MAY 29, 2007

SUMMER
Hot stuff: five quick story tips

Need inspiration for stories to fill out summer newsholes, broadcasts and blogs? Check out ReligionLink’s store of summer story ideas:

The drums of worship
Taking ‘sin’ out of the cinema
The church of baseball
Faith and fitness
Book ’em: the faith pages

The drums of worship

Drums have been called “God’s heartbeat” by worshippers, and they’re an integral part of the religions of cultures all over the world. But, with the exception of contemporary praise bands, they have not been widely used by American Christian congregations.

That’s changing. Fifty-eight percent of congregations that always or almost always use drums in worship grew larger in the last five years, according to a Hartford Seminary Faith Communities Today survey (see Page 12). And 93 percent of the largest Christian churches use drums in some way. Today, African, Brazilian, Indian and Korean drums have become frequent aspects of worship services in a range of denominations, from Catholic to Congregational, evangelical to Unitarian. The phenomenon isn’t restricted to Christians, either. Many Jewish congregations, especially in the Reform and Renewal movements, have incorporated drums and drum circles in worship.

Why are drums so popular? Some trace the trend to Robert Bly’s Iron John movement of the 1980s, which incorporated drum circles. Others say it is an attempt to bring a more masculine feel to worship and draw more men. Some cite the influence of missionaries returning from Africa and South America, where drums are an integral part of worship – another influence of the Global South on world Christianity.

Journalists can explore the different facets of this trend by looking at how local congregations are using drums. What do drums add to worship services? Who plays them? What kinds are used? What congregations use them? How do worshippers learn to use them?

SOURCES
• Bruce Adolph is the publisher of Worship Musician! Magazine. He can discuss the role of drums in contemporary Christian worship. Contact 253-445-1973, bruce@worshipmusicianmagazine.com.
• Marc Anderson has a DVD/CD titled Drums in the Church: A Practical Guide for Percussion in Christian Worship. He teaches workshops and classes and is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Contact 651-645-1496, marc@fathands.com.
• Sister Donna Marie Beck is director of music therapy at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. She is also a Catholic nun and the facilitator of a healing community drum circle. Contact 412-396-6086, beckd@duq.edu.
• Terl Bryant is a drummer and founder of Psalm Drummers, whose Web site describes itself as a network of drummers who use their instruments “to glorify Christ,” and the author of A Heart to Drum, published in 2006. He lives in Great Britain. Contact +44(0)7784 080258, info@terlbryant.com.
• Drummers for Jesus is an international Christian ministry that spreads the gospel through drums. The ministry is based in Rockwall, Texas, and has a list of chapters throughout the U.S. Contact via the Web site.
• Jan Gregory is an adjunct professor of liturgy, worship and spirituality at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn., where she teaches a course in drumming and worship. Contact 860-509-9500.
• Adair Lummis is a religion sociologist at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. She is the author of a paper, “Drums Along the Mainline: Churched Women in Drumming Circles.” Contact 860-509-9547, alummis@hartsem.edu.
• Rabbi Rayzel Raphael leads drum circles. Contact her in Philadelphia at 215-782-1221, rrayzel@shechinah.com.
• Layne Redmond is a drummer and author of When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm. She can discuss the spiritual and religious history of drumming. She is based in New York, N.Y. Contact via her Web site.
• Patricia Telesco is the co-author of Sacred Beat: From the Heart of the Drum Circle. She has been participating in drum circles for 14 years and lives in Amhearst, N.Y. Contact via Bonni Hamilton, director of publicity for Red Wheel/Weiser, bhamilton@redwheelweiser.com.

SOME DRUMMING CONGREGATIONS
• Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Springfield, Mass., has a Latino congregation that uses drums. Contact the Rev. Michael DeVine, 413-736-2742.
• The Metropolitan Baptist Church of Houston has four praise bands that use drums. Contact via the Web site.
• Mitziut Jewish Community in East Rogers Park, Ill., has incorporated drum circles in its worship. Contact Rabbi Menachem Cohen, 773-531-4001, mitziut@yahoo.com.
• St. Francis Episcopal Church in College Station, Texas, uses drums in worship. Contact Ray Petrillo, 979-696-6962, music@stfrancisonline.org.
• St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church at the University of Connecticut has drumming as part of its worship and offers classes to worshippers who wish to participate. Contact Fred Dauser, 860-872-3325, f.dauser@att.net.
• The Temple of Universal Judaism, Congregation Daat Elohim in New York, N.Y., uses drums in worship. Contact 212-535-0187, tujinfo@tuj.org.
• Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ferndale, Mich., uses African drums in worship and holds classes to teach worshippers how to use them. Contact 248-398-5510.

