c. 1997 Religion News Service
Poll: Church attendance drops to six-decade low
(RNS) Weekly attendance at houses of worship has dipped to its lowest level since 1940, according to a report by the Princeton Religion Research Center based on a new Gallup Poll.
In 1996, 38 percent of U.S. adults said they had attended a church or synagogue in a given week. In 1995, 43 percent of Americans said they attended church weekly. The all-time low for church attendance was recorded in 1940, when just 37 percent said they had attended a house of worship. The all-time high was in both 1955 and 1958, when 49 percent said they attended church weekly.
The Gallup Organization has been measuring church attendance each year since 1939, and most years church attendance measures in the low-40 percent range.
The poll _ which surveyed 3,007 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent _ was conducted during one week each in June, September and November of 1996.
U.S. to increase aid to fight North Korea famine
(RNS) The U.S. government, under pressure from religious relief and humanitarian groups, announced Tuesday (April 15) it is increasing its aid to famine-stricken North Korea by $15 million.
The government has pledged $10 million in aid to be distributed through the United Nation’s World Food Program.”We view the issue of food for children as a humanitarian issue only,”State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said in making the announcement.
The new $15 million in aid will be earmarked for children.
Relief groups have been keeping up a steady drumbeat of calls for the United States to do more to aid North Korea, one of the last remaining Communist countries and one with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations.”It is the people of North Korea who are threatened by starvation,”Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., said in a letter to Samuel Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser.”Our longstanding and legitimate differences with the government of North Korea cannot permit us to ignore the threat to the lives of our sisters and brothers in North Korea who are not responsible for that authoritarian government’s policies, past or present,”said McCarrick, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s international policy committee.
In his letter to Berger, McCarrick said the United States should adopt a three-pronged policy including an”immediate and generous”response to the needs in North Korea; logistical assistance to relief groups delivering and distributing food aid; and a willingness to increase the U.S. contribution if the need estimates are later revised.
Meanwhile, World Vision, the independent evangelical relief agency that has been heavily involved in providing North Korea with aid, released a poll that said nearly two-thirds of the American public believe the government should act to prevent famine in North Korea.
The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent, said that 65 percent believe the United States should, if it has the ability, respond to prevent famine in North Korea, while 23 percent said it should not and 12 percent said they did not know.”We believe the United States is failing to exercise its role as a world leader in responding to a famine in North Korea,”said Robert Seiple.”This poll is a wake-up call to the Clinton administration by the American people who do not want millions of people in North Korea to starve.” The poll was conducted before the administration announced its new initiative.
According to reports by U.N. agencies and private relief groups, an estimated 23 million North Koreans, including 2.4 million children, are threatened with starvation as a result of two years of disastrous floods and poor harvests.
Muslims on Hajj die in fire outside Mecca
(RNS) More than 340 Muslims were killed and more than 1,000 were injured Tuesday (April 15) after a fire swept through an encampment of pilgrims outside Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
About 2 million pilgrims traveled to Mecca this year for the annual Hajj, or trip to Mecca. The Hajj is one of the basic pillars of Islam and all Muslims are required to make the trip once during their life, if they are able.
The fire broke out around noon at the pilgrims’ temporary camp on the plains of Mina, according to wire service reports. High winds and 104-degree temperatures helped the fire spread quickly to some 70,000 tents.
Witnesses said most of the dead were trampled to death in the panic as thousands tried to escape the flames.
According to the Associated Press, Saudi authorities used helicopters and some 300 fire engines to fight the blaze. TV reports showed the pandemonium in the camp as thousands of white-robed pilgrims tried to escape.
According to witnesses, most of the dead were from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Saudi troops were called in to help the injured and provide temporary shelter for pilgrims left without tents.
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia expressed sympathy for the victims and their families and friends.”I ask that God gives them patience to cope,”he said.
President Clinton also extended his sympathies to the families of those killed or injured in the fire.
