“My husband is suffering because he is a Christian. He is suffering because he is an American. Yet, his own government … has abandoned him. Don’t we owe it to him as a nation to stand up for his human rights, for his freedom?”
– Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini, who is currently in prison in Iran, at a House hearing.
(RNS) He’s a man with a ton of titles — Prince of Peace, Son of God, Shepherd of Souls — but now Jesus has one more: the biggest name in human history. Ever.
So say the authors of a startling new book, “Who’s Bigger: Where Historical Figures Really Rank,” which tries to settle, once and for all, the question of who’s who.
It’s a work of “culturometrics,” a fancy term to describe quantitative data analysis applied to individuals in society the same way Sabermetrics tracks performance in baseball, pundits aggregate polls in elections, and algorithms rule computer search engines.
“Bigger” is a complex collection of lists and rankings, but none is more provocative than its Top 100: Jesus is No. 1, Adolf Hitler is No. 7, everyone is overwhelmingly white and 97 are male.
But keep your blood pressure in check. “Bigger does not mean better,” said co-author Steven Skiena, a computer science professor at Stony Brook University where he heads the Data Science Laboratory.
Left, Steven Skiena photo courtesy Stony Brook University, right, Charles B. Ward photo Stony Brook University This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. To research “Bigger,” Skiena and Charles Ward, an engineer on the ranking team at Google, created a complex amalgam of measures. To establish their “significance” ranking, they assessed more than 800,000 names, calculated scores of celebrity and achievement or gravitas and then factored in how long, and how long ago, someone lived.
Hence the Top 10 names need no introduction:
1. Jesus
2. Napoleon
3. Muhammad
4. William Shakespeare
5. Abraham Lincoln
6. George Washington
7. Adolf Hitler
8. Aristotle
9. Alexander the Great
10. Thomas Jefferson
Where things get really curious is moving down the list:
– Protestant reformer Martin Luther (No. 17) is just above Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Reformer Martin Luther (center) works closely with several colleagues in translating the first German-language edition of the Bible. Engraving by J.C. Buttre. He was listed No. 17 in a new ranking of historical figures. Religion News Service file photo This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. – Elvis Presley (No. 69) is notched between Socrates and William the Conqueror.
– King Arthur (No. 85), who may be a myth, tops Michelangelo.
– Only Queen Elizabeth I (No. 13), Queen Victoria (No. 16), and St. Joan of Arc (No. 95) make the Top 100; whether the list includes anyone who is black depends on how you classify St. Augustine of Hippo (No. 72), the North African/Roman theologian of the early Christian church.
– President Obama barely missed the top 100, coming in at No. 111, but ahead of the Virgin Mary (No. 127).
Researchers say there was no nefarious plot to exclude women and blacks. But in centuries past, those two groups were barred from historically significant roles, their social contributions unrecorded by others.
Today, to get a high ranking in Wikipedia, with long entries, frequent edits and numerous links to other important people and events, a woman has to be so much stronger than a man, “it’s like they have to be four IQ points higher,” said Skiena.
Wikipedia and Google ngrams (a searchable collection of words in scanned English language books) are the basis of the “Bigger” research — and also the source of its bias toward the Anglo-American, English-language version of history in books and online. Relying on Wikipedia, where only 15 percent of editors are women and user-generated data can be riddled with errors, is also a risky choice, critics have noted.
This methodology also crimped the authors’ ability, for example, to rank the Dalai Lama. The current leader of Tibetan Buddhism was often listed by his official title, the 14th Dalai Lama, which is a status, not an individual, in the data. That meant his ranking couldn’t be calculated.
For the researchers, significance is not a value judgment. The authors examined people’s reputations as memes that evolve across time, said Skiena. They traced the evolution of the term “meme” to famed evolutionary zoologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins (No. 1,630 in their top 2,000).
“We measured how successfully they are propagating their meme through the course of history,” said Skiena.
Jesus is the indisputable leader, with his name appearing once in every 10,000 words in the ngrams.
Likewise, founders of religions are highly significant people. Skiena noted that could decrease across time as the proportion of writing in English is no longer focused primarily on faith or philosophy, as it was in ancient days.
But there may yet be more popes in the Top 100 one day than just the two listed currently — St. Peter (No. 65) and Pope John Paul II (No. 91) — because contemporary popes are living longer than their predecessors.
Other religious figures in the top 100:
34. Paul the Apostle (New Testament author, missionary)
52. Gautama Buddha (central figure of Buddhism)
57. Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism)
(RNS) Joseph Smith founded the Mormon faith. He was listed No. 57 in a new ranking of historical figures. RNS file photo courtesy of the Museum of Church History and Art/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. 89. Ali (son-in-law of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad)
90. St. Thomas Aquinas (Catholic theologian)
99. John Calvin (Protestant theologian)
Wish the list were different? Their “Who’s Bigger” app for Apple iPhone and iPad allows people to compare their own choices with those of Skiena and Ward.
But neither Pope Francis, Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013, nor Miley Cyrus, a Time finalist, will top the charts. His election and her twerking episode both grabbed headlines after the authors had finished their research.
KRE/AMB END GROSSMAN
Click on any photo below to view slideshow.
ROME (RNS) Now in its 10th edition, the annual wall calendar best known for its black-and-white photos of attractive priests continues to spark grumbles of controversy in Italy.
Officially, it’s called “Il Calendario Romano” — The Roman Calendar — but it is popularly referred to as the “Roman beefcake calendar.”
According to Piero Pazzi, the Venice-based photographer who takes the photos and produces the calendar each year, almost all of the men he photographs — many of them in front of churches or religious monuments — are priests or seminarians. But the religious connotations end there.
According to Italian media reports, the calendar has become a kind of icon for groups ranging from female Protestant clergy to gay men. Some critics claim it projects an inappropriate image for the clergy.
But Pazzi, who produces other wall calendars, including one showing cats, brushes aside those complaints.
“It contains a great deal of important information for tourists in Rome, but I know that if I printed that by itself on a piece of paper nobody would look at it,” he said. “It’s about marketing. It’s a souvenir, not a statement of any kind.”
The 2014 edition of the calendar, which is not produced in cooperation with any religious institution, costs 10 euros (about $14) at most Vatican-area gift shops or online.
(RNS) In his first Advent address, Pope Francis directed Christians to be guided by the “Magnificat,” Mary’s song of praise for the coming Christ child. She proclaims that God has “lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:52-53). This past Tuesday, Pope Francis heeded his own exhortation by releasing a video message calling for an end to hunger as part of a worldwide “wave of prayer.”
Hundreds of Christian organizations across the globe participated in the “wave of prayer,” which was organized by Caritas International, a confederation of Catholic charities in the Vatican.
“We are in front of a global scandal of around 1 billion people who still suffer from hunger today,” Pope Francis said in his message. “We cannot look the other way.” The wave began at noon on the Pacific island of Samoa and proceeded west with people of faith from each subsequent time zone participating at noon their time.
Participation in this global prayer wave spread well beyond the Catholic world. It drew support from across the ideological and theological spectrum. Young evangelicals prayed with Episcopal grandmothers. Protestants prayed with Roman Catholics.
In Washington, members of Congress from both parties held a noon prayer service with Circle of Protection, a group of 65 heads of denominations, relief and development agencies, and other Christian organizations.
Pope Francis’ call for prayer to end hunger could not have come at a more important time. While the world is near cutting hunger in the developing world in half by 2015, one in eight people all over the world still suffer from chronic hunger.
Video courtesy Caritas Internationalis via YouTube
In our country, however, you do not see this global exodus from hunger. Rather, it is growing. Today, 17 million children will go hungry because their parents can’t afford to feed them one or more days each month. Nearly a million veterans who sacrificed so much in service to our country depend on food stamps so they can eat. Remarkably, at a time when one in four Americans say they have struggled to put food on the table, Congress has chosen to slash one of the most effective anti-hunger programs in the country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.
Congress’ recent cuts to SNAP will eliminate 10 million meals per day that American families and veterans have been depending on. Nearly 5 million of those meals would have gone to children — the equivalent of eliminating daily meals for every child in South Carolina, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, and Mississippi.
These recent cuts to SNAP eliminate more meals than what Catholic Charities, churches, food pantries, and all other charities combined are able to provide with our already stretched resources. Churches and food pantries would need to more than double what they raise to fill the gap left by Congress’ cuts to SNAP. And now Congress is considering additional cuts that would be four to five times as large!
Such actions should be anathema to all Americans, and especially to Christians. Seeking to balance budgets on the backs of hungry children and veterans does not represent American values. It clearly doesn’t heed the gospel call to lift up the lowly and feed the hungry.
The Rev. David Beckmann is president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize laureate. Photo courtesy Bread for the World This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. It’s time for a new direction. That is why Christians are coming together, not just to pray but also to witness to our leaders that we expect more from them. We believe our capacity to achieve is greater than the obstacles that are before us. Caring for the hungry in our midst is not an unattainable dream; it is the least we are called to do.
