TruthBook Religious News Blog

Researcher points to effectiveness of parochial schools in lifting academic achievement of youths

By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

The White House has embraced a researcher whose work suggests religion can do what ample federal nourishment has not -- narrow the achievement gap between white and minority students.

The gap narrows by 25 percent in religious schools, said William Jeynes of Cal State Long Beach in the current issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.

When the student comes from an "intact family" and professes religious commitment, the gap disappears.

Jeynes says his research results support the idea of school vouchers. "It once again appears illogical and potentially racially oppressive and discriminatory to deny minority students the right to more fully reach their potential via a school choice system," he said.

Religious educators cheered the findings, but some researchers debunked the study, saying Jeynes omitted critical factors and cited himself in a roundup of social science perspectives.
Jeynes drew data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, which tracked a national sample of students from eighth grade through high school. The survey provided information about religion, school culture, curriculum, race relations, discipline, exposure to violence and homework.

The critical factor is a private or parochial school's freedom to choose its students, said Marc Egan, director of federal affairs at National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va.
"He just didn't address the private school being able to screen out at the front end and at the back end," he said. "They can unceremoniously show the students the door."

And they do.

"I don't want to use the word luxury, but we don't accept just anyone," said Sister Liam Brock, principal of the inner-city St. Elizabeth's High School in Oakland. "We have criteria. We can also say, if you are not going to abide by our rules, take advantage of counseling, mentoring, we can ask you to leave."

East Bay parochial schools admit students based on grades, test scores and other factors, but administrators say they also welcome some students who have performed poorly in public school.

De La Salle High School in Concord and Sacred Heart in San Francisco devote 5 percent of their slots to students on full need-based scholarships. Sacred Heart's funders established a middle school for the poor in the Tenderloin district as a feeder for Sacred Heart.

Both the study's findings and its critiques resonated with Brock.

"There is tuition, and you have parents who, because they are paying, keep on the kids," she said. "A lot of our students are sponsored by outside people. They will set up stipulations -- you must maintain an A, B, C average. You must keep up your attendance. You must get involved in things."

Still, small class sizes allow staff members to focus on each student. The school's religious nature allows St. Elizabeth's teachers to talk extensively about values.

Few track students by race or ethnicity, but principals say most students excel.

"I don't know if I could say I see the gap disappear, but the way we approach things allows us to approach them holistically," said Brother Christopher, principal of De La Salle. "You're talking about the whole individual."

For instance, the melding of Catholic religion and culture spurs achievement for Latino students, he said.

Jeynes' study cites "caring" teachers and "an overall more disciplined lifestyle" as pivotal traits in religious schools.

Peter Imperial, principal of St. Mary's College High School in Berkeley, said he doesn't necessarily agree with that assessment, but he said frequent communication between students, teachers and administrators ensures students don't fall through the cracks.

"There are a few more safety nets in place," he said. "The economics of public schools are that the money is tight," he said. "At a Catholic school, anonymity is a tougher thing to achieve."
Jeynes, who has written extensively on religion, family and schooling, said stereotypes are informing his critics' judgments.

Most religious schools usually can't afford to weed out candidates, he said.

"Yes, there are some (schools) who only allow students in who pass certain tests, but for a lot of religious schools, it's a nail biter economically," he said.

And most who send their children to religious schools are not the wealthy elite, but working people who sacrifice.

That's just it, Bracey said: "The motivation of parents who pick a private school and pay for it is a big factor."

But Jeynes said the nationwide data, which encompassed urban, suburban, inner city and rural schools, show an undeniable consistency.

"I was surprised by the robust nature of the results," he said.

The results point to school vouchers as public policy, he wrote. That earned high grades from the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group.

Whether his findings hold water, policy analysts said the political momentum for vouchers has dissipated.

"The issue is dead," said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. "Maybe not 6 feet under the ground. Maybe 2."

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers religion.
Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.

Labels: Catholic, parochial school, public school, school vouchers, students, William Jeynes

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Revolutionary Parenting

May 28, 2007
Revolutionary Parenting
By Sarah Alexander

Only 5 out of 100 parents polled at a Christian Educators' Conference read to their kids.
A review of Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna.

A month ago at a Christian educators’ conference, the speaker took a poll. He wanted to know how many parents read the Bible to their children at least once over the past week. The results were alarming. Only 5 out of the 100 parents in the room responded affirmatively.

George Barna says in his book Revolutionary Parenting that the job of parenting is never easy. Given the trajectory of our culture, it’s not likely to get any easier. But it is probably the single most important thing you will ever do in your life.

Barna believes that if each Christian family would take small steps forward then we will live to see a spiritual awakening unlike anything we have witnessed during our lifetime.

As Christian parents it is important that we try to preserve our culture by accepting the challenge to be a revolutionary parent. Barna does mention numerous times in his book that just because you are a revolutionary parent doesn’t mean that your children will turn into spitual champions. A decision to follow Jesus must be a child’s own decision as he/she is led by God’s Holy Spirit. “Our job is not to succeed but to be obedient to God’s calling and principles and allow Him to produce the outcomes according to His perfect will.”

So, how does one become a revolutionary parent? Barna has researched hundreds of families who have produced spiritual champions. Parents have said “in the process of nurturing a spiritual champion, parents enhance transformation by praying daily for the spiritual development of their children by taking time to read and discuss the Bible together.”

Also, parents are to “live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy”. When you invite God into your family, He feels included to shape and mold as He desires. He most likely then will not have to force himself in through tragedy and grief. “As much as you love your children, God loves them more.”

In your parenting, be intentional. Set goals for your family and their spiritual growth. Possibly at the beginning of each week ask yourself, “How will I teach my children to serve this week?” Then, do a service project together. Barna refers to one parent who would take her cynical daughter down to the local homeless shelter and have her serve meals. After doing this her daughter was more teachable. Something about being around the poor really changed her attitude. It opened her up to others to see their suffering and not just her own. Another way to be intentional is to have a family Bible reading program. Every night set aside half an hour for family Bible reading aloud. And start this while the children are infants. Studies have proven that “children begin absorbing values and beliefs as soon as they can understand language.”

When Barna asked “young adults what they felt were the most significant mistakes that America’s parents have made, the second highest-ranked mistake was not spending enough time with their children.” r

Parenting is a responsibility. Becoming a revolutionary parent is a bigger responsibility. Most adults in today’s generation don’t want to take on responsibility. Remember the 5 out of 100 who read the Bible with their families every week? Well, Barna also did a nationwide survey of Christian families and found fewer than one out of ten families read the Bible together during a typical week or even pray together (excluding mealtimes). Nevertheless, the “families interviewed saw how crucial family faith experiences were to raising a godly child.”

My conclusion after reading Revolutionary Parenting is that certain steps must be taken to produce a spiritual champion. Responsibility rests on the parents for the nurture and spiritual development of the child. This happens through family Bible readings, family prayer times, service projects and the parent living a life worthy of the Lord.

...fathers have a deep yearning and sense that they need to provide a life of luxury for their child. The studies that Barna did indicate that children from this generation were not as upset by lack of things as they are by the lack of attention from their parent.

Barna summarizes by discussing the three ways in which parents can be pro-active in shaping their children’s spirituality: facilitating understanding, developing character, and advancing the child’s relationship with God. “The ultimate objective is to generate an urgency to honor God at all times, not only through personal obedience but also through expressions of worship. As parents, we must resist the temptation to follow the cultural path, which emphasizes how the Christian faith benefits “me”. Instead, Scripture calls us to turn our focus to God and throw ourselves into glorifying HIM.”

“Can there be a greater joy in parents’ lives than knowing that they contributed in a mighty way to the decision their child has made to be a devoted follower of Christ, and to demonstrate the depth of that commitment through consistently practicing the ways of God?”

Order the book from Amazon

Labels: children, family goals, God, Jesus, parents, responsibility, Revolutionary Parenting

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The State of Schools in American Perception: From Dissatisfaction to Religious Necessity

Daniel Downs
May 26, 2007

When it comes to education, over 82% of Americans still send their kids to public school. So why are Americans not happy with public education? As will be shown, secularism, an offshoot of American socialism and humanism, is the problem.

According to the most recent Gallup Polls, 52% say they are very dissatisfied with America’s education, and only 37% are only somewhat satisfied. The educational reform No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is not the reason for the negativity about public schooling. If most Americans really understood NCLB, they would probably feel something is finally being done about our educational problems. The dissatisfaction is not about school safety either. For only about a third voiced any concern about school security. More emphasis on academics does not appear to be a major problem. Only between 30% and 40% of Americans believe there is not enough emphasis on the 3Rs, History, Science, Health, Arts, and Foreign Languages. Although a significant number of people think better teachers are needed.

So why then are so many Americans dissatisfied with American schools? The answer may surprise you, but the real problem with America’s public schools is the lack of religion. Sixty percent (60%) said they believed America has too little religion in its public schools. The survey does not give us any clear idea of what Americans mean by it. However, over 92% think prayer should be allowed and over 76% would support a constitutional amendment allowing voluntary prayer in state-run schools. It gets even better. Most Americans think creationism and intelligent design should be taught along with evolution in science class. Fifty-four percent (54%) were for creationism, 22% were opposed, and 23% were unsure. Concerning intelligent design, 43% favored it, 21% were opposed, and 35% were uncertain. The relative large number of people who were uncertain indicates insufficient knowledge about the issue.

It is encouraging to see that most Americans hold to at least some of the core views and values held by our predecessors at our nation’s founding. Early Americans debated not about whether religion should be taught but rather who should be responsible for teaching it to America’s school children. The issue was not a conflict of church versus state. It was one between federal and state governments, which also extended to state versus local jurisdiction. The outcome of the debate was defined by Congress in the Northwest Ordinance. This legislation regulated the creation of territories, states and local communities. The Ordinance specified land to be set aside for community schools in which religion would be taught among other subjects. Notice, the same Congress that established our nation and constitutional form of governments also authorized public schools--not Sunday Schools--to teach religion. Why? Because a free self-governing people require the moral understanding and discipline only religion adequately provides.

What kind of religion did early Americans propose? Most believed biblical religion was the best of all possible religions. When early Americans spoke of religions they usually meant Christian denominations such as Congregationalist, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Catholics, and the like. However, they often included in their discussions discussed the religions of Buddhists, Mohammedans or Muslims and Jews. Complementing a pluralist view, many early American leaders held to a type of religious universalism. They believed all world religions taught the same basic morality. The only real difference was the extent each religion comprehended the moral laws of human nature. Most, if not all, early Americans thought Christianity had obtained the fullest understanding both by revelation and by reason of the divinely created moral law in human nature and human society. (For more on early American views concerning education and religion read Thoughts upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic written in 1786 by Benjamin Rush.)

