TruthBook Religious News Blog

Six (Medical) Reasons to Be Thankful

When you thank your friends and family this holiday season, the reasons to do so may extend beyond good manners. Study after study has shown that social connections - through family, friends, or even with companion animals - seem to pay off in terms of good health, longevity and even prolonged survival among patients with very serious diseases. Some evidence linking good health with strong ties to family and friends includes:

1. The immune system's natural killer cell activity is negatively affected by three "distress indicators" - one of which is lack of social support.
2. One study of 75 medical students found that those who were lonely had more sluggish natural killer cells than students who weren't.
3. Research has shown that people who have companion animals have less illness than people who do not. Companion animals’ owners also recover from serious illness faster.
4. Susceptibility to heart attacks appears to correlate with how often people use the words "I," "me," and "mine" in casual speech.
5. And believe it or not, studies show that people who get out and spend more time with others during cold and flu season actually get fewer episodes of colds or flu than those who choose to be alone.
6. Being grateful for what you have has been associated with physical and emotional health.

Labels: Dr Andrew Weil, family, friends, gratitude, health, longevity

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Children are born believers in God, academic claims

Children are "born believers" in God and do not simply acquire religious beliefs through indoctrination, according to an academic.

By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent

24 Nov 2008

Children are born believers in God

Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose.

He says that young children have faith even when they have not been taught about it by family or at school, and argues that even those raised alone on a desert island would come to believe in God.

"The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children's minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"If we threw a handful on an island and they raised themselves I think they would believe in God."

In a lecture to be given at the University of Cambridge's Faraday Institute on Tuesday, Dr Barrett will cite psychological experiments carried out on children that he says show they instinctively believe that almost everything has been designed with a specific purpose.

In one study, six and seven-year-olds who were asked why the first bird existed replied "to make nice music" and "because it makes the world look nice".

Dr Barrett said there is evidence that even by the age of four, children understand that although some objects are made by humans, the natural world is different.

He added that this means children are more likely to believe in creationism rather than evolution, despite what they may be told by parents or teachers.

Dr Barrett claimed anthropologists have found that in some cultures children believe in God even when religious teachings are withheld from them.

"Children's normally and naturally developing minds make them prone to believe in divine creation and intelligent design. In contrast, evolution is unnatural for human minds; relatively difficult to believe."

Labels: anthropology, belief, children, Dr Justin Barrett, faith, God, Martin Beckford

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Clergy invited to participate in unprecedented survey

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, November 24, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] All ordained women in the Episcopal Church -- and 1,500 male clergy -- are beginning to receive invitations to participate in what is one of the comprehensive studies of female clergy by any denomination in recent years.

Every ordained woman -- deacon, priest, and bishop -- will be asked about her aspirations, needs, and experience of how ministry is lived out through her life. The Called to Serve survey is unprecedented in the Episcopal Church for its attempt to obtain responses from those in both paid and unpaid ministry, those actively engaged in ministry, those who are taking time out, and who are retired. It also seeks the input of young new clergy, second-career clergy, those ministering in two-career families, and those ministering as single parents or caregivers.

Inclusion of both women and active and retired men is meant to give comparative data on careers, and men's needs for family leave as well as retirement. It is also meant to help the church understand the way the call to ministry is being lived out in 2008.

The survey is "the first to include and hear the voices of those in non-institutional and non-traditional ministries" in the same survey as those serving in traditional ministries, according to the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, one of two research consultants working on the project.

Nesbitt said her conversations with research colleagues show that the scope of the Called to Serve project is also unprecedented among denominations.

Researchers want to learn about how ordained women and men have ministered in the past, what they think their ministry might be like in the future, and what constraints on their choices they experience, he said.

The survey will consist of a combination of check-the-appropriate-box questions and questions for which people can write fuller answers. The two types of questions are meant to give a more complete picture of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, Price said.

There also will be opportunities to volunteer for a confidential research interview.

Coming as it will during Advent, Price said he hopes clergy will consider the survey as a chance to reflect on their vocation, and take the opportunity to share part of that reflection with those who will be influencing ministry policies and ordination preparation in the church. The study is expected to help the church analyze, improve and sustain ordained ministry as a vocation.

Called to Serve is the third survey of Episcopal Church employees that has been conducted during the 2007-2009 triennium. An earlier survey considered lay employee demographics, the exercise of authority in the employment setting, and compensation and benefits. The second survey studied the way the church provides health care coverage to its employees and the feasibility of changing current structures.

A letter was recently sent to the Episcopal Church's 4,026 ordained women and 1,500 ordained men. The letter says participants will soon receive an email with a link to the online version of the survey. Participants can request a paper copy of the questionnaire. All responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Women clergy who do not receive the letter by December 1 or the e-mail invitation by December 8 should request a link or paper copy by contacting CalledToServe@cpg.org or calling Andrea Van Zile at the Church Pension Group (800-223-6602 x9474). If people think the Church Pension Group may not have their correct mailing or email address, they can also contact customer service at 800-223-6602 to update that information.

Labels: Called to Serve, clergy, Mary Frances Schjonberg, ministry, vocation, women

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People Said to Believe in Aliens and Ghosts More Than God

By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director
24 November 2008

More people believe in aliens and ghosts than in God, a new survey finds, according to a British newspaper.

The survey, however, was done by a marketing firm in conjunction with the release of an X-Files DVD, and details of how the poll was conducted were not reported in the Daily Mail. Survey questions, depending on how they are written, can greatly skew results, along with how subjects are sampled.

That said, the poll of 3,000 people found that 58 percent believe in the supernatural, including paranormal encounters, while 54 percent believe God exists. Women were more likely than men to believe in the supernatural and were also more likely to visit a medium.

A survey of U.S. college students done in 2006 found 23 percent of freshmen had a general belief in paranormal concepts — from astrology to communicating with the dead. Interestingly, the number jumped to 31 percent among seniors and 34 percent among graduate students.

Researchers who have compared various human belief systems say our tendency to believe is deeply rooted.

Religion and belief in the paranormal are not linked as one might imagine. A handful of surveys show just the opposite, in fact.

Labels: aliens, belief, ghosts, God, paranormal, Robert Roy Britt

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Religious unity: The Charter for Compassion

Friday, November 21st, 2008
by Juliana Rincón Parra

This is a Video post. Please click on "external link" at the botom of the piece for the complete article, along with the videos. Well worth it...

As children we may all have heard the Golden Rule expressed in many different ways, but the basic idea is: Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is Karen Armstrong's TED wish, to create The Charter for Compassion, a platform in which the different Abrahamic faiths could focus on what was common to all, the moral backbone of all their faiths towards a greater unity and better communication among people of different faiths.

As children we may all have heard the Golden Rule expressed in many different ways, but the basic idea is: Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is Karen Armstrong's TED wish, to create a platform in which the different Abrahamic faiths could focus on what was common to all, the moral backbone of all their faiths towards a greater unity and better communication among people of different faiths. The Charter of Compassion is requesting stories of unity and compassion to be uploaded on their site, written or in video form, and that together, people may write this Charter of Compassion a document where this new image will be established, signed by sages and religious leaders. Different sections of the charter are opened on different dates, so feel free to stop by the site and write your perspective on the issue.

Karen Armstrong is a British born former Catholic nun who has written many books on Muslim faith and has taught in the Leo Baeck rabbinic college: this inter-faith knowledge led her on the path towards bringing this project into fruition. Her acceptance speech video is on YouTube, and in it she speaks about this desire of hers to work for the unity of the different faiths, to make religion work towards universal harmony:

The Charter for Compassion's YouTube channel already has some inspirational videos by people in Pakistan. Samia Shoaib shares her own personal compassion story of how we are all interconnected and what happens to our neighbor or someone down the street does concern us:

Arshad Mahmood also speaks from his Muslim faith, in how people should concern themselves about the fate of others, and how discrimination against those of a different faith should not take place:

The Charter for Compassion has opened the call for submissions where people can also tell their stories of compassion and change the image of religion as a harborer of intolerance, showing the world that compassion is and will be the cornerstone of religion, and the way towards change. You can participate by offering information in different languages so the message can get to more people, and by making a video with a story where compassion is featured, or writing your opinion or perspective on the Charter itself.

Labels: Charter for Compassion, Golden Rule, Juliana Rincón Parra, Karen Armstrong, video

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Organised religion is rapidly losing out to ‘spirituality’

Editorial by Terry Sanderson

...a survey of 6,853 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 found that they preferred being “spiritual” to being religious. A third of the sample said they didn’t trust organised religion.

The survey was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute and released last week. The first question was, “What does it mean to be spiritual?” There were nine choices, running from “believing in God” to “being true to one’s inner self.” They also could say that there is no spiritual dimension, and there was an “I don’t know” option. 93% of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life.