(The Rev. Larry Snyder is president of Catholic Charities USA. The Rev. David Beckmann is president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize laureate. )
YS/AMB END BECKMANN
(RNS) The crowd hushed, the lights dimmed and the National Cathedral’s bourdon bell chimed for three minutes — each minute to commemorate 10,000 of the 30,000 lives lost to gun violence in the U.S. last year.
The Thursday (Dec. 12) service marked nearly a year since a gunman took 26 lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Americans from a spectrum of faiths prayed, sang and testified about a gun violence epidemic they said is poisoning the nation’s soul.
“We gather today to remember and to honor,” said the Rev. Mel Kawakami, senior minister of Newtown United Methodist Church, ”to work toward a world where there are no more school shootings as there have been in 16 other communities since Sandy Hook.”
Carole King played and sang “In the Name of Love,” on the grand piano before the pulpit, setting a somber but hopeful tone. Pianist Christopher Betts and violinist Sonya Hayes played John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Lennon was shot to death 33 years ago.
Survivors of shootings and parents and siblings of those who didn’t survive said elected officials must be pushed to pass legislation to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to others.
New Yorker Dan Gross, now the head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, testified that 16 years ago his brother, Matthew, was gravely injured by the gunman who began shooting on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, and his brother’s friend killed.
“To honor him, I’ve devoted the rest of my life to preventing the kind of tragedy that my family experienced that day,” he said. ”I will not be silent.”
“We will not be silent,” the crowd responded.
YS/AMB END MARKOE
(RNS) The Annenberg Foundation has paid $530,000 for 24 sacred Native American artifacts, for the sole purpose of returning them to the two tribes who had tried but failed to keep them off the auction block.
The announcement Wednesday (Dec. 11) surprised many who had followed the controversy surrounding the artifcacts, which were included in the sale of 170 Native American items at a Paris auction house. A lawyer for the Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes had argued before a French court that as sacred objects, used in religious ceremonies, the artifacts should not be sold.
But a U.S. law that limits trafficking in Native American items holds no force abroad, and a French judge ruled on Dec. 6 that the auction could go forward. That is when Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, the vice president and director of the Los Angeles-based foundation, decided to bid on the 24 objects, and return them to the tribes if successful.
“These are not trophies to have on one’s mantel; they are truly sacred works for the Native Americans,” Weingarten said in a statement issued by the foundation.
“They do not belong in auction houses or private collections. It gives me immense satisfaction to know that they will be returned home to their rightful owners, the Native Americans.”
Hopi cultural leader Sam Tenakhongva said in the same statement that the tribe hopes the Annenberg decision to intervene “sets an example for others that items of significant cultural and religious value can only be properly cared for by those vested with the proper knowledge and responsibility.”
“They simply cannot be put up for sale,” he said.
The Annenberg Foundation reported an endowment of $1.53 billion in 2011, according to its website, and gave out $104 million for charitable purposes in the fiscal year that ended in June 2011. Its grants are given to a wide range of causes, including the environment and education.
KRE/AMB END MARKOE
(RNS) He came into office riding a wave of good will and bringing a message of hope and change. He was honored by his traditional adversaries and awarded global accolades just months after taking charge amid a crisis of historic scope.
Left, Pope Francis passes a crucifix as he walks down steps during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 4. Photo by Paul Haring, courtesy of Catholic New Service. Right, President Barack Obama talks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during a phone call in the Oval Office, Sept. 27, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. Sound familiar? Maybe the president (Obama) has a few tips for the pope (Francis).
Francis’ trajectory from near anonymity to the heights of power is remarkably similar to Obama’s. But can the pontiff avoid the pitfalls that have dogged the president?
Obama’s current status could certainly be read as a cautionary tale, with his approval ratings mired in the low 40s after remaining persistently strong — though they never approached the stratospheric 92 percent favorability that Francis currently enjoys.
Yet the higher you fly, the farther you fall, and the more painful the landing. “The heady romance between Pope Francis and the world is still in its honeymoon period,” University of Notre Dame’s Candida Moss warned in a Politico essay this week after the pontiff was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
True, the magazine’s encomium is not quite the Nobel Peace Prize, which Obama won in 2009 at the same point in his fledgling administration. (The president was also Time’s “Person of the Year” in both 2008 and 2012.) But some of the reactions to it were similar: too much, too soon, too little substance.
“We ooh and ah at the celebrity nature of the Francis papacy in much the same way the world went gaga over Princess Diana,” blogger Rick Moran wrote at the American Thinker. “She, too, was largely about symbolism, but in the end, she accomplished very little of substance. She brought comfort to the afflicted and publicity to some causes, but as far as concrete change, nothing much happened. Francis is in danger of experiencing something similar.”
Indeed, like Obama, Francis could be facing some of the same perils of sky-high expectations that can lead to dashed hopes, in part because the pope is facing some of the same dynamics the president has — namely, a shrinking centrist core and a polarized polity with increasingly vocal fringes.
For example, as Francis has continued to criticize free-market economics, religious dogmatism, and the pomp often associated with Catholic practices, some Catholic conservatives have grown increasingly strident in their opposition.
“Just as President Obama has been a disappointment for America, Pope Francis will prove a disaster for the Catholic Church,” Fox News editor Adam Shaw, a Catholic, wrote earlier this month in a widely circulated blast at the pontiff’s efforts to move beyond the church’s internal ideological battles and engage the world with a positive message.
Moreover, Francis is also facing entrenched interests as he attempts to reform the Roman Curia — a chief reason the cardinals elected him last March — much as Obama faces a persistent foe in the GOP’s Tea Party faction. As one commentator put it on Twitter, Francis “may be Obama, but the Curia is the Republican House. No fundamental change is possible.”
The criticisms and reservations from the Catholic left can also be sharp, and mirror the sense of disappointment and disenchantment heard from Obama’s liberal allies when he failed to change the nation as much as they wanted.
“If (Pope Francis) wants to sustain Catholics’ interest and excitement, the time is fast approaching when he must deliver something tangible,” opined the liberal National Catholic Reporter in an editorial last month on expectations that Francis would begin to implement policies that reflect the sentiments of most Catholics.
To be sure, Francis is the pope, not a president. He is the chief executive and legislator and jurist all in one.
For all that, however, popes are not the autocrats some think they are (or should be) and Francis has to win over his own troops in order to effect the change he envisions. He will also need to appoint leaders who reflect his views — a new White House can make more appointments more quickly than a new pontificate — and he will need public approval to aid him.
But will he have the time to make changes without deflating the hopes of those who are giving the church a second look after decades of scandal and crisis? Obama, at least, seems enamored of Francis, citing the pope in his speeches and saying he has been “hugely impressed with the pope’s pronouncements.”
“He’s also someone who is first and foremost thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away,” Obama told CNBC in October.
Maybe the president was speaking out of envy as much as admiration — and maybe the Vatican should worry about the pope’s fans as much as his critics.
KRE/AMB END GIBSON
WARNING: More spoilers below than the Book of Revelation.
Skyler White (Anna Gunn) in a scene from the final episode of “Breaking Bad,” which aired Sunday (Sept. 29). Photo courtesy Ursula Coyote/AMC This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. (RNS) Nearly a week after the “Breaking Bad” finale aired, the ending of the megahit cable series continues to gratify, infuriate, and above all fascinate the moralists — professional and amateur — who constitute the audience’s fanboy core and who always framed the most vigorous debates about the show.
That’s understandable: The series at its dark heart is a study of good and evil, and more specifically about how good people can do bad things, how they become bad, or whether we all have a seed of evil within us that can germinate and run amok under the right conditions.
Further proof that the series’ drama is a profoundly religious one is the fact that theologically minded people are still fiercely disputing exactly what the ending meant, and what the series — and its anti-hero, Walter White — stood for in moral and metaphysical terms.
Is the chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-cooker an irredeemable monster? Or maybe he is just one of us — a struggling, middle-class worker bee who gets a diagnosis of lung cancer and, hearing how profitable the drug trade can be, uses his talents to concoct premium-grade drugs to make a quick score that will support his wife and children long after he’s dead.
Certainly the ending was inevitable and unsurprising: White dies, as he had to. The show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, made it clear – yes, some held out hope over the course of five seasons — that “this story was finite all along. It’s a story that starts at A and ends at Z.”
But how Walt died, who he would take down with him — or spare — and whether he ended in a state of grace were burning questions for devotees of the series, as they are for all believers.
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in a scene from “Breaking Bad” – Season 5, Episode 16. Photo courtesy Ursula Coyote/AMC This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. Eschatology, the study of our ultimate fate, is what all religious exploring points to. So do TV dramas.
“I want to believe there is some sort of cosmic balancing of the scales at the end of it all,” Gilligan said last year. “I’d just like to believe there’s some point to it all. I’d like to believe that there is. Everything is just too random and chaotic absent that.”
Not surprisingly, many who watched the finale saw a light at the end of the series for Walt. One genius of the show (there were so many) is that it co-opted viewers into rooting for Mr. White — as Walt’s co-conspirator Jesse Pinkman always called his onetime high school teacher — no matter how low he sank.
