Church health trends not looking good. American congregations have grown less healthy in the last decade, with fewer people in the pews and aging memberships, according to a new Hartford Seminary study. Median worship attendance at a typical congregation decreased from 130 to 108, according to the Faith Communities Today survey, based on responses from more than 11,000 Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations in 2010 and more than 14,000 congregations in 2000. The percentage of congregations with average weekend worship attendance of 100 or fewer inched up from 42 percent to 49 percent over the decade. More than a quarter of congregations had 50 or fewer people attending in 2010. Across the board—among white evangelical, white mainline and racial/ethnic congregations—there was a decrease in attendance. In many cases, congregations not only are seeing fewer people but older ones in their pews. At least one-third of members in more than half of mainline Protestant congregations are 65 or older.

Most Americans don't know candidate's religion. Six out of 10 Americans don't know Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a Mormon, a new survey shows. Just 42 percent identified the former Massachusetts governor as a Mormon, according to the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute. That figure remains unchanged from July 2011, despite a flurry of media attention after a prominent supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry—Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas—called Romney's religion a "cult." The only group that showed an increased knowledge about Romney's religion was white evangelicals, whose knowledge of Romney's faith rose from 44 percent in July to 53 percent in mid-October. Researchers found Perry trails both Romney and rival Herman Cain among white evangelicals on measures of political affinity but is relatively even with Cain on measures of religious affinity. Just 8 percent of evangelical voters said Romney's beliefs are closest to their own. The poll is based on a random sample of 1,019 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Supreme Court steers clear of roadside crosses. The Supreme Court announced it will not reopen a case in which a lower court ruled highway crosses memorializing Utah state troopers are unconstitutional. The Utah Highway Patrol Association had erected 12-foot white crosses to honor fallen officers since 1998. The American Atheists filed suit in 2005. The group lost its first legal challenge, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the memorials "have the impermissible effect of conveying to the reasonable observer the message that the state prefers or otherwise endorses a certain religion." The conservative Alliance Defense Fund, which asked the Supreme Court to consider the case, was disappointed. "Justice is not well served when unhappy atheists can use the law to mow down memorial crosses and renew the suffering for the survivors," Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Byron Babione said.

–Compiled from Religion News Service

WASHINGTON  (RNS)—When he dies, Clem Parnell expects his soul to ascend heavenward. But he wants his ashes loaded into a shotgun shell and blasted at a turkey.

"I will rest in peace knowing that the last thing that turkey will see is me screaming at him at about 900 feet per second," he said.

Parnell and his business partner, fellow Alabama state game warden Thad Holmes, believe other hunters have similar hankerings. This July, they launched Holy Smoke, which offers to load the cremains of customers into shotgun shells, rifle cartridges and bullets.

For about $850, a customer will receive 250 shotgun shells, 100 rifle cartridges or 250 pistol cartridges, all packed with the deceased's ashes. Discounts are available for the military, police and firemen.

After most funeral rites, scattered remains become trodden dirt, gravesites go unvisited, and ash-filled urns sit unnoticed, Holmes said. Loading up a loved one for one final duck hunt would be a more fitting send-off, he says, especially for avid outdoorsmen.

"We want to give people an alternative to celebrate a person's life," Holmes said.

Holy Smoke insists a team of five ATF-trained loaders handle all remains reverently. There is no commingling of ashes, and unused cremains are returned. Parnell, a Southern Baptist, said all seven Holy Smoke employees are "good Christians, with good moral values."

"Just because you're getting shot out of a gun doesn't make it irreverent," said Holmes.

But some Christian scholars say Holy Smoke is firing spiritual blanks.

"It's a terrible idea," said David W. Jones, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

"This idea of putting grandpa in a rifle shell or scattering his ashes on a baseball field goes against Christianity. We're supposed to show respect for ashes, not throw them to the wind," said Jones, who has written about cremation in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

For centuries, Christians shunned cremation as a heathen practice. Burying the dead, church fathers taught, continues the tradition of the Jewish patriarchs and honors bodies made in the image of God. More importantly, Christians believe in a bodily resurrection.

"The Christian tradition is unambiguous about burial being the norm," said Andrew Harvey, a professor of English at Grove City College in Pennsylvania who has written on the cremation trend. "Jesus' burial is a template for our own. But I don't think many people make that concrete connection anymore."

Instead, Harvey said, many Christians have adopted a modern form of Gnosticism, believing the soul shakes free from the body after death as a snake sheds its skin.

Church strictures against cremation have loosened in recent decades, and few consider it a mortal sin. But some caution that there are good theological reasons for burying bodies.