Why do modern Americans think more religion is needed in public education and what kind of religion do they propose? Again, a clear answer is not found in the Gallup Polls. It is reasonable to assume most Americans still agree with the founders and their views. For example, nearly 70% say America is a Christian nation, according to a Pew survey. Most Americans (59%) see religion is losing its influence in society. They regard it as a bad trend. Only 34% of Americans think the public influence of religion is increasing, and the majority (62%) says it is a good thing.

The importance of religion’s public influence goes back to the historical necessity of moral discipline. It is a prerequisite to living in a free self-governing society. While 71% of Americans want more religion in the public square, 51% want more religious influence in political or law-making affairs. When we consider the fact that early America was dominated by Puritan ideals and that Puritans were called evangelicals, it should be less difficult to understand why 60% of evangelicals still believe the Bible should be the most important influence in shaping laws. The same is generally true for most Protestants but oddly enough not for Catholics and certainly not for liberal Protestants. Put in perspective, the majority of Americans (63%) say the ‘will of the people’ (law of consensus) should be the most important influence in law, while only 32% say it should be biblical precepts and biblical law.

Now, we have a paradox. Americans say they want more religious freedom. They want more religious influence in schools and in society including government, but Americans also say they do not want social law to be shaped by that influence. If by religious influence Americans mean its affects on people in schools and government some of whom make legal decisions, they still hold to the founding ideals. However, early American law reflected biblical precedents. Why? Because they applied the moral ideals and laws derived from the Bible to laws governing human behavior in society. It is likely, therefore, that what most Americans mean when they say they want more religion in society, government, and education is more of religion’s moral influence in all aspect of life. (For more on biblical precedents of American law read Biblical Law in America by John W. Welch.)

If so, the hope for America’s future is much brighter than imagined, one in which life, liberty, equity, equality, prosperity, and happiness may remain supreme. The one obstruction to fully realizing this hope is like minded leaders. If Americans will only insist on having moral leaders of this kind, leaders who genuinely support religion and morality will arise to the demand, but Americans will also have vote them into office at local, state, and national levels of government. When America do, restoring religion to public education will then be possible.

Labels: Christianity, education, intelligent design, morality, Northwest Ordinance, prayer, public school, religion, religious freedom

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Study: Church benefits children

by Michael Foust —
BP News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Church benefits children

That's the message of a new study that says young children of churchgoing parents fare better behaviorally, emotionally and cognitively than do children of parents who never attend church. In fact, the more often the parents attend, the better it is for the kids.

The study by sociologist John P. Bartkowski and a team of researchers at Mississippi State University examined data from the nationwide Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which evaluated first-graders by interviewing parents and teachers. In the data Bartkowski used, some 9,500 parents and 8,800 teachers were interviewed. The ECLS study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.

Examining the ECLS data, Bartkowski and his team concluded it is "quite clear" that religious attendance impacts children positively. His research—which claims to be a "first of its kind" study on the subject using "nationally representative data"—will be published in the journal Social Science Research.

"Religion does seem to be good for young children," the study says. "The religious attendance of parents and a cohesive religious environment in the home yields significant benefits for children's behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development, and such outcomes are most pronounced when both partners attend services frequently."

"Religion" in the study includes all religions—the ECLS survey did not ask specific faith questions—so there is no way of knowing if there are differences among, say, Baptist, Catholic or Jewish families.

But Bartkowski's study did determine that while church attendance is good for children, parental debate over religion is not. In fact, the study found that when parents argue about religion, it can "significantly undermine" a young child's development. However, when they are in agreement, it can be beneficial. The study also said parent-child discussions about religion "often yield positive affects on child development."

Regularity in attendance can make a difference, too.

"In many of the developmental domains featured here, the children who are doing the best are in households where both parents attend worship services frequently," the authors wrote.

The frequency of attendance may make a difference, the study says, because it gives other adults—for example, in Sunday School settings—the opportunity to "reinforce parental values" taught at home.

Labels: children, church, development, discussions, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, parental values

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Higher education's missing soul

Harvard ducks a mandated religion course. But like other schools, it sees spiritually thirsty students.

from the May 25, 2007 edition

As a premier university, Harvard wants to lead, not follow. Last year, its curriculum committee saw a rising spiritual hunger among students and proposed a mandated study on religion. But many professors revolted. This month, Harvard announced a new core curriculum, one that will teach, among other topics, simply about "culture and belief."

Harvard's change of heart reveals much about the difficulty for colleges in trying to meet a growing interest among students to find meaningful answers for daily problems and public issues.

A 2004 survey of 112,000 college freshmen found that nearly half of them say they are seeking opportunities to grow spiritually. But once at school, nearly half of all students are dissatisfied with the opportunities for "spirituality reflection." Nearly two-thirds say their teachers never encourage discussion on spiritual or religious topics, according to the survey by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The rising interest in spirituality has led many more students to enroll in religion courses or to major in religion, reports The New York Times. Many students choose to live in dorms that allow a focus on matters of faith. Often, these students were raised by baby-boomer parents who did not impose a religion on them, but when faced with difficulties on campus, the students search for answers to tough questions of life. Others have been pushed toward spirituality by the rise of the religious right, the 9/11 attacks and the challenge of radical Islam, or the Iraq war.

Criticizing the lack of faith-based studies at colleges is not new. William Buckley's 1951 book "God and Man at Yale" looked at how his school abandoned its religious roots. And this fall, Yale's former law school dean, Anthony Kronman, is coming out with a book titled: "Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life."

He finds colleges have expelled the most important question a person can ask – what should one care about and why – from their classrooms. They do so under the influence of the ideal of research, he finds. Teachers of humanities, especially, are blinded by the "fog of political correctness" and have lost sight and confidence in helping students explore the question of what living is for.

The UCLA institute has been tracking those colleges trying to create "safe" spaces for a dialogue on spirituality – without promoting a particular religion. It finds that several schools are now training faculty about how to help students explore a deeper thinking on basic questions.

Florida State University, for instance, has held events for teachers to talk about how they can be academics while also attending to students' interests in spiritual topics. Carnegie Mellon University has begun a program to encourage students who live in residential houses to explore "big questions" about the meaning of life and success with faculty. Second-year students at Miami University of Ohio are being invited to participate in "living learning communities" that focus on the search for purpose.

These models should help other schools in finding the right "teaching moments" for millions of spiritually thirsty students.

Labels: curriculum, Harvard, religion, spirituality, students

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Poll: Nearly two-thirds favor some kind of prayer at public meetings

The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area -
9:23 AM EDT Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Nearly half of those responding to The Business Journal's most recent online opinion survey say they favor prayer at public meetings, and the group should be free to choose whomever it wants to say the invocation.

Forty-seven percent of the 347 people responding to the question, "Should public bodies in the Triad have prayers before open meetings?," picked the answer, "Yes, and the group should be free to pick whomever they want to lead the prayer."

Another 17 percent went with the answer, "Yes, but the group should rotate between leaders of different religious groups."

The remaining 34 percent went with the answer, "No, prayer at such public meetings is always inappropriate."

The poll ran between May 16-22. Here's a sampling of voter comments, which were made anonymously.

"Prayer and hard work (were) used by our founding fathers, and that is what has protected and made this a great country that everyone is fleeing to."

"When I chaired the state board of education, we opened each meeting with a prayer by a member of the board. One person complained, and I suggested that she stand in the hall until after the prayer because we would have one as long as I chaired the state board of education."

"The United States was founded and became a great nation because of its belief and relationship with God, and soon the United States will cease to exist because it finally has expelled God."

"Our world and our society need more prayer."

"The nation was built on faith. Let it continue to be faithful."

Labels: prayer

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Creationists are not alone

Many Americans share GOP candidates' views

By Chris Cillizza And Shailagh Murray
The Washington Post

May 07. 2007 8:00AM

When former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas each raised his hand in response to a question from moderator Jim VandeHei during Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in California, signaling that they did not believe in evolution, it raised more than a few eyebrows among journalists.

A recent Newsweek survey presented people with three explanations for the origins of human life: that humans developed over millions of years, from lesser to more advanced forms of life, while God guided the process; that God played no hand in the process; and that God created humans in their present form.

The first option is a sort of hybrid creation-evolution endorsed by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, during the debate.

"I believe in evolution," he said. "But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon . . . that the hand of God is there also."

The second option is evolution as explained by science, and the third summarizes the idea of creationism.

Nearly half the sample, 48 percent, said the creationism option was closest to their beliefs, and 30 percent chose the hybrid option. Just 13 percent of the sample chose evolution alone as the best approximation of their view of human development.

Those results have been mirrored in a series of Gallup polls that have asked the same question several times over the past 25 years. They probably shouldn't be that surprising given that, in exit polling conducted on Election Day 2006, more than 80 percent of Americans said they either attend church "weekly" (45 percent) or "occasionally" (38 percent). Or when you take into account that a 2004 ABC News poll found 61 percent said the creation story in the Bible - that God created the world in six days - is "literally true."

The reality is that many Americans see themselves as believers both in a higher power and in science. In a Time poll conducted last fall, 49 percent said it is possible to believe in both evolution and "divine creation by God," whereas 41 percent said the two ideas are incompatible.

Labels: creationism, evolution, Gallup, God, science

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Study suggests Muslims in America more mainstream than in Europe

By Robert Marus
Published May 24, 2007

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- One of the most comprehensive studies of its kind suggests that Muslims in the United States are far better assimilated into the nation's culture -- and far less likely to espouse extremist beliefs -- than their counterparts in Europe.

The stark contrasts between the two groups may have something to do with the American traditions of religious freedom and church-state separation, according to experts in the field.

And a majority of all American Muslims surveyed believe it has become harder to be a Muslim in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Overall, the study of more than 1,000 Muslims living in the United States found that 78 percent of adult Muslims think suicide bombings are "never justified" in defense of Islam -- a far higher percentage than among European Muslims. Nearly two-thirds of Muslim Americans believe there is no conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.

The survey, titled "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream," also found that American Muslims have income and education levels comparable to the population as a whole, despite the fact that two-thirds of adult American Muslims are immigrants.

While only 13 percent of all American Muslims believe that suicide bombings could be occasionally justified in defense of Islam, that figure was 25 percent among those under 30. In addition, native-born African-American Muslims are far more likely than the general Muslim population to have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.

And while American Muslims are more likely than the population as a whole to believe that most Americans can be successful if they work hard enough, African-American Muslims are much less likely to agree with that proposition.

Nonetheless, American Muslims' tolerance of suicide bombers is much lower than corresponding figures for European Muslims, according to Pew surveys conducted last year. In the United Kingdom and Spain, about one-fourth of all Muslims said suicide bombings could be justified, while a third of French Muslims agreed.

