NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Pastors seem more reluctant to address issues of race in their congregations today than four years ago.

According to a LifeWay Research study, 74 percent of pastors surveyed agree their congregation would welcome a sermon on racial reconciliation, with 32 percent strongly agreeing.

Previous research in 2016 showed 90 percent of pastors believed their congregations would be open to a sermon on the topic, with 57 percent strongly agreeing.

Today, 17 percent of pastors say their church would not want to hear about racial reconciliation, up from 7 percent in 2016.

“While most pastors’ teaching is not limited to things their congregation wants to hear, it is helpful to know the reaction pastors anticipate from their congregation,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“Instead of a majority strongly agreeing, now only a third of pastors have no hesitation that their congregation would welcome a sermon on racial reconciliation.”

African American pastors (93 percent) are more likely than white pastors (73 percent) or pastors of other ethnicities (74 percent) to say their church would be open to a sermon on racial reconciliation.

Pastors of churches with 250 or more in attendance (83 percent) are the most likely church size to say their congregation would welcome such a sermon.

Denominationally, Methodists (83 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (79 percent), Pentecostals (78 percent) and Baptists (74 percent) are more likely than pastors of Lutheran churches (59 percent) to believe their congregation would like to hear a sermon on the topic.

Positive or negative feedback?

More than 8 in 10 pastors (83 percent) say they’ve preached on racial reconciliation in the past two years, including 70 percent who say they have not received any negative feedback because of those sermons and 12 percent who have been criticized.

Close to 1 in 6 pastors (16 percent) admit they have not addressed racial reconciliation from the pulpit in the past two years.

Compared to 2016, however, more pastors say they have received negative feedback, and more have ignored the topic in their sermons.

Four years ago, 5 percent said they were criticized for a sermon on racial reconciliation compared to 12 percent today. One in 10 pastors (10 percent) said they had not preached on the topic in the last two years in 2016, while 16 percent say that is the case now.

“The typical pastor is addressing racial reconciliation from the pulpit and without pushback from their congregation,” McConnell said. “However, the noticeable increase in pastors avoiding the topic and receiving criticism could signal there are new dynamics emerging.”

White pastors (17 percent) and pastors of other ethnicities (18 percent) are more than twice as likely as African American pastors (6 percent) to say they have not addressed racial reconciliation from the pulpit in the past two years.

White pastors (14 percent) are also more likely than pastors of other ethnicities (3 percent) to say they have received negative feedback from sermons on the topic.

Pastors 65 and older (20 percent) are more likely than pastors 45 to 54 (13 percent) to say they’ve not talked about the topic from the pulpit in the past two years. Younger pastors (18 to 44) are the most likely to say they’ve had negative feedback from preaching a sermon related to race (21 percent).

Lutheran pastors (27 percent) are twice as likely as Baptist (13 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (13 percent) and Pentecostal pastors (12 percent) to say they have not addressed the issue in a sermon in the past two years.

Encouraged or discouraged to preach on race?

Around 1 in 5 pastors (21 percent) say leaders in their church have directly urged them to preach on racial reconciliation, while 77 percent have not heard such requests.

In 2016, a quarter of pastors (26 percent) said they had been asked for sermons on the topic, and 73 percent said they had not.

“There are many possible reasons fewer churchgoers are asking for sermons on racial reconciliation,” McConnell said. “However, you cannot say that fewer Americans are talking and thinking about race today compared to four years ago.”

White pastors (79 percent) and pastors of other ethnicities (77 percent) are more likely than African American pastors (56 percent) to say they have not heard such requests.

Evangelical pastors (81 percent) are more likely than their mainline counterparts (63 percent) to say no leaders in their church have asked them to preach on racial reconciliation.

Pastors in the South (79 percent) are more likely than pastors in the West (70 percent) to say they haven’t heard such congregational urging.

Lutheran (90 percent) and Baptist pastors (86 percent) are more likely than Pentecostal (77 percent), Restoration movement (70 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (68 percent) and Methodist pastors (63 percent) to say they have not had leaders ask for a sermon on that topic.

The mixed mode survey of 1,007 Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 2 to Oct. 1, 2020, using both phone and online interviews. Each survey was completed by the senior or sole pastor or a minister at the church.

Analysts weighted responses by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,007 surveys (502 by phone, 505 online), providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.4 percent. This margin of error accounts for the effect of weighting. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Comparisons are also made to a telephone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors using random sampling conducted Aug. 22 to Sept. 16, 2016.

NEW YORK (AP)—A posthumous sexual misconduct scandal involving the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has placed the global Christian organization in a wrenching predicament.

It faces calls from within its own ranks to change its name, pay reparations to any victims and oust some top leaders, including Zacharias family members.

Zacharias, a widely popular author and speaker, died of cancer in May at age 74. Vice President Mike Pence spoke at his memorial service, lauding him as a great evangelist “armed with intellect, girded with truth and love.”

Zacharias founded his international ministry, known as RZIM, in 1984, with a mission to engage in “Christian apologetics”—defending Christianity with powerful intellectual arguments. Based in suburban Atlanta, RZIM has operations in about 20 countries and a roster of scores of traveling speakers.

In recent months, the organization has been plunged into crisis, precipitated by a Sept. 29 article in Christianity Today asserting that over a period of about five years, Zacharias sexually harassed three women who worked as massage therapists at two day spas he co-owned in an Atlanta suburb.

RZIM’s leadership initially challenged the claims, asserting that the allegations “do not in any way comport with the man we knew for decades—we believe them to be false.”

