c. 2005 Religion News Service Study Shows Religious Giving Increased 2 Percent in 2004 (RNS) Donations to religious congregations in the United States rose by nearly 2 percent last year, to an estimated $88 billion, according to a new study. The Giving USA Foundation annual report, released Monday (June 13), divides contributions into 10 categories, including the arts, international aid and education. But the category called “religious organizations” outpaced them all, as it traditionally does. “It reflects how important religion is to Americans,” said Richard Jolly, vice chair of Giving USA, in an interview. Of all the giving categories, religion, he said, is “probably the closest” to donors because it impacts them as individuals. Charitable contributions overall were at a record high last year, increasing by 5 percent to an estimated $248.5 billion. Most donations flowing to the year’s biggest disaster, the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami, will be included with figures for 2005. In 2004, tsunami relief represented less than half of 1 percent of all contributions. The Giving USA report includes contributions from foundations, corporations, individual donors and bequests. Individuals gave 76 percent of the total. “Religious organizations” include donations made to individual congregations, national offices of religious groups and religious media. Donations to faith-based groups that provide education, health care and other services are tallied with other sectors. The Giving USA report is compiled annually by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. It is based on surveys of organizations, information from research institutions, tax data and government estimates of economic indicators. _ Nancy Glass Conservative Christian Groups Denounce .xxx Internet Domain (RNS) Saying it will create an online “red light district,” conservative Christian groups are opposing the proposed creation of a new adult-oriented domain with Web addresses ending with “.xxx.” “This idea has been kicked around for several years and the only possible winners are in the porn industry,” said Jan LaRue, chief counsel of the Washington-based Concerned Women for America, a public policy organization. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Internet addressing system, announced last week that it will allow ICM Registry Inc. to launch the voluntary adult domain “.xxx.” The Family Research Council, a social policy group in Washington that focuses on marriage and family, echoed similar concerns of religious conservatives. “The `.xxx’ domain … cloaks the porn industry with legitimacy,” said Patrick Trueman, FRC’s senior legal counsel. “The industry will have a place at the table in developing and maintaining their new property.” According to ICM, the new domain “will create a clearly identifiable area of the Internet that will empower families and help protect children and others from unwanted or inappropriate content.” But, Trueman said, a “virtual red light district” may deter law enforcement from cracking down on obscenity cases since the domain is supposed to be for adults only. Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality at the Colorado-based advocacy group Focus on the Family, agreed that creating more online pornography is not the answer. He said it was “ridiculous” that supporters of the domain believe “proliferating pornography is somehow going to protect children from pornography.” Ten percent of all Internet searches are pornography-related and there are more than 100,000 adult webmasters and 1 million adult domains worldwide, according to the ICM Web site. Still, proponents of “.xxx” say it’s too early to decide whether it will be a successful tool for concerned parents. “The problem is we’re commenting before the rules have been set,” said Parry Aftab, founder of WiredSaftey, a nonprofit group that surveys the Internet for pornographic sites. Aftab, who once opposed the “.xxx” domain, says she’s most concerned about the children who inadvertently find adult-themed sites by typing in addresses like whitehouse.com, which once led to a pornographic site, not the president’s home in Washington. If adult-themed sites move to .xxx, which plans to provide business incentives like additional e-commerce security, then parents can easily block the entire domain, Aftab said. ICM, the company that will approve all .xxx applicants, says that the new domain will be self-organized and self-regulated by “responsible adult-entertainment Web site operators.” But LaRue said this is an industry that has shown little regard for protecting children from harmful images. “Because it’s voluntary, the porn site operators have the best of both worlds,” she said. “They can double their pleasure, double their fun by locating on this domain and remain on any of the other domains on which they’re registered.” _ Helena Andrews Cafe Fined for Refusing to Provide Kosher Coffee Cup to Orthodox Jew NEW YORK (RNS) New York City’s Division of Human Rights