RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH BECOMING A GROWING POLITICAL FORCE

MOSCOW — The glittering Christ the Savior Cathedral, a pale-white marble structure decorated with bronze statuary and swaths of gold leaf, is more than just Moscow's grandest and most opulent place of worship.
Built in the 1990s as a replica of a church dynamited by Communists in 1931, the cathedral symbolizes the Moscow Patriarchate's rising political influence — which may be greater today than at any time since the 17th century. It also serves as global headquarters of vast and expanding business operations that experts say are worth several billion dollars.
To tens of millions of Russian believers, the Orthodox Church is first of all a sacred institution, a pillar of the country's 1,000-year-old identity and culture.
The death of Patriarch Alexy II in December caused an outpouring of heartfelt grief, with crowds of people lining up to view his remains. On Feb. 1, top clerics enthroned Alexy's successor, Kirill — a towering figure with a gray-flecked beard and sonorous voice — in a cathedral filled with celebrities and political leaders. The first person to receive communion from Patriarch Kirill was President Dmitry Medvedev's wife, Svetlana.
These events would have been unimaginable in the Soviet era, when the officially atheist Communist government treated the devout like moral lepers and criminals, defrocking and imprisoning tens of thousands of clerics of all creeds. Now the church "has become a serious power in society," former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told The Associated Press in early March.
But critics claim that in the past decade the Moscow Patriarchate has sacrificed some of its spiritual authority in the pursuit of political power and commercial success. Some go as far as to compare the church to its former nemesis, the Communist Party's ruling Politburo. Roman Lunkin of the Keston Institute, which studies religion in the former Soviet Union, says the church has "turned into an authoritarian and totalitarian structure."
A priest who condemned the 2005 conviction and imprisonment of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a leading foe of then-President Vladimir Putin, was defrocked and appointed to guard a church store in 2006. Orthodox leaders said the decision was not political, but had to do with the priest's "discipline."
Bishop Diomid of Chukotka, who lambasted Alexy II's alleged subservience to the Kremlin, found himself demoted to the rank of a monk last year. The church accused Diomid's supporters of planning to seize power in the Patriarchate.
A church council excommunicated Gleb Yakunin, a priest and former lawmaker, in 1997 after he headed a government commission that concluded that most top clerics, including Patriarch Alexy and his future successor Kirill, were KGB informers.
The church has long denied these claims as "absolutely unsubstantiated" and said top clerics had to "communicate" with the Soviet Council on Religious Affairs, which forwarded their reports to the KGB. The church also claimed Yakunin worked for U.S. intelligence.
"Unfortunately, Orthodox Christianity is antidemocratic and hails authoritarian rule," said Yakunin, who spent years in the gulag for criticizing Soviet religious policies, during an interview in his Moscow office. Today, the 74-year-old priest leads the Apostolic Orthodox Church, a splinter group that is harassed by authorities in Russia and Belarus.
Despite the Russian constitution's legal separation of church and state, President Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin forged a political alliance with the Orthodox Church — an alliance that has continued under Putin's successor, Medvedev. Kirill is escorted around Moscow by a cavalcade of Kremlin security guards and was listed No. 6 on the government's list of state dignitaries.
Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst with close Kremlin ties, says the church has become "the Kremlin's Ministry for the Salvation of Souls."
Church leaders have blessed Kremlin plans to eliminate some social benefits for the elderly, called on Russia's youth to volunteer for military service in Chechnya and consecrated new warships and nuclear missiles, calling the latter "Russia's guardian angels." The church has also supported the Kremlin's official ideology, which asserts that Russia's unique historic role makes it unsuited for Western-style liberal democracy.
