But their public voices have fallen mostly silent as noisy resistance grows to the prospect that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev could be buried in local soil.

FBI image of Tamerlan Tsarnaev

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Cemeteries and even some mosques have refused to take his body. His city, Cambridge, has urged family members to bury him elsewhere. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez and local talk radio host Dan Rae want him dumped in the ocean, like Osama bin Laden. Clergy have largely kept mum.

“The only signs of people who are showing some sort of moral conscience are those few who stand with a card near the funeral home saying (burial) is a corporal work of mercy,” said James Keenan, a moral theologian at Boston College. “To say, ‘we won’t bury him’ makes us barbaric. It takes away mercy, the trademark of Christians. … I’m talking about this because somebody should.”

The Christian silence is notable, observers say, in part because death rituals are typically the domain of the faith community. In matters of death, religious figures are primary sources for guidance in what to do — but not in this public episode.

“I’ve not heard a lot from the Christian community” on this issue, said Joel Anderle, senior pastor of Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Mass., and president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches.

“This is one of those curious areas where Christianity, and in particular Protestant Christianity, has come to believe that it doesn’t have a voice.”

The issue isn’t theological uncertainty. Believers of all stripes would say Tsarnaev should be buried — in local soil if necessary, perhaps in an unmarked grave — as a matter of respect for personhood, for the human body and for God, according to Laura Everett, executive director of the MCC. She notes Christians are known for burying even pariahs, including those executed for heinous crimes or left to die in the streets, as acts of faithful witness.

Why then today’s reticence? Some blame the media. Christian leaders would love to tell why even a killer should have a burial, but reporters aren’t giving them a platform to weigh in, according to the Rev. Suzanne Wade, priest-in-charge at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Westford, Mass.

“We have a moral imperative to say yes to the burial,” Wade said. “But I wonder if the voices of those who would speak peace are being muted because the conflict is a much better story.”

Others suspect reticence serves particular purposes for faith leaders who must walk a delicate line in the aftermath of a devastating disaster. These purposes might be lofty and pastoral, or part of something less holy, depending on one’s perspective.

Because the bombings left more than 260 people injured and dozens maimed, pastors across the region are ministering to parishioners who were hurt or know victims and still feel the sting of the attacks. Such pastors might be too upset or angry to champion mercy and respect for a man responsible for their people’s misery, according to Wade.

“It’s much easier for me to be that public voice than it is perhaps for people who have somebody very close to them who was affected,” Wade said. “Distance allows a perspective that you can’t get when you’re living in the middle of it.”

What’s more, the best pastoral outcome would probably be for a burial to take place with consent from Tsarnaev’s family and with minimal fanfare, Everett said. In their reticence, faith leaders might be trying to keep the debate from escalating, she said, since no one is served well by a heightened, emotional spectacle.

“There’s deep consternation in the religious community and deep desire for this to be resolved,” Everett said. “Religious leaders are weighing how best to be useful in that.”

Some observers wonder whether something less charitable might be unfolding. Christian leaders in past centuries called for burning witches at the stake and having criminals buried at crossroads, where vehicles would run over them, said Gary Laderman, a historian who studies death rituals at Emory University.

Laderman said he sees “echoes from previous eras” in calls from the general public for burials to be denied to an enemy such as Tsarnaev. He warns that religious leaders can contribute to desecration by what they sanction, encourage, say or don’t say.

“There’s a way in which religious leaders and cultures can inflame the passions even more about wanting to desecrate (the bodies of) the most vile people on earth,” Laderman said.

Christians beyond the Boston area are taking steps to see that Tsarnaev gets a burial. The group Evangelicals for Social Action has collected 42 signatures for a new petition calling on Christian cemeteries to accept Tsarnaev’s body. Paul Keane, originally of Hamden, Conn., has offered the Tsarnaevs a plot beside his late mother in a church cemetery. It would be in her memory, Keane said, since she “taught me to ‘love thine enemy.’”

Boston Christians, meanwhile, worry some of their peers are cowed into silence by vocal opponents, such as those who’ve targeted funeral director Peter Stefan for saying he will find a burial site for Tsarnaev, perhaps in Russia if not the United States.

When Anderle said on his Facebook page that Christians should be “utterly scandalized” when a burial is blocked, others say he’s taking a risk.

