WASHINGTON (RNS)—Nearly one in five evangelicals and Catholics are undecided about which presidential candidate to support, according to a recent survey.

In addition, fewer Protestants and Catholics identify themselves as Republicans than did four years ago, according to Calvin College’s Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics in Grand Rapids, Mich., which commissioned the survey.

Protestants—along with Hispanic Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Americans—could be the crucial “swing vote in the electorate,” said Kevin den Dulk, a political scientist at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.

One of the new influential groups are voters who classify themselves as “unaffiliated”—people who identify as secular, agnostic or do not assign themselves to any religious category. They comprise more than 16 percent of all Americans and are traditionally young and male.

Evangelical Protestants make up more than one-quarter of all Americans and still remain overwhelming Republican. But the report showed a fragmentation among U.S. evangelicals, with younger members possibly peeling away from traditional Republican values in favor of other issues, including environmental protection.

With the unstable economy and rising gas prices, the economy and the war in Iraq will trump social causes as major campaign issues for 2008, the survey found.

At the same time, increasing immigration continues to contribute to “a growing religious pluralism,” especially among Latinos, according to the survey.

NEW YORK (BP)—As Major League Baseball showcased its stars in famed Yankee Stadium, the player who emerged from the All-Star break as the biggest star of all, Texas Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton, spent most of his time pointing to someone greater than himself.

Hamilton, whose career and his life were nearly ended by drug addiction, wowed the masses in person and on TV during Monday night’s Home Run Derby, but he used his national platform to give credit to God for his athletic ability.

“I can’t believe what God has done in my life and how quickly he has done it,” Hamilton told a national television audience after his record-shattering performance of 28 home runs in the first round, including three measuring more than 500 feet.

During Tuesday night’s All-Star game, Hamilton also added a sharp single and some speedy play in the outfield.

While he smiled and gladly accepted the praise of the crowds and his fellow players, Hamilton, much like Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy after his Super Bowl win, turned attention to the most important facet of his life.

“I just want to give thanks,” Hamilton said, pausing briefly in his nationally televised post-Home Run Derby interview, which was also played through the Yankee Stadium PA system, “to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I want to seek to honor him every day.”

Story hard to believe 

People hearing Hamilton’s story of ruin and redemption often find it hard to believe.

But as Hamilton openly admits to anyone who asks, it’s all painfully and remarkably true.

He was the first-round draft choice in all of baseball by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999, but while his career looked promising he was becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.

It ultimately cost him three years of play in the minor leagues, 2004-06, as he was suspended by Major League Baseball and never rose above Class A ball.

As his addiction to cocaine and heroin became worse, Hamilton recounted that he would wake up not knowing the person lying next to him and not remembering what he been doing with them.

The large tattoos that cover both arms are a painful and permanent reminder of his time away from baseball and his family.

Bad decisions 

“I made a series of bad decisions,” Hamilton told the national media in New York prior to the All-Star game. “I had a value system and knew right from wrong, but I made wrong decisions.”

Hamilton is quick to give appreciative credit to his praying wife Kathie and his family, along with his spiritual mentors including Rangers special assignment coach Johnny Narron.

When he finally landed back in baseball in 2006, he was briefly with the Rays, then the Chicago White Sox, who traded him to Cincinnati in 2007. He came to the Rangers in ’08 determined to make a difference on the field, but more importantly off the field with his life and actions.

Jim Sundberg, Rangers vice president of public relations and a fellow believer who has cheered Hamilton’s progress, said, “Sometimes you don’t ever know what a difference you can be or what a role model really is until you find the right situation.”

To remind himself of the power drug addition had over his life, Hamilton stays with Narron at all times at home in Texas and on the road. Hamilton’s his wife and 1-year-old son live at their off-season home.

The buddy system 

He never goes out anywhere by himself, taking all of his meals with Narron and rooming with him in Texas where they have nightly Bible studies when the Rangers are not playing.

Hamilton, who can be tested for drugs at any time without notice by Major League Baseball, only carries $10 or less at any time, with Narron taking care of all of his Ranger-supplied meal money and any other income.

Hamilton has become active in the Baseball Chapel and has shared his story of Christ’s change in his life not only with the Rangers but also local youth groups.

“God doesn’t give me anything I can’t handle,” he told the local Dallas newspaper.

“He’s definitely here for a reason,” teammate Ian Kinsler told the paper. “Only God knows that reason, and he’s let God take control of his life.”

