c. 1998 Religion News Service
Pope John Paul II, Billy Graham rank second and third”most admired” (RNS) Pope John Paul II and evangelist Billy Graham were named the second and third”most admired”men in a Gallup Poll that ranked President Clinton at the top of the list.
Clinton was named by 18 percent of those surveyed Monday (Dec. 28) and Tuesday, marking the sixth straight year he has received the designation. In 1997, he was named by 14 percent of those polled, USA Today reported.
The pope received more votes in 1998, when 7 percent named him, compared to 5 percent doing so in 1997.
Evangelist Billy Graham was cited by 5 percent of those polled.
The rest of the top 10 most admired men were: Chicago Bulls basketball star Michael Jordan (4 percent); Sen. John Glenn of Ohio (3 percent); retired Gen. Colin Powell (3 percent); former presidents Ronald Reagan (3 percent) and George Bush (3 percent); South African President Nelson Mandela (2 percent) and computer software billionaire Bill Gates (2 percent).
Although presidents usually are named as the most admired men in such surveys, there have been exceptions to that rule.
Pope John Paul II ranked first in the survey for 1980, when President Jimmy Carter was in his last year in office. And in 1973 and 1974, the last two years of Richard Nixon’s presidency, the top two names were Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Graham.
The telephone survey was based on interviews with 1,005 randomly selected adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Americans more likely to pray than drink on New Year’s Eve
(RNS) Americans are more likely to pray than drink on New Year’s Eve, a survey by Rasmussen Research reports.
The survey found that 73 percent of American adults plan to say a prayer for the New Year on New Year’s Eve compared to 42 percent who said they will drink an alcoholic beverage.
Researchers also learned that 46 percent of those surveyed planned to make a New Year’s resolution. Sixty-eight percent of those making resolutions said they would top their list with a plan to spend more time with family and friends.
Close behind, 66 percent said they would resolve to save more money or live more within their budget and that same percentage said they would resolve to lose weight or get in better shape.
Last year, getting in better shape was the most popular resolution.
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed this year said they plan to kiss someone at midnight. Another 13 percent were not sure.
But there’s a gender gap on the kissing question _ 62 percent of men said they will kiss someone but only 55 percent of women said they expect a midnight kiss.
Overall, 72 percent of survey respondents gave 1998 a positive rating. Last year, 60 percent gave 1997 a positive rating.
Rasmussen Research is a public opinion polling firm based in Waxhaw, N.C., that conducts independent surveys on events in the news and other topics.
The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted on Tuesday (Dec. 29) and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Study: Four in 10 nuns say they have been sexually abused
(RNS) Four in 10 U.S. Roman Catholic nuns report having experienced sexual abuse, a rate equivalent to that reported by U.S. women in general, a study has found.
The study by Catholic researchers _ and supported by major religious orders _ also found that sisters have known sexual abuse less in childhood, dispelling what the authors call an anti-Catholic canard that girls escaped to convents to get away from sexual advances.
But during religious life, close to 30 percent of the nation’s 85,000 nuns experienced”sexual trauma,”ranging from rape to exploitation to harassment. A total of 40 percent reported having at least one experience of that kind in their lifetimes, The Washington Times reported.
John T. Chibnall, a psychologist at St. Louis University, a Jesuit-founded school, said he hopes the findings, published in the current issue of Review of Religious Research, will assist in counseling services and in establishing policy guidelines to avoid abuse in religious settings.
The sisters”are absolutely not in the position of asking for or wanting anybody’s pity,”he said, noting that often is a public perception when abuse is publicized.
The study was conducted by three Catholic researchers at the university who specialize in psychology, sex and religion.
Several studies of U.S. women have shown that between 30 and 40 percent report childhood sexual abuse, but only 20 percent of the Catholic sisters noted such an experience.
They also experience much less workplace sexual harassment, either in religious or secular settings. About 10 percent of nuns reported that problem, compared to rates of between 40 and 60 percent of working women in general.
But one in 10 nuns said they experienced”sexual exploitation”during religious life, often from a priest with some authority but in fewer cases from other women in authority.
Sexual exploitation was defined in the survey as”any sexual advance, request for sexual favors … or physical conduct of a sexual nature”and included consensual acts.”The prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among sisters has important vocational implications for religion,”the study said. It suggested that some women face challenges to live up to spiritual commitments because of”sexual trauma.” The report also speculated that the exploitation by an authority figure might be a reason why sisters have left religious life.
The Rev. Charles Earl Cobb, UCC civil rights activist, dies
(RNS) The Rev. Charles Earl Cobb, the first executive director of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice, died Sunday (Dec. 27). The civil rights advocate, who died after an extended illness, was 82.
Cobb was instrumental in getting his denomination to support the Wilmington Ten, nine young black men and a white woman who were arrested on charges of arson and conspiracy in North Carolina in 1971.
At first, church leaders were only going to provide bail money for Benjamin F. Chavis, a commission field worker who was among the 10. Cobb convinced them to provide $500,000 bail for all the defendants, whose convictions were eventually overturned.”He was responsible for making our church own up to what it said it believed,”recalled the Rev. Joseph Evans, a retired president of the United Church of Christ.”The Wilmington Ten would have never been in the record if it had not been for Charlie Cobb.” Chavis, later a commission executive director and now, as Ben Muhammad, a Nation of Islam minister, said of Cobb:”His leadership in the United Church of Christ is unprecedented as he raised his deep, strong voice for the poor as an advocate.” Cobb was one of the first to emphasize the issue of what has come to be called”environmental racism,”noting the prevalence of siting toxic waste dumps in poor, mostly black communities.
He also was known for developing allies inside and outside of the church. He helped found the National Conference of Black Christians, an early ecumenical organization of religious civil rights leaders, and was a founding board member of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and TransAfrica, a Washington-based African policy think tank.
Shamans: Clinton will survive impeachment crisis
(RNS) President Clinton will survive the impeachment crisis and serve out the remainder of his term, according to a group of Peruvian shamans.
The shamans, descendants of the Inca empire that once ruled Peru, said they based their predictions on visions brought on by drinking a brew made from a jungle vine _ a hallucinogen they say has reliious, curative and extrasesnory powers, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (Dec. 30).”Clinton will survive, but Monica (Lewinsky) will suffer because she writes a book and the truth of it will be challenged,”said Juan Osco, after spitting some of the herb mixture over pictures of Clinton, Lewinsky and other famous people.
The ceremony, which involved eight soothsayers, takes place each year on top of a hill overlookin Lima. It is used to bless the new year and appease the god Apu.
Quote of the day: Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program
(RNS)”We have to enter 1999 with the understanding that we may face increased threat of famine, manutrition and endemic hunger.” _ Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Proram, in a yearend statement warning that politics and weather could make the coming year a hard one in the battle against hunger.
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