c. 2000 Religion News Service
Researchers: Greater Religious Interest on Campus
WASHINGTON (RNS) Researchers have found an increased interest in religious heritage at church-related colleges and more awareness of religion at secular institutions during the last decade.
A report by a team of three professors came to those conclusions after evaluating a 10-year Religion and Higher Education Initiative by the Lilly Endowment.
“Everywhere we turned, it seemed people were talking to us, saying `People weren’t talking to us about this 10 years ago and now they are,”’ said lead investigator Kathleen Mahoney, an assistant professor of higher education at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.
A survey of faculty and staff who took part in programs funded by the Lilly initiative found that 60 percent said there was “growing openness toward religious perspectives in American higher education.” It found that 58 percent reported “more discussion of religion on my campus” during the past decade.
Researchers also found that 34 percent of respondents at conservative Protestant schools, 53 percent of those at Catholic schools and 73 percent of those at mainline Protestant schools agree with the statement “faculty at my college/university are divided over the religious identity of the institution.”
Mahoney told Religion News Service the research found increased interest in religious activity and spirituality on college campuses _ both institutionally and personally. But it also found challenges ahead for those interested in religious thought within intellectual settings.
She said the emphasis on scientific and objective approaches to learning often removed religion from the attention of academicians over the course of the 20th century.
“Increasingly, people are talking about `Is that satisfactory?’ and `Are there ways to bring religious perspectives and values toward the intellectual work of the academy again?”’ she said.
Church-related colleges also will have to determine how to honor their religious heritage as their campuses grow more religiously pluralistic, she said.
The Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based foundation, funded the evaluation of its 10-year initiative with a $332,592 grant to Boston College. More than 1,200 people from 177 colleges and universities participated in programs on higher education and religion funded by the foundation.
The report was based on surveys of 680 representatives of institutions, most of them church-affiliated, and interviews with dozens of presidents, administrators, faculty and association leaders.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quakers Push for A Gun-Free TV Easter
BOSTON (RNS) Television watchers on Easter Sunday 2001 won’t see a single gunshot if Quakers leading a national, interfaith campaign succeed in swaying the networks for a brief 24 hours.
The movement, known as “Gun Free Day On TV,” echoes claims from some social scientists that violent images on TV lead to real-life violence at home and on the streets.
“We are advocating for one day out of the year where we pause to reflect on the effects of television violence on our children,” said an official statement. “We hope to help every child and family become aware that shooting people with guns is not an accepted solution to problems, and that there are alternatives to gun violence.”
Gun Free Day On TV started last year among a group of concerned Quakers in Midlothian, Va., a suburb of Richmond. With support from its membership of 50 adults and 50 children, the Midlothian Friends meeting set out to persuade the networks to voluntarily forego all programming and advertising that would show “guns or gun-related violence” on Easter.
The movement has caught fire with help from dedicated foot soldiers and the Internet. Quakers here have enlisted other faith groups to urge local stations, cable systems and members of Congress to join their efforts to designate Easter an annual day of nonviolent television.
Visitors to the Web site (http://www.GunFreeDayOnTV.org) can send a pre-written message to the networks with a single click.
With origins in the gun-rich state of Virginia, the movement was quick to say it’s not pushing for gun control.
“We are not trying to control constitutional rights to own guns,” said the group’s statement. “We realize that many people enjoy activities, such as hunting, that involve guns. What we do want to do is have a nationwide pause to reflect on the effect of violence involving guns on television.”
The National Association of Broadcasters said Monday (Dec. 4) it was not aware of any member networks’ plans to respond to the campaign. Most Christians will celebrate Easter on April 15, 2001.
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Pope Urges New Debt Relief Efforts
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II, speaking Monday (Dec. 4) to debt relief experts, denounced “unbridled consumerism and ostentatious wealth” in a world still plagued by severe poverty despite the progress made by science.
“Despite great scientific progress, the scandal of severe poverty remains extremely widespread in our world,” John Paul told delegates to a four-day Vatican-sponsored meeting on debt relief.
“Awareness of the possibilities which modern scientific progress offers makes the persistence of such poverty even more scandalous, especially when it is accompanied, as is often the case, by unbridled consumerism and ostentatious wealth,” the pope said.
John Paul II has made cancellation of Third World debt a central issue of the Jubilee Year he proclaimed to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. With a month to go before it ends, the pontiff urged those responsible to intensify the battle against poverty.
