March, 2004 (Vol. 19, No. 5)

A new generation of leaders is rising in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which might lead to changes in this influential Islamist movement, reports Paul Schemm in Middle East International (Jan. 23).

On Jan. 9, Ma’mun al-Hudaybi passed away at the age of 83. He was the last major figure of his generation. While the new leader, Muhammad Mahdi Akef, is nearly as old (75) and is considered “old guard,” his ascent to the leadership might allow the rise of younger leaders in their 40s and 50s with a political experience gained first on campuses in the 70s, according to several Egyptian analysts.

The new leader, who is more comfortable with the media than his predecessor, denies that there is any generational conflict within the Brotherhood. He is indeed reported to have “better relations with the middle aged generations than his predecessor”. But internal divisions within the group, especially the pressure of younger generations for more internal democracy, might become more apparent.

(Middle East International, 1 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DE; UK;http://meionline.com)

— By Jean-François Mayer

Ten years after a courageous struggle by the Catholic Church against Sicily’s Mafia, there is a loss of momentum in such efforts, even as religious and quasi-religious currents are now playing a prominent role in this criminal culture.

Britain’s The Tablet (Jan. 31) notes that 1993 marked the height of church protests against the Cosa Nostra, when the pope publicly condemned the crime organization and Fr. Pino Puglisi was murdered for his anti-Mafia activism. It seemed that the Mafia’s longtime ties to a complacent — and in some cases complicit — Catholicism had been broken, writes John Dickie.

But today the church has stepped back from confronting the Mafia, and is “more interested in celebrating a martyr [Puglisi] than in tackling the organization that killed him.”

Dickie writes that “recent research has revealed a majority of [the Mafia] membership, several thousand strong, profess themselves to be devout Catholics;”police raids regularly turn up private altars and images of Padre Pio and the Sacred heart in their hideaways. “There is something more disturbing at work here than just a self-interested borrowing of the paraphernalia of Christianity for evil purposes,” Dickie writes. The Mafia in Sicily is now believed to exist as a shadow state with religion serving as its “cultural glue.”

Cosa Nostra executions are seen as carrying out a “quasi-divine” justice and Mafiosi often refer to themselves as “`Christians’ or `Cristiani che corono’ — Christians on the run . . . Becoming a mafioso also means having a new identity, for which religious morality is often integral.” Although women have no role in the Cosa Nostra, their function of transmitting this religious culture in the home to the next generation is crucial, Dickie concludes.

(The Tablet, 1 King St., Clifton Walk, London W6 0Q2, UK)

Funerals are increasingly departing from traditional and somber rituals and assuming a more informal, flexible and celebratory nature, reports theNew York Times (Feb. 11).

Nationwide, but especially in the American West, funeral homes are embracing a trend known as “personalization,” where services are tailored to individual preferences. A deceased person’s ashes may be sent heavenward via helium balloons, or a minister may forsake the sermon and pass the microphone around to participants in a funeral service.

The development is a way of responding to the decline of the role of organized religions in funerals, according to funeral industry analyst Daniel Isard. Ten years ago, 90 percent of the deaths of Christians resulted in funeral visits and a service in a church or a chapel; today, only 60 percent of deaths result in both of these, says Isard.

He adds that “Our society is less formal, less dictated by formal relgions. It is more humanistic in dealing with death. Traditionally, ministers thought the eulogy was to make a person cry. People who attend a funeral like to see a two-to-one ratio — two laughs for every sob.” Thomas Long of Emory University says that these innovations represent a clear break from any funeral tradition. “It’s not as if old rituals are evolving to absorb new needs. It’s as if we’ve broken with tradition and people make things up.”

As the Salvation Army attempts to reassert its religious roots, the organization is becoming increasingly torn between its religious and charitable functions, reports the New York Times (Feb. 2).

The Salvation Army branch in New York has served as the flashpoint in the conflict. Long regarded as the least religious in its programs, the New York division recently reasserted its evangelical identity, requiring all workers to sign a form promising to carry out the Salvation Army’s religious mission. Many were not even aware that there was a religious mission component to their work.

The action prompted a “mini-rebellion among some long-time employees who resent what they see as an intrusion into their personal lives and the potential for religious discrimination,” writes Daniel J. Wakin. Similar conflicts have occurred in the Salvation Army elsewhere in the U.S. during a new reorganization plan, according to church officials. Part of the plan includes the provision that more Salvation Army members be recruited for jobs in the organization.

Dissenting employees plan to file suit against the Salvation Army, claiming that because the group is receiving public funds it cannot discriminate religiously. Under the Bush administration’s welfare policy, it is easier for churches and other religious organizations to use public funds for distinctly faith-based social services.

Likely to intensify the conflict is the decision by the Salvation Army to use most of the recently donated $1.5 billion (by the Joan Kroc, wife of the founder of the McDonald’s chain) for educational and spiritual rather than social service purposes.

As the burgeoning world of evangelical fiction grows more diverse, tensions are emerging over authors who are “crossing over” from the Christian to the secular markets.

