$10,000 to help Nepal M
oved by the earthquake crisis in Nepal, restaurant owner Vivek Kunwar gave $10,000
to Lutheran Disaster Response this May. Bishal Maskey, an ELCA Global
Mission staff member and frequent diner at Kunwar’s Himalayan Res- taurant, first told Kunwar about the church’s relief efforts in Nepal. Soon after they struck a deal: Kunwar agreed to host charity dinners at his restaurants in Niles and Gurnee, Ill., and Maskey, who is originally from Nepal, would provide entertain- ment with his “ragtag funky Nepalese band.” Kunwar said he chose to give $10,000—a portion of the event proceeds—to Lutheran Disaster Response efforts in Nepal because the ELCA uses “100 percent of dona- tions to save lives and provide relief in areas that have been affected by disasters.” The ELCA is working through
partners on the ground to support Nepali people who are rebuilding after two earthquakes struck in April.
Clarification
A news article on the changing influ- ences on personal identity (May, page 9) should have explained that those surveyed were asked mul- tiple questions and responded to each question separately. Thus the response percentages equaled more than 100 percent.
Correction
An article on the unification of lay rosters within the ELCA (May, page 8) should have said a recommendation from a Conference of Bishops task force an on entrance rite is intended to continue helping the church define and honor ministries of word and ser- vice.
July 2015 11
Survey: A
Christians lose ground, ‘nones’ soar same amount in South Carolina.
study released by the Pew Research Center in May said the U.S. is a significantly less
Christian country than seven years ago. Christianity still dominates American religious identity (70 per- cent), but the survey showed dra- matic shifts as more people move out the doors of denominations, shed- ding spiritual connections along the way. People describing themselves as
Christians fell from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent. This included people in virtually all demographic groups, whether they are “nearing retirement or just entering adulthood, married or single, living in the West or the Bible Belt,” according to the report. State by state and regional data
show: • Roman Catholics in Massachu- setts declined by 10 percentage points. Evangelicals fell by the
Reader call
For its December cover story, The Lutheran wants to know your favorite Bible stories or characters. As we consider in Advent how the Word became flesh to be among us, this article will highlight characters or stories that resonate with readers. Please respond with no more than 300 words (and your contact information) to erin.
strybis@thelutheran.org or The Lutheran, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631 by Aug. 15.
• Mainline Protestants, already slid- ing for 40 years or more, declined all over the Midwest by 3 to 4 per- centage points.
• The Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church, the country’s two largest Protes- tant denominations, declined by roughly the same—1.4 to 1.5 per- centage points.
• Every tradition took a hit in the West as the number of people who claim no religious brand contin- ues to climb. The nones—Americans who are
unaffiliated with brand-name reli- gion—are the new major force in American faith. Nones, at 22.8 per- cent of the U.S. (up from 16 percent eight years ago) run second only to evangelicals (25.4 percent) and ahead of Roman Catholics (20.8 percent) in religious market share.
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