Investigation finds ‘significant, credible evidence’

However, RZIM hired an Atlanta law firm, Miller & Martin, in October to conduct an independent investigation.

Completion of the report, and its promised public release, is still weeks away. But on Dec. 22 the law firm submitted a dramatic “ interim update ” to RZIM’s executive committee, which made it public the next day.

The law firm summarized its investigation, which included dozens of interviews, as well as review of documents and electronic data. In the process, the firm said, “We have found significant, credible evidence that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years.”

“Some of that misconduct is consistent with and corroborative of that which is reported in the news recently, and some of the conduct we have uncovered is more serious,” it added. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to pursue leads.”

In disclosing the interim findings, the RZIM executive committee members described themselves as heartbroken and expressed remorse on behalf of those victimized by Zacharias.

Impact already apparent

The disclosures already have had tangible impact. Several radio outlets, including Moody Radio—one of the largest Christian networks in the U.S.—have dropped RZIM programs. Some booksellers have pulled Zacharias’ books from their offerings. In Britain, a network of student-led mission teams operating on university campuses has asked RZIM-affiliated speakers to withdraw from upcoming events.

There has been heavy pressure on RZIM from its British affiliate, the Zacharias Trust. In a letter to its staff on Dec. 23, the trust’s board members said they were urging the U.S. leadership to issue a “profound apology” to any victims and commit to “reform radically the governance, leadership and accountability of the RZIM organization.”

RZIM spokesperson Ruth Malhotra told The Associated Press that the organization’s senior leaders, including CEO Sarah Davis—Zacharias’ eldest daughter—and President Michael Ramsden, were declining to grant interviews until after the law firm’s investigation concludes.

Davis, in an email obtained by the AP, wrote to RZIM staff on Dec. 23 acknowledging the developments were likely to have caused “grief, confusion, disillusionment and anger” and asking that they refrain from speaking to the media while the investigation is underway.

Internal calls for reform and restoration

However, several employees have made clear in social media posts and in letters that have been shared publicly that they are dismayed with the leadership’s handling of the scandal.

They say the leaders have discussed the option of “rebranding,” which would likely entail a change of the organization’s name, but the employees are pressing for additional steps, including reparations and a leadership overhaul.

Among them is Carson Weitnauer, a specialist in online outreach for RZIM’s Zacharias Institute. Writing on his blog, he said his faith in the organization’s leadership has been shattered.

“The realization that Ravi Zacharias was not the greatest apologist of his generation—but rather one of its greatest frauds—has felt like a catastrophic betrayal,” Weitnauer wrote. “I have felt a sickening combination of revulsion and grief.”

RZIM staff members “have been badly misled by our secretive board and senior leaders,” he continued. “RZIM must change its name, remove Ravi’s material, repent for its many failures, and provide a restorative response to the harm that Ravi’s victims experienced.”

In a follow-up post, Weitnauer asked if the board would resign “to acknowledge their failure to provide accountability to Ravi Zacharias for more than a decade.”

Zacharias had been entangled in some previous controversies over how he publicly described his academic credentials and over his claim, later challenged in legal proceedings, that he was the target of an extortion scheme related to sexting and sexually explicit photos.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S.

The religion of young people in Generation Z defies simple categories like “affiliated” and “unaffiliated,” a new study shows.

Like other research in recent years, the new study by the Springtide Research Institute points to a significant number of young people ages 13 to 25—close to 40 percent of those surveyed—who indicate they are religiously unaffiliated.

More than half of the young people surveyed identify with a particular religion, but they express little trust in organized religion—or most other institutions. Among the young people who consider themselves affiliated with a religion, nearly one-third say it is not important to have a faith community.

However, young people respond to “relational authority,” even if they don’t have confidence in hierarchy or institutions. A significant segment of Generation Z young people feel lonely and lacking in purpose, but that can change when trusted adults invest in their lives, the Springtide study reveals.

“The State of Religion & Young People 2020” explores the attitudes of teenagers and young adults up to age 25, particularly regarding issues of religion and spirituality.

Findings are based on quantitative surveys of more than 10,000 individuals in Generation Z, supplemented by qualitative interviews with 150 young people.

Gen Z religion: It’s complicated

The Springtide study presents a complicated portrait of Generation Z’s relationship to religion.

“The old labels are simply no longer meaningful for understanding the religious lives of young people—if they ever were,” the Springtide report states.

The research reveals about 1 in 5 Generation Z young people who identify as “affiliated” with a particular religion also indicate they personally are “not religious.”

At the same time, the study shows 60 percent of surveyed young people who are not involved with organized religion describe themselves as “spiritual,” and nearly as many—19 percent—indicate they attend religious gatherings at least once a month.

“When we look closer at behaviors, beliefs and practices, we discover that affiliated young people aren’t always doing the things traditionally associated with religion: attending services, living out particular values, or even trusting the institution they’re part of,” the Springtide report states.

“It’s complex for unaffiliated young people too—some of whom do attend religious services or try to live out their religious values.”

Relationships not institutions

While young people lack trust in institutions—including churches—they are interested in exploring issues of ultimate meaning with adults whom they trust, said Josh Packard, executive director of Springtide Research Institute.

“There’s a narrative out there that says young people are not interested in conversations about religion. That’s just not the case,” Packard said in a phone interview. “They are interested in the conversations. They just are not driven to the institutions.”

