes is in part driving the success of the film - and the growing genre he's termed "spiritual cinema."

"There is a deep search for meaning and for hope," says Simon, who helped produce more than 20 motion pictures before leaving Hollywood in 2001 to focus on making inspirational films, most recently directing "Conversations With God," based on the best-selling book.

"There is a huge population in the world who have looked out in the landscape of violence, cruelty and greed, of all the negative things we get hammered with everyday ... and they're saying, `Is that all there really is?'" says Simon, co-founder of the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a DVD subscription service.

While the genre has gained attention in recent years with movies such as 2004's "What the Bleep Do We Know?," Simon says the cinematic tradition reaches as far back as "It's A Wonderful Life."

"The interesting thing is we're not really talking about religion here. We're talking about spirituality," says Robin Clare, partner in Event Producers, a spiritual businesses promoter in West Hartford. With interest in spirituality, self-help and yoga exploding in recent years, "it's not a surprise to me that [the film] is so popular."

Clare watched it online with her daughter and is helping organize a February screening at Unity Church of Greater Hartford in South Windsor. The film also has been shown twice at Alchemy Juice Bar Café in Hartford, followed both times by spirited discussion.

"It's the type of movie that either you love it or you can't stand it," says co-owner John Zito.

On first viewing, it irked him. On the second viewing, it resonated with him.

His wife, Imani, says the latter was the typical reaction at their screenings.

She recalls one woman who had meant to stop in only for a juice. But Imani encouraged her to stay for the film. The woman did and left quietly. A few weeks later, she visited the café again.

"She said, `The movie changed my life,'" Imani recalls. "She said, `I'm changing careers; I'm figuring out my whole life and how I want to live it.'

"Everybody who has seen it," she says, "seems to be profoundly impacted."

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Faith meets Hollywood

By Brianna Bailey
THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, Okla.)

Pastor Yvonne McAndrew of Unity Church in Norman, Okla., likes the movie “Forrest Gump” but found it inappropriate for her young daughter to watch.

“About two-thirds of the movie is foul language," she said. "I hadn’t realized how bad the language was in the movie until we sat down and started watching it one day and I had to say ‘maybe this isn’t the best thing for you to be watching.’”

A growing interest in family-friendly films that address spiritual themes hasn’t gone unnoticed by movie studios. The popularity of movies with subtle and not-so-subtle Christian themes like “The Nativity Story” and “Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” have proven a huge market exists for films that address issues of faith.

Known in some circles as “Spiritual Cinema,” films with religious themes or inspirational messages are becoming underground hits with screenings at churches around the country.

Marketing films to churches is a cheaper way to get movies to a niche market that wouldn’t be popular enough for widespread release through a major film studio, said Arrielle Ford, a spokeswoman for the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a company targeted at religious film buffs and co-founded by film producer Stephen Simon.

“I think most films are marketed for teenagers, and so there’s this market of people age 30 and over who are spiritual that these films appeal to,” Ford said. “By creating a network of churches, it’s a win-win-win situation. The films get to the people, the churches raise money and the filmmakers get their movies distributed at a lower cost.”

Most of the films in the Spiritual Cinema Circle belong to a genre Ford likes to call “Christianity Light.” These films appeal to audiences that are more spiritual than religious, she said.

Spiritual Cinema Circle markets fare like the 2003 film “Indigo,” directed and produced by Simon, which is about the new-age belief that some children possess special spiritual characteristics.

Unity Church began hosting screenings of films with spiritual themes the first Sunday of every month about a year ago, and the program has become a good way to reach people in a language they understand, McAndrew said. Some people who don’t attend church at Unity show up for the monthly screenings after the service, McAndrew said.

Unity Church is a member of the Spiritual Cinema Network and uses the monthly DVDs for screening parties.

“Each month we get a DVD with three or four movies on it, everything from short documentaries about the homeless problem in New York City to longer feature films that are good quality but didn’t quite make it to the big screen for whatever reason,” McAndrew said. “It’s really become its own genre of film.”

Unity also participates in special advanced screenings of films, hosting local premiers for films like “Conversations With God,” a movie based on the best-selling book by Neale Donald Walsch, which follows a homeless man’s struggle with faith. Unity hosted a premier screening this fall at the church.

Major film studios are beginning to notice the untapped market for religious films.
20th Century Fox unveiled its new division in September called Fox-Faith, which will focus on marketing films with family and spiritual themes, following the unprecedented success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004. The new division will release six films a year aimed at a church-going crowd. Many of these films will be distributed and marketed through a network of churches Fox-Faith has created.

Elliot Wallach, a spokesman for FoxFaith, said marketing to churches makes sense. But he didn’t release any details of the faith-based campaign.

“We do market through a number of churches. It’s a great way to reach people,” Wallach said. “But our marketing techniques are sort of like the colonel’s secret recipe - it’s not something you want to release to people.”

Brianna Bailey writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.

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New Flash Presentation: "Jesus Loved the Children"

See:
http://www.truthbook.com/flash/JesusLovedTheChildren/JesusLovedTheChildren.html

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

HSC professors integrate spiritual healing into medical school syllabus

Lindsey Duncan

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center recently received a $30,000 grant to support the integration of spirituality into undergraduate and graduate medical curricula. The grant was awarded to Thomas F. McGovern, a professor of neuropsychiatry, and Terry McMahon, associate academic dean of neuropsychiatry.

McGovern said the $30,000 will be used over a three-year period to look at the role of spirituality in medicine. McGovern said he believes this is an important opportunity because psychology and psychiatry have a history of distancing themselves from spirituality when it comes to treatment options.

McGovern said this particular component of treatment will help residents at the HSC better identify with patients who might want to draw on their own spirituality to heal.

McGovern said he believes spirituality is not limited to a person's religion. Music, humanity, art and culture are all places where the human soul finds expression. He believes when people encounter the suffering associated with a mental illness, their spirit comes into play and can be related to their background and culture.

The application of spirituality in the healing process will be explored through a series of lectures, discussions and clinical situations such as psychotherapy, McGovern said.

Residents will keep portfolios of how they experience and appreciate the spiritual care of patients. McGovern said they also will look at the main religions and what they have to say about mental health and caring for those who suffer, focusing mainly on psychotherapy.

Forrest Short, a sophomore from Kerrville, said he thinks teaching medical students to be sensitive to a patient's spirituality is not a bad idea.

"It's kind of like when people say, 'Hope is the best medicine we have,'" Short said. "If your religion somehow gives you hope, then I more or less support it. It seems like it would help doctors relate with patients a little bit. Whatever works, you know."

Short says he trusts his own faith for healing.

"Like from a Christian standpoint, I know that Christ can heal me, but if somebody is Islamic then a doctor would have to be sensitive to what that means too," he said.

Lindsay Tomlinson, a junior English major from Canyon, said she thinks doctors should focus only on a patient's physical health.

"I think that doctors should be or at least act like they care if a person is going to be OK physically," Tomlinson said, "but it's not their job to care about spirituality."