"The church is trying to offer a new anti-European Utopia," prominent writer Viktor Yerofeyev complained in a December article in the French newspaper Le Monde. "Its main principle: Russian values are different from Western values."
For the church, political loyalty has paid handsomely.
The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, is considering a bill to return to the church up to 7.41 million acres nationalized after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Both federal and local authorities have granted the church donations, tax breaks and broad immunity from government regulation of its businesses. Moscow officials, in particular, have helped the church raise money for favored causes — such as rebuilding the Christ the Savior Cathedral — by pressuring private business to contribute.
The cathedral itself reflects a dual focus on the spiritual and commercial. The structure has a dry cleaner, ATM machines, meeting halls for rent and convenient underground parking.
According to Nikolai Mitrokhin, director of a research institute that studies religions in the former Soviet Union, the church built its fortune starting in the 1990s through trade in tobacco and alcohol, through exports of oil and sturgeon, by the construction of shopping malls and hotels and by operating jewelry stores — allegedly with counterfeit bling. The church also runs book publishing concerns and organic farms.
A church spokesman, Father Vsevolod Chaplin, confirmed that the Patriarchate controlled many businesses. But Chaplin said neither the tobacco nor the oil business proved profitable, and claimed the church is no longer involved in them. He also dismissed the notion that the church's commercial deals had undermined its spiritual mission.
"I don't see anything detrimental if the church can invest in this kind of work," he told AP.
The Patriarchate does not make its financial reports public, but Mitrokhin estimates the Orthodox Church's annual income at several billion dollars.
This secrecy has led to allegations — denied by the church — that it has engaged in money laundering. "All of their financial streams flow in the dark," said Sergei Filatov, a scholar of religion at Moscow State University.
Today, the church says nearly half of its income comes from the four-star hotel in the Danilovsky Monastery, a short walk from the Kremlin, and a factory outside the capital that produces icons and other religious items.
The church sells religious goods in places like the golden-domed Holy Trinity monasterial complex in Sergiyev Posad, 100 miles northwest of Moscow, where on a recent day pilgrims lined up in the cold to kiss the sarcophagus of St. Sergius, one of Russia's patron saints. Many of the pilgrims stopped by some of the dozen shops peddling icons, calendars and refrigerator magnets, or pricier goods such as jewelry with images of Jesus or the saints.
Some Sergiyev Posad residents grumbled about the commercial atmosphere. "It's like a supermarket," said Alexander Bekker, 38, a martial arts instructor and a devout believer. "What spirituality are you talking about among these merchants?"
Other believers say that the church's affluence has helped spread the gospel, aid the needy and restore thousands of churches and monasteries destroyed or desecrated during Communist rule.
"We still have to rebuild what Communist iconoclasts destroyed," said Father Vitaly, 51, a priest from the central city of Vladimir. "Funds won't fly down from the sky."
Top church officials may live amid pomp and splendor. But many priests scrape by selling candles and souvenirs, charging modest fees for performing wedding and funeral ceremonies and blessing new houses, offices or cars.
"We trust in God, but rely on ourselves," said Father Alexander, a smiling 37-year-old priest, who consecrated a new office in downtown Moscow for $140.
Some experts say that the Orthodox-led religious revival has made Russia's post-Soviet political leadership a kinder, gentler group than their Communist Party predecessors.
"In Communist times, authorities completely lacked human, moral principles," said church historian Andrei Zubov, of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. "Now that many politicians are religious, they relate their lives to moral principles."