One significant difference between American Muslims and the population as a whole is their support for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism." A 55-percent majority of interviewees believes the battle is not "a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism," while only 26 percent believe it is.

In a similar vein, less than 50 percent of American Muslims believe the United States made the right decision to use force to remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. A wide majority of the overall U.S. population believes attacking Afghanistan was justified.

Overall, however, the survey suggests Muslims are integrating into society as rapidly as did previous waves of immigrants, while their European counterparts have encountered much more difficulty in integrating into society.

Diana Butler Bass, a religion scholar who writes for a religion-and-politics blog jointly sponsored by Beliefnet and Sojourners magazine, said the American tradition of religious liberty explains the vast difference between Muslim life in parts of the world that are otherwise culturally similar.

"With its contrast between the U.S. and Europe, the Pew study suggests that the separation of church and state works to create a more generous, open, and safer society in regard to terrorism," Bass wrote in a May 23 entry on the “God's Politics” blog (www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics).

"At its best, America has a heritage of Christian liberality, intellectually influenced by Christianity but open to a wide range of ideas and peoples through the practice of religious toleration," she said.

Bass concluded by saying that some conservatives' appeals to a unified "Christian America" as "the way to defeat Islamic extremism" are proven misguided by the Pew study. "The path to peace between Christians and Muslims is that of religious freedom, separation of church and state, and appreciative toleration in the best traditions of liberality," she wrote.

Labels: Muslims, suicide bombings, survey, terrorism, Unites States

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Spirit Tech

How to wire your brain for religious ecstasy.
By John Horgan

Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007, at 7:19 AM ET

Eight years ago, I flew to Laurentian University in Midwestern Canada to test a gadget that some journalists called the "God machine." The device consisted of computer-controlled solenoids that fit over the skull and stimulate the brain with electromagnetic pulses. Its inventor, neuroscientist Michael Persinger, claimed that it could induce mystical experiences, including, as Wired magazine put it, visions of "Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Mohammed, the Sky Spirit."

Persinger is one of the more colorful characters in the fast-growing, flakey field of neurotheology, which studies what is arguably the most complex manifestation—spirituality—of the most complex phenomenon—the human brain—known to science. Given that brain researchers have no idea how I conceived and typed this sentence, I doubt they will ever account for religious experiences in all their vast diversity and subtlety. Nor will they solve the riddle of whether God actually exists or is a figment of our evolved imaginations, like unicorns or superstrings. Neurotheology may nonetheless have a profound social impact, by yielding more potent, reliable methods of inducing spiritual experiences.

Surveys suggest that only about one in three people has ever had a mystical experience, defined by one poll as the sensation of "a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of yourself."

Humans have long sought such experiences through meditation, yoga, prayer, guru-worship, fasting, and flagellation, but these methods are unreliable, notes James Austin, author of Zen and the Brain, one of the best books on neurotheology. Austin hopes that neurotheology will eventually yield much more potent, precise methods of inducing transcendent experiences, from fleeting feelings of connectedness all the way up to "the full moon of enlightenment."

Persinger's God machine may not have done much for me, but here's a brief status report on four mystical technologies with potential:

Mystical Brain Chips

In the 1950s, Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, while preparing epileptic patients for surgery, stimulated their exposed brains with electrodes. Some patients heard voices or music and saw apparitions when their temporal lobes were stimulated. Upon learning about Penfield's experiments, Aldous Huxley wrote: "Is there, one wonders, some area in the brain from which the probing electrode could elicit Blake's Cherubim?"

One still wonders. A Swiss team recently induced out-of-body experiences in an epileptic patient about to undergo surgery by stimulating her right angular gyrus, which underpins spatial awareness. Other groups have shown that implanted electrodes can trigger euphoria, and in fact they are now being tested as treatments for severe depression (as well as paralysis, tremors, and epilepsy). In principle, implants would provide the most precise, powerful means of inducing religious ecstasy. Indeed, self-described "Wireheads" look forward to the day when these devices will vanquish mental suffering and deliver ecstasy on demand. But for now, this technology—which requires inserting wires into the brain through holes drilled in the skull—remains too risky for all but the most desperate patients.

Magic Wands

Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, is noninvasive and hence safer and easier to test than implants. Researchers have reported success in treating depression and other disorders with this method, which often employs electromagnetic "wands" as well as headsets. Persinger insists that TMS, properly used, can also induce intense mystical experiences.

A group at Uppsala University has tried and failed to replicate Persinger's results in a controlled, double-blind experiment. Todd Murphy, a neuroscientist who has worked with Persinger, is nonetheless marketing a version of the God machine called the "Shakti" (a Hindu term for divinity), which according to Murphy's Web site "uses magnetic fields to create altered states."

Tweaking the God Gene

The work of Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute, raises the prospect of genetically engineered mystics. Hamer claims to have found a gene associated with "self-transcendence" or "spirituality" in a group of 1,000 subjects who filled out surveys that probed their beliefs in God, ESP, and so on. Hamer calls this gene "the spiritual allele" or, even more dramatically, the "God gene"—which is also the title of the popular book in which he describes his research. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, has called Hamer's claim "wildly overstated."

Rick Strassman, a psychiatrist at the University of New Mexico, suggests focusing on genes associated with dimethyltryptamine, the only psychedelic known to occur naturally in the human brain. In his book DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Strassman presents evidence that endogenous DMT underpins mystical visions, psychotic hallucinations, alien-abduction experiences, near-death experiences, and other exotic cognitive phenomena.

Our natural mystical capacity, Strassman speculates, might be enhanced with genetic modifications that boost the production of DMT or of the enzymes that catalyze its effects. A clever, unscrupulous geneticist might even transform us all into mystics without our consent. "I can envision a situation where a cold virus is tinkered with to turn on our methylating enzymes," Strassman says, "spreads around the world in a couple of years, and there you have it."

Good Old Psychedelics

Psychedelic (or entheogenic, literally God-containing) compounds such as LSD and psilocybin represent by far the most mature mystical technology available. Legal research into the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of psychedelics collapsed in the late 1960s after the drugs were outlawed but is now undergoing a renaissance.

Reseachers at UCLA, the University of Arizona, Harvard, and other institutions are treating post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety with psilocybin and MDMA (aka Ecstasy). Last year, a team at Johns Hopkins University reported that psilocybin had triggered profound spiritual experiences in two-thirds of a group of 36 subjects. "Psilocybin, the active ingredient of 'magic mushrooms,' expands the mind," the Washington Post noted drily. "After a thousand years of use, that's now scientifically official."

Independent chemist Alexander Shulgin has identified more than 200 psychotropic compounds that have potential as therapeutic and spiritual catalysts.

Our current mystical technologies are primitive, but one day, neurotheologians may find a technology that gives us permanent, blissful self-transcendence with no side effects. Should we really welcome such a development? Recall that in the 1950s and 1960s, the CIA funded research on psychedelics because of their potential as brainwashing agents and truth serums.

Even setting aside the issue of control, mystical technologies raise troubling philosophical issues. Shulgin, the psychedelic chemist, once wrote that a perfect mystical technology would bring about "the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of the human experiment." When I asked Shulgin to elaborate, he said that if we achieve permanent mystical bliss, there would be "no motivation, no urge to change anything, no creativity." Both science and religion aim to eliminate suffering. But if a mystical technology makes us immune to anxiety, grief, and heartache, are we still fully human? Have we gained something or lost something? In short, would a truly effective mystical technology—a God machine that works—save us, or doom us?

Labels: brain, dimethyltryptamine, ecstasy, God, God gene, magnetism, mystical experience, neurotheology, psychedelics, spirituality, transcranial magnetic stimulation

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Why Religion (Still) Matters

by Gary Bauer

Posted: 05/18/2007

Sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset devoted a lifetime to studying what made America different. Like Tocqueville a century earlier, Lipset discovered that America's exceptionalism-what set Americans apart most distinctly from their European cousins-was founded on a set of values deeply rooted in religious practice. This religiosity was not only preeminent in shaping America's national character, but also elemental to understanding its unparalleled prosperity.

Lipset's observation about the indispensability of religious practice to American life came to mind recently with the release of a study on the societal benefits of religion. Released last December, "Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability," has not gotten a lot of publicity in the media; but its findings are increasingly relevant, especially now as debates over religion's proper role in society continue to rage, and as the impact of religion on our politics has emerged as a decisive national campaign issue.

Authored by Pat Fagan, William H.G. Fitzgerald Research Fellow in Family and Cultural Issues at the Heritage Foundation, the report examines the last ten years of empirical research on the effects of religion on a host of social indicators.

Fagan's conclusion? Religion has never mattered more: to individuals, families and society at large.

Consider these findings:

* Research shows marriages in which both spouses frequently attend religious services are 2.4 times less likely to e nd in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse worships. In fact, researchers at Duke University Medical School found that religious attendance is the
most important predictor of marital stability.

* One study discovered that men who attend religious services at least weekly were more than 50% less likely to commit an act of violence against their wives than were peers who attended only once a year or less.

* W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia found that a father's religious attendance was positively associated with his involvement in activities with his children, such as one-on-one interaction, having dinner with his family, and volunteering for youth
activities. In fact, fathers' frequency of religious attendance was a stronger predictor of paternal involvement with their children than employment and income-the factors most frequently cited as pivotal.

* Research b y Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University highlighted the robust relationship between religious practice and charitable giving. In a general survey population religious individuals were 40% more likely than their secular counterparts to give money to charity and more than twice as likely to volunteer.

* Eighty-seven% of over 100 studies reviewed concluded that religious practice is significantly correlated with reduced incidence of suicide and depression.

Research further shows that, as Fagan explained in a recent interview, "the single biggest new finding was the effect of religious practice on the poor. There is an intriguing indication that they benefit more than those with more income, and benefit significantly." Religion's impact on the poor, studies reveal, is especially compelling on outcomes related to drug use, academic progress and juvenile delinquency.

In one study of young males from impoverished inner-city Chicago and Philadelphia, for instance, researchers found that a high level of religious attendance was associated with a 46% reduction in the likelihood of using drugs, a 57% reduction in the probability of dealing drugs and a 39% decrease in the likelihood of committing
a non drug-related crime.

Fagan's research demonstrates that, on an entire range of outcomes-from domestic abuse, educational attainment and marital stability to substance abuse, violent crime and even immigrant assimilation-the practice of religion is a powerful predictor of personal wellbeing and societal stability.

Some may wonder how religion can have such a profound effect on so many seemingly unrelated social indicators. It is because, as Fagan explained, religious practice transforms people at a fundamental level. "It changes the man or woman, not the outcome. The changed man or woman then has many different manifestations of their changed self...in their relationships with others, with work, with material things, in family life, in citizenship. They don't set out to do things differently. They set out to be different persons, and then we see all these different changes."

