c. 2003 Religion News Service
Don’t Spend More on Iraq Than Poverty, NCC Says
WASHINGTON (RNS) The National Council of Churches called on President Bush and Congress to spend as much money to alleviate poverty in the United States as they spend to rebuild Iraq.
The ecumenical alliance of 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches said government leaders have a “moral obligation and a public duty” to help eliminate poverty.
“If we have billions to spend in Iraq, we clearly have the ability to provide those living in poverty in America with the opportunity to improve their living conditions and become self-sufficient,” said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the NCC.
Figures released Friday (Sept. 26) by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that incomes declined in 2002 for the third consecutive year and 1.7 million more people fell into poverty _ a total of 12.1 percent of the population.
The government estimated that 34.6 million Americans live in poverty, including 12.1 million children. Poverty figures rose in the suburbs, the Midwest and among African Americans.
Edgar called on Congress to enact welfare reform _ Democrats object to harsher work requirements passed by the House and pending in the Senate _ and fund Head Start preschool programs, as well as expand child tax credits and increase access to health care.
“How can we, as a self-proclaimed people of conscience, fail to mobilize our abundant resources to overcome this problem?” Edgar said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Southern Baptist Convention Faces `Serious Financial Challenges’
(RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention is facing “serious financial challenges” that could lead to a future crisis if giving does not increase, a new report states.
The report, “The State of Giving in the Southern Baptist Convention,” was adopted unanimously by the Executive Committee of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination on Sept. 23.
Although the SBC Funding Study Committee found that no entity of the church is currently in financial crisis, it said: “… all of them are experiencing trends in their fiscal health that could generate into a crisis in very few years.”
For example, the Southern Baptist foreign mission agency has deferred missionary appointments and the domestic mission agency “has not met income projections four of the last five years,” the report stated.
The study committee determined that a decline in the percentage of contributions by church members to churches and, in turn, of churches to missions, is creating the pinch. The rate of growth in contributions has not kept pace with increased spending due to growing ministries and rising costs.
Citing research from empty tomb, inc., an Illinois-based Christian research organization, the study committee said that Southern Baptists currently give 2.03 percent of their earnings to their churches.
“The alarming fact is not just that the 2.03 percent giving average falls miserably short of the tithe (10 percent), but that the percentage has dropped dramatically in the last 30 years,” the report reads. “In a time when Southern Baptist members arguably were experiencing financial prosperity, they have been giving a shrinking percentage of their available income to the local church.”
The average percentage of income of local churches passed on to the denomination has dropped from 10.5 percent in the 1980s to 7.39 percent in 2002.
The committee offered several theories for why there has been a decrease in support for the Cooperative Program, the denomination’s central funding mechanism. Among them was increased local church spending on health insurance and building expansion and “political infighting” that could have led to less support for the denomination.
The committee recommended the creation of strategies by pastors and other denominational leaders to reaffirm the Cooperative Program and quick implementation of a course at Southern Baptist seminaries about the program.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Study: Americans in their 20s Less Likely to Attend Church, Read Bible
(RNS) Americans in their 20s are less likely to attend church or read the Bible than older Americans, a Barna Research Group study has found.
Thirty-one percent of twentysomethings attend a worship service in a typical week, compared to 42 percent of those in their 30s and 49 percent of all adults ages 40 and older.
The level of Bible reading also decreases by age group. Researchers found that 30 percent of twentysomethings read the Bible in the past week, compared to 37 percent of Americans in their 30s, 44 percent of fortysomethings, 47 percent of Americans in their 50s and 55 percent of adults ages 60 and older.
The comparisons on giving are more dramatic: 30 percent of Americans in their 20s donated to a church in the past year compared to 61 percent of older adults.
Despite the lower percentages in religious practice, researchers found that internal aspects of faith rank higher among those in their 20s.
For instance, 80 percent of twentysomethings said their faith is very important in their life; 75 percent said they had prayed to God in the past week; and 57 percent said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life.
“The notion that these people will return to the church when they get older or once they become parents is only true in a minority of cases,” said David Kinnaman, vice president of the Ventura, Calif.-based research firm and the director of the study, in a statement.
“More importantly, that reasoning ignores the real issue: millions of twentysomethings are crystallizing their views of life without the input of church leaders, the Bible, or other mature Christians.”
The research for the overall study was based on nationwide telephone interviews with 14,091 adults from January 2000 through May 2003, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. A total of 2,660 adults in their 20s were interviewed, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Following material suitable for graphic treatment:
Likelihood of Church Attendance in Typical Week Among Age Group:
20s: 31 percent
30s: 42 percent
40 and older: 49 percent
Likelihood of Bible Reading in Past Week Among Age Group:
20s: 30 percent
30s: 37 percent
40s: 44 percent
50s: 47 percent
60 and older: 55 percent
(Source: Barna Research Group)
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Elevates Three Close Aides, Including American, to Archbishop
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Acting one day after he announced his selection of 31 new cardinals, Pope John Paul II on Monday (Sept. 29) elevated his three closest aides, one of them an American, to the rank of archbishop.
