LOL! On the LA Times religion site?

September 1, 2008 By

earmarkPigI have a bookmark set in my browsers that takes me straight to the Los Angeles Times page that contains the newspaper’s religion-news offerings, no matter where they appear in the newspaper.

Often there are stories linked to politics — think social issues — that are on A1 but don’t get listed as “religion” stories. We call those “haunted” stories around this here weblog.

Then you have a story like this one. This made me laugh out loud.

I think someone linked to the online edition got a bit trigger happy, deciding that anything linked to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin must now, in some way or another, be linked to religion or fundamentalism or what have you. I thought that Dr. James Dobson was the only person who could find clear theological content in this kind of political issue. Or, this is religion to someone like former Sen. Bob Dole, maybe.

Ready? Read on! From the religion-news page:

ANCHORAGE – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin presents herself as an ally of presidential candidate John McCain when it comes to curbing wasteful government spending.

On Friday, when McCain introduced her as his running mate, she said she “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending,” the legislative technique used to slip projects into appropriations bills without rigorous congressional review. But under her leadership, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year’s federal budget, according to the website of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Palin has recently been publicly critical of requests made in past years by Stevens and others for $223 million in federal funds for a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island, calling it “the Bridge to Nowhere,” a derogatory label critics attached to the project.

As a candidate for governor in 2006, she backed funding for the bridge.

Read it all, please. Make my day.

Can anyone find a term or two in this story that led the copy desk’s computer program to shuffle it over to RELIGION?

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Filed Under: Business & Economy, Evangelicals, Journalism, Politics

Sold on the Spirit

August 3, 2008 By

DollarSignA couple of years ago, Eric Gorski — then at the Denver Post — ran a a three-part series on a local preacher of the Prosperity Gospel. What I loved about the piece, which exposed the pastor’s financial success, was that it also explored prosperity teaching in detail.

Now with the Associated Press, Gorski has been all over Sen. Chuck Grassley’s investigation of various televangelists. Grassley’s Senate Finance Committee is investigating allegations of questionable spending and lax financial accountability at six organizations that preach “health and wealth theology,” as Gorski puts it.

For his latest, he produced a heavily-researched expose of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Of the six, Copeland has fought back the hardest, refusing to answer most questions and inviting the Internal Revenue Service to conduct an audit, which would keep information private. Gorski’s piece has run in one form or another in some 280+ papers:

Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.

Over the years, a circle of Copeland’s relatives and friends have done just that, The Associated Press has found. They include the brother-in-law with a lucrative deal to broker Copeland’s television time, the son who acquired church-owned land for his ranching business and saw it more than quadruple in value, and board members who together have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking at church events.

Church officials say no one improperly benefits through ties to Copeland’s vast evangelical ministry, which claims more than 600,000 subscribers in 134 countries to its flagship “Believer’s Voice of Victory” magazine. The board of directors signs off on important matters, they say. Yet church bylaws give Copeland veto power over board decisions.

While Copeland insists that his ministry complies with the law, independent tax experts who reviewed information obtained by the AP through interviews, church documents and public records have their doubts. The web of companies and non-profits tied to the televangelist calls the ministry’s integrity into question, they say.

“There are far too many relatives here,” said Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law. “There’s too much money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships.”

Copeland, 71, is a pioneer of the prosperity gospel, which holds that believers are destined to flourish spiritually, physically and financially — and share the wealth with others.

Those are the beginning paragraphs and the remaining 2,000 words just dig deeper and deeper into the finances. It’s terribly difficult to investigate church finances since religious non-profit reporting is protected in a way that other non-profits aren’t. But Gorski does a good job of using the information at hand to paint a picture of the Kenneth Copeland empire as one of great financial success and somewhat questionable governance.

I wish the article contained more discussion of the prosperity gospel. The sentence quoted above is about it for the article. It was the main strength of Gorski’s previous work on prosperity ministries. Still, this is a fantastically researched and well-composed piece.

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Filed Under: Business & Economy, Evangelicals, Godbeat, Journalism, People

Church conversions to condos

August 2, 2008 By

Indy church converted to condoTo my great satisfaction, a journalist has given serious coverage to the religious angle in the ongoing story of old churches being converted to new condos. Kathy McCabe of The Boston Globe does an excellent job of wading into the religious and spiritual significance of sacred places of worship being converted into high-end condo buildings.

I have fussed about this twice this year (see Chicago Tribune here and Religion News Service here): the religious and spiritual angle in these stories does not get enough attention. The RNS was a great improvement over the Tribune, but The Globe asks some questions that have gone unanswered until now:

When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing of a parish priest.

“I needed to be sure it was OK,” said Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in Medford. “He told me that if I treated it with respect, there was nothing wrong with it.”

Guilt about turning a house of worship into a high-end home isn’t limited to crib Catholics.

Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Watertown, before turning the church and rectory into 11 upscale condos.

