April 2, 2003
Conference explores challenges facing marriage, family
By Kathy Gilbert*
ATLANTA (UMNS) – Modern families, sex in the scriptures, the role of religion in marriage and numerous topics in between were discussed by scholars from a variety of religious disciplines for three days at Emory University.
"Sex, Marriage, and Family and the Religions of the Book," was an intense discussion by more than 70 scholars on research papers with titles ranging from "Happily Ever After? Sex Marriage, and Family in National and Global Profile" to "Trends in Dating, Mating, and Union Formation Among Young Adults."
More than 600 participants, including over 200 students, attended the event, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and convened by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion at United Methodist-related Emory. The center was created in 2000 with a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. "Sex, Marriage, and Family and the Religions of the Book" is the result of its first two-year project.
Opening the conference, John Witte Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics at Emory University and director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, acknowledged current events might seem to overshadow the discussion.
In this time of war, devastation and bloodshed, contemplating the "intricacies and intimacies" of family life may seem incongruous, he said.
"It’s worth noting that there are three things most people will die for: their faith, their freedom and their family," he said.
Conference speakers repeatedly referred to the statistics:
- In the United States from 1975 to 2000, a quarter of all pregnancies were aborted.
- One-third of all children were born to single mothers.
- Half of all marriages ended in divorce.
- Two-thirds of all juvenile offenders came from homes of divorce.
- Three-quarters of all African-American children were raised without fathers.
- Divorce rates have doubled in the United Kingdom, France and Australia in the last four decades.
- Marriage rates have dramatically decreased, while illegitimacy, domestic violence, and sexually transmitted diseases have increased around the globe.
In one of the most spirited sessions, "I Do, I Don’t: The Cases For and Against Marriage," four panelists debated the pros and cons of marriage.
The panelists took on the tough issues of whether marriage should be celebrated as a community strength that makes men and women healthier and happier; abolished as a legal category that discriminates against single or cohabiting couples; maintained as a way of keeping fathers involved in childrearing; or kept as a societal control to ward off sexual chaos.
"Being married changes people in ways that make them, their children and their communities better off," said Linda J. Waite, director of the Alfred P. Sloan Center on Parents, Children and Work at the University of Chicago and co-author of The Case for Marriage. "Marriage is a public promise to stay together for life."
But marriages today are far from unbreakable since the "no-fault divorce revolution," argued Martha Albertson Fineman, professor of feminist jurisprudence at Cornell University.
Given this and other changes in patterns of intimate behavior and gender roles, Fineman proposes that marriage should no longer be the only such privileged legal connection. A diversity of loving and reproductive relationships exists among adults. "Family is not synonymous with marriage," she said. "Why should marriage be the price of entry into state-supported subsidies of families?"
Indeed, marriage as a legal concept is problematic, said Anita Bernstein, Sam Nunn Professor of Law at Emory. "Marriage is thought of as freely chosen, but that isn’t 100 percent true," she said. "Some people want to be married but nobody will have them. Some people get jilted by their spouses or fiancés. And sometimes children suffer detriments based on their parents’ marital status. We do choose marriage in that we say, ‘I do.’ But most people who enter into marriage don’t know its legal consequences."
In turn, healthy, viable marriages encourage responsible fathering, said William J. Doherty, professor of family social science and director of the Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Minnesota. "Fathering outside a good-enough marriage is an endangered species," Doherty said. "In two-parent families, father involvement is more dependent on the wife’s expectations than (the father’s) own."
Also, fathers are more likely to withdraw from their children if the marriage is in trouble. "Fathering appears to be a triadic relationship," he said. "Men co-parent with mothers." Ideally, fathers would provide lifelong emotional and financial support for their children and their children’s mother, even if the marriage fails. But in reality, this may not occur.
"The utilitarian approach is not robust enough to ground an ethic of fatherhood," Doherty said. "We need our religious traditions to do that."
