Hispanics continue to drift away from their traditional allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. The number of Hispanic adults who say they attend a Catholic church more frequently than any other has dropped 15 percent in the last decade to 53 percent, according to the Barna Research Group. Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States and are expected to overtake blacks to become the second-largest population group in the next five years, Barna reported.
Source:Reporter-News.com, March 19, 2001, Barna Research Group
Portable missionariesA Canadian-based international missions organization has provided more than 371,000 portable missionaries to 101 nations of the world in the last 12 years. The portable missionaries are actually solar-powered, fix-tuned radios that only receive one station, a gospel station, so that those who could not afford a radio can hear the good news, says the Rev. Allan T. McGuirl, international director of Galcom International, based in Hamilton, Ontario.
I call these radios portable missionaries because they have no head, no arms or legs, but they can go into any country, McGuirl explains. They dont need a visa or a holiday; they speak the language immediately upon arrival and they work for 24 hours a day without a complaint. God has used them in such a miraculous way.
Source: Assist News Service, May 1, 2001
Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, at the Southern Baptist Conventions annual meeting at the Louisiana Superdome, June 12, 2001
Is the Bible true? Only 27% of Americans believe the Bible represents the actual word of God in all instances. In 1963 the comparable figure was 65%.
Source: Religion Update, gallup.com, June 12, 2001
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Bible reading habits in declineFewer Americans are reading the Bible regularly, according to a Gallup poll. The number of Americans who frequently read the Bible has dropped quite a bit, although most people say they still look at it once in a while.
About 59 percent of Americans say they read the Bible at least occasionally, down from 73 percent in the 1980s. Some 41 percent say they read it rarely or never. Thirty-seven percent read it weekly, down from 40 percent, and 16 percent read the Bible daily.
Americans favorite book of the Bible is the Book of Psalms, followed by Genesis, Matthew, John, Revelation, Proverbs, Job and Luke, the poll found.
Source:Crosswalk.com, October 27, 2000
The Muslim impact on AmericaA recent study of Muslims in the United States shows that mosque participation is increasing steadily in America. Muslim population in the U.S. is now estimated to be between six and seven million, primarily in urban areas, with 30 percent additional mosques being established just in the last decade. Muslim conversions occur primarily among men (68 percent) and the African American community (63 percent). One in four converts is white, a fairly recent evolution.
The report, sponsored by Hartford Seminarys Faith Communities Today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim American Society, discovered that most mosques are involved in outreach activities, such as caring for the incarcerated or needy. Greater than 25 percent of the mosques surveyed have established full-time schools. More and more mosques are getting involved in politics and other aspects of American life. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that mosques are not only centers for spirituality, they are now bases for political and social mobilization.
Source: Christianity Today, June 11, 2001
Gutenberg goes onlineThe Bible that started the printing-press revolution is joining the Internet revolution. The Gutenberg Bible is going on the Internet in full for the first time. The British Library and researchers from Japan have collaborated to provide electronic versions of two 15th century Bibles so that scholars around the world can study them without damaging the originals by handling them, according to the BBC.
The British Library has two complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book to be printed in the West. They are on the librarys web site at www.bl.uk. Some images will be magnified to such an extent that you can see details that its very difficult to see with the naked eye, said Kristian Jensen, a library curator.
Researchers and technical experts from Tokyos Keio University and a Japanese telecommunications company spent two weeks in the library digitizing the pages with technology originally used for spy satellites.
Source:Crosswalk.com, November 29, 2000
True love still waitsPledges to remain a virgin appear to delay sex. A government study published in the American Journal of Sociology found that the public pledges teenagers make may seem to work, at least for a while. Adolescents who took the pledge delayed having sex one-third longeran average of 18 monthsthan their peers. The pledge was more effective among 16- and 17-year-olds than 18-year-olds. About 2.5 million teenagers made the pledges in the 1990s, according to the report.
The virginity pledge movement began among Christian ministries such as True Love Waits and now includes some 80 independent organizations. The pledgers are not just the far-right religious kids, said study co-author Peter Bearman of Columbia University. These are the kids you see at the mall.
Paul Turner, an official with True Love Waits, said that the report shows that the pledges make a significant difference in the lives of teenagers.
Sources: American Enterprise, April 2001, and True Love Waits
Hollywood loses money at box officeR-rated movies are not hitting projected-earnings goals because of tightened enforcement of the age restriction on the rating. A study by MarketCast reveals that major studios are losing significant chunks of revenue on R-rated movies, especially on R-rated films appealing to teenage girls.
Because of criticism from the Federal Trade Commission and Congress, the movie industry agreed not to advertise R-rated films on television shows where more than 35 percent of the audience is under 17. Most have also stopped showing trailers for R-rated films ahead of the G- and PG-rated features. Theater owners, meanwhile, are cracking down on kids who try to get into R-rated movies.
Joe Roth, a veteran Hollywood executive who heads the new Revolution studio, is reevaluating the direction of the studio. Im consciously steering away from the R, he said. My one-line philosophy on the R rating is if youre making an R-rated movie, youd better want to. You cant just slip into it.
The president of Artisan Entertainment, Amir Malin, has come to the same conclusion: When were dealing with genre-oriented material, were trying to achieve a PG-13 rating without destroying the artistic merits of the film.
I think the implications are that studios will take a hard look at movies that could be cut to be PG-13, said Michael Schwartz, research director at MarketCast. Theyll ask whether the R-rated scenes will gain them enough appeal to offset the losses, especially where there is strong teen interest.
Source: Washington Post, May 31, 2001