That's a point worth repeating. Religious practice extends beyond mere inputs and outputs, moving deeper to change hearts and minds, and foster values like charity, humility, patience, prudence and compassion, which in turn affect the decisions people make and, thus, the outcomes they experience.

In the end, Fagan's research reveals, in his words, "a steadily growing body of evidence from the social sciences [that] demonstrates that regular religious practice benefits individuals, families and communities, and thus the whole nation."

It also highlights a paradox that even casual observers of American life can appreciate: At a time when many politicians rail against the infusion of religion into public life, science is establishing religious practice to be a potent antidote to many of our most entrenched social problems.

Labels: charity, families, Martin Lipset, religious practice, society, the poor, values

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

New Book Provides Unprecedented Look At Role Of Religion Over A Lifetime

Newswise — A new book by University of New Hampshire Professor Michele Dillon provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lifetime.

“In the Course of a Lifetime” (University of California Press) relies on a unique 60-year study of close to 200 mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women born in the 1920s. The participants were interviewed first in adolescence and then again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s and late 1990s. Drawing on these extensive first-person interviews, the researchers paint a picture of the place of religion in people’s lives and how it intertwines with their everyday experiences over time as well as with broader cultural changes, aging, and transitions in the life course.

Most longitudinal studies compare the responses of different groups people interviewed at different times about the same topics. The two studies used by Dillon and co-author Paul Wink of Wellesley College -- the Berkeley Guidance and Oakland Growth studies established by the Institute of Human Development at UC Berkeley -- provide rare, detailed data from interviews with the same group of people over their lifetime.

In looking at the ebb and flow of religiousness over a lifetime, Dillon and Wink found that adolescence is a high point of religiousness for most people. This discovery was exciting considering only a few studies worldwide have the necessary survey data to trace religious change from adolescence to late adulthood.

Religiousness dips slightly but remains high through early adulthood (people in their thirties) but then drops through middle adulthood (forties). It plateaus between middle and late-middle adulthood (people in their mid-fifties and early sixties) and then increases as people move into late adulthood (people in their late sixties and seventies).

Adolescents were attracted to church for many reasons, including the social network it provided. Many reported switching churches – and even denominations – because of a particularly endearing pastor, exciting social activities and friendship opportunities. They all also were part of the pre-World War II civic generation of Americans who were highly involved in community activities.

The researchers attribute the drop-off in religiousness in middle-adulthood to parents feeling less pressure to socialize their growing children in religious circles as well as parents encountering increase career responsibilities.

Throughout their lives, women consistently were more religious than men. And conservative Protestants (evangelicals) had the highest levels of religiousness when compared to mainline Protestants and Catholics.

One of the most interesting discoveries of Dillon and Wink’s research is a more in-depth understanding of spiritual-seeking Americans, those who do not participate in regular traditional religious services but who would be incorrectly labeled as secular. The majority of surveys about religious behavior rely on the frequency of church attendance as a measure of a person’s level of religiousness. Those who do not attend church frequently or at all usually are considered to be less religious or not religious at all. These types of results are partially responsible for the debate about whether Americans are becoming more secular.

What Dillon and Wink found is that the vast majority of those interviewed were either religious or spiritual seeking. Instead of relying on traditional measure such as church attendance, the researchers took cues from those interviewed about how they lived their lives and whether they engaged in regular spiritual seeking behaviors, such as meditation. Simply saying they were interested in spiritual endeavors was not enough to be classified as a spiritual seeking person.

Discovering and measuring this spiritual seeking behavior was important, as Dillon and Wink found that people who were spiritual were just as concerned about the well-being of others as more religious people. “Our study suggests that there is more than one pathway to the development of an ethic of care for others,” they said.

And as people age, those who were highly religious fared much better than most. The authors found that people in the twilight years who were dealing with physical ailments but who had high levels of religiousness did not experience the same levels of depression as their less religious peers.

In particular, among those who were in poor health, religiousness emerged as a strong buffer against depression and the loss of life satisfaction and personal control,” the authors said. “These findings strongly support the common assumption that religious involvement helps individuals cope with adversity.”

Labels: Americans, lifetime study, religion, secular, spiritual seeking

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Toppling A Taboo: Businesses Go ‘Faith-Friendly’

Religion comes knocking at the workplace.

Knowledge@Wharton

Evidence of faith percolating through the workforce abounds. Prayer breakfasts, once confined to Capitol Hill, are now popular among executives in unexpected sectors such as technology and real estate. Companies are hiring corporate chaplains to do everything from performing marriage ceremonies to visiting sick employees and offering drug and alcohol counseling. The Academy of Management's five-year-old interest group on spirituality and religion has attracted nearly 700 members, and a quick trawl through Amazon or your local bookstore reveals enough spirituality-at-work titles to fill a small chapel.

Is this just evangelical Christians flexing their business muscles? Or members of non-Western religions appealing for recognition? It's all that and more, argues Miller. It's a genuine social movement, a confluence of forces including an increase in non-Western immigration, rising religiosity among management-level baby boomers, and a search for meaning prompted by 9/11. This faith-at-work movement, says Miller, will ultimately shape business culture as profoundly as the push for civil rights and equal pay has shaped the environment for minority workers and women.

"The old paradigm of leaving your beliefs behind when you go to work is no longer satisfying," says Stew Friedman, practice professor of management and director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project. "More than ever, people want work that fits in with a larger sense of purpose in life. For many people, that includes a concept of God, or something like it."

Do Ask, Do Tell

At Fannie Mae, a leader in the diversity and inclusion field, recognizing religion has been a natural outgrowth of responding to employee needs, according to Emmanuel Bailey, vice-president and chief diversity officer at the Washington, D.C.-based home finance giant. In addition to conducting a biannual employee survey, the diversity office also initiates conversations with its 16 employee network groups, five of which are religiously based.

"We want a corporate culture that retains employees, so that they value Fannie Mae as a great place to work," says Bailey. "We ask, 'From your own perspective, what could we do to improve the culture here?' We had the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu groups say, 'We always see an acknowledgement of Christmas, but we never see any acknowledgement of Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan or Diwali,'" says Bailey.

The issue came up again recently, when Fannie Mae was rushing to complete its financial restatement following charges that it misstated earnings from 2001 to 2004, among other allegations. "Some of our divisions had to work on a six-day-a-week, 12-hour-a-day schedule," recalls Bailey. "From our employee network groups we learned that this decision cut into certain people's religious observances. That's what led us to the multicultural calendar."

The calendar, available company-wide, notes religious celebrations throughout the year. When holidays approach, says Bailey, employee groups write an article about the holiday's meaning and history, which is then posted on the company intranet; at the bottom is a note directing managers on how to accommodate employees celebrating the holiday.

Avoiding Bad Business Decisions

Whether it's prayer breakfasts, study groups or workplace ministries, much of the faith-at-work movement has evolved outside of the church - in large part because churches in recent decades have been uninterested in, if not hostile towards, the business world, according to Miller, a former senior executive in the financial sector. "Although there are pockets of interest in some churches, it's fair to say that churches, whether evangelical, mainline Protestant or Catholic, have abdicated their theological and pastoral interest in the workplace," Miller says.

A thriving evangelical culture is gradually reversing this trend, however. David Roth was a vice president for business development and marketing at J.B. Hunt Transport when he attended a leadership conference at his Arkansas megachurch several years ago. When the conference ended, Roth's pastor announced the creation of a new ministry to bridge the gap between faith and work.

"That message penetrated me like a laser beam. I spent 25 years of my career as Christian on Sunday, but come Monday, it was all about success and money," Roth recalls. When the church ministry was spun off to form a separate, non-profit organization called WorkMatters, Roth quit his VP post to become its first president. Today, the organization advises companies large and small on how to integrate religion and spirituality into their corporate values, and provides individual employees with a template for starting faith-based groups at work.

Meanwhile, leveraging employee religious knowledge to assist product design "can help companies avoid a lot of dumb mistakes," such as Liz Claiborne's decision to embroider verses from the Quran on the rear end of its DKNY jeans, says Georgette Bennett, president of the New York City-based Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, a pioneering organization in the field of religious diversity in the workplace. "Cultural competence is a big buzz word right now. But you can't be culturally competent without understanding something about religion, because religion is the largest component of culture. You have to figure out how to tap into your internal diversity resources."

Corporate leaders resistant to the idea of being faith-friendly may be persuaded by evidence that religion and spirituality already exist in their workplace, says Bennett, pointing to a 2005 NBC poll in which nearly 60% of respondents said religious beliefs played some role in making decisions at work, and an even higher number said such beliefs influenced their interactions with co-workers. Similarly, recent figures from the U.S. Census show a dramatic rise in the rate of immigration from non-Western countries; one-third of human resources professionals surveyed in 2001 by the Tanenbaum Center and the Society for Human Resource Management said the number of religions in their company increased in the past five years.

Legal Hot Spots

Proselytizing in the workplace is one legal hot spot, according to Deborah Weinstein, who teaches employment law for managers in Wharton's legal studies and business ethics department. "Courts across the country have interpreted this issue very differently. In a 2006 case in California, the court said persistent and blatant proselytization is prohibited because it could constitute harassment. But other courts, in Colorado, for example, have said employers need to bend over backwards to accommodate those who [believe they] need to proselytize," says Weinstein, whose Philadelphia-based Weinstein Firm provides legal and consultancy services on workforce issues.

Employers may be surprised to learn the extent of religious expression legally protected in the workplace by the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on religious grounds and requires them to make "reasonable accommodations" for employees' "sincerely held beliefs."

Another contentious issue right now is what Bennett calls "diversity backlash," in the form of Christian employee affinity groups opposing domestic partner benefits, hrefusing to sign diversity statements that include homosexuality, or asking management not to recognize Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender (GLBT) affinity groups. While Bennett says these conflicts make some companies "scared to death" of religion in the workplace, Nicole Raeburn, a University of San Francisco sociologist, says many of these disputes have been successfully resolved, sometimes with the help of outside mediators.

"It's a red herring to presume that evangelical Christians are by definition going to be at odds with GLBT groups," says Miller. "Yes, [companies] will stub their toes sometimes. But they need to be realistic: Good outcomes require struggle."

Taking the "Faith-Friendly" Plunge

For managers used to keeping religious belief - or non-belief - under wraps from nine to five, talking about religion in terms of company policy can feel as strange as wearing your underwear on top of your slacks. Miller suggests leaders use the term "faith-friendly" to ease into the topic, because it accommodates both popular, general spirituality and more specific, orthodox religion.
Like underwear, faith-at-work is not a one-size-fits-all product: Companies have to choose the approaches that fit best. The menu of options for meeting religious and spiritual needs is short but growing. Popular picks right now include allowing employees to swap holiday time; modifying cafeteria food to meet religious dietary restrictions; providing spaces for prayer or meditation; and allowing employees to start faith-based affinity groups.