Relationships are more revealing than religious affiliation when it comes to how Generation Z views ultimate meaning and purpose, the Springtide study reveals.

Nearly 7 out of 10 (69 percent) young people who were surveyed said they have three or fewer meaningful interactions per day. About 4 in 10 say they have nobody to talk to and nobody who really knows them well, at least some of the time.

Two in 10 young people (21 percent) with no meaningful interactions per day say they never feel like their life has meaning. But a single meaningful interaction reduces the number to 4 percent.

Trusted adults make a difference

An earlier study by Springtide Research showed about one-fourth (24 percent) of Generation Z young people who have no adult mentors never feel their life has meaning and purpose. But among those with even one meaningful relationship with an adult, that number drops to 6 percent.

The greater the number of meaningful adults in a young person’s life, the greater the likelihood the young person will report a sense of meaning and purpose, the latest survey reveals.

Seven out of 10 (69 percent) of surveyed Generation Z individuals who have one adult mentor report their life has meaning and purpose. But 85 percent who have two to four adult mentors and 91 percent of those who have five or more adult mentors say their life has meaning and purpose.

While “more is better” in terms of how many meaningful adults are in a young person’s life, “five seems to be the magic number,” Packard said.

A church should not feel responsibility for providing all five adults for each young person, recognizing parents, teachers, coaches and other trusted adults also have a part to play, he noted. By the same token, adults associated with religious communities can fill a vital role.

“Young people engage and thrive when they encounter trusted adults who care for, listen to, and guide them. Religious leaders are needed to meet young people amid the messiness of the present moment,” the Springtide report states.

Relational authority takes time to build

Rather than authority based on position or credentials, researchers conclude, young people value relational authority based on five criteria—listening, transparency, integrity, care and expertise.

“Young people have a deep need for familiar connection amid a society increasingly glued together with impersonal, transactional exchanges. … The antidote to the transactional is the transformational. The antidote is relational authority, which is a dynamic exchange of shared experience and sympathetic expertise,” the report states.

The Springtide study shows 83 percent of young people in Generation Z say they are more likely to take advice from someone who cares about them, while two-thirds (65 percent) say a person’s expertise doesn’t matter if the person doesn’t care about them.

Church leaders can make a difference by recognizing the old metrics—the number of teenagers who attend Bible study on Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening event—do not accurately measure the impact on the lives of young people, Packard noted.

Instead, adults who work with youth can make a difference by building deep and meaningful relationships. They can invest time and build trust through genuine listening and authentic care, he asserted.

“Churches that bring the same dedication and innovation to relationship-based ministry that they have brought to program-based ministry will be fine,” Packard said.

HIRAM, Ga. (BP)—Death due to COVID-19 kept Willard and Wilma Gain Bowen apart only a few hours on Thanksgiving Day.

The Bowens had been members of Poplar Springs Baptist Church a little more than a year, but their pastor, Wayne Meadows, said they made the time count.

“They were very likable people. Since joining the church last January, they had shown themselves to be faithful members,” he said. “They attended one of our Bible study classes and built some great relationships there.”

As a testament to his faith, the feature image on Willard Bowen’s Facebook page is of a worn, used Bible.

The Bowens were in the process of caring for his mother, who had dementia and COVID-19, when they contracted the illness. Not long after she died in early November, they also were placed in the hospital.

Initially in separate rooms, Wilma Gail Bowen asked for and received permission to be placed alongside her husband when his health took a turn for the worse. He died early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day. She followed hours later. The couple had celebrated their 50th anniversary in September.

“I’m just so thankful that their bodies are healed. While we’re struggling down here, they’re not. They’re OK,” their daughter, Karen Kirby, told WSB-TV in Atlanta.

Wilma Gail Bowen was a nurse at Hiram Elementary School, where a purple bow hung on her door in remembrance the week after Thanksgiving. Willard Bowen was known around town as an antique aficionado, and the couple was in the process of moving into a new home when they were admitted to the hospital.

In conducting their funeral Dec. 1., Meadows spoke from John 14 on the theme of “a place to go.”

“Jesus said, ‘I will go and prepare a place for you.’ Willard and Gail had all kinds of places they went,” he said in an interview. “At the funeral, I shared how Jesus had prepared a final place for them in heaven.”

For the overwhelming majority of their time on earth, the Bowens’ place was together. It didn’t surprise their daughter that’s how their physical life ended.

When “she realized he wasn’t going to come home, she decided she wanted to be with him, in eternity,” Kirby said. “Dad was probably standing at the gate saying: ‘Come on, Gail. Let’s go. I’m waitin’ on you.”

LEAWOOD, Kan. (RNS)—The New Testament doesn’t say where Mary was exactly when the angel appeared to tell her about the baby she would have, named Jesus.

But on Dec. 6 at Leawood (Kansas) United Methodist Church’s online service, the angel appeared amid the Pyrex measuring cups and mixing bowls in Mary’s kitchen, as she recorded a YouTube show called “Mary’s Marvelous Makes.”

The Christmas pageant has gone virtual.

Nativity pageants—a beloved tradition every year at many churches—are inviting children wearing tinsel halos and bathrobes to share the story of Jesus’ birth with adults in the congregation by Zoom, YouTube and other safely distanced and technologically up-to-date means.

“We wanted to keep that feeling and keep that energy and the anticipation about, ‘Ooh, we’re going to have a pageant!’” said Melanie Melcher Cuthbertson, Leawood’s director of worship arts.

