c. 2000 Religion News Service

Gallup: Six in 10 Americans Read Bible at Least Occasionally

(RNS) About six in 10 Americans say they read the Bible at least occasionally and 65 percent believe the holy book “answers all or most of the basic questions of life,” a Gallup poll has found.

Bible readership has dropped from the 1980s overall, when 73 percent of Americans said they read the holy book at least on occasion.

The percentage of those who read the Bible at least once a week has dropped slightly in the last 10 years, from 40 percent in 1990 to 37 percent today, the Gallup Organization said.

Sixteen percent of Americans say they read the Bible every day, compared to 21 percent who say they read it weekly, 12 percent who say they read it monthly and 10 percent who say they read the Bible less than monthly. A total of 41 percent said they never or rarely read the Bible.

Close to half of the people who believe the Bible “answers all or most of the basic questions of life” read it at least every week. Twenty-eight percent of people surveyed who agree with that statement say they never read the Bible or do so rarely.

Seventy-two percent of those with a high school education or less say the Bible answers life’s basic questions, compared to 46 percent of those with a postgraduate degree.

Other Bible reading findings from Gallup include:

_ Fourteen percent of Americans say they are in a Bible study group.

_ About 43 percent of women say they read the Bible either daily or weekly, compared to 29 percent of men.

_ Forty-two percent of whites say they never or rarely read the Bible, compared to 32 percent of nonwhites.

_ Half of those older than 65 read the Bible at least once a week, compared to 27 percent of people ages 18 to 29.

The Gallup survey was based on telephone interviews of 1,024 adults Oct. 6-9. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

House-Senate Negotiators Agree to Total Debt Relief Package

(RNS) Congressional negotiators agreed to a $435 million debt relief package that will help erase the debts of 30 poor countries, as well as a provision to allow family planning organizations to provide abortions and counseling in foreign countries.

A House-Senate conference committee agreed Tuesday night (Oct. 24) to fund President Clinton’s entire request of $435 million for debt relief. The package is the second installment in a $920 million deal that will help erase debts owed to the United States, as well as debts owed to institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

If the measure is approved _ as expected _ by the House and Senate, Clinton is expected to sign the measure, and next year Congress will be asked to fund the remaining U.S. share of $375 million.

Debt relief has attracted the support of a vast array of religious, political and entertainment figures, from Pope John Paul II to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson to U2 singer Bono. Religious leaders heralded Tuesday’s agreement.

“What a way to finish our celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000,” said Tom Hart, the Episcopal Church’s Washington liaison. “In the midst of this season of intense politics and partisanship, all sides came together to help the poorest people on Earth.”

Negotiators also approved a controversial provision in the Foreign Operations bill that will allow private family planning groups that receive federal money to spend their own funds on abortion or family planning in foreign countries.

Republicans, however, said the funds could not be used until Feb. 15, 2001, when a new president will be in office. Abortion opponents hope Texas Gov. George W. Bush, if elected, would move to block the measure once in office.

Survey: Teens Hold Lukewarm Faith, Unorthodox Views on Christian Doctrine

(RNS) While an overwhelming majority of U.S. teen-agers identify themselves as Christians, many of them hold unorthodox _ and some say troubling _ views on salvation and whether or not Jesus sinned while on Earth, according to a new survey.

The survey of 605 teen-agers, conducted by evangelical pollster George Barna, found 86 percent of teen-agers were self-identified Christians, with only one-third labeling themselves “born-again.” Barna defines “born-again” as a person who has a personal relationship with Jesus and believes that faith in him will result in eternal life in heaven.

When it comes to traditional Christian teachings, however, U.S. teens share beliefs not traditionally embraced by most churches. More than half _ 53 percent _ said they believed Jesus Christ committed sins while on Earth, and two-thirds said Satan is more a symbol of evil than a real being.

About 60 percent of teens said a person can gain salvation through good works _ a centuries-old theological debate that led to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Three out of five teen-agers also agreed the Bible is “totally accurate” in all its teaching, with born-again teens twice as likely to believe the Bible is accurate in its entirety.

Teens also said they were mostly lukewarm in their faith; one-third described themselves as “absolutely committed,” while half said they were “moderately committed” and about one-fifth are “less committed.”

Barna said these “well-intentioned but misinformed faith perspectives” raising troubling questions for the church.