The Vatican said the pope has “conferred the dignity of archbishop” on Bishops James Michael Harvey, prefect of the papal household, Stanislaw Dziwisz, who has the title of assistant prefect but acts as John Paul’s secretary, and Piero Marini, master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies.
Because the prelates will remain in their present posts their new titles appeared to be mainly ceremonial, intended by the pope to honor them for their long service to him. John Paul had made the three bishops five years ago.
The action, closely following the announcement of a consistory to create new cardinals several months earlier than expected, fed speculation the pope is seeking, in effect, to put his house in order because of his failing health.
The 83-year-old pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and severe arthritis, has appeared progressively weaker since the summer. His fragility during a visit to Slovakia Sept. 11-14 raised fears that he would not be able to travel again.
Harvey, 53, a native of Milwaukee, Wis., who was ordained a priest in 1975, is in charge of the operations of the papal household and formally receives visitors arriving for audiences with the pope.
Dziwisz, 64, was born in the archdiocese of Krakow and in 1966, three years after his ordination, became secretary to the archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who is now John Paul II.
The relationship of the Polish priest to the ailing pope is so close that it was considered possible that Dziwisz was the prelate John Paul selected “in pectore,” keeping the new cardinal’s name in his breast, or secret when he read out the names of the other 30 cardinals.
Martini, 61, an Italian, arranges the Masses and other liturgical services in which John Paul takes part. He stands at the pope’s left and often helps him to find his place and to turn pages.
_ Peggy Polk
Detroit Cardinal Urges Bill to Ban Late-Term Abortions
(RNS) Michigan’s highest-ranking Catholic official urged the state legislature on Sunday (Sept. 28) to approve a bill that would prohibit late-term abortions.
Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida, in an ad placed in seven state newspapers by the Michigan Catholic Conference, said the Legal Birth Definition Act would protect both mothers and their unborn children.
“Certainly, believers and nonbelievers alike can agree that our state has a compelling interest in protecting the life of a born person,” Maida wrote. “The Legal Birth Definition Act secures those rights, declaring that a partially born child is legally born, while providing for the life and physical health of the mother.”
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Michelle McManus, a Republican, says a fetus cannot be aborted once any part of its body clears the birth canal. The bill is primarily aimed at ending so-called “partial-birth” abortions in which the fetus is partially delivered before an abortion is performed.
“Without a determination of when a child is legally born, every partially born child in Michigan is at risk,” Maida said. “We’re all in this together … including and especially our newest and most vulnerable citizens, our newborn children.”
Two versions of the bill have passed the House and Senate, and negotiators are currently ironing out the differences. Pro-choice groups, including Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, oppose the bill. Planned Parenthood calls the bill “another attempt to ban legal medical procedures.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Irish Anglican Prelate: Peace in Northern Ireland `Fragile Plant’
LONDON (RNS) – Peace in Northern Ireland is a “fragile plant” but slowly becoming a reality, Church of Ireland Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh, told a gathering at the dedication of the Ulster ash grove at the National Memorial Arboretum at Burton-on-Trent, England.
The Sept. 23 ceremony was also attended by leaders of other Irish Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.
The memorial honors “all who lost their lives in the cause of freedom, justice and peace in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2001.”
Those years will forever be remembered as “a period of suffering, death and destruction … which has left its indelible mark in the history of our island home,” Eames said.
Eames said the memorial honored the men and women of the armed services, the members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its reserve, the prison service, and all who provided the protection of human life, upheld the rule of law, and together provided the framework of a whole community’s effort to defeat terrorism.”
He said he hoped those gathered could leave the ash grove “with our hope and our vision that we have confined to history a time when brave men and women doing their duty and making their sacrifice have given us all the chance for a future of peace, reconciliation and safety.”
The National Memorial Arboretum was inspired by a visit to Arlington Cemetery and the National Arboretum by its director, David Childs, in 1988. An appeal was launched by the then Prime Minister John Major in 1994. The first trees were planted in 1997 and the site was officially opened in 2001.
Quote of the Day: Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong
(RNS) “I don’t have anything against organized religion per se. We all need something in our lives. I personally just have not accepted that belief. But I’m one of the few.”
_ Bicyclist Lance Armstrong, five-time winner of the Tour de France and cancer survivor, discussing why he is not very religious in an interview with Time magazine.
DEA END RNS