Pageants adapted to pandemic protocols

The church used a virtual Christmas pageant script published this year by Illustrated Ministry, which creates progressive Christian coloring pages, Sunday school curricula and other resources for churches and families.

After releasing its first Vacation Bible School curriculum this summer, Illustrated Ministry realized Advent, the liturgical season leading up to Christmas, also was going to be different this year, said Rebekah Lowe, its director of product development.

Many of its staff have worked in churches or still do, Lowe said.

“We know that feeling of being able to create something magical and fun and special and tender for Christmas Eve or for that traditional Christmas program, and not to be able to have that—we were like, ‘How can we still make it special and welcoming and have that sense of tradition that we’re so used to without being in person?’” she said.

So, the company wrote a script for a pageant that could be done virtually and packaged it with Zoom backgrounds featuring angel wings, shepherds’ fields and the city of Bethlehem.

Illustrated Ministry drew inspiration from accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but also from the homemade, fan-film version of “The Princess Bride” made by celebrities, such as Carl Reiner, Tiffany Haddish and Cary Elwes, while quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year.

“It was done in such a fun way,” said Illustrated Ministry founder Adam Walker Cleaveland, pointing to the cheesy costumes and props, scenes obviously filmed in backyards and different actors playing the same roles throughout.

Message: ‘Do not be afraid’

The company tried to imagine how a similar DIY approach could animate virtual Christmas pageants, filmed by a single household or quarantined “pod” with multiple people playing several—or the same—roles.

The creators also wanted something kids could relate to in a time that can feel scary and uncertain. The answer they settled on was to focus on the angels’ words throughout the biblical account: “Do not be afraid.”

Churches have added their own spin.

Some have created highly edited video productions. Other congregations will hear the script read live on a Sunday morning by kids sitting in front of their computers on Zoom.

Illustrated Ministry has heard from congregations that have filmed Mary performing martial arts after pronouncing the words of the Magnificat and a trio of wise women traveling by car to find the baby Jesus. One superimposed a tiny, dancing angel in the night sky, singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Cleaveland said he’s excited to see them all.

And with kids and the internet involved, virtual pageants turn out to be just as delightfully unpredictable as traditional church performances.

Leawood United Methodist Church shared a blooper reel at the end of its service, full of forgotten lines and bursts of laughter.

“You know, you hear it a lot, but it’s so true: The church is not the building. The message is the same, no matter where you are,” Melcher Cuthbertson said. “The same thing applies here to the pageant.”

After the virtual presentation, the congregation flooded the comment section of the pageant’s YouTube premiere with rave reviews.

Leawood, which has been prerecording its services and premiering them on YouTube since the COVID-19 pandemic began, had a bit of an advantage: The church recently hired a video director, tasking him right away with the Christmas pageant.

But the words of Leawood Pastor Howard Johnson might apply to any church’s attempt at a virtual pageant: “Beats a sermon, don’t it?”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—There are no sheep or goats or even llamas at the Capital Christian Center, a 3,000-seat Assemblies of God megachurch in Sacramento, Calif., this Christmas season. Not even a pair of church members dressed up in a camel suit.

And for the first time in 63 years, no giant Singing Christmas Tree.

“Tonight would have been our opening night,” said Pastor Rick Cole on Dec. 4. “It’s a really weird feeling.”

Large-scale Christian shows, including those featuring a Singing Christmas Tree—40- or 50-foot-tall structures holding hundreds of choir members—have been staples at large congregations like Capital Christian for decades. They draw in thousands of visitors who otherwise might never come to church, and also bring joy and a sense of community to cast and congregation members alike.

But this year, COVID restrictions make such events nearly impossible to pull off.

Last year, 25,000 people came to see 11 Capital Center Singing Christmas Tree performances. Between 300 and 400 people are usually part of the production, which includes choir members, actors and a host of backstage staff and musicians who play in a specially built orchestra pit in front of the stage.

“We are disappointed,” said Cole. “It’s disappointing for every person on the planet right now. It is the nature of the moment we are in.”

Finding ways to work around the pandemic

First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., is getting around the lack of in-person performances featuring two Singing Christmas Trees—each about 45 feet high from base to star and able to hold about 200 singers and tens of thousands of Christmas lights—by filming a series of short Christmas-themed videos to be shown at services during December, said Jonathan Hickey, the church’s creative arts director.

In Portland, Ore., the annual community Singing Christmas Tree, which began in 1962, will stream online from Dec. 15 to New Year’s Day, with a mix of clips from past shows and stories from the Singing Christmas Tree’s history.

At least a few Singing Christmas Trees will go on with the show this year, with some adaptations.

Abilene Baptist Church in Martinez, Ga., has moved its Singing Christmas Tree from the church’s sanctuary to a nearby park this year, said Thomas Sunderland, associate pastor of music and media.

Prompted in part by COVID-19 and by a major renovation of the church’s building, Sunderland said, the Singing Christmas Tree will be smaller, with no star, one less level and 70 singers, down from the usual 100 or so. They will be six feet apart, and some will stand next to the tree, rather than on it.

Sunderland said that having the tree outside will help limit the risk of spreading COVID. The audience will also be socially distanced.

“In the end, God spoke to my heart to do the Tree,” he wrote in an email, while admitting that things could change between now and Dec. 10, when the first of three performances is scheduled.

“God could shut it all down tomorrow,” Sunderland said. “It belongs to him, not me, not our music ministry nor our church.”

Hope to return next year

At Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss., where the first Singing Christmas Tree was held in the 1930s, a lack of rehearsal—and personnel—was the problem with holding it this year.

