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Black Churches Take Lead on Pressing Sudan Issue
A decade ago, when evangelicals made advocacy on Sudan a centerpiece of their campaign against religious persecution, many African-American churches were reluctant to join in. Today, however, black churches are increasingly at the forefront of the grass-roots momentum to end what the United States calls "genocide" in Sudan's western Darfur province. "What we've been able to do is to mobilize our numbers and to say that we're willing ... to lay our bodies on the line," the Rev. Sean McMillan of Chicago's Shekinah Chapel told the PBS program "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly." With preaching, protests and poetry, the churches hope to make Sudan an issue on par with the anti-apartheid activism that mobilized the U.S. religious community in the 1980s. The increased activism on the part of black churches comes none too soon. The United Nations has called Sudan the world's worst humanitarian crisis. In the 20-year war between the Arab Muslim north and the predominantly black Christian and animist south, an estimated 2 million people were killed. Famine, rape, abduction and slavery all became weapons in the conflict.
"While the rate of casualties from fighting has declined in recent months, the damage to the social and economic fabric in Darfur and the longer-term costs of this conflict are steadily becoming clearer," Annan said in a statement. He said some 3.2 million people were in need of assistance in Darfur, and there are some 1.9 million internally displaced people. An estimated 180,000 people have died since the fighting began. Sudan was first raised in many Americans' religious consciousnesses a decade ago as part of the evangelical-led grass-roots fight against persecution. A number of evangelical organizations had active medical and other mission ministries in southern Sudan that came under assault by government troops. "While it (Sudan) was a high priority among conservative evangelicals, it originally was just not on the radar screen of many black leaders," said University of Oklahoma professor Allen Hertzke, author of "Freeing God's Children," a book about faith-based advocacy for human rights. "The black churches were drawn into the struggle eventually," Hertzke added, "primarily because of the concern about slavery and the awareness that Africans were being abducted into slavery -- thousands of them -- by this regime in (the Sudanese capital) Khartoum."
Christian Magazines, Like Musicians,
Look around the magazine racks at your local Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble or Rite Aid and you may see some new titles amid the regulars. Charisma, a magazine principally aimed at Pentecostal Christians, this summer launched a concerted effort to cross over into the general market, following in the footsteps of Christian music and books that have made the leap from religious to secular shelves. And it's not alone: Precious Times, a quarterly publication for African-American Christian women, entered Barnes & Noble in April. Around the same time, NavPress Periodicals started placing its Pray! And Discipleship Journal magazines in stores like Borders. "As a publisher we would like to get our message out to a broader and broader audience," Stephen Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, said in an interview. "There's a new receptivity." Ron Sklon, a New York-based newsstand consultant, advised Florida-based Strang Communications to make the move. In September, Strang will launch two other titles, Vida Cristiana, Charisma magazine's Spanish language-format, and New Man, a men's magazine, in the general market. "We've been trying to encourage other Christian magazines to give it a try because we think the more titles there are, the better off we would be," Sklon said. So far, some are heeding the call to venture beyond Christian retailers while others are taking a wait-and-see attitude. Still others have been there all along. Christianity Today International has nine of its 11 magazines on some general market newsstands, such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, said Carol Thompson, vice president of circulation and marketing. "We're not out on the general newsstand as (it) relates to supermarkets, the Wal-Marts," she said. "We're back to exploring that, actually ... at the encouragement of Strang." Though their presence is "modest," some CTI publications have been in the general market for at least 15 years, she said. "We've always carried religious periodicals," said Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, in an e-mailed response to questions about publications on its newsstands. Though she wouldn't divulge sales information, she said, "There is interest, which is why we are selling them." Karen Burk, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the inclusion of Charisma in about 250 of its more than 3,000 stores fits into her company's attempts to satisfy customers. Other inspirational magazines carried by some Wal-Mart stores include Guideposts, Moment and Gospel Today. "What decides whether we're going to carry it or not is whether it's something we think the majority of our customers in that community are wanting us to have on our shelves," she said. NavPress Periodicals, a division of The Navigators, an evangelical organization, switched from two distributors to 18 last spring in an effort to "get into more outlets outside the Christian marketplace," said Dave Wilson, director of operations. He said their presence in the secular market is "still fairly embryonic" but growing. "I think there always has been an interest in it," he said. "I just don't think that there's been access to it." Unlike Charisma, which delivered about 50,000 of each of its summer
issues to 197 general-market retail chains, NavPress and CTI aren't ready to make that kind of a commitment, which includes significant printing costs and the risk that not all the publications will sell.
