Religion Today Summaries, April 25, 2003

• Poll: Active Churchgoers More Likely to Express Life Satisfaction
• Christians Confront Religious Bureaucracy
• Dialogue Begins With Religious Minorities
• More Eritrean Protestants Attacked

Poll: Active Churchgoers More Likely to Express Life Satisfaction
Adelle M. Banks

(RNS) Americans' views about life satisfaction are shaped by their faith and religious practice, a Barna poll shows. Pollsters questioned people with an active faith -- those who attend church, read the Bible and pray during a typical week -- and found that 73 percent strongly agreed that they were very happy with their lives, compared to 64 percent of those who are less active. The poll was released Wednesday (April 23) by Barna Research Group of Ventura, Calif. People with an active faith also were more likely to say they were in excellent physical condition -- 42 percent, compared to 34 percent of those less active in their faith. The poll found that 66 percent of all adults believe religion is losing its influence in our society but 70 percent say their "religious faith is constantly growing deeper." Pollsters compared evangelical Christians to atheists and agnostics and found that 84 percent of evangelicals strongly state they are very happy with their lives compared to 57 percent of agnostics and atheists. While 14 percent of evangelicals said they feel their lives get more stressful each year, 29 percent of those in the category with no faith feel their lives are increasingly stressful.

Christians Confront Religious Bureaucracy

(Compass) -- About 50,000 Protestant churches and meeting points have been officially registered with the Chinese government. However, opposition, corruption and bureaucratic regulations are all hurdles which Christians must overcome if they desire to open a legally recognized place of worship. In a recent letter from Hebei province, a young church worker recounted his difficulty in acquiring official permission. “To date, I have approached the government more than 20 times, but they have still not agreed to issue a registration certificate. I now have more than 50 believers here ready to form a church. We want to re-open the old church that was formerly open here, but the government does not respond. So I have given ten rooms of my own home and the courtyard to be the definite venue for our church meetings.”

Dialogue Begins With Religious Minorities

(Compass) -- For the first time since the fall of France’s socialist government, officials are talking with representatives of minority religions, religious freedom supporters, attorneys and academics. A gathering called the “First Colloquium on Religious Discrimination in France” was organized in Paris by Pastor Dominique Kounkou, president of the Council of Christian Churches of African Expression in France. Mr. Vianney Sevaistre, Director of the Office for Religious Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, listened to several African pastors and believers talk about restrictions imposed by the police on their freedom of religious expression. Sevaistre gave legal advice during the conference on how to avoid future conflicts and encouraged leaders of minority religions to consult him before registering new churches. “Let’s take steps toward each other and we will solve a lot of problems,” Sevaistre said.

More Eritrean Protestants Attacked

(Compass) -- Two new attacks against Protestant Christians have been confirmed this past week in Eritrea, where 15 church members were hospitalized from severe beatings on Thursday and another 11 detained all day Friday by security police. In Kushte, a small town six miles from the capital Asmara, a Bible study group of 11 men and four women meeting in a private home was forcibly interrupted on April 17. About 10 individuals, four of them reportedly Orthodox Church priests, pushed their way into the room where the group was gathered and began beating them with sticks. Some stones were also hurled at them, members of the group confirmed. The 15 Christians, all members of a renewal group within the Orthodox Church in Kushte, were injured so severely that they were admitted to Hahaze Hospital for medication and treatment. Most were bleeding from their injuries, and one had a serious eye wound. During February and March, Eritrean security police arrested, jailed and threatened 170 other Protestant Christians, all members of Pentecostal and charismatic churches that the Asmara government ordered closed last May. Despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom for all citizens, Eritrea has refused to grant government registration to any “new religions.” Only four groups with longstanding official status are recognized: Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Catholics and Evangelical Lutherans.