But before the “faith leaders” start jumping for joy, we have to look more closely at what these youngsters men by “spiritual”. “Spending time in nature” topped the list of responses. “Listening to or playing music” was No. 2, and “helping other people or the community” was third. “Attending religious services” came ninth.

The churches are helpless in the face of this trend, which is mirrored throughout the Western world. Young people hate the authoritarian, unjust and bigoted way in which they see organised religion behaving. Some of them who were questioned further by the pollsters said they didn’t like the sexism and homophobia and the attendant cruelty. They didn’t like the way that religions all claimed superiority over other world views.

It’s a trend we should welcome and encourage. Eventually it will rob the arrogant “faith leaders” of their power to create conflict. Young people are showing that it is time for a change. And they don’t see that change coming from the churches or the mosques. They have started on a new journey, and although it will lead many of them to other forms of superstition and irrationality, many others will conclude that they don’t need any of the supports of unreason and will end up perfectly contented atheists with an attendant “spirituality” that most of us would simply define as common sense and human compassion.

Labels: Authoritarian, change, organized religion, Search Institute, spirituality, Terry Sanderson

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Obama taps into our yearning for meaning, spirituality

BY DESIREE COOPER
• FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
• November 19, 2008

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States was a defeat for the Christian right, but that doesn't mean that faith didn't play a major role in Obama's resounding victory. While the Republican Party ran under the mantra of "God and country," Obama tapped into something possibly even bigger -- God and spirit.
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A survey out this month revealed that 52% of Americans age 12 to 25 say that they don't trust organized religion, but that they are increasingly spiritual. According to the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, young people are turning away from their churches, mosques and temples and finding God in nature, music, friends and community service.

A 2008 University of California Los Angeles study showed that 62% of college students see themselves as spiritual and believe attaining inner peace is an essential life goal. In that study, spirituality was defined as caring about the condition of others and of the world.

It's easy to see how Obama's rhetoric would appeal to them, and to the countless adults who consider themselves nonreligious, but spiritual. His language of hope resonated with the spiritual teachings of love over fear. For the spiritual-minded, community organizing is not something to ridicule, but to emulate. I can't tell you how many e-mails and bumper stickers I see bearing the Gandhi quote: "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Change -- now there's a holy idea.
Deep connections

Opponents pegged Obama's optimism as naive. But his political rhetoric dovetailed with a pervasive spirituality that teaches that words and thoughts do shape reality. Want to know the secret? Thinking can indeed make it so.

Obama's exhortation for Americans to transcend difference was also in synch with a spiritual world view. When the Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007, he, too, urged America to govern "from the perspective of the oneness of humanity, and from a profound understanding of the deeply interconnected nature of today's world."

Even Obama's slogan, "Yes we can," could have been out of the mouths of the best-selling spiritual writers of our time, from Wayne Dyer to Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle.

On the day after the election, Marianne Williamson, author of "Healing the Soul of America," e-mailed a mass message. In it, she observed that "the Obama phenomenon did not come out of nowhere. It emerged as much from our story as from his -- as much from our yearning for meaning as from his ambition to be President."

For those of us who have learned to expect a miracle, we got it in our new president. But the real miracle has been our own spiritual awakening that made his election possible.

Whether President-elect Obama knows it or not, he is backed by an army of believers -- people who understand that the promised change is not just his responsibility, but the responsibility of each of us.

Labels: Barack Obama, change, Desiree Cooper, faith, hope, spirituality

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Book shows Latter-day Saints have an image problem

November 19th, 2008
By Carole Mikita

A new book shows Mormons have a problem: an image problem. Dr. Gary Lawrence -- who is a Latter-day Saint, a political pollster and market researcher based in California -- says recent news events are not the problem. Rather, it's the way Latter-day Saints talk about their faith.

Mitt Romney's run for the Presidency, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints case in Texas, the protest after California's Proposition 8 vote: All of these news stories put Latter-day Saints and their church in the national spotlight.

But Lawrence says those stories are not the problem when it comes to the faith's image. He conducted a national survey that's the basis for a new book he is now promoting.

"The No. 1 thing that came out, of course, is that our image is upside down. Thirty-seven percent have a favorable impression of us and 49 percent have an unfavorable impression, and those are lousy scores," Lawrence said.

It's even worse when compared with how Americans view other religions. The ratio for people who view those of the Jewish faith in a positive light is nearly 3.5-to-1; the same for Baptists. Catholics' enjoy a positive ratio of nearly 2-to-1; Mormons, less than 1-to-1.

Lawrence says his findings point to a fear factor in most Americans about Latter-day Saints and what are perceived as weird beliefs and secretiveness.

One of the biggest gaps he found in his poll: 84 percent said they have seen Church ads, talked with missionaries or received literature; but only 14 percent know what Mormons believe.

Labels: Carole Mikita, Church of Latter Day Saints, religion

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Survey warns of 'faith bullying'

Almost a quarter of young people have been bullied because of their religion, a charity report says.

Beatbullying said it had encountered a disturbing level of religious segregation and intolerance among the children it had studied.

Chief executive Emma-Jane Cross said that schools were cultivating "at best a lack of understanding and at worst a lack of tolerance of other faiths".

The survey was based on 800 under-18s who visited the charity's website.

It was published to mark the start of Anti-Bullying Week.

Some 23% said they been bullied because of their faith, while 9% said they had been singled out for wearing religious symbols.

Lack of assistance

The charity - which runs government-funded bullying-prevention programmes in schools - claimed that many children subjected to faith bullying resorted to self-harm and drug abuse.

This bullying took the form of racial abuse and physical attacks, as well as being spat at, mugged, and even stabbed.

The findings from our survey clearly indicate the lack of support and direction our young people have to openly discuss and understand faith-based issues with their peers

About one-fifth (19%) of those who participated in the study said they chose to mix largely with friends of the same religion.

A small minority - 6% - said their families did not approve of their having friends from other religions.

Beatbullying criticised what it claimed was a lack of assistance for those suffering faith bullying.

"The findings from our survey clearly indicate the lack of support and direction our young people have to openly discuss and understand faith-based issues with their peers," Ms Cross said.

Labels: Beatbullying, bullying, children, Emma-Jane Cross, religious intolerance, schools

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Survey: Most Youth Worldwide Spiritual, Say Religion is Good

By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, Nov. 17 2008

Page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external link" at the bottom to access entire article

The majority of youths in the world say they are spiritual and think religion and spirituality are both positive, according to an extensive, first-of-its-kind survey.

Fifty-seven percent of young people (ages 12-25) see themselves as being spiritual, reported the survey by Search Institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence that was sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

The research surveyed more than 7,000 young people from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds, spanning 17 countries and six continents. It took two years to complete the study that offers one of the first snapshots of spiritual development across multiple countries and traditions.

“We have spent two years listening to youth ages 12 to 25 from many countries and traditions talk about spiritual development and its role in their lives,” reflected Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, co-director of the Center for Spiritual Development, in a statement. “Many young people are keenly interested in these issues, but relatively few have opportunities to talk with others about the things that really matter to them.”

The survey found that about one in three youths consider themselves “very” or “pretty” spiritual, but this varied vastly across countries. The high was in the United States where 52 percent of the youth self-described themselves as “very” or “pretty” spiritual, and in Thailand where 50 percent gave this same response.

In contrast, Australia had the low of 23 percent youth who said they were highly spiritual. Almost half of the youth surveyed in Australia (47 percent) indicated that they are not spiritual, compared to only 12 percent in Thailand and about 20 percent in Canada, India, Ukraine, and the United States.

Religion and being spiritual are related but different, according to the world’s youth. Respondents are still most likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (34 percent). Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say they are spiritual, but not religious.

One in five of the youths indicated they don’t know.

American youths’ response was slightly different. They were more likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (43 percent) than the world’s youth in general (34 percent). A comparable number to international youths said they are just spiritual (27 percent).

Being spiritual, for this young generation, most often is associated with believing in God (36 percent), followed by believing there is a purpose to life (32 percent), and then being true to one’s inner self (26 percent).

But the most popular definition for being spiritual differed across countries and culture.

Indian youths were more likely to say being true to one’s inner self (38 percent) is being spiritual more so than believing in God (33 percent).

Whereas in Canada, the youths said being spiritual is believing in God (52 percent) and then believing there is a purpose to life (48 percent). Also, more than a quarter of the participants from Canada (28 percent) said spirituality involves having a deep sense of inner peace or happiness, which was unique to Canadian youths.

Meanwhile young people in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States all defined spirituality first and foremost as believing there is a purpose to life. Believing in God was ranked second at 33 percent for youths in the United States.

Labels: Michelle A. Vu, religion, spirituality, youth

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Trying to measure faith, health link

Some scientific studies show religion and spirituality offers benefits

By JANUARY W. PAYNE
THE WASHINGTON POST

Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008

An integral part of many people's lives, religion defines patterns of worship and socialization, but its impact, if any, on health is unclear. Some studies show a benefit to religious practice, while others -- including much of the research into prayer -- fail to prove its health value.