“There is this sense of, ‘I really appreciate what you’re saying, but that sure seems a dangerous thing to point out in a society that’s hell bent on retributive justice,’” Anderle said. “We can’t engage without fear of being … vilified and attacked. That’s sad.”

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For these victims, the path forward involves relearning almost everything, from getting out of bed to getting in a car. Whether they go on to lead satisfying lives depends largely on how they handle the spiritual challenges at hand, according to amputees and researchers.

Losing a limb is like losing a family member: It involves grief and mourning, according to Jack Richmond, a Chattanooga, Tenn., amputee who leads education efforts for the Manassas, Va.-based Amputee Coalition. When one’s body and abilities are radically changed, questions of meaning are suddenly urgent: Why did this happen? Why am I here?

“You’re wondering: Why did I live?” said Rose Bissonnette, an amputee and founder of the Lancaster, Mass.-based New England Amputee Association, a support organization for amputees.

Bissonnette works regularly with more than 150 amputees and finds a common pattern. Those who feel positively connected to God and to other people tend to do better in recovery than those who have “hardened” or grown bitter as a result of their injuries.

“You have to (let go of) the life you lived before and forgive for whatever happened to cause the amputation,” said Bissonnette, who was crushed by a tractor-trailer 16 years ago and lost a leg. “It’s tough, (and) if they don’t have some kind of belief, they get hung up in the anger. I’ve noticed that quite a bit.”

Research on other disabilities reaches slightly different conclusions. People of strong faith are no more likely than nonbelievers to accept a neuromuscular disease, according to Jessica Evans, a psychotherapist who published her findings in the Journal of Christian Healing, published by the Association of Christian Therapists.

However, those who feel conflicted with a faith community or with God have notable difficulty coming to terms with their physical condition.

“In stressful situations in particular, that’s when religion is found to be either a protective factor or (a framework for) struggle, in terms of questioning: ‘Why is this happening?’” Evans said.

Though amputees must navigate pressing spiritual challenges, they often don’t receive help in that area from amputee peers assigned to them. Bissonnette is currently finding peer mentors for each of the Boston bombing victims who lost limbs, but she says they won’t discuss religion or spirituality since belief systems vary widely from person to person.

Tom Davis, pictured here on his bike, is an Iraq War veteran who lost his leg when an improvised explosive device went off during a night patrol. Photo courtesy Tom Davis

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Victims who have suffered major health setbacks often find support in a congregation and see their faiths strengthened in ways that help their recoveries, according to Kenneth Pargament, a psychologist who studies religious coping at Bowling Green State University.

Even so, faith communities sometimes disappoint people who have new needs for support, he said. That can be detrimental for health outcomes, he added, especially in those already facing spiritual struggles.

“The disappointment that people have when they feel their religious community isn’t there for them can be extraordinarily painful and lead to cutoffs and breaks with religious communities,” Pargament said. “It’s important for religious communities to mobilize themselves and be there for people who’ve been through these trying circumstances.”

The challenge of finding new meaning in life is a familiar one, advocates say, for America’s 2 million amputees, including 900,000 who’ve lost limbs in traumatic incidents. For some, the process involves renewing faith commitments and discovering a new mission uniquely suited to the disability.

That’s what happened for Tom Davis, an Iraq War veteran who lost his leg when an improvised explosive device went off during a night patrol. For two years, he was unable to move forward, he says, as the burdens of war — including guilt and post-traumatic stress — held him back.

He found peace, he says, when he gave his life to Jesus Christ in 2008. He sees his mission as inspiring others to find Christ, too.

Now Davis is using his platform as this year’s Boston Marathon winner in the hand cycling division to urge new amputees to make peace with God sooner rather than later.

Mike Norrell (bottom left) and Woody Thornton (bottom right) ski in a pyramid with Gloria Walker at the top. Photo by Holly Thornton

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“There are people that deal with (an injury) and move on and accept it, and there are people that don’t and are miserable,” Davis said. “I would say to (new amputees), ‘Put your faith in Christ and let him heal you.’”

Boston bomb victims remain in area hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. They include a 10-year-old boy, a preschool teacher, the father of a 5-year-old and a woman whose husband was also badly injured.

Most are apt to need psychiatric as well as physical therapy, but their prospects for leading full and productive lives are good, according to Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma services at Boston Medical Center, where five bomb victims had limbs amputated.