Before they are introduced at every at-bat at the Ballpark at Arlington, Rangers players are given the opportunity to pick their own theme music to be played to the crowd.

Hamilton chose “Saved The Day” by Christian group Phillips, Craig & Dean which speaks about Christ’s incredible power of redemption.

While various national media outlets were quick to search for the physical power source behind Hamilton’s amazing show of power in Monday’s Home Run Derby, the 27-year-old from Raleigh, N.C., was only too happy to share his real power. ESPN commentator Rick Reilly listened to Hamilton’s story of renewal with God’s power in his life and then proclaimed to a national audience, ‘It’s a bad night to be an atheist.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—John Hagee, outspoken pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, has successfully worked with copyright lawyers to get more than 120 videos featuring him removed from YouTube.

The development was reported by The Huffington Post, whose blogger Max Blumenthal discovered a video he had made at Hagee’s Christians United for Israel conference last year was among those removed from the popular video website.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Hagee, confirmed the videos had been removed.

“They were anything that contained clips of sermons, clips of activities happening at CUFI or John Hagee Ministries events,” he said.

After Hagee’s controversial comments about the Holocaust as an expression of God’s will and his references to the Catholic Church as “the whore of Babylon” were carried on the Internet, Sen. John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement of his presidential race.

Blumenthal criticized the move as “a naked exercise in news suppression.” Engelmayer would not respond directly to the comments of Huffington Post writers but said the removal of videos followed particular criteria.

“It wasn’t done on a targeted basis,” he said. “It was done strictly on a formulaic basis of whether it fit certain criteria.”

The removal was not timed to the annual summit of Christians United for Israel, July 21-24 in Washington, he insisted.

Rather, he said, Hagee’s daughter read a story about a studio that had successfully challenged YouTube and had material removed, sparking the work by lawyers several months ago.

Blumenthal wrote in a Huffington Post blog that his “Rapture Ready” mini-documentary “contained no copyrighted material whatsoever.”

Asked about that complaint, Engelmayer said, “I have not studied the video, so I can’t speak to his video at all.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (RNS)—At St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, the 14,000-member congregation billed itself as a “seven-day-a-week” hub of activity, with choir practices, ministry meetings or small groups scheduled every night.

But Pastor Kevin Cosby noticed a drop-off. People simply couldn’t afford the gas to drive to several activities on several different evenings.

So, Cosby shuffled the schedule to combine all activities on Wednesday night to give church members a “one-stop-shop for your soul.”

The church also bought a third 14-passenger bus to shuttle people to and from church.

“We thought it would be a better practice of stewardship,” Cosby said. “The good use and stewardship of resources is how we demonstrate our love for God.”

Members with long commutes say they already feel the benefit of the Wednesday shift.

“I think it’s great. Tonight, I am going to attend three different auxiliaries all in one night,” said Cornelius Pumphrey, an 11-year member who lives 25 miles away. “Gas here is $4. … I will be able to save a considerable amount.”

Brenda Dudley, a member for 21 years, added, “Budget-wise, it really helps to have everything under one roof at one time.”

With rising food and gas prices, Americans are grappling for economic stability. Churches, in turn, are getting creative in trying to soften the blow of rising prices on worshippers’ pocketbooks.

Jonathan Coe, pastor of the Lone Star Cowboy Church southeast of Dallas, said some church members are riding their horses to worship services in hopes of saving gas. (RNS photo courtesy Jonathan Coe)

Some churches have responded with weekly gas card raffles and subsidized gas outreaches to the community. For others, like St. Stephen, the answer lies in major changes of service offerings.

In Eastlake, Ohio, the Worldwide Great Commission Fellowship church started raffling one $25 gas card and one $20 grocery card during Sunday services for all who attended in the last month.

“People feel they cannot afford to come to church, and if they do come, that they do not have money to give to the offering,” Pastor Melinda Bauman said. “That is a significant sign that people are struggling.”

In Flushing, Mich., Pastor Mary Lloyd said God called her to give $5 gas cards to first-time visitors. Her 300-member church, Community Hope Church of God, has given out more than 36 cards since May.

“It costs a lot to even come to church,” Lloyd said. “We want to say, ‘Thanks for coming to church, and here is a way to come back.’”

The Catholic Diocese of Providence, R.I., used a $17,500 grant from the Catholic Charity Fund to buy more than 1,000 bus fare booklets that were free to qualifying recipients based on income and how the tickets would be used.

