c. 1999 Religion News Service

Survey finds almost one in three adults don’t attend church regularly

(RNS) Almost one third of America’s adults have not attended a Christian church service in the past six months other than a special event, a Barna Research Group study reports.

The study found that 31 percent of Americans could be classified as”unchurched”_ a proportion that represents between 60 and 65 million adults _ because they did not attend a Christian service during the past six months other than an event such as a holiday service or a wedding or funeral.

Eighteen months earlier, researchers found that 27 percent of adults could be considered unchurched.

Researchers found that men are 67 percent more likely to be unchurched than are women (40 percent of men and 24 percent of women are unchurched). Adults who are politically liberal are more than twice as likely to be unchurched as those who consider themselves to be politically conservative (54 percent of the liberals are unchurched versus 21 percent of the conservatives).

The younger and more educated a person is, the more likely they are to be unattached to a Christian church.

The study reported that the lack of attendance at a church did not preclude other religious activities. Ten percent of those not attached to a church read the Bible in a typical week; 8 percent listen to Christian radio in a typical week and 20 percent watch religious television shows in a typical week.

The survey also found a variety of spiritual perspectives among the unchurched.

While 62 percent called themselves Christian, one third of those unaffiliated with a church were connected with non-Christian faiths. Six percent of those not affiliated with a church cited Judaism and 4 percent cited Islam. Seventeen percent of the unchurched claim to be agnostic or atheist.

George Barna, president of the Ventura, Calif.-based company that did the research, said the survey demonstrates a pattern that first appeared more than 10 years ago.”Americans feel tremendous freedom to construct their own religious perspectives and practices, regardless of traditions and time-honored teachings,”he said.”The American public is sending a clear message to Christian leaders: Make Christianity accessible and practical or don’t expect their participation.” The random telephone survey of 1,015 adults in July 1998 has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Southern Baptist leaders recommend meeting in Disney’s back yard

(RNS) The executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention is recommending that the denomination’s annual meeting in 2000 still be held in Orlando, Fla., despite the SBC’s continuing boycott of the Walt Disney Co.

Orlando is the location of Disney World, one of the prominent theme parks of the company that Baptists have accused of promoting homosexuality and having”anti-family”policies.

In a statement, the executive committee said it hopes delegates to the Orlando meeting will”meet the challenge presented by worldliness that the Southern Baptist Convention has met in other convention cities.” It added that evangelistic efforts undertaken before the annual meeting in the cities where the SBC meets and”the refusal to patronize the Disney organization will be a profound testimony for the cause of Christ to Orlando, Florida, and the nation.” The committee added that”… the faithfulness of Southern Baptists in keeping contractual agreements will be a positive and effective testimony for the cause of Christ to the hotel and convention industry.” The executive committee, which met from Feb. 22-23 in Nashville, Tenn., will make its recommendation about its meeting site at the annual meeting June 15-16 in Atlanta, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It also will recommend that the name of the Southern Baptist Convention remain unchanged.

In a report explaining the decision, the committee voiced its belief that the terms”Southern Baptist Convention”and”SBC”have become”brand names.””The Southern Baptist Convention no longer denotes a region as much as it does a position,”the report reads.”It has come to mean missionary zeal, staunch Bible defense, moral rectitude, adherence to faith, and dependence upon the Lord. … Examples of other names that have transcended their original regional meaning include Western Union, Northwest Airlines and New York Life.”

Christianity Today chooses”The Divine Conspiracy”as top book

(RNS) Christianity Today has chosen”The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God”as its 1999 Book of the Year.

The book was written by Dallas Willard, a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Philosophy, and published by HarperSanFranscisco. It looks at foundational questions of Christian faith and identity, addressing biblical teaching, popular culture and spiritual practice.

Other top titles in the evangelical Christian magazine’s”Top 25″list are, in consecutive order:”After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s”by Robert Wuthnow (University of California Press).”The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges & Universities From Their Christian Churches”by James Tunstead Burtchaell (Eerdmans Publishing Co.).”Belief in God in an Age of Science”by John Polkinghorne (Yale University Press).”By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine”by Ellen Charry (Oxford University Press).

The books by Polkinghorne and Charry tied for fourth place.