Tomlinson said she does not understand why people would want their doctors to address their spiritual needs.

"I'm not here to judge anyone if someone else wants that," she said, "but I just think that patients shouldn't care so much about their doctors caring about their spirituality."

McGovern, a professor of neuropsychiatry, said some people would say spirituality is not important in treatment, which is why it is crucial to approach the subject with respectful consideration and a great degree of finesse.

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Friday, December 15, 2006

After nurses, clergy rank among nation’s most ethical

By Hannah Elliott
Published December 14, 2006

DALLAS (ABP) -- Americans may trust their pastors almost as much as they trust their nurses.

That’s according to a Dec. 12 USA Today/Gallup Poll. For the sixth year in a row, nursing topped the list as the most ethical occupation in America, according to a survey of public perceptions of honesty and ethical standards for 23 occupations.

More than 84 percent of Americans said ethical standards for nurses are “very high” or “high.” It was the second-highest rating ever for any occupation. Firefighters scored 90 percent in December 2001, right after the World Trade Center attacks.

Clergy members placed seventh on the list for combined scores of “very high” and “high,” with a total of 58 percent. When evaluated only by the “very high” ratings, they tied for third place, along with veterinarians and medical doctors, at 16%. Pharmacists came in second, with 17 percent of them receiving the “very high” rating. Only 3 percent of Americans said clergy have “very low” ethical standards.

Car salesmen came in last on the list, with 55 percent of Americans saying they have low or very low ethics. No other profession came close to that level of skepticism.

Researchers also pointed out that Americans of different political persuasions evaluated many professions quite differently for honesty. This was especially true for clergy.

“Republicans have a more favorable view than Democrats of clergy and policemen,” Lydia Saad wrote in the Gallup News Service report. “Democrats are more positive than Republicans about the ethics of college teachers, psychiatrists, journalists, lawyers and senators.”

Results were based on telephone interviews with 1,009 adults. The interviews were conducted Dec. 8-10.

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Not just for Christmas anymore: Mary gaining evangelical fans

By Hannah Elliott
Published December 14, 2006

DALLAS (ABP) -- Some might say Mary, the mother of Jesus, doesn’t know her place.

Instead of staying in her traditional Protestant role -- quietly overlooking the manger in Christmastime crèches -- Mary is emerging as an increasingly popular figure in books, articles and movies.

And here’s the kicker: Many of the clergy and scholars studying the poor Jewish girl are not only Protestants, they’re evangelicals -- a group whose history has been relatively silent, and at times antagonistic, about to the mother of Jesus.

Suddenly theological treatises, biblical exegeses and theories about Mary -- once the exclusive province of Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox-- are cropping up in unlikely places.

Stories in Christianity Today and Time magazine, plus books like Scot McKnight’s The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, have addressed her increasing popularity.

However, scholars who study Mary -- called Marianists -- are careful to note that evangelical acceptance of Mary is based on studying her through Scripture, not actually making changes to Protestant theology.

Others, like Bryan Griem, pastor of Montrose Community Church in Montrose, Calif., say they don't believe Mary has been ignored but has perhaps been deemphasized by Protestants. In a Dec. 1 Burbank Leader column, Griem said Mary and Joseph, together, were the human custodians of the “incarnate God-child,” and both receive due consideration at appropriate times during the year, especially at Christmas.

On the other hand, there is a strong contingent -- in the emergent church and elsewhere -- that has begun a sort of Mary renaissance. Mary is on the rise, perhaps even part of a full-fledged movement, McKnight said. He wrote his book to add to the momentum and encourage lay people to have an “image of Mary.”

It’s something evangelicals arguably have never had.

McKnight said the difficulty evangelicals have in studying Mary is that they focus more on what they don’t believe about her than what they do believe. Many reject beliefs about Mary’s immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, bodily assumption and role in heaven. But they know little about the character of Mary, her role throughout Jesus’ life, and her life after his resurrection, he said.

Evangelicals, like their Reformation predecessors, have steered away from teaching about Mary because of her elevated role in Catholic doctrine. John Knox, Martin Luther and the other Reformers all stridently rejected portrayals of Mary as an object of wonder and spiritual help. They rejected praying to Mary because they thought it could lead to Mary-worship, a fault they found in the Catholic Church.

That fear, some say, has caused evangelicals and other conservative Christians to miss the rest of the story of Mary.

In an essay for the book Mary: Mother of God, Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, wrote that in defending the virgin birth, evangelicals have been more concerned with Mary's virginity than with her maternity.

She not only bore Christ, but she also “nurtured and taught him the ways of the Lord,” he said. “Doubtless she was the one who taught him to memorize the Psalms and to pray, even as 'he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and others.'"

And that’s one reason why evangelicals should learn about her now, he said.

George depicted Mary as a turning point between God's old and new covenants. In the old covenant, she culminates a lineage of pious mothers -- Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, Tamar, Rahab and Ruth. Looking forward to the new covenant, as the Daughter of Zion, she points to the redeemed people of God, he said.

“The New Testament portrays Mary as among the last at the cross and among the first in the upper room,” George wrote. “She bridges not only the Old and New Testaments at Jesus' birth, but also the close of his earthly ministry and the birth of the church. … It is significant that in Eastern iconography, Mary is never depicted alone, but always with Christ, the apostles and the saints.”

McKnight thinks that iconography has influenced the way evangelicals imagine Mary. In classic Christian art, she’s depicted as a demure, quiet, unemotional woman, almost bland in appearance, he said. Her hands are usually gently folded or slightly open, as if to receive little children in a gesture of passive piety.

The professor said he doesn’t think Mary was quite so passive. In her famous response to the angel's announcement (Luke 2) of her unexpected pregnancy -- “May it be to me according to your word” -- she may as well have been saying “Bring it on!” McKnight said.

Jon Barta, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Burbank, Calif., said God obviously thought Mary’s words and example were important enough to record in Scripture, so Protestant Christians would do well to study her, especially since they claim to esteem biblical texts.

In his role as pastor, Barta said, he teaches church members about who Mary was, what she said, and what God did for her. He highlights her example of faith and obedience to show “the power of God’s grace through the example of how he used Mary in a marvelous and unique way.”

Barta plans to devote an entire Advent sermon to her words that God through Christ “has filled the hungry with good things.”

“Any failure of Protestantism to fully analyze the biblical accounts about Mary leaves us that much poorer in the knowledge of God’s Word, all of which is ‘profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness’ (2 Timothy 3:16),” he said.

“In Acts 17:11, the Thessalonians were described as noble-minded because they carefully examined the Scriptures daily… I hope we will be as noble-minded when discussing Mary, the mother of Jesus.”

Some experts have even suggested that understanding Mary can help build bridges between Protestants, Catholics and Muslims. On Nov. 29, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in Ephesus, where Mary is said to have lived until her death. In his speech in the town in southern Turkey, Benedict said Mary was an explicit connection between Islam and Christianity.