"If the end game is that we live in physical bodies on a physical earth no longer affected by sin and worship God forever, then maybe we need to show respect for our bodies when we die," said Jones.

Cremation accounted for 37 percent of all final dispositions in 2009, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, and it is expected to cross the 50 percent threshold this decade.

Meanwhile, more Americans are planning their funerals in advance, often with highly personalized send-offs. Surfers scatter their ashes over favorite swells. Califor-nians fill fireworks with their remains and shoot them over San Francisco Bay. Cremains can be inserted in coral reefs, fashioned as diamonds, or launched into space. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards even snorted his father's ashes.

"There has been an ongoing proliferation of innovative forms of memorializing the dead and taking care of the human remains," said Gary Laderman, an expert on religion and American death rites at Emory University in Atlanta. "People want to do it themselves and make sure it fits with their personality and commitments."

In other words, instead of religious services focused on the afterlife, funerals are becoming a final act of self-expression, said Matthew Lee Anderson, author of Earthen Vessels, a book about Christianity and the body.

At the same time, more Americans find transcendence and meaning outside church walls, scholars note. Watching the sun rise through the trees while sitting in a hunting stand is about as sacred as life gets, Holmes said.

"You see the birds and animals and you say, 'Look at what God has wrought,'" he said. "It's a soul Band-Aid."

OAKTOWN, Ind. (RNS)—Eleven-year-old Sarai Camacho of Donna, in South Texas, tears up when she tells why her mother let go the babysitter for her and her younger sister this summer. It's the same reason her father brought the family to Indiana so he could work the melon fields for a season.

"Last December, my mom didn't get paid for one month, and we started having problems," said Sarai, at Oaktown First Christian Church, which hosted free classes for children of migrant workers. "My mom said for us to come here (to the church) so she doesn't have to give money to the babysitter because we're running out of it."

For churches, it's become an all-too-familiar sight—working families who aren't able to make ends meet. As household resources get tapped out, churches often are the first to see the changing face of poverty—and it's often a young one.

"We're seeing younger families come in," said Ken Campbell, food coordinator for Lazarus House, a Christian ministry to help the needy in Lawrence, Mass. "They're coming forward because one member in the household got laid off or had their hours cut, and now they're just barely making it."

Across the United States, rising numbers of children are coping with the stressors of economic hardship:

• Child poverty rates reached 22 percent in 2010, up from 20.7 percent in 2009 and 16.2 percent in 2000, according to a September report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of children living in poverty increased from 13.1 million to 15.5 million, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

• The Casey Foundation also reported 4 percent of American children had been affected by home foreclosures since 2007, and 11 percent had at least one unemployed parent in 2010.

• Catholic Charities USA, which serves about one in four Americans who live in poverty, served 2.7 million children in 2010, up from 2.4 million in 2006. The steepest increase came in food-related services, as Catholic Charities fed 56 percent more children (935,000) in 2010 than in 2006 (600,000).

As families cycle in and out of poverty, faith-based service programs tend to catch people who fall through the cracks of other safety nets, said Robert L. Fischer, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty & Community Development at Case Western Reserve University.

When emergency needs arise, people often turn to churches first.

"Churches can provide information and reach families and children who wouldn't know about (public) services otherwise," said Taniesha Woods, senior research associate at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.

On the front lines, religious workers see signs of growing desperation. Four years ago at Torrente De Cedron Pentecostal Church in Lynn, Mass., the weekly food pantry stayed open two hours as about 75 families came through for a few days' worth of groceries. Today, the line begins forming hours before the pantry opens, according to Senior Pastor Oscar Ovalles, as more than 200 families come from city neighborhoods and affluent suburbs alike. Even with smaller bags to stretch supplies, everything is gone within 30 minutes.

"Families are in crisis," Ovalles said. "What used to be saved for a rainy day is now the main course, because dad lost his job or mom is no longer working."

Similar signs of stress are visible in nearby Lawrence, Mass. The overnight shelter at Lazarus House always is filled to capacity, Campbell said, and needs for food continue to increase. In early 2010, the weekly pantry gave a few days' worth of groceries to about 300 individuals who were, in most cases, picking up for families with children. This fall, the weekly pantry is serving about 800 on average.

Many who now need help aren't used to receiving any sort of church-based assistance. Sarai's family, for example, until recently had lived stably on income from her mother's teaching job and her father's work in agriculture and food processing. Now they depend on the church's help with child care to make ends meet.

