A Catholic zeal for souls?

It wouldn't be a proper baptism rite without someone taking a photograph of the priest and the new members lined up for the service.

Anyone who studies these images from Catholic life during the 1940s and '50s will be struck by an obvious fact, said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola, Fla. The center aisles in those urban churches were awfully full during baptisms, including rows of adult converts.

Somebody was doing something right.

"It was just expected of a priest in those days that he would bring into the church at least 40 or 50 people a year. It was also the expectation of the parish that this would happen," said Ricard, during this week's conference of the U.S. Catholic bishops. "I know that times have changed, our culture has changed and attitudes have changed, which makes this a great deal more challenging. But, somehow, we need to recapture that spirit that we had in the past. We need to regain that sense of expectation."

There are a lot of Roman Catholics in America already - 61,207,914, according to the 1998 statistics. Last year, 69,894 adults were baptized and 92,155 converted from other churches. But while those numbers are rising, church leaders are wrestling with basic questions of Catholic identity, such as the spiritual health of the faith's schools and why so many Catholics live on the fringes of church life or have joined other flocks.

Thus, Pope John Paul II has called for increased efforts to reach lapsed Catholics and the unchurched. Almost every gathering of the hierarchy will include one report or workshop focusing on what Catholics call "The New Evangelization."

This week's Washington, D.C., conference was no exception. The bishops' evangelization committee said parishes must find creative ways to be more welcoming, to add new outreach ministries and to offer beautiful liturgies with better preaching and "appropriate music."

"There's so much more to do," said Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M. There are "so many people who are spiritually hungry. We must have a kind of renewed enthusiasm for sharing the faith. We need a kind of a good old-fashioned zeal for souls."

Part of the problem is that "evangelization" sounds like "evangelism" and, in this day and age, that word is almost exclusively associated with evangelical Protestants. Plus, if clergy and laity develop a "zeal for souls," this will almost certainly lead to divisive discussions of heaven, hell and saving souls.

This is controversial territory for modern Catholics. During his recent trip to India, the pope upset many religious leaders - including some bishops - by insisting that Jesus is the savior of the whole world and that it isn't enough for Catholics to do good works and dialogue with those in other faiths. John Paul II stressed that "there can be no true evangelization without the explicit proclamation of Jesus as Lord."

But the pope also said, in a proclamation about mission work in Asia, that non-Christians don't necessarily have to become Christians in order to save their souls.

Echoing the Second Vatican Council's efforts to modernize Catholicism's views of other faiths, he wrote: "From the first minute of time to its end, Jesus is the one universal Mediator. Even for those who do not explicitly profess faith in him as the Savior, salvation comes as a grace from Jesus Christ through the communication of the Holy Spirit."

Thus, Ricard said Catholics no longer believe that the main motivation for evangelization is to save lost souls. But this doesn't mean that priests are supposed to stop reaching out to lapsed Catholics and to non-believers. It is still good to make converts. It is still good to see people lining up in the church during baptism services.

Priests must be taught that this remains part of their vocation, he said.

"I guess that, in your typical suburban parish, we are consuming so much of priest's time in all these ministries with the people we already have," said the bishop. "There's so much for our priests to do already and, most of the time, they are simply not finding the time to lead others into faith in Jesus Christ."

Take the 'family' -- please.

The following quotations come from modern leaders in the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Confucian traditions. Here's the big question: Who said what?

* "The family is the basic social unit in society, and marriage is the fundamental institution."

* "The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life."

* It is "the family, more than any other unit in society, which constitutes a solid base for national life."

* "Throughout the centuries, the family has always occupied the central place as the primary social-religious institution."

For the curious, the answers are Muslim author Abdel Rahib Omran, the authors of the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Chinese scholar Chang Chi'i-Yun and Jewish sociologist Benjamin Schlesinger. The point of this exercise is to note that the world's major religions have for centuries maintained a remarkably degree of harmony when it comes to the role of the family.

Like it or not, religion remains a powerful force in world affairs. So it wasn't a surprise when traditional definitions of controversial terms such as "marriage" and "family" drew a hearty "Amen!" in a survey done in preparation for the second World Congress of Families, which meets Nov. 14-17 in Geneva. The Wirthlin Worldwide survey recorded the opinions of 2,900 adults in 19 countries in five regions - the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East and Africa.

