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Air Force Academy Cites Progress in Tackling Religious Intolerance

BY WHITNEY JONES                                                                                                ©2010 Religion News Service

A recent survey on the religious climate of the U.S. Air Force Academy showed that 41 percent of non-Christian cadets face unwanted proselytizing at least once during a year-long period.

 

The Cadet and Permanent Party Climate Assessment Survey, which was released October 29, analyzed religious, racial, and gender relations within the academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The survey detected an increasing trend in religious freedom since 1998, but points out persistent problems with proselytizing and religious tolerance.

 

"I'm encouraged by the mostly positive trends we saw from the survey, but I also know we've got some work to do in regards to the basics of respect and dignity towards each other," said Lt. General Mike Gould, academy superintendent, in a statement.

 

From 2007 to 2009, the portion of non-Christian cadets who believed there was a low tolerance for non-religious people at the academy increased from 30 percent to 50 percent, the survey found, which was down from approximately 75 percent in 1998.

 

Although the nine-year trend was positive, additional training on the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion was instituted in the 2010 basic combat training manual to address lingering issues of intolerance.

 

While the academy has made steps to address problems of religious intolerance, some believe the issues are being downplayed.

 

Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force veteran who launched the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said Gould is trying to "spin" the religious oppression as trivial. Weinstein, a longtime critic of the academy, was denied access to the official release of the survey.

 

"It is, of course, obvious why Gould barred MRFF," Weinstein said in a statement. "He cravenly wanted to silence all opposition and dissent to his farcical briefing."

 

The findings were based on the answers of 2,170 cadets (a response rate of 47 percent). Of the respondents, 1,337 were Christian, 128 were non-Christian and 252 stated no religious preference.

 

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3884

Knowles Elected Montana President

he Montana Conference Executive Committee, meeting October 18 in Bozeman, elected Merlin L. Knowles as conference president. Knowles, secretary for the Northern New England Conference, will fill the post left open when former president John Loor Jr. assumed the position of North Pacific Union Conference executive secretary.

 

Knowles has a rich history in the Northwest, attending schools in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in theology from what is now Walla Walla University, College Place, Washington, in 1979 and holds a Masters of Divinity from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, where he also hopes to complete a Doctor of Ministry in family ministry by the end of this year.

 

After beginning pastoral work in Mountain Home, Idaho, in 1979, Knowles went on to minister in the Gooding, Jerome and Caldwell, Idaho, churches through the mid-1980s. He has spent the last two decades in New England, leading churches in Maine and New Hampshire. He accepted his current role in the Northern New England Conference as executive secretary and trust services director in January 2005. With his wife, Cheryl, he has also co-directed the conference family ministries efforts.

                                                                                                    -- North Pacific Union Gleaner 

 

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3881

Leslie Pollard is Oakwood University’s
13th President, Succeeding Baker

LLU vice president returns to alma mater, where he also was a pastor

 

Dr. Leslie N. Pollard, an alumnus of Oakwood University – who also once served as pastor of the campus’ Seventh-day Adventist Church – was named the 13^th president of the 114-year-old institution on November 1. He is expected to assume his new position on January 3, 2011, and relocate to the school’s campus in Huntsville, Alabama.
 

Pollard, 54, is currently vice president for community partnerships and diversity at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. He succeeds Delbert W. Baker, who in June was elected a general vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Elder Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the General Conference and interim Chair of the Oakwood University Board of Trustees, made the official announcement at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time, as the board concluded its fall meeting.

NEW OAKWOOD PRESIDENT: Dr. Leslie N. Pollard, 54, currently Loma Linda University’s vice president for community partnerships and diversity, will become the 13th president of Oakwood University, a Seventh-day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama, on January 3, 2011.

Pollard was selected from an original pool of 24 candidates and three finalists. The two other finalists were Gina Spivey Brown, Ph.D., and Bertram L. Melbourne, Ph.D. Brown, the only female finalist, serves as Dean of the School of Health Professions, Science, and Wellness at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland. Melbourne is Professor of Biblical Language and Literature at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C.

Replacing Baker, who had served more than 14 years as Oakwood’s president, was not an simple task. Provost Mervyn Warren served as interim president as the school worked with the Myers McRae executive search and consulting firm, which specializes in higher education and is headquartered in Macon, Georgia. A search committee reviewed the 24 confirmed applications that were under consideration. The committee was comprised of representatives from Oakwood’s Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, staff, and students, the school said. It hosted four separate campus forums last week to allow students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and members of the local community to pose questions directly to the final three candidates.

Pollard’s commitment to excellence is seen in his personal quest for education. He earned a B.A. degree from Oakwood University and an M.Div. degree from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He earned the D.Min. degree in Preaching and Worship from Claremont School of Theology. Seeking higher-level fiscal and administrative development, Pollard earned an M.B.A. degree in Organizational Management from the La Sierra University School of Business. He graduated from Andrews University with a Ph.D. degree in New Testament Language and Literature, with specialization in apocalyptic literature.

Pollard's 32 years of leadership reflect local, national, and international service. He has served as senior pastor, a youth pastor, a university chaplain, a health-care program administrator, and an educational administrator at LLU. As a clergyman, Pollard has functioned as an evangelist, professor, ministerial educator, and leadership development facilitator to the General Conference family. He regularly leads denominational and non-denominational leadership and mission conferences all over the world.

Pollard's orientation to fiscal leadership emerges from his experience as senior pastor of major congregations, from administering university budgets and grants, and from his graduate business education. 

Pollard is a prolific writer, speaker, and engaged scholar, on the subjects of leadership, cultural competence, and mission. He has been married to the former Prudence LaBeach for 31 years. They are the parents of two daughters, who are both graduates of Oakwood University.