Rebecca Chopp, president of Colgate University and former provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University, took a look into the future with her report, "Sex, Marriage, and Family: The Challenges of the New Century."
She noted that the conference had emphasized "naming" the challenges of sex, marriage and family. "Naming – our responsibility and our opportunity – is the first clear act of humans in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and it runs through the scriptures as an act of blessing, responsibility and power," she said.
No transformation of marriage and the family can occur without addressing "the heart of the matter," said Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago, in her session, "Happily Ever After?"
The family is "the site of our deepest longings and most terrifying fears," she said. "Families ... intensify every basic human urge, from our most generous capacities to give life to and sustain others to our most passionate desires to dominate. Families nurture us, care for us, mold us, or damage us, and send us out into the world either well or ill equipped for its complexities.
"The family is rather like the canary in the mine shaft," Elshtain said. "It gives us an early warning system of where things are wounded and broken and need to be healed or mended."
Go to the Web site http://www.law.emory.edu/cisr/news.htm to view Webcasts and highlights of the conference.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn.
top
April 2, 2003
Church agencies help NAACP host rally at Supreme Court
By Joretta Purdue*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) – Tents filled the small yard at the United Methodist Building, providing support for the rally under way across the street at the Supreme Court.
Inside the courthouse, the justices were to hear arguments in two cases – Grutter vs. Bollinger and Gratz vs. Bollinger – concerning affirmative action in University of Michigan admissions policies. The court’s decision, expected this summer, will have implications for affirmative-action policies nationwide.
Police lined up to keep the rally participants on the sidewalk, but the crowd grew to fill the four-lane street. Thousands had traveled great distances to express concern about the potential erosion of affirmative action.
The April 1 rally, sponsored by the NAACP, drew appearances by people such as Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and the Rev. Al Sharpton, as well as several United Methodist Church executives.
Jim Winkler, chief executive of the Board of Church and Society, pointed to the denomination’s strong stand in support of affirmative action.
"It is an intentional effort to ensure that racial and ethnic minorities and women of all colors have the chance to receive all the benefits of our society including education, employment and housing," Winkler said in a statement. "The church believes affirmative action opens doors so that all persons will have the opportunity to pursue the American dream."
The board, which owns the United Methodist Building, together with the denomination’s Commission on Religion and Race and the Washington Office of Public Policy, Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries, joined in welcoming the rally, which spilled into adjoining streets and continued throughout the morning. The previous night, hundreds of college students wrapped in blankets had held a vigil in front of the court.
"Affirmative action has been incorrectly labeled as giving preferential treatment to people of color who are often less qualified," said the Rev. Chester Jones in his statement. Jones is the chief executive of the Commission on Religion and Race. "In reality, as admissions and employment decisions are being made, race and ethnicity are one of many considerations."
Other factors, including academic achievement, athletic abilities and family history, are also considered in such decisions, he said.
"The vast majority of affirmative action programs do not consider unqualified applicants in the same pool as qualified applicants but rather consider candidates who are very similarly qualified," Jones said.
Although affirmative action is perceived as harmful to white men, "white men hold structural power in society today," he said. "According to a Washington Post study, the vast majority of corporate executives, political officeholders, tenured professors (and) even small-business owners are white men."
The number of white people who have entered the nation’s 10 most elite institutions of higher education through alumni preference is higher than the number of blacks and Hispanics who have entered through affirmative action, Jones said.
"Creating a society of opportunity for all people is what is at stake in the Michigan affirmative action case," he asserted. "Institutionalized segregation of the past and present still requires the remedy of affirmative action to provide opportunity where opportunities have been and still are being denied."
Jones urged United Methodists in their conference commissions on religion and race to encourage colleges and universities in their areas to value racial diversity in admission policies. He suggested monitoring how church-related institutions work for a diverse student body.
He observed that 11 historically black colleges and universities are related to the United Methodist Church. They were founded in a day when black students were denied admission to most colleges. "Black institutions still lead in educating the black community largely because racism still plagues society," he said.