The question of the role something as unquantifiable as religious belief might play in health troubles some scientists in an age when mainstream medicine is turning ever more toward epidemiological science to define research protocols and to determine the validity of treatments.

That said, it's not hard to understand why being religious might be good for the body, experts say. Religious people often attend regular services; this puts them in a socially supportive environment, which has widely acknowledged health advantages. And some religions promote healthful diets and discourage unhealthy behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking

Among that research is some evidence that religion and spirituality offer health benefits and even longer life spans. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ...found that people who did not attend religious services were 1.87 times more likely to have died during an eight-year period than those who attended services more than weekly.

The life expectancy for infrequent attendees was age 75, and it was 83 for those who attended frequently.

A 1996 study looked at the association of Jewish religious observance with mortality by comparing secular and religious kibbutzim in Israel. Belonging to a religious group appeared to prolong life, and the lower mortality rates seen in the religious group were consistent for all causes of death, the authors wrote. And a 2003 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine found that meditation might alter brain and immune function in positive ways, an effect similarly seen in research involving Buddhist monks.

It's hard to show conclusively whether or how a belief system affects one's health; other life experiences might provide benefits to health so similar to religion and spirituality that it's hard to differentiate.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, some common religious practices are widely thought to enhance health.

Power of prayer

It's not unusual for people to pray for their own health and for that of others. In a 2004 survey of more than 31,000 people, 45 percent said they'd prayed for health reasons, 43 percent prayed for their own health, and 25 percent reported that others had prayed for them. About 10 percent said they'd participated in a prayer group for their health, according to the results, released by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

But science says that prayer might not help a person who is ill. A 2003 update to an earlier systemic review of clinical trials on distant healing found that intercessory prayer, which involves someone praying for the healing of a person located elsewhere, with or without that person's knowledge, probably doesn't offer specific therapeutic healing effects.

Any benefit seen from prayer might come from the fact that "knowing that your friends and family are praying for you is part of social support, ... and (that is) probably really helpful to people, independent of if there is a higher being that answers those prayers," said David Schlundt, an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, who has researched the connection between faith and health.

Although religion might provide social support, purpose, a belief system, a moral code -- and even happiness -- these benefits can also come from other sources, notes a 2007 study by Eckersley published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Future examination of the health benefits of religion and spirituality should be done in a broader context, he said, especially with regard to how cultural influences affect faith and health.

Cultural context

That cultural context could be key to understanding how people's beliefs factor into their health outcomes, experts note, because religion and spirituality don't seem to produce a uniform effect on everyone. Differences are apparent between groups of varying socioeconomic and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

A dangerous aspect of the purported faith-health connection is fatalism, the belief that health is predetermined and is not within a person's control. Research shows that people who hold such beliefs are less likely than others to participate in health promotion programs and to seek health care.

Research shows that African Americans are more likely to endorse fatalism than whites. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Health Behavior reported that such beliefs could be a reaction to chronic illness or poor health rather than something that inhibits beneficial health behavior from the outset.

FAITH HEALING

Research suggests that religion offers health benefits, including longer life spans. Is that because of the healing benefits of prayer or because people of faith enjoy supportive, healthful lifestyles? Some statistics:

83: The life expectancy of people who frequently attended religious services; for infrequent attendees, the estimate was 75.

70 percent: The percentage of churches that provide health-care services to their communities, according to a survey of 6,000 congregations.

40 to 60 percent: The percentage of hospital patients who want their doctors to pray with them. But fewer than 5 percent of doctors say they do so.

2,500: Number of Maryland kindergartners exempted from vaccine mandates on religious grounds, up from 1,300 in 2004.

Labels: belief, Buddhists, culture, faith healing, health, January W. Payne, Jewish, prayer, religion, spirituality

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Election results pointing to new religious coalition

Poll: Social concerns go deeper than abortion

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

The election of Barack Obama as president is a signal that the religious right is on the way out, according to several experts reviewing a newly released poll on the religious vote.

But don't look for its successor to be the religious left.

The data indicate Mr. Obama's victory was aided by the emergence of a new and diverse religious coalition that views fighting poverty, protecting the environment, and promoting world peace to be critical issues - not just abortion rights and same-sex marriage upon which the religious right has focused.

The poll, conducted by Washington-based Public Religion Research, examined the reasons given by people of faith for voting for either Democrat Mr. Obama or Republican candidate John McCain.

Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research, said one of the key findings was that a majority of both evan-gelical Christians (55 percent) and Catholics (51 percent) said agendas best reflecting their values include the issues of poverty, the environment, war and peace, abortion rights, and same-sex marriage. In contrast, only 21 percent of evangelicals and 13 percent of Catholics said a narrower agenda focused on abortion rights and same-sex marriage best reflected their values.

The new coalition includes black and Latino voters, younger white Christians, new evangelical pastors and students, progressive Catholics, and Protestants...

The poll reported that while only 21 percent of white evangelicals voted for Mr. Obama, of those who did, 39 percent considered him to be friendly to their religion and 39 percent felt he shares their values.

Among Catholics, 54 percent voted for Mr. Obama while 64 percent said the Democratic candidate shares their values.

Among all religious groups, 58 percent considered Mr. McCain friendly to religion and 54 percent said Mr. Obama was friendly to religion. Mr. Obama's numbers in that category are 16 points higher than his party's; only 38 percent of voters said the Democratic Party was friendly to religion.

The survey also reported Mr. McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate proved to be a net loss for the party. The Alaska governor increased support among 30 percent of evangelicals, but decreased support among every other religious group and among political independents, according to poll data.

The most important issue by far among religious voters was the same as that of the general public: the economy. Seventy percent of all religious groups cited the economy as the most important issue, followed by the Iraq war (35 percent), health care (31 percent), terrorism (19 percent), abortion rights (14 percent), and same-sex marriage (6 percent).

The Public Religion Research survey polled 1,277 voters between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. It was sponsored by Faith in Public Life, Sojourners, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

Labels: abortion, Barack Obama, David Yonke, Iraq, John McCain, Public Religion Research, the economy

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Muslim scholars hail interfaith harmony

By Taleb Bin Mahfooz

JEDDAH – The speech of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, at the UN interfaith conference in New York on Wednesday has underlined the importance of promoting dialogue, understanding and tolerance among human beings, as well as respect for all their diverse religions, cultures and beliefs gaining the appreciation of Muslim scholars. The speech further advances the true cause of Islam to promote dialogue, rejecting the use of religion to justify acts of terrorism, the killing of innocent civilians, violence and coercion, they agreed.

At uncertain times of war and political conflicts wrapping the world, the King has managed to disseminate the culture of dialogue across the globe through the UN based on common values among religions and cultures.

In his speech, King Abdullah showed the world the pure and true image of Islam that calls for peace, tolerance, human rights, and justice, said Saleh Al-Bugami, general secretary of Islamic Society of Jurisprudence and member of the Shoura Council. By “bringing adherents of different sects and religions together,” the King has taken a giant stride to place the issue on the international front at such a difficult time in human history, he added. The dialogue initiative is clearly a message of peace based on common human values without any compromises on the basics of creeds.

Labels: creeds, faith, interfaith, Islam, King Abdullah, Taleb Bin Mahfooz, United Nations

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Survey: Americans Believe Religious Values Are 'Under Attack'

Los Angeles, CA, November 14, 2008 …

A majority of the American people believes that religious values are "under attack," and that the people who run the television networks and major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans, according to a survey from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued today.

American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood, a national poll of 1,000 American adults conducted in October 2008 by The Marttila Communications Group, found that 61% of the American people continue to believe that religious values in this country are "under attack." The poll also found that 59% of Americans agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans."

The poll was released during the League's 2008 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

"These findings point to the challenges that we face in dealing with issues of religion in society," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The belief that religion is under attack underlies the drive to incorporate more religion into American public life. Disturbingly, 43% of Americans believe there is an organized campaign by Hollywood and the national media to weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

Among the main findings of the ADL survey, American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood:

• 61% of Americans say they believe that "Religious values are under attack in this country," while 36% disagree with that statement (graph). 59% agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans." And 43% hold the view that Hollywood and the national media are waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country." (graph)

• Significantly fewer Americans believe today that Jews control the TV and film industries. The survey showed that 63% disagree with the notion that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," while only 22% agree. When ADL conducted its first survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in 1964, nearly half of all Americans believed that the television and film industries were run by Jews. (graph)

• There is surprising support for censorship. Nearly 40% of the American people support the notion that "dangerous ideas should be banned from public school libraries," and nearly the same number of Americans disagree with the statement that "censoring books is an old-fashioned idea." (graph)

• Nearly half of those surveyed – 49 percent – believe that the United States is becoming "too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles;" 47 percent disagreed with that statement. (graph)

"It is troubling that so many Americans feel as if the output of Hollywood is part of an organized campaign to undermine religious values in this country and believe that censorship is acceptable," said Mr. Foxman. "It shows that in this age of pervasive media and the widening availability of the Internet, many Americans still maintain a very parochial view toward the information age, and even believe in censorship to 'protect morality.' If anything, it points to the need for a greater awareness of the fundamental role that the First Amendment has played in helping religious freedom in America to be sustained, and indeed, to flourish."

