News & Notes

Not all disbelievers consider themselves to be atheists, says the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life:

According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, 5% of American adults say they do not believe in God or a universal spirit, but only about a quarter (24%) of these nonbelievers actually call themselves atheists.

Within this 5% of the total population, what other kinds of unbelievers are there? 35% consider themselves “Nothing Particular” and 15% “Agnostic,” while 14% consider themselves Christian, and 10% identify with other religious traditions such as Judaism (4%) and Buddhism (3%).

• Not All Unbelievers Call Themselves Atheists
  Pew Forum
• U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Is interfaith dialogue only a concealed form of proselytism? Does it require watering down one’s own faith commitments? Nancy Longatan writes on the real nature of interfaith dialogue at suite101.com.

That, in a nutshell, is interfaith dialogue: identifying a community problem, (violence); deciding on a way forward (have a picnic); and sitting down to plan the program together. How to live well in a complex world.

• Interfaith Dialogue: Watered Down Faith,
  or a Sneaky Back Door to Proselytism?
  suite101.com

“Religion has become more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment for many.” So says Barry Kosmin, co-author of the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), a study by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Overall, the report describes a significant decrease in those who identify themselves as “Christian,” and an increase in those who claim no religious affiliation at all. This last group has almost doubled since the last survey done in 1990, and is larger than any religious group except Catholics and Baptists. The report comments, “”the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion.”

ARIS 2008 is the third large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults conducted by Kosmin and Ariela Keysar. Professors Kosmin and Keysar are, respectively, director and associate director of Trinity’s Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture.

Christians now constitute 76% of the population in America, down from 86.2% in 1990. Most of the decrease is among Protestant denominations; Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ are now 12.9% of the population, down from 18.7% in 1990.

Some growth has taken place among those who would identify only as “Christian,” “Evangelical/Born Again,” or “non-denominational Christian.” Partly due to the expansion of “megachurches,” the last group has increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to 2.5 million in 2001 to over 8 million today. These groups grew from 5 percent of the population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2001 to 11.8 percent in 2008. Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.

Some representatives of minority religious groups, notably Jews and Muslims, are concerned that surveys such as ARIS tend to under- or over- count the actual number of adherents, which would skew the results somewhat.

• American Religious Identification Survey
  (Trinity College)
• Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds
  (USA Today)
  See interactive graphs and comparisons
• Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State
  (The Christian Post)

Thursday, March 26, 2009, 7:00 pm San Jose

William Lobdell, the author of Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America—and Found Unexpected Peace, may know more about how religion is actually practiced in the United States than anyone else in the country. He has been a journalist for 25 years winning numerous awards, and was the religion writer for the Los Angeles Times for eight years. He went from being un-churched, to a born-again evangelical, to an almost-converted Catholic, to an individual who no longer believes in God as he once did. Lobdell saw the very best and the very worst of organized religion and was shaken by the experience.

You will never see institutionalized religion the same way after hearing him speak and reading his book. Location: First Christian Church in San Jose at 80 South 5th Street next to the City Hall and around the corner from the Martin Luther King Library. Parking is available on site. The public is invited to this free event. For information, contact Reverend Dana Bainbridge at 408-294-2944 or DanaBainbridge@gmail.com.

A December study published by the Pew Research Center says that nearly 60% of the respondents indicated they would prefer to live in a community with people from many different religions. According to the study:

Some 59% of Americans say they would rather live in a community where there are many people with different religions, while 25% say they would prefer to live mainly among people who are the same religion as they are. Some 40% of white evangelicals, 42% of Hispanic Catholics, 38% of those who attend religious services at least weekly and 41% of conservative Republicans say they would rather live in communities mainly filled with people who share their religion. By contrast, just 14% of liberal Democrats, 20% of all Democrats, 14% of those who seldom or never attend religious services, 18% of college graduates and 21% of white non-Hispanic Catholics say they would prefer to live mainly among people who are the same religion as they are.

The study included questions on political, racial, and economic diversity, and immigration. Just over half (51%) indicated their support for diversity in all categories. The researchers note, however, that patterns of segregation and separation persist in American life.

• Americans Say They Like Diverse Communities;
  Election, Census Trends Suggest Otherwise
  Pew Research Center

Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago and one of the key leaders among the new generation of interfaith work writes an interesting reflection at “On Faith” on the importance of secularism.

“Those of us trying to bridge the faith divide would do well to welcome the nonreligious,” he writes. I am reminded of the atheist who is on the board of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio– one of the most committed to the work of bridging religious differences between his neighbors.

Much of the visible religious debate today emanates from the radical extremes: the hyper-religious engaged in mortal combat with the anti-religious. But most of us fall between these poles, and our freedom to believe and to live as we choose is largely due to the secular agreement that undergirds our civic lives.