"Given the misconceptions that abound in the debate over affirmative action, there are several reasons why we, as United Methodists, should continue to stand strong in our support of affirmative action," Jones said.
Both men pointed to the denomination’s resolution on affirmative action – No. 150 in the 2000 Book of Resolutions. It says, in part, "No persons – whatever their gender, their ethnic or racial heritage, their physical condition – should be deprived of pursuing their education or employment aspirations to the full extent of their talents and abilities."
*Purdue is United Methodist News Service’s Washington news director.
top
April 1, 2003
Churches ‘need to know’ about biochemical threat: doctor
By Erik Alsgaard*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) – When church disaster-response officials gathered recently to review emergency preparedness plans, they also began a task that was a grim sign of the times: developing a resource for congregations on biochemical terrorism.
Representatives from the Baltimore-Washington Conference Disaster Response Committee met March 28 to review plans already in place for natural disaster assistance.
Dr. Chet Clarke, a biochemical expert and member of Bethany United Methodist Church in Ellicott City, Md., attended the meeting. He brought news that was at times chilling, at times encouraging.
"My greatest fear is a lack of education," he said. "Churches need to know what the six major biochemical agents are. We need to know what are contagious and which are not. Panic in an uneducated populace can be used as a weapon; it can kill."
Clarke, an expert in researching the incubation period of pneumonic plague and smallpox, told the group about substances that could be involved in a bioterrorist attack.
Smallpox – "Very contagious and very lethal," Clarke said. According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, "Smallpox is a serious, contagious and sometimes fatal infectious disease. There is no specific treatment for smallpox disease, and the only prevention is vaccination." The CDC describes two clinical forms of smallpox: "Variola major is the severe and most common form of smallpox, with a more extensive rash and higher fever. Variola minor is a less common presentation of smallpox, and a much less severe disease, with death rates historically of 1 percent or less."
Anthrax – According to the CDC, "anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax most commonly occurs in hoofed mammals and can also infect humans. Symptoms of disease vary depending on how the disease was contracted, but usually occur within seven days after exposure. The serious forms of human anthrax are inhalation anthrax, cutaneous anthrax and intestinal anthrax. Inhalation anthrax is often fatal. Direct person-to-person spread of anthrax is extremely unlikely, if it occurs at all. Therefore, there is no need to immunize or treat contacts of persons ill with anthrax, such as household contacts, friends, or coworkers, unless they also were also exposed to the same source of infection."
Pneumonic plague – "Very contagious," Clarke said. The first signs of illness are fever, headache, weakness and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough and a bloody cough, he said. Without early treatment, patients may die, according to the CDC. "To reduce the chance of death, antibiotics must be given within 24 hours of first symptoms," according to the CDC. A plague vaccine is not currently available for use in the United States.
Tularemia – "This is a bacteria that is very virulent," Clarke said. "It’s very infectious but not contagious." According to the CDC, a small number of Francisella tularensis (10-50 organisms) can cause disease. If used as a bioweapon, "the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation," but "manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication," the CDC says. People have not been known to transmit the infection to others so infected persons do not need to be isolated.
Botulinum toxins – These pose a major bioweapons threat, said Clarke, because of their potency and lethality. According to the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the toxin "is the single most poisonous substance known." The toxin "does not penetrate intact skin," according to the center, and natural cases of botulism are rare. "A deliberate aerosol or food-borne release of botulinum toxin could be detected by several features including: a large number of cases presenting all at once; cases involving an uncommon toxin type; patients with a common geographic factor but without a common dietary exposure; and multiple simultaneous outbreaks without a common source."
Hemorhagic fevers – Examples include yellow fever and ebola. "Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) refer to a group of illnesses that are caused by several distinct families of viruses," according to the CDC. "Characteristically, the overall vascular system is damaged, and the body's ability to regulate itself is impaired. These symptoms are often accompanied by hemorrhage (bleeding); however, the bleeding is itself rarely life-threatening. While some types of hemorrhagic fever viruses can cause relatively mild illnesses, many of these viruses cause severe, life-threatening disease."