Military to allow Indians to use peyote in services
(RNS) Military officials said Tuesday (April 14) they will allow American-Indian soldiers to use the hallucinogenic plant peyote in their religious ceremonies.
American Indians who use peyote for religious purposes believe it brings peace of mind, helps them think good thoughts, and heals illnesses.
Peyote use has been forbidden in the military because of its classification as a drug with psychedelic properties. Guidelines regarding its use are being revised to bring them in line with a 1994 Supreme Court decision allowing American Indians to use peyote as a religious sacrament.”If they’re using peyote in their religious practice, it’s a sacrament, not a drug,”said Air Force Maj. Monica Aloisio, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Chaplain Capt. Mel Ferguson, executive director of the Armed Forces Chaplain’s Board, said he’s telling chaplains to let American Indians use peyote in their services while the guidelines are being finalized, the Associated Press reported. “When people are allowed to practice their faith and nourish the spiritual dimension of their lives, that promotes and enhances military readiness,”Ferguson said.
The new peyote policy applies to the 9,262 American Indians now in the Armed forces, or 0.6 percent of the military population.
Pope, Annan discuss Zaire, Mideast, Balkans
(RNS) Pope John Paul II and new United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met Tuesday (April 15) at the Vatican and talked about a wide range of the world’s trouble spots, including the Middle East, the Balkans and Zaire.
The meeting, held in the pope’s private study, was the first meeting between John Paul and Annan since his election to the top U.N. post.
According to a Vatican statement issued after the 25-minute private discussion, the two talked about”the drama of the Great Lakes region as well as the Holy Land and the situation in the Balkans.” In a public photo session after the meeting, John Paul told Annan:”God bless your families and your mission and God bless the United Nations.” Last weekend the 76-year-old pontiff visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and made an appeal for peace in the Balkans.
Mormon missionary critically wounded in Argentina
(RNS) A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) missionary is in critical condition in a Buenos Aires, Argentina, hospital after being shot in the head during a robbery April 9, church officials have announced.
The church said that Orin A. Voorheis of Pleasant Grove, Utah, was returning to his apartment when three men armed with a knife and a gun accosted him and his companion, missionary Armondo Barry of Cleveland.
The men shot Voorheis after finding the missionaries had little money, then left the scene while Barry ran for help.
Voorheis had not come out of a coma Tuesday (April 14).
Baptist World Alliance protests treatment of Romanian Baptists
(RNS) The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) has asked the Romanian government to investigate reports police neglected to protect a group of nine Baptists beaten by a mob in Ruginoasa, Romania.
According to Baptist Press, the official news agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, a report aired on Romanian national television said that more than 800 people surrounded a Baptist house of worship and began to beat the nine who came out of the building. Reports said local police did not act quickly enough to protect the Baptists.”Religious prejudice has no place in modern Europe,”said Denton Lotz, BWA general secretary.”As Baptists, we have fought and died for religious freedom, and Romanian Baptists play a special role in this history of suffering prior to World War II.” Lotz said Romanian Baptists’ suffered under an unjust monarchy before World War II and were repressed by the subsequent Communist regime. He asked the president of Romania to promote peace and justice and to ensure protection for religious minorities. He also told Romanian Baptists to be calm and to pray for those in authority.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Michael Crosby
(RNS) The Rev. Michael Crosby, a board member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, is spearheading a shareholder resolution to be brought to the Boeing Co. April 28 urging the company to link its business dealings in China with human rights. Crosby was critical of Vice President Al Gore’s Easter-season trip to China:”I found it disturbing that during the holiest week of the year for Christians, Vice President Gore presided at the signing of a $685 million order for five Boeing … jets. … While as shareholders we are happy with the help this will be for our dividends, we feel betrayed that neither the vice president nor Boeing gave any evidence that they had even raised the issue of how parts of Boeing’s jets produced in China are made in ways that compromise the workers’ basic rights.”
MJP END RNS