Hiring corporate chaplains, who do everything from conducting weddings to visiting sick or injured employees in the hospital to advising managers on meeting ethical standards, is another possibility. Tyson, for example, has a director of Chaplain Services, a manager of Chaplain Operations and 122 part-time chaplains working throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Becoming "faith-friendly" is "not a formula; it's a mind-set," Miller adds. He encourages companies to make faith-friendliness an explicit part of company policy - a move that could heighten a company's appeal to potential employees.

Wharton's Friedman advises companies, when introducing any work/life integration program, to encourage a "grass-roots approach," in which employees take responsibility for asking the company to meet their individual needs. "Let's say you need to pray several times during the work day. How does your being able to pray during the day make the company more effective? If it's something you really care about, you'll find a convincing way to make your case. This inverts the normal antagonistic way of thinking about your company meeting your needs," he says.

And how does one create an environment where employees feel this sense of personal responsibility? "That's the job of a progressive, smart company: motivating people to bring what they've got so it can help both them and you," says Friedman. "Most people want to have more of themselves alive and active in their work. The more they can be a whole person at work, the more energy, focus and motivation they have to offer.

Labels: church, culture, faith-friendly, religion, religiosity, social movement, workplace spirituality

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Love Thy Mother this Mother's Day

By Lauren Green

A recent Barna Group survey shows that women raising children are among the most faith-minded and spiritually active segments of the American population. Three-quarters of moms identify "family" to be their highest priority. The report concludes that "compared to men, women are more likely to communicate about faith, prioritize activities that develop their faith and that of their children, and they are more vulnerable about their needs and emotions."

Barna Group president David Kinnamn said, "Whether they are a parent or not, women in America have high levels of spiritual sensitivity and engagement. Men generally lag behind the spirituality of women — and particularly so if they are not a father."

Putting this in theological terms, women are more likely to submit to, and humble themselves, under the authority of their faith, to better raise their children. In contrast, men's identities are more closely linked to being in control and taking charge of a situation. Submitting to a higher authority doesn't come naturally for them.

But it doesn't mean fathers aren't important. In fact, fathers provide the balance that children need for healthy development, says David Blankenhorn, the founder and president of Institute for American Values. His recent book "The Future of Marriage," talks about the great need to strengthen marriage for the sake of children's emotional and cognitive well being. Ironically, a mother's love is actually intensified when the father is present.

"What the great anthropologists will tell you about fathers, " Blankenhorn says, "is that there are two preconditions for being a good father. One is you live with the child, you're in the same home that the child is in, and two is, you get along with the mother."

But more and more children are growing up in fractured homes. According to the National Centers for Health Statistics, the percentage of births to unmarried mothers went from 10.7 percent in 1970, to 35.8 percent in 2004. And the U.S. Marriage Index shows that the percentage of children living with two married parents dropped 17 percent from 1970 to 2000.
Children are highly adaptable to most living situations. It's part of the human survival instinct. But Blankenhorn stresses that when adults intentionally bring children up in any other situation than a two parent household, it shows that adults are putting their needs ahead of that of the children.

"What the child really wants, at the deepest level of want and need, is for the two people, the mother and the father, who brought me into this world to love me and for me to love them and for them to love each other."

Blankenhorn says that women and men have different but similar parenting skills. They both love their children, but women are more concerned about the child's safety, while men think more about the child's accomplishments. If a child plays on a jungle gym, the mother says, "Be careful, don't hurt yourself," while the father asks, "How high can you climb?"

Which one's correct? "They both are," says Blankenhorn.

However, in the real world children are born into all kinds of situations, some better than others. The two parent model is becoming less and less the norm. So what's the solution?

I would propose that we can all learn the power and strength of a mother's love. That all of us are capable of giving unconditional love to children and all the people in our lives. And I will go further to say that all of us have this great need to be loved with the gentleness of a mother, and the strength of a father.

Labels: children, fathers, home, love, mothers, spirituality

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Friday, May 11, 2007

Study: Mothers Spiritually Active; Fathers Lag Behind

Mothers are among the most spiritually active segments of the America population, a new study found. They also outpace fathers in spiritual activity and commitment for the most part.

Audrey Barrick Correspondent
Monday, May. 7, 2007 Posted: 2:48:PM PST

Mothers are among the most spiritually active segments of the America population, a new study found. They also outpace fathers in spiritual activity and commitment for the most part.

The Barna research group revealed that three-quarters of women who are raising children said faith is very important in their life while only two-thirds of fathers agreed. The majority of mothers also said they have been greatly transformed by their faith compared to less than half of fathers.

Additionally, mothers were more likely than fathers to be born-again Christians, to say they are absolutely committed to Christianity, and to embrace a personal responsibility to share their faith in Jesus Christ with others.

In a typical week, mothers are more likely than are fathers to attend church, pray, read the Bible, participate in a small group, attend Sunday school, and volunteer some of their time to help a non-profit organization, the study showed. Fathers were only equally active with mothers when it came to volunteering to help at a church.

The Barna study further measured differences between younger and older mothers. Moms from the Buster generation (ages 23-41) show less passion for spirituality and less commitment to Christianity than moms from the Boomer generation (ages 42-60). Young moms are less likely to volunteer to help at a church, to read the Bible or to attend worship services at a church and they are less inclined to describe their faith as very important in their life compared to Boomer moms

Buster moms are in the crux of that challenge, being much more spiritually minded than young dads, but still wrestling with the Christian faith in ways Boomers did not. If moms are the spiritual backbone of families today – and they often are – it is imperative to find new approaches that help moms connect faith and family, especially for young mothers.

"Most Buster moms are currently married, but three out of ten are not and one-sixth have never been married, which is double the proportion found among Boomer moms. On a further note, the study found that among even younger moms – ages 18-22 – four out of five are not married. That shows how millions of young moms do not have the support of a husband when parenting, the study noted."Still, moms of every generation deserve an enormous amount of credit for empowering the spiritual pursuits of their family and, in turn, energizing faith in America," Kinnaman stated.

"Compared to men, women are more likely to communicate about faith, prioritize activities that develop their faith and that of their children, and they are more vulnerable about their needs and emotions."There is still room for growth among moms,” noted the report director, however.

“Church leaders and parents still need to focus on outcomes and the depth of their parenting efforts. Yet our nation would not be the same without the significant spiritual influence of mothers. Imagine the impact on our society if fathers were to simply match the intensity of their parenting peers."

An earlier study by the research group showed that parenting based on one's faith in God produced the most desired outcomes for Christian children exemplifying Christian morals and attitudes.

The latest Barna study is based on ten nationwide surveys on 10,035 adults, age 18 and older, conducted from January 2005 through January 2007.

Labels: Audrey Barrick, Barna Group, Bible, children, Christianity, faith, fathers, mothers

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Moms could use a little help from dads

Friday, May 11, 2007
Brent Castillo

There's no doubt that mothers are special. I've seen ones who have a bottomless well of forgiveness when their kids continually mess up. Most of the moms I know expend enormous effort trying to feed their children properly and making them presentable in public. And we all know the cliche can be true that "he's got a face only a mother could love."

A 2005 study shed light on why. It was done for the Mothers' Council and sponsored by the University of Minnesota, University of Connecticut and the Institute for American Values. More than 93 percent of the mothers surveyed said the love they feel for their children is unlike any other love they have experienced.

It's so strong that it often extends to other people's children. More than 92 percent agreed with the statement, "After becoming a mother, I found myself caring more about the well-being of all children, not just my own." And 8 out of 10 said mothers are more responsible than other adults for children in general.

The Barna Group recently published research that confirms what many church-goers already suspected: Moms also take the lead role in spirituality in the home. According to the research, mothers are more likely than fathers to attend church, pray, read the Bible, participate in a small group, attend Sunday school and volunteer time to a non-profit organization.

The council's survey also showed that more than 41 percent of the respondents worked full time. It seems to be something most feel compelled to do. Only about 16 percent said they prefer full-time work, and most would rather work part time or from home.

But staying home is no cakewalk. Many stay-at-home moms feel they never get to leave their work, because home is their job.

We expect a lot from our mothers, and they usually deliver. Unfortunately, less than half feel appreciated most of the time, the survey showed, and one-in-five felt less valued by society since becoming a mom.

We're wearing out our women. And it makes me wonder, where are the men?

These women didn't become mothers on their own.

Men, including me, need to shoulder more of the burden. It's time for them to step up to the plate -- and serve it to their kids. Men could start by pitching in more around the house, going to church with their families and turning off the TV to talk to their wife and kids.

When men get serious about being a husband and a dad -- and do so in that order -- it pays off. All members of traditional families generally do better financially, socially and even mentally than those in alternate family forms.

Some men, especially those who are married, are doing things right.

Sixty-eight percent of married mothers named their spouse as their primary source of emotional support. That number steeply drops off to 52 percent for co-habitators. And while most mothers felt responsible for day-to-day care of their children, nearly 50 percent said they share that responsibility with their spouse or partner.

This coming Mother's Day, let's be sure to tell our moms how special they are. And dads can prove they mean it by putting their words into action.

Brent Castillo is a member of The Eagle's editorial board. Reach him at 316-268-6516 or at bcastillo@wichitaeagle.com.

Labels: Barna Group, Brent Castillo, children, families, fathers, Institute for American Values, mothers, Mothers' Council, stay-at-home

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Higher pay, lower satisfaction

Modestly paid clergy rank at top in job happiness.

By Barbara Rose
Originally published May 2, 2007

The old saw "money can't buy happiness" apparently holds true when it comes to work.

Highly paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers didn't make the cut when researchers set out to find the most satisfied workers.

Clergy ranked tops in both job satisfaction and general happiness, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Physical therapists and firefighters were second- and third-ranked in job satisfaction, with more than three-quarters reporting being "very satisfied."

Other occupations in which more than 60 percent said they were very satisfied included teachers, painters and sculptors, psychologists and authors.

"The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching and protecting others and creative pursuits," said Tom W. Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey, a poll supported by the National Science Foundation.

The worker satisfaction study, released last month, is based on data collected since 1988 on more than 27,500 randomly selected people.

For the most satisfied workers, intrinsic rewards are key, the study suggests.

Clergy ranked by far the most satisfied and the most generally happy of 198 occupations.

Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.

Jackson Carroll, Williams professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, found similarly high satisfaction when he studied Protestant and Catholic clergy, despite relatively modest salaries and long hours.

"They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person's life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There's a lot of fulfillment."

Others in helping professions also describe their work as a calling. "I believe I was probably put on this earth to make someone's life a little easier, that's what I get out of my job," said Gina Kolk, an Oak Park, Ill., physical therapist who has practiced 23 years. "I love my job. I think it's because I see results very quickly. I see positive things happen to people very quickly. I get rewarded every day by what I do."

