c. 2004 Religion News Service
Study: More `Declining’ Southern Baptist Churches
(RNS) The percentage of Southern Baptist churches that can be described as “declining” has increased in the last two decades, a church growth study has found.
The Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary found that 23.9 percent of churches aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention churches in the period ending in 2003 were declining compared to 17.6 percent in the period ending in 1983.
A declining church is defined as one that saw a decrease in its total membership of 10 percent or more in a five-year period.
“The passion for conversion growth appears to be fading at every level of the SBC,” concluded Bill Day, associate director of the center at the seminary in New Orleans. “The SBC is moving from plateau to decline.”
A growing church is defined as one that had an increase in total membership of 10 percent or more in a five-year period. Plateaued churches are those that do not fit in either the growing or the declining category.
The Leavell Center study found that the percentage of growing churches has not changed significantly in the last 20 years. In the period ending in 2003, 30.3 percent of Southern Baptist churches were designated as growing compared to 30.5 percent in the period ending in 1983.
But the number of plateaued churches has decreased _ from 51.9 percent at the end of 1983 to 45.8 percent at the end of 2003.
In other findings, Day reported that churches with more than 5,000 members are almost twice as likely to be growing congregations as churches of other sizes. The study also found that more than 30 percent of congregations 10 years old or younger are considered to be growing.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Israeli Women Still Cannot Get a Divorce Without Husband’s Approval
JERUSALEM (RNS) The Israeli parliament on Wednesday (Dec. 1) shot down a bill that would have enabled Jewish women to get a divorce if their husbands cannot or will not agree to ending the marriage.
Several thousand Jewish women around the world are believed to be “chained” to their husbands. A minority of these women, called “agunot,” are married to men who disappeared during a war, terror attack, or natural disaster. The remainder are married to men who simply refuse to grant them a divorce.
Many husbands try to extort exhorbitant amounts of money from their wives or demand full custody of their children in return for a “get,” a Jewish divorce contract.
Without this document, Jewish women are unable to remarry or bear children outside their marriage, according to Jewish law.
The bill would have provided an automatic divorce within a year for Israeli agunot, provided a rabbinical court had first ruled that the husband must grant her a divorce. Israel has no civil marriage or divorce, so all Jewish couples seeking a divorce must do so through the Orthodox-run rabbinical courts.
The bill was defeated by 48-24, largely because the two ultra-Orthodox political parties in the Knesset said it did not adhere to Jewish law. According to most top rabbis, a man cannot be forced into granting a woman a divorce, although sanctions can be placed against him.
In a surprise move, some secular Jews also voted against the bill. Two prominent members of the secular Shinui Party rejected it because their objective is to introduce civil marriage and divorce to Israel and thereby wrest control of life-cycle events from the Orthodox establishment.
In an interview with RNS, Alice Shalvi, a prominent religious Israeli feminist and former chairwoman of Israel Women’s Network, criticized both religious and secular parliamentarians for not “sufficiently taking into account the plight of these women, who are living in a limbo of being neither married nor divorced, and at the same time totally unable to remarry and continue living a normal life.
“While I realize that the ultimate aim must be to achieve the possiblity of civil marirage and divorce for those who want it,” Shalvi continued, “until that goal is achieved _ which may take many years _ the best thing would be to alleviate the current unbearable situation.”
_ Michele Chabin
First U.S. Muslim Cable Network Debuts
(RNS) With American Muslims an untapped television market and heightened interest in Islam among non-Muslims, the first-ever American Muslim television network has begun broadcasting nationwide.
Many American Muslims have anxiously awaited the debut as a signal that Muslims are gaining recognition and acceptance on the American cultural landscape.
“Bridges TV,” the brainchild of New York businessman Muzzammil S. Hassan, is directed at English-speaking Muslims or those of Muslim descent. Hassan claims that there are 8 million such Muslims, evenly divided among those of Arab, South Asian, African-American and “Other” descent.
Other statistics cite figures of between 2.5 and 6 million Muslims in the United States.
The network launched Tuesday (Nov. 30) with a news program, “Bridges News,” which is hosted by a former NBC producer, and will offer other shows including sitcoms, cooking shows, movies and talk shows.
More than 10,000 Muslims paid a monthly fee over the past year to support the nascent network before it began broadcasting, says Hassan. They are motivated, he said, by a desire to be considered part of the cultural mainstream. He said they also want to challenge commonly held misconceptions about the world’s second-largest religion.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Church-State Separatists Sue Over Funding of Calif. Missions
(RNS) A church-state separationist group has filed suit to try to halt a new law calling for the distribution of taxpayer funds for the historical preservation of California mission churches.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based watchdog group, filed the suit Thursday (Dec. 2) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, two days after President Bush signed the California Missions Preservation Act into law.