The book in fifth place is”After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity”by Miroslav Volf (Eerdmans Publishing Co.).

The 1999 CT Book Awards were chosen based on ballots sent to a panel of scholars, pastors, writers and other church leaders. The winners will be honored in the April 26 edition of the magazine, which is its Annual Books issue.

Boston College feminist theologian refuses to admit men to class

(RNS) A prominent Boston College teacher and feminist theologian has opted for a leave of absence rather than admit two male students to her class,”Introduction to Feminist Ethics.” Mary Daly, a 70-year-old tenured associate professor at the Jesuit school, said she believes women have been socialized to nurse men, a phenomenon which she said has the unfortunate result of rendering a coed version of the class impossible.

The conflict originated last semester when Duane Naquin and another student said they were banished from Daly’s classroom and told”you are not welcome here.” Naquin claimed discrimination and has gained the backing of the Center for Individual Rights, a conservative Washington law firm whose lawsuit against the University of Texas ended its practice of affirmative action.

Daly said the student, a member of the campus Republican club, had not fulfilled a prerequisite course and obviously had a political agenda.”I’d rather go on a leave than teach with him,”she told the Washington Post.”The last thing he’d have an interest in is feminist philosophy.

A pioneer in the field of feminist theology and philosophy, Daly has been a thorn in the side of the Boston College administration off and on since she first arrived at the then all-male college in 1966.

So far, an occasional leave of absence has served the self-described radical very well. On several occasions, following similar disputes Daly has been able to return to her teaching post _ and all-female classes _ with a slap on the wrist.

Among her major works, used as textbooks by colleges and universities, are”Outercourse””Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism;””Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation;”and”The Church and the Second Sex.”

English church selling its movie-theater organ

(RNS) It is not every church where the congregation sings hymns to the accompaniment of a Wurlitzer. After all, a Wurlitzer is not a church organ but the instrument that used to rise up mysteriously from the orchestra pit of a movie theater to entertain the audience during intermissions.

But since 1956 the Congregational Church at Beer, England, has resounded to the tones of a Wurlitzer. It came from the Odeon cinema in Walsall, the manufacturing town 140 miles to the north in the Midlands.

When the theater was refurbished, the Wurlitzer was removed. The church organist and secretary at Beer heard of its availability and the chruch bought the organ for something between $1,900 and $2,400.

Now, however, the cost of repairing and maintaining the Wurlitzer has become”more than we can afford,”according to church treasurer Mary Davey. So it is being sold through the auctioneers Brooks of London, who normally specialize in vintage cars.

With the proceeds the church, which has only 31 members _ though significantly more worshippers, especially during the holiday season _ will acquire a modern electronic organ.

The Beer Wurlitzer was originally imported from the United States in 1925. It has its original pipes and wind machine, but the percussion and bells were removed as unsuitable for church use, as was the mechanism for raising the organ from the depths of the pit. It was apparently the first Wurlitzer to be imported into Britain, and is one of fewer than a dozen in the country _ and the only one in a church.

Drugstore chain founder nominated for Jewish Agency post

(RNS) A Pennsylvania man has been nominated to be the next board chairman of the Jewish Agency, a principal recipient of funds raised by local Jewiush federations across North America.

Alex Grass of Harrisburg, Pa., founder of the Rite Aid drugstore chain and long active in Jewish community leadership circles, was selected for the chairmanship by the Jewish Agency’s 121-member board. His selection is set to be ratified in June by the agency’s general assembly.

Grass is the outgoing board chairman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has served as chairman of the board of the United Jewish Appeal.

For more than a half-century, the Jewish Agency has been the prime organization that helped Jews resettle in Israel. In recent years, as resettlement has slackened, the agency has experienced severe financial problems and has sought to redefine its mission to include enhancing Jewish identity and unity.

Quote of the day: Christian Tomuschat, head of Guatemala’s Historical Clarification Commission

(RNS)”Until the mid-1980s, the United States government and U.S. private companies exercised pressure to maintain the country’s archaic and unjust socioeconomic structure.” _ Christian Tomuschat, head of the commission investigating atrocities committed during Guatemala’s civil war which found the army responsible for more than 90 percent of the atrocities in which an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans died or disappeared.

DEA END RNS