c. 2003 Religion News Service

Wheaton College Adds Dancing, Faculty Drinking to Community Covenant

(RNS) Wheaton College, an evangelical school in Wheaton, Ill., will allow dancing and permit faculty to drink alcohol and use tobacco products off campus according to its new “community covenant.”

“On-campus dances will take place only with official college sponsorship,” according to the covenant approved in mid-February. “All members of the Wheaton College community will take care to avoid any entertainment or behavior, on or off campus, which may be immodest, sinfully erotic, or harmfully violent.”

The college included the new language in a list of “frequently asked questions” that accompanies the covenant and is posted on its Web site.

“First, for not a few of our students, dancing was a significant part of their lives before they came to Wheaton, even though they come from strong Christian backgrounds,” the college said. “Across the country the evangelical world is today very mixed on this issue.”

It noted it has held “innocent and wholesome” dances, such as square dances, since the 1970s.

The change in alcohol policy was the result of a research committee’s evaluation of a 1991 state law that prohibits discrimination against an employee who uses “lawful products,” such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, during nonworking hours as long as they do not impair job performance.

College functions will remain alcohol-free and tobacco-free, according to the new covenant, and undergraduates are required to refrain from the use of such products.

“Other adult members of the college community will use careful and loving discretion in any use of alcohol,” the document states.

In an introduction to the covenant, college president Duane Litfin said the school’s “Statement of Responsibilities,” unlike its statement of faith, “must evolve constantly to meet the ever-changing needs of the campus.”

The changes come after more than two years of consultations with trustees, faculty, students and alumni and the covenant will replace the Statement of Responsibilities in the fall.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Study Shows Students at Catholic Colleges Become More Liberal

(RNS) Catholics who enter college opposing abortion and premarital sex usually graduate with more liberal views and a lower sense of Catholic identity, according to a new study of Catholic college students.

The study found that the liberalizing trend was similar for students at both Catholic colleges and nonsectarian schools. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles studied students who entered college in 1997 and graduated in 2001.

The number of students who support legal abortion at Catholic schools rose from 37.9 percent of freshmen to 51.7 percent of seniors. At other colleges, the figure grew from 49.5 percent to 65.5 percent, according to The New York Times.

In Catholic colleges, 27.5 percent of Catholic freshman said premarital sex was permissible, and that number grew to 48 percent of seniors, as long as the couple “really like each other.” Among nonsectarian colleges, the same figure grew from 48 percent of freshmen to 59.8 percent of seniors.

Crisis magazine, a conservative Catholic monthly, said support for same-sex marriages grew from 57.3 percent of freshmen to 73.5 percent of seniors at Catholic colleges. At other schools, the figures were 51 percent of freshmen and 62 percent of seniors.

Students’ religious identification also dropped, according to the study. The number of seniors at Catholic colleges who professed to be Catholics was 68.8 percent, down from 73 percent of freshmen. Those professing no religion grew from 6 percent of freshmen to 10.9 percent of seniors. Similar patterns emerged for students’ religious observance.

Deal Hudson, editor of the magazine, expressed concern. “Parents used to worry that Catholic colleges would be no better for their children than regular four-year colleges. Now it seems that some Catholic schools might actually be worse,” he said in a newsletter last month.

Researchers cautioned, however, that the 38-college survey was not representative of the nation’s 200 Catholic colleges because the sample was dominated by larger, more selective colleges that tend to be more liberal.

Monika Hellwig, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, told The Times that students at all colleges tend to become more liberal as they begin to make their own decisions about life.

“Students look at movies, at their friends, at their families, at everything around them, and that doesn’t mean Catholic colleges are failing,” she said. “The question is whether the task of higher education in our pluralistic, changing society is to lock students into rules _ even rules I agree with _ or to teach them critical thinking.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

New York Lawmaker: Prison Chaplain Hiring Flawed

SYRACUSE (RNS) A New York senator last week called for an immediate investigation of all 42 Muslim clerics working for the state Department of Correctional Services.

State Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, R-Seneca Falls, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, said the arrest on federal charges of Osameh Al Wahaidy of Fayetteville, N.Y., a Muslim chaplain at the Auburn Correctional Facility, is an embarrassment.

“The selection process for taxpayer-funded Muslim clerics (is) too trusting, too loose and too naive,” Nozzolio said.

Al Wahaidy, a Jordanian working in the United States, has been charged with helping to send aid to Iraq through a charity in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group, said he hopes the state doesn’t overreact.

“Our experience has been that the Muslim imams are a calming, important influence in prisons,” Gangi said. “I don’t think there is a need for a sweeping investigation.”

Until recently, the state prison system relied almost exclusively on one person to recruit its clerics, Warith Deen Umar, who has been linked to anti-American propaganda.

Umar retired in 2000 but continued to work with the prison system as a consultant. The corrections department barred him from New York’s prisons after The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying the Sept. 11 hijackers should be honored as martyrs.