The survey was conducted by the Marttila Communications Group, a Boston-based public opinion research firm that has conducted numerous national surveys for ADL measuring American attitudes on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues. The survey has a margin of error of +/-3.09 percent. For many questions, the survey used the technique of split sampling," a process in which the 1,000 sample was split into two demographically representative national samples of 500 respondents each. The margin of error for questions answered by 500 respondents is +/- 4.38 percent.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Labels: American Attitudes on Religion, Americans, Anti-Defamation League, censorship, Marttila Communications Group, Moral Values and Hollywood, religion, religious values, TV

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Exit poll: Tennessee still buckle of Bible Belt

2 of 3 white voters identify themselves as evangelical Christians

Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press
Thursday, November 13, 2008

Their presidential candidate lost and their influence in national politics may be waning, but white evangelical Christians clearly dominated the 2008 election in Tennessee.

Even for a Bible Belt state that is headquarters to the Southern Baptist Convention, their majority was surprising — two of every three white voters in Tennessee identified themselves as evangelical Christians in exit polls.

This in a state where 84 percent of the voters were white, according to surveys of 1,520 randomly selected voters by Edison Media Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

McCain carried Tennessee convincingly, and the white evangelical turnout likely contributed to Republicans taking control of both chambers of the Tennessee Legislature for the first time in 140 years.

Out of the 40 states where exit polls asked voters if they are born-again Christians, only Arkansas had more white evangelicals than Tennessee. Arkansas had 55 percent. Tennessee and Oklahoma each had 52 percent. For Tennessee, that was virtually unchanged since 2004.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, meaning white evangelicals actually could make up anywhere from 48 percent to 56 percent of Tennessee’s voters.

Arkansas is home to Mike Huckabee, the former governor and ordained Baptist minister who beat McCain in the Republican presidential primary in Tennessee in February.

White evangelicals made up 26 percent of voters nationwide in this election.

They voted 3-1 for McCain across the country and in Tennessee. But for the first time in several election cycles, white conservative Christians weren’t a factor in the national contest. Obama won easily — 53 percent to 45 percent — without them.

Tennessee exit polls showed that a presidential candidate’s values were most important to about a third of voters overall, but to an even greater number — 41 percent — of white evangelicals.

More than half of white, evangelical Christians in Tennessee said the economy was the No. 1 issue, slightly fewer than all voters statewide, followed by terrorism, slightly more than voters across the state.

Tennessee white evangelicals were far more likely to be Republican and live in East Tennessee.

White, evangelical Christians were 44 percent Republican, 37 percent Independent and 19 percent Democrat, compared with Tennesseans overall, who are 32 percent Republican, 37 percent Independent and 30 percent Democrat, according to the poll.

They represented two of every three voters in East Tennessee and slightly more than half the voters in the rural counties of Middle and West Tennessee. They were just less than half the voters in metropolitan Nashville and about two of every five voters in greater Memphis.

Labels: Barack Obama, Duncan Mansfield, election, evangelicals, John McCain, Tennessee, voters

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Poll: Economy not getting faithful down

Published: Nov. 11, 2008

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A survey shows religious Americans are less worried about the economy than they are about a "spiritual recession."

The Faithbook on Facebook poll released Tuesday found nearly 72 percent of respondents said such a spiritual recession was more of a concern to them than a downturn in the spiritual arena.

In a similar vein, more than 80 percent see the developing tough times as an opportunity to revitalize the nation's level of spirituality, Faithbook said in a written statement.

"The Faithbook poll seems to confirm that the economic downturn has reached the heart of religious life," said Simon Cohen, managing director of Global Tolerance, which runs Faithbook. "It is heartening that for many people, as long as our basic human needs are met, they see the financial watershed as pregnant with hope and opportunity."

The online survey of 150 respondents also found that more than 27 percent of them said they had actually been praying more ever since the economy went south.

Labels: Americans, economics, Faithbook, religion, spiritual recession, spirituality

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Obama backed by all religions, Pew says

Nov. 10, 2008
By Sommer Ingram
Staff Writer

Along with becoming the nation's first African-American president-elect, Barack Obama gained more support in this election from nearly every religious group than Democratic nominee John Kerry did four years ago.

According to the Pew Forum, Obama won 26 percent of the white evangelical vote compared, to the 21 percent that voted for Kerry in 2004.

Although his gains were minimal, Obama seems to have made the religion element work for him in a way other Democrats historically haven't.

Though polls show white Roman Catholics and Protestants backing Republican candidate John McCain, Obama won nearly all of the black and Hispanic Protestant votes. Catholics supported him over McCain 54 percent to 45 percent. He also improved the minority evangelical vote significantly.

These groups have wider and more diverse views than are traditionally publicized."

The traditional concerns of the evangelical world, primarily abortion and gay rights, are not seen as prevalently among younger evangelicals.

Economical issues proved to overshadow the traditional cultural concerns for both parties, which could have also have contributed to his success among the religious electorate. More than six in 10 cited the economy as the nation's top concern.

Despite the fact that white evangelicals between the ages 30 and 64 remained a center pillar in the Republican support base, Obama's concentrated outreach to the religious community resulted in modest gains on Kerry's percentages in Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.

The Democratic candidate's campaign may signal the beginning of reversing the prevailing stereotype that casts Democrats as worldly and anti-religious.

"I believe we will continue to see various strategies with religious voters," Allman said. "I think we'll have to go through a couple more election cycles to see whether there will be a more varied voting pattern. It's a little early to tell, but however small these movements we saw, they were all in the direction of the Democrats."

Labels: Barack Obama, election, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religious community, Sommer Ingram, voters

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Here's the steeple; open the door, and where are the young people?

A survey finds that many youths draw a line between being spiritual and participating in an organized religion.

By JEFF STRICKLER, Star Tribune

November 9, 2008

The full survey is available at www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org. Highlights include:

• 35 percent said they never talk to their parents about religious faith, and 42 percent do so only infrequently.

• 75 percent said there is a correlation between a person's spiritual beliefs and a person's behavior.

• 82 percent believe that there is a God or other higher power, 8 percent said there is no God and 10 percent said they don't know.

• 41 percent believe that there is a purpose to life.
More from Faith + Values

A new benchmark survey finds that 55 percent of young people ages 12 to 25 say they are more spiritual now than two years ago. But nearly one-third of the young people said they don't trust organized religion.

The survey, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute and released here last week at the four-day Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Conference. Peter Benson and Gene Roehlkepartain, co-directors of the institute's Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, said that it will take several months, if not years, of serious number-crunching to figure out all of the study's implications.

The survey included 6,853 subjects. The first question was, "What does it mean to be spiritual?" There were nine choices, running from "believing in God" to "being true to one's inner self." They also could say that there is no spiritual dimension, and there was an "I don't know" option.

The good news for faith communities is that 93 percent of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life.

Labels: Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Conference, Jeff Strickler, organized religion, Search Institute, spirituality, youth

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Poll finds support among teachers for creationism

Nearly one-third (29 per cent) of teachers in the UK believe creationism and intelligent design should be taught in science lessons, a new survey has found.

Teachers TV surveyed 10,600 education professions and received 1,210 responses, reports The Guardian.

According to the poll, almost 50 per cent of respondents think that excluding alternatives to evolution would be counter-productive.

Andrew Bethell, Chief Executive of Teachers TV, said: 'This poll data confirms that the debate on whether there is a place for the teaching of creationism in the classroom is still fierce.'

The issue is already a hot topic in parts of the US where religious faith plays a greater role in peoples' everyday lives.

Labels: creationism, intelligent design, public school, science, United Kingdom

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Religious voters helped Obama to victory

His focused effort to target a group that had heavily favored Republicans paid off, an exit poll shows.

By Cathleen Decker
November 9, 2008

As he vaulted into national acclaim with his 2004 Democratic convention speech, Barack Obama directly took on the assumption that his party should cede religious voters to the Republicans.

Exit polls showed the dramatic effect: Obama won 43% of voters who said they attend church weekly, eight percentage points higher than 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry. Among occasional worshipers, Obama won 57%, 11 percentage points higher than Kerry, according to the National Election Pool exit survey.