Satisfaction generally rises with social status, and higher status often goes hand in hand with higher pay, Smith said. An exception is doctors, a high-paying profession that ranked No. 1 in occupational prestige.

General practitioners earn more than twice as much as physical therapists, averaging $140,370 annually compared with $65,350, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet doctors scored lower in satisfaction and happiness.

Occupations with the least satisfied and happy workers tended to be low-skill manual and service jobs, Smith found.

Roofers, waiters and laborers ranked at the bottom in job satisfaction, with as few as one in five reporting they were very satisfied.

Bartenders, known for listening to other people's troubles, apparently need sympathetic ears: Only 26 percent said they were very satisfied.

Barbara Rose writes for the Chicago Tribune

Labels: Barbara Rose, clergy, happiness, job satisfaction, professions, workers

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Harvard's Faith Factor

by Grant Swank

April 25, 2007 12:00 PM EST

"’Religion and morality are critical to how students think about politics and form opinions on political issues,’ said Jeanne Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor and director of Harvard's Institute of Politics, which conducted the poll."

Harvard students are not as irreligious as prior. They are more and more relating their lives to the soul and invisible. Therefore, administration realizes that faith molds political views.

Consequently, the university is buzzing with the twosome "religious centrist."

Instead of the usual hard-line atheism-agnosticism rant common at Harvard, there is a call to play that down. May that playdown also relate to Harvard Divinity School. When I was there in the early 60s, it was popular not to believe, though studying for ministry or religious vocations of some sort.

"Jesus" was mentioned but in the context of demythologizing Him, that is, cutting out the miracles, including his virgin birth and resurrection. His divinity was always in question.

Apparently now with the world is sad shape more Harvard students are coming upon a spiritual hunger that’s real, personal. I doubt if that has changed the divinity school that much, however, for in the mailings I still receive regularly there is the usual accent on yoga, feminism, politically correctness, Unitarian-based liberalism, and same ol’ same ol’ whatever.

Peter Gomes, gay pastor of Harvard Memorial Church, said once, when learning there would be an evangelical professor onboard at the divinity school, that it would be refreshing to have someone teaching who actually believed. That is, the evangelical professor would be a biblical Christian. Gomes admitted that would be welcomed for its rarity. I can imagine his clever smile showing when he addressed his audience with those prophetic words.

Someone on the divinity faculty who truly personally had faith in the biblical record. How unusual. I wonder if the money offered to the school for that "evangelical chair" actually ever brought about such a personage on staff. I can’t recall reading anything about its actuality. Must check up on it. If so, must also check to see if the evangelical member survived the "camaraderie" of other faculty and liberal student body.

According to Jennifer Harper, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: "College students are becoming more religious, and it's affecting their political views, according to a new Harvard University survey of this potentially influential voting bloc. ‘Religious centrists’ rule, according to the university.

"A full 70 percent say religion plays an important part in their lives, with a quarter saying their spirituality has increased at college. Six out of 10 say they are concerned about the moral direction of the country, according to the poll of 1,200 students from across the country, conducted March 13 to 27 and released Tuesday.

"The Harvard study advises political parties to woo the spiritually inclined, a demographic that the popular press mostly deemed the exclusive territory of the ‘religious right’ in the past two presidential elections.

"’This analysis foreshadows the 2008 general election campaign for president where religious centrists, nearly a quarter of the student vote, will be the critical swing vote ... and likely the most influential group in American politics for years,’ according to the survey.

"A breakdown of collegiate party preferences reveals further complexities. Republicans are composed of 34 percent traditional conservatives, 30 percent religious centrists, 20 percent secular centrists and 16 percent who consider themselves traditional liberals.

"Among Democrats, 59 percent are traditional liberals, 24 percent are religious centrists, 9 percent secular centrists and 7 percent are traditional conservatives."

Copyright © 2006 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
http://www.truthinconviction.us/weblog.php
mailto:%3Ca%20href=">joseph_swank@yahoo.com

Labels: divinity school, Grant Swank, Harvard, Jesus, morality, politics, religion, spirituality, students

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Next Generation Embraces Traditional Values

By Steve Geissinger
MEDIANEWS SACRAMENTO BUREAU

Article Launched: 04/25/2007 06:41:24 AM PDT

SACRAMENTO -- Make way for the new American Dreamers.

A new, unprecedented ethnic-mix of youths in California yearn for the traditional values of family, safe neighborhoods and religion, according to a poll to be released today, with news conferences to follow in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The first poll of youths ages 16 to 22, using their communication tool of choice, cell phones, added a label to the long list of yippie, yuppie and hippie terms, and all those Generation-something alphabet-soup labels, said study spokesman Kevin Weston.

The dreamers are coming from a "post-minority generation," said Weston of the nonprofit New America Media foundation, which commissioned the poll.

"It's the most intimate generation we've had, as far as people knowing each other and getting along," he said. "We haven't seen this before in the United States."

Youths have concerns about family stability, cite parenthood as a life goal, are worried about violence in neighborhoods and communities, are seeking religiously guided lives, and want good educations, indicates the poll, jointly commissioned with the University of California.

Researchers have labeled them a "post-minority generation" -- the largest and most diverse to emerge in the nation -- reflecting relaxed attitudes about race, their own identities and immigration status.

They are as likely to identify themselves by music and fashion taste as by the color of their skin.
In short, facing financial and other obstacles, they are concerned about challenges close to home and are not nearly as worried about global warming or the Iraq war, though a majority oppose the fighting.

"While the media and politicians are preoccupied with U.S. conflicts abroad, California youth are far more concerned with conflicts in their own home neighborhoods," according to pollster Sergio Bendixen. At the same time, many see the armed forces as a way to a job.

The youths "represent the forefront of the culture" and a glimpse at "who we are becoming as a (national) society," said Sandy Close of New America Media.

The poll respondents represent a new "global society (that's) coming of age," Bendixen said, with one in eight of the nation's young people living in California -- three-fifths of them nonwhite and nearly half immigrants or children of immigrants.

More than 80 percent support giving illegal immigrants a chance to earn legal status and citizenship, according to the poll.

The study found two-thirds of the 601 respondents expecting to get married and have children.
A quarter of respondents consider the breakdown of the family to be their most pressing issue. Violence in neighborhoods was second, followed by poverty. Global warming and anti-immigrant sentiment came in significantly lower, along with war at just 3 percent.

"It's no wonder this generation is concerned about family breakdown," Weston said. "When the post-hippie generation started divorcing, many of the youths didn't have a mother or a father around."

Two-thirds said they consider it to be "very likely" they will get married and have children.
A majority of respondents also said they felt religion or spirituality is important in their lives and nearly four in 10 said they go to church. The finding stands in stark contrast to the high number of agnostic adults in California.

Given the cost of higher education, the majority of youths cite school and/or money as their top source of personal stress.

Pollsters conducted cell phone interviews of 601 youths from Oct. 6 to Nov. 15. Each was offered $10 to cover phone expenses. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Labels: family, neighborhood, New America Media, religion, Steve Geissinger, tradition, values, youth

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Parsing the Polls: Religion in Public Life

Sifting through the transcript of last week's Republican presidential debate, we came across this exchange between former Govs. Mitt Romney (Mass.) and Mike Huckabee (Ark.) about the role of religion in the public square.

Romney: "We have a separation of church and state. It's served us well in this country. This is a nation, after all, that wants a leader that's a person of faith, but we don't choose our leader based on which church they go to."

Huckabee: "I said, in general -- and I would say this tonight to any of us -- when a person says, 'My faith doesn't affect my decision- making,' I would say that the person is saying their faith is not significant to impact their decision process. I tell people up front, 'My faith does affect my decision process.' It explains me. No apology for that."

The candidates' comments got us thinking about how much or little the American public wants to hear about religion from their elected officials. Conventional wisdom says that most voters want a person of faith in the White House but are simultaneously wary of religion encroaching upon affairs of state.

Is that conventional wisdom right? Let's Parse the Polls!

First of all, it's important to set the backdrop on which the debate over how much religion we want in our public policy takes place. According to exit polling in 2004 and 2005, roughly nine in ten voters say they have a religious beleif system of some sort ("Protestant/other Christian" is by far the largest group), while 85 percent said they went to church at least a few times a year.

Looking at those numbers it's clear that the vast majority of Americans not only see themselves as religious but also seek out the communal setting of a church, synagogue, mosque, etc. at least a few times a year.

But, when it comes to whether religion should play a larger role in public life, people are far more divided.

In a January 2007 survey, Gallup asked people whether they would like to see "organized religion have more influence in this nation, less influence, or keep its influence as it is now." Twenty seven percent said they would like to see religion play a larger role, 32 percent said they'd prefer a smaller role and 39 percent said they would like to keep the status quo.

Those numbers are remarkably consistent with an April 2005 Washington Post/ABC News poll. In that survey, 27 percent said they preferred religion have "greater" influence in public life, 35 percent said "less" while 36 percent chose "the same."

Compare those numbers to a Gallup poll conducted in January 2001 -- at the start of the Bush Administration. In that poll 22 percent said they wanted less religion in the public sphere. In 2007, 32 percent said the same thing, a jump of ten percent in six years. Some have speculated that President Bush's willingness to talk publicly about his faith -- combined with his growing disapproval ratings -- may be responsible for the rise in the percentage of people who are put off by politics influenced by religion.

A May 2004 CBS News poll asked what worried people more: "Public officials who don't pay enough attention to religion and religious leaders or public officials who are too close to religion and religious leaders?"

Overalll 35 percent said they worried more about politicians not paying enough attention to religion, while 51 percent said they fretted about politicians paying too much attention. Isolate Republicans, however, and the numbers were nearly reversed with 53 percent saying politicians don't pay enough attention and 30 percent choosing the "too close" option. Compare that with just 25 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of Independents who wanted public officials to pay more attention to religion and religious leaders. The partisan gap is obvious.

While the American public is closely divided over the role religion should play in public life, there is a less of a chasm when it comes to several religion-related policy fights like prayer in school or displaying the Ten Commandments on government property.

An August 2005 Gallup poll showed 76 percent of the sample favored a constitutional amendment to allow voluntary prayer in schools, while just 23 percent opposed it. In that same survey 60 percent said that religion had "too little of a presence" in public schools while 27 percent said the amount of religion in schools was about right and 11 percent said it was too much.

The American public also tends to favor the display of the Ten Commandments on government property with 75 percent of a CNN/USA Today/Gallup sample in June 2005 saying the Supreme Court should allow that sort of display and just 23 percent saying it should not.

What to make of this raft of numbers? That we are a country divided -- sometimes even within ourselves -- when it comes to the proper role of religion in public life. On the one hand most Americans see themselves as a religious people; on the other, they remain generally wary about religion seeping into politics.