"Because of what we're going through right now with money, I would love to help my family," Sarai said. "I would love to go to college," she said, and earn enough afterward to support her parents.

Religious groups are trying to be resourceful despite slumping donations in uncertain economic times. Still, meeting needs in lean times remains an uphill challenge.

Torrente De Cedron used to run its pantry on $3,000 raised from parishioners' donations, but now the congregation can't afford the $10,000 that's needed to run the program. This fall, the church began hosting regular fundraisers, including an upcoming yard sale, to sustain the pantry.

"The food pantry is no longer just something that we want to do on a volunteer basis for the community," Ovalles said. "Now it's a mandatory thing that we have to have because of the need that we can see in these families and in these kids."

Death penalty opposition at high level. More than one-third of Americans now oppose the death penalty—the highest level in nearly 40 years—according to a new Gallup Poll. Moreover, those who believe the death penalty is being applied fairly and those who say it isn't used often enough are at the lowest levels in a decade, underscoring significant changes in attitudes, USA Today reported. The Gallup Poll found 35 percent oppose the death penalty—the highest opposition since March 1972. That year, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was constitutional unless it was applied unfairly. By 1976, several states reinstituted capital punishment. Now 40 percent in the most-recent poll believe the death penalty isn't imposed often enough, the lowest level since 2001.

Protestant giving hits record low. Tithing to Protestant churches as a percentage of income is at its lowest level in at least 41 years, according to a new report, and churches are keeping a greater share of those donations for their own needs. Parishioners gave about 2.38 percent of their income to their churches, according to "The State of Church Giving through 2009," a new report by Empty Tomb, a Christian research agency in Champaign, Ill. Just over 2 percent of income went toward congregational finances, such as operating costs and building expenses. Only 0.34 percent of parishioner income went to charities and seminary training beyond the four walls of the church. Those are new lows, at least going back to the first report in 1968.

Bishops warn that church teaching is nonpartisan. With the 2012 campaign gearing up, U.S. Catholic bishops reminded Catholic voters they can't cherry-pick from church teachings to justify their own political preferences, and cautioned both sides not to edit the bishops' statements into voter guides to back one party or another. The bishops' warning came in a special introduction to "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," a 30-page document on the responsibilities of Catholic voters that has been issued before every presidential election cycle since 1976. But the biggest challenge for the bishops may be getting their message read by rank-and-file Catholics. A recent poll of U.S. Catholics showed just 16 percent have ever heard of the bishops' document on politics, and just 3 percent say they have read the statement in past election cycles.

Future English royal wedding for a Catholic? Future British kings and queens would be permitted to marry Catholics for the first time in more than three centuries under reforms proposed by British Prime Minister David Cameron. In a letter to his fellow heads of government in the British Commonwealth, Cameron outlined several proposed amendments to the 1701 Act of Settlement, which bars Catholics and the spouses of Catholics from the British throne. Cameron did not propose lifting the ban on a Catholic becoming the monarch, who also serves by law as the supreme governor of the Church of England. Approval of all 16 Commonwealth "realms" would be necessary for any changes in the law governing royal succession.

–-Compiled from Religion News Service

WASHINGTON  (RNS)—Two recent books argue explorers Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama were more like Christian crusaders than greedy mercenaries or curious adventurers. Other historians, however, remain skeptical.

The books, released prior to Columbus Day, claim the reason the famous navigators sought a direct trade route to India was to undermine Islam.

"I think historians have known about this, but they haven't taken it seriously," said Carol Delaney, author of Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem. Delaney, a retired anthropologist, is a research scholar at Brown University.

Delaney's book argues Columbus wanted to find gold to finance a new crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, believing Jerusalem must be in Christian hands before Jesus' Second Coming.

"People don't usually look at Columbus in the religious context of his time, which was very powerful," said Delaney.

Nigel Cliff, the author of a new book on Columbus' Portuguese contemporary Vasco da Gama, agrees that seeing the explorers through a religious lens is "a change of emphasis." Historians in the 19th century tended to regard Columbus as a heroic figure who embarked on a "disinterested intellectual adventure," whereas those in the 20th century tended to "focus on economics, to the exclusion of much else," he said.

Mere economic advantage wasn't a medieval concept, Cliff asserted.

"Faith is the burning issue that impelled the great Portugal (exploration) campaign for 80 years," said Cliff, a British writer and amateur historian.

Da Gama became the first person to reach India directly from Europe by sailing around Africa in 1498, six years after Columbus discovered the Americas for the king and queen of Spain.

Cliff's book, Holy War, claims da Gama's arrival in the East marked a turning point from Muslim to Christian ascendancy in global trade against the backdrop of an ongoing "clash of civilizations."