From bus tickets and gas cards to filling gas tanks with subsidized gas, novel ideas by religious organizations big and small are popping up across the nation.

North Point Church, a 2,500-member congregation in Springfield, Mo., sponsored a gasoline outreach in May as a part of its “52 unforgettable experiences” vision statement.

The event at a local gas station was scheduled to last 52 minutes as the church paid more than $1 on every gallon purchased. But not wanting to turn anyone away, the church subsidized 4,000 gallons of gas for 400 to 500 cars, lasting three hours. Cost of the outreach event totalled just under $9,000.

Greg Marquart, director of church ministries at North Point, said the goal of the event was not about gaining members.

“Our goal was to meet the need,” Marquart said. “We wanted to tell people we cared about them without ties or caveats, and that’s truly the biblical model.”

Responses to gas hikes have taken on a more rustic, pastoral nature some places.

At the Lone Star Cowboy Church, near the Ellis/Navarro County line, Pastor Jonathan Coe has seen up to 15 horses on any given Sunday in the parking lot, up from the usual three or four. As a pastor of two cowboy congregations 45 minutes apart, Coe also has felt the stress of rising fuel costs.

“It used to cost me $50 to fill up my diesel truck. Now it costs me $132,” Coe said. “I would imagine I am spending $1,200 a week between Sunday services, weekly events and Bible study.”

Churches also are seeing financial ministries expand and say requests for food and gasoline assistance are up. A recent Gallup Poll found about one in six Americans cannot afford the cost of driving. A separate poll of Southern Baptist pastors by LifeWay Research found 72 percent say the U.S. economy is negatively affecting their churches.

Cindee Coffee, spokeswoman for Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, said about two-thirds of the 18,000-member congregation is living paycheck to paycheck. Demand for financial counseling has risen, and calls for help in buying food and gas have increased traffic on the church’s emergency-only after-hours phone line.

In addition, some church employees have opted for a four-day workweek to reduce commuting costs.

Dave Travis, managing director of Leadership Network, a Dallas-based evangelical think tank, predicts churches have only begun to see the impact of rising fuel costs.

“Everyone thinks of the $4 gas mark, but it also hits the utility bills,” he said.

Philanthropist Templeton dies at 95. John Templeton, American-born investor and philanthropist who devoted his later life to funding the scientific study of religion, died July 8 at a hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, at 95. Templeton founded a prize for “progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities” in 1972. The Templeton Prize has been awarded to Mother Teresa, theoretical physicist Paul Davies, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and American evangelist Billy Graham.

Two investigated ministries making changes, senator says. Ministries headed by evangelists Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn are changing the way they operate, instituting reforms even as a Senate probe into alleged lavish spending by six prominent ministries continues, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. Grassley described the responses from Hinn and Meyer as “in good faith and substantively informative,” but said the others are “incomplete” or “not responsive.” Broadcaster Kenneth Copeland reportedly has said his ministry will not respond even if a subpoena is issued. Other ministries under investigation are Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.; Creflo Dollar Ministries in College Park, Ga.; and Randy and Paula White from Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.

Bibles to be available at China Olympics. Despite controversy earlier this year, thousands of Bibles and gospel booklets will be distributed to athletes and visitors at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing—with the approval of the Chinese government. The British-based Bible Society said the organization’s 180 affiliated branches around the world are jointly funding the project. About 50,000 booklets with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John published in Chinese and English will be available at the Athletes’ Village in Beijing and five other Olympic cities, according to the Bible Society. In addition, 10,000 complete Bibles and 30,000 copies of the New Testament in Chinese and English also will be printed by the China-based Amity Press for the 16,000 athletes and an estimated 2 million visitors expected for the games.

Christian groups to deliver food to North Korea. A partnership that includes several Christian organizations has reached an agreement with North Korea to deliver strictly monitored food aid to counter the communist country’s severe crop shortage. The five nongovernmental organizations forming the partnership—World Vision, Mercy Corps, Samaritan’s Purse, Global Resource Services and Christian Friends of Korea—have a decade or more experience working in North Korea. Texas Baptist Men has worked closely with Global Resource Services in North Korea. Sixteen representatives from the five NGOs will live in North Korea to monitor food distribution. The aid is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and is part of a larger agreement expected to reach more than 5 million people.

Twice-published author Zach Hunter has, at age 16, surpassed the goals of many aspiring writers. But he’s focused on more than publication. He wants to see slavery abolished worldwide.