The act authorizes the secretary of the interior to provide up to $10 million in financial assistance over a five-year period to the California Missions Foundation to restore and repair 21 Spanish colonial missions in the state.
Americans United lawyers have asked the court to declare the act unconstitutional because they believe it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
“Houses of worship must be maintained by their members, not the federal government,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the watchdog group, in a statement. “All but two of these missions house active congregations and hold regular worship services. They are not museums.”
Americans United sued on behalf of four California taxpayers _ a Unitarian Universalist, a Jew, a freethinker and a Buddhist, all of whom say they are offended by the use of tax dollars “in a non-neutral fashion to support government-designated houses of worship,” the suit says.
Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray said providing funds to historic religious sites is part of the work of the federal government, which has funded such buildings as Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Boston’s Old North Church, which played a role in American independence.
“The protection of historic sites across America is at the very heart of the Department of the Interior and its National Park Service,” DuBray told Religion News Service.
“A number of the key sites of our nation’s historic heritage also richly reflect our nation’s spiritual heritage.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jury Defrocks Openly Gay Methodist Minister
(RNS) A United Methodist bishop said Friday (Nov. 3) it’s time for the church to “move on in our ministry” after a gay pastor in his conference was defrocked for violating a church ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
Bishop Marcus Matthews of Philadelphia urged the church to accept the guilty verdict against one of his ministers, the Rev. Irene “Beth” Stroud, the second United Methodist clergwoman in 17 years to lose her ministerial license because she is openly gay.
“No matter what our individual views are on the issue of homosexuality, we owe the members of the trial court our word of thanks,” Matthews said in a statement issued Friday.
“Theirs was a difficult task where answers do not always appear clearly or quickly. We must respect the decision of the trial court and move on in our ministry.”
Stroud, 34, was convicted Thursday (Nov. 2) in a 12-1 vote by a jury of her peers for engaging in “practices incompatible with Christian teachings.” The jury later voted 7-6 to revoke her ministerial credentials.
Stroud outed herself in a sermon last year, forcing her bishop to file charges. Her conviction is the first since the church’s highest court tightened rules regarding gay clergy after another lesbian pastor in Washington state was acquitted last March.
The only other Methodist pastor to be convicted and defrocked was the Rev. Rose Mary Denman, in 1987.
The Rev. Fred Day, senior pastor of Philadelphia’s First United Methodist Church of Germantown, said Stroud will continue to oversee youth ministries at the church, but will no longer be allowed to administer church sacraments.
“Beth is deeply disappointed but as always is faithful and grounded in God’s unconditional love,” Day said.
Following the verdict, members of the pro-gay group Soulforce broke into choruses of “We Are a Gentle, Angry People” as Stroud’s family embraced. Soulforce called the trial an act of “spiritual violence.”
“The United Methodist Church’s deceptive marketing slogan is `Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,’ but the church’s heart, mind and doors are not open to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people,” said Soulforce spokeswoman Laura Montgomery Rutt.
Conservatives welcomed the verdict as a strong defense of church teaching. “In a culture awash with sexual confusion … it is especially important for the church to make a clear witness about sexual ethics,” said Mark Tooley, director of the Methodist program of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Ads Rejected by Networks Fueling Interest in UCC, Church Says
(RNS) Materials for a United Church of Christ ad campaign that was rejected by CBS and NBC as “too controversial” have been “flying off the shelves,” church officials said.
A 30-second spot featuring beefy bouncers outside a church denying entry to various people, including a gay couple, has received wide support after the networks rejected the ad.
“Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we,” the ad said. NBC rejected the ad as “too controversial” while CBS officials said it was too political in the context of the current national debate over a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
“We’ve got everything, and everything is just flying off the shelves,” said Marie Tyson, the distribution manager at the church’s warehouse in Berea, Ohio. Tyson said churches are ordering record numbers of shirts, mugs, decals, stickers, postcards, letterhead and banners that were produced as part of the church’s $1.7 million “Still Speaking” ad campaign.
“We’re just coming in every day, saying, `How is God going to speak today?’ But we’re enjoying it, because we’ve never seen anything like it. Our churches are so excited, so proud.”
The networks’ refusal to broadcast the ad has been criticized by gay rights groups, the Interfaith Alliance, other churches, the Washington office of Reform Judaism and a coalition of church communications executives.