"Religion and family are the opposite sides of the same coin," said Allan Carlson, president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, Ill. "Religion and family life feed off each other everywhere. When the level of religious faith declines in a culture, then that culture's views of marriage and family life begin to change, as well. The obvious example is Europe."

Researchers found that 84 percent of those polled worldwide agreed that, "marriage is one man and one woman." Meanwhile, nearly eight in 10 respondents worldwide (78 percent) agreed that, "A family created through lawful marriage is the fundamental unit of society." However, only 54 percent of Europeans agreed with that statement. On a related issue, 86 percent of those polled agreed that, "All things being equal, it is better for children to be raised in a household that has a married mother and father." Only 66 percent of Europeans agreed.

Meanwhile, 39 percent of those polled worldwide gave the strongest possible affirmation when asked to rank the importance of religious faith in their lives. It was 16 percent in Europe.

When asked how often they attend worship services and other religious events, 36 percent of global respondents said, "Once a week or more." In Europe it was 13 percent. And what about those who never darken the door of a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or shrine? Ten percent of those polled worldwide said they never attend religious meetings of any kind. In Europe, that number was 26 percent.

The rising secular tide in Europe is more than a statistic. European educators, artists and politicians have historically played pivotal roles in shaping world opinion, especially at the United Nations and in elite U.S. cultural institutions such as Hollywood and the Ivy League. In response, conservative religious leaders in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have begun forming interfaith coalitions focusing on social issues -- including breakthrough efforts between Muslims and Christians.

Conservative activists who gather next week in Switzerland will disagree on many political, cultural and religious issues, said Carlson. But they will have at least one uniting goal: to find definitions of politically charged words such as "marriage" and "family" that transcend the particulars of their cultures and these changing times.

"To be human is to be familial. That is the critical point we want to make," he said. "You can believe that we were created that way or you can refuse to believe that we were created that way. But anyone who studies marriage and family has to face this question and it is an essentially religious question."

Harry Potter and free will, Part II

Harry Potter had just triumphed in another face-to-face showdown with the forces of evil -- represented, logically enough, by a gigantic serpent.

But the young wizard also discovered darkness, as well as light, in his own soul. His ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets revealed that he truly was free to have embraced evil and the house of Salazar Slytherin, rather than the noble house of Godric Gryffindor.

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities," says Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This kind of scene is typical of the vaguely moral, "good versus evil" plots in many fantasy novels, said literary critic Kathryn Lindskoog, who is best known for her books about the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. Yet the Harry Potter books also specifically address the complex and confusing world of modern childhood. The characters are tempted to do what is wrong, as well as challenged to do what they know is right. They face real choices.

"The Harry Potter books are cute and naughty in that us-versus-them sort of way that kids like so much and I guess it is true that they contain some moral ambiguities," said Lindskoog. "Welcome to the real world. The question is whether these books tell children that they are supposed to choose good over evil. It seems to me that, so far, they are doing just that."

One thing is certain: millions of people are choosing to invite Harry Potter and his friends into their homes. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" recently grabbed the top three slots on the U.S. hardback fiction bestseller lists at the same time. British author Joanne Kathleen Rowling has promised four more books in the series.

The books have their critics. Some worry that they are too violent and, since Rowling has said future volumes will be darker and more complex, they are likely to become bloodier and more distressing. Others believe that the books may popularize witchcraft, in an era in which the principalities and powers of public education and popular culture would certainly reject, let's say, "Harry Potter and the Rock of Ages."

Nevertheless, evangelical activist Charles Colson and his radio-commentary researchers have concluded, "the magic in these books is purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic. That is, Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls and turn themselves into animals -- but they don't make contact with a supernatural world." Meanwhile, the characters learn "courage, loyalty and a willingness to sacrifice for one another -- even at the risk of their lives. Not bad lessons, in a self-centered world."

