Center on Religion & the Professions

Nov. 29, 2006 -- The Center for Religion, the Professions & the Public recently submitted its annual report to The Pew Charitable Trusts, which provides grant funding to the Center.

The report details what the Center has done over the past year to fulfill its goal of improving religious literacy among the professions. Activities included public forums; a survey on religion news coverage; academic curriculum development; a consortium on professional ethics; and research on spirituality and health. The Center is affiliated with the School of Journalism at University of Missouri-Columbia. Portions of the annual report are included here.

The Center participated in nine events around the country attended by more than 1,400 people, including policy leaders, professionals, theologians, ethicists, scholars, the public and journalists. Meetings focused on themes of religion and public life, including religion and politics, religion and investigative journalism, and religion and culture. Formats ranged from colloquy style to scholarly presentations. In addition, the Center assisted or participated in four other events and has plans for several others.

Harrington

"An Evening with Literary Journalists," held Feb. 22, 2006, featured Professor Walt Harrington, literary journalist and author or editor of six books on the specialty, plus panelists and four supporting faculty members of the Missouri School of Journalism. The event's purpose was to offer literary journalists an opportunity to discuss with citizens the public purpose of their work. Invited scholars also discussed the potential value of literary techniques as a means to communicate personal meaning at a level of intimacy that could be adapted by those who write about religion.

"God and the Commons: Does Religion Matter?" was held on April 17, 2006, organized by Professor Emeritus Edmund B. Lambeth and staff and moderated by Extension Associate Professor Sandra Hodge of the University of Missouri. It was attended by 20 citizens from diverse religious perspectives, including Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Protestant Christians, as well as several citizens with mixed-faith traditions. The event's purpose was to share with citizens of Columbia the experience of exchanging thoughts on various approaches to religion as a way of examining public life. These include a.) a secular approach to dialogue; b.) the Judeo-Christian perspective as a resource; and c.) tapping the civic potential of religion. This public session in the Friends Room of the Columbia Public Library used a study guide as the focus of the conversation. Several people who spoke shared their appreciation for the civil nature of the discussion, as well as desire to meet again to discuss other topics. A transcript of the event will be posted on the Center's Web site.

The Center brought philosopher Robert Audi, Ph.D., a David E. Gallo Professor of Business Ethics in the Department of Management at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, to speak on Sept. 21, 2006. Audi, a former president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, spoke on "Science Education and Church-State Separation" to about 85 students, faculty, staff and community members at a public lecture held at the MU School of Medicine.

He spoke about the challenge of teaching science in public schools in a society that has both separation of church and state and a commitment to religious freedom. Audi said that the nation's plurality of beliefs - some fundamentally religious - can make teaching topics such as evolution and the origin of the universe a challenge. In his lecture, Audi explored topics such as evolutionary biology, secular humanism in ethics, the multi-faceted character of religion and treatment of intelligent design in proposing a framework for teaching students with a wide variety of beliefs. He advocated neutrality toward religion in science courses, but not indifference to beliefs held by students. Audi emphasized that scientific method is not incompatible with a belief in God, endorsing cultivating a "scientific habit of mind" in all students.

Audi, who is co-editor of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Book Series, also spoke on "Ethics as an Interdisciplinary Enterprise" to about a dozen MU faculty, positing that an interdisciplinary approach to teaching ethics is appropriate, both applied and in theory, as nearly every discipline has ethical components, from law to business, technology and the media. It is appropriate to teach about ethics in religion courses as well, Audi said, but to understand that while religious beliefs can be ethical, ethical beliefs are not required to be religious in origin.

Debra L. Mason, director of the Center for Religion, the Professions & the Public, spoke Oct. 20, 2006, on "The Impact of Convergence on Religion News Coverage: Journalists and Students of Religion Reporting Explore Trends, Meanings and Uses of New Media" at "Convergence and Society: Ethics, Religion and New Media." The conference was held at the Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

Center staff member Justin Hienz attended the workshop, "Covering God, Elections & Gays: Workshops for Reporters," June 16-17, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio, which featured panels on faith and popular culture, God and politics in the mid-term elections, the Episcopal Church at a crossroads and an Episcopal Church leadership roundtable. His attendance resulted in publication of his paper, "Religion Journalism and Popular Culture," in the Center's on-line journal.

The Center also helped organize or publicize several events that contribute to learning in the field of religious understanding. The Center partnered with other MU centers that share similar goals in growing literacy of religion in health ethics, cultural tolerance and conflict resolution, among others.

"The Ethics of Biomedical Enhancement: The Olympics, the Tour de France, and the Future of Humankind," on April 27, 2006, at the MU Alumni Center, featuring distinguished lecturer Thomas H. Murray, Ph.D. Murray is president of The Hastings Center and was formerly the Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He served as president of the Society for Health and Human Values, and of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Murray has testified before many Congressional committees, and is the author of more than 200 publications. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology.

