c. 2007 Religion News Service

Canadian Lutherans Say No to Same-Sex Blessings

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (RNS) Susan Johnson, elected Friday (June 22) as the first female National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, says she’s “really disappointed” her denomination defeated a motion to bless same-sex relationships.

On Saturday (June 23), 52.5 percent of delegates to the biennial national gathering of the 175,000-member church voted against allowing local congregations to offer the rites of blessing to same-gender couples.

(The Anglican Church of Canada, also meeting here, narrowly defeated a similar measure at its General Synod on Sunday).

The Lutheran motion was similar to one that delegates narrowly defeated two years ago. It would have encouraged Canadian regions, called synods, to figure out how “to best minister to people who live in committed same-sex relationships, including the possibility of blessing same-sex unions.”

Johnson, whose Eastern Synod diocese initially proposed the same-sex motion, said she became a defender of the aspirations of gay and lesbian Christians after learning the intimate stories of their hopes and struggles.

“I got to know people as they are. And that that’s the way God made them. And that they’re doing their best to live out their discipleship,” she said.

If Canadian Lutherans had voted in favor of same-sex blessings, Johnson acknowledged, it would have caused “tension” within the global Lutheran church, which has roughly 66 million members.

As in the worldwide Anglican communion, opposition to same-sex blessings in North America has come most strongly from Lutherans in the developing world, particularly Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Since Canadian Lutherans are “not of one mind” on same-sex blessings, Johnson said it would have been fair to allow them to be approved on a region-by-region basis.

Johnson said she was “stunned” when she was elected Friday as the National Bishop, or top leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. She succeeds National Bishop Raymond Schultz, who retires in September.

“I honestly, honestly, did not expect this to happen.”

_ Douglas Todd

Poll: Trust in Organized Religion at Near-Record Low

(RNS) Americans trust the military and the police force significantly more than the church and organized religion, a new Gallup Poll says.

Only 46 percent of respondents said they had either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the church, compared with 69 percent who said they trusted the military and 54 percent who trust police officers.

The figures are among the lowest for institutionalized religion in the three and a half decades that Gallup has conducted the poll. Peaking at 68 percent in May 1975, the numbers bottomed out at 45 percent in June of 2003.

But while confidence is waning for organized religion, the numbers are even bleaker for other American institutions. Just 25 percent expressed confidence in the presidency, while a mere 14 percent say they trust Congress.

Other findings suggest the nation is focused more on political issues than morality issues.

In the monthly pulse-check poll, Gallup asked Americans what they believed was the most important problem facing the country. An overwhelming 34 percent cited the war in Iraq, followed by illegal immigration at 15 percent. The nation’s religious and moral decline was fifth among the concerns, with 6 percent.

The poll was conducted by telephone from June 14-17. The margin of error is three percentage points.

_ Michelle Rindels

Polluted Jordan River Placed on Endangered Sites List

JERUSALEM (RNS) The lower portion of the Jordan River is so polluted that the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has designated it an “Endangered Cultural Heritage Site.”

The WMF, the leading international body for the protection of monuments, placed the river that is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims on the organization’s “watch list” of 100 endangered sites on June 6.

Also listed as endangered are a 2,000-year-old Roman bridge that crosses the river and a 12th-century “Khan,” a rest house for travelers. Both are in disrepair.

About 90 percent of the river’s natural water flow has been diverted by Israel, Jordan and Syria for domestic and agricultural use, with sewage flowing in its place, according to Friends of the Earth Middle East, an environmental organization with offices in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

The upper Jordan, which is formed from three tributaries originating in Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Israel, is considered clean and flows into the Sea of Galilee. Israel’s large baptism center is located in this region.

The lower Jordan, which meanders some 125 miles from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, is highly polluted with sewage and agricultural runoff. Some pilgrims, particularly in Jordan, do not realize that the river is polluted and wade into the water.

Environmentalists for years have warned that the river is endangered but governments have been slow to respond, said Mira Edelstein, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth Middle East.

“We’re not proud of being on this list and hope to get off as soon as we can,” Edelstein said in an interview. “Hopefully, this international pressure will bring our governments to act.”

_ Michele Chabin

Quote of the Day: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

(RNS) “My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”

_ Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a member of the United Church of Christ, addressing the UCC’s General Synod in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday (June 23).

KRE/LF END RNS