None of the choirs on campus have sung together this year because of the risk of COVID-19, said Belhaven President Roger Parrott. And the school’s students were sent home at Thanksgiving. Bringing them back to do the Singing Christmas Tree, held outdoors each year at the school’s football stadium, made no sense.

He hopes the Singing Christmas Tree will be back next year, and in the meantime he takes pride in the way church communities around the country have run with Belhaven’s invention.

“I’ve always said, if we franchised the idea, we could have made a lot of money by now,” Parrott added.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A star, a star will dance in the night on Dec. 21.

Actually, it won’t be a star, but the so-called “great conjunction” of two planets—Jupiter and Saturn—creating something similar to what some astronomers suggest the wise men may have seen in the biblical account of the birth of Jesus.

Jupiter and Saturn align about every 20 years, according to the Virginian-Pilot, but not always in December, and they don’t always come so close to one another. Though they still will be hundreds of millions of miles apart, it’s the closest the two planets have come in more than 800 years.

To those of us on Earth, that’s close enough that they’ll appear as one bright star of wonder, perhaps even one worth singing about.

“You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky,” Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan said.

Planetary alignment may have been star of Bethlehem

Going back even farther, astronomers have floated the idea that a similar conjunction of planets could be a scientific explanation for the star of Bethlehem in the Christmas story.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Magi—wise men—came to Jerusalem after Jesus’ birth, asking: “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

After consulting the chief priests and teachers of the law, the sitting king pointed the Magi to Bethlehem, according to the words of the prophets: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

There, they found the child Jesus with his mother Mary, the star resting over their house.

“What was the Star of Bethlehem?” is one of the questions the Vatican Observatory always is asked around Christmastime, write Vatican astronomers Guy Consolmagno and Paul Mueller in their 2014 book Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?

“Nowadays most attempts at giving a possible scientific explanation for the Star of Bethlehem involve looking for interesting or unusual conjunctions of the planets,” Consolmagno writes.

‘Light at the end of a long, dark tunnel’

It’s possible what the wise men saw was the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on June 17, 2 B.C., according to John Mosely, program supervisor for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

“In any case, knowing that a truly interesting astronomical event occurred around the time of the Nativity can add to our sense of wonder during the traditional Christmas season,” Mosely writes in his 1987 book, The Christmas Star.

The event may well be greeted with joy, even for many who don’t believe in the Christmas story. It comes on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, after which nights grow shorter and daylight begins to return in the Northern Hemisphere.

At the end of 2020, the Virginian-Pilot writes, it’s a “light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—At the Nativity display outside Faith Church of Lafayette, Ind., the baby will be laid in a manger this year, surrounded by friendly beasts—except for the donkeys. They bite. In the past, the camels have been known to kick.

The church’s Lafayette Living Nativity, which Faith has hosted since 1991, may be one of the few Christmas traditions that go off in usual fashion in a pandemic year.

“We’ve been practicing for this moment for the last 30 years,” said Pastor Steve Viars, who estimates that a quarter of a million visitors have attended the event in that time.

Live Nativities, in which visitors drive—and sometimes, especially in warmer climes, walk—through a number of scenes retelling the biblical story of Jesus’ birth, have been popular around the United States for years.

Actors from churches’ congregations and, often, live animals are accompanied by narration of the story on a provided CD, accessed on smartphones via QR code or broadcast on a low-frequency transmitter.

Other churches offer a somewhat less “live” version that visitors can drive through, illustrating the story on painted backdrops.

All have found their moment in a year when mask wearing, social distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings have become the norm.

Providing the Christmas message in a safe way

“People still need the message of Christmas, the true meaning, the hope and the love. And so how can we provide that for them in a safe way?” said Pastor Jonathan Andersen of Harvest Point United Methodist Church in Locust Grove, Ga., which is adapting its annual live Nativity, Return to Bethlehem, to share that story as safely as possible.

The church is shrinking the number of scenes and the length of the walking tour, in which guides lead small groups past a petting zoo and the city of Bethlehem, a semi-permanent structure on the church’s campus. The number of masked guests in each group will be limited, and the total event will be held on two days, Dec. 12 and 13, not three. Prayer will move outside afterward, around campfires “in a distanced way,” instead of ending inside the church.

This year, Andersen said, “The gift of it is everything’s different, and people are open to change.”

The church also will give away a woodcut Christmas ornament instead of the usual hot chocolate. Church staff thought about engraving it with the year, but, after some thought about the past 12 months, Andersen said, laughing, “I think we’re going to leave 2020 off the ornament.”

Reduced schedule with more scenes

The roadside live Nativity at Advent Lutheran Church, a congregation affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Columbus, Ohio, is in its 50th year. At a busy, three-way intersection fronted by City Hall, the church and a golf course—the corner of “government, God and golf”—the event normally features coloring stations, hot chocolate and performances by the Singing Buckeyes, a men’s a cappella group, according to Pastor Aaron Layne.

The surrounding county has been hard hit by the coronavirus, and Columbus is under a stay-at-home advisory. But, the pastor said, that doesn’t mean Christmas is canceled.

Advent Lutheran has pushed back its event to Dec. 23, after the order lifts, and it has expanded its single manger scene, starring a donkey named Shrek, to six drive-thru scenes from the Christmas story on its property.