has fined a Manhattan eatery for refusing to accommodate the dietary needs of an Orthodox Jew who did not want to drink from a nonkosher coffee cup. According to a report in the New York Daily News, the Nations Cafe was ordered June 2 to pay Israel Steinberg, a congregational rabbi from Brooklyn, $500 for an incident dating back to 1992. At the time, Steinberg had requested a disposable cup so as not to violate kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. In his complaint, the rabbi said that a waiter instructed him to either use a porcelain cup or leave the establishment. The restaurant’s porcelain dishes were not kosher. Steinberg, a Holocaust survivor, told the Daily News that the waiter had “embarrassed and ridiculed me because I’m Jewish, in front of all the customers.” When Steinberg told the waiter that his actions were illegal, the waiter replied “Get out, you (expletive deleted) Jew.” In order to investigate the complaint, a staffer from the Division of Human Rights posed as an Orthodox Jew and requested a disposable cup from the restaurant. He, too, met with anti-Semitism. The restaurant has been under different management since 2000. _ Michele Chabin Pope Benedict XVI Pledges Better Catholic-Jewish Relations VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI pledged at a cordial meeting with Jewish leaders Thursday (June 9) that the Catholic Church will remember the Holocaust as it seeks to improve relations with Jews. The German-born pontiff spoke at a private audience with a 25-member delegation from the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations. Rabbi David Rosen, international director for inter-religious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, said the fact that Benedict gave the first interfaith audience of his papacy to the group testified to his desire to continue “very special relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.” “On a personal level, the degree of warmth and affection that the pope showed to us at the meeting was truly remarkable,” Rosen told reporters. He also remarked on the informality with which Benedict personally greeted each representative. Addressing the delegation members as “distinguished guests, dear friends,” the pope said the church is “firmly committed” to implementing the “decisive teaching” of the Declaration Nostra Aetate issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. That teaching, he noted, “called for greater mutual understanding and esteem between Christians and Jews and deplored all manifestations of hatred, persecution and anti-Semitism.” Popes Paul VI and John Paul II took “significant steps toward improving relations with the Jewish people,” the pope said. “It is my intention to continue on this path.” Benedict called remembrance of the “complex and often painful” past a “moral imperative.” He said this “must include a continued reflection on the profound historical, moral and theological questions presented by the experiences of the Shoah,” or Holocaust, the World War II killing of an estimated 6 million Jews by the Nazis. _ Peggy Polk Canadian Church Wants Moratorium on Genetically Modified Foods TORONTO (RNS) The United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, has called for an “immediate” moratorium on the approval of new genetically modified foods. The church wants a “more rigorous and independent system of approving, regulating, monitoring and labeling GM foods.” In a letter sent this week to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, the church outlined the genetically modified food policy approved recently by its General Council executive. The recommendations include the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods; guaranteeing the right of farmers to save, reuse and exchange seeds; and guaranteeing that Canada’s trade and food aid policies do not promote _ directly or indirectly _ the adoption of GM foods in countries that have not explicitly chosen to do so. “Our concern with genetically modified foods is not what we know about their safety, but rather what we don’t know,” says Mark Hathaway, the United Church of Canada’s program officer for biotechnology and food security. In 2001, Canada’s parliament defeated a bill that would have required mandatory labeling of genetically altered foods. Ottawa’s policy is that such foods are just as safe as conventional foods. Food must be labeled in Canada if it is pasteurized, irradiated or contains possible allergens such as peanuts. About 60 percent of Canada’s processed foods contain some genetic modifications. The United Church, which represents some 3 million Canadians, says some aspects of GM technology “should simply be prohibited” because they pose “significant” health and ecological risks. It cites the use of GM food crops to produce drugs and hormones that could harm humans or animals if consumed unintentionally. The church says a moratorium should remain in place until a new independent agency and regulatory regime for GM foods have