But other historians say the new books' bold claims are backed by poor scholarship. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a historian at the University of Notre Dame who has written extensively on Columbus, harshly criticized the books in The Wall Street Journal.

In his view, Cliff and Delaney "assume the veracity and authenticity of sources of doubtful authorship and unreliable date" and make the mistake of taking Columbus at his word although he was notoriously disingenuous.

Sanjay Subrahmanyam, a historian at UCLA who has written on da Gama, said religion for da Gama was "significant, but not the sole motive." The explorer was more interested in "personal advancement," as well as ensuring trade routes would be controlled by the Portuguese nobility rather than the crown.

Fernandez-Armesto called Cliff's theory of a "clash of civilizations" between Christianity and Islam "a figment of contemporary imaginations." Subrahmanyam said it is "sensationalizing history by linking it with contemporary events."

Delaney points to the mysterious "Book of Prophecies," a gathering of mostly biblical pronouncements that seem to lend divine significance to Columbus' voyages. The book supposedly was compiled by Columbus himself.

Fernandez-Armesto also points out the Spanish court that commissioned Columbus' voyages long had been obsessed with the idea of Jerusalem.

However, "there is no evidence that Columbus was particularly religious until … he turned to God following the failure of his worldly ambitions," he said. Columbus died a disappointed man because he had not found the quantities of gold and the passage to India he had sought.

If nothing else, the debate surrounding the books illustrates Columbus remains a controversial figure, more than 500 years after he sailed the ocean blue.

"Everybody seems to have a vested interest in their version of Columbus," Delaney said.

An Internet-based community of people who prayed for her after the accident developed into Maggie Lee for Good—a movement to honor her memory by performing random acts of kindness on her birthday each year.

Her father, John, is an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Shreveport and is a former pastor of First Baptist in Brownwood. Her mother, Jinny, is a Christian humorist.

“One day, one deed, one difference” sums up the essence of Maggie Lee for Good, Jinny Henson noted.

“Maggie Lee for Good Day on Oct. 29 is set apart as a day of caring where one deed can make a huge difference in another person’s life,” she said.

Shreveport organizations such as the NWLA Food Bank, Community Renewal International, VOA Lighthouse Program, Providence House, Veteran’s Transitional Housing, Life Share Blood Centers, the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, HUB Urban Ministries and Robinson’s Rescue have benefitted from Maggie Lee for Good Day.

Internationally, people in Caracas, Venezuela will take part in the event which has resulted in water wells being dug in Malawi, Africa, a house in Haiti for a family formerly living under a tarp and benefitted many thousands of others through World Vision, Heifer International and Samaritan’s Purse.

For more information, see www.maggieleeforgood.org . On Facebook, see   facebook.com/MaggieLeeforGood or on Twitter, follow @maggielee4good.
 

Poll reveals why young people leave church. New research by the Barna Group finds young people view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has been shallow. The findings, the result of a five-year study, are featured in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith, a new book by Barna President David Kinnaman. The project included a study of 1,296 young adults who were current or former churchgoers. Researchers found almost three out of five young Christians leave church life either permanently or for an extended period of time after age 15. One in four 18- to 29-year-olds said, "Christians demonize everything outside of the church." One in three said, "Church is boring." One in six young Christians said they "have made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them."

Big money needed to repair National Cathedral. The Washington National Cathedral will need "tens of millions of dollars" over "numerous years" to repair extensive damage to the nation's second-largest church following an Aug. 23 earthquake, church officials announced. USA Today reported the landmark church requires $25 million "just to get to June 2012, for the first phase of work and to resume worship and programming. We know it will ultimately be much more," said Richard Weinberg, a spokesman for the cathedral. The Episcopal cathedral, which advertises itself as "a spiritual home for all," has been the setting for presidential funerals and other major national events. An estimated 35,000 worshippers and visitors arrive there every month. Its stone-upon-stone, handcrafted Gothic architecture took 83 years, from 1907 to 1990, to complete. In the earthquake, the central tower sustained damage on three of its four corner spires, and three capstones fell off. There are cracks on some of the upper floors and in some of the flying buttresses, a distinguishing feature of Gothic architecture, in the oldest portion of the building.