Mary truly is a significant figure for Muslims, especially Shiite Muslims. She is one of eight people in the Quran who have a chapter named after them. Known as Maryam, and seen in the Quran as an example of chastity and dignity, she acts as an intercessory for Shiite Muslims, who believe in prayer to Allah through saints and holy people.

McKnight said he thinks using Mary to make inroads with non-evangelicals could be helpful. But he cautions against the “hopeful rhetoric” that Protestants, Catholics and Muslims will ever agree about her.

Barta and others agree that Mary can and should be a topic for discussion in churches, giving pastors the perfect opportunity to teach congregants how to examine everything carefully and biblically.

“We will always be surrounded by people who believe differently than we do,” Barta said. “God doesn’t want us to be afraid of them or to isolate ourselves from them. He wants us to know what we believe and why we believe it.”

Like Barta, many evangelical Marianists call for accurate biblical analysis of Mary, instead of relying on traditional accounts or myths to form concepts about the young girl. The Thessalonians examined Scripture, not legend or tradition or popular opinion, Barta said. And Timothy was warned about embracing legends and “worldly fables.”

McKnight said he laughs when people ask if there's a danger that Mary's newfound popularity will lead evangelicals to deify her. Evangelicals don’t deify apostles Peter, James or John, he said, so why would they suddenly make a goddess out of Mary?

Tony Jones agreed that Protestants who appreciate Mary don’t suddenly become Catholic because they accidentally fall in love with her.

“I don’t know how you could possibly go too far in appreciating and studying the mother of Jesus,” he said. “I don’t think praying to Mary is a result of studying her or investigating her or even appreciating her role in God’s plan.”

True teaching about Mary leads to Jesus, the scholars agreed.

“We need not go through Mary in order to get to Jesus," George wrote in Christianity Today, "but we can join with Mary in pointing others to him. This, more than anything else, will honor her as she honored him.”

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Survey: Faith doesn’t determine spending habits for Christmas

By Hannah Elliott

DALLAS -- Christians won’t spend as much money this Christmas as their non-religious counterparts, but the Christian retail industry continues to expand exponentially, according to recent reports.

Researchers who conducted a recent Gallup Poll said no relationship exists between “one's depth of religious commitment and one's Christmas budget.” The results are surprising in light of the fact that Christmas is one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.

According to the survey, people who seldom or never attend a place of worship said they will spend an estimated average of $853 on gifts this year, compared with roughly $800 for those who worship either weekly or nearly weekly.

But Christmastime restraint on the part of Christians hasn’t hurt the bottom line in the Christian retail industry, which makes $4.5 billion annually. Experts say the market for Christian books, trinkets and décor will grow to $9.5 billion by 2010.

Don Montuori, of market research publisher Packaged Facts, said the variety of readily available Christian products has attracted consumers of all ages and denominations, which is why the growth has occurred so quickly and strongly.

Books in particular, like bestsellers The Da Vinci Code and The Purpose Driven Life, dominate the Christian market, garnering 52 percent of 2005 sales, according to the report. It’s estimated that almost 29 percent of Americans have read Dan Brown’s mystery novel, while 19 percent have read Rick Warren's Christian living handbook.

Christopher Bader, an assistant professor of sociology who participated in Baylor University’s September survey on religion in America, said many people manifest their religion by book buying -- except in the case of Brown’s novel. The Baylor report found that as church attendance increases, the likelihood of reading The Da Vinci Code decreases.

Still, Protestant evangelicals are by far the most likely people to spend more than 50 dollars a month on religious goods, Bader said. Nearly 12 percent of Americans spend more than $50 a month on religious products. An additional 11 percent spend $25 to $29, according the Baylor survey.

Those numbers increase significantly during the holidays. Gallup reports that 34 percent of adults nationwide plan to spend $1,000 or more on gifts this year. The mean estimated expenditure for all Americans, $826, is Gallup's highest early-November reading since 2000.

An additional 25 percent of Americans will spend between $500 and $999 on gifts, 15 percent will spend between $250 and $499, and 17 percent will spend less than $250. Men will spend an average of $929, while the average for spending by women this year is $728.

But in spite of the vast amounts of money circulated during the holidays, many Americans apparently don’t relish the pressure to spend. Fifty-seven percent of Americans in a 2000 Gallup Poll said they do not enjoy Christmas shopping. Eighty-five percent said Christmas is too commercialized.

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Turbulent Times Lead to Popularity of Peace Theme on Holiday Cards

Author : American Greetings Corporation
PressRelease

CLEVELAND, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- From the black and white console televisions and 8-track players of bygone days to the plasma TVs and digital cameras of today, the most-wanted holiday gifts have always changed with the times. But one wish has outlasted them all.

"World peace" has appeared in the top 20 Christmas wishes on ABC News' annual poll every year since 1958. As a reflection of this recurring wish, peace also is a common theme on holiday cards and one that has expanded in recent years, according to Tina Benavides, American Greetings holiday card trends expert.

"Peace has always been a popular message for holiday cards, but since September 11th, we have seen a steady growth in consumer demand for cards that extend wishes for peace to family and friends at the holiday season," she said. "As a reaction to the war and violence so prevalent in the world around us, peace is a universal wish that has meaning for everyone."

American Greetings continues to expand its selection of peace-themed cards each year, and the 2006 holiday collection includes more than 50 designs that share a message of peace and hope. Benavides added that the cards were created to have a calming affect on the recipient by combining short messages and delicate designs to illustrate a simple wish for peace.

One striking example from American Greetings this year is an Asian- inspired card with a Zen-like message on the front. The card features an elegant textured white stationery paper insert against a soft green background. The word "Peace" is spelled out in English letters as well as Chinese characters on the front. The message inside reads, "Let tranquility happen. Enjoy the Holidays."

Peace-themed cards tend to be more contemporary than traditional in design, often using unusual art and trendy color combinations to create a mood or evoke an emotion, Benavides said. An elaborately designed card in shades of ice blue and ivory combines soft snowflakes, holly and a small bird with the word "Peace" on the front. "Connected by something greater," reads the accompanying message. Inside, the same elegant patterns repeat, with the addition of the word "Love" in blue and the message "Merry Christmas."

The theme of peace, combined with contemporary design elements, is also used to convey romantic messages. One card reminiscent of the '60s that shows a silhouetted hand posed in the familiar peace symbol set against a black background. The card's message is part of the art as it flows down the side and along the bottom of the card, reading: "In your arms, Peace; In your kiss, Love." "Merry Christmas with love" is printed on the inside in rainbow lettering.

Folk art-inspired designs also blend nicely with messages of peace on another selection from American Greetings. A card features the white silhouette of a reindeer against a chocolate brown background, surrounded by blue and metallic silver snowflakes. The message in silver lettering reads, "To cherish peace and good will is to have the real spirit of Christmas. My holidays mean so much more because of friends like you."

"Peace on earth is a timeless, enduring message, that transcends political boundaries or religious affiliations," Benavides said. "In an age when news of violence and unrest constantly bombard us from all corners of the world, the desire for peace is more relevant than ever. This year, our artists and writers focused on new, more meaningful ways to express this classic Christmas wish."

