c. 2003 Religion News Service

Survey: Far Fewer American Households Tithing to Church

(RNS) The portion of American households that tithe, or give one-tenth of their income, to their church dropped from 8 percent in 2001 to 3 percent in 2002, Barna Research Group reports.

The Ventura, Calif.-based marketing research firm found that groups with the highest proportion of tithers were people ages 55 or older, college graduates, Republicans, Southerners, conservatives, middle-income individuals, evangelicals, and those who attend mainline Protestant churches.

Those least likely to tithe included Hispanics, liberals, Catholics, parents who home-school their children, Midwesterners, those not registered to vote or registered as independents, and households earning less than $20,000 and without a head of household who graduated from college.

George Barna, president of Barna Research Group, attributed the 62 percent drop in the proportion of tithers to a range of reasons.

“For some, the soft economy has either diminished their household income or led to concerns about their financial security,” he said in a statement. “For others the nation’s political condition, in terms of terrorism and the war in … Iraq, has raised their level of caution. The scandals involving Catholic priests last year reduced some people’s confidence in church leaders and, consequently, reduced their giving as well.”

The data are based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 adults in late January and early February, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Bishops to Use Former FBI Agents to Monitor Abuse Policies

WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s Catholic bishops will send independent auditors, including former FBI agents, into every diocese to monitor compliance with new sex abuse policies adopted last summer.

The auditors, which were first reported by The Washington Post, will visit all 195 dioceses by the end of the year, beginning in June. Data from the audits will eventually be compiled into a public report that measures the church’s national response to the abuse crisis.

The bishops’ National Review Board contracted a firm headed by William A. Gavin, a former assistant director of the FBI, to perform the audits. Kathleen McChesney, director of the bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection, was the FBI’s highest-ranking woman before retiring last year.

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, chairman of the review board and a former FBI agent, told The Post that the auditors were taking the right approach.

“We concluded that to reassure the Catholic lay community, it was important first and foremost to identify this conduct as criminal _ and to send that message with FBI agents at the top, the bottom and the middle of this probe,” Keating said. “If that’s hard-edged, so be it.”

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops, told Religion News Service that former FBI agents were used so that “you were getting people who were experienced and brought maturity to the job … who are able to make intelligent judgments.”

The bishops have also signed with New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice to conduct a study on the “nature and scope” of the abuse crisis within the church.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Jewish Groups Oppose Pryor Nomination to Appeals Court

WASHINGTON (RNS) Two Jewish organizations active on social issues have joined the opposition to Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor’s nomination to a federal judgeship.

The National Council of Jewish Women and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism say Pryor’s record on abortion and religion should disqualify him from lifetime appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We think his nomination endangers the rights of women and all Americans,” said Sammie Moshenberg, director of Washington operations for the women’s council.

Pryor, a 41-year-old Roman Catholic, has been vocal in his anti-abortion stance and has criticized the key Supreme Court decision as “awful” and a ruling that preserved one of “the worst examples of judicial activism.”

Proponents say no one should be surprised that President Bush nominated a conservative, and that Pryor’s hallmark as attorney general has been to follow the rule of law. But Moshenberg said her organization fears he would still find a way to chip away at a woman’s right to choose.

“Here you have somebody who has gone out of his way not just to express a different viewpoint but has actually taken aim at Roe v. Wade, and for someone to sit on a federal appeals court, it would be very difficult to imagine somebody could count on him to uphold Roe,” she said.

Another group, NARAL Pro-Choice America, says Pryor last year answered a survey question by saying abortion is murder.

The 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta and one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, hears appeals from cases in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Pryor’s nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Religious Action Center, which represents about 900 synagogues and 1,800 rabbis in the United States, takes issue with Pryor’s endorsement of school prayer and his defense of governmental displays of the Ten Commandments. The organization only recently started taking positions on judicial nominees, and said they wouldn’t automatically object to those with whom they disagreed.

“But it’s one thing for the president to appoint conservative judges, and it’s another thing to appoint judges who are outside any fair reading of the judicial mainstream,” said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the center. “(Pryor) has been aggressive in advancing his own ideological views.”

In 1999, Pryor won a case that eliminated restrictions on students to voluntarily pray in school. He defends Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s ability to display the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building, and he’s a frequent speaker to conservative and political organizations.

_ Mary Orndorff

Creation of Dioceses Strains Vatican-Russian Orthodox Relations

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican’s decision to establish two new dioceses in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan has created new strains in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and cast doubt on a possible visit by Pope John Paul II to Russia.

