c. 1998 Religion News Service
Survey: Religious teens more likely to avoid smoking, drinking, drugs
(RNS) A new survey of teens’ attitudes shows that those who participate in religious activities are less likely than other teens to smoke, drink or use drugs.
The survey released Tuesday (Sept. 1) by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at New York’s Columbia University revealed a substantial difference in attitudes toward smoking, drinking alcohol and using illegal drugs between religious and non-religious teens.
According to the survey, just 8 percent of teens who attend religious services at least four times a month smoked cigarettes, compared to 22 percent of those who attend services less than once a month.
Only 13 percent of teens in the first group said they had smoked marijuana, compared to 39 percent of the other teens.
Also, 20 percent of religiously involved teens said at least half their friends drink, compared to 38 percent of the others. Nineteen percent in the first group and 32 percent in the second group said they personally had had an alcoholic drink in the previous month.
The survey findings were in line with two previous center polls that focused on teens and substance use.
Joseph Califano Jr., center president and a former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, said the consistent survey results underscores the importance of religion in”giving our children the moral values, skill and will to say `no’ to illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.”It also tells parents that by taking their children to religious services beginning at a very early age they can have a major impact on whether or not their children resist these substances,”he said.
The center’s latest survey was conducted in May, June and July and polled 1,000 teens between the ages of 12-17. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percent.
School voucher opponents seek U.S. Supreme Court review of issue
(RNS) School voucher opponents requested Monday (Aug. 31) that the U.S. Supreme Court ban the use of state-funded vouchers to pay tuition in parochial schools in Milwaukee.
The groups seeking the court’s attention include People for the American Way, the National Education Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, USA Today reported.
The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program originally allowed low-income families to use taxpayer money to send their children solely to nonsectarian private schools. But a June 10 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling favored extending the program to parochial schools. That 4-2 decision overturned two lower court rulings.
As Milwaukee schools opened at the end of August, about 6,000 children were enrolled in 86 private religious and nonsectarian schools using vouchers.
The voucher plan permits as much as $70 million to be spent during the 1998-99 school year to pay tuition for as many as 15,000 school children.
The money set aside for the vouchers comes from state aid that would have been used for public schools.
In addition to the liberal groups seeking a Supreme Court review, the conservative Institute for Justice _ an ardent advocate for vouchers _ also has requested the High Court examine the issue.”The children in this program cannot be secure until the U.S. Supreme Court removes the constitutional cloud from school choice,”said Clint Bolick, litigation director for the Institute for Justice. He predicted the Supreme Court probably would issue a ruling by the end of the academic year if it chooses to review the case.
Elliot Mincberg, legal director of People for the American Way, said he would like the Supreme Court to make clear what is legal and illegal under the First Amendment prohibition against government establishment of religion.
Law barring assisted suicide law takes effect in Michigan
(RNS) A ban on assisted suicide in Michigan _ Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s home state _ went into effect Tuesday (Sept. 1), but voters will have an opportunity to repeal the law this fall.
The law, signed in July by Gov. John Engler, makes it a felony to assist in a suicide. Offenders face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
But come Nov. 3, Michigan voters can overturn the law by approving a ballot initiative that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. Should the measure _ known as Proposal B _ fail at the polls, the new law will remain in effect.
Proposal B made it on to the ballot through the efforts of a pro-assisted suicide advocacy group. Roman Catholic Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit is among the religious leaders opposing the ballot measure.
Meanwhile, Kevorkian, the state’s most famous assisted-suicide practitioner, said the new law will have no impact on what he does, the Associated Press reported.
Kevorkian has acknowledged he assisted at more than 100 deaths, but has never been convicted of any crime connected to them. The Michigan law is directed primarily to stopping Kevorkian.
Kevorkian said politicians”don’t do what’s good for the people so I don’t think about it. They’re just there for their self-interest.”
Baptist Book Stores to be called LifeWay Christian Stores
(RNS) Baptist Book Stores, a national chain owned by a division of the Southern Baptist Convention, will soon be called LifeWay Christian Stores.
The change, which became effective Thursday (Aug. 27), was announced as the 75th store was opened in Franklin, Tenn. That store and another in nearby Nashville will begin using the LifeWay name immediately.
Others, which have operated under several names, will begin the transition to the new name in January 1999, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The denomination’s division now called LifeWay Christian Resources was previously known as the Sunday School Board. Now, the stores owned by the division also will change their names.”With the recent acquisition of five independent stores and with several more in process, multiple names have become confusing to our customers and suppliers,”said Mark Scott, vice president of the retail group for LifeWay Christian Resources.”The name change to LifeWay Christian Stores is an important step to present a more complete and accurate view of who we are today and to position our ministry for continued growth.” The name is linked to the Bible verse in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus says,”I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Veteran Baptist editor to receive religious freedom honor
(RNS) A veteran Baptist editor and publisher has been selected to receive the 1998 Religious Freedom Award from Associated Baptist Press.
The independent Baptist news service announced that Walker Knight will be the fifth recipient of the award, which honors individuals whose achievements advance the practice and principle of religious freedom, especially in the field of journalism.
Knight, 74, has been involved in Baptist journalism for four decades.
During his career, Knight has served as associate editor of the Baptist Standard, the state news journal for Texas Baptists; director of editorial services at the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board; and founder and editor of Baptists Today, an independent Georgia-based newspaper.
Knight is scheduled to accept the award at a Sept. 18 banquet in Atlanta.
Previous award recipients include former Florida Baptist editor Jack Brymer, author and activist Will Campbell, New York Times religion reporter Gustav Niebuhr and the religion staff of the Dallas Morning News.
Zambian Seventh-day Adventist leader dies in crash
(RNS) The president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Zambia has been killed in an automobile accident.
Webby Mukoma, 45, was traveling home from work in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, Tuesday (Sept. 1) when he was involved in a head-on collision, according to Adventist News Network, the official news service of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Mukoma is survived by his wife, Ellen, and seven children.
Quote of the Day: Author Ken Wilber
(RNS)”All of the things that people typically have trouble with _ money, food, sex, relationships, desire _ they want their saints to be without. … In other words, the typical person wants the spiritual sage to be less than a person, somehow devoid of all the messy, juicy, complex, pulsating, desiring, urging forces that drive most human beings.” _ Philosopher Ken Wilber, in an excerpt from his forthcoming book”One Taste: The Journals of Ken Wilber (Shambala), published in the September/October issue of Tikkun magazine.
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