Churches in USA more diverse, informal than a decade ago

Churches in USA more diverse, informal than a decade ago

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Worship services may still be the USA's most segregated hour, but fewer congregations are now completely white, finds a study comparing churches, synagogues and mosques last year with a decade ago.

The National Congregations Study says 14% of primarily white congregations reported no minorities in their midst last year, compared with 20% in 1998.

Such steep change in a short period is noteworthy because "religious traditions and organizations are widely considered to be remarkably resistant to change," says sociology professor Mark Chaves of Duke University School of Divinity, the lead researcher. "There's movement in the right direction."

The study, in the journal Sociology of Religion, compared 1,505 congregations in 2006-07 with 1,234 in 1998. It was based on surveys by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the 2006-07 data and 3 percentage points for 1998 data.

The increase in diversity is only among primarily white churches; majority black churches are as segregated as ever, Chaves says. Among primarily white congregations, the number reporting at least some blacks rose from 27% in 1998 to 36% in 2006-07; those reporting at least some Hispanics rose from 24% to 32%.

Worship is not only more diverse, it's also "more informal and more enthusiastic by every measure," Chaves says, with more shouting, clapping and hands raised overhead in praise. Use of drums in worship jumped 70% in eight years, from 20% in 1998 to 34% in 2006-07. "We find drums almost everywhere, even in Catholic and Jewish services," he says.

These trends come to life in places such as Crossover Community Church in Tampa, where Sunday's rap Christmas pageant drew "everyone from grandparents to little kids," says pastor Tommy Kyllonen, who also goes by his hip-hop performing name, Urban D.

Since he took over Crossover seven years ago, Kyllonen, a pastor's son whose own heritage is a European mix from Greek to Finnish, has built a diverse congregation — he estimates that the high-energy worship services attract a congregation that is about 50% Hispanic, 30% black and 20% non-Hispanic white.

"It's still cutting-edge to have our kind of mix, but our society is becoming more and more culturally and racially mixed, and as time progresses, more churches will look like ours," says Kyllonen, author of Un.orthodox: Church. Hip-hop. Culture.

Another multi-racial, multi-ethnic congregation is Sanctuary Covenant Church, founded by Efram Smith in 2003 in North Minneapolis. It uses every musical style from traditional hymns to hip-hop.

"Our idea is to engage everyone in prayer and service, and we found that if people know they'll have music that is familiar to them, they're willing to try other styles," Smith says.

The study also found that both clergy and their congregations are substantially grayer now than in 1998. The average age of the lead clergy person in congregations has risen from 48 to 53, and one in three members are over age 60, up from one in four. This is partly the result of people living longer and fewer young families joining congregations.

"The two-parent family with kids is still the main basis of American religious congregational life, but that kind of household is somewhat less common than it used to be," Chaves says.

"And each generation, as it reaches that stage of life, seems to be joining or returning to (a religious congregation) at a slightly lower rate than the one before it."

Jesus not the only way

Many Americans Say Christianity Not the Only Way to Eternal Life

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20081219/many-americans-say-christianity-not-the-only-way-to-eternal-life.htm

Most American Christians believe many religions can lead to eternal life and among them, the vast majority says you don't even have to be Christian to go to heaven, a new survey shows.

Sixty-five percent of all Christians say there are multiple paths to eternal life, ultimately rejecting the exclusivity of Christ teaching, according to the latest survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Even among white evangelical Protestants, 72 percent of those who say many religions can lead to eternal life name at least one non-Christian religion, such as Judaism or Islam or no religion at all, that can lead to salvation.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the survey results "a theological crisis for American evangelicals," according to USA Today.

"They represent at best a misunderstanding of the Gospel and at worst a repudiation of the Gospel," the prominent evangelical theologian said.

Majorities among white evangelicals, white mainline Christians, and black Protestants who do not believe in the exclusivity of salvation say Catholicism and Judaism can lead to eternal life, Pew results show.

Smaller but still sizeable percentages (more than half) of white mainline Christians, black Protestants and white Catholics who say there are multiple ways to eternal life also say Islam can lead to salvation; among white evangelicals, 35 percent agree. And more than half of white mainline Christians and white Catholics who view heaven's gates as wide say Hinduism can lead to eternal life compared to 33 percent of white eva! ngelicals and 44 percent of black Protestants.

Surprisi! ngly, Ch ristians also believe atheism can provide a ticket to heaven. Forty-six percent of white mainline Christians, 49 percent of white Catholics and 26 percent of white evangelicals who believe many religions lead to salvation say atheism can lead to eternal life.

Mohler called the findings "an indictment of evangelicalism and evangelical preaching."

"The clear Biblical teaching is that Jesus Christ proclaimed himself to be the only way to salvation," he told USA Today.