The church has tried to be thoughtful about creating scenes with one safely distanced actor, like Mary delivering the Magnificat, as well as scenes that can be performed by a single household: a family of six will hold down the scene in which a multitude of the heavenly host appears to shepherds.

“Honestly, there’s disappointment and beauty in it all at the same time,” Layne said.

“I think it serves as a reminder that nothing—not sin, not COVID-19, not years like 2020—can stop God’s love from coming and being with us,” he said. “Christmas is God’s love and salvation and word made flesh, and, you know, that doesn’t stop. In fact, I think it’s more important to do that now.”

All drive-through, no walking tours

In neighboring Indiana, Faith has cut some scenes from its Lafayette Living Nativity to accommodate more cars since it’s done away with its usual walk-through option. Over the years, it has expanded to recount not only the birth of Jesus, but the Garden of Eden story and Jesus’ death, resurrection and second coming. Hundreds of people, as well as camels, donkeys and sheep, now make up the cast.

“It’s just been a delightful way for us to proclaim the gospel at Christmastime,” Viars said.

“This year, there’s no question that there’s a hunger for truth. There’s a hunger for joy. There’s a hunger for a message that you can rely on in these uncertain times, but also just fun family activities that are safe.”

And, in true 2020 fashion, Mary, Joseph and the rest will be wearing face masks.

“The nice thing about doing it in Lafayette in the wintertime is you need a mask, you need a scarf, so you’re bundled up anyway,” Viars said.

The biting donkeys may get masks, too.

“It might be comeuppance time for the donkeys in 2020,” he said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—In the midst of a strange and stressful year, people turned to the same place they have for decades in their search for answers.

The internet.

But once online, many looked to a much older source: the Bible.

Bible Gateway, a website that allows users to read and search the text of multiple translations of the Bible, saw unusual spikes in related searches around the first COVID-19 lockdowns last spring, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protests that followed in the summer and the U.S. presidential election this fall, according to Bible Gateway’s Year in Review.

Users searched for Bible verses related to politics, social issues, the end times and—perhaps not surprisingly—pandemics at least 10 times more this year than they did in 2019, according to the website.

It’s not unusual to see current events reflected in the website’s search results, Bible Gateway content manager Jonathan Petersen said.

“People are trying to find answers in situations that are difficult to see the answers. They do tend to turn to the Bible for whatever answers they can find,” Petersen said.

Justice, plague and government hot topics

Searches for terms such as racism, justice, equality and oppression multiplied by more than 100 after Floyd’s death.

Search results for those terms include such verses as Proverbs 21:15: “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers,” and Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” 

Pandemic was the second major search theme Bible Gateway identified this year, including searches for what the Bible has to say about such topics as disease, pestilence and plague. Those searches spiked sharply in March, according to the website, when many places across the United States enacted measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The site also saw a surge in searches related to politics—such as praying for government and obeying government authority—that came around the U.S. presidential election in early November.

Looking for love, peace and hope

Some things, even amid uncertainty, never change, though.

The most-read verses on Bible Gateway have remained the same for years: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Its top two most-searched terms have also remained unchanged: “love” and “peace,” but “hope” moved up the list to No. 3 in 2020, according to the website.

“You could say people are looking for hope more this year than they have in the previous couple years,” Petersen said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Almost all Americans celebrate Christmas, but most say COVID-19 will cause some changes to their usual holiday habits.

A new LifeWay Research study found 93 percent of American adults say they celebrate Christmas. That number is essentially unchanged from a decade ago when 91 percent said the same in a 2010 survey.

While Catholics (98 percent) and Protestants (95 percent) are more likely to honor Christmas, even religiously unaffiliated Americans (88 percent) and those of other religions (81 percent) say they celebrate on Dec. 25.

“Christmas has significant religious meaning to Christians as it celebrates the birth of Jesus who opens the means of a relationship with God for believers,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “But those outside the faith don’t ‘become Christians’ for the day when they enjoy many of the cultural traditions attached to Christmas.”

Women are slightly more likely than men to avoid being a Grinch this year and celebrate the holiday (94 percent to 91 percent). Americans aged 65 and older are the least likely to say they are in the Christmas spirit this year (87 percent).

Regionally, those in the Midwest (95 percent) and West (95 percent) are more likely than those in the South (90 percent) to say they celebrate Christmas.

A COVID-19 Christmas

Despite widespread Christmas celebrations, the pandemic is changing the way people celebrate the holidays. Two in 3 (65 percent) Americans noted at least one change they plan to make this year due to COVID-19.

“Some Americans are reacting to the effects of COVID-19 by doubling down with plans to celebrate more,” said McConnell. “Other Americans will scale back their traditions likely due to safety, finances or their state of mind.”

With health and safety recommendations limiting contact with others in effect across much of the country, 35 percent of Americans say they expect to spend less time visiting with family at Christmas this year.

Around half (47 percent) say their plans remain the same, while 13 percent plan to visit family more due to COVID. Few (5 percent) say such family visits aren’t typically part of their Christmas celebrations.

Those more likely to be in high-risk health categories are also more likely to say they’ll be spending less time visiting their family. Americans aged 50 to 64 (43 percent) and those 65 and older (38 percent) are more likely to avoid such visits than young adults aged 18 to 34 (28 percent).

Possibly due to the reduction in travel or the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, 1 in 5 Americans (20 percent) say they expect less gift giving this Christmas. Two-thirds (67 percent) say it will stay the same, 9 percent say they’ll give more gifts this year, and 4 percent say they don’t usually give gifts for Christmas.