When looking at how members of different faiths voted, the movement among Catholics is striking. They sided 52% to 47% with President Bush in 2004. But this year, they went 54% to 45% for Obama. That means Obama had more support among Catholics than did Kerry, himself a Catholic, by seven percentage points.

"Obama did better than Kerry among pretty much every religious group," said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life who analyzed the poll results.

Even among voters who describe themselves as born-again Christians or evangelicals, a group that tends to vote Republican, Obama improved on Kerry's standing -- although he came in a distant second to GOP nominee John McCain. Kerry had won 21% of evangelical voters; Obama won 26%.

Nearly two years ago, when voters knew little about him, the Illinois senator stood alongside nationally known author and Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest for a televised AIDS conference. Earlier, Obama had asked Warren to review a chapter of his book "The Audacity of Hope."

Obama again gained the attention of Christian voters in July when he pledged to expand a controversial White House program to give federal grants to churches and small community groups. The proposal, which would build on efforts by the Bush administration to direct government money to church groups, was announced in Zanesville, Ohio, a hotly contested state that Obama won on election day.

And at the Democratic National Convention in August, which held its first-ever interfaith prayer gathering, the party platform endorsed by Obama -- while not backing away from its support for abortion rights -- emphatically reached out to women with children who rely on programs meant to ease their struggle.

Obama's ease in talking about his religion also helped him win over religious voters. During a presidential forum held in August at Saddleback Church, where he and McCain were interviewed separately by church leader Warren, Obama spoke about "walking humbly with our God" and quoted from the Gospel of Matthew. His acceptance speech Tuesday night echoed in parts the church-inspired speeches of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Religion, for a time, became a thorn for Obama during the presidential race. He was harshly criticized for his association with the now-retired Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose incendiary sermons about white America caused an uproar and led Obama to part ways with his longtime pastor, and endured a viral e-mail campaign falsely asserting that he is Muslim.

The election results returned Catholics to their historical Democratic moorings, which many had fled for the GOP during the Reagan years.

Labels: Barack Obama, Cathleen Decker, faith, religion, voters

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Friday, November 07, 2008

The (step by step) path to worship

Classes, support groups educate, guide new believers

Friday, November 7, 2008
By Meredith Heagney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Inside a meeting room at the mosque, the converts stood shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, right hands folded over left.

Now bend at the waist, the instructor told them. Make your back as flat as you can. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad's back was so flat when he prayed that you could steady a glass of water on it.

Newly converted Muslim Vanessa Cross followed along, paying close attention. A few minutes before, she had listened to a lesson in how to perform the nine steps of wudu, the ritualistic washing Muslims complete before prayer.

Cross, 31, of the Northeast Side, attends the New Muslim Support Group at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Dublin.

It is one of many classes where new believers are welcomed and instructed on their religion.

Such classes, offered in many faiths, explain basic beliefs, scripture and worship practices while giving new believers a chance to connect. Instructors give tours of the building and pass out educational literature.

Conversion isn't a unique experience among the American faithful. Twenty-eight percent of Americans have left the faith of their childhood for another religion, or for no religion at all, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In some faiths, the classes are mandatory for new members.

Religious leaders want to help new people feel comfortable and committed as they navigate a new faith, which can be daunting. Some people are coming back to religion after a bad experience in another faith or denomination.

Cross told a group of women that she needed help putting on her hijab, the headscarf many Muslim women wear. When she would bend to pray, it would start falling off, she said.

New Christians get lots of help, too.

Evangelical megachurches such as Grove City Church of the Nazarene and Vineyard Church of Columbus offer seminars that teach about Jesus, reading the Bible and communicating with God.

After deciding to accept Jesus Christ as their savior, people often don't know what to do next, said the Rev. Brady Wisehart, an associate pastor at Grove City Church of the Nazarene.

In the Roman Catholic Church, those wishing to convert undergo the nine-month Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

It's a time for people to decide whether Catholicism is right for them. That's why the program takes several months and provides a thorough study, said Deacon Tom Berg Jr., vice chancellor of the Columbus Diocese.

A class gathered at St. Brigid of Kildare Catholic Church in Dublin recently to get a tour of the church from Monsignor Joseph Hendricks, the pastor.

During the tour, Hendricks explained the significance of the cross and the baptismal font, and gleefully pointed out the fact that from his vantage point at the pulpit, he can see people come late and leave early.

He cleared up misconceptions. Some Protestants think Catholics worship Mary, but they don't, he explained. They simply pray to her for intercession and honor her as the mother of Christ.

For Dan VandenBosch, every bit of information is helpful. The 29-year-old plans to convert to Catholicism from the Christian Reformed Church.

His wife of 10 months, Shannon, 29, is Catholic and will serve as his sponsor. Their first child is due in January.

"This is answering a lot of questions," Mr. VandenBosch said.

Labels: Americans, conversion, faith, Meredith Heagney, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion

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Catholics, Muslims Affirm Shared Mission

Say Religion a Source of Harmony, Not Conflict

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Catholics and Muslims agree that youth must be formed in their own religious traditions and correctly educated about other religions, to give witness to transcendent values in a secular society.
The recently established Catholic-Muslim Forum affirmed this in a joint declaration released today, the result of their first seminar, which began Tuesday. The forum is comprised of 29 members of each religion and was formed by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and representatives of the 138 Muslim leaders who sent an open letter to Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders in October 2007.

The theme of the three-day seminar was "Love of God, Love of Neighbor," with a specific focus on two areas: "Theological and Spiritual Foundations" and "Human Dignity and Mutual Respect."

The final statement of the forum reflected many points of similarity between the two creeds as well as resolutions for positive action to build solidarity and peace between the two.

Foundation of love

The forum recognized the specific focus of Christian love: "The source and example of love of God and neighbor is the love of Christ for his Father, for humanity and for each person. God is Love and God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God's love is placed in the human heart through the Holy Spirit. It is God who first loves us thereby enabling us to love him in return."

They continued with a summary of how love for one's neighbor in word and deed follows necessarily from the Christian's love for God. This love imitates Christ's sacrificial love, and includes every human person, even enemies.

Turning to the Muslim perspective on love, the declaration affirmed: "Love is a timeless transcendent power which guides and transforms human mutual regard. This love, as indicated by the holy and beloved Prophet Muhammad, is prior to the human love for the one true God. […] God's loving compassion for humanity is even greater than that of a mother for her child; it therefore exists before and independently of the human response to the One who is 'The Loving,'"

In regard to love of neighbor, the statement added some Muslim beliefs similar to those of Christians: "Those that believe, and do good works, the Merciful shall engender love among them. […] Not one of you has faith until he loves for his neighbor what he loves for himself."

Given these common foundations of love for God and neighbor, participants in the seminar recognized the gift of human life and the need to protect it. They asserted the belief that human dignity is based on each person's creation "by a loving God out of love." Thus every person deserves recognition of "his or her identity and freedom by individuals, communities and governments, supported by civil legislation that assures equal rights and full citizenship."

The declaration acknowledged God's creation of human personas as male and female, and noted the commitment of the forum to ensure "that human dignity and respect are extended on an equal basis to both men and women."

Religious differences

Members of the forum wrote that love of neighbor includes respect for each person's choices regarding religion. They affirmed that religious minorities are to be respected and that sacred figures, symbols and places should not be ridiculed.

They acknowledged: "As Catholic and Muslim believers, we are aware of the summons and imperative to bear witness to the transcendent dimension of life, through a spirituality nourished by prayer, in a world which is becoming more and more secularized and materialistic. […]

"We are convinced that Catholics and Muslims have the duty to provide a sound education in human, civic, religious and moral values for their respective members and to promote accurate information about each other's religions."

A source of peace

Seminar participants recognized that plurality in God's creation is a richness and should not be a source of conflict. They professed the belief that "Catholics and Muslims are called to be instruments of love and harmony among believers, and for humanity as a whole, renouncing any oppression, aggressive violence and terrorism, especially that committed in the name of religion, and upholding the principle of justice for all."

They challenged individuals from any religion to come together to help the needy, and to work toward upstanding financial systems that will consider the needs of the poor and relieve individual or national suffering.

Forward looking

The joint declaration recorded the conviction that young people are the future of the religious communities as well as societies. It asserted the necessity of forming youth, in their own religions as well as in the understanding of other cultures and religions.

The statement closed with a plan to hold a second seminar in two years, in a Muslim-majority country. Benedict XVI received the members of the forum in an audience, and participants ended the seminar by expressing gratitude to God for the fruitful dialogue among them.

Labels: Catholic, Catholic-Muslim Forum, Christianity, Jesus, love, Muslims, peace, Vatican

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Obama made inroads with religious vote

The Democrat prevailed with Roman Catholic and Jewish voters. He even picked up support among Evangelicals.
By Alexandra Marks
New York

This year it appears the Democrats got religion, at least in terms of the vote.