Fantasy fiction often causes controversy, stressed Lindskoog, because it blends powerful emotions and messages with symbols and stories that are wide open to different interpretations. But there are common themes that grace the classic fantasy novels. In an updated edition of her book "How to Grow a Young Reader" - which surveys 1,800 works of children's literature -- Lindskoog and co-author Ranelda Mack Hunsicker note that these works consistently:

* Emphasize the importance of personal choices.

* Focus on the "heroic thoughts and deeds of seemingly ordinary characters."

* Recognize the "presence of evil in the world and the need for vigilance on the part of those who love truth."

* Help the reader achieve a "clearer understanding of oneself and society without resorting to preaching."

* Provide a sense of hope.

The jury remains out on Harry Potter, said Lindskoog. But this frenzy is typical of the media fads that sweep through youth culture, including children's literature. Meanwhile, researchers continue to find increasing numbers of adolescents with cable-era television and VCRs in their rooms and, in 1998, 66 percent of American movies were rated R or worse.

"There is real evil out there and parents need to stay on guard," said Lindskoog. "So I hope parents are out there reading the Harry Potter books for themselves and discussing them with their kids. Anything that pushes parents to get more involved in the lives of their children can't be all bad."

Harry Potter -- Is he safe?

It was the kind of proclamation that mayors sign all of the time - with a twist.

"WHEREAS, Earth Religions are among the oldest spiritual systems on the planet; and WHEREAS, Followers of many earth-centered religions live and worship in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina."

Thus, Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick declared the last week of October "Earth Religions Awareness Week," in a rite attended by local witches and scores of singing children, led by a priestess in a long, black robe. A few days later, a witch read one of her favorite books to elementary schoolchildren.

No, it wasn't a Harry Potter book, one of those supernaturally popular novels about a youngster at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But a lot of people are having troubled welcoming witches into the public square - period.

"This is precisely the kind of thing that keeps happening these days and more people are getting concerned," said Joel Belz, publisher of World, a national evangelical newsmagazine based in Asheville.

After all, Harry Potter-mania is everywhere. The books recently held the top three slots on the U.S. hardback fiction bestseller lists and the top two slots on the paperback lists. British author Joanne Kathleen Rowling's books have been translated into 28 languages and she has promised four more books in the series. Hollywood is gearing up, too.

What's a parent or pastor to do?

"We know that what's in the Harry Potter books is not all bad and that lots of Christian families will read them and enjoy them," said Belz. "No one wants to be reactionary. But we have to take issues of good and evil seriously and we just can't endorse the kind of moral ambiguity that we see in these books."

Thus, the book division of God's World Publishing has stopped selling "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Customers made their concerns very clear, said Belz. Also, the editors at World magazine had decided to reverse course.

A May review focusing on the first Harry Potter novel said: "Magic and wizardry are problematic for Christian readers. Mrs. Rowling, though, keeps it safe, inoffensive and non-occult. This is the realm of Gandalf and the Wizard of Id, on witchcraft. There is a fairy-tale order to it all in which, as (G.K.) Chesterton and (J.R.R.) Tolkien pointed out, magic must have rules, and good does not - cannot - mix with bad."

But a new cover story argues that Rowling's work has evolved and now resembles the "tangled terrain and psychology of Batman." While the Harry Potter books may seem innocent, this "safety, this apparent harmlessness, may create a problem by putting a smiling mask on evil. A reader drawn in would find that the real world of witchcraft is not Harry's world."

Others are just as worried about the violence in the books. Earlier this month, the South Carolina Board of Education agreed to review the status of the Harry Potter books. In a quotation featured in news reports from coast to coast, Elizabeth Mounce of Columbia told the board: "The books have a serious tone of death, hate, lack of respect and sheer evil." These debates are not merely a Bible Belt phenomenon. Critics are speaking up in states such as Michigan, Minnesota and New York.

Meanwhile, Rowling has been touring the United States and offering this blunt advice: Anyone who is worried about the content of her books shouldn't read them. But she also has repeatedly warned her readers that the tone of the Harry Potter books will become increasingly dark and potentially disturbing. She is committed to portraying evil in a serious way, with characters that are more complex than cardboard cutouts.

"If you ban all the books with witchcraft and the supernatural, you'll ban three-quarters of children's literature," she told the Washington Post. "I positively think they are moral books. I've met thousands of children, but I've never met a single child who has asked me about the occult."

