c. 2003 Religion News Service
Piracy, Economy Cited as Factors in Lower Christian Music Sales
(RNS) Sales of Christian and gospel music dropped 10 percent in the first half of 2003, with industry leaders blaming music piracy and the economy for the drop.
At the end of the first six months of 2003, Nielsen SoundScan sales of Christian and gospel music stood at 21,046,000 units. That’s a 10.23 percent decline from the same period in 2002, when 23,445,000 units were sold.
Despite the sales decrease, the genre of music maintained its market share in the overall music industry.
The sales of these recordings represented 7.14 percent of all music sales, ahead of sales for Latin, classical, jazz and soundtracks, the Gospel Music Association said in a July 2 announcement.
“We are not surprised at the slowdown because gospel music sales are being affected by the same issues as the rest of the music industry _ an uncertain economy and music piracy,” said John W. Styll, president of the Nashville, Tenn.-based association, in a statement.
Styll said a task force of the industry’s leading distribution companies was recently developed to address digital distribution issues, including illegal downloading.
“There is no doubt that our music is being pirated at the same levels as every other type of music,” he said. “We do, however, face a unique paradox. On the one hand, we have the moral argument that stealing music is wrong. On the other, some naively have argued that downloading and sharing gospel music is a type of ministry, perhaps unaware that it is copyright infringement.”
The top-selling albums between Jan. 1, 2003 and June 29, 2003 were: 1. “Wonder What’s Next” by Chevelle; 2. “Worship Together: I Could Sing” by various artists; 3. “Offerings II: All I Have to Give” by Third Day; 4. “WoW Gospel 2003” by various artists; 5. “All About Love” by Steven Curtis Chapman; 6. WoW Worship (Yellow) by various artists; 7. “Rise and Shine” by Randy Travis; 8. “O Brother Where Art Thou?” by various artists; 9. “Worship Again” by Michael W. Smith; 10. “Donnie McClurkinâÂ?¦Again” by Donnie McClurkin.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Canadian Salvation Army Hit by Sinking Income, Membership
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) After 120 years in Canada, the Salvation Army is determined to keep serving the poor, addicted and hungry despite government cuts, stretched donors and a sharply declining membership, says the church’s top national leader.
“Child poverty in Canada has risen to 23 percent. To me that’s a frightening number of people living below the poverty line,” said Commissioner Bill Luttrell, who visited Vancouver for a 1,700-person Salvation Army convention last month.
The Canadian Salvation Army has to struggle to offer its wide range of services at the same time governments are cutting back on welfare, seniors’ facilities and other programs for the disadvantaged, Luttrell said. The government cutbacks have forced the Salvation Army to cut more than a dozen administrative staff in British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland.
“The government doesn’t have the money available to do what needs to be done in all cases,” said Luttrell, noting the Salvation Army is the largest nongovernmental provider of social services in North America. The Salvation Army receives 40 percent of its social services budget from the government.
Donations for many Canadian Salvation Army charity programs have been down in the past couple of years, he said, because of sagging investments, a drop in donations and because traditional donors were either financially stretched or dying off.
Luttrell said some long-time donors to Salvation Army programs in Canada diverted their giving to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.
The recent Canadian census revealed the number of Salvation Army members across the country had dropped by 22 percent in a decade, to 87,000, leaving fewer members contributing to the denomination’s local outreach programs.
_ Douglas Todd
Cumberland Presbyterians Turn Down Flag Resolution
(RNS) A small Presbyterian denomination rejected a move to require the church to display the American flag at its meetings in the United States.
Delegates to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church’s recent General Assembly meeting in Knoxville, Tenn., turned down the flag resolution, which was sponsored by churches in Nashville.
The June 26 defeat came after delegates heard a letter from the Rev. Masaharu Asayama, the church’s former moderator, who lives in Japan. Asayama said displaying the U.S. flag was inappropriate for a multinational church.
“Suppose there is a presbytery of our church in Iraq. Suppose they send their commissioners to the General Assembly,” Asayama said. “Suppose the commissioners bring in their national flag to the GA hall. Suppose they spontaneously start to sing `God Save Iraq.’ Suppose the commissioners of Japan presbytery bring in the flag of the Rising Sun and shout `Banzai!’ three times for the flag and the Emperor to the effect of singing `God Bless America.’
“The capacity of our imagination as a Christian person and a church is now in question.”