As they settle into changed lives, they’ll find other amputees eager to help them accept new realities and learn to thrive. When that involves wrestling with spiritual questions, they’ll find help in specialized ministries led by people like 44-year-old Woody Thornton, who lost his lower legs when a train ran over him in 1989.

“For 15 years as an amputee, I was coping and getting along, but there wasn’t a good answer to ‘Why?’… until I started up a support group,” said Thornton, founder and president of the Auburn, Ala.-based Christian Amputee Support Team. “I want to give (amputees) a sense of purpose.”

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Boston Medical Center chaplains, from left: Jennie Gould, an Episcopal priest; Sam Lowe, a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends); and Sr. Maryanne Ruzzo of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Photo courtesy Jeff MacDonald

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The bedside was fraught with worry. A woman in her 30s had lost a leg to amputation as surgeons deemed it unsalvageable. Still suffering multiple injuries, she was now heading into surgery again, knowing she might wake up with no legs at all.

Ruzzo stood among the woman’s parents and siblings and did what she does best: listen. She heard their fears, including concern for the woman’s husband, who was being treated at a different hospital and who also might lose a leg to amputation. Then she prayed.

“Other people might not want to feel the pain and say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be fine,’” said Ruzzo, the Archdiocese of Boston’s coordinator of Catholic services at BMC. “We just try to be present and listen to them. … I prayed for the surgeons and the nurses.”

In a week when Boston hospitals cared for more than 170 bomb victims, staff chaplains were suddenly in great demand. They moved calmly from emergency departments to waiting rooms and employee lounges, offering a compassionate ear and much-needed comfort to anxious patients, family members and staffers.

“People think, ‘OK, here’s the guy who kind of represents the universe, or God, or the infinite or eternity,’” said Sam Lowe, a Quaker staff chaplain at BMC.

“If I stand there and I’m able to hear their story … it reconnects them to the rest of humanity,” at a time when they’re apt to feel terribly alone.

At Boston Medical Center, a Boston University teaching hospital where vulnerable residents receive care, staff chaplains frequently minister to victims of violence. This week (April 15-19), BMC needed them everywhere as staff cared for 23 bomb victims.

Lowe was making rounds to patients’ rooms Monday when he heard a barrage of sirens. Moments later, a nurse asked him, “Shouldn’t you be in the emergency room, chaplain?”

En route to the emergency room, Lowe passed an interpreter who told him the situation there was gruesome. “There’s blood, body parts, a gory scene. And chaos.” He passed a patient transport supervisor, who was setting up 20 cots in the lobby for emergency room overflow and called to the chaplain: “Pray for me!” Staff who’d been in the emergency room were eager to vent to him as well.

“They didn’t need a lot of prompting,” he recalled. “They were shocked: ‘What’s going on? Why is this happening?’”

Lowe soon sought out the 50-plus family members who were frantically trying to get information about loved ones at BMC and other hospitals. He was careful not to introduce himself immediately as a chaplain. Sometimes in a crisis, people panic when they see a chaplain, Lowe explained, because they assume he or she is there to help deliver the worst possible news.

“Occasionally someone would look up from an iPhone and say, ‘I need a charger,’” Lowe said. “So I would help them find an outlet (and then) say, ‘By the way, my name is Sam, and I’m the chaplain, just making my rounds.’”

The needs of bomb victims and their loved ones extend well beyond managing physical wounds, said Lisa Allee, director of BMC’s Community Violence Response Team. Not only will they face long-haul recoveries, but the immediate trauma they’ve endured can trigger a range of intense emotions as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

As psychological and spiritual needs became more apparent, chaplains provided a calming presence to help victims and caregivers not get overwhelmed. They tried to be anywhere anyone felt isolated or worn down by daunting circumstances.

When staff noted one victim’s family was waiting alone in a far corner of the sprawling hospital complex, Lowe ventured out to find and sit with them. Several times this week, he praised BMC’s receptionist for showing kindness and patience under pressure as panicked callers pleaded for information that wasn’t always available.

As bombing victims begin to consider their futures, doctors are optimistic that all their patients — including BMC’s five amputees — will go on to lead productive lives. Advancements in prosthetic technologies, coupled with insights from Iraq and Afghanistan, can enable even the most severely injured victims to recover well, according to Peter Burke, BMC chief of trauma services.