Vatican Review of Chastity in U.S. A Vatican review of U.S. Catholic seminaries will begin in September, with a special focus on how the schools prepare priests to "faithfully live chastely" under the shadow of the sexual abuse scandal. On-site visits will be made to all 229 U.S. seminaries by three- and four-member teams appointed by the Vatican, Catholic News Service reported on August 22. Most visits will be made this academic year, while smaller schools will be reviewed next year. In 2004, there were a total of 4,556 seminary students in the U.S., including 1,248 in college-level programs. The last "apostolic visitation" to U.S. seminaries occurred 20 years ago. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who heads the church's Military Archdiocese, will oversee the visits for the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education. O'Brien is the former rector of the North American College, the main U.S. seminary in Rome. Archbishop Michael Miller, an American who serves as secretary for the Education Congregation, told reporters in April that the visits are similar to the academic accrediting process in other colleges. "It's a time for stock-taking," Miller said at a seminar for U.S. journalists. "An apostolic visitation is not an investigation. It's a time to ask what are we doing, and how are doing it." The review was proposed three years ago during a meeting of U.S. cardinals and the late Pope John Paul II after the scandal erupted in Boston. The U.S. bishops promised "complete cooperation" with the visits in reforms they adopted in June 2002. Church officials will pay special attention to how seminarians are prepared to live a celibate life, and how they are schooled in moral theology and church teaching on sexuality. Gay Catholic groups are worried that the visits may become an inquisition for gay seminarians; Pope Benedict XVI reportedly is considering guidelines on whether the church should ban all gay men -- celibate or otherwise -- from the priesthood. The visits will encompass seminaries run by dioceses and religious orders (such as the Jesuits or Franciscans); about one-third of U.S. priests are trained by religious orders, according to Catholic News Service. Sirius Decision to Drop Gospel Music A decision by Sirius Satellite Radio to cancel The Word Network, a station broadcasting African-American religious programming and gospel music, has prompted more than 15,000 listeners to sign letters of protest. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and several Word executives delivered the letters to Jay Clark, vice president of programming for Sirius, at a meeting in which they urged Sirius not to cancel the religious station. They noted that Sirius is preparing to add shock jock Howard Stern to its lineup. Lewis Gibbs, vice president of operations for The Word Network, said the decision reflects a lack of moral consideration on the part of Sirius. "Our request is simple: If Sirius can make room for the values Howard Stern represents, we'd also like them to make room for the values we represent," Gibbs said. "Sirius has a slice of the public airways and therefore has a responsibility to serve the public. We had hoped Sirius would decide to serve the public interest as well as their own economic interests. Clearly, we were wrong." The day after the letters of protest were delivered to Sirius, three members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent letters urging Sirius to reconsider its decision. "We view the availability of family-oriented programming such as The Word Network as consistent with the promotion of the FCC's public policy objectives," wrote Reps. Elijah Cummings and Albert Wynn, both Maryland Democrats, in their letter. "The Word Network is truly unique in this respect, as it is the only network providing family value programming specifically oriented toward urban ministries and the African-American communities." Patrick Reilly, spokesman for Sirius Satellite Radio, said the decision regarding The Word Network was not unusual. "We at Sirius are constantly evaluating our programming," Reilly said. "We had a two-year programming agreement with The Word Network, and that agreement expires in September. We have elected not to renew the agreement." -- Hugh S. Moore
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