Americans pin poverty passage on president, not proverbs. More Americans believe a statement about giving “justice to the poor and homeless” came from President Obama instead of its true source, the Bible. A survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the American Bible Society found 54 percent of adults in the United States polled believe the statement—“You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless”—came from a celebrity or politician, when the statement actually comes from Proverbs 31:8. Of the 1,001 adults surveyed, 16 percent believed the statement came from Obama; 13 percent said it came from the Bible. Other popular answers included the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Oprah Winfrey.

Christian Legal Society case headed to Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of an evangelical Christian group prevented from being recognized as a campus organization at a California law school because it excluded gays and lesbians. The Christian Legal Society sued to be officially recognized at the public Hastings College of Law at the University of California in San Francisco but was denied because it excluded gays. Officials from the group said the school’s policy violated their freedoms of speech, religion and association. Hastings maintained the organization must comply with the school’s nondiscrimination policy to receive formal recognition, which gives them access to resources and travel funds. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the school.

Prisoner/minister wins right to preach. A New Jersey inmate who was ordained a Pentecostal minister in prison nine years ago but was banned from preaching behind bars won back that right in a negotiated settlement stemming from his lawsuit. Howard N. Thompson Jr., convicted of murder in 1985 and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, had preached at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton regularly for years until corrections officers prohibited preaching by inmates in 2007. A negotiated settlement between the state attorney general and the American Civil Liberties Union, working on Thompson’s behalf, permits Thompson to preach with the consent of a prison chaplain or volunteer leading the service who must review an advance outline of his message.

Muslim group reports increased discrimination. Muslim Americans faced more anti-Muslim bias but fewer physical assaults in 2008, according to a report released by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to the study, the council recorded 2,728 incidents of anti-Muslim discrimination or bias in 2008—an increase of 3 percent from 2007, but hate crimes—incidents involving threats or physical violence—fell 14 percent, from 135 to 116. Almost 31 percent of the complaints stemmed from hate mail and Internet abuse; 21 percent related to legal discrimination; and more than 12 percent stemmed from job discrimination.

PRINCETON, N.J. (ABP) — Americans' views of the honesty and ethics of clergypersons has dropped to a three-decade low, according to the latest Gallup poll.

The annual ranking of ethics of various professions found that 50 percent of Americans rated clergy's honesty and ethics as "high" or "very high." That is down 6 percent from last year's poll.

The all-time high rating for clergy in the 32 years the poll has been taken was 67 percent in 1985. As recently as 2001, however, the profession saw a peak of 64 percent. The six-point drop was the largest among any profession, followed by lawyers, who had a five-point drop.

Jeffrey Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll, said the reason for the decline isn't clear, but clergy ratings are below where they were earlier in the decade during the priest sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Ratings of clergy dropped from their 2008 levels for both Catholics and Protestants, as well as among regular and non-regular churchgoers.

Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics said that, lacking any high-profile minister scandals that have affected polls in other years, he is "puzzled" by the drop in public opinion about the honesty and ethics of clergy.

"Perhaps it results from the overall cultural negativity that permeates our country," he speculated. "Or perhaps in a distorted way, some folk are unfairly taking out their anxiety about the economy on clergy. They are blaming the bad times on clergy — as the representatives of God."

Robert Kruschwitz, director of the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, said the shift could reflect "society’s decreasing reliance on clergy" and corresponding increased hope in the medical profession. "We tend to project good qualities on those in whom we trust," he said.

Parham said that clergy, while remaining one of the highest-rated professions in terms of integrity, "might benefit from exploring with their congregants and community why this drop in credibility."

Gallup conducted its annual "Honesty and Ethics of Professions" poll Nov. 20-22.

Nurses rank the highest, with 83 percent of Americans giving them either high or very high ratings of ethics and honesty. Pharmacists and doctors followed, at 66 percent and 65 percent, respectively. Police officers rose seven points to 63 percent, their highest ranking since shortly after 9/11.

Members of Congress and stockbrokers rank near the bottom of professions, both at 9 percent. Only used-car salesmen ranked lower, at 6 percent.

Bankers also reached a three-decade low, dropping four points to 19 percent.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

DIDCOT, England (ABP)—Thousands of people around the United Kingdom are set to be involved in an ecumenical initiative that invites people to take part in an “instant Nativity” this Christmas.