Hunter, from Snellville, Ga., recently released his second book, Generation Change , to promote the modern-day abolitionist movement.

For those who believe slavery ended with the Civil War, Hunter clarified slavery exists today in multiple forms including prostitution, sweatshops and agricultural plantations.

Zach Hunter, age 16, recently released his second book, Generation Change, to promote the modern-day abolitionist movement. (Photo by Daley Hake)

Hunter began working in the modern-day abolition movement at age 12 when he started the “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” program.

“It’s a completely student-led campaign to end modern-day slavery,” Hunter said.

“We get people to look for loose change, and (we) send it to one of four abolitionist agencies. … The idea behind it is that everyone has influence.”

Both his first book, Be the Change, written at age 15, and Generation Change promote his message that anyone can make a difference. And he’s not just talking to teens.

“If you’re not dead yet, you can still do something. There are people my grandmother’s age who can still get involved. Just because you don’t have as much energy doesn’t mean you have to stand off to the side and watch,” Hunter said.

Social justice legends William Wilberforce, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. inspire Hunter’s work, as well as teens today who take action. He spotlights many of their stories in his newest book.

Hunter’s parents, Gregg and Penny, modern-day abolitionists themselves, support their son wholeheartedly. Both have worked with International Justice Mission in its efforts to fight human trafficking.

“They’re passionate about what I’m passionate about,” Hunter said.

Generation Change reads quickly, with several short, focused chapters. Instead of writing only about slavery, Hunter addresses topics like poverty, education and environmentalism, as well as intangibles such as kindness. Each chapter concludes with a list of ideas for practical application—many that can be accomplished immediately. Others, like holding benefit concerts or organizing recycling drives, take more time and commitment.

Zach Hunter launched Loose Change to Loosen Chains when he was 12 years old. As a part of the campaign students college loose change from their homes and neighbors in yellow cups and have combined these coins to raise money to end slavery. (Photo by Tom Sapp)

As he works to advance social justice, Hunter cautions against confusing humanitarianism with Christianity, writing that humanitarianism is the “hip, new, cool thing to do.”

“I think it’s a requirement for Christians to be humanitarian, if being humanitarian means caring for the poor,” Hunter said.

“I think there is no such thing as a ‘humanitarian Christian.’ True Christians, who exhibit true Christianity as the Bible defines it, are caring for the poor and the oppressed.”

Despite his conviction to keep Christ at the center of his own work for justice, the ideas in Generation Change should “relate to everyone,” Hunter said.

“I believe ‘generation change’ encompasses not only my generation, but every generation, every ethnicity, even every religion … it crosses barriers. Abolition is not only a Christian issue, but a human issue.”

Insincere service troubles Hunter, he said, especially when it comes from the church.

“For people who want to seem more current and (build) up (church) attendance … it seems like the new gimmick has become service to the poor, sort of in the place of spiritual growth and looking at the Bible—service without spiritual formation. That’s no different from a non-Christian going out and then returning to their daily lives,” Hunter explained.

“This whole movement isn’t about just service. Service in and of itself is empty. We’re not only supposed to do what Jesus did, but in the way he did it.”

Optimism balances Hunter’s realism, and he said he believes in his generation.

“I think my generation is a passionate generation. … If we can get passionate about justice and about God, then the possibilities are endless.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)—Divorce—the word seems to leap out of the e-mail many a military wife receives from her soldier husband.

Discussions of divorce among military personnel generally conjure the idea of a weary soldier’s receiving a “Dear John” letter while stationed on some far-away battlefield.

While that is still most common, often the reverse happens—the service member determines, sometimes while thousands of miles from home, he or she no longer wants to be married.

Is the divorce rate among service men and women higher now than in the past? Has deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones increased the rate among military personnel?

No single answer to those questions has emerged yet. Noticing a doubling of the number of divorces among military personnel from 2001 to 2004 and concerned that long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to the increase, Pentagon officials commissioned a study by the Rand Corporation. The Pentagon sponsors Rand’s National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center.

Divorce rate not related to deployment 

Released in April 2007, the Rand study showed no spike in the rate that could be directly correlated to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Researchers Benjamin Kearney and John Crown analyzed military records from 1996 to 2005 for 6 million soldiers. They found that divorce in the military declined between 1996 and 2000, and then gradually began to rise. The military divorce, separation and annulment rate rose 3 percent in 2005, the same rate as 1996, when the deployment rate was not as high.