In becoming the president-elect, Barack Obama made gains among religious voters of almost every type compared with recent Democratic presidential candidates. He handily won the Catholic and Jewish votes, and even picked up support among Protestants and some Evangelicals, long a pillar of Republican ballot-box strength.

Some theologians suggest that the religious shift signals the emergence of a faith-based coalition that will counterbalance or, perhaps, replace the religious right. It’s made up of mainline religious progressives, black and Hispanic Evangelicals, and a growing number of younger, white Evangelicals and Catholics.

During the campaign, both presidential camps made a point of reaching out to the opponent’s core religious constituencies. Obama’s campaign spearheaded a grass-roots drive to bring in young Evangelicals and Catholics. The McCain campaign relied more on surrogates like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I) of Connecticut to try to bring Jewish voters into the GOP.

Their success varied. The McCain campaign had hoped to exploit Jewish voters’ initial unease with Obama, raising questions about the depth of his support for Israel and his willingness to negotiate with its enemies, such as Iran. It ran television ads in Florida and other places with large Jewish populations that quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Ahmadinejad says Israel won’t survive…. Obama says he would meet with him personally.”

Senator Lieberman, a leading political Jewish voice and a former Democratic vice presidential nominee, was frequently with Senator McCain on the stump. When he wasn’t, he was often in Florida working on behalf of his GOP Senate colleague.

Some Republicans also sought to exploit fears that Obama was secretly a Muslim or had close associations with anti-Semitic black leaders such as Louis Farrakhan.

That did not sit well with some Jews, who organized rabbis and others to counter such attacks on Obama.

Then there was Sarah Silverman to contend with. The young Jewish comedienne became the spokeswoman for the so-called Great Schlep. It signed up more than 25,000 young Jewish voters and urged them to go to Florida to get their grandparents to support Obama.

Obama managed to solidify Jewish support: 78 percent supported him over McCain, according to an analysis of election polls by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In 2004, 74 percent of Jewish voters backed Democrat John Kerry for president.

The Obama campaign was more successful in making inroads with some of the GOP’s core constituencies. It reached out to Catholic voters who attend mass regularly – a group that went for Mr. Bush by 12 percentage points in 2004. This year, Obama and McCain split that vote. Among Catholics who attend mass less often, Obama won overwhelmingly.

“In 2004, Bush split with Kerry those Catholics who attended less often, but Obama won that group by 18 percentage points. That is a very significant shift,” says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “Part of the explanation is the significant shift to Obama among Hispanic Catholics.”

Obama also worked to reach out to the Republicans’ white evangelical base, but he had less success there. He did win more support among them than Senator Kerry did in 2004, but only by a few percentage points.

“When we’re looking at white Evangelicals, we’re looking at one of the strongest Republican constituencies in the country – a group that would be very hard to move into the Democratic column under any circumstances,” says John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum. “From that perspective…, one could argue that this may be some evidence of success.”

Other analysts say Obama did make inroads with younger white evangelicals in key states like Colorado and Indiana, where he boosted his support among Evangelicals by 14 percentage points and 8 percentage points, respectively, over Kerry’s 2004 levels.

Labels: Alexandra Marks, Barack Obama, Catholic, evangelicals, voters

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4 mood boosters for good health

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

It's no secret that a positive outlook supports good health. But how do we foster good mental and spiritual attitudes that will, hopefully, carry over into our physical bodies? Here are some suggestions, based on universal spiritual principles that can be used by anyone, whether or not they are religious.

----- Develop a passion ----

We all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and not everyone is lucky enough to have a job they feel passionately about. So why not develop a passion for nature, for example, that will get you off the couch and out walking every day? Others find passion in art and never miss an opportunity to check out the latest exhibition.

The particular passion is unimportant; just so you have something that sets your heart racing. My father, for example, has a passion for collecting vintage fishing lures that takes him to antique stores and flea markets far and wide. He is at his happiest when he is consumed by his passion.

--- Focus on others ----

We all have problems and many of them don't have an immediate solution. Instead of focusing obsessively on my problems, I find it a relief to think about others. Suddenly my headaches and upset stomach disappear when I am working as a volunteer or just simply helping out a friend. Anything that gets my mind off the ""me, me, me"" track can only improve my outlook on life.

---- Have faith -----

Faith is a difficult concept for many people, especially those who do not participate in organized religions. I am not a religious person but I find faith in many ways. I live in California and am surrounded by natural beauty that gives me faith that the world is generally a good place. I think sometimes about family members and loved ones who have passed on, knowing that they would want me to have a happy, healthy life. Those thoughts give me faith.

--- Take a break from the news ----

I try every year to spend a week where I do not read, watch, or listen to the news. This is not about sticking my head in the sand. Rather, I find that I develop information overload after a while and become cynical. Taking a break from being constantly informed helps me refresh my mind and develop some hope in what seems like a very dark time in world history.

All of us deal with the stress of life in different ways - some become workaholics, others curl up into depression. The only sure thing is that we need to take care of whole beings - mind, body, and soul - if we are to have the fullest lives possible.

(Source: health.yahoo.com)

Labels: faith, health, passion, service, spirituality, stress

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Global survey: youths see spiritual dimension to life

In the most ambitious such review to date, young people in 17 countries most often defined spirituality as belief that life has a purpose, belief in God, and being true to one's inner self.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 6, 2008 edition

Around the globe, the vast majority of young people share a conviction that life has a spiritual dimension. Seventy-five percent in a recent survey believe in God or a higher power. And while some can't easily define spirituality, the majority say they have had a transcendent experience, believe in life after death, and think it's "probably true" that all living things are connected.

For two years, a project involving some 7,000 youths ages 12 to 25 in 17 countries has explored spiritual beliefs and experiences – and found youths eager to discuss them. It's the most ambitious such project to date.

The initial findings were released Wednesday by the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based independent research group. The group intends to plumb the results further and carry out additional research in countries around the world.

"I was surprised by the similarities we found across different cultures, even though they may have different languages and worldviews," says Eugene Roehlkepartain, the Search Institute's vice president. The institute hopes to encourage a broader look at the impact of spiritual development on other aspects of life.

Along with partner organizations, the institute conducted surveys in eight countries, focus groups in 13 nations, and in-depth interviews with young people whom others consider to be "spiritual exemplars." The youths represented more than a dozen faiths as well as nonbelievers.

The results of the report – "With Their Own Voices: A Global Exploration of How Today's Young People Think About and Experience Spiritual Development" – can't be considered representative of the countries or traditions, Mr. Roehlkepartain cautions.

Religion has trumped spirituality as a topic of study in the past, says Roehlkepartain. A study released last spring by the German research firm Berthlesmann Stiftung found that 85 percent of young people in 21 nations called themselves religious, and 44 percent said they were deeply religious.

In the US, a UCLA study of undergraduates from 2003 to 2007 broke some ground on spirituality. It found that while attendance at religious services decreased dramatically for most, their overall level of spirituality – defined as seeking meaning in life and developing values and self-understanding – increased.

When asked what it means to be spiritual, young people in the Search survey most commonly responded: believing there is a purpose to life, believing in God, or being true to one's inner self. In Thailand and Cameroon, "being a moral person" made the top three. "Having a deep sense of inner peace and happiness" was highly valued in Canada and the US.

Young people see spiritual development as both "part of who you are" and an intentional choice, the study shows. As a young man from South Africa puts it, "The more spiritual you are, the more you understand. It's like sport, everyone can do sport, but the more you do it, the better you get at it."

Some 55 percent felt their spirituality had increased over the past two or three years. Emma, a young Christian in the United Kingdom, said that "the ideal spiritual person is somebody who spends as much time as possible with God," which she does through daily prayer, devotional reading, and social activism.

Young people say they engage in a range of activities and practices to nurture spiritual growth. The most common include reading books, praying or meditating alone, and helping others.

On several scales measuring spiritual concerns, Australia, the UK, and Ukraine showed much lower values than other countries. For instance, while only 7 percent of youths overall did not see a spiritual dimension to life, among young Australians, that figure was 28 percent.

More than three-quarters of those surveyed said their spiritual development was enhanced by time in nature, from music, and from helping other people in their community. The project revealed that "serving people out of your spiritual conviction" holds young people together and can bridge differences," says Roehlkepartain.

While the youths see a difference between religion and spirituality, the great majority said they view both as "usually good." An Australian teen explains the difference this way: "Religion is kind of knowing the things in your head, but 'spiritual' is knowing them in your heart."

When asked which people, groups, or institutions were most helpful in their spiritual life, 44 percent named family. Between one-third and one-half, however, had not engaged in spiritual or religious activities with parents in the past year. Just 14 percent mentioned their religious institution as helpful, and close to 20 percent said "no one."

The institute wants to encourage parents, friends, and others to fill this vacuum. "Young people expressed to us some hunger to talk about spiritual development," Roehlkepartain says, "and we want people to say, 'If that's what kids in the survey think, what about the kids I know?'