“The bottom line is that today’s teens think they have learned and absorbed whatever the Christian faith has to offer and are therefore not questioning their spiritual beliefs, and are not open to being challenged in their views,” Barna said.

New Christian-Muslim Strife in Indonesia

(RNS) At least seven people died Monday (Oct. 23) in the latest resurgence of Christian-Muslim violence in eastern Indonesia’s Maluku provinces.

One soldier and six Muslims died in the clash in Kairatu town on Seram Island, a Muslim cleric told the Associated Press. Malik Selang said the violence was sparked by a Muslim group’s attack on Christians traveling by bus.

Christians and Muslims have been fighting one another in the Maluku provinces since January of last year. Some 4,000 people on both sides have been killed since then.

Christians once held a small majority in the two provinces, known as the Spice Islands during the Dutch colonial era, but an influx of Muslims from other parts of Indonesia has changed the area’s religious makeup.

The attacks occurred one day before an Indonesian court sentenced the leader of a Muslim separatist group to six years in prison for the January murder of three civilians, the country’s state news agency reported.

Two followers of M. Sukri Bin Sulaiman, head of the Free Aceh Movement, were also sentenced to one- and four-year prison terms. Sulaiman’s movement has waged a 25-year battle for independence in the predominantly Muslim province of Aceh.

House Asks Probe of Killing of Priest in Kenya

(RNS) In a nonbinding resolution approved Tuesday (Oct. 24), the House condemned the “assassinations” of human rights workers in Kenya, and called for an investigation of the shooting death of a Minnesota-born priest working in the east African nation.

The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., asked the State Department to produce a report assessing the progress of Kenyan authorities’ investigation into the death of the Rev. John Kaiser, the Associated Press reported.

The House requested the same assessment of a second independent probe, and asked that the report be delivered to Congress by Dec. 15.

A missionary in Kenya for 36 years, Kaiser was an outspoken critic of the Kenyan government, and some believe his death in August may have been politically motivated.

Papers found on Kaiser’s body implicated two unnamed cabinet officers in outbreaks of violence between 1992 and 1997 in the Rift Valley province that marred national elections, according to Kenyan news reports.

The resolution denounced the “assassination of (Kaiser) and others who worked to promote human rights and justice” in the east African nation, and noted the country’s commission on human rights has cited Kenyan security forces for “continued blatant violations … of the constitution, acts of torture, and murder and rape.”

The resolution also called for an investigation into the murders of five other priests and clerics whose deaths, it said, “have not been sufficiently investigated” by Kenyan officials.

SBC Official Backs Bush, Criticizes Gore, Clinton and Reno

(RNS) The president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has announced his personal backing of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, though he told his North Carolina audience he wasn’t telling them how to vote.

Richard Land made his comments during an Oct. 19 address to the Christian Action League of North Carolina, meeting at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Land cited the differences between Bush and Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential candidate, including Bush’s agreement and Gore’s disagreement with the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that the Boy Scouts do not have to permit homosexuals to be scoutmasters.

He said he did not understand why four justices of the Supreme Court would want to permit gays to lead boys on camp-outs in the woods, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

“People like that are too dumb to walk,” Land told about 50 people in the audience.

Land recalled serving as interim pastor of a church during the impeachment hearings for President Clinton. He said two deacons, responding to his sermon at that time, told him to stop picking on the president because he had been good for the economy and they would vote for him again if they could.

Land said he called them “political whores” and “political prostitutes.”

“My vote’s not for sale,” he said. “I’m never going to vote my pocketbook.”

Land also voiced his concern about a report that Gore had called African-American ministers from Air Force Two to encourage them to ask their congregations to vote on Election Day.

Land said such calls could be made by Gore only “as long as the deaf, dumb, blind woman is attorney general,” apparently referring to Janet Reno. “Hopefully, the eight-year sojourn into the `Department of Justice’ becoming the `obstruction of justice’ is coming to an end.”

Quote of the Day: Bishop T.D. Jakes

(RNS) “May this house be used in our generation to close the digital, the gender, the denominational and the racial divides that threaten to limit us.”

Bishop T.D. Jakes, speaking at the dedication ceremony Sunday (Oct. 22) of his new, high-tech Potter’s House church facility in Dallas. The $32 million structure seats an audience of 8,200 and includes computer and power terminals in the 200 front sanctuary seats for laptop downloading of sermon notes and power point presentations.

DEA END RNS