A recent publication by Faith Communities Today offers a comparative look at the beliefs and practices of Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations across the United States. 

This report confirms much that was already suspected: the majority of Protestant churches are rural; Jews participate more readily in interfaith activities; and African-American churches offer a wide range of community services, such as tutoring, substance abuse and employment counseling.  

But the conclusions drawn in the booklet, “Meet Your Neighbors: Interfaith FACTs,” reveal much that is new too. For example, the study, conducted by researchers at Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research, shows that Muslims place more emphasis on abstaining from both alcohol and premarital sex than any of the other faith groups.

The booklet, which draws on data gathered in 1999 and 2000 as part of the “Faith Communities Today” project, is not intended to provide positive or negative evaluations of the different faiths. Instead, it is supposed to flesh out similarities and differences between the traditions and increase sensitivity to the nation’s diverse religious landscape.

The data collected here — mostly in charts and graphs — gives a picture of where each of the seven faith families is located and when it was founded. For example, the booklet shows that Jewish, African-American and Muslim congregations are predominantly urban, while the majority of white Protestant congregations are rural. For purposes of the study, the U.S. religious scene is split up into seven faith families: Old-line Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, African American Protestants, Reform and Conservative Jews, and Muslims.

Among the study’s more intriguing comparisons are the similarities between different religious groups. Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Roman Catholics, for example, place a high emphasis on family devotions, fasting and holy day observances.  Muslims and Evangelical Protestants encourage abstinence from premarital sex. The study shows that the majority of congregations, regardless of tradition, are involved in community service, with food pantries and soup kitchens the most common service offered. The information gathered for this booklet was culled from questionnaires with 14,301 pastors, rabbis, imams and lay leaders who were asked what practices their congregations emphasized most.

The study suggests minority faiths are growing fastest— perhaps because their numbers were relatively small to begin with.  Seventy-two percent of Muslim respondents said their mosques had grown by 5 percent or more since 1995. And 68 percent of Jews said their synagogues and temples had grown by 5 percent or more. In contrast, the majority of Old-line Protestants reported their churches did not grow, and both Old-line and Evangelical Protestants reported that 19 percent of respondents said they had lost 5 percent or more of their members during the final half of the 1990s.

The study also shows that religious groups reach out differently to new members. Liturgical churches, such as Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian congregations, have the hardest time designing special services intended to attract non-members, while Jews and Protestants are more flexible in creating worship services specifically geared at potential newcomers.

Finally, when it comes to leadership, Reform and Conservative Jewish congregations have the highest percentage of full-time clergy — 88 percent. Mosques, by contrast, reported the lowest percentage of full-time clergy — 45 percent. (This may have something to do with the different role of clergy. Islam does not have an ordained clergy, and the imam is considered a prayer leader.) Protestant churches have the highest numbers of active lay members — more than 30 percent — compared with fewer than 10 percent for Muslims and Roman Catholics. One reason may be that Protestants have more church activities outside of worship.

Carl S. Dudley and David A. Roozen, the authors of the study, said they hoped the comparisons would allow congregations to find similarities in faith practices, even if the doctrines remain different. And they suggest, in learning about others, religious groups may ultimately arrive at a keener understanding of themselves.

Is it self-serving to review the host site of this newsletter?  Perhaps, but the author of this review is not associated with the site and there is much that is newsworthy about the recently redeveloped Resources for American Christianity web site www.resourcingchristianity.org.  Not only does the site have a new look but it is considerably easier to use and features several new sections full of great information.  Most readers of this newsletter probably have some familiarity with the web site.  However, if you haven't visited the site in the past several months, then you definitely should make another trip back and check it out.

The new design has left the site with a more pleasing look, but an even greater asset of the redevelopment is the ease with which a user can find the information about selected projects funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc.   Not only does the front page now highlight the latest articles and additions, but the pull down menus make for considerable ease of use.  The search function on the site is first rate and allows for quite refined searches of the extensive database.  Even more helpful are the links from the search page to all the essays and interviews on the site.  There is a great wealth of wisdom about American religion in these essays and interviews.

The site's database of Lilly projects is intentionally not comprehensive of every project that the Lilly Endowment has funded in the field of religion. Nevertheless, the selected groups of projects highlighted for inclusion are of great interest and value to religious leaders and scholars.  The index of subjects covered by the site provides an overview of the depth and richness of the site as well as a different path for exploring what is available on the site.

A great way to get an overview of the religious life of an area is to use the tool attached to the Yahoo mapping site http://maps.yahoo.com/ or Mapquest www.Mapquest.com. After you put the address of your congregation as the mapping address and the map comes up, then find the feature that allows you to search for "Nearby Businesses" or the "find more nearby" in the Yahoo Smartview. You can then search for "churches" (or "religion" or "religious organizations" if you want a broader category) around your congregation.  This is a yellow pages type search so be warned that it may not be entirely accurate and it won't identify a congregation without a listed phone service. 

If so, there is a very simple way to switch between them. While holding down the Alt key, hit the Tab key to see a pop-up window of all your open Taskbar items. You can continue to hit the Tab key until you see the icon of the item you want to switch to, then just let up the Alt key and that item springs to the foreground of your screen.