Because no obvious consensus exists, it's likely that the politicians running for president in 2008 will seek to find a balance between making clear to voters that they believe in a higher power while also making clear they won't be taking their marching orders from the church they attend.

It's a complicated position but reflects the divided mind most Americans have when it comes to religion's role in everday life.

The Fix owes a big debt of gratitude to The Washington Post polling team of Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta. As they so often do, the two provided essential help in making sense of all these numbers.

Labels: Americans, faith, Gallup, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, politics, religion, separation of church and state, Ten Commandments, voters

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Monday, May 07, 2007

Guess What Troubles Young People The Most?

By Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune
Last update: May 06, 2007 – 8:27 PM

What issue most concerns young people today? A new survey from hip, racially diverse California -- home to 1 in 8 of the nation's youth -- provides a startling answer.

What does this generation of baggy pants-wearers and body piercers view as "the most pressing issue facing your generation in the world today"? Racism, environmental problems, the war in Iraq?

An answer closer to home tops the list: family breakdown. Pundits may find it fashionable to sneer at Ozzie and Harriet, but kids are longing for a harmonious home with mom and dad at the dinner table. Almost 90 percent of survey respondents expect to get married or enter into a life partnership and have children themselves.

The survey, titled "California Dreamers," assessed the hopes and fears of young people ages 16-22. Three-fifths of respondents were minorities, and half were immigrants or children of immigrants.

The survey was commissioned by New America Media, an association of over 700 ethnic media organizations.

"California Dreamers" revealed another surprise. Almost three-quarters of the young people questioned said that religion and spirituality are important to them. In this respect, California's new generation differs substantially from their parents. "Previous polls rank California as having the highest percentage of 'agnostic' adults in the United States," according to the report.

"California Dreamers" summarizes its findings this way: "The poll reveals a deep yearning among 16- to 22-year-olds for traditional structures - marriage, parenthood [and] religion."

Do Minnesota's young people share these yearnings? Absolutely, says the Rev. Efrem Smith of the Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multiethnic congregation in north Minneapolis. Smith has spent his life working with youth, and speaks nationally on the subject.

"This generation is deeply marred by family breakdown," he told me. Many young people are victims of our society's epidemic of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce, he says. Even children from intact families often feel neglected by busy or preoccupied parents.

"Kids understand that a strong, loving family is the core, the base, of what it takes to develop a moral compass, a sense of purpose, an identity," says Smith, even if many self-absorbed older folks have forgotten this inconvenient truth.

Smith's own parents never missed his football games or school talent shows, he says. So he first experienced young people's anger over family breakdown as a varsity basketball coach at Minneapolis' Roosevelt and Patrick Henry high schools, where a substantial number of kids are in poverty.

Smith sees a connection between kids' anxiety over abandonment and neglect, and their spiritual hunger. As a longtime youth worker, he says, he's convinced that "this void, this hole from having no moral compass or guidance at home, can only be filled spiritually."

Kids' interest in religion may seem surprising, given the debased popular culture they inhabit, and the fact that religious expression is frowned on in the public square. "But they're so hungry for love, for a sense of purpose, that they are very open to filling the void spiritually," says Smith.

"I've never seen a young person sold down the road to atheism," he adds. "That comes later in life."

"If you believe that you are beloved of God," Smith says, "that you are made in his image, it doesn't matter if you have two parents or one parent, or if you're being raised by your grandmother or by foster parents. You believe you're on Earth for a purpose, and you can make it."

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, Think Again, which can be found at www.startribune.com/thinkagain

Labels: family, Katherine Kerston, marriage, New America Media, parenthood, religion, spirituality, youth

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Thursday, May 03, 2007

Religion gets an 'A' at U.S. colleges

Nearly half of the freshmen said they were seeking opportunities to grow spiritually, according to the survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Compared with 10 or 15 years ago, "There is a greater interest in religion on campus, both intellectually and spiritually," said Charles Cohen, a professor of history and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who for a number of years ran an interdisciplinary major in religious studies. The program was created seven years ago and has 70 to 75 majors each year.

University officials explained the surge of interest in religion as partly a result of the rise of the religious right in politics, which they said has made questions of faith more talked about generally. In addition, they said, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by Islamic zealots underscored for many the influence of religion on world affairs.

And an influx of evangelical students at secular universities, along with an increasing number of international students, has meant that students arrive with a broader array of religious experiences.

At Berkeley, a vast number of undergraduates are Asian-American, with many coming from observant Christian homes, said the Reverend Randy Bare, the Presbyterian campus pastor.

There are 50 to 60 Christian groups on campus, and student attendance at Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches near campus has picked up significantly, he said. On many other campuses, though, the renewed interest in faith and spirituality has not necessarily translated into increased attendance at religious services.

The Reverend Lloyd Steffen, the chaplain at Lehigh University, is among those who think the war in Iraq has contributed to the interest in religion among students. "I suspect a lot of that has to do with uncertainty over the war," Steffen said. "My theory is that the baby boomers decided they weren't going to impose their religious life on their children the way their parents imposed it on them," Steffen continued. "The idea was to let them come to it themselves.

Increased participation in community service may also reflect spiritual yearning of students.

"We don't use that kind of spiritual language anymore," said Rebecca Chopp, the Colgate president. "But if you look at the students, they do."

Some sociologists who study religion are skeptical that students' attitudes have changed significantly, citing a lack of data to compare current students with those of previous generations. But even some of those concerned about the data say something has shifted.

"All I hear from everybody is yes, there is growing interest in religion and spirituality and an openness on college campuses," said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at Notre Dame. "Everybody who is talking about it says something seems to be going on."

David Burhans, who retired after 33 years as chaplain at the University of Richmond, said many students "are really exploring, they are really interested in trying things out, in attending one another's services."

Lesleigh Cushing, an assistant professor of religion and Jewish studies at Colgate, said: "I can fill basically any class on the Bible. I wasn't expecting that."

When Benjamin Wright, chairman of the department of religion studies at Lehigh, arrived 17 years ago, two students chose to major in religion. This year there are 18 religion majors and there were 30 two and three years ago.

Presbyterian ministries at Berkeley and Wisconsin have built dormitories to offer spiritual services to students and encourage discussion among different faiths. The seven-story building on the Wisconsin campus, which will house 280 students, is to open in August.

The number of student religious organizations at Colgate has grown to 11 from 5 in recent years. The university's Catholic, Protestant and Jewish chaplains oversee an array of programs and events. Many involve providing food to students, a phenomenon that the university chaplain, Mark Shiner, jokingly calls "gastro-evangelism."

Among the new clubs is one established last year to encourage students to hold wide-ranging dialogues about spirituality and faith. Meeting over lunch on Thursdays, the students talk about what happens after life or the nature of Catholic spirituality.

Gabe Conant, a junior, said he wanted to contemplate personal questions about his own faith. He described them this way: "What are these things I was raised in and do I want to keep them?"

Labels: Christian, college, Higher Education Research Institute, Iraq, politics, religion, spirituality, UCLA

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Children Benefit From Religious Parents

May 2, 2007

Children raised by religious parents have better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than children in non-religious families, U.S. researchers have discovered.

But as LiveScience reported, these benefits did not show up when religious parents argued frequently over their faith in front of their children.

The study was carried out by John Bartkowski, a sociologist at Mississippi State University, based on a survey of the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 children, most of whom were in Grade 1.

Bartkowski and his colleagues compared how the respondents rated the children’s behaviour patterns with how frequently their parents said they attended worship services, talked about religion with their child and argued about religion in the home.

One reason that a religious home environment can be good for children, Bartkowski told LiveScience, is because religious organizations tend to regard parenting with sacred meaning and significance.

University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox, though not involved in the study, agreed, claiming that for most religious parents, "getting their kids into heaven is more important than getting their kids into Harvard."

On the other hand, said Bartkowski, "Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family."

The study did not compare the degree of impact of different religions and denominations on children.

The study will be published in the academic journal Social Science Research.

Labels: children, conflict, faith, John Bartkowski, parents, religion

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Ijaw women want peace in N-Delta

NATIONAL

By Tunde Awe
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Worried with the spate of negative reports emanating from the Niger-Delta areas in recent times, a group of mothers from the Ijaw tribe, “Ijaw Mothers Initiative” has resolved that it is time to step in and restore sanity, security of lives and properties in the region.

This position was made at a press conference last week in Lagos, where the group stated that the issues of oil pollution, deprivation, poverty, kidnapping and hostage takings among others have dominated the scene of activities in the Niger-Delta region, and as a result, the Ijaw Mothers Initiative is in a further attempt and a complimentary effort to other interventionists and organisations to bring a lasting solution to the crisis in the region, has vowed to travel through the nooks and crannies of the Niger-Delta creeks to interact and listen to the Ijaw youths whose voices echo pain.

The interaction will afford the women the opportunity to offer counsel to the youths while delivering the message of a need for the development of the region.

The leader of the group, Mrs. Beatrice Agama said that “as mothers, we gave birth to the youths and we believe that they will listen to us, it is our desire to reach out to our children (the militants) in their hideouts.

...peace is very vital for real development to be attained in any society.

The Ijaw Mothers Initiative vehemently condemned the prevailing situation where some individuals/groups ride on the back of Niger-Delta emancipation to seek personal financial benefits at the expense of peace and the collective wellbeing of the people in the area.

The group believes that there is time for everything, time to bring to the fore our grievances of deprivation, underdevelopment and marginalisation and appeals to the Niger-Delta youths to embrace peace as the time to give peace a chance is now.

Labels: Ijaw, Lagos, Niger-Delta, peace, Tunde Awe, youth

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Hispanics Leaving Imprint On Religion In Dallas, Across U.S.

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, April 26, 2007
By JEFFREY WEISS and DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

A major study released Wednesday offers a close look at how Hispanics are changing the way religion is practiced in the United States – and how American culture is affecting the faith of Hispanics.

There may be no city in the country where Hispanic influence is felt greater than in Dallas. Among the American cities with the 10 largest Hispanic populations, Dallas is second only to New York in its percentage of Hispanic immigrants, according to census figures.

Since most Hispanics are Catholic, the local diocese may be the most transformed. The Dallas Diocese has swelled from about 200,000 in 1990 to about a million members today. And most of the newcomers are Hispanic.

But Catholic leaders are hardly the only religious officials concerned with Hispanics. About 20 percent of Hispanics nationwide are Protestant, according to the survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. And 18 percent of American Hispanics have changed their religion – mostly from Catholicism.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the two largest state Baptist groups, each have significant Hispanic outreach programs. And myriad nondenominational Hispanic churches can be found in storefronts and larger sanctuaries.