The effort, co-sponsored by the Baptist Union of Great Britain and called “Get in the Picture,” seeks to include all kinds of people in the Christmas story by encouraging them to have their photograph taken in a Nativity tableau. The photographs are then available to view and download for free on the Get in the Picture website, which also has information about carol services at local churches, a reading of the Christmas story from the Bible and stories of what Christmas means to people today.

More than 40 towns across the United Kingdom have now signed up to host Get in the Picture events.

The project originated in the English city of Chester last year, where Baptist-affiliated evangelistic group the Light Project first gave it a trial run.

In 2009, it has been rolled out nationally by the Baptist Union of Great Britain and endorsed by a number of British Christian denominations and organizations, including the Church of England, the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the ecumenical group Churches Together in England.

The Baptist Union’s mission department organized a Get in the Picture event Nov. 26 for the Didcot Christmas Street Fair in Didcot, Oxfordshire—the town west of London where the union is headquartered. The photographers took more than 100 photos.

“It was a great success,” said the Baptist Union’s missions head, Ian Bunce. “You could see people were having fun engaging with the Christmas story in a new, non-threatening way.

“From stories I have heard across the country, Get in the Picture is really capturing people’s imagination.”

The event featured the Nativity scene in the middle of the fair, with robes, shepherds’ crooks and other clothing available for the participants to use for their photos.

Park Road Baptist Church and a coalition of other congregations in the city of Peterborough, England, have also embraced the initiative in an imaginative way. The group has rented a shop in the city’s downtown area until Dec. 20. Called Love Came Down At Christmas after the familiar British carol, the shop features a variety of other attractions—including free mincemeat pies and gingerbread cookies and an exhibition of children’s drawings of the Nativity. It opened Nov. 26, and people taking part posed with a live donkey.

Project Coordinator Jo Vernon hopes the initiative will provide an antidote to some of the more commercial aspects of the festive season.

“It’s a really, really exciting project,” she said. “Christmas is so commercial these days, and Get in the Picture is an uncomplicated way of putting across to the public what Christmas is all about. We’ve had a tremendous response. It’s inspired a lot of people to become involved.”

Elsewhere, the Anglican cathedral in Rochester, England, hosted a Get in the Picture event outside the building during the town’s Dickensian Christmas weekend Dec. 4-6. Instead of the participants dressing up in outfits, they were photographed with their faces through holes in a Nativity scene painted on a large board.

Inside the cathedral, actors gave three-minute monologues telling the Christmas story from the viewpoint of different characters from the Nativity.

“We will be saying to people, ‘Come inside and hear from a character from the Christmas story—come outside and be a character from the Christmas story,’” said one of the organizers, Cathedral Canon Jean Kerr, before the event.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For James Govan, Christmas starts before Thanksgiving and doesn’t end until early in February as he displays some of his 500 Nativity scenes around his home in Arlington, Va.

“I keep telling people it’s a disease without a cure,” he joked.

For fans like Govan, creche collecting is serious business—with a biennial national convention, commissioned works of art, online shopping and collections displayed in churches and museums each year.

Govan was the first president of Friends of the Creche, an organization of some 400 members that was founded in—of course—Bethlehem, Pa., a decade ago. Members range from large-scale collectors who’ve amassed hundreds of Nativity scenes to those who have one or two but are simply fascinated with the way they tell the story of the birth of Jesus. Prices can range anywhere from a few dollars for plastic Nativity scenes to hundreds for a single figure.

“I think very clearly it takes on a special meaning because of the belief, the devotion that people have to the tradition and what it means to their faith,” said Govan, a Roman Catholic who enlarged his collection as he worked around the world for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Judy Davis, an El Cerrito, Calif., housewife, has about as many nativity sets as Govan. She collected them over the years as she traveled with her husband from Appalachia to Portugal, spending an undisclosed amount she considers “sinful in a not totally bad way.”

Davis, an Episcopalian, has a special fondness for Southwestern Nativity sets, including some that show the gifts of the wise men as a pair of boots, a tray of turquoise and a little rug—rather than the traditional gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Charlie Hull’s collection of 325 Nativity scenes includes a Peruvian creche with figures inside a closable gourd. Another depicts Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus inside a literal “house of bread,” which is the English translation of “Bethlehem.”

