c. 2003 Religion News Service

Southern Baptist International Missions May Face Budget Shortfall

(RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board is weighing options to deal with an expected shortfall of millions of dollars in its budget of $290 million.

“This budget challenge is not due to diminished giving on the part of Southern Baptists,” said board president Jerry Rankin in a Friday (April 25) announcement.

“The challenge is that we allowed our missionary force to grow at a faster rate than giving was increasing. Incremental increases in giving cannot keep up with the amazing growth of the missionary force.”

Board officials cite two years of missionary appointments exceeding 1,000 and lower resignation rates as reasons for overspending the missionary support budget. Investments also generated less than usual income for the budget due to the stock market’s downturn.

The final total for an annual offering that helps fund the mission board’s efforts is expected on May 31, but projections are that the shortfall could be about $10 million of the $125 million projected in the 2003 budget for that offering.

Trustees will meet in early May to discuss options such as restricting staff travel and cancellation of some events.

_ Adelle M. Banks

`Secularists’ Are Younger, More Liberal, Gallup Finds

(RNS) The 10 percent of Americans who claim no religion tend to be young, liberal and live on the West Coast, according to research by the Gallup Organization.

The so-called “secularists,” while “being detached from the religious process, are also apparently more likely to be detached from other American institutions such as marriage and the political process,” according to Gallup’s Tuesday Briefing (April 22).

While 69 percent of secularists are registered to vote, that figure is smaller than the 83 percent registered among Americans who claim a religious preference. The percentage of secularists who are unmarried and living with a partner _ 12 percent _ is double that for religious Americans.

Secularists are also younger _ those between the ages of 18 and 29 are four times as likely as those older than 65 to be secularists, and twice as likely as those between the ages of 50 and 64.

The Western United States _ particularly Oregon and California _ has a larger percentage of residents identifying as secularists (15 percent) than other parts of the country (typically less than 10 percent).

Forty-three percent of secularists describe themselves as moderate, while 35 percent are considered liberal, and 20 percent are conservative. Other Gallup polls have shown that more religious people tend to be more conservative.

Only about 1 percent of Americans describe themselves as atheists, who have no belief in God, or agnostics, who aren’t sure about the existence of God, according to the Gallup study.

Several polls of nearly 15,0000 people were conducted throughout 2002. The margins of error range from plus or minus 3 percentage points to plus or minus 6 percentage points.

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The following is suitable for graphic treatment:

_ Secular Americans: 20 percent conservative, 43 percent moderate, 35 percent liberal.

_ Nonsecular Americans: 41 percent conservative, 41 percent moderate, 17 percent liberal.

_ Secular Americans: 60 percent approve of President Bush, 34 percent disapprove, 6 percent have no opinion.

_ Classifying all Americans: 18-29 years old (17 percent secular, 83 percent nonsecular); 30-49 years old (12 percent secular, 88 percent nonsecular); 50-64 years old (8 percent secular, 92 percent nonsecular); 65 and older (4 percent secular, 96 percent nonsecular).

_ Secular Americans represent: 10 percent of those living in the East; 9 percent in the Midwest; 8 percent in the South; 15 percent in the West.

_ Nonsecular Americans represent: 88 percent of those living in the East; 89 percent in the Midwest; 90 percent in the South; 83 percent in the West.

_ Source: Gallup Tuesday Briefing

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Pope Urges Castro to Show Clemency to Imprisoned Dissidents

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Expressing “deep distress” over the imprisonment of Cuban dissidents and the execution of three alleged hijackers earlier this month, Pope John Paul II has urged President Fidel Castro to grant his opponents clemency.

The Vatican on Saturday (April 26) released a brief letter written to Castro on the pope’s behalf by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, and dated April 13, Palm Sunday.

“The Holy Father felt deep distress on learning of the hard penalties imposed recently on numerous Cuban citizens and also some condemnations to capital punishment,” Sodano wrote.

“His Holiness has directed me to ask your excellency to consider well a significant gesture of clemency toward the condemned in the certainty that such an act would contribute to creating a climate of great detente to the benefit of the dear Cuban people,” the letter said.

Sodano urged “a sincere and constructive confrontation between citizens and civil authorities” to guarantee a “modern and democratic Cuba.”

In the toughest crackdown on dissidents in decades, Cuban authorities earlier this month arrested 75 alleged opponents of the regime, most of them journalists, economists and human rights activists.

Three men who hijacked a ferry in a bid to reach the United States were executed by firing squad on April 11, and the others were given one-day trials and sentenced to terms of up to 28 years in prison.

The pope, who made a historic visit to Cuba in January 1998, has strongly opposed the economic sanctions against the island but urged greater freedom. Following his visit, Castro granted permission for Cubans to celebrate Christmas.

_ Peggy Polk

Canadian Pilgrims Kept Away From Massachusetts Shrine

(RNS) Organizers of North America’s largest religious pilgrimage told 11 expected busloads of Canadian pilgrims to stay home because of SARS-related health concerns.

More than 20,000 people descended on the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass., on Sunday (April 27) for the annual Feast of Divine Mercy.

State health officials, worried about contamination from a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in Toronto, asked the Marians of the Immaculate Conception to keep the Canadian pilgrims away.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Kathleen Ervin, a spokeswoman for the order, told the Boston Herald.

Joselyn Isadore, an epidemiologist from the Department of Public Health, said officials did not want to take chances. “If someone were coming from Toronto, they could be in the early stages of this diseases. They may be infectious and, in coming to a public place with a large gathering of people, there’s the potential of spreading it,” she said.

State officials told organizers that Canadian pilgrims would have to be questioned, screened, given warning cards and possibly separated from the rest of the assembly, according to the Boston Globe.

Parking attendants were told to watch for Canadian license plates, and several carloads from Canada did attend, according to the Berkshire Eagle newspaper. First aid attendants said they did not see any SARS-like illnesses during the festivities.

Other pilgrims did not seem worried about the possibility of catching SARS during Mass.

“My husband was concerned,” said Sandra Bois, of South Lee, Mass., who attended with her 5-month-old daughter, according to the Globe. “But we’re not going to be kissing and hugging these people. We don’t know them. We’re here to pray _ put it in perspective.”

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Charles Wade, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas

(RNS) “A missionary to a Baptist is like your mama is to you, or the pope is to a Catholic _ not perfect, and yet an icon.”

_ The Rev. Charles Wade, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, on efforts by the moderate group of churches to support overseas missionaries.

DEA END RNS