Brits identify as Christian, but don't worship. Despite growing immigration and competition from other faiths, a new study by the Office for National Statistics showed 69 percent of men and women in Britain professed to be Christian, even if they never or rarely saw the inside of a church. The survey showed 4.4 percent of respondents identified themselves as Muslim; 1.3 percent as Hindu; 0.7 percent as Sikh; 0.4 percent as Buddhist, 0.4 percent as Jewish and 1.1 percent as followers of other religions. Those numbers rarely seem to translate into filling pews. A 2007 survey of 7,000 Brits by the Christian charity Tearfund found only one in seven went to church once a month, and only one in 10 did so every week. An earlier church census, in 2005, put regular churchgoing at 3.16 million, still barely 6.3 percent of Britain's population. In a nation of 60 million people, weekly attendance at Church of England parishes had slumped to 1.14 million as recently as 2008.

—Compiled from Religion News Service

By definition, a "sanctuary" should be a place of refuge and protection where people feel welcome and feel safe.

In practice, churches struggle with what it means to open their doors to everyone while providing a sense of security for people inside their walls.

And if that holds true when groups gather for worship, the tension mounts for personnel who work alone on weekdays in a church office.

Changing policy

Until a few months ago, First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City maintained an open-door policy during business hours. A person could walk into the church facility through any of several unlocked entrances.

"Our policy was to keep the outside doors open to give an air of invitation to anyone in need, while locking most inside doors to keep us secure," said Kristin Rogers, administrative associate and minister to children and families at the downtown Oklahoma City church.

"While this served us well for 98 percent of the people who entered, we did frequently have to clear the building of people who wandered in and stayed. This is an old building with many nooks and crannies in which to hide."

In time, the congregation realized the policy created a security risk.

"Our biggest struggle lay in the fact that we purposefully invite the working poor and homeless into our building to find resources, and we did not want to discourage them from getting much-needed help," Rogers said. "Yet the staff would meet a stranger in the bathroom bathing, or someone passing through a hall that should be empty, and feel very ill at ease."

The church assembled a security team that included police officers, firefighters and other first-responders to emergency situations. The group surveyed the situation and quickly recognized a problem.

"Every person in that group felt our church was too open during the week," Rogers said. "Still, the ministerial staff resisted locking the building."

The strongest opposition to changing the church's open-door policy came from the church secretary who typically arrives first at the building each weekday morning, she noted.

"She felt she could handle the situation and didn't like the impression it gave people who had to request being let in," Rogers recalled.

However, the Oklahoma City church finally changed its policy after robbers entered North Pointe Baptist Church in Arlington, killed 29-year-old Pastor Clint Dobson and beat his 67-year-old ministry assistant, Judy Elliot.

"This man had been a seminary friend (at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary) of some of our ministers," Rogers said. "It hit too close to home. We made the decision to lock the outside doors during business hours and use security cameras to buzz people in. The system is new, but we have successfully adapted. And the staff feels safer working in the building."

A weekday welcome center

South Main Baptist Churchin the midtown area of Houston balances the need for security with the desire to welcome everyone by keeping only one entrance to the church facility open Monday through Friday but making that point of entry a hospitable place.

"We direct everyone to the entrance at the main welcome center," explained Bill Pugh, facilities and properties manager at South Main Baptist.

The church employs security staff to provide for the security of weekday workers, as well as worshippers on Sunday and Wednesday. One security officer is on duty on weekdays, two on Wednesday evening and three each Sunday.

"They are the first to show up to open the building and are the last to leave and lock up," Pugh said.

Typically, a security officer is stationed at the welcome center on weekdays.

"We have a lot of people off the street who walk in, looking for assistance," Pugh explained. Anyone is welcome within the confines of the entryway, but access is limited beyond that point.

Typically, a security guard greets anyone who enters the church seeking assistance. He records the specific needs of the individual and then calls the appropriate minister on duty who comes to the welcome center to provide help.

In the unlikely event a person enters the church when a security officer is away from the welcome center, that individuals could follow signs to the church office and have access to the waiting area. However, the office area where ministerial assistants work is locked until the office manager grants access to visitors.

Limited access

Similarly, First Baptist Church in El Paso makes only one entrance accessible to the public during weekday office hours. Anyone seeking entry must use the intercom mounted there to request admission, and a security camera mounted at that entrance enables office personnel to monitor the door.

People who stop by the church asking for help are allowed into the foyer where a minister greets them, records information about them and seeks to provide for needs or make appropriate referrals.

Ministers normally restrict access to the rest of the facility, particularly to ensure the safety of children in an onsite daycare program, Pastor David Lowrie noted.

Twice a month, First Baptist Church sponsors three-hour outreach ministry to ex-offenders from a local halfway house. Volunteers work with the men to help them secure state identification cards, as well as allowing them to select clothing for job interviews from a benevolence closet.