The drama of John Paul II

As his helicopter turned toward the Denver skyline and the Rocky Mountains, Pope John Paul II fingered his rosary and gazed at the 500,000-plus worshippers gathered in Cherry Creek State Park for the closing Mass of World Youth Day in 1993.

What the pope was thinking and feeling at that moment can be summed up in one English word, according to the American journalist and theologian who recently released "Witness to Hope," a stunning 992-page biography of John Paul. And that word is "Gotcha!"

Many bishops and commentators had expressed doubts that young people soaked in malls and MTV would rally around the aging pontiff. Yet the pope envisioned an updated version of New Testament drama in which St. Paul met the Greek intelligentsia in the court of Areopagus and sympathetically noted their mysterious altar dedicated "to an unknown god."

For John Paul, said Weigel, World Youth Day's success was a "vindication of his claim that you could take the Gospel into the heart of secular modernity. This is why Denver was chosen. It was chosen because it is a self-consciously modern and secular city. He was saying, 'We are going to the Areopagus and we'll have World Youth Day at the altar of the unknown microchip.' "

In that Mass, John Paul told his flock: "Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. It is time to preach it from the rooftops."

The young people prayed and marched and cheered, while legions of journalists debated whether a new generation was ready to obey this pope, or merely impressed by his star power.

This is a variation on a critical question about John Paul II. This pope survived Nazism and played a pivotal role -- if not THE pivotal role -- in the fall of Communism. But has he vanquished "cafeteria Catholicism," a do-it-yourself brand of faith that reflects this consumer-friendly age?

The most popular critique of John Paul, writes Weigel, comes from a chorus of secular media voices and leaders in Catholic academia. It argues that this pope is, despite his courage and impact as a statesman, best understood as an authoritarian who has opposed the birth of a collegial, flexible, modern church. This critique argues that John Paul has been especially oppressive to intellectuals and women and, thus, is ridiculously old-fashioned.

But Weigel flatly notes that 35 years "after Vatican II, John Paul II's intellectual critics, and in some instances his avowed enemies, remain firmly in control of most theological faculties in the Western world. If this is repression, it is repression of a very inefficient sort."

Thus, many Catholic conservatives - who yearn for the restoration of order and discipline in an era they believe is dangerously chaotic - now offer an equally harsh critique. They believe that John Paul has been a wonderful prophet and a sensitive priest, but say he has failed to be an effective king.

Weigel said it is important to remember that before he was a priest, bishop, cardinal and pope, the young Karol Wojtyla was an actor and playwright. Today, John Paul still believes that life is a drama with many acts, one in which actors must make leaps of faith from who they are to who they should be. And because of the drama he has watched unfold in his native Poland, the pope believes that the content of a culture is more important than political, economic and even military power.

John Paul has not been trying to win a battle. He has been trying to be a witness and an evangelist who confronts what he believes is a global "culture of death." The pope has refused to condemn the modern world, or to compromise with it.

"I think that the pope is a man who is utterly convinced that God is in charge of history and that the truth wins out over time," said Weigel. "He is quite confident that the best way to preach that truth is through the model of Christ - who did not propose the truth with a bludgeon, but with the example of his own life."

Catholic education (wink, wink)

Elizabeth Fiore didn't expect Georgetown University's freshman orientation program to include a condom demonstration.

When the mandatory safe-sex session was over, the student leaders apologized because policies on the Catholic campus prevented them from handing out condoms to needy newcomers. But - wink, wink - they could leave a few on a nearby table.

What was shocking was not the candid talk, but the assumption that students had already rejected Catholic teachings, said Fiore, at a conference backing efforts to give church authorities more clout on America's 235 Catholic college campuses.

"It is this attitude - the attitude which subscribes to society's shameless values system and superimposes it on young people at a Catholic university - that is just as harmful as the values, or the lack thereof, which it endorses," said Fiore, who is now a graduate student in theology at the Catholic University of America. "In addressing us as though we were sexually active, they have made a decision for us - they have presented an image to which we are, in some way, challenged to conform."

The question, she said, is not whether institutions such as Georgetown will listen to the views of non-Catholics and try to meet their educational needs. The question is whether Catholic educators will be just as sensitive to the concerns of Catholics who support church teachings.