“I want to sleep at night,” joked Ostayan, who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, across Mt. Auburn Street. “Seriously, I know how much this church meant to people.”

The article does a good job exploring the churches’ decision-making process and procedures when they sell off their sacred properties. One also gets the sense that if developers were not grabbing these properties, other churches would not be finding a home in the buildings. In some ways, the condominium developers are stepping up to preserve at least some of the beauty of these buildings.

One also gets the sense that there is a certain amount of spiritual guilt present in this story. Check out the irony of former churches becoming $1 million luxury condominiums:

Indy church converted to condo

When selling a church, the archdiocese issues a request for proposals. The goal is to select a buyer whose plan is consistent with church teachings and social mission. The archdiocese pulled out from a deal to turn a Quincy church into a clinic that would have provided counseling on abortion. The former Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain is being turned into a mix of upscale, market-rate, and affordable condominiums. The final call on any property sale lies with Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley.

“In general, the cardinal likes to hear about things that are here to help people,” Peterson said.

Even if that includes luxury condos, some priced at over $1 million.

“It is providing someone with housing,” said Peterson.

Yes, the church is providing someone with housing. The White House also provides someone with housing.

Okay, enough of my sarcasm. There is also a beautiful photo gallery that goes with the story, which appears in the newspaper’s real estate section. Overall, I get the sense that McCabe understands that faith is important and that these churches as sacred places matter.

The one angle that I am still hoping for journalists to cover here is the community perspective. Once a church and its community has been replaced by condominiums, what institution is expected to serve the community’s spiritual needs? On the other hand, has the community changed to a degree that local church life is no longer a priority? Are any of these new condo dwellers attending church outside their immediate communities? Perhaps the mega-church in the suburbs?

Photos, taken by the author of this post, are of former downtown Indianapolis churches which have been converted into high-end condo buildings.

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Filed Under: Business & Economy, Catholicism, Journalism, Religion, Worship

Putting churches in their place

July 25, 2008 By

demographicsWhen I moved to Washington over ten years ago, the population demographics were noticeably different than they are now. Many of my older black neighbors and their families have moved to the suburbs in the ensuing years, their homes replaced by younger white couples. A Wall Street Journal “Page One” feature by Conor Dougherty last week picked up on the trend in DC and other major cities and looked at what the changes mean to the culture.

There are lots of interesting discussions over class, education battles and political power. I was hoping the article would engage religious issues and I was not disappointed. My own neighborhood of Capitol Hill and surrounding areas has seen many of its churches follow its members out to the suburbs. Those that remain are trying to reach out to white people. I am a member of a church in Alexandria but I have visited a wonderful Lutheran church here in the city where I’d guess the congregation has about as many white members as my congregation has black — not many. The members there mostly drive in from the suburbs to which they’ve moved and are worried about the future of their congregation. Here’s how Dougherty handled the issue:

Washington — where African-Americans have been in the majority for a half-century — has lost about 80,000 black residents between 1990 and 2006. Whites had been leaving, too, but recently they’ve started coming back. Between 2000 and 2006, Washington gained 24,000 whites and lost 21,000 blacks. Whites are now 32% of the population, up from 28% in 2000.

Churches Take a Hit

This is a problem for Washington’s African-American churches. The past few years, numerous black churches have relocated to suburban Prince George’s County, Md., to follow their parishioners. Later this year, Metropolitan Baptist Church (founded by freed slaves during the Lincoln administration) plans to leave town as well.

Some of the remaining black churches are now courting white members. On a recent Sunday, the Rev. John Blanchard, the 64-year-old pastor at Ebenezer United Methodist Church, preached to a thin crowd; several pews were empty. About half his parishioners now live in the suburbs and drive into the city for services. High gasoline prices aren’t helping attendance.

So Mr. Blanchard says he’s planning to add a white intern to preach with him, in hopes of filling more pews. “You’ve got to love the one you’re with,” he says, “but you also need to adjust to the environment you’re in.”

While his church flounders, the predominantly white Capitol Hill United Methodist Church just down the street is flourishing. There the average attendance on Sundays has doubled to about 120 people the past five years. “Demographics are in our favor. We’re attracting the folks that are moving in,” says the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, 38, who headed the church for five years before recently leaving for a position elsewhere.

It’s funny that I literally drive by both of these congregations on my way to my church. Anyway, frequently we discuss journalistic sins of omission. This is a great example of how to include religion in a story. It’s part of the fabric of a city and culture. If there are changes to a culture, looking at how that affects religious institutions just makes sense.

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Filed Under: Business & Economy, Journalism, People, Religion, Social Issues

This story is not linked to Lambeth

July 24, 2008 By

Question Mark on Stained Glass 02At first glance, there really isn’t much going on in this little Detroit News metro feature entitled “Pastor believes prayer can save city.”

