c. 2008 Religion News Service

Survey: White literalists less likely to vote for minority candidate

(RNS) More than eight in 10 white Americans would vote for a racial minority for president, but fewer whites who take the Bible literally or who worship in an all-white congregation would do the same, according to a recent survey.

Research from Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion found that 84 percent of non-Hispanic white Americans said they would vote for a racial minority if he or she was nominated by their party. But only 75 percent of respondents who said the Bible should be taken literally, and 69 percent of those who attend an all-white congregation, would vote that way.

“For many churchgoing whites, attending religious services does not bring them into contact with persons of other racial backgrounds,” said Kevin Dougherty, a member of a team of researchers for the 2008 Baylor Religion Survey.

“It is easy to be distrustful of another group of people when someone is not personally acquainted with anyone from that group. The 2008 presidential election will test the consequences of America’s continued religious segregation by race.”

Researchers found that about eight in 10 white Protestants would vote for a racial minority, while nine out of 10 whites with no religious affiliation would support a candidate of that description.

The findings from a sample of 1,325 non-Hispanic whites was part of the 2008 Baylor Religion Survey that was designed by the institute and conducted by the Gallup Organization. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

_ Adelle M. Banks

BYU yanks diploma from creator of shirtless Mormon calendar

(RNS) The creator of the calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries, who had already been excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now says Brigham Young University has yanked his diploma.

After finishing his degree online in June, Chad Hardy walked in graduation ceremonies in August, and while waiting for his diploma to come in the mail, found out he would not be getting one.

Church officials excommunicated Hardy in July for creating the calendar, which they believed was in poor taste.

“I was led to believe I had successfully completed my education,” Hardy said Tuesday (Oct. 21). But after a month of waiting for the actual diploma, he called the school to learn that his graduation had not been posted.

“My counselor informed me that there was a nonacademic hold on my diploma,” he said.

He then received a letter from the school’s executive director of student academic and advisement services, Norm Finlinson, saying his name had been deleted and he would not be granted a degree.

“They were aware I had been excommunicated,” he said, “and that was not a good honor. If I had been accused of adultery or apostasy, I’d be in the same situation.”

Hardy contacted Finlinson, but was told that the school would stand by the letter.

“You do not have to be a member of the church to go to BYU,” BYU spokeswoman Carrie Jenkins said. “Every student signs a principled-based honor code and on a yearly basis, students renew the agreement to uphold the code.”

Hardy was told he was not in good standing with that code.

“The church censored me, and because of that BYU can dig their heels in,” Hardy said. “The issue I have is that I’m already finished and they allowed me to walk at graduation. They are backpedaling to make an example of me.”

Hardy said he plans to file a civil liberties lawsuit against Brigham Young University.

_ Ashley Gipson

Catholics try to block Eucharist desecration videos

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Roman Catholics in North America and Britain are calling for a series of YouTube videos showing a Canadian teenager destroying Communion hosts to be removed from the Internet.

The Quebec teenager named Dominique, who tags himself “fsmdude,” has posted more than 40 videos featuring him desecrating the host, the small circular wafer that Catholics ingest during Eucharist service.

Dominique’s videos, many seen by more than 20,000 viewers, show the wafers being burned, hammered, placed in a blender, fed to animals and flushed down a toilet.

“If they want blasphemy, we’ll give them blasphemy,” Dominique says in one video.

The Toronto-based Catholic Civil Rights League claims the videos are “hate speech.” The organization and thousands of its supporters have petitioned YouTube officials to remove what they claim are sacrilegious videos.

The short clips were shut down for a few hours in early October, but soon returned.

Now YouTube, which is owned by Google, has “age-gated” Dominique’s videos. The videos have been marked as not appropriate for everyone, and restricted, ostensibly, to viewers over age 18.

To convict someone of hate speech, Canadian prosecutors not only have to prove someone is expressing contempt or hatred for an identifiable group based on their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion, but that he or she is also inciting others to discriminate against members of that group.

Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League, insists the Quebec teenager’s videos violate YouTube’s “community standards,” which do not permit hate speech.

“In August, YouTube took down a video of a teenager who urinated on the Holocaust memorial in Rhodes, Greece. That was not only the right moral choice, it was consistent with its own strictures. Catholics deserve the same sensitivity,” Donohue said in a public statement.

Dominique, in response to a series of videos that Catholics have put on YouTube to counter his videos, said he’s not attacking the religion, but satirizing the concept of transubstantiation _ the Catholic belief that the wafer and wine at Communion become the literal body and blood of Christ.

“I’m attacking the belief that this thing, this cracker, is someone that can feel pain,” he said, calling the host “just an object you can eat.”

_ Douglas Todd

Quote of the Day: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin

(RNS) “Faith in God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and choose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit.”

_ Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.

KRE/LF END RNS