In addition to the cultural Christmas traditions, many say COVID-19 will have an impact on their spiritual holiday observance in 2020.

A quarter of Americans (25 percent) say the pandemic makes them less likely to attend a Christmas church service this year. Around 1 in 10 (11 percent) say COVID-19 makes them more likely, 37 percent say the same as usual, and 27 percent say their Christmas celebrations usually don’t involve churchgoing.

Young adults, those aged 18 to 34, are the most likely to say COVID-19 has made them more likely to attend a Christmas church service (15 percent).

Among American adults who typically go to church during Christmas, 50 percent say they are as likely to go as any other year, 15 percent say they are more likely to attend, and 35 percent of typical Christmas churchgoers are less likely to go this year.

While churches may be less crowded this Christmas, Americans may be more reflective on the spiritual significance of the holiday.

Around 3 in 5 adults (59 percent) say their spiritual reflections this year will stay the same, but 19 percent say they expect it to increase. Fewer say such reflections are not part of their typical celebration (12 percent) or that they’ll have less spiritual reflection this year than normal (9 percent).

Even among the religiously unaffiliated, 10 percent say the pandemic has made them more likely to spend time in spiritual reflection during the holidays this year.

African Americans are the most likely to say COVID-19 has led them to be more spiritually reflective this Christmas (31 percent).

“Almost 9 in 10 Americans typically do some spiritual reflection at Christmas,” McConnell said. “Personal time considering why God would come in the flesh isn’t affected by health or financial concerns, so it’s not surprising that about twice as many Americans will do more of this than less for Christmas this year.”

Americans with evangelical beliefs are among the groups most likely to say COVID-19 is leading them to do even more this holiday season.

Evangelicals by belief are more likely than Americans without those beliefs to say they are going to visit family more (18 percent to 12 percent), give more gifts (15 percent to 7 percent), and have spiritual reflections (39 percent to 14 percent). Those with evangelical beliefs also are more likely than others to say COVID has made them more likely to attend church services this Christmas (23 percent to 8 percent).

The online survey of 1,200 Americans was conducted Sept. 9-23, 2020, using a national pre-recruited panel. Analysts used quotas and slight weights to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to reflect the population more accurately.

The completed sample is 1,200 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. Comparisons are made to a probability-based survey of 1,000 Americans Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 2016.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Christian ethicist and physician Jeffrey Barrows plans to get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available. So does Albert Mohler, theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

But many of their fellow evangelicals may pass.

A Pew Research survey in September found that fewer than half of Protestants (43 percent) said they definitely or probably would get the vaccine. That includes about a third of white evangelicals (38 percent) and Black Protestants (32 percent). Catholics (57 percent) and nonevangelical white Protestants (54 percent) were more likely to say they would get vaccinated.

Seventy-one percent of atheists and 68 percent of agnostics, on the other hand, were ready to be vaccinated, but only 48 percent of those who are “nothing in particular.”

“We have seen the polls looking at how many people are willing to take the vaccines and we’re very concerned the number is much lower than it should be,” said Barrows, senior vice president of bioethics and public policy for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.

Barrows said the leading vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna appear to be both effective and ethical. That would make them important tools in combating the coronavirus pandemic, which is why the Christian Medical & Dental Associations encourages their use.

“It’s our recommendation that Christian health care professionals administer these vaccines, and it’s our recommendation that Christians consider taking them,” he said.

Vaccines controversial in recent years

Vaccines have become increasingly controversial in recent decades, as a combination of politics and concerns about the use of cells derived from abortions in making vaccines have sown distrust about their effectiveness, safety and morality. Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 have added to the confusion.

“There are various wild conspiracy theories that are out there that are just completely off the wall,” he said. “I don’t know how they even get started. And I don’t even want to repeat them because they’re just so wild.”

But Barrows said ethical concerns would make some Christians balk at being vaccinated.

The vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford used HEK293 cells originally derived from tissue from an aborted fetus in the 1970s, according to a report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an affiliate of the Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion.

The vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as one from Moderna, only used cells derived originally from fetal tissue in some of their confirmation testing, not in the vaccine’s development.

Barrows said that while he is pro-vaccine and is excited about the recent COVID-19 vaccine news, it would be better if pharmaceutical companies stopped using cells like HEK293. That would make it easier for Christians and others who oppose abortion to accept the vaccines.

“On the one hand, we are saying these vaccines are important,” he said. “We definitely recommend that people consider taking them. But in the future, we’d like to see pharmaceutical companies move a different direction.”

Catholic bishops say vaccines are moral

In a memo obtained by Religion News Service, two leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said both the Moderna vaccine and one from Pfizer and BioNTech were moral. The memo followed Bishop Joseph Strickland’s claim—made in mid-November after Moderna reported that preliminary data showed its vaccine to be 95 percent effective—that the vaccine was immoral.

“Unborn children died in abortions and then their bodies were used as ‘laboratory specimens,’” the bishop of Tyler wrote on Twitter. “I urge all who believe in the sanctity of life to reject a vaccine which has been produced immorally.”

According to America magazine, Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Fresno (Calif.) Diocese said he would not be able to take a vaccine “if it was developed with material from stem cells that were derived from a baby that was aborted, or material that was cast off from artificial insemination of a human embryo.”

The memo from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, written by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, said: “Some are asserting that if a vaccine is connected in any way with tainted cell lines then it is immoral to be vaccinated with them. This is an inaccurate portrayal of Catholic moral teaching.”