For example, Fiore said she was glad the cafeteria served matzo bread during Passover and gave Muslims special take-home containers so they could eat at appropriate times during Ramadan. But she found it strange that the cafeteria served three meat dishes on Good Friday in Holy Week, forcing students who wanted to observe the Catholic fast to resort to peanut butter and jelly. The priests got fish.

The Jesuit campus has become a May pole for Catholic controversies - from the on-again, off-again decision to remove classroom crucifixes, to a campus lecture by Hustler's Larry Flynt, to a student's shame when Women's Center workers ridiculed her request for information on how to enter a religious order.

Many speakers at last weekend's Cardinal Newman Society conference focused on Pope John Paul II's "Ex corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church)," a philosophical map for Catholic education. During their Nov. 15-18 meetings in Washington, D.C., America's Catholic bishops will make a second attempt to implement the pope's views, amid ongoing protests by academics.

At some point, said a concerned outsider, Catholic leaders will have to answer two questions: Will church doctrines impact decisions about who they will, and will not, hire as professors? And, will they set limitations on the moral conduct of students, staff and faculty?

Either Catholics share some enforceable moral laws, or they do not, said Richard Williams, an administrator at Brigham Young University.

"Half-way measures will be worse than no attempt at all," he told the conference. An honor code or set of moral guidelines cannot merely contain "positions of personal preference, but rather the stuff that sins are made of, and you must not be willing to compromise for other more traditionally academic reasons. Be aware that in the climate of the current culture, any attempts to establish standards will be met with skepticism, if not derision."

But the last thing administrators can afford to be is vague, in an age when accreditation committees and lawyers split every hair in academic life, he said. Brigham Young has been able to enforce its faith's moral codes, and insist that Mormon and non-Mormon employees at least respect church teachings, because its policies are clearly communicated to each and ever person before they are hired, when they sign a contract and throughout their years on campus.

Catholic educators may be shocked at how many students will want to attend this brand of school and how many scholars will seek to teach and do research there, he said. Plus, building morally conservative schools will only add to the diversity of American higher education.

"There is a spiritual hunger abroad in the land that you can help to satisfy," said Williams. "Have faith that you will achieve the highest levels of academic excellence not in spite of your religious mission, but precisely because of it."

Hey Bauer! WWBD?

No matter where the young Billy Graham went, his evangelistic team always seemed to arrive a few days after Elmer Gantry left town.

Finally, Graham huddled with his inner circle during a 1948 tent revival in California. A key biblical text for the day was St. Paul's advice to his protegee Timothy: "Flee youthful lusts." The team quickly agreed on a code to cover money, the media, clashes with other clergy and, of course, sex.

"We all knew of evangelists who had fallen into immorality while separated from their families by travel," explained Graham, in his autobiography. "We pledged among ourselves to avoid any situation that would have even the appearance of compromise or suspicion. From that day on, I did not travel, meet, or eat alone with a woman other than my wife."

This private pact became known as "The Modesto Manifesto." There isn't a copy in the official Graham archives.

"I don't think they ever had a calligrapher write it up so they could have it laminated. But they never had a lot of trouble remembering what they were supposed to watch out for - with money and sex at the top of the list," said sociologist William Martin of Rice University, author of "A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story."

This idealistic code has become part of Graham lore and influenced life in Christian groups of all kinds.

Ask presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a Religious Right superstar who recently felt forced to respond to rumors that he was having an affair with a 27-year-old campaign aide. Former staff members - Christian conservatives, one and all - openly accused him of holding lengthy one-on-one meetings with a woman other than his wife and, thus, creating the appearance of impropriety.

Bauer has, in effect, being accused of failing to ask: "What would Billy do?"

It's understandable, said Martin, that others have tried to adopt Graham's lifestyle code. After all, the evangelist has survived a half-century under the gaze of reporters and scholars, emerging with an almost miraculously spotless record.

"People want to be able to get a copy of the Modesto Manifesto, hang it on the wall, and then say, 'Look, we're doing what Billy did,' " said Martin.