Rand researchers did not examine divorce rates among soldiers returning from war, nor have they studied which spouse—the civilian or the military member—most often files.

“It’s more traumatic at the return (from war) than the separation (from family) itself,” noted Chaplain Col. Johnny Almond, a volunteer military-ministry coordinator for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and pastor of Colonial Beach Baptist Church, Colonial Beach, Va. “If records were studied after deployment, (researchers) would probably discover the divorce rate is rising.”

Women in military twice as likely to divorce as men

The rate is rising among female military personnel, according to the Rand study. Women in military service are twice as likely to end marriage as are their male counterparts.

The study suggested two reasons for the disparity, which also is supported by a 1991 study of Gulf War veterans. First, existing support programs may not provide sufficient support for families of married military women.

Second, the study concluded that marriages of women service people “benefit significantly less from being deployed.”

“We’re not arguing that deployment is good for marriage,” Kearney, lead researcher for the Rand study, explained in a recent telephone interview. 

However, he added, deployment does provide some positive outcomes, particularly financial benefits due to increased combat pay. “Some benefits may outweigh some of the emotional costs,” he said.

Rand studies indicate that the longer an individual is deployed, the less likely he or she is to divorce, Kearney added.

All service branches offer resources to strengthen military families, including briefings for soldiers on how their absence and return could affect relationships and how to cope with change. Family support groups, marriage retreats, marriage-education programs and programs designed to educate single soldiers about choosing a mate also are offered.

Programs tend to be geared to active-duty personnel. Reservists and National Guard members often live far from the nearest military base’s family-readiness center—which provides support.

Likewise, many Reserve and National Guard spouses may not meet or spend significant time with other military spouses, noted Eric Lewis, pastor for military ministries at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., and military ministry leader for the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board’s Vision San Diego emphasis. 

Lewis offers immediate crisis care for military spouses facing divorce through counseling services, much as he does with civilians. But the reservist and seminary student currently in chaplaincy training also helps spouses navigate the necessary channels to get access to services the Department of Defense offers to them.

Church should respond with immediate care 

Col. Bob Page, command chaplain for the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, agrees that churches should respond with immediate care. “They need someone to be there. Most are away from their extended family…or friends to walk through the ordeal with her or him,” he said.

Churches should offer continuing support as well. Page recommends DivorceCare or similar programs.

Remember single parents and divorcing members during special events and holidays. “Even Sundays are family-oriented and can be lonely for that person,” he said. “Help the divorcing person know he or she is not alone. It would be easy for that person to feel isolated and alone.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)—Col. Bob Page, command chaplain for the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, believes that, while the military branches have developed more programs and services for military families, support from churches and other non-governmental groups remains crucial.

That support particularly is important for reservists and National Guard members. Active-duty personnel living on base have the greatest access to military programs. Reservists and guardsmen may live up to 150 miles from the nearest military base and, consequently, have few connections to other military personnel.

Page suggests a three-pronged approach to ministry to service members.

• Prevention. Provide regular opportunities to strengthen marriages and families and to help deal with the stress of military deployment. Churches could provide communication workshops, marriage seminars or retreats, financial-management tools, parenting classes, stress-management workshops and opportunities to renew marriage commitments.

• Support. “Church members should ask themselves: ‘What can we do for spouses?’” Page said. Common sense generally can guide types of support ministries. “Start a telephone ministry. Just call (military families in the church) and ask how you can help,” he said.

Families of deployed service members welcome emergency home repairs, yard care, programs for children and youth and other practical services, Page added. Church members will discover particular needs as they telephone or visit spouses on a regular basis.

• Recovery. Provide immediate care for spouses facing crises—divorce, death of the military spouse or other family member, child-rearing issues and other life-changing experiences. Help them connect to military and civilian services for which they qualify. Provide continuing support through small groups.

Page emphasized that no local congregation has all the resources and skills to meet every need. He encourages churches to develop partnerships across denominational lines, with other groups and with the military.

“Get with the chaplains at a base near you so you understand (issues and needs military members face) and find out ways to partner with them,” he said.

FORT WORTH—While soldiers, sailors and airmen are lauded each July 4 for defending freedom on a daily basis, military chaplains daily offer spiritual freedom to personnel who serve in the armed forces domestically and abroad.

“As chaplains, we deal in relationships,” Army Chaplain Brandon Denning said. “I never thought God would call me to be a missionary.”