• Secularism Good for the Soul: Eboo Patel
  On Faith (Washington Post)

In mid-July, King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia convened an unprecedented multifaith gathering in Madrid, Spain. He had previously met with 500 Muslim scholars in Mecca in June, resulting in an invitation to dialogue titled “The Makkah Appeal for Interfaith Dialogue.” Subsequently, the meeting in Madrid included some 250 representatives, not only Jews, Christians, and Muslims— the “People of the Book,” but for the first time including leaders of Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and other religious traditions. Together, they issued “The Madrid Declaration,” calling on all to reject “the clash of civilizations,” to enhance common human values, share a culture of tolerance and dialogue, seek international guidelines for dialogue, and to respect diverse religions and their symbols.

Despite some cogent criticism of the specifics of the gathering (see especially notes by Dr. Shanta Premawardhana of the Council of Churches and Rabbi Michael Lerner below), participants agreed that it had been a significant step in establishing ties of respect and honesty among religious leaders. They have committed themselves to continued meetings and dialogue.

• The Makkah Appeal for Interfaith Dialogue (Saudi Embassy)
• The World Conference on Dialogue: Its Promise and Challenges
  (Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, World Council of Churches)
• Not just another interfaith parley
  (Rabbi David Rosen, Jerusalem Post)
• My Talk with the Saudis, and What I Learned from Them
  (Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun)
• The Madrid Declaration (Saudi Embassy)

This week, more than 150 Muslim and Christian leaders gathered at Yale University to carry on the dialogue that was begun with the publication of A Common Word Between Us and You by a group of distinguished Muslim scholars and the subsequent responses from Christian leaders around the world. The conference is being sponsored by the Yale Reconciliation Project and His Royal Highness Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan. The Monday night keynote address was given by Senator John Kerry, as he stressed the pressing need to find common ground:

In a world where today a Catholic, a Protestant, a Russian Orthodox Christian, a Confucian ex-Communist, a Hindu, a Muslim, and many assume a Jewish finger sits on a nuclear button, it’s a delusion to think we can retreat to our safe spaces. . . The reality is that our faiths– and fates– are inextricably intertwined. The poet Auden said it best, “We must love one another or die.” It’s a delusion to think we have any choice but to find a way to live together.

He noted the tremendous difficulties that accompanied the American experiment of creating a society where there exists a pluralism of viewpoints, goals, and religious orientations, and declared:

From many faiths, one shared country. That achievement rests on our solution to the age-old question: Who defines the truth in public space? Our experiment has succeeded because we’ve allowed for different notions of truth in public life. Many believe that to do otherwise is to invite permanent war.

and then Kerry challenged those present:

Can our great faith traditions come together and forge a consensus on the conditions of life that will empower people to find their own fulfillment? It seems to me that we cannot move forward as a planet if we do not come to some rough consensus on what these broad rights are. Beyond that we must find ways to secure these goods for everyone on our planet while simultaneously discussing, arguing and sharing our particular understandings of God and God’s call for how we are to live our lives.

As the conference unfolds, Yale will make video of the sessions available online. As of today, you can find Kerry’s keynote; the welcome; a keynote address from Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric; a Conference panel on Loving God with Ayot Mohaghagh Damad, Naim Travna, and David Ford; and a panel on Loving Neighbor with Mustafa Cherif, Martin Accad, and Tokunboh Adeyemo. More videos will be posted when available.

• Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed:
  Implications for Christians and Muslims
• Online videos of the conference
• A Common Word Between Us and You (official website)

NAIN Connect 2008, the annual gathering of the North American Interfaith Network, begins this Thursday, July 24-28 in San Francisco. This is a unique opportunity not only to meet interfaith activists from across North America, but to show off what’s been happening in our own communities around the San Francisco Bay Area.

More than 20 workshops, together with plenary sessions featuring people engaged in grass-roots interfaith work from across North America will explore these themes: “Multifaith Challenges We Face,” “Gifts We Bring,” and “Making a Difference.” Host for the conference this year is the Interfaith Center at the Presidio.

ONE-DAY SATURDAY PASS:
On Saturday, July 26, those securing one-day passes for $50 will be welcome to three of approximately 18 workshops, starting at 10:30 am, 1:30 pm, and 3:30 pm. To find a listing of workshops and when they are offered, go to www.nain.org/2008 and click on workshop schedule. Reservations not required. Pay when you come.

• NAIN CONNECT website
• Interfaith Center at the Presidio
  

One of the ways that we learn about each other and build interreligious understanding is to visit each other’s places of worship. For the person who would like to do so, but is unsure about what to expect or what might be expected of them, there are a couple of useful resources.

How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook, edited by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida is now in its fourth edition. It offers brief introductions to 29 different religious traditions and Christian denominations, and guidance for visitors to regular services, holy days, and special events like weddings and funerals.

Online, you can find “Guidelines for arranging group visits to Houses of Worship,” developed by JW Windland out of forty years of visiting places of worship and assisting groups to do so. Sponsored by Scarboro Missions in Toronto, the Guidelines include hints on making contacts with the religious community, arranging a visit, preparing the group, etiquette during the visit, and follow-up.

• How to Be a Perfect Stranger (Amazon)
• “Guidelines for arranging group visits to Houses of Worship”
  Scarboro Missions