THE END OF CHRISTIAN AMERICA

It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March, he was struck by a single sentence. For a believer like Mohler—a starched, unflinchingly conservative Christian, steeped in the theology of his particular province of the faith, devoted to producing ministers who will preach the inerrancy of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life—the central news of the survey was troubling enough: the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent. Then came the point he could not get out of his mind: while the unaffiliated have historically been concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, the report said, "this pattern has now changed, and the Northeast emerged in 2008 as the new stronghold of the religiously unidentified." As Mohler saw it, the historic foundation of America's religious culture was cracking.
"That really hit me hard," he told me last week. "The Northwest was never as religious, never as congregationalized, as the Northeast, which was the foundation, the home base, of American religion. To lose New England struck me as momentous." Turning the report over in his mind, Mohler posted a despairing online column on the eve of Holy Week lamenting the decline—and, by implication, the imminent fall—of an America shaped and suffused by Christianity. "A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us," Mohler wrote. "The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture." When Mohler and I spoke in the days after he wrote this, he had grown even gloomier. "Clearly, there is a new narrative, a post-Christian narrative, that is animating large portions of this society," he said from his office on campus in Louisville, Ky.
There it was, an old term with new urgency: post-Christian. This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.

EARL PAULK, FOUNDER OF CATHEDRAL AT CHAPEL HILLS MEGA CHURCH ,IS DEAD AT 81

Bishop Earl P. Paulk, an influential evangelical preacher who helped build a Georgia megachurch but who was humbled by accusations of adultery and sexual misconduct, died on Sunday in Atlanta. He was 81 and lived in Decatur, Ga.

The cause was cancer, said Brandi Paulk, who is married to D. E. Paulk, senior pastor of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, as the church, founded in 1960 by Earl Paulk and his brother, Don, is now known.
As a preacher, Earl Paulk espoused “the kingdom message,” a once-controversial doctrine among evangelicals that renounces the idea that Jesus will return to rescue faithful Christians from an ever more sinful world. Instead, it declares that Christians do not need to be rescued and that they have earthly work to do, spreading their faith through their daily professional and personal lives.
Under Mr. Paulk’s leadership, the Cathedral at Chapel Hill was considered progressive and inclusive; it was racially integrated in the 1960s, long before many other white churches in the South welcomed black congregants. More recently, it has been accepting of gay men and lesbians.
An early example of what has become known as a megachurch, the Cathedral at Chapel Hill reached its peak membership in the 1980s and ’90s, when the congregation grew to 10,000 or more. The church housed a Bible school and broadcast its services through a television ministry.
In 1982, Mr. Paulk was among the founders of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches, a coalition of ministries on six continents. For a time he was its presiding bishop.
But Mr. Paulk’s influence and popularity waned — church membership is now about 1,000 — in large part because of his sullied reputation. At least as far back as 1992, numerous published accounts told of church women who had testified to his marital infidelity and accused him of using his position to manipulate them into sexual affairs. The accusations created a legal tangle for Mr. Paulk as well as a moral one.
In 2005, one woman, Mona Brewer, a church singer, sued him, and Mr. Paulk subsequently admitted to the affair. In a sworn affidavit, he later said that she was the only woman he had had sex with outside his marriage.
That was a lie. In October 2007, a court-ordered paternity test revealed that he was the biological father of D. E. Paulk, by then in his 30s, who had always been told that Earl Paulk was his uncle and that Don Paulk, Earl’s brother, was his father.
In January 2008, Earl Paulk pleaded guilty to lying under oath. He was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 10 years’ probation.
Earl Pearly Paulk Jr. was born on May 30, 1927, in Appling County, in southeastern Georgia. His father was a preacher, and young Earl began his own career in the ministry as a teenager in his father’s church in Greenville, S.C. He graduated from Furman University in Greenville and earned his divinity degree at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. In 1960, with his brother, he founded what was called the Harvester Ministry and later the Chapel Hill Harvester Church, before it assumed its current name.
In addition to his brother, who lives in Decatur, and D. E. Paulk, Mr. Paulk is survived by his wife, Norma; three sisters, Darlene Swilley of Covington, Ga., and Ernestine Swilley and Myrtle Mushegan, both of Mableton, Ga.; two daughters, Roma Beth Bonner of Oxford, Ga., and Susan Joy Owens of Conyers, Ga., eight grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
After Mr. Paulk’s death, his brother told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that Mr. Paulk still loved his wife, and that he had forgiven his brother, whom he hoped would be remembered for his good works.
D. E. Paulk’s paternity “makes no difference in my love for my brother or my son,” Don Paulk said. “In the world that we live in, people are human beings.”

