Mid-City Christian: RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY

This Week on Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

Following is a brief outline of the stories Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly will be covering this week. Every Friday evening, the transcript and streaming video of each report will available on our Web site . Please note that in case of breaking news, stories may be subject to change.

FEATURED SEGMENTS

Interracial Churches
According to scholars, American churches haven’t traditionally done a good job at being racially inclusive. After the Civil War, blacks and whites were kept apart in the pews, divided by slavery and Jim Crow. Not much has changed since then. In a study conducted by Rice University, only seven percent of U.S. churches are integrated and 10 times less diverse than the neighborhoods where they are located.

Lucky Severson explores efforts by churches — and the challenges they face — to establish more racially integrated congregations. According to Rice University sociology professor Michael Emerson, who authored the study on the make-up of churches in the U.S., “In the beginning stages, there’s often a lot of pain, a lot of confusion. A lot of people leave. Maybe there’s even anger. But if they make it through that, it becomes something that people just a lot of times will say, ‘I couldn’t live without it.’”

St. Nicholas Tradition
As children around the world anxiously await the arrival of Santa Claus with a sleigh full of presents, the image of this generous Christmas benefactor actually evolved from a fourth century bishop known as “St. Nicholas.” Born in Asia Minor when the new Christian faith was beginning to spread across the Roman Empire, Nicholas grew up in a wealthy family and joined the priesthood following in the footsteps of his uncle. He eventually rose to leadership in the early church and was named the bishop of Myra, a city on the southern coast of what is now Turkey. Throughout his lifetime and ministry, St. Nicholas shared his fortune and good will, becoming known as the “Gift Giver.”

Kim Lawton looks at what the Christian community is doing to reclaim St. Nicholas and keep his tradition alive today. “I believe that St. Nicholas and his tradition is something that needs to be recovered and now,” says Canon Jim Rosenthal, founder of the UK/USA St. Nicholas Society. “If we don’t recover this tradition, I believe that we are going to eventually lose Christmas — any semblance of a religious Christmas.”

Hanukkah’s Light
Hanukkah is the eight-day celebration of the Jewish Festival of Lights, which dates back to two centuries before the beginning of Christianity. It commemorates the Jews' struggle for religious freedom, recalling the successful Jewish revolt, around 165 B.C., led by the Maccabee family against the Syrians who had conquered and occupied Jerusalem. According to the story, when the Jews recaptured their temple in Jerusalem, they relit the lamps with only a one-day supply of oil. But the candles burned for eight days.

Jewish scholar and author Dr. Erica Brown explains the religious and cultural significance of Hanukkah’s eight-day holiday of lights. “We . . . don’t use the Hanukkah lights for anything else . . . They are a sacred sort of light while they’re burning,” Dr. Brown explains. “Hanukkah is a time where we take responsibility for the world — not only for ourselves but for spreading kindness throughout the world.”

ONLY ONLINE

Evangelical megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren will deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Revisit excerpts of past interviews at the following links:
Rick Warren on Saddleback
Rick Warren: A Broad Moral Agenda
Rick and Kay Warren
Pastor Rick Warren

Many Jews will celebrate Hanukkah, the eight-day Festival of Lights, from December 22 to December 29. Read writer Chaim Potok's memories of one Hanukkah when darkness almost overpowered the light:
Watch for the Light

And read about the significance of Hanukkah menorahs and candle lighting:
On Hanukkah

What do American religious leaders most hope for in the first 100 days of the Obama administration?:
The First 100 Days
More on the First 100 Days

WHAT'S AHEAD

December 26: "A Look Back at the Year 2008” — Bob Abernethy is joined by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton and CNN commentator Roland Martin for a discussion and analysis of this past year’s top religion and ethics news stories.

ONE NATION

Watch Kim Lawton’s report on Richard Cizik’s resignation from the National Association of Evangelicals amid controversy about his recent statements on civil unions and hear her analysis about why the incident shows a growing division among evangelicals over politics and ideology.

ON WIDE ANGLE

Check out the launch of a new online exclusive series of documentary shorts, "Focal Point." This new series will showcase the work of emerging and established independent filmmakers from around the world, and each episode is accompanied by multimedia components including audio interviews, filmmaker notes, and user-generated content. In the series' first episode, From Jihad to Rehab, viewers will go inside a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia, where art therapy and religious re-education are being used to reform militant jihadists.

THE LIFE OF MEANING

The perfect gift — just in time for the holidays! The companion book to Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, now available in paperback in bookstores nationwide, can also be ordered through Shop Thirteen. “The Life of Meaning,” edited by the program’s executive editor and host Bob Abernethy and longtime journalist William Bole, features a collection of insightful, moving and eloquent observations on life and how to live it by some of the most thoughtful men and women in America, and beyond. Among them are Desmond Tutu, Francis Collins, Marianne Williamson, Irving Greenberg, Barbara Brown Taylor, Harold Kushner, Madeleine L’Engle, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Jimmy Carter and the late William Sloane Coffin.