BACKGROUND
• Read an undated story by Joan Huyser-Honig about one Lutheran congregation’s decision to use African drums in worship. The article is posted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
• Read a Dec. 29, 2006, article in the Jewish Forward about drumming in Jewish congregations.
• Read a March 2005 essay about concerns about drumming in intergenerational worship. The essay is posted on the Web site of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
• Read an Aug. 7, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the popularity of drumming.

Taking ‘sin’ out of the cinema

Summertime is synonymous with fun and frolicking and, of course, blockbuster movies. Somehow spirituality doesn’t seem to fit into that equation. But amid all the skin, sin and car chases and explosions galore, a number of this summer’s films demonstrate a thesis that experts and entrepreneurs have been arguing for years: Movies are seedbeds of spiritual themes, sometimes overt, usually subtle, but almost always profitable. Spider-Man 3, which opened May 4, has already attracted much attention for its spiritual themes. Consider these other offerings:
• Knocked Up (opening June 1) is a romantic comedy about a one-night stand that ends up in a pregnancy and a dilemma about love and growing up in order to raise a baby.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 15) reprises the saga of the “first family” of Marvel Comics and at the same time renews the eternal themes of good and evil and superhero spirituality that form what might be called “the Gospel of Geeks.”
• Evan Almighty (June 22) is a sequel to the earlier Bruce Almighty, only this time Steve Carell (not Jim Carrey) is chosen by God (still Morgan Freeman) to carry out a divine mission — to build an ark and be a modern-day Noah who must save the world from a flood.
• License to Wed (July 4) is the latest Robin Williams comedy, but this time he plays a priest who puts a couple through what might be considered the marriage prep class from hell.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13) is the latest film version of the hugely popular young adult novels. The movie will take up Harry’s latest battle against the forces of darkness — and will likely resuscitate all the debates about witchcraft and kids and whether Harry is a role model or a danger, especially with the series’ seventh and final book making its debut a week later, on July 21.
• Shortcut to Happiness (July 18) is another update of the tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil for fame and fortune, but comes to regret his decision. The protagonist in this case is a down-on-his-luck writer in the tough literary world of New York.
• The Simpsons Movie (July 27) will bring all the zaniness — and spiritual values and laugh lines — of the mega-hit TV show, which recently aired its 400th episode and which was the topic of the book The Gospel According to The Simpsons. As a Publishers Weekly article put it, “It’s a Simpsons Summer.”
• Stardust (Aug. 10) relates another fabulous tale with deeper meanings as a young man in pursuit of love leaves his village to chase a falling star but winds up on a dangerous pilgrimage to a mysterious and forbidden land.

SOURCES
For experts and more resources, see ReligionLink editions on:
• A guide to experts on religion and pop culture (includes a “film” category)
• Gospel of dollars: Is Hollywood becoming Holywood?
• Harry Potter’s biggest battle: religion
• New movies blend religious and moral themes

Or check the archive of all movie-related ReligionLink editions.

The church of baseball

There’s no mistaking the passion baseball incites in many Americans. But for some fans the lure of baseball goes way beyond pennant drives and box scores; they have almost a mystical attachment to the rituals, the legends, the perceived deeper meaning of the game.

Some have called baseball a “civic religion,” and for some folks it comes close to a religion of sorts. Baseball stadiums and fantasy leagues gather the faithful together. Folks have written essays and books about the great mythical characters of the game and about what baseball tells us about life and character; some make annual pilgrimages to spring training camps. One pastor-blogger riffed recently about how “baseball, the greatest sport IN THE WORLD, would be the sport of choice had Jesus had the opportunity to sign up for T-ball.” And, as Annie told the world in the movie Bull Durham: “There’s 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there’s 108 stitches in a baseball.”

