Americans have grown spiritually stagnant in the last decade, a new nationwide survey concludes.
Fewer Americans attend church, read the Bible, volunteer at church and attend Sunday school classes than did in 1991, according to the survey.
More than 1,000 adults were randomly picked for the survey by California's Barna Research Group, which since 1984 has been studying cultural trends in American religious beliefs and practices.
The Barna survey showed that while the majority of Americans remain interested in faith and consider themselves religious, little has changed for the better regarding religious practices in the last 10 years.
The number of adults who are classified as "born-again Christian" has risen about 6 percent from 1991, to 41 percent in 2001. But 40 percent of born-again Christians do not attend church or read the Bible in a typical week, three in 10 say they are not "absolutely committed to the Christian faith," and 70 percent are not involved in small groups that meet for spiritual purposes, the survey found.
Barna defines born-again Christians as "people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and also indicated that they will go to heaven because they confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior."
Women (45 percent) were more likely than men (36 percent) to be born-again Christians. Baby busters, people 18 to 35, were far less likely than their baby boomer parents to be born again. Thirty-three percent of busters are born again, compared with 49 percent of boomers, the survey found.
"Christian ministry is stuck in a deep rut," researcher George Barna said. "Too many Christians and churches in America have traded in spiritual passion for empty rituals, clever methods and mindless practices."
Israeli hostages: Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) led a bipartisan team of 30 senators Thursday in urging President Bush to make the return of three young Israeli soldiers and an Israeli businessman kidnapped by Hezbollah guerrillas last fall a diplomatic priority.
In a letter to the president, Fitzgerald and the other senators asked for the governments of Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority to step up their efforts to return the soldiers and urged Bush to "take into account the willingness of these governments and organizations to help in securing the return of these hostages when deciding whether to provide U.S. assistance."
On Oct. 7, Hezbollah guerrillas abducted three Israeli soldiers--Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Souad. One week later, Hezbollah kidnapped Elahanan Tanenbaum, an Israeli businessman and reserve officer. Hezbollah has refused to release any information about the men or to allow the International Red Cross to visit them.
Last November, the families of the three Israeli soldiers traveled to the United States, including a stop in Chicago for the United Jewish Communities convention, to ask for U.S. assistance in getting their sons back. For several months now, members of the Jewish Federation of Chicago and others have been wearing royal-blue ribbons in solidarity with the families.
"The United States must send a clear signal to the nations of the Middle East that America abhors the calculated use of violence and that the American people stand by Israel," the senators wrote.
St. Paddy's Day: The Rev. Daniel Coughlin, Chicago native and chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, will be the homilist for the St. Patrick's Day Eve mass at 7:30 tonight at St. Barnabas Catholic Church, 101st Place and Longwood in Chicago . . . Old St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 700 W. Adams, will hold its St. Patrick's Day mass and celebration at 9 a.m. Saturday. Doors open at 7 a.m. Mass begins at 9 a.m. There also will be a St. Patrick's Day community celebration at 12:45 p.m. Sunday. The Sheila Tully Irish Stepdancers and the Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band will perform at both. For more information, call (312) 648-1021.