"On those mornings, we have additional men on hand to provide those services, as well as maintain a sense of security," Lowrie said.

Parking lot patrol

Whenever the church building is open after daylight—for committee meetings, Bible studies or other functions—paid personnel patrol the parking lots to grant, or occasionally deny, access to the building.

"We benefit from having security people in the parking lots who know the neighborhood, know the people here and are capable of exercising good judgment," Lowrie said.

Even though First Baptist Church is located within two miles of the international bridge to Juarez—the scene of violent killings related to drug cartels—the church has no special security policies directly related to it, he said.

The church has no armed security personnel on its campus. However, Lowrie noted, the congregation includes quite a few local and federal law enforcement personnel and Border Patrol agents, and it draws military personnel from Fort Bliss.

"So, if anything ever did happen during a service here, it would be interesting to see how many would be rushing in to respond, as opposed to rushing out," he said.

Backpack policy

One safeguard South Main Baptist in Houston has implemented and found effective deals with backpacks in the building, Pugh noted.

Chester Quarles

"Particularly with the homeless, many of them carry their possessions in a backpack," he noted. As a safety precaution, no backpacks are allowed beyond the welcome center on weekdays or beyond any entrance when worshippers gather.

Anyone carrying a backpack is required to check it in and then is given the numbered stub to a two-part claim ticket—"like valet parking uses," Pugh explained. Before the visitor exits the facility, he or she can present the ticket and reclaim the backpack.

Security through friendliness

A warm, welcoming atmosphere actually makes churches more secure, said Chester L. Quarles, professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Mississippi. Quarles sees greeters who welcome worshippers at each entrance to the church facility as "components of an effective guardian program" for any congregation.

"Criminals don't want a welcoming. They don't want your greeter to look them in the eye or to shake their hand," said Quarles, coauthor of Crime Prevention for Houses of Worship. Criminals are looking for targets, not companionship.

"A cold-hearted church that does not recognize nor greet visitors—indeed, the members don't even speak to visitors—is like a magnet to the criminal," he said. "Warm-hearted, caring churches are crime-resistant by their very nature."

First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City already understands that principle.

"We are training deacons that the best defense is friendliness," Rogers said. "If they will make an effort to shake hands and greet each stranger, it can often deter someone with bad intentions."

WACO—Americans in 1860s viewed the Civil War through the lens of God at work in human affairs—a lens left shattered by that bloody conflict, according to historian George Rable.

Rable, the Charles Summersell Chair in southern history at the University of Alabama and author of God's Almost Chosen Peoples, spoke at a symposium on the Civil War and religion sponsored by Baylor University's Institute for the Studies of Religion.

"As Abraham Lincoln stated in his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, both sides prayed to the same God and read the same Bible. Indeed, religious language, imagery and ideas were pervasive during the Civil War era," Rable said.

Americans in the mid-19th century held "a strong belief that the story of America was a part of a larger story of human history, an unfolding of a providential design," he explained.

Consequently, Americans saw the hand of Providence at work in the events surrounding the Civil War. They just couldn't agree on how God was working.

"Sectional tensions of the 1850s and the secession crisis in the winter of 1861 were seen as providential—punishment for individual and collective sin," Rable said.

However, while abolitionists in the North saw the events as God's punishment for allowing slavery to exist, preachers in the South listed other transgressions, such as omission of God from the United States Constitution, in contrast to the Confederacy's governing documents that explicitly invoked God's favor.

"Religious voices, whether Union or Confederate, seldom expressed much doubt that God was on their side," Rable noted.

Throughout the war, ideas about Providence and God's judgment helped provide for some an explanation of both victory and defeat. For others, those notions raised questions—particularly as casualties grew and the tide of the war ebbed and flowed.

"As was typical after almost every battlefield loss, the defeated side attempted to figure out which sins had stirred up God's wrath," Rable said.

Soldiers pray during the Civil War.

Debates about the role of slavery cut across all dividing lines.

"Throughout the war, denominations, churches and individuals—North and South—agonized and argued over the role of slavery in the war," he noted. "Christians of various stripes had long debated whether God opposed, sustained or was indifferent to slavery, and the war reshaped the discussion in both the North and the South."

On the battlefield, some soldiers—in both Union and Confederate armies—turned to God. By 1862, reports grew of religious revivals, particularly in the Confederate ranks.

When Richmond fell and a Union victory seemed assured, some people in the North immediately believed "the Lord had finally smiled on their cause," Rable said.

However, Lincoln shared neither the sense of certainty nor the joy some Union supporters felt.