The Hispanic population of this country grew by 28 percent from 2000 to 2005. So sheer numbers mean that American church leaders want to integrate the newcomers into existing traditions. But the Pew survey identifies some ways that Hispanics do not fold smoothly into the non-Hispanic religious culture.

Many Hispanics bring a different approach to religion than can be found in many Anglo or black American churches, the survey indicated. They generally are more religious than non-Hispanics, are rooted in a more mystical, experience-driven understanding of their faith, and have powerful links to the language and customs of their homelands.

Hispanic identity is more tied up in community than the Anglo tradition that emphasizes the individual, said Mr. Reyes, president of Buckner Children and Family Services. An American church that wants to reach out to Hispanics must provide some link to that community identity, he said.

The Pew study, based on bilingual interviews of about 4,000 Hispanics nationwide, identified some broad differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanics:

• Denominations – About 68 percent of Hispanic adults identify themselves as Catholic, compared with 22 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 4 percent of non-Hispanic blacks.

• How they experience their faith – About 29 percent of Hispanics who attend worship services say they speak in tongues – a hallmark of Pentecostal or charismatic worship – compared with only 11 percent of non-Hispanics. About 45 percent of Hispanic Catholics say they have seen or received divine healing, compared with 21 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics.

• Where they choose to worship – About 66 percent of Hispanics who attend church say their church has a Spanish-speaking priest or pastor, a Spanish-language service, and a predominantly Hispanic congregation. Even for Hispanics who are third-generation or higher, about 42 percent report attending a church with all three characteristics.

That preference for Spanish language and culture fits the experience of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The convention counts more than 1,200 Hispanic churches as members. Just over half are Spanish-only and most of the rest are bilingual, with only a tiny fraction offering English-only services, said Rolando Rodriguez, the convention's director of Hispanic ministries.

The depth of the Mexican immigrant influence on Dallas religion can be seen and heard in the festivities around the Dec. 12 feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The night before, Ross Avenue frequently fills with Mexican immigrants who begin the pilgrimage carrying the Guadalupe banner to the Dallas shrine, much as they sojourn to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe on a hill named Tepeyac in Mexico City.

According to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared repeatedly to a Mexican Indian named Juan Diego in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill. Processions and other celebrations celebrating the tradition are annual affairs in Mexico – and now in Dallas.

Elizabeth Villafranca is a Guadalupe parishioner whose favorite piece of jewelry is a gold necklace with the Virgin of Guadalupe's image. Her preference for a Spanish language-friendly church matches the Pew survey results.

A visiting priest from Morelia, a central Mexican town, told her last year, "Siento que es un sucursal de Mexico," ("I feel like this is a branch of Mexico.")

The cultural connection is particularly important to Ms. Villafranca as she raises her 7-year-old daughter Natalie, a singer in the cathedral choir, she said.

"Every generation born in the United States starts to lose some tradition, but for our family it is important that she always have that connection to the roots," Ms. Villafranca said.

That search for connection can also be found in non-Catholic Hispanic churches.

When Vincent Gonzales, a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, started his North Dallas Family Church, he made bilingual services his specialty.

He uses a PowerPoint presentation when reciting the Scriptures, preaching a bit in English with Spanish translations on the big screen, then preaching in Spanish while flashing the English translation. Songs of praise such as "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" carry an echoing line of "Sí, Cristo, me ama."

"The older Hispanics still prefer Spanish, but their children speak English and sometimes only English," the pastor said. "We have to speak to two worlds. We have to minister to two cultures."

Labels: Americans, Baptist, bilingual, Catholic, community, Dallas, Dianne Solis, Guadalupe, Hispanics, Jeffrey Weiss, Pentecostal, Pew survey, religion

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Most Physicians Will Agree: Religion Does A Body Good

By Melissa Stee
Religion News Service Posted: 4/27/07

CHICAGO (RNS)—Most physicians say religion and spirituality have a significant impact on health, according to a new study, while just 6 percent of doctors believe religion or spirituality changed "hard" medical outcomes.

The survey, part of a University of Chicago study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed more than half (54 percent) of doctors said "God or another supernatural being" can intervene in a patient’s health.

The questionnaire asked medical professionals to estimate how often their patients mention religion and spirituality issues, how much those factors influence health and how that influence is manifested.

"Consensus seems to begin and end with the idea that many, if not most, patients draw on prayer and other religious resources to navigate and overcome the spiritual challenges that arise in their experiences with illness," Farr Curlin, John Lantos, Marshall Chin and Sarah Sellergren wrote in the Archives.

Compared to those with low religiosity, physicians with high religiosity are substantially more likely to report that patients often mention religion and spirituality issues, 36 percent to 11 percent, the study showed.

According to Curlin, that response shows that "with respect to what physicians bring to the data, that has as much influence on their interpretation as the data itself."

Most respondents, however, interpreted those factors positively rather than negatively.

"Although the great majority, 85 percent, believe that the influence of religion and spirituality is generally positive, few, 6 percent, believe that religion and spirituality often changes hard medical outcomes," Curlin and colleagues wrote in the Archives.

The results showed that three out of four physicians believe religion and spirituality help patients cope, and the same number credit those factors for giving patients a positive state of mind.

Of the 2,000 physicians who received the survey, 1,144 responded. The overall study has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Labels: God, health, Melissa Stee, physicians, religion, spirituality

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Spirituality ‘Hot Topic’ On Campus

Monday, April 30, 2007
Amanda Wilcosky / Staff Writer / aw283105@ohiou.edu

Spirituality on campus might be overlooked at times, but in a recent Campus Crusade for Christ survey of nearly 2,000 Ohio University students, 75 percent said they believed there is an intelligent designer behind the universe.

The survey was conducted during the Veritas Forum, which occurred April 10 to April 12. The purpose of the survey was to stir up interest and to give students a voice on spiritual topics, said Brian McCollister, OU director of Campus Crusade and Athletes in Action.

Based on the outcome of the survey, spirituality seems to be an important part of college students’ lives, whether they are finding faith, losing faith or are still searching.

A question leads to Christ

For some students, the transition into college provides an opportunity for spiritual growth, which is true for OU senior Ryan Neises, a sports management major. He said his exploration of faith began his sophomore year when someone in his fraternity asked him one of life’s most difficult questions: What happens to us after death?

Considering his inquiry, Neises said he looked to the Bible and eventually became interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. He joined the Greek Life Bible study, a Campus Crusade program that he said furthered his spiritual identity.

"When I first joined Bible study, it was exploring my faith," Neises said. "Since I’ve come to faith, it allows me to supplement it and help me grow."

Now a leader of the group — held every Tuesday at 9 p.m. — Neises urges other Greek students to explore their faiths in an open environment. He said that finding faith has truly influenced his life, changing his previous discontent to constant hope and joy.

"Since I’ve been more spiritual, I’ve had more of an impact on people because it has allowed me to be more of an open person," he said.

Growing apart from faith

Anna Simis, a sophomore theater performance major, has had a much different experience with religion. Instead of gaining spirituality during college, her faith has dwindled. Born and raised Catholic, Simis said she stopped going to church because she began to disagree with several of the church’s doctrines.

The daughter of divorced parents and niece of a gay aunt and gay uncle, Simis said she is unable to negotiate being part of a religion that condemns homosexuality and disallows divorcees from receiving Holy Communion. Simis said she began struggling with her faith in high school and that college has helped to lessen her guilt.

"College reaffirmed my beliefs and gave me the sense that I didn’t have to feel bad about questioning my faith," she said.

While still searching, Simis said that she believes in "a higher sense of purpose" and the good that can come out of religion. She added that she has found other things in life, such as community service, that can be "more rewarding than sitting in mass for an hour."

Science above spirituality

Sophomore Kristin Stover, who has never gone to church and has had no experience with religion, represents the 25 percent of students that expressed disbelief in or uncertainty of intelligent design. A biological science major, she said she was raised in a family that valued scientific pursuits.

"I grew up questioning everything," Stover said. "I think science is about disproving things, but you can’t disprove religion — that’s the line where it gets kind of fuzzy."

When she was younger, Stover said she felt pressured by friends to become religious, a feeling that continued into her freshman year of college. She said she now feels content with where she is in life and finds it comforting that there are others at OU who share her outlook.

Despite not being religious, Stover said she does not consider herself an Atheist because she has not been fully exposed to any faith. Instead of relying on religion, being close with family and friends helps her to find meaning in life.

"The sense of community that people get from church is still there," she said. "It’s all about connecting to people."

Labels: Amanda Wilcosky, Campus Crusade for Christ, community, faith, intelligent design, Jesus, spirituality

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Generation Tolerant

A cellphone poll of California youth shows remarkably liberal attitudes toward race but conservative beliefs on family values.

April 30, 2007

FOR CALIFORNIA'S teenagers and young adults, the answer to Rodney King's question is a definite yes: We can all get along. Race and ethnicity, according to a new survey of Californians ages 16 to 22, are far less significant to this generation than to any in the past.

The survey, sponsored by New America Media, found dramatically liberal attitudes when it comes to the issue of getting along. Two-thirds say they have dated someone of another ethnicity, and a whopping 87% say they would marry or have a life partner of a different race.

Not only are young people encouragingly unconcerned about the skin color or nationality of others, they don't think of themselves much that way, either. When asked the most significant aspects of their identity, they chose music and fashion. Their tribes? Punk-rock skaters, hip-hop activists, salseros.

In terms of what young people consider most important about themselves, race and ethnicity didn't even come in second — that slot went to religion.

Most young adult Californians have many friends outside their own race, the survey found. For Asians and Anglos, the majority of their friends are of different races, while Latinos and blacks said that about 40% of their friends come from different groups.

And as for illegal immigration, basically the kids don't see what the fuss is all about — 82% say illegal immigrants should be given a chance to earn citizenship.

But if you think that California is producing a generation of young liberals, think again. The young people in the survey swing to the right when it comes to family values and religion.

Their No. 1 concern is the breakdown of the family. Second is violence in their neighborhoods.

A majority say they are religious and spiritual. They plan to go to college, have jobs, marry, buy homes, raise kids.

This may seem like a return to the California of the 1950s, but it might be more of a reaction to the perceived sins of their elders. After all, California has one of the highest divorce rates in the United States, is home to more gangs than any other state and purportedly has the highest number of agnostics (although, to be fair, atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rates).

The survey thus suggests that California's youth are sharp critics of their parents, rejecting a culture they perceive as sanctioning loose marital bonds and religious indifference. The state's young adults may just be perfectly out of sync with their parents — sometimes more tolerant and other times more traditional. Which suggests the deepest California tradition of all: time-honored youthful rebellion, rejecting, as every generation does, the ethos of the generation before.

Labels: California, family, immigrants, New America Media, race, religion, spirituality, values, youth

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