Whether the injured woman’s leg or her husband’s can ultimately be saved remains unknown, Ruzzo said. Yet no matter what, patients will receive assurance from chaplains that God is with them and the Spirit overcomes adversity.

“One family said, ‘You know, chaplain, you’ve probably seen a lot of people who’ve been in similar circumstances, and they’ve made it somehow — right?’” Lowe recalled. “And I said to them: ‘I have.’”

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Abbot Justin Brown looks on as Novices Joseph Eichorn, left and Dustin Bernard move a handmade wooden casket through the woodwork shop on the grounds of St. Joseph Abbey outside of Covington, La. RNS photo by Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune

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In a Wednesday (March 20) opinion, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, La., have a right to sell caskets in their home state. The ruling affirmed a lower court’s judgment, which said the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors cannot restrict the market only to licensed funeral directors.

“Funeral homes, not independent sellers, have been the problem for consumers with their bundling of product and markups of caskets,” the 19-page opinion said. The “grant of an exclusive right of sale (for licensed funeral directors) adds nothing to protect consumers and puts them at a greater risk of abuse including exploitative prices.”

The monks’ victory helps them pursue the livelihood they’ve forged in the years since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina decimated timber holdings that had previously provided essential income for the abbey. It also gives Louisiana consumers access to basic cypress caskets that sell for $1,500 and $2,000 — far below prices charged at the state’s funeral homes, according to the court opinion.

“Our prayers have been answered,” said Abbot Justin Brown, head of St. Joseph Abbey, in a written statement. “We are especially gratified that the Court’s decision will protect the economic liberty of other entrepreneurs in Louisiana and around the country.”

Neither the Louisiana Funeral Directors Association nor Michael Rasch, attorney for the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, responded immediately to requests for comment.

The Catholic monks of St. Joseph have long been buried in plain wooden caskets built by hand at the abbey. When they needed an alternate source of income after Katrina, they invested $200,000 to start Saint Joseph Woodworks. They were able to sell in other states, but the Louisiana board moved in 2007 to block them from doing business in their own state.

With this week’s ruling, the 5th Circuit parts ways with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2004 upheld a similar law restricting casket sales in Oklahoma. The issue could ultimately be decided in the U.S. Supreme Court if the board members decide to appeal.

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Church leaders have reached an agreement with nine bishops who had supported breakaway congregations in Texas and Illinois court cases. Courts have been sorting out who controls properties and other assets when congregations leave the denomination.

Under the terms, the nine bishops “express regret for any harm” to the Dioceses of Quincy (Ill.) and Fort Worth (Texas) as a result of their actions, which included filing amicus briefs that were sympathetic with the breakaway groups.

The bishops also pledged to stop supporting breakaway groups in court cases, at least until the church’s General Convention addresses the matter in 2015. They also agree to help defray costs incurred by the church in reaching the accord.

The accord is billed as an outcome of “conciliation,” which is a step in the church disciplinary process. But tensions remain unresolved.

Conciliation “doesn’t achieve full reconciliation,” said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “It is a step in that direction.”

The Episcopal Church has lost hundreds of congregations over the past decade as conservatives left in protest of new blessings for gay bishops and same-sex couples, among other issues. As congregations have departed and ensuing property disputes have landed in court, bishops from dioceses that are not involved in the litigation have sometimes weighed in to help interpret church rules and organizational structures.

The bishops who signed the accord did not admit to any misconduct or wrongdoing, according to a recent blog post by Bishop Daniel Martins of Springfield, Ill. Nor are the named bishops content with the disciplinary process.

“All nine of us are processing some degree of anger and are feeling substantially alienated from those who brought the charges against us,” he wrote. “We feel manipulated and victimized. We are nowhere near happy about this outcome, even though we stand by our decision to accept the Accord.”

Church leaders were briefed on the accord during the House of Bishops’ recent meeting in North Carolina. They received the report with minimal questions and didn’t focus on it during the retreat, according to Bishop Todd Ousley of Eastern Michigan.

Signatories to the accord, meanwhile, have no plans to reconsider what they’ve told the courts.

“We have made our point about the polity of our church in Texas and Illinois courts. Those points are now matters of public record,” Martins said in his March 10 blog post. “There is no more reason for us to intervene as we did to protect the truth about (the Episcopal Church’s) polity and interests of our own dioceses.”

