c. 2003 Religion News Service
Religious Groups Channel Aid to Quake-Devastated Iran
(RNS) Humanitarian assistance from religious groups continues to pour into Iran following a devastating 6.6-magnitude earthquake that struck Friday (Dec. 26) and left some 28,000 people dead.
Aid workers say the death toll could climb as high as 40,000 in and around the quake’s epicenter in the ancient city of Bam.
“There can only be one appropriate response: massive, overwhelming and tangible care,” said Ben Homan, president of Food for the Hungry/U.S., which is sending medical teams and emergency supplies to the region.
Catholic Relief Services said it will send $100,000 to Bam to buy food, medical care and other “life-saving assistance.” Episcopal Relief and Development, an arm of the Episcopal Church, is also collecting relief funds.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said it was sending $25,000 each to Church World Service and the Middle East Council of Churches through Action by Churches Together. The money will be used to buy tents, blankets, food and water.
World Vision, an evangelical relief group, is sending $600,000 to the region to help local residents find emergency shelter in the cold winter nights. The money will also be used to buy blankets, tarps, water containers and kerosene lamps.
Muslim groups are also lending aid, including Burbank, Calif.-based Islamic Relief, and Life for Relief and Development, which is planning to send seven tons of food and 1.5 tons of clothing to the region. Aid is also coming from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, OXFAM and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Gallup: Fewer Think Religion Is Increasing Influence on U.S. Life
(RNS) A new Gallup Poll shows that the percentage of Americans who think religion is increasing its influence on public life has dropped to its lowest level since 1995.
A November Gallup Poll found that barely one-third of Americans _ 32 percent _ see religion increasing its influence, down from 46 percent in February. At the same time, those who see religion’s influence declining rose from 48 percent to 64 percent.
The 32 percent figure is the lowest point since 1995, although it is roughly in line with other Gallup surveys. The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks saw a temporary spike to 71 percent of people who saw religion increasing its influence.
Gallup pollsters, however, pointed to a survey conducted last May that found 61 percent of Americans believe religion can “answer all or most of today’s problems,” even though two-thirds (67 percent) said the state of “moral values” is “getting worse” in the same poll.
Both polls show a “general pessimism” about the decline of values made worse by the decreased influence of religion, said the Rev. Albert Winseman, the religion and values editor of Gallup’s Tuesday Briefing report.
“Their sense of moral stagnation is tempered by the idea that the potential improvement exists, and that religion can help,” he said.
Both polls were based on interviews with more than 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Muslim Meetings Underscore Contrasts in Relating to Culture
LONG BEACH, Calif. (RNS) Two winter conventions here of Muslim Americans provided contrasts in approaches to how Islam and its followers assimilate into American culture.
“American Jews and American Catholics have gone through certain experiences before us; they have created a path for us, they have carved out a path for a minority, they have suffered a lot but through their suffering they have opened up this society as a pluralist democracy,” said Sayyidd Syeed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, which had about 3,000 Muslims at its Dec. 25-28 West Coast convention at the Long Beach Convention Center.
An ISNA convention human rights seminar found discussions on abuses of Muslims’ human rights in Chechnya, India’s Kashmir and Gujarat regions, and the Middle East’s West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Kashmir-born Syeed saying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “one among those” and so not the only issue.
“Nothing should stand between us and American Jewish organizations,” Syeed told Religion News Service, “because both American Jews and Muslims … have the same destiny in America.”
About 1,000 people attended the Dec. 20-21 gathering at the same convention center of the smaller Muslim Public Affairs Council, which saw Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean, John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich make individual telephone pitches for Muslim support.
“I believe there is a civil war inside Islam _ it is moderate Muslims versus radical Muslims,” said Dean, who in an MPAC convention straw poll of 800 Muslims received 67 percent of the vote with Kucinich in second place with 17 percent while Kerry got just 4 percent. President Bush received only 2 percent of the straw poll ballots.
The ISNA convention featured a long vendor aisle emphasizing religious items, charity groups, Islamic attire and mosque fund-raising. The smaller roster of MPAC convention vendors included an Arabic-language satellite TV provider plus Dean, Kucinich and a Green Party table and several U.S.-based, Palestinian-allied charities.
The MPAC convention’s theme, “Progressive Islamic Thought and Human Rights,” found liberal politics preferred and gave seminar speakers latitude in making both internal criticisms of Islam’s fundamentalist wing and secular reactions to it. The ISNA gathering’s theme, “Guidance and Compassion,” found more low-key seminars on issues such as America’s Latino Muslims and raising Muslim families in a secular world.
“Just as we don’t like people stereotyping us as Muslims, we should also not stereotype others,” said ISNA convention speaker and anti-poverty activist Suhaib Webb.
_ David Finnigan
Vestal Goodman, Gospel Music Pioneer, Dead at 74
(RNS) Vestal Goodman, a gospel music pioneer who sang in performances for five decades, died Saturday (Dec. 27).
Goodman was 74 and died in Celebration, Fla., the Associated Press reported.
She and her late husband, Howard “Happy” Goodman, were part of the Happy Goodman Family act, recording 15 No. 1 gospel music songs and performing in more than 3,500 concerts. They were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
The couple were regulars in the mid-1980s on “The PTL Club” with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
“Jim and Tammy were two of the kindest, most sincere Christians I ever met,” Vestal Goodman wrote in “Vestal!”, her 1998 autobiography.
“Jim Bakker was not concerned about having a bunch of money.”
The Goodmans left the show in 1988 after three years and were not linked to financial improprieties as others on the show were.
Their family began singing together in 1949 and performed through the late 1990s.
They were original members of “The Gospel Singing Jubilee,” a syndicated TV program that was a pioneer in gospel music broadcasting and appeared on more than 100 U.S. stations.
Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham
(RNS) “In a world full of terrorists and extremists, we do not have time to play religious games or become bogged down in the quagmire of Baptist debates.”
_ Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham, endorsing a study committee’s recommendation that his denomination withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance. He was quoted by Baptist Press.
DEA END RNS