MONEY WOES SLAM TOP CHRISTIAN BROADCASTER (SALEM COMMUNICATIONS); CRISIS THREATENS RELIGIOUS WEBSITES AND RADIO STATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Salem Communications, a Christian publishing and radio giant that owns nearly 100 radio stations nationwide and calls itself the No. 1 Internet provider of Christian content, has been branded a "bottom rung" company by Moody's Investors Service for struggling under the weight of $320 million in debt.
"People tend to reach out more to God and to Christian media during these times," commented Tom Scott, president of fellow Christian radio provider Sky Angel, to the Pacific Coast Business Times. "But economically, they just don't have their pocket book behind it. Not because they don't want to, but because it's just not feasible."
Salem, which operates well-known websites OnePlace.com, Crosswalk.com and Christianity.com, boasts 3 million unique users hitting their websites with 40 million page views per month.
But neither the company's strong web presence nor its publishing branch could overcome heavy losses affecting the radio industry nationwide.
According to the Radio Advertising Bureau, broadcast revenue was down about 10 percent across the board in 2008. And even though Salem was able to hold its drop to only about 6 percent, its balance sheet plunged from an $8.2 million profit in 2007 to a $30 million net loss in 2008, reports the Business Times. Salem's stock dropped from trading above $4 to around 50 cents per share.
Now, according to the Radio Business Report, Salem may have difficulty paying off $320 million of debt that matures in 2010, prompting a downgrade in the company's credit rating and a "negative outlook" assessment from Moody's.
"The negative outlook reflects uncertainty regarding the company's ability to address its looming debt maturities," Moody's said. "It also continues to incorporate concerns that Salem could face challenge complying with its financial covenants."

The California-based Salem was founded in 1986 and branched out into several media arenas, including publishing CCM, a top magazine covering the booming Christian music industry, and acquiring Xulon Press, a popular self-publishing company for Christian authors.
Salem also owns and operates nearly 100 radio stations in 23 of the nation's top 25 markets and syndicates talk, news and music programming to approximately 2,000 affiliates in more than 300 markets in the U.S.
The company's nearly 1,500 employees nationwide have been among the first to feel the company's financial woes.
Salem has responded to projections of additional losses in the first quarter of 2009 by cutting expenses 10-12 percent. The company is laying off 13 percent of its workforce, has stopped matching payments to 401(k) funds, and is adopting a 5 percent pay cut for all employees and a 10 percent salary cut for most management level employees.
Salem has also tried to counter the earnings slide by opening up new revenue streams, expanding into Spanish language radio and conservative talk radio, which some believe may experience a boon with a new, Democrat president in office.
"It's a little bit early to say whether it's going to move the needle in terms of listeners or revenue," Evan Masyr, Salem's chief financial officer, told the Business Times. "But I can tell you that Rush Limbaugh has been quoted saying he does better when there's a Democrat in office. We are doing events around the country in response to the change in administration."
Masyr told the Business Times, however, that despite optimism for the future, the company is focusing on cutting costs to balance the radio industry's loss in revenues.
"It's a challenging time for broadcasters," Masyr said. "We're doing everything we can to confront the challenges of radio and our capital structure."
WND attempted to contact Masyr for comment but received no response.

OBAMA SEEKS MUSLIMS FOR THE WHITE HOUSE POSTS; MORE THAN 600 GOVERMENT OFFICIALS SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama is conducting his own affirmative action program to get more Muslims in the White House.
The move began with Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn, who took his oath of office with a hand on the Quran, to solicit the resume of what he considered to be the nation's most qualified adherents of Islam.
According to the Denver Post, when White House officials heard about the program, it was put on overdrive.
So far, 45 Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and government officials have been submitted for consideration.

J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, sifted through more than 300 names as part of the search.
"It was mostly under the radar," Williams said. "We thought it would put (the president) in a precarious position. We didn't know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community."
Ellison is serious about his faith. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca with the sponsorship of the Muslim American Society, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 1991, Mohamed Akram wrote a memo for the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood that explained its work in America as "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."