Mustard gas is another possibility for terrorist use, Clarke said. "A potentially deadly chemical agent that attacks the skin and eyes – and one of the best known and most potent chemical weapons, mustard gas causes severe blisters and, if inhaled, can also damage the lungs and other organs," according to the Web site, www.terrorismanswers.com, produced by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Clarke noted that mustard gas is usually disabling but not fatal. Unlike the symptoms of exposure to other chemical agents, which usually appear immediately, he said, the symptoms of exposure to mustard gas appear later. "This makes mustard gas especially insidious, since victims can suffer damage before they even realize they need treatment."
Mustard gas has nothing to do with mustard, according to the Council on Foreign Relations Web site. "In some forms it is yellowish and reputedly smells like mustard, but its aroma has also been likened to the smell of horseradish, garlic and apples. At room temperature, it’s actually a liquid rather than a gas, but the name ‘mustard gas’ has stuck since it was used in notorious gas attacks during World War I."
Mustard gas is a blister agent and is less likely to kill large numbers of people than such nerve agents as sarin and VX, the Web site reports.
Sandy Ferguson, associate council director in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, said that working on a packet of resources for both natural and manmade disasters places the conference ahead of the curve. "The Baltimore-Washington Conference is being proactive in resourcing local churches," she said. "This resource will be comprehensive but not exhaustive."
The packet, she said, should be ready by June.
Clarke applauded the committee’s work on this issue, and said local churches play a vital role in responding to disaster.
"Right now, people don’t know where to go" in the event of a biochemical attack, he said. "That’s a big problem. Churches could help get the word out and assist the community in being places people could go to get help."
More information is available from the Centers for Disease Control, www.bt.cdc.gov, the National Center for Infectious Diseases, www.cdc.gov/ncidod, and the Council on Foreign Relations, www.terrorismanswers.com/home.
*Alsgaard is managing editor of the UMConnection newspaper and co-director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
top
April 3, 2003
Church, community rejoice at POW's rescue
By Tom Burger*
ELIZABETH, W.Va. (UMNS) - When Pastor Harold Francis activated the prayer phone chain at Elizabeth United Methodist Church to celebrate the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, he had little idea what he had started.
Francis simply invited his people to church in this Wirt County community near where Lynch grew up "to express awe and appreciation to God" for her safe return after nine days in the hands of the Iraqi army.
"Jessica has arrived safely in Germany," Francis announced. "We have every right to rejoice." Lynch is from the community of Palestine, near Elizabeth, the county seat.
"I thought it would be a small gathering of my congregation, but it got a little larger," Francis said of the April 2 evening celebration.
People from all over the county packed the modest, white-frame church, where they shared their joy after the rescue by U.S. special operations forces.
The troops rescued Lynch, 19, from an Iraqi hospital April 1. She had been missing since March 23, when the maintenance convoy in which she was traveling took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqis. After the rescue, she was taken to an American hospital in Germany. Her injuries include two broken legs and a broken arm.
West Virginia's Gov. Bob Wise was at the Elizabeth church, along with many local, regional and national reporters.
"God is still in the miracle business. If you don't believe that, then come to Wirt County," Wise said.
Francis led the service of prayer and song, giving everyone the opportunity to speak.
"The evening is to be informal," he said. "We are here to give people an opportunity to express their joys and to read a little scripture."
The pastor remembered those who still await word about loved ones listed as missing in action.
"I want to have a word of prayer for those families who can't celebrate tonight as we can," he said.
Since the war in Iraq began March 19, the church has been open for prayer, and the community had surrounded the Lynch family with love and care after her capture, according to Francis.
"We in West Virginia are a family," he said. "Beyond that, we are a family in the Body of Christ."
*Burger is director of communications for the West Virginia Annual Conference. This story was written with the help of Connie Dale of the Parkersburg (W.Va.) News Sentinel.
Back to the Top