The nine bishops named in the accord were:

Bishop John W. Howe (retired, Diocese of Central Florida)

Suffragan Bishop Paul E. Lambert (Diocese of Dallas)

Bishop William H. Love (Diocese of Albany)

Bishop D. Bruce MacPherson (retired, Diocese of Western Louisiana)

Bishop Daniel H. Martins (Diocese of Springfield, Ill.)

Bishop James M. Stanton (Diocese of Dallas)

Bishop Maurice M. Benitez (retired, Diocese of Texas)

Bishop Peter Beckwith (retired, Diocese of Springfield, Ill.)

Bishop Edward L. Salmon (retired, Diocese of South Carolina)

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That’s the message coming from reformers who say the group has drifted from core principles and is failing addicts who can’t save themselves. But what constitutes the heart of AA spirituality is a matter of spirited debate.

Has AA become too God-focused and rigid? Or have groups watered down beliefs and methods so much that they’re now ineffective?

“Some think AA is not strict enough,” said Lee Ann Kaskutas, senior scientist at the Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif. “Others think it’s too strict, so they want to change AA and make it get with the times.”

With more than 100,000 local meetings and an estimated two million members worldwide, AA is grappling with how much diversity it can handle. Over the past two years, umbrella organizations in Indianapolis and Toronto have delisted groups that replaced AA’s 12 steps to recovery with secular alternatives. More than 90 unofficial, self-described “agnostic AA” groups now meet regularly in the United States.

Faith language in AA goes back to the group’s founders, Bill Wilson and Robert Holbrook Smith. Six of the 12 steps, as prescribed in the original 1939 “Big Book,” refer to God either explicitly or implicitly. Step three, for example, cites “a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

Now some worry the founders’ efforts to be as inclusive as possible are being undermined by attempts to ensure, as one Indianapolis AA newsletter put it, that “AA remains undiluted.”

“In the past, there was a great deal of elasticity and tolerance in terms of different views,” said Roger C., a Toronto agnostic whose book “The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps” came out in January, and who doesn’t use his last name to protect his privacy. “But there’s been an increasingly rigidity from those who say, ‘It’s got to be this way and only this way.’ That has alienated a great number of people.”

But others argue that AA seldom offers the tough love that alcoholics need. Too many meetings ignore the 12 steps posted on their walls, said Charles Peabody, a 35-year-old former alcoholic and drug addict whose 2012 memoir, “The Privileged Addict,” has an entire chapter on “Watered Down AA.”

For Peabody and many addicts he’s sponsored, the key to becoming “a free man” has been rigorous and urgent application of the 12 steps, from taking fearless moral inventory to making painful amends. Yet mainstream AA meetings routinely do a “disservice,” he argues, by leading attendees to believe that meetings and sponsors – rather than God and concrete action steps – are what they need most in recovery.

“In mainstream AA, you hear either the war stories or the sob stories,” said Peabody, who lives in Beverly, Mass. “This is the solution? I just keep coming, drinking crappy coffee and listening to people bitch and moan? I knew that wasn’t going to work.”

Research suggests other factors can be more important than vigorous application of the 12 steps. Kaskutas says the strongest predictors of sustained sobriety through AA are whether a person has a sponsor, has a social network that consists of non-drinkers and is committed to service.

Spiritual practices aren’t always necessary for recovery, research suggests, but they can help.

“Prayer and meditation increase as a function of AA participation,” said John Kelly, associate director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “That does lead to better outcomes for some.”

Men who’ve beaten addictions with Peabody’s guidance trace their healing to character reform via the original 12 steps. Twenty-three-year-old Pat Smith of Wakefield, Mass. battled heroin and crack cocaine in his teenage years, but nothing worked until he enrolled in a residential, intensive 12-step program. For addicts, he says, surrender to God is an indispensable step.

“People [at AA meetings] are like, ‘We don’t need God in here, leave God out of it,’” Smith said. “But the truth is, AA is a religious program… It’s Christian principles, the whole book. So it’s like, if you guys want to go to meetings and leave God out of it, then go ahead. But don’t call it AA because it’s not.”

Roger C. brings a different concern. Those who insist on doing the original 12 steps, he says, are apt to alienate nonbelievers, who might never get the help they need.

Some get turned off “when someone comes up to you as a new member of AA and tells you, ‘if you don’t find God, you’re going to die a drunk,’” Roger C says. “That rigidity is very religious, very intolerant and very hurtful to a number of recovering alcoholics who are looking for an avenue to get sober.”

