AMERICAN RELIGION
Survey: Religious Americans keep faith amid secularization
NEW YORK (AP) β A newly-released survey finds that the 77 percent of American adults who continue to identify with a faith group have largely stayed as religiously engaged as they were in 2007.
The Pew Research Center’s findings are based in part on a 2014 telephone survey of more than 35,000 people.
It found that two-thirds of religiously affiliated adults said faith was very important to them and they prayed daily, nearly unchanged from 2007, the last time Pew conducted its U.S. Religious Landscape Study. About 6-in-10 said they attend worship services at least once or twice a month, a rate similar to the earlier study.
But a higher percentage say they regularly read scripture, participate in small prayer or study groups and share their faith with others.
In an initial release of data last May, Pew researchers found that the 23 percent of Americans who don’t affiliate with a religion have become the second-largest group in total numbers behind evangelicals, at 25 percent.
Sound:
189-v-35-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)–A newly-released survey finds that the 77 percent of American adults who continue to identify with a faith group have largely stayed as religiously engaged as they were in 2007. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (3 Nov 2015)
< COLORADO SPRINGS-SHOOTING Colorado gunman’s mother wrote of their alcoholism COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) β The man who killed three people during a shooting rampage on the streets of Colorado Springs before being killed by police is the son of a Christian author who wrote about her, and his, struggles with alcoholism. Authorities have identified 33-year-old Noah Harpham as the gunman, but a motive for Saturday’s shootings remained unknown. His mother, Heather Kopp, chronicled their addictions in her book “Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up With a Christian Drunk.” But police have not said whether there was any link between Harpham’s substance abuse problems and the fact that two of his victims were women who themselves were recovering from addiction. Two days before the shootings, Harpham posted a video online in which he complained that his father had fallen under the sway of the Rev. Bill Johnson and the Bethel Church in Redding, California. The church is part of a branch of Pentecostalism that emphasizes signs of God’s miracles and supernatural healing. PRAYING PLAYERS Photo of praying football players causes stir on Facebook BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) β North Dakota’s High School Activities Association says it has not created a new rule banning prayer at sports games. The statement comes in response to a Facebook post of praying players that caused a stir. A photo of the Bismarck St. Mary’s and Kindred football teams praying together after Saturday’s playoff game in Bismarck has been shared more than 2,000 times on Facebook. The post by a local resident states that the activities association “said no public prayers before the game.” Association Executive Director Matt Fetsch told The Bismarck Tribune that a prayer can’t be delivered over the public-address system at a postseason game because those games are hosted by the association and not the home team. Fetsch said opening prayers haven’t happened at postseason games for 15 years, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such prayer was unconstitutional. HOLIDAYS-NATIVITY SCENE ANIMALS Christmas bonus: Farm animals in demand for Nativity scenes BERRY, Ky. (AP) β Some farmers have extra reason to rejoice at Christmas: Tis the season for renting out animals for live Nativity scenes and other holiday events. Megan Powell, the event coordinator at Honey Hill Farm, a mobile petting zoo with locations in Kentucky and Ohio, says renting animals for Christmas programs helps pay for their food and upkeep and has been a huge growth area for the business. Powell says Honey Hill works with dozens of churches, schools and businesses to provide sheep, donkeys and goats for live Nativity scenes. Many churches also ask for camels, but few petting zoos and traditional farms raise them. Bob Hudelson of Lost River Game Farm in Orleans, Indiana, says “There are a lot of camels out there β just not a lot of tame camels.” KENTUCKY ELECTION-GOVERNOR Kentucky governor race hinges on health insurance, preschool FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) β Republicans have continued their slow takeover of Kentucky politics by electing only the second GOP governor in four decades. Matt Bevin defeated Democrat Jack Conway with nearly 52 percent of the vote. Bevin cast himself as an outsider, in both government and politics. The 48-year-old investment manager has never held public office. He relied more on the details of his personal story β his Christian faith and his four adopted children from Ethiopia β than his political policies. Bevin’s election gives Republicans control of the executive branch in Kentucky along with a commanding majority in the state Senate. Democrats still have an eight-seat majority in the state House of Representatives. Bevin’s running mate, Jenean Hampton, is a retired Air Force officer who will become the first black person to ever hold statewide office in Kentucky. GAY MARRIAGE-KENTUCKY Kentucky clerk Kim Davis appeals order that put her in jail LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) β Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has asked a federal appeals court to scrap a series of unfavorable rulings issued by the district judge who sent her to jail. In a 126-page filing with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Davis’ attorneys called U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning’s order that Davis license same-sex marriage a “rush to judgment” that trampled the clerk’s religious liberty. Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, spent five nights in jail in September for defying that order, igniting a debate about the collision of religious freedom and public service. Davis’ lawyers have asked the appeals court to reverse four of the lower court’s rulings, including the order that Davis issue licenses and the decision to hold her in contempt and send her to jail. WESTBORO PROTESTERS-PICKETING 4 Westboro Baptist Church protesters plead not guilty TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) β Four members of a motorcycle group that demonstrates outside the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, have pleaded not guilty to picketing during a religious event. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the group’s trial next month could bring clarity to a city ordinance the protesters say is ambiguous. On Sept. 12, Chantel Hosier, Ron Martin, Brook Barger and Nicholas Hines were ticketed because they were carrying an American flag, which is considered a banner under a Topeka municipal code regarding focused picketing. The group, called Journey 4 Justice, says it uses the flag to shield people from Westboro Baptist’s signs that condemn homosexuality and predict doom for the nation. The four will challenge the officers’ contention at a trial next month in Topeka Municipal Court. PASTOR-CHILD PORN INVESTIGATION Ex-Louisville pastor faces child porn indictment LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) β A federal grand jury in Kentucky has indicted a former Roman Catholic pastor in a child pornography case. Prosecutors say 57-year-old Stephen Pohl was charged in a criminal complaint in August following searches of areas used by Pohl in the parish office and rectory of St. Margaret Mary parish in Louisville. Pohl was arrested in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, in August and appeared in U.S. District Court in Kentucky in September. The indictment returned Tuesday accuses Pohl of accessing child pornography on the Internet earlier this year. Archdiocese of Louisville officials have said that FBI investigators found 200 images of students from the school on Pohl’s computer. The students were clothed but some of the images were deemed “inappropriate.” HARVARD-JEWISH LAW PROGRAM Harvard gets gift to start Jewish and Israeli law program CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) β Harvard Law School says it’s launching a new program to study Jewish and Israeli law. The school is establishing the program with a donation from Mitchell R. Julis, a Los Angeles investment executive and 1981 graduate of the law school. Harvard didn’t provide the amount of the donation. A statement from Harvard says the program will explore the structure and effects of Jewish and Israeli law. It will bring visiting scholars, provide classes for students who have advanced knowledge of Jewish legal texts, and organize lectures for the Boston community. The school’s dean said Jewish law has made a profound contribution to the legal practice and is still relevant today. In September, a Saudi businessman donated $10 million to Yale University’s law school to create an Islamic law center. CHURCH FIRE-ASHLAND Community lends support after church destroyed by fire ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) β The northern Wisconsin community of Ashland is helping members of a church destroyed by a fire that officials believe was intentionally set. Police say Salem Baptist Church was set ablaze Saturday. A 29-year-old Ashland man has been arrested in the suspected arson. Salem Baptist was planning to build a new building for its growing membership, with plans to use the current building for a community ministry center. But the fire left them with short- and long-term needs for space. WDIO-TV reports that Ashland’s high school has offered its gym for the church to use for its Sunday morning service. The Bay Area Youth Network, which used the church, will meet in the school’s auditorium for the rest of the year. Other local churches have offered to let Salem Baptist use their space for meetings and offices. And Bay Area Rural Transit is giving its conference room to Salem Baptist. MOSQUE ARSON Man convicted of firebombing Corvallis mosque in 2010 EUGENE, Ore. (AP) β A man accused of firebombing a mosque in Corvallis, Oregon, five years ago has been convicted of a federal hate crime charge. Cody Seth Crawford pleaded “no contest” Tuesday to a charge of damaging religious property. Prosecutors will ask that he be sentenced to five years of probation. Authorities say Crawford was motivated by racial hatred after the arrest of a Muslim man accused of plotting to set off a car bomb in Portland in 2010. Mohamed Osman Mohamud had worshipped for a time at the damaged mosque. Crawford has maintained his innocence. The Register-Guard reports that Crawford told a federal judge that he is ready to move on with his life. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken accepted his plea, allowing him to avoid admitting guilt while accepting that he would be convicted. MYANMAR-PARIAH MUSLIMS Backlash against Muslims casts shadow over Myanmar election YANGON, Myanmar (AP) β A Buddhist monk’s hate-filled speeches have become a part of life in Myanmar. Ashin Wirathu’s Buddhist nationalist movement has moved into the mainstream. And now he accuses the once-untouchable Aung San Suu Kyi of failing to stand up against the threat he says Muslims pose to the Southeast Asian country’s Buddhist values. His comments highlight the rising role Buddhist nationalism is playing as Myanmar heads into general elections Sunday. Though Suu Kyi’s opposition party is still viewed as the favorite, analysts say the “race and religion” card could hurt its prospects. Wirathu’s sermons against Myanmar’s Rohingya (ROH’-hin-GAH’) Muslim minority helped incite violence that began in 2012, leaving hundreds dead and sending a quarter-million others fleeing their homes.
