November 10, 1999
Broadcaster sees Americans
searching for spirituality
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___ATLANTA (ABP)--A longing for "the well-lived life" is prompting millions of Americans to explore a variety of spiritual paths, says veteran broadcast journalist Bob Abernethy.
___That tops his personal list of significant trends in religion and ethics, the host of the PBS television program "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly" told participants in a"Leadership Edge for the 21st Century" conference sponsored by the Baptist Center for Ethics.
BOB ABERNETHY
___"So many of us are so busy, stretched so thin and in so many directions," Abernethy said. That stress causes people to crave for significance and meaning beyond everyday concerns, he explained. Many are turning to spirituality, though not necessarily to organized religion.
___"Go into any large book store," he said. "You'll find a few shelves on religion and a whole wall, probably, on the subject of spirituality."
___As his program, which airs on 200 public television stations and is seen by an average 500,000 viewers each week, begins its third year, Abernethy said he sometimes feels "envy" for the rich spiritual traditions represented by guests he interviews on the show.
___"We take religion seriously enough to cover as many different religions as we can, and what's most interesting that's going on with them, for a general audience," Abernethy said. "We're journalists, not televangelists, but we also know good journalism means getting at the heart of what people are talking about."
___While many Americans are interested in religion, most are uninformed about faiths other than their own, he said.
___"We in this country are so isolated religiously that we know a lot about what happens in our own church but not much, I think, about what goes on in another church down the street or another religion's place down the street," Abernethy said.
___"The audience generally is very interested in how somebody else worships," he said.
___Second to America's growing quest for spirituality, Abernethy ranked the increasing diversity of religious expression in the United States as a significant trend.
___"On anyone's list of what's going on, I think you would have to put religious diversity," he said. "We're not just Christian and Jew but just about everything else."
___Such diversity implies "great dangers," Abernethy said, "unless we are careful."
___The recent controversy over a booklet by the Southern Baptist Convention aimed at converting Jews during Judaism's High Holy Days illustrated the tension between respecting other faiths and carrying out what Christians believe "Christ called us to do," Abernethy said. "I think we need a lot of help with that."
___Later, during a discussion, Abernethy offered another example of misunderstanding between different faiths. A recent segment on the program featured Mark Wingfield, managing editor of the Baptist Standard, analyzing local reaction to the shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
___"We have on our staff a wide range of people," Abernethy said. "One of them is a very wise and smart, also secular, Jew. Our story was that a lot of people around Fort Worth after that shooting felt that what happened was an indication of persecution. They saw themselves as part of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, forces of light and darkness, and they saw the shooting as part of a culture generally that they think is hostile to them. And his understanding of this, my friend absolutely could not fathom that a Baptist in Texas could feel persecuted.
___"He said, 'Why? Why?' I said, 'Because they are Christians.' He couldn't understand it."
___While some may fear that dialogue among different faiths might cause people to "water down" their religious beliefs in order to reach consensus, Abernethy said the opposite has been true for him.
___"In my own experience, the more I learn about the faith and practice of other faith traditions, the more I want to explore the faith and practice of my own," said Abernethy, who said he grew up as a Baptist and now belongs to the United Church of Christ.
___Abernethy said he is frankly surprised America has handled its religious diversity as well as it has.
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