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Wal-Mart, other retailers put the ‘Merry’ back in Christmas

By Al Lewis - The Denver Post - 11/24/06

The Grinch popped his eyes! ... What he saw was a shocking surprise!

‘‘He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same!’’

Who-ville Wal-Mart associates could now proudly say, ‘‘Merry Christmas!’’ to shoppers instead of ‘‘Happy Holidays!’’

Boycotted by religious groups last year for its Grinchy greetings, Wal-Mart is now allowing store clerks to wish their customers a Merry Christmas.

About 60 percent more of Wal-Mart’s merchandise has been re-labeled ‘‘Christmas’’ instead of just ‘‘Holiday.’’ ‘‘The Holiday Shop,’’ a section where decorations are sold, has been renamed ‘‘The Christmas Shop.’’ And traditional carols ring out of the stores’ speaker systems.

Other retailers, including Kohl’s, Macy’s and Walgreens, are following suit.

Peace on Earth, good will toward men, and some very merry fourth-quarter earnings for the retail sector.

Poll after poll shows that more than 80 percent of Americans are at least nominally Christian. Even the illegal workers jumping our border are Christian.

Who were retailers worried about offending last year with their secular greetings? Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and the Grinch should be used to ‘‘Merry Christmas’’ by now.

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly and a few conservative Christian groups have argued that there is a ‘‘war on Christmas.’’ They’ve even claimed that by dropping the words ‘‘Merry Christmas,’’ retailers — perhaps unwittingly — joined a liberal conspiracy to remove religion from popular culture so that the gay agenda and legalized abortion can thrive.

What’s thriving, though, is Wal-Mart, which put an executive on O’Reilly’s show to promote its change of heart in a free, prime-time commercial.

Retailers who say ‘‘Happy Holidays’’ are only trying to be inclusive. They don’t care what religion their customers believe. They just want the money.

So far, throngs of atheists, secular humanists and those of non-Christian religions are not boycotting Wal-Mart for the highly promoted switcheroo.

Both the Catholic League and the evangelical American Family Association, however, are now complaining about Best Buy for not using the word ‘‘Christmas’’ in any of its advertising. A spokesperson for Best Buy has responded, ‘‘We’ll continue to stick with ‘happy holidays’ ... There are several holidays throughout November and December. We want to be respectful of that.’’

Hallmark Cards Inc. thinks being respectful is a good idea too. The Kansas City, Mo.-based company recommends that businesses send clients ‘‘religion-neutral’’ cards. ‘‘The purpose of a holiday card is to strengthen a relationship,’’ said Hallmark’s Marc Wagenheim in a news release. ‘‘Sending a card that doesn’t assume a particular religious faith provides a way to wish good tidings without offending anyone.’’

What should be offensive — yet somehow is not — is that a spiritual observance is becoming more of a festival of consumer greed each year. Religious groups who complain about retailers’ greetings are only promoting this trend.

Or as Dr. Seuss put it:

The Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: ‘How could it be so?’

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.

‘‘Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!’’

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Aussie soul alive and kicking, academic discovers

In a newly published book analysing Australia's spiritual and religious trends, Monash University Professor Gary Bouma argues that, contrary to assumptions that the nation is becoming increasingly secular, religion is in fact growing and increasingly popular.

In the book described by the publishers as "the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Australian religion available", Professor Bouman says that "while it's long been assumed that religion is giving way to more scientific beliefs, Australia's soul is alive and kicking".

Professor Bouma, who also chairs a UNESCO committee on Interreligious and Intercultural Relations, reported his findings in a new book, "Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century", published by Cambridge University Press Australia.

Amongst those religions on the rise are Buddhism (up 79% since 1996), Islam (up 40%), Hinduism (up 42%), Pentecostalism (up 11%), "nature religions" including Paganism and Wicca/witchcraft, (up 130%), and Scientology (up 37%).

Professor Bouma found that a substantial majority of Australians (74.7%) continue to identify with a religious group, and spirituality is ever-increasing.

Australia's religious and spiritual life is increasingly diverse and less tied to formal organisations while Australia's future seems certain to involve religion and spirituality, including both new and traditional forms, the report says.

"Many evangelical Christians who have come to Australia from the USA quickly form the impression that Australia is spiritually dead and that Australia is ripe for conversion," says Professor Bouma, a US expatriate.

In contrast to the brash, mega-industry of the right-wing Christianity in the United States, it is considered un-Australian to "trumpet encounters with the spiritual like some American televangelist", the academic adds.

But this has not stopped Australia's youth flocking to new and emerging mega-churches, such as those of Christian Pentecostals, engaging in energising forms of worship that Professor Bouma refers to as "spiritual aerobics".

The findings of Professor Bouma's survey show that the historic reasons for seeking spirituality remain especially relevant post-9/11: searching for the meaning of life, dissatisfaction with materialism and scientific rationality, and the natural compassion of humanity.

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Friday, December 08, 2006

Studies shed light on religion’s role in American life

By David Briggs

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS)—Who’s speaking in tongues? Do chastity pledges work? What do religious consumers buy?

Exploring a world immersed in faith and mystery, religious research scholars provide hard sociological data to give some practical answers about the role of religion in American life.

More than 500 researchers who attended a joint meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association reported these findings:

• Chastity pledges

Studies by scholars at the University of Texas at Austin found religion and chastity pledges have “robust protective effects” on the incidences of premarital sex, and their restrictive influences may improve marital and health outcomes for young adults.

A lot of kids are not virgins on their wedding day, including a majority of religious individuals and abstinence pledgers, researchers Jeremy Uecker and Mark Regnerus said. But religion plays an important role for many people who abstain.

Nearly 40 percent of 15-year-old to 25-year-old virgins said their primary motivation for abstinence was that premarital sex was against their religion or morals. Twenty-one percent, the next highest group, said they abstained because they had not yet found the right person. A study of married adults who were virgins until their wedding day revealed 48 percent were consistent pledgers, compared with 9 percent who never pledged.

The study also throws cold water on the growing popular legend that teens who take chastity pledges are more likely to practice oral sex—or other forms of sexual substitution—to remain “technical virgins.” The opposite is true, researchers found.

• What would Jesus buy?

A lot, if a growing religious marketplace is any indication.

Nearly half the respondents to the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey reported spending money on religious goods in the past month. Twelve percent reported spending $50 or more, while 22 percent spent less that $25.

Religious greeting cards were the No. 1 product, followed by religious nonfiction books and religious music. Religious-themed clothes and religious bumper stickers were the least popular categories.

Of interest, slightly more people bought religious jewelry than purchased devotional material or sacred texts.

• Wealthy Jews, poor Adventists

Remember when mainline Protestants were at the top of the nation’s economic ranks?

Episcopalians still are up there, but a study shows Jews are No. 1, with a median household income in 2000 of $72,000. Episcopalians are second, with a median household income of $58,000, followed by two groups on opposite sides of the theological spectrum—Unitarian-Universalists at $55,000 and evangelical born-again Christians at $54,000.