So despite the trail of carnage and ruined lives that Walt left behind, the hope that he would find grace at the end, that his death would somehow sanctify, was overpowering.
Critics as varied as Emily Bazelon in Slate and Allen St. John in Forbes declared that “Breaking Bad” was ultimately a “love story” because White managed to do what he set out to do in the first season: He found a way to provide for his family, and at the end he finally confessed his original sin in becoming the drug kingpin dubbed Heisenberg.
“I did it for me,” as he tells his devastated wife, Skyler. “I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really … alive.”
Writer Sonny Bunch even saw Gilligan slyly turning White into Jesus Christ — the wounds in Walt’s hand and side, his reference to the view of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains, his “sacrificing himself to save the people he loved,” his cruciform death pose. White also “made peace with those who had wronged him and those he had wronged (one way or another) so as to prepare himself for the afterlife.”
Well, “making peace” may be pushing it. White actually used his intellectual gifts one last time to build a Rube Goldberg killing machine and orchestrate a bloody — if improbable, without divine aid — denouement that destroyed all his enemies.
“His moment of clarity at the end doesn’t make up for all the hubris of Heisenberg,” Bazelon wrote. “But it did mean I could wholeheartedly root for his scheme of revenge.”
And that’s the theological problem. White used evil to the very end to accomplish something good. But Walter Wink would not approve. Wink, a theologian who died last year, called this rationale the “myth of redemptive violence” — the very antithesis of the Christian message but the “dominant religion” of the modern world.
“The belief that violence ‘saves’ is so successful because it doesn’t seem to be mythic in the least. Violence simply appears to be the nature of things. It’s what works. It seems inevitable, the last and, often, the first resort in conflicts,” Wink wrote. “The gods favor those who conquer. Conversely, whoever conquers must have the favor of the gods.”
Moreover, Walt’s “confession” at the end was hardly repentance. He did not give himself up to the authorities or allow himself to be publicly humiliated. He died the way he wanted, caressing the cold steel of the meth lab cookers the way Gollum — the creepy, corrupted Hobbit of “The Lord of the Rings” series — fondled the magical golden ring.
“He’s patting his Precious, in Lord of the Rings terms,” Gilligan said after the finale. “He’s with the thing he seems to love the most in the world, which is his work and his meth lab and he just doesn’t care about being caught because he knows he’s on the way out. So it could be argued that he pays for his sins at the end or it could just as easily be argued that he gets away with it.”
Even if White does get away with it by cheating earthly justice, his ending can be seen as instructive — as long as it is viewed as a cautionary tale rather than a model for living, and dying.
And you have to appreciate the fact that Gilligan ended the show so clearly and cleanly.
Other television anti-heroes have faded to an ambiguous black, like Tony Soprano, or suffered a premature demise at the hands of network executives before we could learn their true destiny — think Tom Kane in “Boss,” or Al Swearengen in “Deadwood.” And we still await the fate of compromised characters like Nucky Thompson in “Boardwalk Empire,” Don Draper in “Mad Men,” and Frank Underwood in “House of Cards.” Not to mention most of the cast of “Game of Thrones.”
We all find ourselves rooting for them. But rooting for them to do what, exactly? The moral logic that White used to engineer the ending of “Breaking Bad” is the same rationale he used to start his meth business. And we saw where that led.
(RNS) As the proverbial dust settles on the new Pew Research Center poll of 3,475 Jewish Americans released Tuesday (Oct. 1), experts are starting to sort out the study’s “winners” and “losers.”
Orthodox Union logo courtesy Orthodox Union This image available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. – Orthodox Jews
Yitzchok Adlerstein, an Orthodox rabbi, summed it up in the online Orthodox journal Cross-Currents:
The survey, he wrote, offers a “depressing outlook for the future of any continuation of Jewish affiliation outside of Orthodoxy.”
Among the study’s findings: Orthodox Jews are among the most religiously committed groups in the country. They are younger on average and tend to have much larger families than the overall Jewish population.
Consider: The average number of children born to Orthodox Jews (4.1) is about twice the overall Jewish average (1.9), suggesting that Orthodoxy’s share of the Jewish population will grow, despite not-so-good retention rates.
If anything, Adlerstein’s article pointed to what he saw as a “serious under-reporting of Orthodox strength.” For example, he said, many Jews — perhaps tens of thousands — identify with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement whose members don’t always consider themselves Orthodox, though they meet the study’s definitions.
It should not be surprising that the Orthodox movement, much like strict forms of Islam, and Christianity, is strong, said David Wolpe, Conservative rabbi of the Los Angeles-based Sinai Temple.
“Why should Jews be different?” he said.
But Wolpe cautioned against reading too much into trends. “Fifty years ago, they were saying goodbye to Orthodoxy,” he said. “Extrapolation is necessary but also notoriously tricky.”
– Israel
Emotional attachment to Israel has not waned among American Jews in the past decade.
Overall, 70 percent of Jews said they feel either very attached or somewhat attached to Israel, essentially unchanged since 2000-2001. In addition, 43 percent of Jews have been to Israel, and of those, 23 percent have visited more than once.
And although many American Jews express reservations about Israel’s approach to the peace process, 40 percent of Jews say they believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.
Tellingly, more than 40 percent of those surveyed said caring about Israel is a big part of what it means to be Jewish.
– Reform Jews
The survey shows that Reform Judaism continues to be the largest Jewish denominational movement in the United States. Thirty-five percent of all U.S. Jews identify as Reform.
Joshua Stanton, a Reform rabbi in New Jersey, said he took pride in the study’s findings.
“I think the Reform movement can adapt most quickly and continue its process of growth,” he said. “It connects the wisdom of the past to changes taking place in the present and has since its founding.”
But while the Reform movement may seem young and future-oriented, its members have the highest rates of intermarriage of the denominationally affiliated Jews. Fully half of all Reform Jews are in interfaith marriages. The study suggests children of interfaith marriages are far more likely to marry outside the faith.
In addition, Reform Jews report low rates of religious vitality. Only 16 percent of Reform Jews say religion is very important in their lives (compared to 83 percent of Orthodox Jews).
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism logo courtesy The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism This image available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. – Conservative Jews
Only 18 percent of Jews identify with the Conservative movement. More worrying, 30 percent of those raised Conservative have become Reform Jews (while 28 percent of those raised Reform have left the ranks of Jews by religion entirely.)
In addition, the median age of Conservative Jews (55) was highest of all the Jewish denominations.
The aging of Conservative Jews should be a cause for concern, said Jason Miller, a Detroit-based Conservative rabbi.
“I grew up at a time when Conservative Judaism’s vibrancy was felt in the teen youth groups and Ramah summer camping movement,” said Miller. “I don’t think that vibrancy will be felt among our children. To sustain a movement, there must be a committed, young demographic.”
Caveat:
Finally, some rabbis said they were uncomfortable with judging “winners” or “losers.”
“The big issue, in my opinion, is how the denominations use this information in light of the narratives they’ve created, which define and sustain themselves,” said Josh Yuter, rabbi of the Stanton Street Shul (Orthodox) in New York City.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, agreed that there was a danger in trying to award winners and losers to one denomination or the other.
“The Pew study reveals challenges and opportunities everywhere across the spectrum of Jewish life. What’s important is that the Jewish people win, which will happen as we continue to find ever more inspiring ways to broaden and deepen Jewish life.”
“Get a life. After all, why did you give in the first place? To build something significant for God and for humanity or to get your name engraved on a sidewalk brick?”
_ Media consultant Phil Cooke’s advice to disgruntled donors upset that their memorial bricks at California’s Crystal Cathedral are being pulled up at the now-Catholic campus for new landscaping. His commentary was published by Charisma magazine.
Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green has apologized to Jews after an employee reportedly told a Jewish customer that “we don’t cater to you people,” but didn’t exactly say his stores would start carrying Hanukkah or Passover goods.
Megachurch pioneer Chuck Smith has died at 86; he founded the Calvary Chapel movement that helped give birth to the modern megachurch, praise-and-worship music and seeker-friendlyism.
Two-thirds of American Catholics agree with the pope that the church has become “obsessed” with sexual morality, and Francis has an approval rating of something like 96 percent.
Speaking of, the Catholic Herald has a pictorial tour of the pope’s pilgrimage today to the hometown of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.
ABC chronicles the opening prayers of the House and Senate chaplains during the ongoing shutdown. Lord knows this town could use a divine assist right about now.
So this sounds like a good idea: a Chicago restaurant is serving up a “Ghost Burger” that features the “Blood of Christ” (a red wine reduction) and, of course, a Communion wafer.
(As an aside, there’s something called the Catholic Foodie blog. Who knew?)
The Supremes kick off their 2013 term on Monday, and look for them to take a rightward tack on a number of social issues.
There’s a new Catholic-run dorm at a public university in Alabama, and a few church-state watchdogs think it’s not such a good idea.
Some students at Azusa Pacific are rallying behind a theology professor who came out as transgender and was subsequently asked to leave the Christian school.