been implemented, and all GM foods that are currently approved for consumption have been retested. _ Ron Csillag Tulsa Zoo to Add Exhibit Depicting Biblical Account of Creation (RNS) Faced with a citizen’s complaint about a 5-foot elephant statue depicting Ganesha, the Hindu god of success, the Tulsa Zoo (Okla.) plans to add an exhibit including the biblical account of creation. Ross Weller, administration manager for the Tulsa Park and Recreation Department, said in an interview Thursday (June 9) the new exhibit will feature the Bible story as well as “the predominant creation stories from other cultures.” Asked what those other cultural representations would be, Weller chuckled and said, “It’s going to take some research on the zoo staff’s part to try and discover.” The controversy erupted after Tulsa resident and Christian activist Dan Hicks told the Park and Recreation Board, which oversees the zoo, that the 10-year-old elephant exhibit was religious, not educational. After 21/2 hours of discussion that drew comments from 27 speakers, the board voted 3-1 this week (June 7) to approve the new creation exhibit. “I think this decision by the Park and Recreation Board is a victory for the citizens of Tulsa, because the majority view of creation is now going to be represented at the Tulsa Zoo,” Hicks told The Daily Oklahoman. “To present both sides of the story, that’s education. We certainly hope the Tulsa Zoo is interested in education.” Hicks first complained about a zoo exhibit showing a time line of world history through scientific theory, Weller said. The new creation exhibit will be put next to that display, he said. Another concern for critics was a large marble globe at the zoo entrance, which they said evoked American Indian religion with the message “The earth is our mother, the sky is our father.” But the Washington-based American Humanist Association said the new biblical exhibit will violate the First Amendment ban on government promotion of religion. “There is no comparison between what this deliberate religious display conveys to impressionable children and existing cultural religious references at the zoo,” the association’s executive director, Tony Hileman, said in a statement issued Wednesday (June 8). _ Bobby Ross Jr. Creator of Easy-to-Read Bible Dies (RNS) Kenneth Taylor, creator of the easy-to-read Living Bible, died of heart failure Friday (June 10). He was 88. “We’ve lost a giant,” said Eugene Habecker, president of the New York-based American Bible Society. “This was a gentleman who has made a massive impact on the church.” The Living Bible was a paraphrase of Scripture. With a master’s degree in theology, Taylor began interpreting the Bible in the 1960s so his children, confused by the popular King James translation, could read and understand it. Unable to interest any publishing companies, he founded Tyndale House, which published the Living Bible in 1971. For the next three years, Taylor’s paraphrase was the best-selling book in the United States, and Tyndale House became one of the country’s largest Christian publishers. Born in Portland, Ore., in 1917, Taylor was the son of a Presbyterian pastor. He received a doctorate of theology from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1944 and began to paraphrase the Bible while commuting by train to his job at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Evangelist Billy Graham gave Taylor a major boost early on by distributing “Living Letters,” Taylor’s version of books in the New Testament, to audiences at Graham’s crusades. Some scholars criticized Taylor’s paraphrase for changing the original meaning of the Bible. Tyndale House published a revision of the Living Bible in 1966. The newer version, called the New Living Translation, retained the conversational style of Taylor’s original, but only after consulting a board of biblical scholars. While Mary is “great with child” in the King James Version (Luke 2:5), Joseph’s “fiancee” is “obviously pregnant” in the New Living Translation. The Living Bible sold more than 40 million copies and was translated into more than 100 languages. Taylor also founded the Christian Booksellers Association, the trade association of the Christian publishing industry, in 1950. One of Taylor’s sons, Mark, is now president of Tyndale House, based in Wheaton, Ill., best known in recent years for publishing the successful “Left Behind” series. Taylor died in Wheaton and is survived by his wife and 10 children. _ Nancy Glass Update: Scrutiny Continues of Evangelical Climate at Air Force Academy
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS) Accusations that evangelical Christians have been too aggressive at the Air Force Academy have been heard by the Academy’s superintendent, who says the problem “is something that keeps me awake at night.”
Pressure to change has increased on Lt. Gen. John Rosa, the Academy’s superintendent, who says he wants “to create a climate of respect for people and culture in the United States Air Force.”