But ministry to military personnel is a missionary opportunity among a distinct people group, he noted.

“The military is often a culture that is overlooked as far as missions is concerned, and yet it is one of the biggest missionary fields we’ve got out there,” Denning said. “We’ve got soldiers who need the Lord.”

In 1996, Denning became the 453rd sentinel to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. He served in the prestigious post four years, conducting more than 700 walks before receiving an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army. After leaving the military, he never thought he would return.

But while he was attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to pursue a master of divinity degree with a concentration in pastoral counseling, Denning felt God leading him toward military chaplaincy.

Friends and family surround Army 1st Lt. Brandon Denning and his wife Laura to pray for them during Brandon\'s commissioning ceremony at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth. (Photo by Kathleen Murray)

His experience as a volunteer fire chaplain played a part, as did an injury to a friend in Iraq. Upon graduation, he reported for active duty to the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., June 6.

Justin Woods, president of Southwestern’s chaplain fellowship, spoke of the dangers and duty of chaplains during Denning’s recent chaplain commissioning at the Fort Worth campus.

“On the battlefield, it’s a real battle with real enemies that fire real guns with real bullets,” said Woods, who was commissioned at Southwestern for chaplaincy service in the Air Force. “We’re there to provide real answers and real hope with a real gospel.”

Nathan Clardy, a master of divinity student at Southwestern, was commissioned into the Navy chaplain program as a reserve officer in May. Clardy’s grandfather served as a Navy chaplain, and his father served in the Air Force 18 years before becoming a pastor.

“I always knew the military would be part of my life, but when God called me to ministry, I kind of wasn’t sure what direction I’d go,” Clardy said of his calling at age 12. Now, sensing that God has prepared him for the chaplaincy, Clardy said, “He’s really given me a love to build relationships with people and, out of that, to give them guidance and help them find Christ.”

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Africa is the Catholic Church’s region of biggest growth, with rising numbers of faithful, clergy and religious orders, according to Vatican statistics.

The church’s growth in the Americas has largely stalled, meanwhile, and Europe’s share of the world’s largest church continues to decline.

The findings appeared in a recent issue of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in an article summarizing the new edition of the church’s statistical yearbook, which features a survey of worldwide Catholicism in the period 2000-2006.

Although the world’s proportion of baptized Catholics remained roughly the same over the seven-year period—1.1 billion Catholics, amounting to 17.3 percent of the world’s population—its geographical distribution shifted markedly.

The most notable change was in Africa, whose share of the worldwide church rose from 12.4 percent to 14 percent. Even more dramatic was the increase in church personnel there.

While the world total of Catholic priests barely increased, and the number of female religious actually fell, the church in Africa reported nearly a quarter more priests and almost one-sixth more nuns after seven years.

The Western Hemisphere held steady with about half of the world’s Catholics and 30 percent of its priests. Asia’s share of the world’s Catholic population also remained unchanged at 10 percent, yet the continent produced an increasing share of the world’s priests and nuns.

The church continued to shrink in its traditional heartland, Europe, whose portion of the world’s Catholics fell from 26.8 percent to 25 percent, and where the number of priests declined by nearly 6 percent.

Laughter, tambourines and native instruments fill the air of a tiny apartment as a small group of Christians gather for fervent worship. Despite the oppression they have experienced under Islam and the Soviet system, these Central Asian Christians dance and sing with joy because of the freedom they have found in Christ.

Their relationship with Christ is important—even more important to them than their own lives. The gospel is not just a story to study but their daily connection to hope and the message to share with their community.

This is contemporary Christianity.

During the last few years, Christian scholars like Philip Jenkins, author and professor of religion at Pennsylvania State University, have noted the center of Christianity has shifted to the Southern Hemisphere, leaving the United States and Europe and heading to Latin America, Africa and Asia, where churches have seen unprecedented growth despite persecution and opposition.

The number of Christians in North America is smaller than the number of believers in Africa, Latin America and Asia. By 2050, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Uganda will dominate the top 10 Christian countries, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

A mission worker in Central Asia, whose name cannot be published for security reasons, said world events outside the United States and Western Europe have served as a catalyst for the shift. After years of oppression and poverty, people are finding freedom and hope through a relationship with Christ.

Advances in Islamic and former communist countries 

“When you look over the past 100 years, one of the most deadly ideologies that killed more people during the 20th century was communism,” the worker said. “Yet, today in places where communism existed, we have seen some of the greatest advance of the gospel over the past 15 years.