“Each person sees the birth of Christ in their own particular culture,” said Hull, a retired United Church of Christ pastor who lives in Seven Valleys, Pa.

The location of the artist is often a draw for collectors’ purchases, said Shaunna Baganz, owner of the Wisconsin-based Nativity Set Store. And the tough economy has not slowed customers—but they tend to purchase 5-inch figures in the $20 range rather than a $4,000, 50-inch wise man.

“With the economy being as it is, we see more people going toward religion than away from religion,” she said, noting a “double-digit” percentage increase from last year’s sales.

The University of Dayton Marian Library in Ohio has one of the largest collections of Nativity scenes in the country—with more than 3,000—but its director takes a cautious approach, usually exhibiting a maximum of 50 at a time.

“One of the important aspects in this whole venture is we don’t want to exhibit creches for the sake of just putting seven or eight figures on a tablecloth,” said Johann Roten, who said too many Nativity scenes can become “counterproductive.”

Differing views on nativities date back centuries, said Bruce David Forbes, professor of religious studies at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. Legend credits 13th-century St. Francis of Assisi with creating the first Nativity scene. In the late Middle Ages, Europeans in France, Spain and Italy tended to have creches, while northern Europeans opted more for the Christmas tree.

Forbes, author of a history book on Christmas and co-editor of Religion and Popular Culture in America, said nativity scenes allow people to express their spiritual beliefs in a tangible, highly personalized way.

“It’s a combination of art and Christian celebration, because while a lot of the Nativity scenes are kitsch, a number of them are incredible carvings in many different forms,” he said.

“If you’re interested in art and, let’s say, Scripture, what could give you more variety than this—stone, wood, carving, metal sculptures, ceramics?”

The Washington National Cathedral’s annual creche exhibit, which attracts thousands each year, began with a collection donated by a former docent. It’s now grown to more than 700 pieces, with a hundred of them shown this year.

Some 35,000 people annually visit “El Nacimiento,” an 800-figurine display at the Tucson Museum of Art. The 32-year-old exhibit includes a Nativity scene, other biblical stories and scenes with Mexican villagers, created as a tribute to the mother of the collector.

“I know some people who love to bring their children, and because we’ve been having this for so many years, we’re seeing children’s children here now,” museum spokeswoman Meredith Hayes said. “It’s become very much a family tradition.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Close your eyes and picture a Nativity scene. Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph are there, for sure. Chance are, there are three wise men, a few shepherds. Maybe a donkey, ox and lamb stand nearby in the stable.

Centuries of Christmas carols, creches and pageants—among countless other works of art—have ensconced this scene in the heart of the Nativity for generations of Christians. But the Bible doesn’t.

The New Testament has two accounts of Jesus’ birth, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew doesn’t say anything about animals or shepherds. Luke omits any reference to wise men. Neither mentions a stable.

Luke says Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, or trough, because there was no room at the inn. Matthew says the wise men—the Bible doesn’t say how many—follow the eastern star to find Mary and Jesus in a house. Matthew doesn’t mention whether Joseph was present when they arrived.

The plot of the Christmas story is one of the most well-known narratives in human history, carved in cherished creches on living-room tables, or re-enacted by Magi in bathrobes, who travel on rented camels beneath animatronic angels. But over the centuries, artists have taken certain liberties, which have become as much a part of contemporary Christmas as the Bible’s narratives themselves.

In fact, though nearly everyone knows the rough outline of the Nativity story, many people are ignorant of the Bible’s specific details, argue controversial scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in their book The First Christmas. That’s a shame, they say.

“Paying attention to the distinctiveness and details of the Nativity stories is how we enter into the possibility of understanding what they meant in the first century and might still mean for communities of faith today,” Borg and Crossan write.

Matthew and Luke intended their Nativity narratives as thematic introductions to their respective Gospels, Borg asserted in an interview. For instance, Luke presents Jesus as a champion of the poor and the marginalized.

“So, it is perfect that in Luke’s Gospel Jesus Christ is born away from home, that his birth is attended by shepherds, who were very low in the social order,” Borg said.

As for the inn and stable, they were probably for traveling merchants—the Bible’s version of door-to-door salesmen. So, the animals would have been beasts of transport—donkeys, camels and horses, not sheep or cows, Borg said.