You may have seen the viral video featuring the disgruntled videographer who danced her way out the door. Those crazy kids over at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency have responded, offering her a job.
Media consultant Phil Cooke has a message for disgruntled donors to the Crystal Cathedral who are upset that memorial bricks are being torn up at the now-Catholic campus: “Get a life.”
Is your church hitting the financial rocks? There’s a growing industry of church consultants who can help.
Our own Brian Pellot chronicles 12 “blasphemous” pieces of art that have been censored for inflaming religious tensions.
Speaking of inflaming religious tensions, four Saudi men were sentenced to thousands of lashes after being convicted of dancing naked on a car.
It’s only getting worse off the coast of Sicily, where officials fear that 300 African migrants died when their rickety boat caught fire and sank as they traveled to Europe seeking a new life. Worth remembering that Pope Francis’ first trip was to the nearby island of Lampedusa, where many of the migrants arrive.
Dissident Catholic theologian Hans Kung is considering one last act of defiance: assisted suicide to relieve him of Parkinson’s Disease.
How to unite Egypt’s Muslim majority and Christian minority? Behind the country’s red-black-and-white flag, writes our own Monique El-Faizy.
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(RNS) Pope Francis rocked the Catholic world last month when he gave a wide-ranging interview in which he declared that the church had become “obsessed” with a few moral issues and needed to find a “new balance.”
Parishioners listen to the homily during Catholic Mass at St. Therese Little Flower parish in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday, May 20, 2012. RNS photo by Sally Morrow This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. Now a new poll indicates that American Catholics think he’s right, and by a wide margin.
The survey, released Friday (Oct. 4), by Quinnipiac University, shows that two in three (68 percent) adult Catholics questioned said they agreed with the pontiff’s observation that the church has become too focused on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and contraception.
Just 23 percent disagreed, and the breakdown was virtually the same across age groups and among both weekly Mass-goers and those who attend church less frequently.
The national poll — conducted the last week of September — also showed that American Catholics have a favorable (53 percent) or very favorable (36 percent) opinion of Francis, and just 4 percent view him negatively.
“American Catholics liked what they heard when Pope Francis said the church should stop talking so much about issues like gay marriage, abortion and contraception,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The survey also found that Catholic support for same-sex marriage continues to be strong, as other surveys have found, with six-in-10 Catholics approving of gay marriage and 31 percent opposed. That’s slightly above the national 56 percent approval rating.
But the latest research also indicates that support for same-sex marriage only drops slightly among weekly churchgoers, to 53 percent, with 40 percent opposed. That finding could cause consternation among social conservatives who argue that the most devout Catholics tend to support the hierarchy’s position against gay marriage.
Another finding likely to provoke concern among tradition-minded church leaders: Catholics support the idea of ordaining women priests by a 60-30 margin; it only drops to 52-38 percent among those who attend service about once a week. There is almost no gender gap in that support.
The number of Catholics surveyed was not large — 392 adult Catholics out of an overall selection of 1,776 respondents, and the margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points. But the trend lines seem to be in keeping with other research.
KRE/AMB END GIBSON
“The new study of American Jews by the Pew Research Center shows how complicated Jewish identity is right now. To try to work some of this out, we went to the streets of New York to ask Jews what they personally think it means to be Jewish.” – The Jewish Daily Forward
Video courtesy The Jewish Daily Forward
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (RNS) For almost a century, the bells of St. Giragos — a magnificent 14th-century church built of sturdy black basalt bricks — were silent.
Severely damaged during the 1915 massacre and deportation of local Christians, it stood roofless and abandoned for decades, a poignant reminder of the void left by the killing of its congregants.
Arahim Demirciyen stands outside the reconsecrated St. Giorgos church in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Photo by Gil Shefler This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. Yet for several months now the tolling of bells can once again be heard emanating from the belfry and echoing through the city’s narrow alleyways and busy markets.
St. Giragos recently underwent an extensive $3 million dollar restoration that included a new roof, the reconstruction of all seven of its original altars — a unique feature for a church, which usually has just one — and the return of an iron bell to its belfry.
“Right now the bells are just symbolic,” said Arahim Demirciyen, an ethnic Armenian who rings the bells twice a day. “A priest is currently in training in the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem. When he finishes and arrives here we can also start holding regular weekly services.”
The reopening of what church officials say is the largest Armenian place of worship in southeastern Turkey is part of a re-evaluation by Kurdish Muslims of the active role their ancestors played in the killings of minorities including Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Jews in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire.
Last April, the Peace and Democracy Party, which seeks more freedom for Kurds in the southeastern part of the country, acknowledged the atrocities carried out in the area 98 years ago and called on the Turkish government to recognize the killings of Armenians as an act of genocide.
Its declaration flew in the face of Turkey’s longtime insistence that the mass killings during and immediately after World War I were not premeditated but part of a civil war that pitted the region’s peoples against each other in a desperate struggle for power.
Abdullah Demirbas, the Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir, has presided over several initiatives aimed at commemorating his city’s once numerous Christians. Under his leadership, the municipality paid for 15 percent of the renovation of St. Giragos, unveiled a monument in memory of the 1915 victims at a local park and plans to open an Armenian museum.
Such acknowledgment comes as a breath of fresh air for the few dozen Armenians in Diyarbakir — a city where they were once a majority.
Over a glass of mint tea taken in the shade of St. Giragos’ courtyard, Demirciyen, the bell ringer, draws a line across his throat when describing the ordeal of his Armenian father.
In 1915 at the age of five, Demirciyen’s father was taken in by Muslims after his own family perished in the violence. Demirciyen identifies as an Armenian Muslim. And he feels an obligation to share his father’s survival story with the daily trickle of mostly Western tourists who come to see St. Giragos.
Ergun Ayik, who heads the foundation that funded most of the renovation of St. Giragos, estimates there are thousands of people of Armenian descent like Demirciyen in and around Diyarbakir.
While the opening of the church in Diyarbakir is good news for preservationists and supporters of minority rights, it does not indicate a nationwide phenomenon. In other parts of Turkey, the country’s Christian legacy is still under attack. In Trabzon, a city on the coast of the Black Sea, a Byzantine church has recently been converted into a mosque.
Even in Kurdish majority parts of Turkey like Diyarbakir, where official attitudes have changed drastically, resentment of Christians lingers.
When Switzerland banned building minarets in 2009 an irate group of Kurdish Muslims showed up at Diyarbakir’s Virgin Mary Assyrian church — perhaps the oldest in the city — and demanded its bells be removed.
“They said if Muslims couldn’t built minarets in Switzerland then we could not ring our bells here — like we were to blame,” recalled Yousef, the son of the church’s priest, Yusuf Akbulut, standing in the center of the church’s rotunda.
Police intervened and the bells continued to ring, yet it did little to make the last three Assyrian families in the city feel welcome. The last baptism took place two years ago.
“If we leave,” said Yousef, who asked that his full name not be used, “our churches will fall into disrepair and some might even be converted to mosques.”
Pope Francis carries his crosier after celebrating Mass in the piazza outside the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 4. The pontiff was making his first pilgrimage as pope to the birthplace of his papal namesake. Photo by Paul Haring/Catholic News Service This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. ROME (RNS) Pope Francis on Friday (Oct. 4) traveled to Assisi, the central Italian hill town made famous by the pope’s namesake, St. Francis, where he renewed his call for Christians to forsake the pursuit of worldly possessions.
The medieval saint lived in poverty in order to dedicate his life to Christ, and the pope said Christians — not just Catholics — should seek to emulate the venerated patron saint of the poor, calling the pursuit of wealth a “cancer of society and the enemy of Christ.”
The pope warned that seeking worldly possessions leads to “vanity, arrogance, and pride.”
When he was elected pope last March, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio surprised Vatican watchers by becoming the first pope in 2,000 years to pick the name Francis, and he has since looked to emulate the saint’s footsteps by keeping much of the luxuries of the papacy at arm’s length.
The pope also seems intent on reforming the church, following the work of St. Francis, who received a vision from God telling him to “rebuild my church.”
It was Francis’ second trip outside Rome in less than two weeks, following a Sept. 22 day trip to the Italian island of Sardinia, where he addressed the issue of worldly wealth and criticized what he called the “idolatry of money.”
Francis arrived in Assisi, about 120 miles north of Rome, at dawn at the Serafico Institute, a charitable organization that offers treatment to disabled children. While there, he greeted each of the more than 100 children gathered in the institute’s chapel, stopping to kiss several of them on the head or whisper into their ears.
Later in the day, Francis addressed a group of poor people in the same room where St. Francis is believed to have stripped off his clothes and given away his worldly possessions. The pope expressed anger at a “savage world” that “doesn’t help, doesn’t care if there are children in the world who die of hunger.”
His message of Christian charity comes at a poignant time in Italy, where the Italian government declared a day of mourning after more than 100 African migrants died in a shipwreck trying to reach the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, the site of the pope’s first trip outside Rome.
The pope said in Assisi that the victims and others affected by the tragedy were in his prayers. “Today is a day of tears,” Francis said. “These things go against the spirit of the world.”
