c. 2007 Religion News Service

Religion writers name evangelicals in election as 2007’s top story

(RNS) The political grappling of evangelicals for a GOP presidential candidate is considered the top religion story of 2007 among the nation’s religion writers.

Members of the Religion Newswriters Association picked the Buddhist monks in Myanmar, who protested in September in support of democracy and were subdued by government forces, as the top religion newsmaker of the year.

The entire Top 10 list includes:

1. Evangelical voters ponder if they can support the eventual Republican candidate due to questions about the leaders’ platforms and/or faith.

2. Leading Democratic presidential candidates make conscious efforts to attract faith-based voters after acknowledging their failure to do so in 2004.

3. The role of gay and lesbian clergy continues to be a deeply divisive issue, with the Episcopal Church’s pledge of restraint on gay issues failing to halt the number of congregations making plans to leave the denomination.

4. Global warming increases in importance among religious groups, with mainline leaders considering it a high priority and evangelical leaders divided over its importance compared to other issues.

5. Illegal immigration is debated by religious groups and leaders, with some taking an active role in affirming undocumented immigrants.

6. Thousands of Buddhist monks in Myanmar lead a pro-democracy protest that is harshly put down after a week.

7. Some conservative Episcopalians in the U.S. realign with Anglican bishops in Africa and other parts of the “Global South,” setting off church property legal disputes.

8. The Supreme Court rules in favor of conservative positions in three major cases: upholding a ban on so-called partial-birth abortions, permitting schools to create some limits on students’ free speech, and denying a challenge to the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

9. Deaths among prominent evangelical leaders included the Revs. Jerry Falwell, Rex Humbard and D. James Kennedy, as well as Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, and Tammy Faye Messner, ex-wife of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker.

10. The cost of priestly sex abuse to the U.S. Roman Catholic Church exceeds $2.1 billion, with a record $660 million settlement involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and earlier settlements in Portland, Ore., and Spokane, Wash.

The survey polled active RNA members via electronic ballot Dec. 7-13. With 80 people responding, there was a 27 percent response rate.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Williams says Episcopalians must be taken at their word

(RNS) The spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion said Friday (Dec. 14) that it would be “unrealistic and ungrateful” to expect the Episcopal Church to make yet another attempt to explain itself.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in a letter to the heads of the 38 member churches in the Communion, said Anglican churches should accept at face value Episcopal promises not to ordain any more gay bishops.

“It is practically impossible to imagine any further elucidation or elaboration coming from (the Episcopal Church) after the successive statements and resolutions” issued by the U.S. church in the last 18 months, Williams wrote.

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of global Anglicanism, has been under fire for electing an openly gay bishop in 2003 and allowing the blessing of same-sex couples in some local dioceses.

American bishops, meeting in New Orleans in September, reaffirmed their promise not to elect any more gay bishops or approve national rites for same-sex unions. Third World conservatives, however, say that’s not enough.

Williams has been trying to broker a fragile peace and said U.S. bishops should be taken at their word. “I do not see how the commitment not to confirm any election … of a partnered gay or lesbian person can mean anything other than what it says,” Williams said.

However, he chided the U.S. church for acting “against the strong, reiterated and consistent” Anglican positions on sexuality. He said a 1998 Anglican resolution that calls homosexual activity “incompatible with Scripture” remains the “only point of reference” adopted by the entire Communion.

At the same time, he criticized Third World bishops for taking American conservatives under their wing, saying the Communion has always said such “interventions are not to be sanctioned.”

Ahead of next year’s once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, Williams said he will sponsor “professionally facilitated conversations” between Episcopal leaders and conservative dissidents to “see if we can generate any better level of mutual understanding.”

And without specifically citing the Episcopal Church, Williams said he will convene a task force to consider whether churches whose positions are “at odds with the expressed mind of the Communion” can fully participate in all levels of decision-making.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Rick Warren teaches Jews about building community

LOS ANGELES (RNS) Evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren came to a meeting of the nation’s largest Jewish movement on Thursday (Dec. 13) with a simple message: smile, and be friendly.

The gregarious Warren, speaking to the annual meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism in San Diego, told some 4,000 rabbis and lay leaders that “the need for love and the need for belonging are absolutely universal.”

“The congregation that really loves people _ you have to lock the door to keep people out, because people are looking for love in all the wrong places,” said Warren, the best-selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life” book series.

The evangelical preacher was an interesting choice for a major speaker at a convention of decidedly liberal Jewish clergy. Warren sidestepped disagreements over issues like gay marriage and instead offered simple wisdom on how synagogues can build up their memberships.

“One of the keys to building your congregation is just be nice to people _ smile!” said Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., about 60 miles south of Los Angeles. “Just be nice to people.”

Warren’s words resonated with two prominent rabbis who joined him for a panel discussion on community building.

“The greatest challenge in creating a synagogue is removing the ego forefront of not only yourselves but your congregants,” said Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, where Warren has preached.

Reform Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills said some people feel turned off from synagogues when they encounter “guards keeping them out, the high cost of membership, steep learning curves, people that aren’t being nice.”

But Geller added that outreach to new members must focus on how newcomers come to congregations at key life moments, “a moment of loss, or a new beginning. They’re looking for something. They might think it’s a wedding or a baby naming, a Jewish education for their child or something to fill an empty nest, but many are looking for something … a connection to something transcendent that links them to something greater than themselves.”

_ David Finnigan

Quote of the Day: Palestinian carpenter Tawfiq Salsaa

(RNS) “I wanted to give the world an idea of how we live in the Holy Land.”

_ Palestinian carpenter Tawfiq Salsaa, who has created a wooden Nativity scene depicting baby Jesus separated by a wall from the three wise men. Salsaa, who has sold almost 400 hand-carved Nativity scenes caricaturing the West Bank barrier in Israel, was quoted by Reuters.

KRE/PH END RNS