Offering multiple pathways to recovery bodes well for alcoholics, Kaskutas says, because what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else.

“Because there’s this ethic of take what you need and leave the rest, it puts the attendee in a position of being able to form a program that is palatable to them,” Kaskutas says. “AA is doing just fine.”

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South Carolina Episcopal Bishop Mark Lawrence. RNS photo courtesy of Diocese of South Carolina.

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(RNS) When disgruntled congregations have left hierarchical denominations such as the Episcopal Church, they’ve often lost property battles as civil courts ruled buildings and land are not theirs to keep.

But outcomes could be different this year, court watchers say, as high-profile cases involving dozens of Episcopal congregations in South Carolina and Texas wind their way through state courts. That prospect has observers watching for insights that could shape legal strategies in other states and denominations.

Both cases involve conservative dioceses that voted to leave the Episcopal Church over homosexuality, among other issues. In South Carolina, congregations representing about 22,000 people are suing the Episcopal Church for control of real estate worth some $500 million and rights to the diocese’s identity. In Texas, the national Episcopal Church is suing about 60 breakaway congregations in the Fort Worth area for properties estimated to be worth more than $100 million.

The Episcopal Church argues, as it has in past cases, that local properties are held in trust for the denomination and can’t go with parishioners who choose to disaffiliate. But recent court actions are giving breakaway groups hope that things might go differently this time.

In South Carolina, plaintiffs are encouraged by a 2009 ruling by the state Supreme Court that allowed All Saints Church of Pawley’s Island to retain property despite having left the Episcopal Church. If other breakaway churches have similar documents as All Saints did – deeds and contracts that show no intention to hold property in trust for the Episcopal Church – then they could win, according to Lloyd Lunceford, a Louisiana attorney and editor of  “A Guide to Church Property Law.”

“When no trust exists at all, the local church wins,” Lunceford said. “The South Carolina Supreme Court, like many state supreme courts, has held that the mere presence of an assertion of a trust (existing) in a denominational constitution is insufficient to create a valid legal trust. There has to be more.”

In considering the breakaway churches’ appeal in the Fort Worth case, the Supreme Court of Texas is hearing its first church property case since 1909. The court is expected to clarify whether church property disputes in Texas will be decided by so-called “deference principles,” which prevailed in 1909 and tend to favor top hierarchical entities.

Another option is to apply “neutral principles,” which consider such factors as canon law, state law and agreements made among local churches, dioceses and other denominational entities.

Courts have increasingly used neutral principles, observers say, in part to avoid becoming ensnared in polity or theological debates. If the Texas high court uses that approach, then departing churches could win on the grounds that Texas law broadly allows for the revocation of trusts, according to Scott Brister, a former Supreme Court of Texas justice who’s now representing the Fort Worth defendants.

Revocable trusts, Brister said, include any that might be established by the Episcopal Church’s so-called Dennis Canon, which was added in 1979 and says parish properties are held in trust for the Episcopal Church.

“We’ve got defenses that say we never agreed to the Dennis Canon, but let’s say for the sake of argument that we did” agree to it, Brister said. “Under Texas law, you can revoke it,” he said, adding that the Diocese of Fort Worth did exactly that more than 20 years ago.

St. Michael’s, a church within the Diocese of South Carolina, is one of the most prominent Episcopal churches in Charleston, S.C. RNS photo by Kevin Eckstrom

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The Episcopal Church, however, has a history of winning property cases, and expects to build on that success. Fort Worth Episcopal Bishop Rayford B. High Jr. argues the Dennis Canon is binding since local churches agreed to abide by it.

“They were given access to church titles and church properties because they promised to abide by the Episcopal Church” and its canons, High said. “Commitments were made. You can’t just decide a little later on, ‘I think I’ll change my mind.’”

In South Carolina, the case is no slam dunk for recently departed churches, according to Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs lawyer who specializes in church property cases. He notes the Episcopal Church has prevailed in most of its property cases, in part because local churches have agreed to abide by the Episcopal Church’s constitution.

But, he adds, the South Carolina Supreme Court 2009 Pawley’s Island decision could help today’s plaintiffs win.

“It’s possible that the secessionists will have some success for some time, as long as they’re in the South Carolina courts,” said Nussbaum, an attorney with Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons. “If it goes over to (the U.S. Supreme Court), they’ll lose.”