After the reading of the Asayama letter, the resolution was swiftly defeated, said Pat White, spokeswoman for the 85,000-member church.
The resolution would have called on the church to “proudly display” the U.S. flag and nondenominational Christian flag at all General Assemblies in the United States. The resolution said “following the terrorist attack on our nation on Sept. 11, 2001, there seems to be in our nation a renewed patriotism.”
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed in Dickson County, Tenn., in 1810 over doctrinal differences on the nature of salvation. The church continued after some members objected to the 1906 merger with the then-Presbyterian Church.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Human Rights Groups Keep Spotlight on Sudan Slavery
WASHINGTON (RNS) As President Bush continues his tour of Africa, a Christian human rights organization is calling on the Bush administration to push for the eradication of slavery in Sudan.
Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a human rights group for religious liberty that has been working to free enslaved Sudanese since 1995, is pressing for greater U.S. involvement on behalf of tens of thousands of women and children who remain in bondage.
During a briefing in Washington at the Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom on Wednesday (July 9), activists called U.S. inaction on the issue unacceptable.
“President Bush is in Senegal saying what a horrible crime slavery was several centuries ago, and it is going on right now,” said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Although a U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement between the Sudanese government and the Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2001 identified the eradication of slavery as one of the conditions for peace, slavery persists in the north African nation, Shea said.
Now, abolitionists worry that a peace-agreement will take attention away from slavery and other crimes against humanity in Sudan.
“If a peace agreement is signed and the U.S. disengages and the spotlight goes off slavery, there are people who will rot and die in bondage,” said John Eibner, CSI’s executive director.
During Sudan’s 20-year civil war, armed government forces have used slave raids against non-Muslim, black African communities as “an inexpensive means to pursue a counter-insurgency policy against the Dinka population, who they regard as the backbone of the SPLA,” Eibner said.
While slave raids have largely stopped, efforts to free those who remain in bondage must continue, Eibner said.
During a fact-finding mission earlier this year, CSI researchers who interviewed more than 2,000 recently liberated slaves over age 11 found that nearly 70 percent of female slaves had been raped and 95 percent of male slaves had been forced to work without pay. Sixty percent of males slaves reported that they were forced to convert to Islam.
Through the collective efforts of CSI and and Arab and Dinka civilians, more than 80,000 slaves have been freed and returned to Southern Sudan since 1995.
_ Alexandra Alter
Ken Connor Departs as President of Family Research Council
(RNS) Ken Connor has announced his resignation as president of the Family Research Council.
Connor, whose resignation is effective July 14, served the conservative Christian organization based in Washington for three years.
“This was not an easy decision, but one that for both professional and personal reasons, I believed I needed to make,” Connor said in a statement. “After the summer, I look forward to returning to the courtroom and practicing law.”
Connor said he leaves the council, which is especially focused on anti-abortion initiatives and support of traditional family values, on “solid financial footing.”
Connor succeeded former Reagan Administration official Gary Bauer as head of the FRC when Bauer stepped down in 2000 to run for president.
Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson, a member of the council’s board, said Connor would be missed. “Ken Connor has been a fighter for the family and an exemplary leader for Family Research Council,” Dobson said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Wycliffe President Moves to Smaller Translation Ministry
(RNS) The former president of Wycliffe Bible Translators has been named the CEO of a much smaller Bible translation organization that has worked with Wycliffe and other mission groups.
Roy Peterson, who became president of Wycliffe USA in 1997, begins his new position with The Seed Company on July 15, the Dallas-based ministry announced.
Peterson departed the presidency of the Orlando, Fla.-based organization involved in 70 countries to take the new position with the smaller ministry.
Peterson, who has served on The Seed Company’s board, will help the organization continue its goal of helping national translators across the world develop the Bible for people who do not currently have a biblical text in their original language.
He is succeeded at Wycliffe USA by Robert M. Creson, who previously served as an associate executive director with SIL International, a sister organization of Wycliffe formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: The Very Rev. Colin Slee
(RNS) “The people talk about empty churches. Empty churches may well be empty because of the image that we are presenting of narrowness and bigotry and prejudice.”
_ The Very Rev. Colin Slee, the dean of Southwark Cathedral in London, speaking after the Rev. Jeffrey John withdrew his nomination as bishop under pressure because his homosexuality angered conservatives. Slee was quoted by The Guardian newspaper.
KRE END RNS