Rounding out the Top 10 in rankings reported at the conference and in the new book Religion in a Free Market by Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar are Hindus, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, unspecified Protestants and Catholics. The median household incomes of all these groups were at least $5,000 above the $42,000 median household income in the United States in 2000.

On the lowest end of the scale were groups such as Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, with household incomes of $30,000 or less.

• Church growth

Worshippers’ race, gender and personal income don’t matter much in determining factors of congregational growth. Nor does it matter whether the pastor is male or female or the congregation is theologically conservative.

What does help a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation grow, even when the church overall—along with most mainline denominations—continues to decline, is sharing authority, welcoming new members and making children’s and youth ministries a priority.

In a study combining membership data with the results of a random survey of 523 congregations, denominational researchers Perry Chang and Ida Smith-Williams found churches that empower lay leaders were more than twice as likely to grow as churches that did not share authority.

Being able to welcome new members and make them feel part of the community and to care for young people also were factors associated with growing congregations.

Looked at from the other side, churches with large numbers of older worshippers were least likely to attract new members.

• Speaking in tongues

A national study of U.S. congregations found speaking in tongues is not limited to traditional Pentecostals. Researcher Keith Wulff of the Presbyterian Church (USA) found 8 percent of respondents reported having spoken in tongues.

Twenty-one percent of people who reported speaking in tongues were conservative Protestants, but 5 percent were Catholics and 3 percent were mainline Protestants, according to Wulff’s research.

• Congregational satisfaction

A national survey of Catholics in the pews found churchgoers generally were satisfied with life in their parishes.

Ninety-four percent of several hundred church members surveyed said their pastor or pastoral administrator is well liked, while three-fourths said their parish is close to ideal or ideal.

Adult education and outreach ministry to the community were two areas active Catholics reported could use improvement, sociologist James Davidson of Purdue University said.

• Pastoral satisfaction

Studies comparing Eastern Orthodox and Catholic clergy show what many spouses could confirm: Marriage can be a blessing and a significant source of support, but it also can be a source of stress in a profession that demands long hours.

Researchers from the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute of the Graduate Theological Union and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., found the greatest source of clergy satisfaction reported by 95 percent or more of both groups was in celebrating the liturgy and administering the sacraments.

Differences emerged in their personal lives. On the question of where they received strong support for their ministry, 90 percent of the Orthodox priests said it came from their wives. In response to a separate question, 79 percent said they saw their wives as partners sharing in their parish ministry.

While celibate Catholic priests also said they appreciated family support, that support declined over time as parents died. Seventy-two percent of priests younger than 45 said their family was a strong source of support, compared with 59 percent of priests age 65 and older.

Orthodox clergy, however, also reported stresses related to family life. Thirty-seven percent said providing financially for their family was a great problem, while two-thirds said having more time to spend with their family would be helpful to their ministry.

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New Congress brings with it religious firsts

BY Jonathan Tilove
c.2006 Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON -- The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians, and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.

Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians.

While Catholics in Congress are nearly 2-to-1 Democrats, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion. Of the 43 Jewish members of Congress, there is only one Jewish Republican in the House and two in the Senate. The six religiously unaffiliated members of the House are all Democrats.

The most Republican groups are the small band of Christian Scientists in the House (all five are Republican), and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (12 Republicans and three Democrats) -- though the top-ranking Mormon in the history of Congress will be Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the incoming Democratic majority leader.

Baptists divide along partisan lines defined by race. Black Baptists, like all black members of Congress, are Democrats, while most white Baptists are Republicans, though there are such notable exceptions as incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. Byrd, first elected in 1958 when white Baptist Democrats were commonplace, will serve as president pro tem in the new Senate, making him third in succession to the presidency after the vice president and speaker of the House.

Because 2006 was such a good year for Democrats, they have regained their commanding advantage among Catholics, which had slipped during an era of GOP dominance. In Pennsylvania alone, five new Democrats, all Catholics, were elected to Congress in November, including Bob Casey, who defeated Sen. Rick Santorum, a far more conservative Catholic.

In the new Congress, two-thirds of all Catholic members will be Democrats. By contrast, after big Republican gains in 1994, 44 percent of Catholic members of Congress were Republican, according to Albert Menendez, a writer and researcher who has been counting the religious affiliation of members of Congress since 1972.

Menendez bases his count on how members of Congress identify themselves. When he did his first tally after the 1972 election, Congress was still much in the sway of a few mainline Christian faiths. At the time, just three Protestant denominations -- Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians -- accounted for 43 percent of all members of Congress, including 51 senators. Come January, those three will account for just a fifth of Congress, including 32 senators. Still, all three -- and especially Episcopalians and Presbyterians -- continue to be better represented on Capitol Hill than among the general population.

Other historically important Christian denominations have suffered steep declines in Congress. Menendez said the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964 brought 14 Unitarians to Washington. In the next Congress there will be two -- Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. In the late 1960s there were 29 members of the United Church of Christ in Congress. In the new Congress, there will be only six, including Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who joined the church as an adult. (Obama's Kenyan father was from a Muslim background and his American mother's parents were non-practicing Baptist and Methodist.)

Through it all, Lutherans have maintained. Menendez said they were underrepresented relative to their population in 1972, with 16 members of Congress, and remain underrepresented today with 17. (While their total numbers have held steady, their political allegiance has flipped from 2-to-1 Republican to 2-to-1 Democrat.)

Evangelical Christians -- a category that cuts across denominational lines -- are even more underrepresented, according to Furman University political scientist James Guth, all the more so after this year's defeat of Republican incumbents like Reps. John Hostettler of Indiana and Jim Ryun of Kansas.

But perhaps the most underrepresented group in Congress is the 14 percent of all American adults who, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by scholars at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, claim no religion at all. Only six members of Congress, all Democrats, identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated: Reps. John Tierney and John Olver of Massachusetts, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Mark Udall of Colorado.

Meanwhile, Jews have continued to gain representation in Congress (8 percent in the new Congress) even as their share of the national population has waned (1.3 percent in 2001). But Jewish numbers in Congress also tend to fluctuate with Democratic fortunes. In a year in which Democrats did well in unexpected places, new Jewish members of Congress were elected this fall from Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona and New Hampshire, as well as more familiar terrain like Florida and Wisconsin.

For Buddhists and Muslims, the 110th Congress represents their baptism in congressional representation.

The two Buddhist Democrats -- Reps. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Hank Johnson of Georgia -- both have avoided talking about their religion, saying it is an entirely private matter.

A spokesman for Hirono, who came to Hawaii with her mother from Japan when she was 8, would only confirm that Hirono was raised in the tradition of her mother's Jodo Shu Buddhism. Jodo Shu is a mainstream sect, according to Richard Seager, a professor of religious studies at Hamilton College and the author of "Buddhism in America."

Johnson's Buddhism was scarcely noted in his successful campaign to unseat incumbent Democrat Cynthia McKinney in a majority black district. Both Johnson and McKinney are black. The ever-controversial McKinney is Catholic.