(RNS) The owner of the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, under fire because his stores did not carry Hanukkah merchandise and because of a reported employee’s remark that offended many Jews, has apologized and announced that some stores will begin to carry Jewish holiday items.
Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby, speaks at the Religion News Writers Association Conference in Austin, Texas on Thursday (Sept. 26). RNS photo by Sally Morrow This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. In back-to-back statements Thursday and Friday (Oct. 3 and 4), company president Steve Green said Hobby Lobby is sorry for comments “that may have offended anyone, especially our Jewish customers and friends,” and that it will carry Jewish-themed items in New York and New Jersey by early November “to test the market.”
That’s in time for Hanukkah, which begins this year on Nov. 27.
The company credited “overwhelming demand in the Northeast” for its decision and added: “We appreciate the feedback we’ve received from our customers, and we hope these products will meet their needs.”
Some have long taken issue with Hobby Lobby’s wide choice of Christmas items but lack of any Hanukkah merchandise, even in areas with a significant number of Jews. The apology and the merchandising decision are likely to gratify some within the Jewish community and elsewhere who wondered whether Green’s conservative Christianity translated into a disregard for Jewish customers.
Suspicions heightened this week after a report that a Hobby Lobby employee in the company’s Marlboro, N.J., store responded “we don’t cater to you people,” when asked if the store carried bar mitzvah cards.
Several publications, including Religion News Service, wrote about the controversy, stirring a heated online debate in which reactions ranged from cries of anti-Semitism to cries that Green is being demonized for his strong Christian faith.
On Friday, the Anti-Defamation League, a national group that counters anti-Semitism, accepted Hobby Lobby’s apology, and strongly defended the company.
“ADL firmly believes that the religious views of a business owner cannot be a basis to infringe upon the legal rights of others, but a store choosing not to carry Hanukkah items does not violate anyone’s rights,” read the statement, which was released before the announcement about the merchandising decision.
“Moreover, we have no reason to believe that Hobby Lobby has refused to stock Hanukkah items because of hostility to Jews or anti-Semitism,” the ADL statement continued.
In Hobby Lobby’s apology, Green outlined his connections to the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel.
“Our family has a deep respect for the Jewish faith and those who hold its traditions dear,” read the statement.
“We’re proud contributors to Yad Vashem, (Israel’s official Holocaust museum) as well as to other museums and synagogues in Israel and the United States.”
The statement also noted that the company has “previously carried merchandise in our stores related to Jewish holidays.”
Marlboro blogger Ken Berwitz — who ignited the recent controversy with his account of Hobby Lobby’s responses to questions about the lack of Jewish items — said he was “gratified” by Green’s most recent announcement.
“I hope that this was simply a realization about what should be stocked in stores as opposed to being embarrassed into doing it,” he told Religion News Service.
“I think it’s the former,” he added.
Berwitz wrote on his “Hopelessly Partisan” blog that after calling the Marlboro Hobby Lobby recently, he was told Green’s Christian faith precluded the chain from carrying Jewish items.
When he then called Hobby Lobby headquarters in Oklahoma City, Berwitz said he was told the company was not stocking items for Hanukkah or Passover, but was not given a reason.
Green, a conservative billionaire, owns more than 550 Hobby Lobby stores nationwide, all of which are closed on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. He is also known for his lawsuit against President Obama’s health care law, which he said forces him to provide employees with free insurance coverage for some contraceptive services that he objects to on religious grounds.
Here is Hobby Lobby’s apology in its entirety:
Statement from Hobby Lobby president Steve GreenOKLAHOMA CITY – Hobby Lobby President Steve Green has issued the following statement on behalf of the company:
“We sincerely apologize for any employee comments that may have offended anyone, especially our Jewish customers and friends. Comments like these do not reflect the feelings of our family or Hobby Lobby.
Our family has a deep respect for the Jewish faith and those who hold its traditions dear. We’re proud contributors to Yad Vashem, as well as to other museums and synagogues in Israel and the United States.
We are investigating this matter and absolutely do not tolerate discrimination at our company or our stores. We do not have any policies that discriminate; in fact, we have policies that specifically prohibit discrimination.
We have previously carried merchandise in our stores related to Jewish holidays. We select the items we sell in our stores based on customer demand. We are working with our buyers to re-evaluate our holiday items and what we will carry in the future.”
Here is Hobby Lobby’s statement about its decision to carry Jewish items:
Hobby Lobby to carry Jewish holiday items
OKLAHOMA CITY – Hobby Lobby President Steve Green issued the following statement on Oct. 4, 2013:
“Due to overwhelming demand in the Northeast, we are pleased to announce that we will begin offering Jewish holiday items in a number of stores to test the market in New York and New Jersey.
We will continue to evaluate the demand for products. We appreciate the feedback we’ve received from our customers, and we hope these products will meet their needs.
Customers can expect to see those items in stores in early November.”
KRE/YS END MARKOE
WASHINGTON (RNS) After two blockbuster terms in which it saved President Obama’s health care law and advanced the cause of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court appears poised to tack to the right in its upcoming term on a range of social issues, from abortion and contraception to race and prayer.
Members of the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Oct. 5 in a case that pits government anti-discrimination law against the autonomy of religious groups to hire and fire employees on the basis of religion. Photo courtesy U.S. Supreme Court This image available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. The justices, whose term begins Monday (Oct. 9), could rule against racial minorities in two cases and abortion rights in one or two others. They also could uphold prayers at government meetings, ease restrictions on wealthy political donors, strike down federal environmental regulations and take a first bite out of Obamacare.
The court, whose work won’t be halted by the government shutdown, also may be ready to restrict the power of the federal government and stand up for states and municipalities in several cases, furthering their defense of federalism.
“They don’t defer to the other branches. They don’t seem to care about precedents,” said Stephen Wermiel, a constitutional law professor at American University Washington College of Law. The justices, he says, are “more than willing to step up to the plate.”
That was evident in June, when the court on successive days struck down the most important sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, over the objections of President Obama and congressional Democrats, and the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, over the objection of Republicans.
“You could not have less deference to a legislative institution,” said David Salmons, an appellate lawyer who has argued 14 cases before the high court. “This is a court that’s very comfortable in exercising their power.”
Conservative interest groups, perhaps seeing their best chance in years to advance their causes, have argued aggressively in their briefs to the court not only for favorable rulings but for overturning some of the court’s time-honored precedents: a 37-year-old campaign finance decision, a 31-year-old ruling on racial integration, even a 93-year-old opinion allowing the federal government to supersede state laws when implementing international treaties.
“They think they have the wind at their back,” says Pamela Harris, a former Justice Department lawyer now teaching at Georgetown University Law Center.
Most of the high-profile cases on the docket fall into one of two categories: Lower courts sided either with liberal activists or federal agencies. They include:
A challenge to the Federal Election Commission’s limit on how much donors can contribute over two years to candidates, parties and political action committees. It comes from a Republican businessman, Shaun McCutcheon, who wants to exceed the current $123,200 cap.A defense by Michigan’s Republican attorney general of the state’s 2006 constitutional amendment banning affirmative-action policies at state universities. If the justices reverse the lower court’s decision, it could bolster such bans in other states, including California.The Greece, N.Y., town board’s defense of its policy allowing local clergy to deliver prayers at town board meetings. The lower court sided with two women who argued the predominance of Christian clergy and prayers is coercive.A challenge by abortion opponents to a Massachusetts law setting up 35-foot buffer zones around reproductive health clinics that perform abortions. The lower court dismissed what it labeled arguments “old and new, some of which are couched in a creative recalibration of First Amendment principles.”A defense by Oklahoma Republican officials of a state law that has the effect of blocking most medical abortions. The law bans off-label uses of drugs that end pregnancies, including RU-486, even though doctors routinely prescribe the drugs that way.The court also is likely to choose from among dozens of challenges to the Obama health law’s requirement that employers include contraceptive services in preventive health insurance plans. In that case, lower courts have ruled both ways, and the government is among those seeking the high court’s review — but conservatives have the most to gain.
“The court will get another shot at the Affordable Care Act,” says Paul Clement, a former solicitor general under George W. Bush and the nation’s premier Supreme Court litigant. Clement represented states challenging the law in the historic 2012 case.
The medical abortion case probably won’t be the last effort to push the justices into further limits on abortion rights. More cases are in the pipeline, including state laws banning abortions after 20 weeks, mandating ultrasound tests and imposing new restrictions on abortion clinics.
Even the landmark cases most recently decided on same-sex marriage, voting rights and affirmative action could get encores at the high court in the near future. The lawyers who defeated California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage joined a Virginia case that seeks to legalize the practice there.
Such cases, says Tom Goldstein, publisher of Scotusblog.com and a frequent Supreme Court litigant, are “making their way to the Supreme Court like a rocket ship, or a series of rocket ships.”
(Richard Wolf writes for USA Today)
(RNS) What started as just another church assembly turned into a historic one for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as members elected the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton the denomination’s first female presiding bishop.
Eaton will take over from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, who will step down after 12 years of overseeing the ELCA, one of the country’s largest denominations.