The focus is on Greg Barrette, pastor of Renaissance Unity, and his vision of an Aug. 24 day of prayer to somehow “levitate the economy right out of its doldrums.” There are some slightly spacey quotes and then some politicians get involved, sort of pointing their fingers at each other. This happens in politics from time to time.

But people get on board with the project because, what the heck, interfaith prayer doesn’t cost any money. What can this hurt? Then he hit this final strange passage in Laura Berman’s story:

Renaissance Unity dispatched 15,000 e-mails this week, an effort that will be followed by a mass snail-mailing to other churches, synagogues and mosques. He argues that prayer is personally beneficial (“It raises cortisol levels”), even if you’re not supernaturally inclined.

Kenneth J. Flowers, pastor at Greater New Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, insists that “prayer is always in order.” After praying for economic uplift, he thinks the city of Detroit will need its own special day to pray for scandal relief.

In Clawson, the Rev. Harry T. Cook, rector at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, a self-described agnostic, dismisses the idea of a group prayer day, saying “these are man-made problems that require man-made solutions.” The rector suggests politics: voting, mobilizing, taking action.

All together now: The rector said WHAT?!?

Now, before we get started on jokes about Episcopalians (the church does contain a bishop who is not a theist), let’s stop and think about this for a minute. If this priest really called himself an “agnostic” — someone who is not sure whether he believes anything about spiritual and eternal issues — then the journalist owes the reader a bit more content. In a way, dropping this little bombshell and then moving on is a kind of insult against the religious left.

Or, do you think that the priest said that he “is an agnostic” on the issue of whether this kind of interfaith, politically correct prayer day will have any real impact?

I vote for the latter. I think. Either way, it’s a strange reference that needs some tweeking.

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Filed Under: Anglicanism, Business & Economy, Humor, Journalism, Mainline, Music

In God’s debt

July 23, 2008 By

01As noted before, some stories get religion completely or almost. They show the importance and impact of religion from beginning to end. Take this Washington Post story by reporter Ovetta Wiggins.

Wiggins wrote about Christian churches that help their flocks to get and stay out of financial debt. As a Catholic, I had never heard of such a thing; our programs, such as they are, tend to deal with prayer, social activities, and various causes. So I think that, as Mollie noted about an article on high gas prices, this was a good story idea.

Wiggins’ lede certainly caught my attention:

Following the advice of their pastor, the men and women shuffled to the altar, cut up their credit cards and placed them near his feet.

“If we want to have victory, we have to come out of financial bondage,” the Rev. John K. Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glenarden shouted during a recent sermon.

Ordinarily Jenkins’s sermons are about spiritual freedom and ridding one’s self of sin. But his message has taken a different turn lately — one that preaches the dangers of overspending and debt.

Wiggins’ story was also fairly diverse. Although she did not mention how synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions deal with debt, she included a representative sampling in the Washington region, including a response from a Catholic parish:

Churches are going a step further by providing financial counseling and pointing people to local and state programs that help with finances.

McLean Bible Church in Northern Virginia offers classes on how to handle money according to Biblical principles. And last month, St. Martin’s Catholic Church in Gaithersburg hosted a foreclosure prevention workshop to help those in danger of losing their homes.

Wiggins’ story also cast her story in wider relief. Not content to focus solely on the broader economic or national picture, she put her angle in theological context:

Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, said the problem for some church members is that “Christianity has always had a complicated relationship with money.”

On the one hand, Wolfe said, believers are told that the love of money is the root of all evil. Then there are those who preach a prosperity gospel, which promotes that God wants believers to have an abundant life with extraordinary financial blessings.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, one of the most renowned preachers of the prosperity gospel, has not tailored his messages to address the changes in the economy or how people should manage their money. But his Dallas-based church, the Potter’s House, offers a program that provides tips on financial literacy, budgeting and credit restoration.

An arresting lede, a (fairly) diverse sample of local denominations, and theological context — any story with those three elements is excellent. Wiggins’ story, however, was not perfect. Read this passage below, and see if it raises a question in your mind:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson has encouraged ministers to discuss the foreclosure crisis, saying that religious leaders built their churches “on the middle-class bubble of success.” If churches do not address the foreclosure crisis, he said in a December visit to Prince George’s, parishioners will not only suffer, but “your churches will suffer” as well.

That part about churches suffering struck me as opaque. Did Jackson mean that pastors should be concerned not only about their flocks’ bottom line, but theirs too? After all, if the people in the pews can’t pay their bills, it stands to reason that they will give less money to the church? (Given their decentralized nature, Protestant churches would be more attuned to their congregationists’ financial woes.) Wiggins’ attitude toward the churches in this respect should have been more critical.

Yet her story ended on an appropriate note. She quoted a woman giving herself, or at least her finances, to the Lord:

“I could not lean to my own understanding,” Clements said, paraphrasing a scripture. “It wasn’t for me to figure out, it was me turning it totally over to God to figure out.”

That was a memorable ending for a memorable story.

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Filed Under: Business & Economy, Journalism, Religion, Uncategorized