Some contemporary scholars like Borg and Crossan may view the Bible stories as something other than strictly factually accounts, but not the early Christians, said Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

“They would have taken the Nativity stories as historical accounts that tell us something real about Jesus. They are an important part of understanding who Jesus is,” Bock said.

For instance, the Gospel writers highlight aspects of the Nativity that seem to fulfill Hebrew prophecies.

Christians still argue, however, about whether Jesus was born in a stable or a house. This year, for example, the Creation Museum in Kentucky is ditching the stable in its Nativity scene, instead sheltering the Holy Family in a first-century-type house, believing it to be a more likely birthplace.

In Bock’s view, the wise men probably visited Jesus and Mary in a house some time after the shepherds followed the angels’ beckoning to the baby in the manger. “To have them both there on the same night is unlikely,” Bock said.

But artists have been collapsing the stories of Matthew and Luke and adding extra-biblical material to Christmas scenes for centuries, said Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a professor of art and cultural history at Georgetown University. “They combine all the books. They don’t worry about that,” she said.

Take, for example, the two-hour “Miracle of Christmas” show at Sight & Sound Theatres in Lancaster, Pa., and Branson, Mo., which features 45 actors, 400 costumes, dozens of animals and angels that fly over the audience.

Glenn Eshelman, the evangelical who founded Sight and Sound 33 years ago, said the audience is forewarned that “this is a fictional account of a factual occurrence” and encouraged to read the biblical accounts.

“And some of the things that Scripture is silent on, that you know had to be there, we do write them in as characters,” Eshelman said. “It stretches people’s thinking and causes people to think that these characters are just as real as people today.”

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Christian leaders in the United States with diverse viewpoints on homosexuality are joining forces to prostest a Ugandan proposal to punish certain homosexual behavior with imprisonment or even death.

Catholic, evangelical and mainline Protestant leaders including Ronald Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action; Jim Wallis of Sojourners; and author and speaker Brian McLaren endorsed a Dec. 7 statement denouncing the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009, currently before Uganda's Parliament.

"This bill is an affront to human dignity and offensive to Christians around the world who take seriously Christ's command to love our neighbors as ourselves," said Thomas Melady, a former U.S. ambassador to Uganda and the Vatican and one of the statement's signatories.

Baptists signing the statement included David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University who also writes a regular column for Associated Baptist Press; Melissa Rogers, director of Wake Forest University Divinity School's Center for Religion and Public Affairs; and Derrick Harkins, senior pastor at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington.

Citing an "extensive history" of involvement by U.S. religious groups in Uganda, the religious leaders said they were speaking out "to bear witness to our Christian values, and to express our condemnation of an injustice in which groups and leaders within the American Christian community are being implicated."

"We appeal to all Christian leaders in our own country to speak out against this unjust legislation," the statement said.

Introduced in October, the draft bill would seek to imprison anyone convicted of "the offense of homosexuality" for life. If the person is HIV positive, the conviction — called "aggravated homosexuality" — would carry the death penalty.

It would also criminalize "the promotion of homosexuality" and imprison heterosexual people who fail to report the names of people they know who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Purpose Driven Life author and Baptist mega-pastor Rick Warren drew criticism recently for refusing to condemn the legislation, which Reuters says is likely to pass with some modification. Earlier Warren distanced himself from a Ugandan pastor leading the charge for the law who formerly aided Warren in bringing Warren's Global PEACE plan — a development and church-planting strategy that includes combating AIDS — to Uganda.

Later Newsweek quoted Warren as stopping short of opposing the anti-homosexuality law. "The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator," he said. "However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations."

The statement by Christian leaders, however, said that regardless on their views of homosexuality that violence, harassment and unjust treatment of any human being is wrong.

"In our efforts to imitate the Good Samaritan, we stand in solidarity with those Ugandans beaten and left abandoned by the side of the road because of hatred, bigotry and fear," the statement said. "Especially during this holy season of Advent, when the global Christian community prepares in hope for the light of Christ to break through the darkness, we pray that they are comforted by God's love."

The religious leaders acknowledged that gays and lesbians also face hostility in the United States and said that such treatment "degrades the human family, threatens the common good and defies the teachings of our Lord — wherever it occurs."

Katie Paris of Faith in Public Life, the group that promoted the statement, said Warren was not asked to sign because he stopped adding his name to such joint public-policy statements several years ago.

