Profs. view evangelicals unfavorably
The majority of professors at America’s colleges and universities hold an unfavorable view of evangelical Christians that leads to prejudice and intolerance in the classroom, a recent study on educators’ religious opinions confirmed.
Evangelicals were the only major religious group to be viewed negatively by a majority of faculty, the study released May 7 by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research noted.
Among non-evangelical university faculty, 53 percent in a sampling of 1,200 said they held an unfavorable view of evangelical Christians while expressing positive feelings toward most other religious groups. One professor said he attributes the disdain for evangelicals to their Republican Party activism and their perceived opposition to science.
Gary Tobin, the institute’s director, said the results undoubtedly reveal “bias and prejudice” among the nation’s educational leaders.
“If a majority of faculty said they did not feel warmly about Muslims or Jews or Latinos or African-Americans, there would be an outcry,” Tobin told The Washington Post. “No one would attempt to justify or explain those feelings.”
Tobin found that 71 percent of faculty members agreed with the statement: “This country would be better off if Christian fundamentalists kept their religious beliefs out of politics.” – BP
Illegal downloads: high-tech thievery
eighty-six percent of teenagers polled by The Barna Group indicated music piracy – “including copying a CD for a friend or downloading non-promotional music online for free” – is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue. In the 2004 study, conducted for the Gospel Music Association, only 8 percent said such activities were immoral.
This is an “incredibly serious problem,” said Brian Mayes, president of Nashville Publicity Group. “I don’t think people outside of the music industry realize what goes into making an album, how many people are actually affected and receive their income through the sale of a record,” he said in an interview.
“It’s the mix engineer, the background vocalists, the studio players, the marketing guy at the label, the distributor and the guy who boxed the CD to send it to the stores – there are a lot of people involved who are counting on that sale,” Mayes explained.
According to the Barna study, four out of every five teenagers surveyed engaged in some type of music piracy in the six months before the survey – “including making copies of CDs for other people, downloading free music (other than promotions), or uploading their own music files to the Internet to share with others.”
Unfortunately, “born again Christian teens” behave no differently than non-Christian teens when it comes to sharing and downloading music illegally. “Only 10 percent of Christian teens believe that copying CDs for friends and unauthorized music downloading are morally wrong, compared to 6 percent” of their non-born again peers, Barna reported. – BP
Family breakdowns worry youth most
Family breakdowns leave a void that many youth today are looking to fill with spirituality, a pastor told the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune in conjunction with a study that found the issue that most concerns young people is the lack of a harmonious home.
“This generation is deeply marred by family breakdown,” said Efrem Smith of Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic congregation in Minneapolis, adding that many youth are victims of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce, and even children in intact homes feel neglected because of parents’ busy schedules.
“Kids understand that a strong, loving family is the core, the base, of what it takes to develop a moral compass, a sense of purpose, an identity,” Smith said.
With no moral compass or guidance at home, many youth are open to letting that void be filled by spirituality, Smith told the newspaper. They’re hungry for God because they’re hurting, he has found.
The study, conducted by New America Media, examined the hopes and fears of people ages 16-22 in California, a state that is home to 1 in 8 of the nation’s youth, the Star Tribune said.
Almost 90 percent of the youth said they hoped to get married and have children themselves, and almost three-fourths said religion and spirituality are important to them. – BP