State Corrections Commissioner Glenn Goord told the Journal that the prison system relied on Umar and a group he was closely associated with, the National Association of Muslim Chaplains, to recruit clerics.

James Flateau, speaking for the Department of Correctional Services, said that no one person has the power to hire any state employee and that all employees have background checks.

Two other Muslim clerics, or imams, in the New York state prison system have been accused of anti-American activity since Sept. 11.

Nozzolio said the investigation into clerics working for the state should start with those who, like Al Wahaidy, are here on visas.

Goord, in a written response to Nozzolio, said only “The Division of State Police had confirmed earlier today (Feb. 27) what we already knew: That a check with the Immigration and Naturalization Service on the status of all 42 Muslim chaplains employed by this Department confirms that everyone is current with their legal status in this country.”

_ Greg Munno

Lutherans Can’t Attract Minorities With More Budget Cuts, Panel Says

(RNS) The panel charged with boosting the number of minorities in the nation’s largest Lutheran church said it cannot do its job if denominational leaders continue to demand budget cuts.

Officials at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Commission for Multicultural Ministries recently asked church leaders for a “moratorium” on all future budget cuts.

The Chicago-based church has a longstanding goal of increasing minority and non-English speaking membership to 10 percent. The current minority level hovers around 2 percent to 3 percent.

Last year, all church offices were asked to identify up to 4 percent in potential budget cuts. The commission’s $1.5 million budget was cut by 3.8 percent to $1.4 million.

In a resolution submitted to Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, the panel said further cuts would not “allow the commission to continue its task of carrying out its constitutional mandate,” according to a church news release. Officials said they are “faced with the challenge of increasing demands and diminishing resources.”

Hanson has not yet responded to the panel’s request, said church spokesman John Brooks. The church’s bishops will review the budget this weekend (March 6-11) when they meet in Chicago.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Moody Bible Institute Folds Magazine, Restructures Amid Tough Economy

(RNS) Moody Bible Institute, a Chicago-based evangelical organization, has announced it will stop publishing Moody magazine and make other business changes in light of the difficult economy.

The magazine will halt print publication within six months and Moody’s daily devotional guide, “Today in the Word,” will become the institute’s primary periodical.

In addition, the institute will leave the retail business and begin a search for a buyer for its Moody Bookstores in Indianapolis and Chatham Ridge, Ill.

Moody Aviation program, which allows students to major in missionary aviation technology, will be moved from Elizabethton, Tenn., to Spokane, Wash.

Ministry officials say the changes will provide significant savings as the organization continues to streamline other areas of ministry.

“I fully believe that God is not surprised or confused by what he is requiring us to do in these challenging days,” said Joseph Stowell, president of the institute.

“I am convinced that he is using the present situation to enable us to focus on our core ministries in light of the greater things that he has in store for us in the days to come.”

The institute, founded in 1886 by evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody, includes an undergraduate school, graduate school, Moody Publishers and the Moody Broadcasting Network.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Anglican Bishops Pledge to Live on Minimum Wage During Lent

LONDON (RNS) Three Anglican bishops _ one from each of the three nations that make up the island of Britain _ have committed themselves to spending Lent living on the country’s minimum wage.

They are taking part in the “Lent minimum wage challenge” organized by the activist group Church Action on Poverty with the aim of showing that in present-day Britain the minimum wage _ currently $6.72 an hour _ is not enough and should be raised to $9.28 an hour, or $10.40 for those living in London.

The three are Bishop Bruce Cameron of Aberdeen, head of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop Barry Morgan of Llandaff, Wales, and Bishop John Austin of Aston, a suffragan see of the diocese of Birmingham, England.

“Clearly, my experience during the next 40 days will inevitably be somewhat artificial,” said Morgan. “After all, I live in a rent-free house, and the nature of my job means that I often get food to eat when attending functions or church events.

“Nevertheless, I hope that I will get some idea of the experience of having to live on a severely limited amount of disposable income and will consequently be able to identify more closely with those people for whom having to live on the minimum wage is a daily reality.”

More than 50 people have signed up to take part in this year’s minimum wage challenge campaign. Besides the three bishops they include two leading Methodists: the Rev. David Emison, chairman of the Cumbria district, and the Rev. Christina Le Moignan, chairwoman of the Birmingham district.

The movement has calculated how much disposable income those taking part should allow themselves each week, depending on their household circumstances.

These amounts take into account the means-tested benefits households relying on the minimum wage would be able to receive to bring their income up to a slightly less unacceptable level. Thus it is suggested that a household consisting simply of two adults both working should try to live on $217.60 a week, while this would go up to $243.20 if they had one child, $297.60 if they had two, and $356.80 if they had three.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

(RNS) “On homosexuality in general, my worry is that while we talk about particular bits of sexual ethics, we as Christians are in danger of losing the big cultural argument about sexuality; that it is a gift of God to be exercised in a way that shows God’s faithfulness and commitment.”

_ Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in an interview with London’s Daily Telegraph.

DEA END RNS