Faith Digest

Posted: 3/30/07

Faith Digest

Survey says moral values weakened. Three-quarters of Americans believe moral values in America have weakened in the last 20 years, and almost half think they have significantly weakened, according to a survey released by the Media Research Center. The survey found 74 percent of American adults said they believe moral values in the United States are weaker than they were two decades ago, while 48 percent said moral values were “much weaker.” Sixty-eight percent of Americans surveyed said the media—both entertainment and news—have a detrimental effect on moral values. More specifically, 73 percent said entertainment media had a negative influence on moral values, and 54 percent said the news media do. Eighty-seven percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 36 percent agreed that people should always live by God’s principles and teachings. The study was conducted by the polling firm Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates and the center’s Culture and Media Institute. The results were based on 1,000 surveys of American adults ages 18 and older by telephone and 1,000 surveys completed online in December. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Wipe out malaria, first lady urges. Laura Bush congratulated religious and community organizations involved in the fight against malaria and urged others to join in the campaign at a White House conference. She highlighted the President’s Malaria Initiative, called PMI, which was launched in 2005 and aims to spend $1.2 billion over five years to address malaria in 15 countries. The first lady cited several groups—from Catholic Relief Services to megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California—that are fighting the disease, which kills about 1 million people, many of them children, each year.

Canadian philosopher wins Templeton Prize. Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher whose work has touched on questions of spirituality, violence and culture, will receive the 2007 Templeton Prize. Taylor, 75, teaches law and philosophy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and is a professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal. He is the first Canadian to be awarded what often is called the most prestigious prize in the world of religion. The award—valued at 800,000 pounds sterling, or about $1.5 million—has been given out annually since 1973 by the John Templeton Foundation. In its early years, the prize went to prominent religious figures such as Billy Graham and Mother Teresa. More recently, the prize has been given to scientists, theologians and ethicists whose work has focused on the burgeoning field of science and religion. Taylor, the author of more than a dozen books, will receive the honor at a May 2 ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

Supreme Court hears ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ case. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a free speech conflict that has caught the attention of religious litigators nationwide. Morse v. Frederick concerns an Alaska high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as the Olympic torch passed through his town in 2002. After he was suspended, the student, Joseph Frederick, now 23, said his banner was a “free speech experiment” that had no religious or political message. Frederick sued his principal and has been backed by several national Christian law firms, including the Christian Legal Society, Alliance Defense Fund and the American Center for Law and Justice. Though they disdain the speech in question, the Christian lawyers are concerned schools may gain the power to censor certain views, from anti-abortion rallies to Bible clubs.