"Throughout the war, he had refused to automatically equate the Union cause with God's larger purposes," Rable said. "Even as the Confederate armies appeared to be collapsing in the spring of 1865, he refused to yield to the temptation of triumphalism."

Lincoln noted neither side in the conflict expected the war to be so lengthy or so bloody. He concluded God had his own purposes, but Lincoln did not presume to know them.

"The Union victory and Confederate defeat left many hard questions about Providence and the role of God in human history unanswered, as Lincoln himself readily acknowledged," Rable said. "And of course, the whole idea of unanswered questions would deal a body blow to providential interpretations of history, and never again would an American war be interpreted in such openly religious terms."

Dead Sea Scrolls available online. Five of the Dead Sea Scrolls—stored for decades in a climate-controlled exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem—now are available online. A website— http://dss.collections.imj.org.il —developed by the Israel Museum and Google allows online visitors to examine the scrolls in minute detail with the help of a magnifying feature. Pages for each of the five scrolls—the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on the Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll and the War Scroll—also contain brief videos and explanatory notes. According to the museum announcement, details invisible to the naked eye are made visible through ultra-high resolution digital photography at up to 1,200 megapixels each. Dating from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D., the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near the Dead Sea. The region's arid environment helped ensure their survival.

Ban on creationism in British schools urged. A group of 30 prominent scientists, including Nobel laureate Paul Nurse and noted atheist Richard Dawkins, are pressing the British government to ban all teaching of creationism in the nation's publicly funded schools. The scientists delivered a petition to the coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a new campaign to make it illegal to teach the biblical story of creationism as a scientific theory in schools.

Alternative sentencing on hold. An alternative sentencing plan that would give inmates the choice between time in jail or a year in church will be delayed while lawyers review it to make sure there are no legal issues. The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama sent a letter to city leaders in Bay Minette, Ala., demanding an immediate end to the program, which it says violates the separation of church and state. The faith-based Operation Restore Our Community program offers first-time, nonviolent offenders the option of attending the house of worship of their choice each week for a year instead of receiving jail time or other punishments. Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland said because no one will be forced to take part in the program, he believes there is no violation of church-state separation, and he is confident it can be begin soon. So far, 56 churches have agreed to help monitor offenders, said Rowland, and 40 congregations have submitted inventories of their community resources, such as parenting, counseling and educational programs.

BBC drops traditional references. British Christians are incensed after the state-funded BBC directed B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) be used in place of the traditional B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, or Year of the Lord) in historical date references on its television and radio broadcasts. The BBC said since it is "committed to impartiality, it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians." The new edict drew immediate accusations that the network was guilty of political correctness run amok as the BBC's phone lines were jammed by calls from irate listeners and viewers.

–Compiled from Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) —White evangelicals and Tea Party members are less likely to believe in evolution and climate change than most Americans, a finding that could pose a particular problem for Republican presidential hopefuls.

A new poll also showed a majority of Americans (57 percent) believes in evolution, and an even larger majority (69 percent) believes in climate change, although many disagree that the phenomenon is based on human activity.

But most Americans do not insist their presidential candidates share their views on these issues, nor do they believe scientists have come to a consensus on them, according to the poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.

Even though evolution and climate change aren't deal-breakers for most voters, they are "symbolically important for two groups that play an outsized role in Republican primary politics—white evangelical Protestants and members of the Tea Party," said Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute.

"Because evangelicals and Tea Party members hold views that are significantly different than the general population, the challenge for Republican candidates is to talk about these issues now in a way that will not hurt them later in the general election," Jones said.

On evolution, a third (32 percent) of white evangelicals affirm a belief in evolution, compared to two-thirds of white mainline Protestants, six in 10 Catholics and three-quarters of the unaffiliated.

On climate change, even though strong majorities in every religious group say they believe the earth is getting warmer, white evangelicals (31 percent) are significantly less likely to believe the change is caused by human activity. That compares to 43 percent of white mainline Protestants, 50 percent of Catholics and 52 percent of the unaffiliated.

The poll reveals an unusual political schism on climate change. Typically, Republicans come down on one side of a question, Democrats on the other, and independents in the middle, said Dan Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute.

On climate change, Republicans (49 percent) cluster with Tea Party members (41 percent) on whether there is solid evidence that the earth is warming. That compares to 81 percent of Democrats and seven in 10 independents.

"There is no reason for climate change to be a partisan issue," Cox said. "But the political leadership on the issue has led to a polarization of opinion, with Democrats and independents on one side and Republicans on the other."