SOURCES
• Christopher H. Evans is Sallie Knowles Crozer Professor of Church History and director of United Methodist studies at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y. He is the co-editor of The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture. Listen to a March 28, 2007, interview with him on KUOW, an NPR station in Seattle. Contact 585-340-9596, cevans@crcds.edu.
• Some baseball teams – including the Atlanta Braves – have begun holding “Faith Days,” in which players share their Christian faith with fans after the final out. It’s optional – fans buy a separate ticket for the “Faith Day” event after the game. But post-game Christian fellowship has become a big money-maker in the minor leagues – in Nashville, Faith Day ticket sales jump by as much as 60 percent, according to a July 27, 2006, story from the Christian Science Monitor posted on the CBS News Web site.
• Prayer services and talk of religious values are common on some teams. Read a Sept. 18, 2005, Washington Post story about a ministry called Baseball Chapel and the practice of players praying before games. And read a June 1, 2006, USA Today story about the efforts of the Colorado Rockies’ management to build a team that takes into account Christian values and good character.
• Allen E. Hye is a professor of German and Danish at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and the author of The Great God Baseball: Religion in Modern Baseball Fiction. Contact 937-775-2739, allen.hye@wright.edu.
• Joseph L. Price is a professor of religious studies at Whittier College in California. He is the author of the 2006 book Rounding the Bases: Baseball and Religion in America. Contact 562-907-4803, jprice@whittier.edu.
• There’s a market for baseball-related religious toys. Check out the “Jesus Is My Coach” baseball action figure or the Bible Baseball board game available from Catholicsupply.com.

Faith and fitness

Some fitness gurus use faith to inspire people to get out on the hiking and biking trails and into swimming pools and gyms. This summer several contemporary trends -- faith, exercise and popular music -- are intersecting as Christian fitness gurus remind followers that their bodies are temples of the spirit. Many of them cite research that links health, prayer and stress management and believe that spiritual motivation can inspire health changes that exercise alone can't accomplish.

Some religious fitness gurus are repackaging fitness regimes with Eastern roots. Laurette Willis' 2003 Praise Moves video and DVD is one of several Christian alternatives to yoga, which has Hindu origins. The popular Billy Blanks, a Christian, offers the Taebo Believers Workout - Power Within. There's also a Jewish version of Taebo called Chai-Bo, which, according to a Web site on the subject, originated in the Shanghai Jewish community before World War II. Former Northern Exposure TV star Janine Turner has a new Christian yoga DVD.

Journalists can look for religious groups with fitness programs or ask congregations whether they're trying to replace the fat- and carbohydrate-laden traditional "church supper" and other meals with fresh, low-fat foods. Do local gyms get requests for music or classes that stress the faith side of fitness? (Christian Music Fitness sells Christian music to play while walking, power walking and doing aerobic activities.) Consider interviewing athletes and exercise enthusiasts who visit congregational fitness facilities. What do they say about the role faith plays in their workouts and accomplishments? Look for faith-based fitness in places outside congregations, too: Faith Gym, a nonprofit Christian fitness facility, is scheduled to open later this year in Barberton, Ohio, in a former Methodist church building where the sanctuary will serve as the main sanctuary; see an April 21, 2007, Akron Beacon Journal story.

Other resources:
• A flurry of instructional and motivational DVDs, CDs and books tell Christians that their bodies and souls should both be treated as a treasured part of God's creation. One of the most influential is fitness guru Donna Richardson Joyner's 2007 DVD, Sweating in the Spirit, which showcases her faith by combining an aerobics routine with a live gospel music concert that includes vocalists Martha Munizzi, RiZen and Byron Cage.
• Some religious fitness gurus are repackaging fitness regimes with Eastern roots. Laurette Willis' 2003 Praise Moves video and DVD is one of several Christian alternatives to yoga, which has Hindu origins. The popular Billy Blanks, a Christian, offers the Taebo Believers Workout - Power Within. There’s also a Jewish version of Taebo called Chai-Bo, which, according to a Web site on the subject, originated in the Shanghai Jewish community before World War II. Former Northern Exposure TV star Janine Turner htpp://www.janineturner.com has a new Christian yoga DVD.
• The faith and fitness movement goes at least as far back as 1844, when the Young Men's Christian Association was formed in London, England, incorporating exercise into an atmosphere of moral and physical hygiene for young urban male workers. Read a history of the Y at its Web site. A May 7, 1997, Christian Century article at Findarticles.com credits Presbyterian minister Charlie W. Shedd with starting the faith and fitness movement in 1957, when he published his book Pray Your Weight Away.
• In recent times, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, known as the father of the aerobic exercise movement, was among the first to articulate the connection between fitness and religion. In 1995 Cooper published Faith-Based Fitness: The Medical Program That Uses Spiritual Motivation to Achieve Maximum Health and Add Years to Your Life. Founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, Cooper told Faith and Fitness magazine, in an interview in the April-May 2007 issue, that complete fitness involves physical as well as spiritual fitness. Cooper urges church leaders to build more fitness facilities and to model healthful cooking at church dinners.
• An undated Soma Review ("dedicated to dissecting the human soul") article, "Faith-Based Fitness," cites research that religious people are more likely to be overweight and posits that the reason is that they're less dissatisfied with their lives and their bodies.