To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has shown little interest in reviewing state decisions in church property cases. Brister expects that will not change, and state decisions will stand. The high court’s reticence to intervene might bode well for breakaway Anglicans in South Carolina, according to Robert Tuttle, professor of law and religion at George Washington University Law School.

“In South Carolina, where the South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a separating congregation, (lower court justices) might be more sympathetic to the claim of the separating diocese of South Carolina” than judges in other states might be, Tuttle said.

Both the Texas and South Carolina cases are being watched closely, in part because of their size. Both involve dioceses and dozens of churches in large states, where jurisprudence can influence how judges in other states approach property cases, according to Brister.

The Texas decision “could influence other states, depending on what the circumstances of their state laws are,” Brister said.

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Amy Lester of Orlando prepares “nutty fruity cereal,” a staple of the Daniel Fast regimen that she keeps during Lent. Lester has followed Jesus for decades, but her keen appreciation for his sacrifice on the cross came only recently when she started eating like the prophet Daniel. RNS photo courtesy Amy Lester.

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During Lent, which starts Wednesday (Feb. 13), the 40-year-old mother of two keeps a type of Daniel Fast, which involves eating only food from seeds (vegetables, fruits, unleavened grains), drinking only water and practicing daily devotions.

A similar regimen kept Daniel and his friends free from corruption in King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian court, according to the Bible. Now the Old Testament example guides growing numbers of Christians in the 40-day period of preparation for Easter.

“We set apart a sacrifice in Lent in order to identify, even the smallest (bit), with what Jesus sacrificed for us,” said Lester, who attends University Carillon United Methodist Church in Oviedo, Fla. “He died for me. The least I can do is to sacrifice the foods that are comforting to me.”

Devotees say the Daniel Fast brings them closer to God by enhancing self-control, purging bad habits and improving health. It bears echoes of ancient tradition. Forgoing meat, dairy and sweeteners for a season makes the Daniel Fast resemble Orthodox Lent, which restricts consumption of meat, dairy, and oils in the run-up to Easter.

Observers see benefits to linking Lenten spirituality with healthy eating in a nation that can afford to shed a few pounds. But some also worry about food becoming a distraction or an obsession in a season of repentance and renewal.

Members of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., show how much weight they’ve lost on the church’s “Daniel Plan” diet. Pastor Rick Warren has already lost 60 pounds, and hopes to lose 30 more using the faith-based diet plan. RNS photo courtesy Toby Crabtree/Saddleback Church.

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“The problem with the Daniel Fast is that the focus is on food,” said Dennis Dickerson, a Vanderbilt University professor and former historian for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “Is there something else that you should deny yourself? In some ways, food is too easy because there may be something else that has a hold on you and is just as injurious as overeating.”

Though churches in the South started doing the Daniel Fast more than a decade ago, the trend gained international momentum more recently with help from Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren. His similarly named Daniel Plan for weight loss is less rigorous than the Daniel Fast since it allows for meat, but it nonetheless helped grow awareness that Daniel might have been onto something.

It also helped the Purpose-Driven pastor lose more than 60 pounds.

“I don’t think leaders have confidence that their members would take part if the pastor said, ‘I’d like us to do a (water-only) fast,’” said Kristen Feola, a former personal trainer and author of “The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast.”

“But a Daniel Fast is a little less scary for people. More people are open to trying it because it’s such a unifying thing for a church.”

Prospective fasters have sought guidance in books, including Susan Gregory’s “The Daniel Fast,” which has sold more than 100,000 copies. Gregory says the two most common times to do the fast, which is normally 21 days but can be longer, are at the start of the New Year and during Lent.

“Too many do it at the beginning of the year because it’s easier as everyone wants to diet,” said 53-year-old Carolyn Scott, who lives near Naples, Fla., in an email. She plans to do it for Lent because that timing “makes the most sense.” In her view, it’s a discipline akin to Jesus’ fasting in the desert for 40 days.

For Scott, the hardest part will be going without bread, she said. She’s used to packing sandwiches for her teenage children’s lunches and will need to modify their diets as the family does the Daniel Fast together.

Lester, the Orlando mother, has a different strategy. She’ll do the Daniel Fast alone by day, then sometimes join her family in whatever they’re having at night (except dessert).