The conflict is similar to the situation in the contemporary Christian music industry, where artists who seek to reach beyond the evangelical niche are accused of compromising their message. Charisma magazine (March) reports that Christian fiction has come a long way from plots about “the beautiful pioneer woman who falls in love with the widowed pastor. Characters in a sampling of Christian fiction published during the last year experienced contemporary problems: the death of parents or children, alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, divorce, losses associated with Sept. 11, homosexuality, cancer and drug use.”

The Christian fiction genre has particularly expanded in recent years to include subcategories that range from medical and legal thrillers to comedies. The Christys, an annual Christian fiction award, started in 2000 with 82 entries from 13 publishers has now grown to 137 entries from 26 publishers.

Christian fiction is now regularly published by such prominent secular houses as Penguin, Harper-Collins and Warner Books. With new authors signing on to big publishers, the lines are blurring between genres, leading many to wonder what makes a novel Christian in the first place, writes Natalie Nichols Gillespie. Some authors resent Christian publishers’ most of which are members of the Christian Booksellers Association) ban on off-color language and sex scenes and having their books shelved in the religion section away from other fiction and are seeking out secular publishers.

Some writers have been blackballed from the CBA publishers for their heterodox views, but other authors feel more censorship in portraying Christian themes in their fiction from secular publishers.

(Charisma, 600 Rhinehart Rd., Lake Mary, FL 32746)

Aside from generating controversy over its alleged anti-semitism, Mel Gibson’s new film, The Passion of The Christ, has become a new ecumenical icon among American evangelicals.

Gibson, an aderent to a traditionalist Catholicism that still views Protestants as heretics, is hailed in Christianity Today (March) as creating a vision of Christ that resonates with “all classical believers…In the history of modern evangelical enthusiasms [the movie] seems to be joining WWJD bracelets and Promise Keepers conferences as cultural markers.”

Promoters of the film have produced a “Passion lapel pin and witnessing card . . . Moving responses from oridinary believers and Christian celebrities havecirculated widely on the Internet, urging believers to see the movie. And Tyndale House has reinforced the movie’s influence by publishing The Passion, a coffee table book that integrates still photos from the filming with a harmony of the Passion accounts drawn from the New Living Translation.”

In the National Review (March 5), Ramesh Ponnuru writes that “In recent years there has been much discussion of `evangelicals and Catholics together.’ There has been joint political action and joint theological reflection. In the popular culture, this movie appears to be the most significant moment of such togetherness yet.” Writing in the New York Times Magazine (February 29), Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero agrees that “the culture wars no doubt have something to do with the evangelicals’ decision to close ranks with Gibson, who must be commended for so adroitly spinning the debate over his depiction of Jews into a battle between secular humanists and true believers.”

But the evangelical reception to the movie may mean that the portrayal of a “friendly Jesus” so popular in evangelical megachurches is “on the way out” and that the “self-esteem” gospel is being replaced by the “tough truths of the creed,” Prothero writes.

(Christianity Today, 465 Gundersen Dr., Carol Stream, IL 60188)

Scholars and other observers of American religion are realizing that immigration is more likely to replenish the declining ranks of Christian churches than create sizable blocs of world religions in the country.

In Christian Century magazine (Feb. 10), sociologist R. Stephen Warner writes that the “new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.” Warner notes that recent research shows two-thirds of immigrants are Christian and that even outside of the traditionally Christian immigrant sending countries, (such as Mexico) there is a large of segment of Christian immigrants, such as those from China, India and the Middle East.

Warner adds that with recent studies showing a large defection of mainly native-born Christians to the “no-religion” category, the Christian immigration is having a replenishing effect on the churches. While evangelicals and Catholics stand to gain the greatest percentage of adherents, the effect is also evident in the mainline churches.

Much of the recent mainline growth in immigrant communities is due to a change of strategy. The greater use of lay pastors in mainline denominations is spurring these churches’ expansion into new ethnic and immigrant communities, reports the Christian Science Monitor (Feb. 18).

The decision by mainline denominations, such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), to let laypeople baptize and preside at communion a few years ago to save ailing rural congregations is having the unintended effect of creating new urban ministries. These new churches are often led by laity who come out of immigrant and urban ethnic communities and can easily relate to the congregants in language and culture.

The link between lay pastors and expansion of ethnic congregations is suggested by church figures: Presbyterians have more than doubled the numbers of lay pastors since 1999 and during the same time have added black, Asian and Middle Eastern congregations while losing 126 largely white congregations. Between 1996 and 2001, the number of Asian lay pastors in the United Methodist Church has tripled from 19 to 59, while American Baptists and African Methodist Episcopalians are increasingly turning to pastors without seminary training to serve in urban immigrant congregations.

G. Jeffery MacDonald writes that the trend of forging new ties between immigrants and mainline churches “is helping many immigrants assimilate [as] denominational ties can help boost social status in an adopted country.” But he adds that the new approach is likely to challenge denominational cultures. The growth of lay pastors will go against the United Methodist pattern of moving clergy around every few years, as well as the emphasis that Presbyterians have put on a learned clergy trained in Greek and Hebrew.

There is, however, an attempt to rework seminary education and simplify the ordination process to meet the needs of the new immigrant clergy.

(Christian Century, 407 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605)