“I’m still in a state of shock,” Eaton said on Thursday (Aug. 15). “We wanted to open up a conversation, and as I said to the assembly, it looks like the conversation got out of hand.”
Lutherans elected the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton to be its first female presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She is married to the Rev. Conrad Selnick (left), an Episcopal priest. Photo courtesy of ELCA News Service. This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. Eaton argued that incumbent Hanson paved the way for her election on Wednesday (Aug. 14). “The election of the woman to the office of presiding bishop is a fulfillment of his ministry of making this church a welcoming place,” she said.
It was under Hanson’s leadership that the denomination voted in 2009 to allow openly gay and lesbian clergy. And in June, Lutherans elected the denomination’s first gay bishop.
“It was a costly decision for our denomination,” Eaton said. The ELCA, which has lost members nearly every year since its founding in 1987, saw the biggest drop when it lost nearly half a million members in 2010 and 2011, as many conservatives upset with the decision to allow gay clergy defected to a new denomination, the North American Lutheran Church.
“We’ve thrived on paradox, that’s always been part of Lutheran history,” said Eaton, who received 600 votes against incumbent Hanson’s 287.
Eaton, who supported the denomination’s decision, said it’s important to include those who disagree.
“We can disagree on decisions as long as we agree on the cross,” she said. “My goal is to make sure we make room for the possibility that people disagree, that they are fully Lutheran, fully valued and fully part of this denomination.”
“Do I have a killer app or program that’s going to change turnaround in six years? No, I don’t,” said Eaton, who has led the more 77,000-member Northeastern Ohio Synod since 2007. “I see a sense that we have to be missionaries again.”
Even with the recent defections, the ELCA remains the largest of the Lutheran denominations in the United States, with 4 million members.
“We’ll watch to see if the actions of this bishop changes in any commitment to scriptural values,” said David Wendel, assistant to the bishop for ministry and ecumenism in the rebel NALC, who attended the assembly as an ecumenical guest. “We’re certainly hopeful that the ELCA might move back to a more centrist position in a scriptural stance, but a new election of a presiding bishop doesn’t indicate a change in the direction of the ELCA.”
There were murmurings among bishops who wanted to see the first presiding bishop of color or a woman, said April Ulring Larson, the first women bishop in the ELCA. It was somewhat awkward, she said, when Hanson ran for a third term.
“I don’t think any of us expected the outcome,” she said. “The women were less organized. I think it was the men who were thinking it’s time for a new leader.”
Among those on the ballot was the Rev. Barbara Lundblad, a professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, who is now married to her longtime lesbian partner. Lundblad, who didn’t attend the assembly, removed herself from consideration, saying she didn’t feel called.
“I don’t know anyone who went into an assembly saying ‘Boy we’re going to elect a woman this time.’” Lundblad said, noting this year as the denomination’s 25th anniversary. “People had a lot of respect for Mark, but I think they felt in this anniversary year, they needed new leadership.”
Eaton is relatively unknown across the denomination, Lundblad said, but she responded well as she addressed the assembly.
“She was honest about the need to work hard to heal divisions that remain,” Lundblad said. “She’s funny and she comes across as being very real, very authentic.”
Eaton could bring a fresh face to the denomination and to the role of presiding bishop, Lundblad said.
“It knocks our assumptions about quintessential bishops,” Lundblad said. “Anytime you say a leader of a church breaks down stereotypes, it breaks down stereotypes across the church about what a Christian looks like.”
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who in 2006 became the first woman to lead a church in the worldwide Anglican Communion, praised Eaton’s election in a statement on Thursday.
“There are excellent foundations already in our common work, and I expect further growth as we seek to serve God’s mission as ministers of justice and healers of the breach,” Schori said.
The denominations share a full communion agreement that allows shared clergy and joint ministry. A native of Cleveland and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Eaton is married to the Rev. Conrad Selnick, an Episcopal priest, and they have two adult daughters, Rebeckah and Susannah.
Noting other changes in church leadership this year, including the elections of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Pope Francis, Eaton said hers was a little different.
“This was just like the papal election,” Eaton said jokingly. “No, we don’t do it in secret. It’s all out in the open. And we had a conference room. It’s a lovely conference room, but there are no frescoes. Michelangelo didn’t paint anything.”
(RNS) Egypt now teeters on the edge of an abyss. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was in Cairo last week at President Obama’s request to mediate between the military-backed interim government and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, told CBS News: “Oh my God, I didn’t know it was this bad. These folks are just days or weeks away from all-out bloodshed.”
The widely anticipated military crackdown against pro-Morsi demonstrators began yesterday, so we’d better brace for the blow-back.
The rising specter of repression in Egypt is difficult to watch for two reasons. First, it confirms that the counterrevolution is successfully restoring the deep state — the vast security apparatus upon which military autocracy in Egypt has been based since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule in the 1950s, effectively extinguishing any hope of transition to democracy. Second, the violent crackdown evokes bad memories of earlier efforts by Egypt’s military strongmen to crush their Islamist opposition.
In regular 20-year cycles, starting with Nasser in the 1950s, the Egyptian military regime has launched brutal campaigns of repression against its Islamist opponents. Although each of those previous suppression efforts succeeded in eliminating the immediate challenge to military rule, they never addressed the root causes of the problem.
Because Egypt has served as the global epicenter of political Islam for close to a century now, what happens there has enormous repercussions worldwide, especially for the United States.
The repression of the late 1950s led to the radical theories of Sayyid Qutb, which still inspire Islamist extremists from Aceh in Indonesia to Timbuktu in Mali. The campaign of the 1970s prompted only increasingly fanatical and violent expressions of Islamist extremism, culminating in the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.
The 1990s campaign of repression by Egyptian security services convinced Islamist extremists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born leader of al Qaeda, that to succeed in Egypt they must first strike “the far enemy,” the United States, upon whose support, they reasoned, the Egyptian military autocracy relied.
History suggests that when Egypt’s military suppresses its Islamist opponents, it has serious repercussions for the United States.
And on Sept. 11, 2001, it was an Egyptian, Mohamed Atta, who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, signaling the start of the 9/11 attacks.
Already last week, 19 U.S. embassies and consulates were shuttered as Zawahiri sought to underscore his argument to mainline Islamist sentiment around the world that the overthrow of Morsi demonstrates the futility of democracy with a spectacular new terrorist attack.
With the United States serving as the main supplier of the Egyptian military, it should not surprise Americans that we are held responsible for what the Egyptian military does. Our government’s official silence on whether or not Morsi was overthrown by an obvious military coup is not helpful because it conveys hypocrisy and complicity.
We need to be absolutely clear with Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi that, contrary to the conventional wisdom in Cairo, brutal suppression of the Islamist opposition does not work in the long term — it only breeds increasingly violent extremism.
What does work is inclusive democracy. Nothing was more effective in undermining the credibility and attraction of Islamism in Egypt than the pathetic failed experiment with actual Muslim Brotherhood rule.
There can be little doubt that U.S.-Egyptian relations will be rocky in the near future no matter what we do, but if we don’t stand decisively for democracy now, the long-term horizon will be even worse. We must be firm with the generals who are busy re-establishing their control that the only effective antidote to Islamism is democracy and a sustained effort to address the real grievances that give rise to the Islamist opposition in the first place.
This will be a hard sell, but history shows that when the generals in Cairo decide repression in is the only solution to their Islamist problem, the rest of us should brace for the global blowback.
(Christopher S. Taylor is professor of Middle East Studies and comparative religion at Drew University where he directs the Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict. He wrote this article for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey.)
(RNS) A federal judge has struck down Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment that would have prohibited judges in the state from considering Shariah law.
The amendment was approved by about 70 percent of Oklahoma voters on November 2, 2010, but the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued to block the amendment, arguing it violated separation of church and state and discriminated against Muslims.
A U.S. District Court judge agreed and issued a temporary injunction against the amendment. That decision was upheld in 2011 by a federal appeals court that returned the case to the judge, who made the final ruling Thursday (Aug. 15).
“It is our hope that, in finding this anti-Islam law unconstitutional, lawmakers in other states will think twice before proposing anti-Muslim laws of their own,” said Gadeir Abbas, a CAIR staff attorney and counsel for the plaintiffs.
A call to the Oklahoma governor’s office was not immediately returned.
The amendment struck down Thursday specifically mentioned Shariah, and is different from anti-Shariah laws adopted over the last few years by state legislators in Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. North Carolina legislators also passed an anti-foreign-law bill this spring, which is now on the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory, who must decide by August 25 whether to sign or veto it.
While these laws do not mention Shariah, but “foreign law,” their backers have stated Shariah was their target. Those laws have not been challenged in court, although Muslim civil rights activists say they may still try.
That 2010 Oklahoma constitutional amendment that tried to ban Shariah and other “international laws”? The federal judge who struck it down issued a final ruling, striking it down again.
Our own Lauren Markoe debunks the rumor that wee Prince George (heir to the British throne) is actually Jewish. I guess that’d make him Goy George, not Boy George.