“Church doors are open to all who would come, but broadcast channels are increasingly closed to all but the wealthy and well-connected,” said a statement from the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches.
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which shares the UCC’s support of gay rights, said, “People of good will must not allow the rhetoric of bigotry to drown out the voices who bring a message of faith, hope and inclusiveness.”
At least one church group, the conservative Association for Church Renewal, has urged the UCC to withdraw the ads. Diane Knippers, vice chair of the evangelical alliance, said the ads are demeaning to other churches.
The ad “tries to boost the UCC by maligning all the other churches,” she said. “It insinuates that the typical American church turns away ethnic minorities, the disabled and homosexuals, whereas the UCC is uniquely welcoming of all persons. The facts do not bear out this false picture.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Mormon Tabernacle Choir Skips Overseas Tours, Cites Security Concerns
(RNS) The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has canceled a scheduled European tour next year due to concerns about terrorism.
The choir, which was going to make a summer tour of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, will make stops across the northwestern United States instead, the Associated Press reported.
The change in plans for the 360-voice group came after Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, decided the trip would make the singers an easy target for terrorists.
Initially the trip was changed to different European countries, but that was also determined to be too risky. Instead, the choir will tour northern California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Idaho.
The choir has made 11 international tours, visiting Canada, Brazil, Central America, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Israel and the former Soviet Union. Its first trip outside Utah was to Chicago in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition.
Scholar of Jonathan Edwards Wins 2004 Grawemeyer Award
(RNS) A Notre Dame professor who wrote a definitive biography on 18th century colonial preacher Jonathan Edwards has won the prestigious 2005 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
George M. Marsden was awarded the prestigious honor for his biography of the colonial preacher and theologian, who is considered to be one of the most important American theologians and orators.
“We need to use history for the guidance it offers, learning from great figures in the past _ both in their brilliance and in their shortcomings,” Marsden said in a written statement. “Otherwise we are stuck with the wisdom of the present.”
Edwards is most famous for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but that sermon is often misunderstood and taken out of the context of Edwards’ complex life and thought, said award coordinator Susan R. Garrett, professor of New Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Marsden offers a much more rounded and nuanced picture of Edwards, Garrett said.
Marsden has served as the Francis A. McAnaney professor of history at Notre Dame University since 1992. He is an expert on the history and present state of fundamentalism in America and the culture of American university education. His 2003 biography of Edwards, entitled “Jonathan Edwards: A Life,” is one of more than a dozen books he has published.
The annual religion award includes a cash prize of $200,000 and is given jointly by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville. The university also presented awards this week in music composition, education, psychology and improving world order.
_ Itir Yakar
Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Wash., Third to File for Bankruptcy
(RNS) In an expected move, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Wash., filed for bankruptcy protection Monday (Dec. 6) to grapple with sexual abuse claims.
Bishop William S. Skylstad announced in mid-November that the diocese planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being unable to settle sexual abuse claims with alleged victims. The filing makes Spokane the third diocese in U.S. history to make such a move, following dioceses in Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz.
The Spokane diocese faces claims totaling some $77 million and Skylstad said the bankruptcy provides the best way to make sure victims are treated fairly and the church continues its work, the Associated Press reported.
“Demands by plaintiffs continue to be beyond the ability of the diocese to meet,” said Skylstad, who was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November.
The filing comes less than a week after a California diocese reached what is believed to be the largest settlement of claims involving sexual abuse by priests and other church staffers. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Diocese of Orange settled claims Thursday with 87 people, pledging a sum expected to exceed the $85 million record payment to plaintiffs in the Boston archdiocese in 2003.
Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange called the settlement “both fair and compassionate” and said he planned to write a letter to each victim “personally seeking forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Skylstad wrote a letter to victims on the same day that the Spokane diocese made the bankruptcy filing.
“I pray for the day your trust in God and, if possible, the church, is restored,” he wrote in a letter posted on his diocese’s Web site. “In response to this tragedy that you have endured, I extend to you my profound sorrow.”
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the bankruptcy reduces opportunities for openness and reconciliation.
“Everyone suffers when Skylstad chooses to protect his secrets and his image rather than show courage and compassion,” he said in a statement.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Week: Jewish Cub Scout Jarrett Taxman
(RNS) “There’s some Jewish troops in Iraq that are maybe the only ones in their unit. It’s really hard to celebrate if you’re the only one.”
_ Jarrett Taxman, 11, a member of Cub Scout Pack 1190 from Congregation Emanu El in Houston who played his guitar outside a local bagel shop to help raise money to send Hanukkah supplies to soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
KRE END RNS