Explaining the challenge many believers face in today's culture, Mohler noted, "We are in an age when we want to tell everyone they are doing just fine. It's extremely uncomfortable to turn to someone and say, 'You will go to hell unless you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.'"

The Pew Forum first surveyed Americans on the exclusivity view of salvation in 2007. The survey of 35,000 adults provided startling numbers with 57 percent of evangelical church attendees saying they believe m! any religions can lead to eternal life and overall, 70 percent of Americans sharing that view.

But when the survey results were released in June this year, critics reported flaws in the survey such as the Pew Forum's definition of evangelical and the vagueness of the statement "many religions can lead to eternal life." Critics say it was possible some respondents may have interpreted "many religions" as other Christian denominations besides their own while others might have thought more broadly to include non-Christian faiths.

The new survey, conducted July 31-Aug. 10, 2008, among nearly 3,000 adults, serves to clarify the previous findings.

And alarmingly, 52 percent of all American Christians think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.

Additionally, only 30 percent of those affiliated with a religion say one's belief determines eternal life; 29 percent say eternal life depends on one's actions and 10 percent believe ! it's a combination of belief and actions.

White evangel! icals we re less likely to say actions determine who obtains eternal life compared to white mainline believers, black Protestants and white Catholics; and they were more likely to agree that salvation is dependent on belief (64 percent) compared to only 25 percent of white mainline Christians.

Despite the alarming findings, the Pew Forum provided one trend that may be good news for evangelical Christians.

The percentage of evangelical Christians who say theirs is the one, true faith has gone up from 39 percent in 2002 to 49 percent in 2008. The religious exclusivity view has also grown among black Protestants, all Catholics, and slightly among white mainline Protestants.

Fighter jet crash in San Diego

On December 8, 2008, an F/A-18D Hornet lost control and crashed into a civilian neighboorhood in San Diego. The house where the plane crashed belonged to Dong Yun Yoon, member of the Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego. While Mr. Yoon was not home at the time and is alive, four of his family members were home during the crash and did not survive. Please pray for wife Young Mi, daughter Grace (15 month), Rachel (1 month), and Young Mi's mother Mrs. Suk Im Kim.

First, please pray and offer support for the Yoon family. His church website has information on how you can offer support.

Mr. Dong Yun Yoon's Support Information

On Monday December 8, 2008 Dong Yun Yoon (member of the Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego) lost four of his family members in the recent F/A-18D jet crash in San Diego.

We will dearly miss his wife Young Mi, daughter Grace (15 month), Rachel (1 month), and Young Mi's mother Mrs. Suk Im Kim.

Donations
A Trust Fund has now been created for Mr. Dong Yun Yoon.

Dong Yoon # 200-717-333, SD Hanmi Bank

If you are unable to find a Hanmi Bank in your area, you can mail your donations to the Korean United Methodist Church at 3520 Mt. Acadia Blvd. San Diego, CA 92111


Related Articles:
San Diego Father Who Lost Family Prays for Pilot
Lesson of San Diego's jet crash

College Students and Cults

College students find important lessons in ‘cult’ class

By Julie O'Connor

First year students at Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J., are asked to study cults of their choosing. Students studying cults were invited to test the independence of their own thinking, and examine the shades of gray in adult life. Freshman Peter Collins delivered his presentation on the Branch Davidians, the cult from Waco, Texas, that made headlines in a violent and fiery demise. Religion News Service photo by John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger.

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. -- Waiting on the desks of about 20 freshmen enrolled in a new class at Centenary College were paper cups filled with fruit punch.

Already, a test.

Would they "drink the Kool-Aid?"

The challenge, posed by professor Barbara Lewthwaite, was part of a new course offered this year, "Cults: Love them or leave them."

Freshmen criminal justice and sociology majors were asked to research "cults" of their choosing, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Rev. Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple, Charles Manson, the Mafia -- even Catholicism.

It's an unconventional topic for an annual course required for first-year students, said Cheryl Veronda, who heads the program at Centenary, which was founded in 1867 by the United Methodist Church.

"It's a hook, certainly," she said, "but it's a theme that serves as a springboard for everything else we want to get done in the class."

That includes orienting students to college life and study habits, and introducing them to an advising professor and upper-class mentors.

Other freshman offerings include "But is it Art?" for fine arts majors, "Mass Violence, Atrocity and Genocide" for history and psychology majors, and "Major Decisions," for the still-undecided.

Students studying cults were invited to test the independence of their own thinking, and examine the shades of gray in adult life, said Lewthwaite, who chose the topic to pique student interest.

"Classically, an 18-year-old thinks in absolutes," she said. To counter that, she raised questions like, "Do you think that a cult is always bad?"

