c. 1998 Religion News Service
Magazine survey finds pastors feel overworked
(RNS) A magazine survey of pastors finds that almost half say they work too hard, on average 55 hours per week.
The survey of about 600 respondents was conducted by Christianity Today Inc., and will be published in the spring issue of its Leadership magazine.
Less than a fifth of the pastors blamed their heavy workload on unreasonable expectations from members while 68 percent agreed a key reason for their overworking was”I expect too much of myself.”In other reasons cited _ which were not mutually exclusive _ 51 percent said”I love what I do so much I don’t always know when to stop”and 40 percent acknowledged”I find it hard to say `no.'” The survey showed that senior pastors and pastors who are the sole leaders of congregations spend about the same amount of time preparing for sermons _ 11 hours each week. But the findings showed that senior pastors spend two hours more per week leading services and meetings while pastors working without other clergy spend an hour more each week in pastoral care.
Although close to two-thirds of those surveyed said they occasionally dream of having an 8-to-5, Monday-through-Friday job, most are still satisfied with their work.
More than 80 percent of pastors say they are satisfied with their current workload and 91 percent said they are satisfied with the type of work they do.
Researchers had 62 of the pastors who took part in the original study keep track of their actual work hours for one week. They found that the pastors accurately recalled how long they had worked but not how they worked. For example, pastors estimated they spent 14 hours a week doing administrative work, including leading meetings and worship, when they actually spent close to 25 hours doing those tasks. On the other hand, pastors thought they spent six hours in prayer and devotional time, but only spent 4 1/2 hours.
Leadership, whose spring edition will be published April 8, is a quarterly journal for pastors and other church leaders.
Poll shows awareness but lack of participation in Disney boycott
(RNS) A recent poll shows that the majority of Southern Baptists have chosen not to boycott the Walt Disney Co.
About 30 percent of Southern Baptists said they are likely to participate in their denomination’s boycott of the company, some of whose policies Baptist officials have criticized as being anti-family.
The poll showed that close to three-fourths of Southerners and two-thirds of non-Southerners were aware that a number of religious groups had announced plans to boycott Disney, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.
Of those who had heard of the boycotts, 75 percent of non-Southerners and 72 percent of Southerners said they were unlikely to participate.
The poll was taken by the University of North Carolina and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and reported in the newspaper on March 7.
Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he was satisfied with the figures.”The boycott is growing and continues to grow as more and more Baptists understand what’s involved,”he told the newspaper.”We’re going to continue this. It’s not one hydrogen bomb. It’s a steady month-by-month artillery barrage.” John Dreyer, a Disney spokesman, told the newspaper the boycott had not had much effect.”We just posted another record quarter,”he said.”We had a record year last year. Our parks had record attendance for the holidays, and the Disney Channel has posted a gain of 5 million households.” The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution last summer urging denomination members to”refrain from patronizing”Disney theme parks, products, films and more than 200 subsidiaries.
Some Baptists and other evangelicals have objected to company policies, such as the offering of benefits to partners of homosexual employees.
Production of”Nothing Sacred”ends earlier than scheduled
(RNS) The controversial ABC-TV drama”Nothing Sacred”has filmed 20 episodes instead of the originally scheduled 22 this season, but ABC officials insist they have not yet canceled the show.”They completed their production on Monday,”ABC-TV spokeswoman Eileen Kurtz told Religion News Service.
In addition, two shows scheduled to air later this month (March 21 and 28) have been pre-empted by movies, Kurtz said, adding they may be scheduled for a later time.
But despite the change in original plans, ABC has not officially announced the show’s fate beyond its debut season.”We have not canceled the show and the state of the show will be known in May,”said Kurtz.”All of our shows are contenders for renewal. No decisions will be made before then.” Set in an urban Catholic parish with a doubting priest as the lead character,”Nothing Sacred”has ratings as low as its praise by TV critics is high, with both protest and support by pockets of Catholics.
Its perpetually low ratings have regularly left the drama far behind other major network shows and the subject of speculation that it would be ended. The premature ending of production furthered those rumors among people close to the show.
The show was taken off the ABC lineup during the crucial February sweeps last month. When it returned to a new 9 p.m. EST Saturday slot on March 7, Nielsen ratings gave it a 3.1, or 6″share”of all TV sets at that hour, meaning about 4.1 million viewers.
There was a slight viewer increase for the March 14 episode featuring guest star John Mahoney from the hit NBC-TV show”Frasier.”That episode drew a slight rise in viewership of 4.7 million households.
Zimbabwe churches want country declared `Christian nation’
(RNS) The Zimbabwe Council of Churches wants the country declared a”Christian nation,”arguing that other countries have declared themselves Muslim nations.”For Zimbabweans, it would only be proper and logical to declare the nation a Christian country,”said Densen Mafinyane, the council’s general secretary.”Other countries have declared themselves Muslim countries, and why should we not be proud to declare our country a Christian nation.” The ZCC represents Zimbabwe’s mainstream Protestant churches. An estimated 65 percent of its 12 million people are Christians, although for many Zimbabweans, it is a Christianity mixed with tribalist traditional religion. Between 20 percent and 25 percent practice purely indigenous religions.
Mafinyane told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, that the council would make a formal request for the declaration to President Robert Mugabe in the near future.
Zimbabwe, once known as Rhodesia, won its independence in 1980 and is a secular nation with freedom of worship enshrined in the Constitution.”For how long can we continue to exist without an official religion?”the council official asked.”When a policy is not officialized there is no focus. We have to have an official stand.” At the same time, Mafinyane said the declaration of Zimbabwe as a Christian nation should allow for the continued existence of other religions.
Slovakia gives $314,000 to Holocaust survivors
(RNS) The government of Slovakia has agreed to pay $314,000 to a foundation of Slovak and Czech Jews in compensation for the gold and jewels of Holocaust victims that were kept by the post-war government of Czechoslovakia.
The money amounts to one-third of a fund established to compensate Holocaust survivors for valuables taken under Nazi rule. The Czech Republic last July agreed to pay the other two-thirds to the EZRA Foundation, set up by three Jewish organizations.
Only about 4,000 survivors received compensation after the war, and the rest of the valuables seized from Jews during the war years were kept or spent by the communist government of Czechoslovakia during the 1950s, according to the Czech news agency CTK.
The money is to be spent on social, charity and humanitarian causes and for preserving items of Jewish heritage, such as derelict cemeteries.
Czechoslovakia split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
During World War II, Czech territories were conquered by Germany and Slovakia served as a Nazi puppet state.
Quote of the day: British Commonwealth Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
(RNS)”It is hard for any faith to wrestle with its conscience after dark episodes in its history. The (Roman) Catholic Church has shown this courage, and I recognize in (the) statement the beginnings of a process of reflection and repentance.” _ Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth on the Vatican’s statement,”We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah,”released Monday (March 16).
DEA END RNS