Warren has since commented again on the issue.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

The woman sobbed quietly into her hands for a few minutes. Composing herself as best she could, she looked into the eyes of the 18-year-old.

"I forgive you," she declared. "But you are going to have to prove to me and to the community that you won't do something like this again." This scenario is the heart of restorative justice–an opportunity to restore broken relationships, to stop destructive behaviors early and to repair as much of the harm done to victims as possible.

But the definition and focus of this form of redress for crime depend upon who leads the effort. Some state governments and ministries deal primarily with legislation. Some focus on victims; others include all prison-related ministries and outreach efforts.

The Restorative Justice Ministry Network of North America is considered among the leading authorities on the concept in the United States. Emmett Solomon began the ministry shortly after retiring as director of chaplains for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 1993. He wanted to provide a network for all individuals and churches doing any form of jail and prison ministry.

The network now includes more than 60,000 people, ministries and churches. Solomon helps facilitate connections among ministries and the Texas system, and he offers restorative justice conferences and training throughout the year.

His ministry also provides services at one of Texas’ most well-known prison facilities—the Huntsville Unit. His network website lists all member ministries from across North America and their contact information.

Restorative justice, according to Solomon, is a systematic response that emphasizes healing of the victim, the community and the offender. The network encourages programs that focus on repairing the harm done, involve all parties affected and help transform the current judicial system by getting the community more directly involved in government solutions.

Solomon encourages each ministry or person interested in applying restorative justice concepts to answer questions that touch the three aspects of each crime:

• What will it take to restore the peace in the community broken by the crime?

• What will it take to restore the victim’s autonomy?

• What will it take to restore the offender to the community?

Regardless of the approach—victim, offender or community—the restorative justice concept ultimately targets change at the corrections system itself.

At Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Mo., inmates who volunteer for the Wheels for the World project clean walkers, canes and crutches. Wheels for the World is a Joni Eareckson Tada ministry that restores used equipment, including wheelchairs, and then sends them across the world—primarily to developing nations—for people who wouldn’t be able to afford them. Frank Costello in St. Louis coordinates a distribution center. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of WERDCC)

The Restorative Justice Ministry Network cites a Parade magazine story that estimates the U.S. prison population at 2.3 million, nearly five times the world average. Currently, the U.S. system tends to focus on retributive justice—the Old Testament eye-for-an-eye concept—in which an offender pays for the crime by living behind bars.

Not only is the incarceration rate higher, but under the current U.S. system, offenders also are likely to commit additional crimes once released. In December 2007, the U.S. Justice Department predicted two-thirds of released prisoners would commit a crime within the first three years.

Lynn Humeniuk, director of the criminal justice program at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, believes the retributive approach contributes to recidivism.

“What is not restorative justice is sending a drug offender (possession of marijuana) to prison for several years. It might take that person off the streets but probably will make them a better criminal,” she said.

Solomon also believes the incarceration rate proves retribution or revenge-based punishment doesn’t work. The restorative justice philosophy does not let criminals go free. Instead, it holds the offender accountable and provides a means for him or her to repay the debt. It also provides opportunities for the offender to change his or her attitudes toward community and tries to help build or restore the bonds between the offender and his or her family and social group.

Government response

Several state governments have implemented restorative justice practices, often relying on assistance from not-for-profit and faith-based organizations. Most state governments seem to allow some form of restorative justice activity or ministry. About half provide some funding or programming. And at least 21 states offer victim/offender dialogs and reparative activities, according to Jeananne Markway, re-entry/restorative justice coordinator for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Missouri was one of the first states to implement restorative activities as program options for offenders in all its adult facilities. Inmates at each institution can choose to participate in programs either initiated by outside groups or supported by donations from those groups.

Each year since 1997, more than 14,000 offenders have provided about 200,000 volunteer hours to assist several agencies and victims. Offenders make quilts, wooden toys, educational materials and other items, and participate in several additional projects.

A driver loads repaired walkers and canes at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Mo.

“We remind everyone to bring it back to the victim,” Markway explained.

Programs are not forced on offenders. Instead, they must participate willingly.

“Inmates are attracted to and willing to work for the elderly and children,” she added.

Colorado also provides some resources for restorative justice. The state offers a facility for its program, known as the Longmont Community Justice Partnership. Inmates who are willing to take responsibility for their crime are sent to Longmont, where they are given an opportunity to meet their victims and/or representatives from the community.