“With gratitude to all those who were sensitive to my appeals, I wish to encourage them to ensure that the efforts and goodwill shown in this Jubilee Year will continue to bear fruit in the future,” the pope said. “We cannot permit fatigue or inertia to weaken our commitment when the lives of the poorest are at stake.”
John Paul also stressed the importance of helping debt-ridden nations become self-sufficient, a point stressed also by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace which hosted the debt relief meeting.
Irish Bishop Diarmuid Martin, secretary of the Justice and Peace Council, openly criticized some poorly planned relief programs for failing to lead towards self-sufficiency.
In a strongly-worded opening address to the meeting attended by delegates from from more than 20 of the world’s poorest nations and from Catholic aid agencies, Martin said “debt relief must be restructured in such a way that it best enhances broad-based self-generated human development.”
Martin also accused the world’s wealthy nations of unfair protectionism.
“It is patently absurd for wealthier nations to grant debt relief to countries and then to prevent them from functioning as productive participants in global free trade, especially in the areas they have particular advantage,” the Vatican official said.
“It is patently unfair for the wealthier nations to insist on the poorer countries opening their markets, if the wealthier countries continue to exercise enormous protectionism and dedicate huge internal subsidies in the agricultural and garment sectors,” Martin said.
_ Eleni Dimmler
Jewish Leader Criticizes `Third Reich’ Furniture Marketing
(RNS) A Jewish leader in Germany says the country’s strict anti-Nazi laws should be used to prosecute a furniture store owner who advertised a sale of sofa sets and chairs whose names were reminiscent of Nazi leaders.
Featured at discount prices in the newspaper ads paid for by Franz-Georg Schwetje were three-piece sofa sets named “Adolf” and “Hermann.”
Hermann Goering was a top aide to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and headed the Nazi air force.
Also advertised for sale were a “Cabinet Rommel” and “Chest of drawers Paulus,” recalling the names of Nazi military officials Erwin Rommel and Friedrich Paulus.
“The ads represent a clear glorification of the Third Reich and we have urged the state prosecutors in Hanover to initiate legal proceedings against Schwetje,” Michael Fuerst, leader of the Lower Saxony Jewish community, told Reuters. “We’ll have to see what charges the state prosecutors decide to raise.”
Schwetje, who said he could not recall composing the ads because he used painkillers to cope with bone cancer, insisted he was not a Nazi supporter.
“I simply passed along the names that my suppliers provided,” Schwetje said. “I’m not a Nazi and I don’t want to have anything to do with such people. Those right-wing extremists should be locked up.”
But he did say the Hermann sofa set was named for a relative.
“If I’d given the furniture a name like Sachsenhausen, that would be a different matter,” said Schwetje, referring to a Nazi concentration camp. “But the sofa suite Hermann is named after my uncle _ Hermann Schwetje.”
Still, Schwetje announced he would donate money to a Jewish group.
“Not one of my customers has complained about the adverts,” said Schwetje. “But the Jewish community said they were offended. So I am going to make a donation to the Jewish group. I’m not sure how much, but at least 1,000 marks.”
Pope: End Barriers to Disabled’s Participation in Society
VATICAN CITY (RNS) _ Pope John Paul II urged legislators and politicians worldwide to help bring down all barriers preventing handicapped persons from full participation in society.
Speaking before some 12,000 handicapped persons at the Roman basilica of St. Paul’s on Sunday (Dec. 3), the pontiff said integration must “become a mentality and culture.”
“On this solemn occasion, I would like to ask all those with political responsibility to work to guarantee you living conditions and opportunities such that your dignity is truly recognized and protected,” the pope told the crowd.
“Scientific research is called upon to do everything possible in the way of prevention while safeguarding life and health,” John Paul said.
Loudspeakers and a large screen translating the pope’s words into sign language carried his message to the blind and deaf members of the audience.
The pope said disabled persons must be guaranteed their rights “to study, to work, to a home, to the tearing down of the barriers, and not just the architectural ones!”
The celebration coincided with the 25th anniversary of the United Nations’ document on the rights of the disabled.
Quote of the Day: Montgomery, Ala., pastor Joseph Rembert
(RNS) “Mrs. Rosa Parks didn’t achieve greatness because she was in the church, but because the church lives in her.”
_ The Rev. Joseph Rembert, pastor of St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, Ala., who welcomed civil rights heroine Rosa Parks back to the church where she used to worship on Dec. 3. Parks, of Detroit, left Montgomery after her refusal 45 years ago to obey segregated bus laws in that city led to the start of the civil rights movement. Rembert was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEAEND RNS
