c. 2005 Religion News Service

Religious Leaders Urge Bush to Address Middle East Conflict

(RNS) Representing 28 religious organizations, a diverse group of leaders appealed Thursday (Jan. 13) to President Bush to make every effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his second term.

The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East _ made up of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders _ requested that the administration appoint a special presidential envoy to the region and negotiate a timeline for steps to be taken by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority.

In a news conference at the National Press Club, the leaders also called for increased international economic aid to improve security and promote development for the Palestinian people.

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), said the Bush administration should ramp up its involvement in the Middle East, from making visits to sending a presidential envoy.

“That kind of high level presence is exactly what we need,” he said.

The leaders also want to meet with the president.

“There is a real opportunity for America to make a difference,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism. “We are here to do everything we can from the broad range of grass-roots support that we have.”

On the day the appeal was announced, supporters gathered in 15 cities across the country.

The appeal includes leaders from a cross-section of religious life, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, World Vision, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Islamic Society of North America.

“One of the very significant things about this initiative is that it involves a growing number of Christian evangelical leaders,” said Ron Young, executive director of the Interreligious Committee for Peace. Young said while evangelicals are perceived as pro-Israel and unsympathetic to Palestinians, many leaders are in favor of a peaceful resolution with a two-state solution.

_ Celeste Kennel-Shank

Surveys: Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal Hasn’t Hurt Attendance

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal has not significantly affected Mass attendance among adult churchgoers, a series of surveys has found.

Ten telephone polls conducted by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate show about one-third of Catholics attend Mass every week, roughly the same number that attended before the scandal erupted.

The poll findings, which were gathered from September 2000, before the scandal rocked the church, until September 2004, contradict notions that the sex abuse allegations decreased weekly Mass attendance.

There has, however, been a long-range decline in attendance at Catholic churches and other houses of worship, but studies have attributed that to generational and attitudinal changes.

“This experience has not been uniquely Catholic _ or even religious,” said Mark Gray, a research associate at the Washington-based research center. “There are all sorts of social and civic organizations and activities that show some declining trends.”

The Georgetown study found that pre-Vatican II Catholics, born before 1943, tend to have the most loyalty to the Catholic Church, and have the highest levels of weekly Mass attendance at 52 percent. The Second Vatican Council, convened in 1962, met to reconcile various factions of the Catholic Church and promoted spiritual renewal among the faithful.

The margin of error for the polls ranged from plus or minus 2.2 percentage points to plus or minus 4.4 points.

_ Andrea James

Sudan’s Churches Say Resources Needed to Resettle Refugees

(RNS) Sudanese church leaders have said they are ready to receive millions of refugees who will return home now that a final peace agreement has been signed between the government in Khartoum and southern Sudanese rebels.

But they said massive amounts of resources will be needed to resettle all the returnees, reported Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program of the United Nations launched a $302 million emergency appeal to feed 3.2 million Sudanese.

According to the WFP, some 268,000 metric tons of food will be required for people affected by war and drought, primarily in south Sudan.

Two decades of war in the south, which ended Jan. 9 with the signing of peace accords between the government and southern rebels, left some 2 million people dead and 4 million displaced.

“They don’t have homes, they don’t have food,” Archbishop Joseph Marona of the Episcopal Church of Sudan told the news agency. “Our challenge is how we can resettle them,” he said of the displaced.

Retired Roman Catholic Bishop Paride Taban of the Diocese of Torit in southern Sudan said refugees had already started returning home before the signing of the Jan. 9 agreement.

“We find the roads full of refugees returning without being told to go home,” he told ENI.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the main rebel group in the south which will now be integrated into the government, said it will require $1 billion a year for the next six years to return, resettle and re-integrate the refugees.

The United States has said it will increase its aid to Sudan to $200 million. The European Union has pledged $526 million and Britain said it will channel $94 million through the United Nations for rebuilding Sudan.

In a separate development, six major aid agencies working in Sudan, most of them British based, called on the international community to ensure that the fledgling peace agreement is implemented.

“For millions of displaced people, it (the peace accord) will signal the start of their journey home,” said Cynthia Gaigals, a spokeswoman for the six agencies.

The agencies were CARE International, Christian Aid, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam International, Save the Children UK, and Tearfund.

_ David E. Anderson

Gallup: Billy Graham Among Men Named `Most Admired’ _ For 48th Time

(RNS) A Gallup survey shows that the Rev. Billy Graham was one of the 10 most admired men of 2004, giving the evangelist a record 48 years in which he has made Gallup’s annual listing.

Graham has made the most appearances on a list that has been released by the polling organization since 1948. The late Ronald Reagan is second with 31, followed by Pope John Paul II with 27.

The Gallup Organization attributed the numerous listings to the fact that individuals topping their lists have lived a long time and been in view of the public for many years. Each year’s list includes people who are alive at the time of the poll.

The latest poll, taken Dec. 17-19, asked Americans to name, without prompting, the most admired man in 2004. President Bush topped the list with 23 percent naming him, followed by former President Bill Clinton (named by 6 percent), Secretary of State Colin Powell (named by 5 percent) and former President Jimmy Carter (named by 4 percent). Both Graham and the pope were named by 3 percent of the people, putting them 5th and 6th on the list of most admired men in 2004.

The U.S. president usually is cited as the most admired man. The Gallup Organization said the last time a president did not make it to the top of the list was in 1980. In that year, Pope John Paul II received the top ranking.

The nationwide poll results were based on telephone interviews with 1,002 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Some British Christians Offended by “Jerry Springer _ The Opera”

LONDON (RNS) The BBC’s decision to broadcast a recording of the hit West End show “Jerry Springer _ The Opera” has aroused strong reaction from some British Christians.

Even before the television show was broadcast at 10 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 8), the BBC received 47,000 complaints. Two groups, Christian Voice and Mediawatch, encouraged viewers to complain.

The decision to broadcast the program was defended by the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, who is a Roman Catholic. “I am a practicing Christian, but there is nothing in this which I believe to be blasphemous,” he said.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper lined up a panel of five commentators to watch the show. Two _ Stephen Green, director of Christian Voice, and Pippa Smith, representing Mediawatch, found it offensive. Two others _ Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, and Terry Sanderson, of the National Secular Society, were quite happy with it.

The fifth member of the panel was the evangelical Anglican columnist and broadcaster Anne Atkins, whose overwhelming reaction was one of “incredible boredom.”

The broadcast attracted an audience of more than 1.7 million, compared to an audience of about one million for opera broadcasts. Since Saturday night’s screening, the BBC has received 900 complaints and 500 messages of support.

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Vernon Brewer, President of WorldHelp

(RNS) “These are children who are unclaimed or unwanted. We are not trying to rip them apart from any existing family members and change their culture and change their customs. These children are going to be raised in a Christian environment. That’s no guarantee they will choose to be Christians.”

_ The Rev. Vernon Brewer, president of WorldHelp, a missionary group in Forest, Va., that airlifted 300 orphans from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Jakarta, Indonesia, where they will be raised in a Christian children’s home. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

MO/JL RNS END