A Tuesday (June 14) editorial in the Denver Post praised Rosa for publicly recognizing a problem while describing him as “the right man at the right place at the right time.” It’s unclear, however, if Rosa will stay at the Academy. He’s a finalist to become president of The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.
Rosa made his first public comments on the accusations at a June 3 meeting of the Anti-Defamation League in Michigan. Rosa, a Catholic, said evangelical football coach Fisher DeBerry’s outspoken religiosity was “clearly over the line,” and he also criticized the Academy’s second in command, Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida.
Weida, an evangelical who came to the Academy in 2003 following a sex scandal at the institution, is now under investigation by the Air Force for his outspoken promotion of faith. The investigation was revealed last week in a letter from acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez to Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif.
Capps is one of 45 House members who wrote a letter to Dominguez last month urging him to investigate claims of religious bias at the Academy. House Appropriations Committee members have also amended defense spending bills to require the correction of religious abuses at the Academy.
These developments have encouraged critics of the Academy who have long argued that problems there represent much more than the overzealousness of a few, but point to systemic issues that reach to the top of the chain of command.
Among the most outspoken critics is advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which opposes most government funding of military chaplains and other faith-based activities.
“Early on we were worried that conservatives in Congress and some of the religious right organizations would pressure the Air Force to back off and to not be aggressive about the complaints,” said Americans United spokesman Rob Boston. “Rosa’s comments are especially significant because he admits there is a problem. He knows that any type of cover-up or whitewash will be unacceptable.”
_ Steve Rabey
Wittenburg Door Magazine Picks Its Own Editors as `Biggest Loser’
(RNS) The Wittenburg Door, a religious satire magazine known for poking fun at the pious, has named its “Biggest Loser” just in time for its 200th issue in July.
In true Door fashion, it’s the bimonthly magazine’s own editors.
Senior Editor Robert Darden said the editorial staff narrowly edged several contenders, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, cited for his “amoral exploitation of the tragic Terri Schiavo case on `religious’ grounds.”
Also considered were Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, for his “creepy, unabashed pursuit of the papacy,” and the “Usual Suspects: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn.”
“We examined liberals and conservatives, Catholics and Protestants, Evangelicals and Calvinists,” Darden wrote in a cover story for the July issue. “We took notes, tallied votes and scratched our throats over dark horse candidates like Al Mohler, Supreme (sic) Joseph Scalia, the pastors of a couple of megachurches, and SpongeBob himself.”
But when all facts were considered, the editors realized that they had no choice but to award the Loser tag to themselves, he said.
“We’ve failed in virtually everything we’ve attempted over the past 200 issues,” Darden explains. “What’s better now than it was when The Wittenburg Door started 200 issues ago? We haven’t changed a thing.”
The magazine began in California in 1971 as a forum for questioning and redressing problems in the church. The founders intended its namesake to be the Wittenberg Door, upon which Martin Luther sparked the Reformation by posting his 95 theses.
When Wittenberg was inadvertently misspelled in the magazine title, the founders decided it was God’s way of telling them that humor and satire would be their medium.
Twenty-five years later, Mike Yaconelli handed publishing duties to Trinity Foundation Inc. of Dallas and its president, Ole Anthony.
Since then, Anthony has melded Trinity’s work with the homeless in inner-city Dallas and the magazine, which regularly roasts televangelists and tries to evoke awareness of social issues.
“I suspect that down the road we’ll be forced _ for one faux paux or another _ to name ourselves Losers again,” the cover story says. “And with a little luck, and a whole LOT of grace, we’ll see you again in about 60 or days or so.”
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
Quote of the Week: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean
(RNS) “You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They’re a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. … It’s pretty much a white Christian party.”
_ Howard Dean, former presidential hopeful and Vermont governor, speaking at a roundtable event Monday (June 6) with minority leaders and journalists in San Francisco. He was quoted by The San Francisco Chronicle.
MO/PH END RNS