But it isn't clear that the same code will work for everyone in an era in which women and men share a marketplace bedeviled by changing gender roles and foggy laws about sexual harassment. Priests often hear confessions in private, one-on-one meetings. How about a pastor, facing a suicidal teen? A professor, discussing an ethical issue with a student? And, yes, a politician holding a confidential discussion of strategy?

Graham met the moral challenges that accompanied his work as an itinerant evangelist. Moving from crusade to crusade, surrounded by aides, he has been able to avoid one-on-one meetings with women other than his wife. Graham has, noted Martin, been known to retreat to solitude of his room when faced with a woman trying to give him a hug and kiss of fellowship in a public restaurant.

Bauer's most outspoken critics also have, like the candidate himself, spent years working with radio counselor James Dobson. The Focus on the Family patriarch of the Focus has deep roots in the ultra-strict Nazarene branch of Protestantism. On top of that, he is a veteran family therapist in an era in which that profession has been rocked by litigation and he-said, she-said scandals. Dobson makes Graham look like an Episcopalian.

Facing the media, Bauer begged to be judged as a politician. "I am not a minister," he said. "I am not a pastor."

Bauer is, of course, running as a moral conservative in the wake of the media storms that hit Gary Hart, Clarence Thomas and the current occupant of the White House. This week, Bauer said he was ordering a glass door for his office.

"In the circles that Gary Bauer works in, the mere appearance of trouble is bad news," said Martin. "It's safe to say that everybody should consider putting a window in their office door, these days. I imagine that the last few years of American life would be quite a bit different if Bill Clinton had learned to leave his office door open."

Home-schoolers: The Anti-Woodstock Generation

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Why not produce, thought conservative activist Paul Weyrich, a library of educational videotapes to help home-school parents? Perhaps even a cable-television channel that offered quality classroom materials mixed with a little wholesome entertainment?

"It made sense to me," said Weyrich, a veteran media entrepreneur and one of the founding fathers of the Religious Right. "But the idea didn't get very far. I've been asking home-schoolers about this for several years and a lot of them keep telling me, 'We don't have cable. We don't even have a TV.' Many of them are unplugged -- literally. "

These are not business-as-usual families, cookie-cut into the sizes and shapes on display in shopping malls, mail-order catalogues and, especially, prime-time television. They have unique priorities when they budget their time and money. They have radically different family values that often defy simple political labels.

In a strange way, home-schoolers are creating a new counter-culture outside the American mainstream. It's the Anti-Woodstock Generation.

No one has showered more praise on this crowd than Weyrich. He is ecstatic that 1.5 million or so children are now being educated at home, a number that will only rise in the wake of school-day disasters such as the bloodshed in Littleton, Colo. Even mainstream politicians are starting to pay attention, as symbolized by the GOP presidential hopefuls who paraded through last week's Home School Legal Defense Association convention in Washington, D.C.

"You have shamed the regular school system with what you have achieved," said billionaire Steve Forbes.

In Texas, Gov. George W. Bush said reverently, "we view home-schooling as something to be respected and something to be protected. Respected for the energy and the commitment of loving mothers and loving fathers. Protected from the interference of government."

But Weyrich went much further, in a speech sandwiched between the flash-bulb festivals that greeted the heavyweights. If there is hope for this culture, Weyrich told the faithful, "it's because of what you people are doing. Now what we need to do is replicate what you're doing in a whole number of other areas of American life."

Last February, Weyrich made precisely the same point in a controversial letter in which he said moral conservatives have won some political victories, but have done little to cleanse the "ever-wider sewer" of American popular culture.

"Politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture. What Americans would have found absolutely intolerable only a few years ago, a majority now not only tolerates but celebrates," he said. "Americans have adopted, in large measure, the MTV culture that we so valiantly opposed just a few years ago, and it has permeated the thinking of all but those who have separated themselves from the contemporary culture."

The Weyrich letter made waves for obvious reasons. Here was the man who coined the phrase 'moral majority' saying that the moral majority was gone. The founder of the Heritage Foundation was saying that America's cultural heritage was in ruins. The president of the Free Congress Foundation was saying that the GOP-driven Congress had sold out, on moral issues.