Rhoades chairs the bishops’ committee on doctrine. Naumann chairs the committee on pro-life activities.

Good outweighs the bad

Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said the good done by a vaccine in preventing the spread of a deadly disease can outweigh ethical concerns about the sourcing of cells used in research.

In the case of HEK293, he said, a principle called “remote material cooperation” with evil applies. Those cell lines originally were produced from an abortion, he said, which was wrong. That abortion, however, took place nearly 50 years ago, and there is no direct-line connection between the abortion and the current research.

The two bishops who labeled the vaccines as immoral did not check their facts or Catholic teaching, Green said.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said.

Mohler took much the same line. The use of fetal tissue obtained from abortion in medical research is immoral, he said, but “there is no activity related to abortion in the present that is any way associated with the use of these vaccines,” he said.

Molher recommends Christians who hold anti-abortion views get the COVID-19 vaccine. He said that Southern Seminary’s health service would distribute the vaccine if the school is given access to it.

Show concern for neighbors’ welfare

Churches, said the CMDA’s Barrows, at times have been too concerned about their religious freedom and not concerned enough about the welfare of their neighbors. He said that the CMDA put out suggested guidelines—including social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large group gatherings—for churches as they began to start meeting again over the summer.

Some large churches, he said, ignored those suggestions.

Barrows also worries that because COVID-19 affects people so differently and many people who get the virus are asymptomatic, Christians don’t take it seriously enough.

“This is a deadly virus,” he said. “It makes many people very sick.”

Barrows said that he and other CMDA members worry that if COVID-19 spreads too quickly it could overwhelm the health care system. That hasn’t happened yet but could in the future.

For now, he suggests churches voluntarily stop meeting—out of concern for their neighbors—that Christians follow CDC guidelines for social distancing and mask wearing, and that they get vaccines when they are available.

“We don’t want people to wait until somebody they know and love is deathly ill in the hospital to take this virus seriously,” he said. “That’s when you’re waiting too long.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Even though the pandemic may change Thanksgiving celebrations this year, Americans still express thankfulness for their family and friends.

According to a LifeWay Research survey, more than 4 in 5 Americans (84 percent) say they are thankful for their family.

Sizable majorities also note being thankful for health (69 percent), friends (63 percent) and memories (63 percent).

Around half point to personal freedom (53 percent) and stability (47 percent). More than 2 in 5 are thankful for fun experiences (45 percent) and opportunities (42 percent).

A third of Americans will spend Thanksgiving being grateful for their achievements (33 percent), while 1 in 5 (21 percent) express thankfulness for their wealth.

The average person chose five things on the list for which they are thankful.

“In a year that has been difficult for most, Americans still express a lot of thanks,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “This year of loss and division does not mean people have an absence of good things for which to be grateful.”

Thankful—but not as much

Compared to a 2016 LifeWay Research survey, fewer Americans expressed thankfulness for almost all of the options.

Four years ago, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent social distancing guidelines and regulations, more Americans said they were thankful for health (77 percent to 69 percent in 2020) and personal freedom (72 percent to 53 percent).

Other choices that also saw significant decreases from 2016 to 2020 include friends (71 percent to 63 percent), opportunities (59 percent to 42 percent), fun experiences (53 percent to 45 percent), achievements (51 percent to 33 percent) and wealth (32 percent to 21 percent).

Compared to other Americans, those with evangelical beliefs are more likely to say they are thankful for family (90 percent to 82 percent), health (80 percent to 66 percent), personal freedoms (69 percent to 50 percent), memories (68 percent to 61 percent), stability (56 percent to 45 percent), opportunities (56 percent to 38 percent) and achievements (38 percent to 31 percent).

Thankful to whom?

When Americans give thanks on the last Thursday of November, most say they express their gratitude toward their family and God.

Around 2 in 3 say they typically give thanks to family (68 percent) and God (67 percent), while 42 percent say they are grateful to their friends.

Fewer say they are thankful to themselves (16 percent) and fate (10 percent). Even fewer say they don’t give thanks (4 percent).

“Giving someone else thanks is not a given on Thanksgiving,” said McConnell. “But four times as many people give thanks to family or God than choose to thank themselves.”

This year, both family and friends saw 11-point jumps from 2016 when 57 percent were thankful to family and 31 percent to friends.

Thankfulness to myself (8 percent in 2016 to 16 percent) and fate (4 percent to 10 percent) also grew substantially in the past four years.

The percentage of those who say they are thankful to God in 2020 (67 percent) is similar to that of 2016 (63 percent).

Among self-identified Christians, those who attend worship services weekly are the most likely to express thanksgiving toward God this time of year (94 percent).

Those with evangelical beliefs are more likely than other Americans to say they are thankful to God (96 percent to 60 percent).

Protestants (83 percent) are more likely than Catholics (72 percent) and those belonging to other religions (62 percent). A third of religiously unaffiliated Americans (32 percent) are grateful to God on Thanksgiving.

Younger Americans are more likely to say they are thankful to themselves than older Americans.

A quarter of those aged 18 to 34 (24 percent) and 19 percent of 35- to 49-year-olds say they thank themselves on Thanksgiving, compared to 9 percent of those aged 50 to 64 and 6 percent of Americans 65 and older.

The online survey of 1,200 Americans was conducted Sept. 9-23, using a national pre-recruited panel. Researchers used quotas and slight weights to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to reflect the population more accurately.

The completed sample is 1,200 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. Comparisons are made to a probability-based survey of 1,000 Americans Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 2016.