Not necessarily, Lewthwaite said. A cult is usually defined by characteristics like a charismatic leader, dedication to certain ideas, brain-washing, forbidding members to leave, the use of symbols and violence.

"I think the word `cult' is kind of emotionally charged," she said. "I think it has a negative connotation. It does because of things like Jonestown ... but historically, there have been examples of a few that were forces for good in some ways."

Fanaticism, she said, is what drives a cult to evil, and makes it all-consuming.

The Kool-Aid was part of a lesson on Jonestown. Thirty years ago, Jones led about 900 Americans to their deaths in a mass murder-suicide pact that took place in a South American jungle. Shortly before his followers drank cups of cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, Jones' gunmen killed a visiting U.S. congressman and four others at a nearby airstrip.

What ended in a massacre had begun as an interracial Indianapolis congregation in the 1950s, developing into a leftist social movement with programs for the poor. Eventually, Jones summoned his followers to a camp in Guyana, promising paradise.

Not all cults have tragic histories, said student Colleen Akronas, who researched Father Divine's International Peace Mission Movement. She considers the group, formed during the Great Depression, to be an early cult with a beneficial mission: racial integration.

"It wasn't negative brain-washing, it was positive," Akronas said.

Student Tom Pierce said he chose to study Catholicism because he wanted to tackle a group that didn't fit the mainstream idea of a cult. Like many cults, he argued in a class presentation, Catholics have one principal leader -- the pope -- and employ fund-raising.

"The whole idea of heaven and an afterlife, it could be said to be deception," he said.

But Samantha Aquino, a classmate who is Catholic, disagreed.

While she said some might suggest the pope exhibits a "false sense of identity, because he thinks he's closer to God than everyone else," unlike a cult, "Catholicism is really out to help people."

"I wouldn't say there would be such a thing as a good cult," Aquino added.

Students who were initially certain they would never "drink the Kool-Aid" said they now better understand how cult followers are drawn in.

"It just shows you how easily people can be manipulated," Aquino said. "You always have to be on your toes."

(Julie O'Connor writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

Adopted from Russia with love to Korean home

Adopted from Russia with love to Korean home

Jang Su-in, 19, is like any other student at Chonnam Girls High School in Gwangju, South Jeolla, except for one thing - her appearance.

In Korea’s ethnically homogenous society, with her fair skin, high nose, deep double eyelids, brown eyes, long eyelashes and light-brown hair, this Russian teen certainly looks foreign in appearance, yet speaks Korean just as fluently as her classmates.

Jang was born to a Russian family and named Nastya Baskaeva, but since being adopted into a Korean family seven years ago, she has lived in Korea.

One of six siblings, Jang grew up with her birth parents in the remote village of Mosdok in southern Russia, so remote it takes a two-hour flight and then a two-hour drive to reach from Moscow. Due to the family’s poverty and with her father too old to work, Jang was not able to go to school

In February 2001, Korean couple Jang Byung-jeong, 56, and Kim Kyung-hee, 53, were visiting a local Mosdok church. After meeting the young Russian, they decided to take her back with them to Korea, where they believed she could receive a better education, and adopted her as their daughter.

Arriving in Korea, the 12-year-old Jang quickly picked up the Korean language and in less than six months could enter the sixth grade.

Battling the culture shock and initial language difficulties, Jang had to go the extra mile to keep up with her classes. Adding to the shock was the fact it was her first time in a formal school setting.

Now seven years on, Jang is a senior in high school and recently took the college entrance examination.

Jang has aspirations to be a Korean-Russian interpreter in the future so that she can serve the country of her birth and her new home. She hopes to major in Russian at university.

Jang’s Korean parents, although well-off when they adopted her, have suffered financial difficulties since lending money to an acquaintance a few years ago. Her father now drives a taxi for a living. When her mother once ran a small restaurant, Jang always helped her on the weekends.

“She is such a good kid, with the sense to practice economy with her allowance and rarely asking for more spending money,” her mother Kim said. “It was heartbreaking to hear her say one day that she couldn’t ask for things she wanted lest she worry us.

“I’m just so proud that she has grown up so well, while I feel sorry that we couldn’t fully provide her with what she would’ve needed,” she added.

In keeping with her good sense, Jang hopes she can be admitted to a national university with relatively low tuition fees, so as not to be a burden on her parents.

She once even considered going back to Russia, where tuition fees are lower than Korea. But later, after thinking it over with her Korean parents, she decided it would be her birth parents’ wish to see her study in Korea and become a successful Korean-Russian interpreter. After all, they had sent her here despite the sadness of separation in order for her to live a better life.

“One day I will have both my Russian and Korean parents with me when I grow up and I will be ready to support them,” Jang said.


By Lee Hae-suck JoongAng Ilbo [spark0320@joongang.co.kr]