Meanwhile, home-school families were getting the job done, he said. They stopped spinning their wheels in existing educational systems and did something positive. Weyrich believes that the same thing needs to happen in entertainment, journalism, politics, higher education and even in many American religious groups.

But there's one problem. Remember all those unplugged TVs? It will be hard for home-schooled children to have any cultural impact, said Weyrich, if they've been systematically taught to reject all of their culture -- the good as well as the bad. This hit home when he tried to find talented Christian humorists to take part in an alternative television project.

"If we totally drop out, we aren't going to produce any alternative voices in American life," said Weyrich. "We won't have any humor or music or movies or literature or anything else that Americans will be able to turn to, when the culture hits bottom. We really can't afford to become the new Amish. That would be a disaster for us and, I believe, for America."

Travels with the battling baroness

ATLANTA -- As so often happens during her risky flights into Southern Sudan, Baroness Caroline Cox returned to England with a photograph that spoke volumes - even if she could not remember precisely when and where she took it.

It shows a naked, starving boy holding a tall cross, during an illegal rendezvous with older tribesmen. There are many demolished villages, since raiders serving the Khartoum regime keep trying to crush resistance in Christian and animist tribes. Cox and her Christian Solidarity Worldwide relief teams visit as many as they can.

The baroness turned and there he was. Click. This unforgettable acolyte had joined the remarkable collection of images this relentless human-rights activist uses as she circles the globe making her calm, yet fierce, appeals on behalf of persecuted people.

"In the cruel calculus of man's inhumanity to man, Sudan must rank amongst the greatest tragedies in the world today, with 1.3 million people killed and more than 5 million displaced by civil war," she said, speaking last week at The Gathering, a network of Christian philanthropists.

The room was silent for a moment. Cox already had shown her audience death, destruction, famine and slave markets.

"Look at this young boy, holding his cross," she said. "This is what our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church are doing - they are holding up the cross for all of us, out on the frontiers of faith."

Cox was named to the House of Lords in 1982, a bizarre twist in her career as a nurse, sociologist and gadfly in British academia. Today, she is a deputy speaker and, between trips into various corners of hell, the grandmother that many call the "battling baroness" pleads her case to politicians, bureaucrats, clergy, intellectuals, corporate executives and anyone else who crosses her path.

Her message is always the same. Look at these faces. Imagine what it would be like to experience what these believers have experienced. Pray for them. Help them. Learn from them. Do not forget them.

Click. Here is a starving mother and child in the Nuba Mountains. They could get food and medicine, simply by registering with government authorities - as Muslims. "It is one thing to choose martyrdom for yourself," said Cox. "It's another thing to choose it for your children. ... What an ultimate decision."

Click. Here is an exiled Catholic bishop during an illegal visit with his Sudanese flock. It meets under a tamarind tree, which he called a "beautiful cathedral, not built by human hands."

Click. Now she is in Burma, where military units called the Sa Sa Sa have terrorized the Karen and Karenni peoples, who are Christians, Buddhists and animists. Many victims were torched, while others had stakes driven through their ears. After worshipping in a jungle hut, Cox noticed that the church bell was a Burmese bombshell, cut in half.

Click. Now she is in Nagorno Karabakh, just north of Iran, which reporters describe as a cross between Switzerland and Vietnam. The capital city of Stepanakert was being pounded by 400 Azeri missiles a day, during one of Cox's many visits with the besieged Armenians. None of the missiles hit the solar panels that powered their emergency operating room. Her teams do not believe in miracles, said Cox. "We rely on them."

Click. Her last slide shows the ancient Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist, framed in helicopter blades that form a giant cross. This reminds her of farmer she met near the ruins of a village called Getashen, after a wave of ethnic cleansing by troops from Azerbaijan. This Armenian fled into the mountains, where he found shelter under a blooming apricot tree. Then he looked up and saw a 5-year-old girl caught in its branches, sliced in half. He vowed revenge.

Two years later, the farmer wept bitterly as he told relief workers that he never could bring himself to keep his vow and take revenge on an Azeri child. The missionaries tried to comfort him, saying he had done the right thing and shown the true meaning of dignity.

The baroness said that she would never forget his response: "Dignity is a crown of thorns."