“It’s less traumatic that way for my family,” Lester said, noting they get uneasy when everyone isn’t eating the same food. “And (the fasting) is still a meaningful event.”

In some cases, entire churches do the Daniel Fast together during Lent. The idea strikes a chord in Methodist traditions, which trace their heritage to John Wesley, a proponent of fasting. Leaders in the African Methodist Episcopal Church have urged churchgoers to do the Daniel Fast together, and congregations from Washington to Pennsylvania and Maryland have joined in.

For the fourth consecutive year, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., will observe Lent this year with a churchwide Daniel Fast. Young adults in the congregation tend to keep the fast more rigorously than older ones, according to Pastor Paul Milton. But the fact that most are making an effort simultaneously might help inspire those struggling with conditions such as diabetes and obesity,  Milton said.

“The ones we really need to help won’t participate,” he admits, “but we still try anyway.”

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Last week (Dec. 28), Hobby Lobby Stores donated a 217-acre campus in Northfield, Mass., to the National Christian Foundation (NCF), a Georgia-based charity that administers donor-advised funds.

NCF now plans to do what Hobby Lobby has tried in vain to do since acquiring the property in 2009: give it to a Christian institution that will honor the legacy of its founder, 19th-century evangelist D.L. Moody.

Dave Powell, D.L. Moody’s great-grandson, vists his great-grandfather’s grave in Northfield, Mass., as Christian institutions sumbit proposals for the former Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies that Moody founded in 1879. RNS photo by G. Jeffrey MacDonald.

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“We’re committed to maintaining the spirit with which the campus was founded,” said Aimee Minnich, president of NCF’s office in Olathe, Kansas, in an email. “So our first intent would be to find an educational institution as the final owner of the property.”

NCF received no requirements from Oklahoma’s Green family, which owns the Hobby Lobby craft stores chain, according to Hobby Lobby real estate analyst Les Miller. Although the Greens have long hoped someone would get the campus free of charge, it’s now possible NCF could sell it.

“Our intent is to find a permanent owner for the property and turn it over to them, either by sale, or by donation, or by some combination of those two,” said NCF spokesman Steve Chapman.

The gift to NCF marks the latest chapter in a saga that began just over three years ago, when Northfield Mount Hermon School consolidated onto one campus and sold its 43-building Northfield campus to Hobby Lobby for $100,000. The Green family poured $5 million into repairs and renovations with hopes of seeing a new C.S. Lewis College operating on the site by 2012.

But finding a recipient with sufficient means to run the facilities has proven difficult. First the California-based C.S. Lewis Foundation fell short of fundraising targets to launch a C.S. Lewis College on the site. Then an eight-month search process turned up a new recipient, Arizona’s for-profit Grand Canyon University, in September. But GCU pulled out when projected costs for maintenance and upgrades climbed from $150 million to more than $180 million.

“We had hoped to be able to find a qualified recipient of this property ourselves and made great efforts to do so,” Miller said in an email. “When we were unable, we decided to enlist the help of NCF.”

By giving the real estate to an NCF donor-advised fund, the Greens remain involved and may make recommendations on who ultimately receives the property. They also receive new benefits, notably a big 2012 tax write-off for the fair-market value of the Northfield campus. Hobby Lobby declined to comment on the campus’ appraised value.

The donation comes as Hobby Lobby faces whopping new federal fines — $1.3 million per day, starting Jan. 1 — for noncompliance with a federal mandate to provide birth control coverage to employees. Miller said these new financial pressures, which are the subject of a federal lawsuit, did not factor into the decision to unload the Northfield property.

Giving the property to NCF seems to help Hobby Lobby pursue its original goal for the property, observers say, while lightening burdens associated with doing so.

“It was a smart move for Hobby Lobby to give it to the foundation,” said Lisa Featherngill, managing director of planning for Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo company that advises ultra-high-net-worth families. “They can leverage the foundation’s network of charities (to find a recipient), they can get the write-off … and they don’t have to be as involved in the transaction as they have been” up to this point.

And if NCF is unable to give or sell the campus to an educational institution, the new arrangement allows for additional options.

“Sometimes people will give an appreciated asset to a charity so that the asset can be sold within the donor-advised fund and basically avoid capital gains on the sale,” said Featherngill, who’s based in Winston-Salem, N.C. All proceeds in that case, she said, would be available for NCF to distribute to other charities.

KRE/AMB END MacDONALD

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