-- Reported by Adventist Review staff with information from Michele Solomon, Oakwood University director of public relations

 

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3880

Gallup: Most Religious Americans Have High Levels of Well-being

Gallup: Most Religious Americans
Have High Levels of Well-being

BY ADELLE M. BANKS                                                                                       ©2010 Religion News Service

The most religious Americans also have the highest rates of well-being, according to a new Gallup survey.

 

The finding is based on a survey of more than 550,000 people about their physical and emotional health and their work environment.

 

Overall, the very religious received a score on Gallup's well-being index of 68.7 percent, while both the moderately religious and the nonreligious received a score of 64.2 percent. The very religious were defined as those who said religion is an important part of their daily lives and they attend worship services at least every week or almost every week.

 

Researchers did not determine why the very religious had higher levels of health and happiness. "It is possible that Americans who have higher well-being may be more likely to choose to be religious than those with lower well-being," the organization said in an October 28 report announcing the findings.

 

But it is also possible that being religious can contribute to higher levels of personal well-being.

 

The survey was the result of a partnership between Gallup and Healthways, a Tennessee company focused on health. It involved a random sample of 554,066 U.S. adults between Jan 2 and July 28 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points.

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3885

Iranian pastor faces death sentence

http://www.baptistpress.com/BPnews.asp?ID=33969

Iranian pastor faces death sentence

Posted on Oct 29, 2010 | by Staff WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged President Obama Oct. 29 to pressure Iran to release a Christian pastor facing a death sentence.

Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor in Northern Iran, reportedly has been tried and informed verbally he will be executed for committing apostasy under Iran's militant Islamic regime, according to the commission (USCIRF). In an attempt to apply more pressure to Nadarkhani to recant his confession of Christ, delivery of a written verdict to the pastor has been delayed, according to Present Truth Ministries, which aids the persecuted church overseas. Nadarkhani will have 20 days to appeal to Iran's Supreme Court after he receives a verdict in writing, Present Truth reported Oct. 23.

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in October 2009 after he questioned the Muslim domination of religious instruction in the school attended by his children, USCIRF reported. He argued Iran's constitution allows parents to train children in the Christian faith. Nadarkhani's wife, Fatemeh Passandideh, also was charged with apostasy, but she was released this month after four months of imprisonment, USCIRF reported, based on sources in Iran and the U.S. government.

"This case is further evidence that there is no transparency or justice in Iran's so-called legal system for religious minorities," USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo said in a written statement. "The Obama Administration must continue to speak out, as Secretary of State Clinton did in August, for Iran's religious minorities. International pressure impacts Iran, and the regime has shown leniency in some cases where there is international scrutiny.

"Time is of the essence here. This man's life is at stake. We call upon our government and the international community to press for his release and ensure that Iran takes no extreme action in this case or in others like it."

The U.S. State Department has named Iran as one of eight "countries of particular concern," a designation reserved for the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

Iran's regime has abused human rights for more than three decades, and its weak record on religious liberty has declined further in the last year, USCIRF has reported. This has been true especially in regard to minorities such as Baha'is, Christians and Sufi Muslims.

"[P]hysical attacks, harassment, detention, arrests, and imprisonment [have] intensified," according to the commission. "Even the recognized non-Muslim religious minorities -- Jews, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, and Zoroastrians -- protected under Iran's constitution faced increasing discrimination and repression.

Leo said, "This pattern of arrest and harassment of religious minorities, coupled with increasing inflammatory rhetoric from President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and other leaders, has not been seen since the early years of the Iranian revolution."

Ahmadinejad has been especially provocative toward Israel, denying the Holocaust and threatening to destroy the Jewish state.

USCIRF commended Obama after he issued sanctions Sept. 29 against Iranian government leaders involved in violations of religious freedom and other human rights. The president's executive order authorized sanctions against eight senior officials in Iran's Islamic regime who, based on credible evidence, participated in "serious human rights abuses" before or during that country's 2009 presidential election. Obama's order means those cited will be subject to economic and visa penalties. The sanctions were the first under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, which became law in July.
--30--
Compiled by Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.

Study: More Link Christian Faith to Being American

The Adventist Review shares the following world news from Religion News Service as a service to readers. Opinions expressed in these reports do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Review or the Seventh-day Adventist Church. -- Editors

Study: More Link Christian
Faith to Being American

BY ADELLE M. BANKS                                                                                           ©2010 Religion News Service

As the U.S.A. has grown more diverse, more Americans believe that being a Christian is a key aspect of being "truly American," researchers say.

 

Purdue University scholars found that between 1996 and 2004, Americans who saw Christian identity as a "very important" attribute of being American increased from 38 percent to 49 percent.

 

Scholars said the findings, published in the fall issue of the journal Sociology of Religion, couldn't be definitively tied to a

particular event but they suspect the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could have played a role.

 

"We suspect that these events accentuated the connection between Christianity and American identity by reinforcing boundaries against non-Christians and people of foreign origin," said Jeremy Brooks Straughn, co-author of the study.

 

"Although we can't be certain of the underlying causes, our data clearly show diverging attitudes between American Christians and their non-Christian counterparts here in the United States."

 

Researchers found that non-Christians and those with no religious affiliation overwhelmingly rejected a link between being Christian and being "truly American."

 

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the General Social Survey, collected by the National Opinion Research Center, in which more than 1,000 respondents were queried in 1996 and 2004.

 

In a separate survey, Public Religion Research Institute found that 42 percent believe "America has always been and is currently a Christian nation." The survey, taken Sept. 1-14, was based on a random sample of 3,013 adults.


http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3878