“Today, radical Islam is having a similar effect in certain locations in the Muslim world. People have grown weary of living under the oppression of Islamic fundamentalism and are starting to turn to Jesus in places that we can’t even report right now.”

Children listen and pray in Sunday school at Jesus the Savior Church in Chisinau, Moldova. The church was the first Romanian-speaking evangelical church in Chisinau. (IMB Photo)

Billy Kim, former pastor of the 20,000-member Suwon Central Baptist Church in South Korea, said people feel like they have to rely on God in areas with widespread poverty and persecution.

“As you go to affluent Europe, the United States and Australia, churches seem to decline,” Kim said. “But when there are problems of war, tragedy and poverty, like in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the church is growing and people are looking for hope.”

Now that Christianity has penetrated these societies, Christians are taking the gospel into the community, meeting people where they live instead of expecting them to come to a church building to experience a programmatic approach to religion.

Stan Parks, strategic catalyzer for Southeast Asia with the Global Connection Partnership Network, said South Korea is now the second-largest missionary-sending country in the world.

India, Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines and China launch the next-largest missionary efforts, even sending missionaries to the United States, he noted.

Christians who “come out of these areas have an enthusiasm, vitality, confidence and joy because they know why they are here, where they are headed and they know the message they have to share,” said David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance.

Western church decline is evident 

With the influx of missionaries coming to the United States, church leaders are re-evaluating where the Western church stands. As stories of growth of the church in developing nations appear more frequently, the decline of Western Christianity becomes more evident.

Scholars cite many reasons why the West has shifted from the Christian center, but all agree new approaches must be taken for the West to turn around.

Christian Fulanis in Nigeria meet at a local home for a Sunday morning Bible study. (IMB Photo)

Rob Sellers, the Connally professor of missions at Hardin-Simmons University, attributed much of Christianity's decline in the west to growing secularism, but he added it is "more complicated than simply a matter of a 'secular versus sacred' bent in society." He pointed to postmodernism–with its rejection of absolute answers and its receptivity to spirituality—as an overarching cultural phenomenon.

“Postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon in the West has influenced the way that people perceive and accept systems of thought—be they religious, political or otherwise—that claim to have the ‘definitive answer’ to the problem,” Sellers said.

“A lot of people in the West are much more likely to validate different religious, political or social ideas than our parents (and certainly our grandparents) were apt to do. (They) are disenchanted with the established church. They perceive the church to be rigid, legalistic, formal, out of touch, superficial and old-fashioned.”

Sellers called for Christians to engage in holistic ministries that seek to enhance and sustain life. "If Christian people and churches were to set up their commitment to addressing human needs around the world, I believe more 'secular' people in the West would take notice and be more likely to participate. … We need a 'compassion explosion' rather than the 'evangelism explosion' that Baptists called for some years ago."

Amidst the evident decline in church attendance in the West, pastors and church planters are hopeful, believing change can come through the Holy Spirit’s leading and through prayer. If change happens, it will have to come through non-Western ways, some insist.

“We’ll keep doing what we are doing until we run out of money, but it will slow down,” said Bob Roberts, church planter and pastor of Northwood Church in Keller. “We will then get desperate enough to try something different and learn from those outside of the U.S.”

Practicing the "one another" commands 

In the West, the church does not teach people to be self-feeding in their spiritual life, said Curtis Sergeant, a church-planting strategist with e3 Partners, a church multiplication organization that equips, evangelizes and establishes connections with churches across the world. Christians need to be in prayer, Scripture and church life so that they can practice all of the “one another” commands and use their spiritual gifts, he said. The Western church currently is in a state where it has created disciples who are dependent, not capable of reproducing disciples themselves, Sergeant added.

“Church in essence is a movement of the Spirit,” said Bob Garrett, professor of missions at Dallas Baptist University.

“It’s a conversion of a mindset, a complete change. (Church growth) has little to do with institutions and buildings and programs. It’s happening by people going out and helping their neighbors with life problems and sharing Christ. It is a contagious element that people catch.”

For growth to happen, Coffey said, Western churches must be more urgent and intentional in their approach to evangelism and be led by missionary-hearted leaders in order to recover their zeal.

“While there are stirring examples around the world of those who are engaging creatively in mission and evangelism, I am discovering that many Baptists are unsure about how to preach the good news to the poor of our day,” Coffey said.