Labels: A Global Exploration of How Today's Young People Think About and Experience Spiritual Development, God, Jane Lampman, religion, Search Institute, spirituality, youth

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Report: religion becoming more diverse in America

Katie Martinez
Issue date: 11/5/08

Growing up in a two-faith household, Margaret Foland, whose mother is a devout Catholic and father is a Southern Baptist, said the only fights she remembers growing up were over religion.

The junior theatre major was raised in the Catholic Church, a faith she embraces to this day, with the exception of one little bump in the road.

"My faith wavered and when I got into high school," she said. "So I have come full circle from doubting my own faith to defending it wholeheartedly."

Foland's experience is an example of the changing landscape of religion in America, which a Pew Research Institute Survey says is becoming increasingly more fluid and diverse.

The report, released earlier this year, included 35,000 respondents nationwide and found the current American religious marketplace to be characterized by constant movement with every major religious group simultaneously gaining and losing large numbers of adherents.

The survey showed that 37 percent of married Americans have a spouse of another faith, and 28 percent of respondents left the religion in which they were raised for another, or none at all. And when considering those who left one form of Protestant-based faith for another, the number of affiliation changes rose to 44 percent.

By the Numbers

4 percent of Americans say they are atheist or agnostic.
10 percent of Americans say they are former Catholics.
25 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 say they are not affiliated with any particular religion.
37 percent of married Americans have a spouse of a different faith.
44 percent of Americans have left the faith in which they were raised for another or none at all.
51 percent of Americans are affiliated with a Protestant-based faith.
Source: The Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life

Labels: America, faith, Katie Martinez, Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life, religion

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Landmark Study on Violent Games 'Strongly' Suggests Reducing Exposure

By Aaron J. Leichman
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Nov. 04 2008

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Researchers behind the first study on the longer-term effects of violent video games on aggression say their findings “strongly” suggest reducing the exposure of youth to the “unnecessary” risk factor.

The results of the study on Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States “confirm earlier experimental and cross-sectional studies that had suggested that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior,” researchers reported in this month’s issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Furthermore, “this violent video game effect on youth generalizes across very different cultures,” they added.

For the study, researchers put together three groups of kids from both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures.

In the United States, 364 children aged 9 to 12 were asked to list their three favorite games and how often they played them. Meanwhile, in the second group of 181 Japanese students aged 12 to 15, the researchers recorded how often the children played five different violent video game genres (fighting action, shooting, adventure, among others). In the third group of 1,050 Japanese students aged 13 to 18, researchers gauged the violence in the kids' favorite game genres and the time they spent playing them each week.

For the Japanese children, each was asked to rate their own behavior in terms of physical aggression, such as hitting, kicking or getting into fights with other kids. In the United States, the children also rated themselves, but the researchers took into account reports from their peers and teachers as well.

What the researchers found was that in every group, children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure. This was true even after the researchers took into account how aggressive the children were at the beginning of the study – a strong predictor of future bad behavior.

The findings are "pretty good evidence" that violent video games do indeed cause aggressive behavior, commented Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, according to CNN.

“These findings also further suggest that common social learning processes underlie media violence effects across cultures, and contradict another popular alternative hypothesis: that only highly aggressive children (either by nature, culture, or other socialization factors) will become more aggressive if repeatedly exposed to violent video games,” the researchers added in their report.

The results are particularly foreboding as children in America today play around three to four times longer than children two decades ago.

While American children played video games around 4 hours per week in the late 1980s, they now average 13 hours overall, with boys averaging 16 to 18 hours per week. Furthermore, 90 percent of American children between the ages of 8 and 16 play video games at home.

“Children's favorite games often are violent,” researchers acknowledged in their report, noting the general public’s definition of "violent media" as typically only those television shows, films, and video games that include graphic images of blood and gore.

Labels: Aaron J. Leichman, aggression, Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression, pediatrics, video games, violence

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Struggles in the world of religion

Posted By Geoffrey P. Johnston

Later this year the United Nations will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But is that milestone worth celebrating when so many people in the world are persecuted because of their religious beliefs?

You can be sure that when the UN General Assembly meets on December 10th, many hollow speeches about human rights will be made by indecisive leaders who are too timid to confront tyranny or halt ethnic cleansing.

In a better world, one in which leaders back up their high-minded talk with action, the community of nations would stage a massive anniversary gala, replete with fireworks, to celebrate the global triumph of human rights over religious intolerance and organized barbarity.

Sadly, having failed to live up to the promise of the Universal Declaration, humanity has not earned such a celebration.

To be sure, Canadians and Americans have reasons to rejoice –we live in the freest societies in the world and enjoy unrivalled religious liberties–but we should temper our celebrations with the knowledge that religious bigotry runs rampant elsewhere.

Indeed, for indigenous Christians and other persecuted religious minorities struggling to survive the harsh reality of today’s Muslim world, there is little reason to celebrate. Nevertheless, there is still hope for the future.

Although the international community is notoriously slow in responding to crimes against humanity, history tells us that widespread human rights abuses can spur advancements in international justice.

When the Second World War ended, for example, and the scope of Nazis Germany’s systematic slaughter of at least six million Jews was revealed, the civilized world recoiled in horror. And the newborn human rights movement cried out, "Never Again!"

The impact of the Holocaust on international law has been profound, according to former Ivy League scholar and current federal Liberal politician Michael Ignatieff. During his tenure at Harvard University, he wrote that the establishment of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 "was in large measure a response to the torment of the Jewish people."

When the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration, it affirmed the inalienable human rights of people around the globe and placed limits on the sovereignty of the nation-state. Unfortunately, that has not stopped certain nations from flouting the international human rights regime.

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Labels: Geoffrey P. Johnston, religious freedom, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Monday, November 03, 2008

America's Trust Fall

Trust is essential to strong relationships and a healthy society, but it has been declining for decades, report Pamela Paxton and Jeremy Adam Smith. How can America learn to trust again?

"Trust no one."

That was the slogan of the TV series The X-Files, which followed two FBI agents in their quest to uncover "the truth" about a government conspiracy. Perhaps the most defining series of the 1990s, The X-Files touched a cultural nerve and captured a mood of growing distrust in America.

In the six years since the series ended, however, our trust in each other has declined even further, despite a brief rebound after September 11. The mood of cynicism and distrust captured by The X-Files in the '90s seems just as relevant today indeed, a new X-Files movie was released this past summer. The decline or absence of trust also figures prominently in more recent hit TV series like Mad Men, Survivor, and The Sopranos.

In fact, "trust no one" has essentially served as Americans' motto over the last two generations. For 40 years the years of Vietnam, Watergate, junk bonds, Monica Lewinsky, Enron, the Catholic Church sex scandals, and the Iraq war our trust in each other has been dropping steadily, while trust in many institutions has been seriously shaken in response to scandals.

This trend is documented in a variety of national surveys. The General Social Survey, a periodic assessment of Americans' moods and values, shows a 10-point decline from 1976 to 2006 in the number of Americans who believe other people can generally be trusted. The General Social Survey also shows declines in trust in our institutions, although these declines are often closely linked to specific events. From the 1970s to today, trust has declined in the press (24 to 11 percent), education (36 to 28 percent), banks (35 percent to 31 percent), corporations (26 to 17 percent), and even organized religion (35 to 25 percent). And Gallup's annual Governance survey shows that trust in the government is even lower today than it was during the Watergate era, when the Nixon administration had been caught engaging in criminal acts. It's no wonder popular culture is so preoccupied with questions of trust.

Some researchers, such as Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam, have argued that this rise of distrust reflects profound generational shifts. Americans born roughly between 1910 and 1940 were a particularly civic and trusting generation, these researchers claim, forged in the crises of the Great Depression and World War II crises that required people to rely on one another and band together. Government dealt with these crises effectively through New Deal programs and military victory over the Axis powers, winning the confidence of its citizens. That generation is now dying out, replaced by younger people who, according to this theory, are progressively less trusting (starting with Baby Boomers, whose slogan allegedly was, "Don't trust anyone over 30"). In fact, a series of focus groups, conducted in 2001 by Harvard University's GoodWork Project, revealed an "overwhelming" distrust of politicians, the political process, and the media among the teenagers they interviewed. This generational decline implies that America's waning trust in others will not easily recover.

But why have succeeding generations become progressively less trusting? There are a number of possible explanations, none of them definitive.

For starters, trust in others depends on how much contact people have with other people-and Americans today are measurably more isolated than previous generations. They have fewer close friends, for example, and are less likely to join voluntary associations such as bird-watching groups and church choirs. This is important, because people who belong to such associations tend to become more trusting as a consequence. Experiments, as well as experience, show that people trust people they know before they trust strangers—and so the more people you know, the more you trust. Researchers Nancy Buchan, Rachel Croson, and Robyn Dawes found that even when they created pseudo-groups by randomly giving study participants instructions on differently colored pieces of paper, the participants trusted members of their color "group" more than the others. The more memberships we have in groups—almost any group—the more trust we have in our lives.