They learn the impact of their crime and agree to conditions to repair the harm they caused. According to Colorado’s statistics, an average of 90 percent of those who enter it and sign an agreement complete the program and are accepted into their communities. The average rate of re-arrest stands at only 10 percent.

Missouri gives all crime victims an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the crime’s impact on their lives and families. Victims also are granted an opportunity to speak to the Impact of Crime on Victims classes for offenders.

The 40-hour curriculum is divided into 10 classes that help offenders develop sensitivity to victims, respect for the rights of others and an understanding that actions demand accountability.

“The class helps them see the ripple effect,” Markway explained. “Victims share their stories about what the crime has done to them. … Victims play a very important role … to let offenders know the impact and the pain their crime has caused.”

Offenders “must learn that they have to make choices … and that there is no justification for any crime—not abuse, not poverty, nothing that they have gone through. So many started out as victims themselves. They have to discover that there are positive ways to get help,” she added.

Many states, including Missouri and Texas, allow victims to speak directly to the offender. Usually, victims must initiate any meeting, and each side must agree to it. Often, the meeting will open additional dialogue between attorneys and prosecutors. Sometimes the session will help direct sentencing.

The Texas Legislature also has responded to restorative justice efforts. During the last session, legislators increased funding for drug court programs and expanded opportunities for more regional drug court programs. They also created a Veterans Division Court Program to deal more effectively with offenders whose actions can be linked to brain damage or mental illness caused by military service.

Most states that offer programs rely on some sort of funding through the groups that assist. Most restorative justice programs in Colorado raise money through outside donations.

In Missouri, the system relies on groups to contribute necessary materials, even for items donated to public schools. Kid Smart, a St. Louis-area organization, provides the raw materials for inmates to create school supplies such as flash cards, journals and other items.

People and groups donate fabric, yarn, thread, wood, nails and other supplies so inmates can create toys, backpacks and blankets for children or lap quilts for veterans’ hospitals.

Relationship is at the heart of the restorative justice philosophy—restoring an offender’s relationship with self, family and community.

The reconnection often begins in prison, through state-provided programs and/or jail and prison ministries. Then individuals need assistance to reinforce new behaviors and return to their communities as productive citizens worthy of being trusted again.

According to the Restorative Justice Ministry Network of North America, a ministry can be classified as restorative if it leads offenders to recognize who they are and helps them realize they will be held accountable for their actions. Restorative justice also includes ways to help offenders make restitution to the victim and to the community.

A nonprofit ministry

Recently, the Missouri system allowed Wheels for the World, a ministry of Joni Eareckson Tada’s organization, to approach its institutions for inmate help to restore wheelchairs, canes and walkers to be donated to the disabled in other countries.

Inmates at the Ozark Correctional Center in Fordland disassemble wheelchairs that cannot be restored and sort parts that can be used. Offenders at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center at Vandalia clean canes, crutches and walkers. Inmate volunteers at the Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City sew new seat covers and cushions for wheelchairs.

A community

John Morrison of Woodville believed God intended for the community to minister to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Gib Lewis Unit.

“When God placed the prison in our town, the question was: Are we going to be able to embrace it? The answer was ‘yes,’ because we are our brother’s keeper,” Morrison said.

The TDCJ honored Morrison in 2008 with the Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Award for the 15 years he volunteered in the local facility.

He has served as a mentor to inmates, and for 10 years, has led the Voyager program that uses spiritual discipline to help improve social skills.

As his involvement in the prison grew, he began to share prisoner stories. That, he believes, is what continues to attract volunteers and has made new ministries possible.

When the prison was built, “volunteers were raised up,” he said. “What they see in our prison is a valid church, and the world doesn’t see that.

“When they come out (from ministering), they tell about it, and that’s what attracts others to the ministry.”

The Gib Lewis Unit Peacemaking Team—the Brothers in White—completed the Peacemaker Ministries small-group study to instill in them peacemaking principles to help stop violence in the prison yard. Brothers in White include (seated, left to right) Jess, Eric and Jason; (standing, left to right) Floyd, “Alabama,” Charles and Francisco. Not pictured are Thomas and Olguin.