Many Americans say they do not care much about a candidate's stance on either evolution or climate change. More than half (53 percent) say a belief or disbelief in evolution wouldn't affect their vote, and about as many say the same about a candidate who doesn't believe climate change is caused by human activity.

White evangelicals care, however. Only four in 10 evangelicals say a candidate's views on evolution would make no difference in their vote, and those who say they cared about a candidate's position say they would be less likely to vote for someone who believes in evolution. By contrast, Americans overall who cared about evolution say they'd be more likely to vote for a politician who believes in it.

Tea Party members (33 percent), more than any other group, are more likely to support a candidate who does not believe in climate change. That compares to 16 percent of Republicans and 5 percent of Democrats.

Americans also doubt a strong consensus exists among scientists on climate change, a phenomenon that has frustrated the vast majority of climatologists who consider it a problem caused by human activity. Only four in 10 Americans believe a consensus exists. A slight majority (51 percent) says a consensus of scientists believes in evolution.

In other findings:

• On stewardship of the earth, 57 percent say God wants humans to live responsibly with animals and plants. A sizable minority (36 percent), however, prefers the idea that "God gave human beings the right to use animals, plants and all the resources of the planet for human benefit."

• Black Protestants are evenly divided on evolution, with 47 percent affirming it and 46 percent affirming creationism.

• Although most Americans believe in evolution, they disagree on its driving force. Of those who believe in evolution, 30 percent say it's driven by natural selection or another natural process, compared to 22 percent who say a divine being guides it.

The PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey was based on telephone interviews with 1,013 adults between Sept. 14 and 18. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

WASHINGTON  (RNS)—In recent weeks, an arcane and scary-sounding religious term has crept into the lexicon of the 2012 campaign, tripping from the tongue of everyone from MSNBC broadcaster Rachel Maddow to conservative Christian leader Ralph Reed.

Depending on whom you ask, "Dominionism" either signifies a Christian plot for world domination, or the latest liberal bugaboo.

What is "Dominionism"?

Scholars and journalists popularized the term "dominionism" in the 1990s to refer to conservative Christians seeking political power. It derives from the Book of Genesis, in which God tells Adam and Eve to have "dominion" over the Earth and its animals. Dominionism generally describes the belief that Christians are mandated biblically to control all earthly institutions until the second coming of Jesus.

Experts identify two main schools of Dominionism—Christian Reconstructionists, who believe biblical law, including stoning as punishment for adultery and other transgressions, should replace secular law; and the New Apostolic Reformation, which advocates for Christians to "reclaim the seven mountains of culture"—government, religion, media, family, business, education, and arts and entertainment.

Who are Dominionists?

Very few Christians identify themselves as "Dominionists." Experts say the New Apostolic Reformation has gained traction among charismatic Christians and Pentecostals under the influence of C. Peter Wagner, a church-growth guru and prolific author. Prominent "apostles" in the New Apostolic Reformation include Lou Engle, co-founder of The Call assemblies and Mike Bickle, director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo.

Where are Dominionists?

Experts say the New Apostolic Reformation has chapters of "prayer warriors" in all 50 states and in foreign countries where Pentecostalism and charismatic Christianity are popular. Membership numbers are difficult to ascertain, however, since adherents are not required to officially join any church, seminary or ministry.

Some experts say Dominionism is more a school of thought than a social group. Its influence can be seen in textbooks that portray the Founding Fathers as devout evangelicals, in an anti-gay bill in Uganda and in the home-schooling movement, they say.

Evangelical experts, however, say they see no evidence of Dominionists thought among conservative Christian elites.

When did Dominionism arise?

Christian Reconstructionism is the brainchild of the R.J. Rushdoony, a Calvinist theologian who died in 2001, leaving behind several dense tomes and a small band of followers. The New Apostolic Reformation traces its roots to several Pentecostal movements that proliferated in the second half of the 20th century.

Why are people talking about Dominionism now?

The topic has bobbed up almost every four years since evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson, who has espoused Dominionist ideas, ran for president in 1988. During the 2008 election, for instance, a video surfaced of a pastor active in the New Apostolic Reformation praying over Sarah Palin, raising questions about her involvement with the group.

In August, several pastors affiliated with New Apostolic Reformation helped organize and delivered speeches at Texas Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally in Houston.

Perry is expected to need strong support from conservative Christians in his run for the presidency, as is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who has expressed admiration for writers accused of espousing Dominionist ideas.

Many conservative Christians dismiss the attention on Dominionism as liberal fear-mongering. They wish to participate in American culture, they say, not dominate it.