Outspoken Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to place white crosses in the spots where migrants die while trying to cross the border into the U.S.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey caught up with the new presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Elizabeth Eaton, who said she’s still trying to take it all in. “Do I have a killer app or program that’s going to change turnaround in six years? No, I don’t,” she says.
American nuns met Thursday under lock and key with Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, who’s been tasked by the Vatican with bringing the independent-minded sisters back in line.
Southern Baptist policy guru Russell Moore tackles the complicated and sensitive debate over transgender sexual identity, and concludes that “we can no more surgically alter our gospel than we can surgically alter our gender.”
Omar Sacirbey has all the week’s Muslim news in the new edition of Moozweek, including a wrap-up of the carnage unfolding across Egypt.
Speaking of, Egyptian Christians’ support of the crackdown against pro-Morsi supporters isn’t working out too well for them; there are reports of churches burned across Egypt as the situation goes south.
Coming soon to a PBS station near you: a nuanced mostly sympathetic biography of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (and no, they don’t show his face).
Dartmouth College nixed the appointment of a former Anglican bishop from Malawi after the bishop’s comments about homosexuality came to light.
The Mormons have a record 75,000 missionaries out there knocking on doors, a growth fueled by the decision last year to lower the age for wannabe missionaries.
RNS alum Alfredo Garcia writes about churches’ response to “the new Jim Crow,” mass incarceration.
About time someone said it: former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Christians in the West need to “grow up” and get a real handle on what Christian persecution really looks like.
And with that, we’re off to the weekend. But before you go, make sure we have your email address so you can get the Roundup for free each day in your in-box.
(RNS) A Royal Bris! A Royal Bar Mitzvah! Hanukkah at Buckingham Palace!
From the moment Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged, a rumor ran happily through the Jewish blogosphere (and menacingly on many anti-Semitic websites): the couple’s progeny, the heir to the British throne, would be Jewish! And then, on July 22, a son was born — a Son of Israel!
Um, no.
His Royal Highness, Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, is not Jewish — and you can bet your yarmulke on that.
But because Jewish law considers a child Jewish if the mother is Jewish, and because Kate’s mother’s maiden name is Goldsmith — a name not uncommon among British Jews — some wrongly conclude that the wee prince’s matrilineal line is Jewish, and so is he must be too.
But before we dispel the rumor that the world’s WASPiest baby is an Israelite, here are five reasons why some people assume he is.
1. The Iranians said so. The Tehran-based Mehr News reported that not only is Kate Jewish, but she was secretly baptized in the Church of England so she could marry William, and then they faked their whole Christian wedding. The story goes on: “Nevertheless even being baptized by the bishop of the church cannot prevent Prince William’s son, the next king and the senior governor of the Church of England, from being a Jew as Kate and William’s child will inevitably remain a Jew.”
2. In a YouTube video that is circulating widely, dead ringers for William and Kate, their families and the Archbishop of Canterbury dance down the wedding aisle to klezmer music.
3. In 1937, Jewish philanthropist Frank Charles Lindo donated the wing at St. Mary’s Hospital, where George and William were born.
4. The artist formerly known as Prince, according to at least one person, is half Jewish. So, if you’re fully a prince … maybe you’re fully Jewish.
5. Former BBC reporter Michael Cole, who covered the royals beat, wrote a letter to the Times of London declaring that Kate is Jewish — again, drawing on the surnames of her forbears. Even the New York Post decided this was meshugas.
So what’s Kate’s religious history?
She and her Anglican family were never big on going to church. She was baptized as an Anglican in 1982, when she was five months old, and then, before her wedding two years ago to William, who will as king one day assume the title “Defender of the Faith,” she was confirmed by the Bishop of London. Many explained the confirmation as a measure to make it absolutely, positively clear that Kate is in no way Catholic (still frowned upon for royal spouses).
But Jewish?
Genealogists have traced her lineage back generations, and all you can find is church wedding after baptism after church wedding.
Or, in the words of the widely-quoted Doreen Berger, the chairman of the Jewish Genealogy Society: “I’ve looked back as far as it’s possible to look back and she doesn’t have a Jewish link at all — it’s just not true. I’m 100 percent sure.”
(RNS) A new study of almost a century’s worth of data shows that the smarter you are, the less likely you are to believe in God.
The study, conducted by Miron Zuckerman, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, examined the findings of 63 earlier studies — one dating back to the 1920s — that measured intelligence and religiosity. The majority of those studies found that more intelligent people were more likely to lack religious beliefs.
“The relation between intelligence and religion is negative,” Zuckerman said. “It was very early in the study that we realized that.”
But Zuckerman is careful to point out that his work — known as a “meta-study” because it examines a range of other studies — does not mean only dumb people believe in God.
Rather, he said, it shows only that more intelligent people may have less need for religion.
“It is truly the wrong message to take from here that if I believe in God I must be stupid,” he said. “I would not want to bet any money on that because I would have a very good chance of losing a lot of money.”
Rather, Zuckerman and co-authors Jordan Silberman and Judith Hall write that more intelligent people may find certain basic needs — “functions” in psychology-speak — fulfilled outside of religion. These functions include self-esteem, a sense of community and a sense of purpose, among others.
“We say it is possible that having a high level of intelligence provides similar functions to what religion provides” for people who adhere to a religion, Zuckerman said.
The study also concludes that more intelligent people are less likely to believe in God because they are more likely to challenge established norms and dogma. They are also more likely to have analytical thinking styles, which other studies have shown undermine religious belief.
The news is not bad for believers, Zuckerman insists.
“The functions we cover imply that in many ways religious people are better off than those who are nonreligious,” he said. “There are things about self-esteem and feeling in control and attachment that religion provides. In all those things, there are benefits to being religious, and that is the take-home message for those who are religious.”
R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. This image available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said he has “great concerns” about the study.
“This kind of study points to a very clear issue for believing Christians,” he said. “We do not draw support for our faith from scientific reports. Anyone whose faith is shaken by the claim that research proves that higher intelligence leads to lower levels of religious belief has a misplaced faith.”
Lillian Daniel is a Congregationalist pastor and author of the recent book “When ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ is Not Enough.” She said many intelligent people are comfortable with “the metaphor and mystery” of faith.
“It’s not that intelligence leads to atheism, or education leads to loss of faith,” she said. “But I think there is a certain peer pressure as one moves up the educational ladder to dismiss all religion as fundamentalism. It’s one of the last acceptable biases in an environment that prides itself on being open-minded.”
The study appeared in the online version of Personality and Social Psychology Review, an academic journal, and will appear next year in the print version.
(RNS) The dispute over dropping a beloved Christian song from a new Presbyterian hymnal has widened into a multi-denominational tussle, with Baptists joining the fray.
At issue are various Christian doctrines of the atonement, which attempt to explain why Jesus died and whether his death satisfies God’s wrath over humankind’s sinfulness. But some Christians warn that emphasizing these doctrines may have the unintended consequence of turning God into an angry deity who had to be appeased by shedding Jesus’ blood.
Songwriters Keith and Kristyn Getty. Photo courtesy Getty Music This image available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. That’s the view taken by the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song. The committee removed the hymn “In Christ Alone” from the new Presbyterian Church (USA) hymnal after the song’s co-authors, Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, refused to change a line about God’s wrath being satisfied.
Bob Terry, editor of The Alabama Baptist newspaper, stepped into a theological landmine when he wrote an editorial saying Presbyterians got it right. Terry said he believes Jesus’ death paid the price for sin. But the song’s lyrics went too far.
“Sometimes Christians carelessly make God out to be some kind of ogre whose angry wrath overflowed until the innocent Jesus suffered enough to calm Him down,” Terry wrote.
That editorial, which ran earlier this month, touched a nerve.
In blogs, tweets, letters to the editor and phone calls, angry Baptist readers accused Terry of being theologically liberal and abandoning the Bible. Some wanted him fired.
In an unusual move, the president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention and the executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions issued a statement that criticized the editorial.
“As Alabama Baptists seek to be true to Scripture, we affirm the essential and historic Christian doctrine of substitutionary atonement,” they wrote, referring to the doctrine that Jesus died as a substitute for humankind.
The fact that a Baptist newspaper editor sided with the Presbyterians made things worse, said the Rev. John Thweatt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Pell City, Ala.
Conservative Baptists have long viewed mainline denominations like the PCUSA with suspicion, accusing them of abandoning Christian beliefs. Siding with them was a bad move for Terry, he said.
“He opened up a Pandora’s box,” Thweatt said. “I don’t think he thought things through.”
Thweatt is a fan of the song “In Christ Alone.” He said he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to change it.
The song’s original lyrics say that as Jesus died on the cross, “the wrath of God was satisfied.” The Presbyterian committee wanted to change that to “the love of God was magnified.”
“To remove that line would gut the gospel,” Thweatt said.
R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. RNS photo courtesy SBTS This image available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., agreed.
Mohler said there is no contradiction between God’s love and God’s wrath. Both are needed to deal with human sin.
