c. 2004 Religion News Service
Poll: Confidence in Organized Religion Inches Back Up
(RNS) The public’s confidence in organized religion has inched back up after reaching a historic low in 2002, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday (June 22).
The percentage of Americans who said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in “the church or organized religion” reached 53 percent in May, up from 50 percent last year.
Confidence sank to 45 percent in 2002 _ the lowest point since Gallup began polling on the subject in 1973. The drop-off “was probably driven largely by high-profile child sexual abuse scandals that shook the Catholic church,” said the Rev. Albert Winseman, Gallup’s religion and values editor.
“It appears that the public is now regaining confidence in the church and organized religion, albeit slowly,” he said in Gallup’s Tuesday Briefing report.
Winseman said other dramatic declines also coincided with scandals. Confidence dropped nine points from 1985 to 1986, which marked the beginning of the televangelist scandals. Likewise, Winseman attributed the 1993 six-point drop-off to revelations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Even though confidence is on the rise, the overall level is lower than the high of 68 percent Gallup measured in 1975. Confidence in religious organizations remained higher than confidence in any other organization until 1993. Since then, the military and the police have ranked higher.
_ Juliana Finucane
Kerry Says He Would Lift Bush Restrictions on Stem Cell Research
(RNS) Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry vowed to lift federal restrictions on funding stem cell research if he becomes president.
Kerry, campaigning Monday (June 21) in Denver, accused the Bush administration of disregarding sound scientific evidence about stem cells in favor of ideology.
“We need a president who will once again embrace our tradition of looking toward the future and new discoveries with hope based on scientific facts, not fear,” Kerry said, according to the Associated Press.
He also touted the endorsement he received from 48 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, who expressed their disappointment with the Bush administration’s handling of science and technology issues.
“The Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy-making that is so important to our collective welfare,” the scientists said in a joint letter. Kerry would “restore science to its appropriate place in government and bring it back to the White House,” they said.
Kerry echoed Nancy Reagan’s call to fund more research on Alzheimer’s Disease using stem cells. Kerry and 57 other senators signed a letter asking Bush to ease the federal funding restrictions on stem cell research he imposed by executive order in August 2001. Bush has rejected the proposal.
Stem cell research remains controversial because some cells may come from destroyed human embryos, a practice that some religious and other groups find ethically problematic.
However, a new survey shows that public support for stem cell research has grown in the aftermath of former President Reagan’s death. The Opinion Research Corporation survey showed that three-quarters of all Americans say they back Nancy Reagan’s call for lifting restrictions on stem cell research to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The high level of support is found across the religious spectrum, including in a majority of conservatives (62 percent), fundamentalists and evangelicals (62 percent) and moderates (79 percent).
_ Juliana Finucane
Survey Shows Unfamiliarity, Division Over Marriage Amendment
(RNS) More than one-third of U.S. adults surveyed were not aware of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and Americans in general are divided over their support for such a measure, a Barna poll shows.
The Senate is set to vote during the week of July 12 on a constitutional amendment that would declare marriage to be the union of a man and a woman. But the survey by the Barna Group of Ventura, Calif., shows that 37 percent of 1,618 adults had not heard of the proposal.
When the amendment was described to respondents, their opinions about it _ whether they were aware of it before or not _ were almost evenly divided. Forty-six percent said they favored such an amendment, while 44 percent were opposed to it. Ten percent had no opinion.
Among likely voters who support President Bush in the coming election, 54 percent strongly favor the amendment while 17 percent strongly oppose it. Forty-three percent of Sen. John Kerry’s supporters strongly oppose the amendment and 20 percent strongly favor it.
Undecided voters are more divided, with 35 percent strongly supporting the amendment and 32 percent strongly opposing it.
The nationwide survey of 1,618 randomly selected adults was conducted via the Internet and by telephone in late May, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. It included 1,260 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The following information is suitable for a graphic:
Views on Proposed Federal Marriage Amendment
Favor: 46 percent
Oppose: 44 percent
No opinion: 10 percent
Source: The Barna Group
_ Adelle M. Banks
Presbyterians Say Colombian Arrest Part of Intimidation Campaign
(RNS) A Colombian law student who works for a human rights office with ties to the Presbyterian Church in Colombia (PCC) has been arrested on charges the church claims are trumped up and part of a government-led intimidation campaign.
Mauricio Avilez Alvarez, 24, was arrested June 10, accused of collaboration with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC as it is known by its Spanish acronym. Avilez is charged in connection with a series of December bombings in the Colombian city of Barranquilla that injured 74 people, the Presbyterian News Service (PNS) reported.
In response, the Presbyterian Church in Colombia claims Avilez’s arrest is part of a campaign by the national government to intimidate groups which have opposed or publicly raised concerns about the security policies of President Alvaro Uribe.
“I think they (the government) are trying to find a connection between us and the FARC,” Mejia said, as quoted by PNS. The church opposes the kind of violence espoused by the FARC, he said.
Uribe’s policies are aimed at ending a brutal 40-year war in a country rife with human rights abuses. However, human rights organizations and other non-governmental groups, including churches, claim Uribe has unfairly linked them with groups such as the FARC.
Last week, Uribe angrily criticized the human rights organization Amnesty International for not immediately condemning a June 15 massacre the government said was committed by the FARC. Thirty-four people were killed in the massacre, which occurred in La Gabarra, some 300 miles northeast of Colombia’s capital of Bogota.
Amnesty said it would condemn the killings if the government accounts of the incident could be verified.
Church and human rights workers have been targets of killings and harassment by both left-wing groups and right-wing paramilitaries, and Colombian religious leaders recently testified before the U.S. Congress and said Uribe’s policies are jeopardizing the work of church workers and their supporters.
Avilez works in a human rights office that has ties with a number of non-governmental groups including the Presbyterian Church, and his arrest is the latest in a series of problems for the Colombian denomination, which has ties to the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In May, Milton Mejia, the executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, asked the Presbyterian Church (USA) for assistance and “accompaniment” by U.S. church personnel in Colombia. The U.S. denomination is still considering the request.
_ Chris Herlinger
`Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly’ Receives Renewed Funding
(RNS) The PBS newsmagazine program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” has received renewed funding from the Lilly Endowment for its eighth season, Thirteen/WNET New York has announced.
The Indianapolis-based foundation has committed $6.25 million to the 52-week series. Mutual of America Life Insurance Company and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are providing additional funding.
“Issues of religion and faith are of great importance to millions of Americans, yet they are left largely unexplored by the media,” said William F. Baker, president of Thirteen, in a statement. “These generous grants confirm our vision that `Religion & Ethics Newsweekly’ is a uniquely valuable contribution to American television.”
The half-hour show, which airs on more than 250 PBS stations nationwide, will begin its new season on Sept. 3.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz
(RNS) “… The blast from Indianapolis was like a bombshell in a crowded building. Millions of Baptists have been spiritually hurt, their witness maimed and our good name besmirched.”
_ Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz, in a statement issued almost a week after the Southern Baptist Convention voted in Indianapolis to remove its membership and funding from the global group. While Southern Baptists cited reasons they think the alliance has a “leftward drift,” alliance supporters said the group was falsely accused.
KRE END RNS