Book ’em: the faith pages

Whether you’re headed to the beach, airport, cabin or only a backyard lounge chair, the long days of summer bring vacation time to relax, catch up and dive into the pages of a book. Books about religious or spiritual subjects continue to draw readers looking for answers, advice, consolation and fictional escape. These books will be in readers’ hands this summer:

Potter countdown: While no Da Vinci Code-style novels are on bestselling lists this year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment about the boy wizard, is already No. 1 at amazon.com, and it won’t be published until July 21. Since the seven-book cycle began in England in 1997, critics have parsed it for moral and theological meaning. Connie Neal, who’s written two books about evangelical Christians and Harry Potter, says some conservative Christians have come to appreciate the way the Potter series uses fantasy to tackle the great question of good and evil, a central topic for religions. If you’ve written Potter stories before, check back in with any religious leaders who have been leery of the work. Does impact or longevity of the Potter phenomenon make a difference? Contact Neal, author of Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil in Harry Potter, Star Wars & the Chronicles of Narnia (InterVarsity Press, 2007) and The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the Stories of the World’s Most Famous Seeker, (Westminster John Knox, 2002), through her book publicists: at InterVarsity, Heather Mascarello, 630-734-4012; at Westminster, Jeannette Pascoe, 502-569-5000 ext. 5811. For more sources, check out ReligionLink’s Harry Potter issue.

Book pulpit: A handful of megachurch pastors, such as Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, sell millions of books. The current bestselling example of the book as pulpit is Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits by T.D. Jakes. Pastor of the 30,000 member The Potter’s House in Dallas, Jakes’ gospel is a blend of salvation and self-improvement. Contact 214-331-0954.

Jesus and Buddha: When a high-profile author offers a portrait of a major religious leader, the result is an easy bestseller. That’s the case with two very different books by two very different people. Jesus of Nazareth, released in May 2007, the first book written by Joseph Ratzinger since he became Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus has been a popular subject for scholars and authors recently, and the pope’s book is intended to correct some of those popular ideas. In a different vein, spirituality pioneer Deepak Chopra has written Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, a novelized version of the early life of the Buddha, also published in May. Despite their differences, the two books are comparable in their interest in making accessible to a wide audience the central figure of a long-established religious tradition. Check with local Catholic and Buddhist groups as well as religion scholars for their opinions of these two religious portraits.

Getting up to speed on Islam: The wave of publishing about Islam continues as writers from a wide variety of perspectives share their analyses and/or life experiences. The titles on various bestseller lists include:
• Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali;
• No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan;
• Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson;
• Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future by Joel Rosenberg;
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

Because the authors vary widely in their views of the relationship between Islamic and Western cultures, Muslims will differ in their assessments of these books. What do local Muslims say? Are local congregations or interfaith groups using currently popular books for study? What do local religion scholars say about the current bestselling books on Islam? A September 2006 ABC News Poll found that 58 percent of Americans said they did not feel they had a good basic understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam. Has the continuing post-9/11 rush of books helped change that, or has the new diversity of books about Islam complicated the task of understanding Islam?

Fiction: From mystical to inspirational, fiction can look at religious and spiritual themes more obliquely. Novels are most likely to be vacation reads. Some new titles: Ever After by Karen Kingsbury; The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho; The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon; Kingdom Come: The Final Victory (Left Behind #13) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Check with local retailers and book clubs.