c. 2003 Religion News Service

Survey: Majority of Americans OK With Ten Commandments, Pledge in Public

(RNS) More than 60 percent of Americans think government officials should be able to post the Ten Commandments in government buildings and believe it is constitutional for teachers to lead the recitation of “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, according to a survey.

The “State of the First Amendment 2003” survey, released Aug. 1, was jointly commissioned by the First Amendment Center and the American Journalism Review.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said teachers leading the pledge with the words “one nation under God” were not violating the principle of separation of church and state, while 26 percent said they were.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement that government officials should be allowed to post the Ten Commandments within government buildings, while 35 percent said they should not.

Researchers found that 60 percent of respondents favored allowing the government to give money to churches or other religious institutions to help them operate programs that aim to prevent drug abuse, even if they include a religious message in their program. Thirty-six percent opposed such funding.

“Do these responses reflect a trust in government not to go beyond symbolic references to faith?” Kenneth A. Paulson, executive director of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., asked in a foreword to the 41-page study. “Or do the results reflect a majority who are receptive to seeing their own beliefs cited on government walls and in ceremonial references?

“The answers may lie in how Americans view God in the context of government activities. Most of those surveyed regarded government references to God as civic rather than spiritual.”

He cited the finding that 73 percent of respondents said the pledge, including the words “one nation under God,” is “primarily a statement related to the American political tradition,” while 18 percent said it was primarily a religious statement.

The Center for Survey Research & Analysis at the University of Connecticut surveyed 1,000 Americans during June 3-15. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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Government officials should be permitted to post Ten Commandments in government buildings: 62 percent agree; 35 percent disagree

Views on teachers leading students in Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “one nation under God”: violates church/state separation, 26 percent; does not violate church/state separation, 68 percent

Views on Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “one nation under God”: primarily a religious statement, 18 percent; primarily a statement related to U.S. political tradition, 73 percent

Views on extent of religious freedom of students in public schools: too much, 4 percent; too little, 46 percent; about right, 45 percent

People should be permitted to say things in public that might offend religious groups: 49 percent agree; 50 percent disagree

(Source: “State of the First Amendment 2003”)

_ Adelle M. Banks

Wisconsin Synod Lutherans Cut Budget

(RNS) A Milwaukee-based Lutheran denomination has asked its 1,250 churches to increase their contributions to help make up for a $8 million budget shortfall.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the nation’s third-largest Lutheran body, ended its biennial convention on July 31 in Watertown, Wis. The theologically conservative church has 403,000 members.

Delegates approved a two-year budget of about $128 million. In the past year, the church has cut 11 missionaries, six home mission pastors, 18 professors, eight administrative staff and a number of part-time positions.

The Rev. Gary Baumler, a church spokesman, attributed the shortfall to the sagging economy, congregational offerings that did not keep pace with inflation, and a significant drop in support from foundations and personal bequests.

Church President Karl Gurgel, who was elected to a second four-year term, warned that more cuts could be in store next year if revenues do not increase. The church asked each of its congregations to increase their contributions up from an average of 8 percent to at least 10 percent of their total income.

The church designated North America as its primary mission target for the next four years, even though the reduced budget will only allow them to start one new mission church through 2005.

“I’m grateful for the mission-minded direction provided by the delegates,” Gurgel said in a statement. “It’s exciting to be a leader in a church that still recognizes the Great Commission as its mandate.”

The denomination was founded in 1850 by German missionaries, and was loosely affiliated with the larger Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod until 1961, when those ties were cut because of doctrinal differences.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

After 55 Years, Sanskrit-English Dictionary Completes First Letter

(RNS) Sanskrit scholars who have been laboring over an exhaustive Sanksrit-English dictionary project for the last 55 years are nearly finished __ with the first letter.

More than two dozen scholars have debated and argued the grammatical roots and meanings of words like “anekakrta” since the project was launched in 1948, a year after India’s independence from British colonial rule, the Associated Press reported.

“Anekakrta,” literally translated as “composed or obtained by many,” has 15 other meanings.

“Sanskrit is not easy to translate,” Vinayaka Bhatta, the chief editor of the Deccan College Dictionary Project in Pune, India, told the Associated Press.

Scholars’ efforts to complete a catalog the 44-letter language, which so far have produced six volumes dedicated to the letter “a,” may seem like a Sisyphean task with limited relevance to the modern world. But to some,the project provides proof that Sanskrit, a 6,000-year-old language littered with metaphors, puns and complex tenses that has not been spoken in India for centuries, is far from dead.

“Some people say Sanskrit has no value,” Vanaya Kshirsagar, a grammarian who has been working on the dictionary for the past 18 years, told the Associated Press. “But you have to take care of your culture and your civilization.”

As one of India’s 18 official languages, along with Hindi, Tamil and English, Sanskrit is undergoing a revival as efforts to teach it in schools and re-introduce it as a spoken language gain momentum.

Indrajit Kumar, the State School Education Minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, recently told an Indian newspaper of plans to appoint 1,650 Sanskrit instructors to schools and provide scholarships for students wishing to study Sanskrit.

Then there’s the “Speak Sanskrit Movement,” launched by a group of scholars in New Delhi over 20 years ago, which claims to have succeeded in initiating more than 4 million Indians into speaking the language. The organization’s 18,000 volunteers teach spoken Sanskrit across the country with hopes of divorcing the language, traditionally spoken by Brahmin priests and scholars, from elitist connotations.

The revival of Sanskrit as a popular language may still be far off however, in light of scholars’ conservative estimate for completing the dictionary project _ at least another 50 years.

_ Alexandra Alter

University of New Orleans Sued Over Leaflet Policies

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A public interest law group founded by televangelist Pat Robertson has sued the University of New Orleans on behalf of a Messianic Jew who claims the school wrongly barred her from distributing a religious tract on campus.

Michelle Beadle, a New Orleans resident who works as a missionary, contends university officials told her she could not hand out the leaflet _ titled “You Can Say Anything … Almost” _ because it could be seen as offensive to members of the UNO community. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans by the American Center for Law and Justice.

The tract asserted that almost any subject is acceptable for polite conversation, but one statement still triggers an angry response from people: “Jews should believe in Jesus,” according to attorney Stuart Roth of the American Center for Law and Justice.

The lawsuit alleges that the university policy, which requires religious

material to be presented to a university official for approval, lacks sufficient guidelines for determining whether the material can be distributed.

University officials refused to comment about the suit.

“We do not discuss matters under litigation,” said Joseph White, spokesman for the university.

Roth said the school’s policy runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution in two ways: it violates the rights of free speech and due process.

“The literature may be offensive, but the First Amendment protects even

speech sometimes that people find offensive,” Roth said. “In a public place, you can’t deny people from distributing literature or engaging in speech activities.”

Beadle, a missionary for the Christian Jew Foundation Ministries, which aims to spread the word of Jesus to Jewish people, tried twice to distribute the leaflets in the fall of 2002. The first time, she had not solicited university approval to circulate anything, so she was in violation of existing university policy.

The second time, Beadle followed the rules and tried to get permission but was denied, Roth said.

The lawsuit seeks to force UNO to allow Beadle to distribute her literature and pay her legal fees. No hearing date has been set.

_ Nikki Usher

Quote of the Day: Elaine Bole, media relations manager for World Vision

(RNS) “Stuffed animals are universal. They have no social, political or religious boundaries. Iraqi children will love them as much as American children would.”

Elaine Bole, media relations manager of the Christian relief agency World Vision, about a shipment of relief supplies the organization sent in late July to Iraqi families that included stuffed animals courtesy of the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

DEA END RNS