Blacks Religion

This is a place where Baptist hymns, African music--and sometimes dancers--commingle with traditional ceremony. Where people clap to the music if they wish, applaud the choir, and feel free to say "Amen." Where red, black and green African-American freedom flags hang over the altar on either side of a crucified Christ, and the flag colors are repeated on the altar cloth. Where a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., painted by associate pastor Rev.

Sitting in one of the upper levels of the Los Angeles Coliseum, an African American man appeared skeptical as clergy on the field below called for racial reconciliation among an estimated 50,000 men, mostly white, at a Promise Keepers rally. He remained passive as first one white man, and then another, stood up as an act of public confession and repentance for racism on their part or their ancestors'. Soon another white man stood up. Moved, the black man momentarily buried his face in his hands.

Residents of Los Angeles County are much less likely to attend a church or to read the Bible than are residents of the nation as a whole, according to a new survey to be made public next month. But blacks who live in the county are far more likely to be involved in religious activities than are whites and Latinos. In a given week, only 35% of Los Angeles adults will attend church, compared to the national norm of 44%, the Barna Research Group in Glendale found.

About 250 African American churchgoers who want to govern their own religious affairs protested white control of the Seventh-day Adventist Church outside the church's Thousand Oaks headquarters Wednesday. Marching along Westlake Boulevard and singing songs of freedom that evoked the civil rights era, Adventist ministers and their followers from the Riverside County area said they wanted to form their own wing of the church.

Sitting in one of the upper levels of the Los Angeles Coliseum, an African American man appeared skeptical as clergy on the field below called for racial reconciliation among an estimated 50,000 men, mostly white, at a Promise Keepers rally. He remained passive as first one white man, and then another, stood up as an act of public confession and repentance for racism on their part or their ancestors'. Soon another white man stood up. Moved, the black man momentarily buried his face in his hands.

This is a trauma center. . . . When the Lord sends somebody here to be treated, everything's got to stop. --the Rev. Donald Clay The wide sweep of Central Avenue around 113th Street is quiet on this clear, sunny, Sunday morning. No signs of life are evident along the row of Watts storefronts, where New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church sits between B&B Cafe ("Coldest beer in town") and Alonso's Wrought Iron.

Hugh B. Brown, a high-ranking member of the Mormon hierarchy for 22 years up to his death in 1975, says in just-published memoirs that many church decisions called "revelations" were actually decisions first "thrashed out" thoroughly by the top authorities. Those decisions "are no less revelatory, but it is simplistic to think that it comes as a bolt out of the blue," said the memoirs' editor, Edwin B. Firmage, a grandson of Brown and a law professor at the University of Utah.

About 250 African American churchgoers who want to govern their own religious affairs protested white control of the Seventh-day Adventist Church outside the church's Thousand Oaks headquarters Wednesday. Marching along Westlake Boulevard and singing songs of freedom that evoked the civil rights era, Adventist ministers and their followers from the Riverside County area said they wanted to form their own wing of the church.

The worldwide religious struggle against apartheid in South Africa was among the top 1985 religion news stories, as ranked by religion writers and other church specialists. The effort against the system of racial separation, which caused confrontations with church leaders in South Africa and provoked hundreds of arrests for demonstrating at U.S. consulates, was picked as the top story in a year-end poll of members of the Religion Newswriters Assn.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil has read and written more books than most world leaders. He glides easily from campuses to campaign rallies, from book-filled rooms to smoke-filled rooms. So the setting was quintessential: the solemn, wood-paneled confines of the 19th century Royal Portuguese Library here. Academics and politicians gathered last month for the launch of "The World in Portuguese," a book of conversations between Cardoso and former President Mario Soares of Portugal.

This is a trauma center. . . . When the Lord sends somebody here to be treated, everything's got to stop. --the Rev. Donald Clay The wide sweep of Central Avenue around 113th Street is quiet on this clear, sunny, Sunday morning. No signs of life are evident along the row of Watts storefronts, where New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church sits between B&B Cafe ("Coldest beer in town") and Alonso's Wrought Iron.

This is a place where Baptist hymns, African music--and sometimes dancers--commingle with traditional ceremony. Where people clap to the music if they wish, applaud the choir, and feel free to say "Amen." Where red, black and green African-American freedom flags hang over the altar on either side of a crucified Christ, and the flag colors are repeated on the altar cloth. Where a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., painted by associate pastor Rev.

Residents of Los Angeles County are much less likely to attend a church or to read the Bible than are residents of the nation as a whole, according to a new survey to be made public next month. But blacks who live in the county are far more likely to be involved in religious activities than are whites and Latinos. In a given week, only 35% of Los Angeles adults will attend church, compared to the national norm of 44%, the Barna Research Group in Glendale found.

Hugh B. Brown, a high-ranking member of the Mormon hierarchy for 22 years up to his death in 1975, says in just-published memoirs that many church decisions called "revelations" were actually decisions first "thrashed out" thoroughly by the top authorities. Those decisions "are no less revelatory, but it is simplistic to think that it comes as a bolt out of the blue," said the memoirs' editor, Edwin B. Firmage, a grandson of Brown and a law professor at the University of Utah.