The Moscow Patriarchate’s reaction to the Vatican move in Kazakhstan mirrored its anger over the Vatican’s creation of four dioceses in the Russian Federation in February 2002. The patriarchy considers the predominantly Muslim Central Asian republic to be part of its canonical territory.

“This is an evident sign of the lack of the Vatican’s will to carry forward dialogue on questions of reciprocal interest,” the patriarchate’s Department for External Relations said in a statement carried by the Itar-Tass news agency Monday (May 19).

The statement said the Vatican acted “without any consultation” with the Moscow hierarchy “despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Christians of Kazakhstan belong to the canonical jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church on the basis of their own historical choice.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls confirmed earlier this month that the Vatican is trying to arrange a papal trip to Mongolia in late August. Negotiations had reportedly begun on a stop by the pope in the Russian city of Kazan en route to Ulan Bator to return the icon of the Madonna of Kazan, now in his possession.

In a separate statement, the Moscow Patriarchate expressed “astonishment” at the possibility of a papal stop in Kazan and reiterated that any meeting between John Paul and Patriarch Alexy II “depends exclusively on the willingness of the Vatican to resolve (existing) problems.”

The patriarchate, which accuses the Vatican of seeking converts among the Russian Orthodox, said the establishment of the dioceses in Kazakhstan signifies a “de facto renunciation of dialogue.”

Apostolic administrations are provisional structures lacking the permanency of a diocese. The Vatican’s announcement May 17 that existing apostolic administrations were being upgraded coincided with an official visit to the Kazak capital of Astana by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state.

Sodano, representing the Vatican at ceremonies marking the second anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Kazakhstan in 2001, presumably explained the Vatican move in meetings with President Nursultan Nazarbayev and church leaders.

According to church figures, there are 360,000 Catholics in Kazakhstan, many of them descendants of Stalin-era deportees.

_ Peggy Polk

Church of Scotland Rejects Unity Proposal

EDINBURGH, Scotland (RNS) Proposals for the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland to join with the Scottish Episcopal Church _ the Scottish province of the Anglican Communion _ and three other smaller churches to form a new united church have been decisively rejected by the Church of Scotland’s general assembly.

The proposals came from the Scottish Church Initiative for Union, which began work in 1996. They would have involved a church with bishops, but bishops serving for a defined term of office and working within a conciliar framework of regional councils covering the same kind of area as a presbytery or diocese. Presbyterians historically are suspicious of bishops.

Three years ago the proposal only narrowly survived when the assembly voted 276-238 to continue working it out. This year the opposition proved fatal.

Underlying rejection of the proposals was not just a Presbyterian distrust of bishops but also the strong conviction that the various different Christian churches were already one in Jesus and that ecclesiastical merger was not needed to make this apparent.

Another argument against the proposal was that it envisaged the creation of a new Anglican Church, just as the first major inter-church union _ the Church of South India, which in 1947 brought together Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists _ had become virtually a member church of the Anglican Communion.

Furthermore, the proposals would have restricted the right of a congregation to call its own minister _ something dear to the Church of Scotland.

The assembly thus voted by a substantial majority to withdraw from the unity proposal on the grounds it was unlikely to advance “the growing spirit of unity among Christians in Scotland.” But to balance the rejection, the assembly went on to urge congregations where practicable to establish local ecumenical partnerships with other churches.

_ Robert Nowell

Dunnam to Move From President to Chancellor of Asbury Seminary

(RNS) The Rev. Maxie D. Dunnam will move from serving as president of Asbury Theological Seminary to become the school’s chancellor next year.

Dunnam will start his role as chancellor in July 2004 after completing his 10th year as president of the multidenominational seminary in Wilmore, Ky.

“Dr. Dunnam has been a tremendous leader for Asbury Seminary,” said Dr. Jim Holsinger, chairman of the board, in an announcement of the transition.

“We are excited about his continued involvement with Asbury Seminary in his new role as chancellor.”

Dunnam became the seminary’s fifth president in 1994 after serving as senior minister of a United Methodist church in Memphis, Tenn.

A prolific author, he is a prominent member of the Confessing Movement, an evangelical group within the United Methodist Church.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Ronnie Mathis, Valdosta, Ga., pastor

(RNS) “How can I deal with the soul if I don’t make sure the body is safe?”

_ Ronnie Mathis, pastor of Greater Pleasant Temple Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga., who preaches about using seat belts in his role as regional coordinator for Georgia’s highway safety office. He was quoted by USA Today.

DEA END RNS