Enough stories were told to attract city and county attention—and donors—to open the community-based Restorative Justice Ministries Family Services Center in Woodville four years ago.

Morrison and his team recruit and train prison mentors and jail ministry volunteers. They help ex-offenders find jobs and have a team that connects with local churches.

They also minister to prison staff, law enforcement and judicial professionals. His team finds ways to minister to prisoner families, as well.

Morrison also has trained several inmates in mediation skills using Peacemakers Ministries material. The offenders—known as Brothers in White—help defuse possible tense situations between inmates.

One team under the service center’s umbrella reaches out into the local schools as mentors to at-risk students.

“Many are connected by blood to those who are incarcerated,” Morrison said.

While school districts usually aren’t allowed to document those students, “teachers know who those are,” he noted.

The example of one young man—Justin—and his family helped Mor-rison put into perspective the need for early intervention. Every member of Justin’s family currently is serving time—each in a different Texas prison.

“His story made me understand how endemic this is,” Morrison said.

A university

Restorative justice can make a difference in cases outside the legal system and, in some situations, can keep a young person from heading there.

Howard Payne University in Brownwood has implemented a restorative justice approach to discipline. The administration faced its first case with a student in mid-November.

“It turned out very well,” explained Lynn Humeniuk, director of HPU’s criminal justice program. “Had we not gone this route, this young man would have left school and probably spiraled downhill.”

The student has signed an agreement to complete a list of obligations within a certain time limit. If he fails to do so, the university can force him to withdraw.

The Brownwood Independent School District is watching how the process works at Howard Payne and is considering implementing it at district level, Humeniuk said.

A district judge also is aware of the process Howard Payne is piloting and may consider using it to mediate cases in the future.

Ministry to inmates’ children and spouses can help keep families together through incarceration and after release. Generally, offenders are placed in prisons away from home—often across the state or even in another state.

Lynn Humeniuk, director of the criminal justice program at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, believes taking a restorative approach with prisoner families may help keep other members out of the prison system.

“Ministering to inmate families is restorative,” she said. “Many family members are also victims, and they are all but lost in the (judicial) process. If a cycle of incarceration is to be broken, they need to catch this early on and show love and respect to these families.”

Reed Hanna of St. Louis knows prison routine firsthand. Convicted of violating a prisoner’s civil rights, the former federal deputy was convicted and served time. Both as an officer and as an inmate, Hanna saw the effect prison has on offenders and on their families

Understanding the toll, Hanna started Project Jericho, a ministry that walks with an offender’s family even before the individual walks through prison gates.

When Hanna or a volunteer learns someone in their ministry area has been convicted of a crime, someone on the team meets with the individual to help him or her and the family understand the criminal justice process.

They provide the family information about services available through government agencies and not-for-profits. After the offender is incarcerated, Project Jericho volunteers assist families that request help. Volunteers help sponsor a prisoner’s child—some as mentors to teach skills to the child and spend time with him or her. Others act as a family liaison to find out the family’s needs and relay those to an appropriate agency or church.

The organization also seeks financial donations to help provide activities—such as sports camps or music lessons—children of single-parent households often miss.

Members of a church in Mineral Wells wanted to make a difference at Christmas but were not sure how. Then they learned about Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree ministry and decided to participate. Although the town had no nearby prison, members were surprised at the number of inmate families that lived in the community.

The grandparents of two children invited the church team to stay a few minutes when members delivered gifts to the home. They wanted to learn why the church would purchase gifts on behalf of the children’s mother, who was serving time in a state prison.

Impressed by the church, the grandparents began attending and soon joined the congregation. Church members continued to minister to the children and assisted their mother after she was released from prison. Eventually, she found a job and relocated to another community.

Angel Tree ministry is perhaps one of the best-known Christmas ministry options for churches. Individuals purchase gifts on behalf of an inmate for the offender’s children. Congregations can maintain contact if the family grants permission.

Prison Fellowship estimates 1.5 million children have an incarcerated parent. The ministry encourages churches to use the Christmas project and other contacts as a way to share Christ’s love with a child and his or her family.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Evangelical publisher Zondervan has pulled a leadership book featuring a kung fu theme after Asian-American Christian leaders led an online protest against its imagery.

The book, Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership, and its related curriculum included Asians in ninja garb with the words “character creep” and videos that featured “Caucasians speaking with fake Asian accents,” said Soong-Chan Rah, an associate professor at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago.