That’s why he believes penal substitutionary atonement is essential. Critics who want to change “In Christ Alone” to remove the line about God’s wrath have bad theology, Mohler said.
“It reveals deeper problems with what they believe about atonement,” he said.
Mohler also gave some context on why penal substitutionary atonement matters to Southern Baptists. It was one of the issues that led to the conservative resurgence — or fundamentalist takeover — among Southern Baptists in the 1980s and 1990s, when some seminary professors began criticizing substitutionary atonement, leading to full-blown questions about biblical inerrancy.
Memories from that conflict are still fresh, he said.
But Jay Phelan, senior professor of theological studies at North Park University, said too much wrath also leads to bad theology.
Phelan said Mohler and other critics are motivated by church politics as well as theology. They’re part of the movement known as neo-Calvinism, which stresses God’s anger over sin.
“You have all the neo-Calvinists who see any move away from strict satisfaction theory as the straight road to liberal hell,” he said.
Phelan said the neo-Calvinist view of Jesus’ death is too limited.
Most Christians believe in substitutionary atonement. But Christians have differing views on how Jesus’ death forgave sinners, said the Rev. Morgan Guyton, a blogger and associate pastor of Burke United Methodist Church in Burke, Va.
Among them are the ransom theory, which holds that Jesus’ death was taken to be a ransom paid to the devil to liberate human sinners from bondage.
No one theory can explain the atonement, Morgan said. And too much focus on wrath causes problems with the Trinity by making it appear God crucified Jesus.
Mohler argues that critics of substitutionary atonement forget God is always motivated by love, even in punishing sin.
The word “wrath” does not appear in another popular song written by Townend about the cross, titled, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.”
Written in 1995, that song remains one of the top 50 popular songs in churches, according to the Christian Copyright Licensing International. Its last verse claims the details of the atonement remain a mystery.
“Why should I gain from His reward?” it says. “I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.”
CHICAGO (Reuters) - For years, headlines about Catholic schools in the United States have told gloomy tales of falling enrollment and multiple closings.
Between 2000 and 2013, 2,090 U.S. Catholic schools closed or consolidated and enrollment fell 24.5 percent, according to the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). In places like Chicago's Leo Catholic High School for boys, student numbers have plummeted from 1,200 students in the 1950s to 157 this year. In New York, the Catholic Archdiocese plans to close 24 schools.
This decline has implications for public schools throughout the nation, say Catholic school supporters. According to the NCEA, the 2 million U.S. students they serve save the nation approximately $21 billion a year in public school costs.
But while schools are closing in northeastern and Great Lakes cities, they're expanding in places like Indiana, Texas, North Carolina and Florida, which have growing Catholic populations, governments willing to support private school, or both.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, Cardinal Gibbons High School has expanded three times since 1994 and now has two facilities for 1,240 students.
"Enrollment in this area is very, very strong," said diocesan superintendent Michael Fedewa. When he came to Raleigh 19 years ago there were so few Catholics it was considered "missionary territory." The diocese has since opened eight new schools.
Nationally, 32 percent of Catholic schools have waiting lists, showing the mismatch between space and demand.
LOSS OF CHEAP LABOR FORCE
Catholic schools took root in the United States when 19th century church officials, responding to anti-Catholic sentiment in public schools, urged every parish to build its own school. Enrollments peaked in the early 1960s, when there were more than 5.2 million students.
Staffed by religious orders like the Jesuits, the schools gained reputations for discipline and academic rigor. Catholic schools outscore public schools in reading and math significantly, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. For eighth-grade reading, for example, Catholic school scores were 7.2 percent higher, the NAEP found.
Graduates joke about getting smacked by nuns but brag about their education. "In my time as an editor, I could always pick out which reporters went to Catholic school, because they could spell," said Leo President Dan McGrath, a former Chicago Tribune editor.
Reasons for declining enrollment include climbing costs and demographic changes - smaller families and the departure of parents with children from northeastern and Great Lakes cities for the suburbs or for jobs in the south and west, according to Catholic school experts. The clergy sex-abuse scandal hasn't helped either.
The expansion of charter schools, which offer an alternative to traditional public schools and charge no tuition, have also hurt Catholic schools. About one in three students gained by charter schools in New York State came at the expense of Catholic schools, according to a new study by Abraham M. Lackman, scholar in residence at the Graduate School of Education, Fordham University.
Where Catholic schools are growing, it's often because of innovative ideas, voucher systems, and outreach programs for growing numbers of Hispanic immigrant children.
Money is a big problem. The number of religious sisters has declined from nearly 180,000 in 1965 to 54,000 in 2012, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA. That has meant a large loss of cheap labor. Only 3.2 percent of the professionals at today's Catholic schools are clergy or in religious orders, compared with 90.1 percent in 1950, the NCEA said.
"They're replacing low-paid nuns with medium-paid lay people," said Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia and a specialist in church finances. Whereas lay teachers receive modest salaries, nuns receive "very small" annual stipends, room and board in the convent, and no pension, Zech explained.
Another issue is that Catholics on average give 1.2 percent of their income to the church, compared with 2.5 percent given by Protestants, Zech said. "At least since the mid-60s, we've seen a pattern of Catholics giving half of Protestants."
Weekly church attendance among Catholics fell from 47 percent in 1974 to 24 percent in 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. The clergy abuse scandal, which cost the U.S. church about $3 billion in settlements, and disagreement over the ban on contraception helped drive some people away, according to a Pew study. Less in the collection plate means less to subsidize school tuition.
Catholic school experts worry that soaring tuition is pricing out the low- and middle-income children the Church is supposed to serve. Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, school superintendent for the Chicago archdiocese, recalled how in the mid-1960s she apologized to her parents because her high school tuition rose to $470 (almost $3,000 in today's dollars).
Now tuition averages $3,673 a year for Catholic grade school and $9,622 for high school. The K-12 cost for private school averages $20,612, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. McCaughey said some families are afraid to even consider Catholic school, though scholarships are available.
School officials hope smart planning can save schools. In New York, the diocese is trying to improve its finances by closing underused schools, creating regional centers of control and bringing in help from lay experts for "our Achilles' heels" - marketing, finance and building management, said Timothy J. McNiff, school superintendent for the New York archdiocese.
Right-sizing has been painful. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the New York Times she was "heartbroken" that her old Bronx grade school, Blessed Sacrament, would close. The Philadelphia archdiocese closed 34 schools last year.
The Chicago archdiocese will close five schools this year but has seen signs of a turnaround, with city elementary enrollment up three years in a row. McCaughey said young parents in gentrifying neighborhoods and a seven-day public school strike last fall are helping to boost the numbers.
LOOKING FOR TAX SUBSIDIES AND CHARITY
In Indiana, a voucher program for low- and middle-income students has been a boon for Catholic schools. In the archdiocese of Indianapolis alone, the number of voucher students more than doubled from 2012 to 2013, to 2,328.
"We've had to open up new classrooms," said Gina Fleming, assistant superintendent for schools. "We're finally able to provide a desired Catholic education to families who wanted it all along."
Teachers' unions oppose vouchers because they drain money from public schools, and such a program is unlikely in Democrat-majority states like New York and Illinois. Catholic school officials see more hope in programs that allow individuals and corporations to allocate part of their state taxes toward private-school scholarships. Fourteen such programs exist in 11 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Catholic schools also are pushing for more private charity to help needy students.
"We try to turn nobody away for financial reasons. If they really want to come here, we try to find a way to make it work," said Leo's McGrath, whose desk is piled with letters to potential donors. One selling point: over the last five years, every Leo senior has graduated and gotten into college.
ATTRACTING HISPANICS
Many dioceses have seen an increase in the Catholic population due to Hispanic immigrants. But while Hispanics make up nearly 40 percent of U.S. Catholics, they account for just 14 percent of Catholic school students.
The problem is partly cultural. While U.S. Catholic schools have long taken children of various income levels, the schools are seen by many Latin American immigrants as only for the rich. So schools have to let Hispanic families know they're wanted, and explain that scholarships are available.
"You can't do that by giving them a pamphlet," said Raleigh's Fedewa. "You have to build relationships."
The diocese of Venice, Florida, worked directly with the pastor of a majority-Hispanic parish. He in turn reached out to 10 leading parish families to spread the word about Catholic school.
Bringing in Hispanics means being more culturally aware - from hanging images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's famous icon, in the hall to having more chairs outside the office to accommodate extended families, said Kathleen Schwartz, diocesan education director.
The other way to expand Catholic schools is by offering innovative, competitive ideas, said Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, head of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College.
She cited St. Jerome grade school in Hyattsville, Maryland, a school that's not in a wealthy area but is attracting parents willing to pay for a classical education that includes Latin and rhetoric.
Another example is Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Washington, D.C., where students work one day a week at a designated job partner. This helps teach real-world skills and pay for tuition.
Above all, according to Lorraine Ozar, director of the Center for Catholic School Effectiveness at Loyola University, schools must be true to their religious function: "to communicate the person of Jesus and the worldview that comes out of Gospel values ... We need that kind of school now even more than we did before."
(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Arlene Getz and Prudence Crowther)