February 25, 2008

POLLS
Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds
Neela Banerjee/New York Times (02/25/2008)
WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Survey: Many Americans Switch Faith Identity
Jacqueline L. Salmon and Michelle Boorstein/Washington Post (02/25/2008)
Forty-four percent of Americans have either switched their religious affiliation since childhood or dropped out of any formal religious group, according to the largest recent survey on American religious identification.

Survey: Americans freely change, or drop, their religions
Cathy Lynn Grossman/USA Today (02/25/2008)
A new map of faith in the USA shows a nation constantly shifting amid religious choices, unaware or unconcerned with doctrinal distinctions. Unbelief is on the rise. And immigration is introducing new faces in the pews, new cultural concerns, new forces in the public square.

America's Unfaithful Faithful
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1716987,00.html (02/25/2008)
A major new survey presents perhaps the most detailed picture we've yet had of which religious groups Americans belong to. And its big message is: blink and they'll change. For the first time, a large-scale study has quantified what many experts suspect: there is a constant membership turnover among most American faiths.

Many In U.S. Drop Their Childhood Religion
CBS/AP (02/25/2008)
The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.

More Americans changing religious denominations, study finds
Michael Paulson/Boston Globe (02/25/2008)
A sweeping new study of religious affiliation in the United States finds a country in which Protestants are becoming a minority, Catholicism is becoming heavily Hispanic, and the number of people who say they are not affiliated with any religion is growing.

Poll: American adults claiming no specific religion at record high
Jeffrey Weiss/Dallas Morning News (02/25/2008)
A major new measure of religious belief in the United States confirms trends shown in earlier polls: The percentage of adult Americans claiming no particular religion is at an all-time high. The percentage of Protestants is dropping. And the percentage of Catholics is stable — but only because the overwhelming majority of immigrants is Catholic.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Obama Photo Causes Stir
Jim Kuhnhenn/Associated Press (02/25/2008: ap.google.com)
WASHINGTON — A photograph circulating in the Internet of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a visit to Kenya in 2006 is causing a dustup in the presidential campaign over what constitutes a smear.

The Obama Africa Photo
Jake Tapper/ABC (02/25/2008)
The photo of Obama in native garb during a visit to Wajir had largely been posted in two places prior to today -- on African websites such as this one, and on conservative websites where posters ludicrously claim Obama, a Christian American, is some sort of covertly Muslim operative.

Louis Farrakhan backs Obama for president at Nation of Islam convention in Chicago
Margaret Ramirez/Chicago Tribune (02/25/2008)
Although Farrakhan's praise for Obama may generate increased support from the black community, the Obama campaign's response was cool.

Still something to explain
Lynn Sweet/suntimes.com (02/25/2008)
WASHINGTON -- The Sunday meeting with Cleveland area Jewish leaders was not on the schedule Sen. Barack Obama's campaign gave reporters, but the stop in Mayfield Heights, hosted by Ron Ratner, a major fund-raiser for Obama, was one of the most important of the day. More than a year into his run for president, Obama is still explaining his record, relationships and religion to Jewish voters.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Religious leaders unite to oppose casino proposal
Peter Smith/Courier-Journal (02/24/2008)
Gov. Steve Beshear's bid to bring casino gambling to Kentucky has made for strange pew-fellows. Every major religious advocacy group has united in opposition -- Catholic and Protestant, black and white, conservatives who view gambling as a destructive personal sin and liberals who see an industry that preys on the poor.

Officials will end prison treatment program
William Petroski/Des Moines Register (02/24/2008)
State officials will end a Bible-based treatment program at the Newton prison that has been the focus of a five-year federal court battle over the role of religion in government services. The Iowa Department of Corrections has notified Prison Fellowship Ministries in Virginia that the program, called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, will be terminated in mid-March, prison spokesman Fred Scaletta said.

Science meets belief as couple put evolution in a sacred context
Sandi Dolbee/San Diego Union-Tribune (02/23/2008)
Some say you can tell a lot about people from the cars they drive. The Rev. Michael Dowd drives a camper van with drawings of two fish, one labeled “Jesus” and the other “Darwin,” who are kissing each other with red hearts above them. For nearly six years, Dowd, a former United Church of Christ minister, and his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have traveled the country preaching the gospel of evolution with evangelistic zeal.