A spokesman for Johnson would only confirm that he became a Buddhist some 30 years ago and is affiliated with Soka Gakkai International, the American Buddhist association that Seager said has had the most success attracting African-Americans.

Like Johnson, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, is a convert and African-American. Raised Catholic, he converted to Islam at age 19 while attending Wayne State University.

Unlike the sotto voce experience of the two Buddhist candidates, Ellison's religion was a source of controversy throughout his campaign, and ever since. Most recently, when Ellison said that he would take the oath of office on the Quran, radio talk show host Dennis Prager wrote on Townhall.com, "He should not be allowed to do so ... because the act undermines American civilization." A media firestorm ensued.

Menendez first became fascinated by the intersection of religion and politics watching the Kennedy-Nixon campaign as a college freshman in his native Jacksonville, Fla. "I observed how people were shifting their allegiances either for or against Kennedy because of his religion," said Menendez. "I wanted to see how often that happened through American history."

The coming presidential race may provide more data. With Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, a likely candidate for the Republican nomination, a recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that 43 percent of Americans would not consider voting for a Mormon for president.

Dec. 8, 2006

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God And Faith In The Life Of Indians

By Subhash Gatade

08 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org

What is common between golfer Jyoti Randhawa and actress Khushboo ? In fact, looking at their distinct fields, it would certainly be difficult to discern any thread of commonality. But if one would have come across the latest survey published in a leading newspaper one would already have got an answer. According to this survey, both of them do not believe in 'any higher power'. For Jyoti 'the only power I believe in is willpower- the power within you', for Khushboo 'my power is within me. I live for people whom I love and who love me'.

Sixty six respondents out of a group of thousand plus clearly stated that they are non-believers.

Of course, the commonality shared by these two stalwarts of their own fields vis-a-vis their understanding about 'higher power' , is not the only interesting fact which readily emerges from the survey done by the Times of India people with TNS, a leading market research agency to know 'how Indians view God and their faith'.(10 city TOI-TNS poll ( TOI, 26 th Nov 2006) )

According to the survey three fourths of Indians are strong believers; 72 per cent of those in their twenties strongly believe in god ; mere 11 per cent of respondents saw god as explicitly male ; number of people who said they are more religious today than they used to be was considerably larger than those who felt they had become less religious; God is perceived as a source of energy and not someone to be feared; people are not convinced that God is a micromanager, around 46 % said s/he was an observer, not a controller. Despite the fact that 87 % of the respondents in the survey were Hindus, only one third of them said that they sensed the presence of God in murtis (idols).

The survey also brought to the fore the unwritten divide existing between the south and the north. While according to the survey 92 % of the respondents in the north had expressed their belief in God, the figure slipped to 86% in South. The scepticism of the south is also evident in things like belief in spiritual gurus or on questions less directly connected to religiosity. As the paper puts it " Whether it is belief in miracles, astrology or communicating with the dead, Chennai and Bangalore are consistently the least given to such ideas".As far as the non-believers were concerned, their attitude towards life was 'whatever has to be done, we have to do it ourselves' .

The observations tend to emphasise the growing religiosity of the Indian people, especially its younger lot, and thus could boost the ratings of social/political formations whose weltanshauung itself revolves around god. They also demonstrate the growing 'market of spirituality' in our country where we find ourselves amidst Jet set gurus or channels beaming out sermons by these self-proclaimed representatives of god.

One is witness to the way neither the social life nor polity could remain aloof from the manner in which people viewed religion. Psephologists are considered to be the best people to underline this phenomenon who keep prophesising the voting behaviour of a people from the community to which they belong.A presumption is also at work here which communicated an understanding that one's this worldly view has a lot of bearing with one's otherworldly views.

When the respondents were specifically asked whether they think religion is a private or a social affair, a majority of them (43 %) were of the opinion that it should be a private affair and only 29% were of the opinion that it should be a social affair. Ofcourse 28 percent of the respondents underlined that it should be both.Despite the ongoing propaganda against religious conversion by the Hindutva brigade organisations, 67 percent of the respondents clearly opined that people should be allowed to convert.

The respondents were very clear about the alleged correspondence between 'being religious' and 'being moral'. The connection between belief and goodness of an individual was also posed before the participants and the overwhelming opinion was that it has nothing to do with one's non/beliefs.Sixty five per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that 'it is not necessary to be believer to be a good person.'

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

New opinion poll shows British attitudes are increasingly non-religious

The claims of established church representatives that Britain remains a predominantly ‘Christian country’ received another blow today, with the publication of an Ipsos MORI poll showing that 36% of people – equivalent to around 17 million adults – share a basically non-religious outlook on life.

In the 2001 census 7 out of 10 people ticked the ‘Christian’ box, but with church attendance now below 7% and only 1 in 3 marriages taking place in church in 2004, many have argued that this figure is more about cultural identity than active belief.

According to the survey, released by the British Humanist Association (BHA), 62% of respondents said ‘scientific and other evidence provides the best way to understand the universe’ as distinct from 22% who felt ‘religious beliefs are needed for a complete understanding of the universe’.

Similarly, 62% chose ‘Human nature by itself gives us an understanding of what is right and wrong’, as distinct from 27% who said ‘People need religious teachings in order to understand what is right and wrong’.

Another question found that 41% endorsed the statement: ‘This life is the only life we have and death is the end of our personal existence’. Fractionally more - 45% - preferred the broad view that ‘when we die we go on and still exist in another way.’

People also base their judgments of right and wrong on ‘the effects on people and the consequences for society and the world’ – a view consonant with some religious as well as non-religious approaches.

42% of respondents said that in their opinion government pays too much attention to ‘religious groups and leaders’.

British Humanist Association chief executive Hanne Stinson conceded that this was lower than she might have expected, and said it might be due to “a lingering deference to religion that has outlasted mass religious belief.” She said the poll showed that Britain was “basically a humanist country” and that it needed a “common language” not grounded in religious assumptions.

Andrew Copson, Education Officer at the BHA, said that the result was particularly interesting coming so soon after British government caved in to pressure over faith schools: “The government keeps making the mistake of seeing pressure from religious groups as widespread public opinion… [e]ven though poll after poll has demonstrated wide[spread] public opposition to faith schools”.

Simon Barrow, co-director of the UK Christian think tank Ekklesia, said that this latest poll “adds further evidence to the argument that Christendom – the era where Christianity had a preserved and privileged space within the public sphere – is coming to an end.”

He added that “the time is now ripe for some serious stock-taking by the churches” but also cautioned against “imposing an easy interpretation on what is going on. Britain is a mixed-belief society, and attempts to make it fit any one mould are readily confounded.”

Ekklesia argues that the churches should not feel threatened by the lessening of social and cultural acceptance of Christian convictions, but should use this as an opportunity to engage the social order in a new way.

“What people are rejecting is religion as a coercive, arbitrary and esoteric force over and against full human flourishing and understanding. Rightly understood, the Gospel rejects this too,” commented Simon Barrow.

