c. 1998 Religion News Service
Most teens get along with parents, believe in God, poll finds
(RNS) A poll of teen-agers shows that the majority of them get along with their parents, believe in God and trust the government.
Ninety-four percent of the teens polled in the New York Times/CBS News Poll said they believe in God.
Differing from stereotypes, 51 percent said they got along”very well”with their parents and 46 percent said they related”fairly well.” The teens also proved to have more faith in the government than their parents.
Fifty percent of those surveyed said the government can be trusted to do the right thing always or most of the time. In a January survey by the same organizations, just 26 percent of adults agreed with that sentiment.
The poll of 1,048 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 was taken through nationwide telephone interviews from April 2-7. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
On sexual matters, many teens seemed to support conservative values, The New York Times reported.
Almost half _ 53 percent of girls and 41 percent of boys _ said sex before marriage is”always wrong.”Larger majorities _ 58 percent of boys and 47 percent of girls _ said homosexuality is”always wrong.” Fewer than one in four said they had ever had sex, but 71 percent said”a lot”or”some”of their peers at school are having sex.
However, almost half of the same teens who said they did not approve of sex before marriage supported the distribution of condoms in schools.”People are going to have sex, and they should have protected sex,”said Brett Adam Abel, a 15-year-old from Apopka, Fla., who agreed to a follow-up interview after taking part in the poll.”They should have the chance to prevent herpes, AIDS and stuff.” In general, 6 in 10 surveyed said they supported condom distribution in schools.
Thirty-nine percent of those polled said drugs are the biggest problem facing their generation. A similar percentage of teens polled four years ago voiced the same sentiment.
Two percent of teens said abortion or pregnancy was the biggest problem facing their generation. Just one percent said the biggest problem was AIDS, but 18 percent said they personally knew someone who had tested positive for HIV, had AIDS or had died of AIDS.
Update: Baptist school to sever ties with Nicaraguan campus
(RNS) Trustees for the Southern Baptist-affiliated University of Mobile agreed Tuesday (April 28) to seek another university to take over the Alabama school’s struggling five-year-old campus in Nicaragua.
Mark Foley, the university’s new president, said the trustee board agreed with his recommendation that the university should try to extricate itself from Nicaragua within the next two years. But trustees also want to ensure the campus continues providing Latin American students the opportunity to earn an accredited, U.S.-style college education without the expense of studying in the United States.
Foley said his trip to Nicaragua earlier in April convinced him that although the San Marcos campus is extremely valuable to the people of Nicaragua and their relations with the United States, the University of Mobile cannot afford to continue operating it.
Foley, who took over the financially strapped university March 1, said the trustees are “unified” in their determination to solve the university’s financial problems and satisfy all requirements of its accrediting agency _ the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools (SACS).
The university was placed on six-months’ accreditation probation last June after SACS learned the university’s Nicaraguan venture had placed the entire school in financial jeopardy.
Although SACS extended the probation at its December meeting, the university needs to raise $500,000 by June 30 to fully satisfy the SACS requirements, Foley and several trustees said.
The university’s trustees, who came under criticism last year for allowing budget problems to mushroom under former administrators, also elected a new chairman _ the Rev. Gary E. Enfinger of Thomasville _ and embarked on an emergency campaign to raise the needed funds.
Foley said the trustees themselves kicked off the fund-raising campaign Tuesday by giving him personal checks totaling $56,000.
He said that on April 24 a donor, who has asked to remain anonymous, pledged $250,000 to keep the university’s controversial San Marcos operation afloat while the university shops for another U.S. school willing to take on the job of running that campus. That pledge is in addition to the $500,000 the university is trying to raise, Foley said.
Dalai Lama arrives in U.S. for two week visit
(RNS) The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual and political leader of Tibet, arrived in the United States on Wednesday for a two week visit, finding his message of patience and nonviolence as the proper means of winning more autonomy for Tibet from China is under pressure.
Growing hunger strikes by exiles in India and, on Wednesday, the death of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire protesting China’s occupation of Tibet, have suggested the spiritual leader’s strategy is growing thin.”For many years, I’d been able to persuade the Tibetan people to eschew violence in our freedom struggle,”the Dalai lama said Tuesday after visiting Thupten Ngodup, the protester who set himself afire during a demonstration Monday. The monk died Wednesday.”Today, it’s clear that a sense of frustration and urgency is building up among many Tibetans as evidenced by the unto-death hunger strike and the tragic incident”of the self-immolation, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday in New Delhi, according to the Associated Press.
The Dalai Lama has said he is willing to set aside the demand for full sovereignty for Tibet in exchange for self-rule. China, which has occupied Tibet since 1950 and claims it as a province, has refused to enter into any negotiations with the Tibetan some believe is the incarnation of a Buddhist deity.
In India, where 100,000 Tibetans live in exile, young militants are expressing impatience with the Dali Lama’s course of seeking to pressure world leaders to in turn pressure China on the Tibetan self-rule issue.
The Dalai Lama’s New York office said he will continue to restate his goal of negotiations with China during his current U.S. trip. During he will receive honorary degrees from Emory and Brandeis universities and speak to the Wisconsin state legislature.
Pope blasts unemployment as `evil’
(RNS) Pope John Paul II, in a speech on the eve of Labor Day said Thursday (April 30) that unemployment is an”evil”and rising unemployment risks becoming a”real social calamity.””Unemployment is in any case an evil and, when it reaches certain levels, can become a real social calamity,”the pope said a speech to labor consultants from Italy, Spain and Poland.
Italy and many other countries mark May 1 as a day to celebrate workers.
In his speech, the pope said the jobless problem was”even more painful”for the young and said it is essential that companies ensure proper pay levels and working conditions and to society must make sure the rights to”health, rest and welfare”are extended to all.
Guru’s followers released from California state prison
(RNS) Two British followers of the free-love guru Bhagwan Rajneesh were released from prison Wednesday (April 29) after serving more than two years in prison for conspiring to kill a federal prosecutor.
The two _ Sally-Anne Croft and Susan Hagan _ were convicted in 1995 of involvement in a murder plot in the mid-1980s to assassinate Charles Turner, then U.S. attorney for Oregon, who was investigating allegations of immigration fraud and other crimes that ultimately brought about the collapse of the sect,the AP reported.
The murder attempt was never carried out and Croft and Hagan insist there never was such a conspiracy.
Croft and Hagan were top officials in the sect that attracted some 4,000 followers in the mid-1980s to hear the teaching of Rajneesh, a luxury-loving guru known for his collection of 93 Rolls-Royce automobiles. He died in India in 1990.
The two women were sentenced to five-year prison terms and freed this week after U.S. District Judge Malcolm Marsh in Portland, Ore., granted their sentence-reduction requests.
They were released into the custody for immigration officials for deportation proceedings.
Quote of the day: French justice minister Elisabeth Guigou.
(RNS)”There should be no ambiguity about the possibility of homosexuals marrying or adopting children. That must be very clear in the text. It’s not possible.” _ French justice minister Elisabeth Guigou announcing the leftist government of France will proceed with plans to allow gay couples the same legal benefits as heterosexuals while ruling homosexual marriage and adoptions by same-sex couples.
DEA END RNS