The rise of television and electronic media as a major source of entertainment and news may exacerbate isolation, and thus play a role in the decline of trust. When the GoodWork Project ran another series of focus groups with adults in 2004, researchers "found that individuals typically blame the media for loss of trust."

Again, the effect appears to be generational. "Most of the young people we interviewed have a default stance of distrust towards the media," says Carrie James, research director of GoodWork. According to James, young people simply feel less tied to larger institutions and American culture—they might trust family and close friends, but "they don't have good mental models" of how to trust more distant figures.

Falling and rising

The news is not all bad. Trust in institutions hasn't fallen in a straight line; instead, it rises and falls in response to specific events. Consider how people answered the question about their confidence in religion between 1987 and 2006. In early 1987, 30 percent of the population said they had a "great deal" of confidence in organized religion. In 1987, however, several televangelist scandals erupted, including that of Jim Bakker. By 1988, confidence in organized religion had dropped to 21 percent. Americans' confidence then rebounded from 1988 to 2000, eventually climbing back to pre-scandal levels. Then in 2002, as a result of the Catholic Church's sex scandals, confidence in religious institutions dropped dramatically again, to 19 percent. Since 2002, confidence in organized religion has again rebounded—to 25 percent in 2006.

Unfortunately, Americans' trust in one another does not generally react to historical events the way their trust in institutions does. In fact, according to the General Social Survey, trust in each other has declined much more steadily and consistently than has our trust in institutions. Since there are few, if any, scandals that seem to impugn the "average person," it takes a major event to influence America's trust in individuals in the way that their trust in institutions is routinely influenced.

Research has identified steps institutions can take to promote trust and help reduce distrust. For example, by protecting minority rights (through voting protections and antidiscrimination policies), a government can facilitate trust and cooperation among individuals who might otherwise be wary of each other. Indeed, looking at 46 countries over a 10-year period, one of us (Pamela Paxton) found that more democratic countries—countries that safeguard these kinds of rights—produce more trusting citizens.

In the end, it is our natural drive to trust that offers our best hope of rebuilding trust in America. That drive was summed up by the tagline for a recent summer film: "I want to believe." Which film? The new X-Files movie. As the switch suggests, even in the worst of times, lurking under our suspicious gaze lies a need to trust in each other.

Labels: General Social Survey, Jeremy Adam Smith, Pamela Paxton, trust

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Ways of Wiccans: Members try to dispel myths about religion

By Courtney Potts
GateHouse News Service
Posted Oct 30, 2008

When members of the Coven of the Crow in Herkimer, N.Y., gathered to celebrate the autumn ritual of Mabon, there were no dark robes, no drunken revelries and no animal sacrifices. But there were Oreos. And homemade soup.

Members of the Crows and other Wiccans associated with them agreed to speak with the Observer-Dispatch recently in hopes of dispelling the idea that Wiccans are “Satan worshippers” or “kooks,” they said.

The number of Wiccans may be as high as 900,000, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Another study by faculty at the City University of New York found that nationally, the number of Wicca practitioners grew exponentially — from about 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. By comparison, the number of Christians of all denominations grew by 5 percent during that period.

Energizing faith

Wicca, Giordano said, is “a new religion based on very old, ancient practices.” Although it formed in the first half of the 20th century, it incorporates various pagan beliefs that predate Christianity, such as goddess worship, holidays based on seasonal cycles and the symbolism associated with various plants and animals.

“Basically, it is the belief that there is a creator, a divinity, and that the divinity lives within us,” Giordano said. “And that the divinity lives within everything.”

In general, Wiccans worship a god and goddess representing the male and female energies of the divinity, and honor the natural elements of earth, air, water and fire, she said. Most believe in reincarnation, and many believe they can harness and redirect natural energy.

A thankful ritual

In September, The Crows began Mabon, known as “the witches’ Thanksgiving,” by sanctifying Giordano’s living room and inviting the four elements and the God and Goddess to join them there. A basket of apples and cornucopia of flowers and squash lay near the center altar, and altars to each of the four elements were arranged around the room.

The service itself included a discussion of the holiday’s significance, chanting and a craft project meant to promote introspection. Members also donated items for a local food bank.

Labels: Courtney Potts, religion, Samhain, Wicca

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Morality or economy?

BY JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle

ECONOMIC ISSUES ARE TRUMPING VALUES ISSUES FOR SOME RELIGIOUS VOTERS, A NEW POLL SHOWS

A recent poll showed that economic issues were the top concern among more people of faith this year than they were four years ago.

The poll, "The Fifth National Survey of Religion and Politics: A Baseline for the 2008 Presidential Election," was conducted in June and August and led by John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, in Ohio.

The survey of more than 4,000 Americans found that 51.3 percent -- of various religious backgrounds -- said economic issues were their top priority. The 2004 survey, also led by Green, found that just more than 27 percent considered economic issues their top priority.

By comparison, social issues -- such as abortion and same-sex marriage -- were cited as the top priority among 11 percent of those surveyed, compared with 19 percent four years ago.

In addition to the 11 percent who said social issues were their top priority, more than 27 percent said such issues were "very important." In 2004, those numbers were 19 percent (top priority) and 28 percent (very important).

Labels: economics, Joe Rodriguez, morality, social issues, The Fifth National Survey of Religion and Politics: A Baseline for the 2008 Presidential Election

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Religion not the only path to altruism

The courts, police, credit records also promote prosocial behavior

Religion and its promotion of empathy get undue credit for our unselfish acts. Instead, it’s our less-than-virtuous psychological perception that a moral authority is watching us that promotes altruism, a new review essay suggests.

The essay is based on two psychologists’ re-examination of dozens of studies that have dealt with the relationship between religious participation and so-called prosocial behavior, a term that includes charity, cooperation, volunteerism, honesty, trust and various forms of personal sacrifice. The Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan is a classic example.

The upshot is surprising: While religion can play a role in fostering altruism, it is far from the only institution capable of doing so and it might not work the way we assume, says review co-author Azim Shariff, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia.

Labels: altruism, Azim Shariff, prosocial behavior

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Muslims In America

Powell's remarks solace for many
By LINDSAY WISE
Oct. 25, 2008

On the TV screen, former Secretary of State Colin Powell was telling host Tom Brokaw he was disturbed that some Republicans have been spreading rumors that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

"Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim," Powell said. "He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no. That's not America."

...Powell's remarks seemed like a tonic for a presidential campaign that has often made them feel marginalized and vilified.

A humiliating feeling

From e-mail campaigns spreading false rumors that Obama is a secret Muslim to Republicans invoking Obama's middle name, Hussein, at rallies to cast doubt on his faith and background, Muslims resent the implication that their faith makes them unpatriotic or even dangerous.

Obama has clarified repeatedly that he is not a Muslim, but he has not denounced the prejudice behind the rumors, as Powell did last week.

Neither campaign has visited a single mosque on the campaign trail.

Recent studies by the Pew Research Center found that 35 percent of Americans have a negative view of Muslims and about half think that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.

The reality is that Muslim Americans are diverse, middle class, and mostly mainstream in their outlook, values and attitudes, according to a national survey published by Pew last year. In fact, Muslims tend to be much more conservative than the rest of the American public on hot-button social issues, such as prayer in schools, gay marriage and abortion, the survey reported.

And that's why Powell's remarks came as such a pleasant surprise.

As Obama shot ahead of McCain in the polls over the past few weeks, the media started buzzing about a possible "Bradley effect" — coined for 1982 California gubernatorial candidate Tom Bradley, who is black, and led in the polls until election day but lost. Analysts theorized that voters weren't honest with pollsters about their support for a black candidate.

In the 2000 presidential election, Muslims supported Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, 42 percent to 31 percent, according to a Zogby International poll.

Three years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, however, Muslim support shifted decisively toward the Democratic Party. Only 7 percent of Muslims said they planned to vote for Bush for president in 2004, compared to 68 percent who backed Democrat John Kerry, Zogby reported.

This year, in Texas, the Muslim American Republican Caucus decided not to endorse the Republican nominee for president for the first time since the organization was formed in 2000. The caucus will still support Republicans in all local and congressional contests.

Board Member Farha Ahmed said the decision not to endorse McCain was based on several conferences with his national campaign in which the caucus asked officials to address Muslim voters' concerns about the war on terror, civil rights and anti-Muslim rhetoric attributed to McCain, his campaign and other GOP supporters.

In time, the idea of a Muslim becoming president of the United States might no longer seem so outrageous, said Ruth Nasrullah, the 47-year-old manager of an Islamic bookstore in Willis.

Labels: Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Lindsay Wise, Muslims, politics

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