He continued: “Christians should be seeking to renew their intellectual, spiritual and social justice traditions through openness and hospitality towards others, rather than by being defensive or expecting special favour.”

Ekklesia argues that the issue of developing “common language” in a diverse society is a matter of encouraging communication between different life-stances, not trying to impose one set of meanings on everybody.

Explained Simon Barrow: “The idea that we are all going to agree if religion goes away is as naïve as the view that you cannot have morality without religion. Difference is here to stay. The challenge is how to establish ground rules for fairness and equal treatment in social life and public debate. All people, whether religious or non-religious, as conventionally defined, have a role to play in that.”

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Auditing our happiness stocks

By Carolyn Moynihan
Friday, 01 December 2006
Happy Christmas! And it probably will be despite the shopping and cooking.

'Tis the season to be jolly again, and a good moment to check our happiness stock. Whether it is up or down may depend, according to various experts, on what country we live in, whether our income rose lately, whether we are recently married, rearing children or "child-free", and whether we go to church -- to name only a few variables in the happiness stakes. For teenagers, happiness levels should be high, given that exams are over, and about to rise with the appearance of the latest cellphone or iPod under the Christmas tree.

As children and teens know better than their elders, perhaps, happiness has a lot to do with anticipation. But even for adults, it is the prospect of a happy family celebration that makes the effort and often the tension of the run-up to Christmas worthwhile. Happiness, as researchers are now telling us, is perfectly consistent with a bit of strain.

They have discovered that what makes people happy moment by moment has little to do with their general sense of wellbeing or satisfaction with their lives. Ask mum when she is cooking the Christmas turkey in a sweltering southern hemisphere kitchen how happy she is and she may tell you to get lost. Ask her later when she is seated at the table collecting compliments on the delicious meal and -- well, you will hardly need to ask. Her smiles will tell you everything.

The most important question about happiness, however, is the one you ask her next week, or next month, in this form: "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?" When researchers ask this global question they get quite different answers to the responses people give about their passing moods. People tend to be happier than their bad moods indicate and less happy than their "highs".

An interesting aspect of the research is how little difference money makes. As the consumerism rampant in western society shows, most people believe that material goods -- and the higher income needed to purchase them -- can make them happier. Yet surveys in richer countries where there have been large increases in real per capita income show that, on average, people are no happier with their lives than they were 40 years ago.

Beyond a certain level, increases in income have little effect. Daniel Kahneman and colleagues in the United States found that although people with incomes over $90,000 were nearly twice as likely to report being "very happy" as those with incomes below $20,000, there was little difference between the high income group and those in the $50,000 to $89,999 bracket.

There are various reasons for this, but they boil down to the fact that material goods, after the initial burst of pleasure they bring, yield little joy to most individuals. The latest Xbox puts a smile on the faces of the kids for a couple of weeks, and after that they are as contented (or discontented) as they ever were. Something to keep in mind when doing your Christmas shopping.

Does this mean, as some scientists have suggested, that people have a "hedonic setpoint", a fixed capacity for happiness that may even be genetically determined? [ii]This is not an idea all scientists are willing to accept, and there is one very obvious reason why: there are a lot of unhappy people in the world. In the rich world, that is. These are not just the people stuck in traffic jams at any given moment, but people who are chronically anxious and depressed, or angry and aggressive. Such people represent a burden on the health, welfare and justice systems, to say nothing of their subjective suffering.

In Britain, according to one expert, about 15 per cent of the population suffers from depression or anxiety, and more than a million mentally ill people receive incapacity benefits. Richard Layard, a member of the House of Lords, is an emeritus professor of economics and the government's "happiness tsar", as the British press like to call such people. His book, Happiness: Lessons from a new science, appeared earlier this year.

Lord Layard's main lesson is, one gathers, that governments ought to pay much more attention to the wellbeing of people than to economic growth. Higher taxes on the wealthy (whose pursuit of higher incomes cannot increase their happiness anyway) should be used to provide proper therapy -- not just drugs -- for people who are depressed and anxious. This would require thousands more therapists but would benefit the sufferers and be cost-effective for the state in the long run.
Another of his ideas is to tackle incipient unhappiness early in life. To this end he has approved a pilot scheme for British schools in which teachers will give happiness lessons to 11-year-olds, using role play and breathing exercises -- among other things -- to teach the children how to build self-esteem and keep calm in the face of traumas like their parents divorcing. The teachers are being trained by leading American happiness specialist Professor Martin Seligman. Since at least 10 per cent of children in the UK are said to suffer from severe depression, this is certainly worth a try.

Predictably, not everyone is happy with the idea of the government making happiness obligatory, and increasing taxes to do so. It seems that the UK is following the example of Bhutan, where Gross National Happiness is an official goal. Tobacco is banned in the tiny Himalayan kingdom, no doubt decreasing the pleasure of many citizens while increasing their incomes and therefore their net happiness. At the same time advertising is banned, sparing them the temptations and frustrations of consumerism. According to one survey Bhutan is the world's eighth happiest place.
Ranking countries according to happiness levels is one of the favourite tasks of researchers and polling organisations, but one should take the results with a grain of salt. In surveys that measure wealth, health and education, Denmark tends to come out at the top. According to one researcher a major reason would be that Danes have few children. "Children have a constant, negative effect on human happiness and the quality of marriage," says Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven.

A survey that emphasises ecological values puts Vanuatu -- a rather poor, Pacific island nation -- at the top, followed by Colombia -- a country that has suffered a 40-year civil war. Perhaps they were surveying the flora and fauna in those places.
Another angle on this question is given by a recent poll on optimism that asked adults in 20 countries: Are you personally optimistic or pessimistic about the prospects for your own personal quality of life during the next decade? India and Saudi Arabia topped that poll, with 97 per cent of people optimistic, followed by Egypt with 93 per cent optimistic, then Mexico (88 per cent), Australia and South Korea (86 per cent). The lowest numbers came in France (52 per cent), Turkey (51 per cent), Japan (43 per cent) and Germany (42 per cent).

Taken overall, 60 per cent of respondents who expressed optimism in the future also said that religion was very important to their daily lives. Conversely, 63 per cent of respondents who felt pessimistic about their outlook thought religion is simply not that significant. Now there's an inexpensive alternative to Lord Layard's 10,000 therapists: teaching children the reason for the Christmas season.

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Poll Reveals America's Desire for Religion and Values

By Agnes Pleasant
Epoch Times New York Staff Dec 05, 2006

A recent survey commissioned by the American Bible Society and carried out by respected pollster Zogby International shows that 85 percent of American viewers want more religious values and references to the Bible, and less sex and violence shown on television.

The survey, entitled "What Is More Offensive on Television: Religion or Sex and Violence?" was conducted by Zogby in November.

Recently, NBC cut references to God and the Bible from the popular children's television show "Veggie Tales," an animated program that teaches moral lessons. NBC says the goal was to reach as broad an audience as possible with positive messages while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view. The Bible Society points to NBC's move as indicative of the warped view that television networks and ad executives have taken toward the Bible and religious values.
In the recent poll, one question asked was: "Do you agree or disagree with NBC's decision?" The results showed that 29 percent agreed, 60 percent disagreed, and 11 percent were not sure.