“The changing cultures alarm them, and many have lost their confidence to communicate the gospel. My conviction is that whenever there are changes in cultures, this constitutes a fresh call from the missionary God. We need to realize that a Christian mission has never evangelized a culture by avoiding it. Perhaps the starting point is a greater dependence on the strategic guidance of the Holy Spirit, who is able to lead us into places we may fear to go.”

The West has a giant task ahead, but Coffey encouragingly said, “Don’t write the West off just yet.”

“Christianity does not seem to plant churches that last forever,” he said, explaining that there is a cycle of death and birth for all churches.

“While the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, the local and cultural expression of the community of Christ has no divine right to survival.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Think you know what Americans believe about religion? Think again.

Seven in 10 Americans who follow one particular faith believe many “religions” can lead to eternal life. Despite the intense attention paid to evangelical and Catholic voters in a high-stakes election year, only half say they pay close attention to politics. And more than a quarter of people who are not affiliated with a faith nevertheless attend religious services at least occasionally.

A new report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life demonstrates the myriad ways faith in America is more variegated and nuanced than it may appear at first glance.

Researchers for Pew’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey analyzed the religious practices of more than 35,000 U.S. adults and found they are not as dogmatic or isolationist in their beliefs as many might think. Rather, they embrace their own faith while respecting—and sometimes even practicing—aspects of other religions.

“Many religions—maybe even most—can be perceived as having an exclusivity clause: We’re right and therefore everybody else is wrong,” said John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum.

“What we’ve found is that many Americans apparently don’t invoke the exclusivity clause.”

Researchers did not track which other faiths people might say lead to salvation, so a Protestant or Catholic might be thinking of, for example, fellow Christians like the Eastern Orthodox, or non-Christians like Jews or Muslims. Either way, respondents seemed more focused on pragmatism than conversion.

“While Americans may have firm religious commitments, they are unwilling to impose them on other people,” Green said. “It may be a kind of attitude that works very well on a practical level in a society that is as diverse religiously as the United States.”

Some highlights of that diversity include:

• More than half of evangelical respondents said many religions can lead to eternal life, despite the central evangelical tenet that Jesus is the sole path to eternity with God.

However, some veteran religion reporters criticized the way the question was worded, noting some respondents may have confused “religions” and “denominations.”

• 12 percent of Orthodox Christians, who are known for their by-the-book liturgical worship, reported speaking or praying in tongues at least once a week—a practice most commonly associated with Pentecostal traditions.

• 29 percent of Catholics see God as an impersonal force, even though the Catholic Catechism teaches that “the faith of all Christians” rests on the belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• One in five self-described atheists, whose main tenet is to reject belief in God, say they believe in God or a universal spirit.

“I think it really underscores the sense that the issue with religion in America is not that Americans don’t believe in anything; it’s that they believe in everything,” said Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston. “Religion is 3,000 miles wide, but it’s only three inches deep.”

One example of that, which doesn’t surprise scholars, is that while the Bible long has been known as America’s best-selling book, researchers found 45 percent of U.S. adults say they never or seldom read Scripture.

“Lots of Americans will tell you faith is very important to them … but not everybody regularly acts upon their faith in a public way,” Green said.

Beyond religious practices and beliefs, the survey delved into political views and how they are influenced by religion. Researchers found about one in four evangelicals, and less than one-tenth of Catholics, said religious beliefs most influence their political thinking.

“I just think the media has created this idea that people vote based on their religious convictions, but a lot of us have felt that that’s really never been true of a lot of people,” said Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

“Certainly in the present election, the big issues are Iraq and the economy, and … religion doesn’t help you understand how people are going to vote on these things.”

Nonetheless, re-searchers found religious activity plays a large role in shaping views on hot-button social issues. Among respondents who attend religious services weekly, 61 percent said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 57 percent said homosexuality should be discouraged by society.

Green said that while researchers found near-unanimity on belief in God—something es-poused by 92 percent of Americans—just 51 percent said they were both absolutely certain about that belief and view God as a person (not some kind of impersonal force) with whom they can have a relationship.

“We’re very religious, but we’re very diverse in our religiosity,” Green said.

The Pew Forum survey, first released last February, is based on telephone interviews, some in Spanish, between May and August 2007. The margin of error for the overall sample is plus or minus 0.6 percentage points, but ranges widely for distinct religious groups—plus or minus 1.5 percentage points for evangelicals, for example, compared with 7.5 percentage points for Hindus.