“It’s inappropriate to use an ancient culture to simply market the book when it’s not really about martial arts,” Rah said.

He wrote a Nov. 3 open letter to Zondervan and the book’s authors that caught fire on the Internet and prompted criticism from a range of Christian leaders who thought the imagery was offensive.

Zondervan officials held a conference call with Rah and other leaders and determined their concerns were shared “fairly broadly” by others, Zondervan spokesman Jason Vines reported. The publishing company will work with the authors to see if the content, which focused on integrity and other leadership qualities, can be re-released, he said.

“This book’s characterizations and visual representations are offensive to many people despite its otherwise solid message,” said Moe Girkins, Zondervan’s president and CEO, in a statement sent to Rah and other concerned leaders. “There is no need for debate on this subject. We are pulling the book and the curriculum in their current forms from stores permanently.”

Rah was pleased with the decision by Zondervan, calling it a “very bold move,” and said he hopes the content can be released in another form.

In 2003, Rah criticized LifeWay Christian Resources for its “insensitivity” in creating a Vacation Bible School curriculum called “Rickshaw Rally—Racing to the Son.” Some changes were made in those materials, but the Southern Baptist curriculum continued to be used.

Appeals court upholds ban on religious songs. A federal appeals court in New Jersey has upheld a policy that allows secular holiday songs but prohibits religious Christmas carols in Maplewood-South Orange public schools. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was “no constitutional violation” in the policy because other constitutional principles require public schools to remain strictly secular environments. A parent, Michael Stratechuk, filed a lawsuit five years ago, saying the school district’s ban on all religious music is a violation of the First Amendment. Stratechuk’s lawyer, Robert J. Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, said: “The establishment clause requires the government to be neutral to religion. A policy that makes exclusions based solely on religion is hardly a policy that is neutral to religion.” Muise said he and his client will ask the full court to rehear the case. If denied, they may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Americans oppose funding for Muslim charities. Americans look less favorably on mosques applying for government funding than other religious charities, a new survey shows. While 27 percent of U.S. adults polled oppose religious charities applying for government funding to provide services to the needy, more than half—52 percent—were against Muslim houses of worship being eligible for such money, reports the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The results of the telephone survey were based on a total nationwide sample of 4,013 adults and have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.

Religion-based hate crimes up. Hate crime incidents targeting people based on their religion were at their highest frequency last year since 2001, according to a new report, compiled by the Anti-Defamation League from FBI data. The report found 1,519 religious hate crimes in 2008, accounting for about 20 percent of all bias crimes. It was an increase from 2007, when 1,400 crimes of religious bias were reported. There were 1,013 hate crimes against Jews last year, accounting for about two-thirds of all religious bias crimes. Overall, hate crimes rose slightly in 2008, with participating agencies reporting 7,783 bias crimes. Racial bias accounted for about half of all those reported, with attacks aimed at ethnicity and sexual orientation accounting for much of the balance.

Higher calling, smaller crowd for organist. For six seasons, Ed Alstrom has performed regularly as organist for 50,000-plus fans at weekend games in one of the nation’s highest-profile venues—Yankee Stadium. Now, he’s got a second gig where crowds usually top out at about 200 at Morristown’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. He began his job at Redeemer one week after his organ music accompanied the Yankees’ clinching victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series and four days after he played for Game 1 of the World Series, which the Yankees went on to win. Alstrom’s Yankee Stadium experience dates to 2004, but his church experience is far deeper. He has more than 30 years of playing at churches across northern New Jersey.

WASHINGTON (RNS)– The first handwritten copy of the New International Version Bible sold on eBay for more than $15,000.

Zondervan’s handwritten Bible Across America project marked the 30th anniversary of the popular New International Version translation.

The Christian publisher went on a nine-month tour across the country to give people a chance to write one verse of the Bible for the edition.

One of the two original manuscripts sold on eBay for $15,407.53. The other will be donated to a museum.

Printed copies of the hand-written Bible went on sale Dec. 1, including scans of the handwritten verses, photos of the tour and an index of the 31,173 contributors who penned a verse for the Bible.

Proceeds from the eBay sale will go to Biblica, the company that emerged from the merger between the International Bible Society and Christian distributor Send the Light, to support its global Bible translation and distribution efforts.