A majority of those polled also indicated that they were very distraught over the glorification of sex and violence every time they turn on the television.

Three more surveys are being planned by the American Bible Society, who say they challenge television networks and movie producers to stop cutting most faith-based references.

Since 1816, the American Bible Society has focused on translation, publication, and the distribution of Bibles to as many people as possible. Elias Boudinot, founder and first president of the society, is known for playing a role in early proclamations to make Thanksgiving an official American holiday in 1789.

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Body & soul

These days, faith isn’t just about paving the path to the afterlife. It’s about running trails. It’s about yoga. It’s about karate. It’s about physical and spiritual health.

By Henry G. Brinton

One Sunday morning in early October, a crowd of 250 gathered in a high school gym in Evansville, Ind., for an interfaith worship service. The CenterPoint Community Church provided praise songs, prayers and a short sermon. When the service ended, participants went out and ran a half-marathon, 13.1 miles.

Not your typical after-church activity.

Such services are a wake-up call for religious people whose focus on the soul causes them to see the flesh as something less important — sometimes even totally depraved. This dualistic view splits the soul from the body, and it is, surprisingly, more closely linked to Greek philosophy than to Judeo-Christian teachings. But a broad-based movement is emerging that wants to reclaim the ancient biblical truth that spirituality involves more than just the spirit — it also includes the body.

Links are now being made between faith and fitness, in churches and synagogues, karate schools and yoga studios. Across the USA, congregations are building full-service fitness facilities, expanding the approach pioneered byYMCAs and JCCs (Jewish Community Centers). Church-based sports programs are on the rise, leading congregations of all sizes to add gym facilities, weight rooms and other recreational equipment.

Connecting religion to exercise isn't just a matter of faith. It's a lifesaving step, especially in light of our country's obesity epidemic and the incorrect assumption that spirituality is limited to the spirit.

Seeking salvation

"When we consider our personal relationship with God and each other, we often over-spiritualize it," says Brad Bloom, publisher of Faith & Fitness Magazine, based in Spencer, Ind. But vital relationships with God and neighbor require us to maintain the health of our bodies, too. A mistake we've made in religious circles is to define "salvation" entirely in terms of life after death, when in fact the word can describe health and wholeness in life on earth as well

A 2001 national survey of more than 3,000 religious leaders, conducted by the Pulpit and Pew project at Duke Divinity School, found that 76% of Christian clergy are either overweight or obese (compared with 61% of the general population). Treatments of back problems and high blood pressure have been the top claims paid by the Southern Baptist Convention's health insurance program in recent years — ailments often resulting from obesity or a sedentary lifestyle.

Obesity also presents a credibility problem for pastors who stand in front of their congregations and preach on biblical verses such as the command to "glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:20). Recognizing this incongruity, I accepted the challenge of a friend — a Catholic priest — to join him in running the Marine Corps Marathon soon after my 40th birthday in 2000. I hadn't been a runner in high school and had avoided it pretty successfully in the ensuing years. But my friend convinced me that I could train for the race in six months, so I accepted his challenge and worked my way up to running the 26.2 miles.

In the years since, my marathon training has become a running meditation for me, and I have been amazed by the clarity of thought — along with the occasional agony of the body — that I experience during workouts. Long runs with members of my church have led to some intimate conversations, and I have found myself growing closer to these men and women through the pursuit of shared athletic goals.

Bringing it all together

My friend Vik Khanna, an exercise specialist certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, has teamed up with me to develop a program called "Ten Commandments of Faith and Fitness." We've been meeting with 40 church members in monthly sessions since January, encouraging activities that will improve participants' spiritual and physical fitness. One class member recently reported with pride that she completed her first 100-mile bicycle race, and she told us that church friends working toward similar goals have been "a good source of support."

The union of body and spirit carries with it the promise of integrity — that is, the bringing together of different parts into a unified whole. The root of the word religion is the Latin religare, which means "bind together," reflecting a deep desire to have the various strands of life tied together. Most of us want to be complete and undivided, enjoying integrity as physical, emotional, moral, intellectual, sexual and spiritual creatures.

We can move closer to a life of integrity by pursuing health and wholeness in weekend worship and weekday workouts. The path to spiritual and physical fitness begins with a single step — or, in my case, six months of preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon.

Fitness & faith

How faith is embracing fitness:
Fellowship Church, in a suburb of Dallas, provides basketball cages, a rock climbing wall and a walking trail. Its ministry also includes a fitness "boot camp."

Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma City, which has a 3,500-seat sanctuary, plans to add sports fields and a gym to its 78-acre complex.

Parkwood Baptist Church in Annandale, Va., offers "Christian Yoga" for people to get in shape and connect with God. The unity of mind and body embraced by yoga practitioners is an attractive dimension of this ancient Hindu spiritual practice, as is its promise of stronger muscles, improved flexibility and stress relief.

"Body & Soul," a fitness ministry with classes in 29 states and 16 countries, conducts sessions in aerobics and strength training set to Christian music. It advertises itself as the place "where faith and fitness meet."

The physical strength, coordination and self-knowledge promised by the martial arts have made classes in karate and tae kwon do popular. The organization "Karate for Christ International" offers a Christian-based experience.

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Survey: Churches Lack Adult Help With Kids

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Dec. 05 2006 10:26 AM ET

Research has repeatedly highlighted the vital role adults play in the faith development of children. Yet churches are still having a hard time finding adult volunteers for children's ministries.

A recent survey by Pioneer Clubs – a Christian ministry program serving over 3,000 churches and over 140,000 children throughout North America – revealed that 75 percent of churches struggle with leader recruitment.

The survey of 275 adults in leadership positions in Pioneer Clubs confirmed the vital role adults play when it comes to children and faith. Findings showed that 69 percent of the leaders "agreed" to "strongly agreed" that an adult other than a pastor or parent influenced their faith development.

Not only do pastors and parents help shape children's faith, but Sunday school teachers, club leaders and other adults have a significant impact on children's spiritual lives.

"Adults, who have on-going relationships with children, such as a club leader or Sunday school teacher, make a critical difference in children’s faith foundation. A low adult-to-child ratio lets such relationships thrive,” explained Bryson.

But many churches are experiencing high adult-to-child ratios.

"Leaders are very important in children's lives. Yet we know from the feedback that finding those [adult] volunteers is a challenge," said Pioneer Club spokesperson Louise Ferrebee. "Based on what we hear from people, it is an ongoing challenge."

In the meantime, the surveyed adults admit that their own faith was shaped at an early age.

According to the report, 71 percent said they "agree" to "strongly agree" that their "understanding of faith was fundamentally shaped by childhood religious experiences."

Still, only 48 percent see it as their responsibility as Christians to share their faith with children. At the same time, 71 percent said they like seeing a child understand how the Bible relates to daily life and 69 percent said they want to be part of a child's spiritual development.