"Civilizing the New Century: Managing Communication and Conflict Across Cultures," on Sept. 18, 2006, in the MU Geology Building, featuring public relations expert and MU professor Glen Cameron, Ph.D. Cameron is co-author of "Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics" and "Essentials of Public Relations" and is currently writing the book, "Public Relations: Managing Competition and Conflict." He holds the Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair in Journalism, and is also a professor of family and community medicine and an adjunct nursing instructor.

"Ethics of the Health Professions: Dignity, Justice and Society," on Oct. 13-14, 2006, at the Alumni Center and Holiday Inn Select in Columbia, Mo. The symposium featured speakers Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., chairman of the President's council on Bioethics in Washington, D.C., and Daniel H. Winship, M.D., chief of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services in Chicago, Ill. Pellegrino is a member of the Center for Religion, the Professions & the Public's national advisory board.

Washington Post foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid spoke on Nov. 2, 2006, at MU Memorial Union about his experiences covering the Middle East and the war in Iraq. Shadid, an Islamic affairs correspondent based in the Middle East, won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for his international reporting and is the author of several books, including his latest, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War. Shadid is Lebanese American, born in Oklahoma, and has a fluency in Arabic and an understanding of Arab culture that give him rare access to and empathy for the people whose stories he tells. Shadid spoke to about 100 staff, faculty, students and community members, answered questions and signed copies of his books.

The Center continues to work with the 32 faculty members affiliated with the Center. Affiliated faculty come from a range of disciplines, including public affairs, theater, family and community medicine, social work, religious studies, advertising, journalism, health psychology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational therapy, agricultural economics, social sciences, clinical medicine, marketing and law. It also works with the 18 members of its national advisory board, who represent prestigious universities and experts from around the nation.

The Center's Spirituality and Health project includes a team of diverse professionals including faculty with expertise in religious studies, cultural anthropology, social work, medical sociology, neuropsychology, health psychology, rehabilitation medicine and oncology. Its pilot project is investigating relationships among spirituality, religion, physical health and mental health in 200 individuals with medical conditions, chronic illnesses and disabilities, such as traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, cancer, ventilator-dependent pulmonary disorders and physical conditions treated at a family medicine clinic.

The Spirituality and Health project is directed by Dr. George (Brick) Johnstone, Center staff member and Chair of the MU Department of Health Psychology. Johnstone and Dr. Guy McCormack, clinical professor and Chair of Occupational Therapy, were awarded an MU School of Health Professions Research Catalyst Grant to study the relationship between brain functions and transcendence. In addition, the Spirituality and Health research team is developing several grant efforts for external funding to study spirituality and health risk behaviors in adolescents, the relationship between neuroscience and religion, and additional projects on the neuropsychology of spiritual experience.

Faculty from the Spirituality and Health project have been active in attending conferences, submitting articles for publication and offering professional presentations. For example, Johnstone attended a research workshop of spirituality, religion and health at the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center July 23-27, 2006. Over the past year faculty from the Center's Spirituality and Health project have completed several other articles and presentations.

Faculty from eight professions participated in the honors class in Fall 2006. The Center's George (Brick) Johnstone, who heads the Center's Spirituality and Health project, will teach a Spirituality and Health undergraduate course in Winter 2007. The Journalism 4426 course will also be taught in Winter 2007, and plans are to make Journalism 8001 a permanent course. In addition, the Center is proposing creation of a religion reporting specialization in the journalism school.

The 2006 Spring Seminar on Journalism, Religion and Public Life, a seminar for graduate students and advanced seniors, emphasized development of in-depth research skills for long-form stories on religion and public policy. Shortly before the third anniversary of the U.S. military's invasion of Iraq, the weekly NewSunday Missourian featured a four-page spread by Laura Johnston and LaRue Diehl reporting the positions on the Iraq war taken by eight religious denominations and extended interviews with clergy. "Just War Theory" provided a context for the interviews and six dimensions of the theory were summarized for readers in a sidebar. A front-page graphic highlighted the story, which also featured a picture and inside reference to an interview with Mohammed Nabeel Ahmed Khan, a new imam in the Islamic Center of Central Missouri.

The package, "Serving God and County," by Diehl, Johnston and Leah Lohse, developed as a project for the Religion and Public Life course, is reprinted with permission on the Center Web site, as is "The Soul of A Soldier," an article written by Lohse about an Army soldier who petitioned for conscientious objector status due to religious beliefs, after he was deployed to Iraq.

The seminar's emphasis on applied research was also reflected in a master's project supervised by Professor Emeritus Ed Lambeth, in which graduate student Cassandra Fuerst generated and edited seven "community religion columns" that appeared in spring issues of the NewSunday Missourian. Columns were written by a Buddhist monk; a Methodist and retired high school counselor; the leader of a Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life; a Catholic hospital chaplain; an engineering professor who serves as interim president of a Hindu Temple and Community Center; a Christian retired pastor and volunteer for Heifer International Project; and an Islamic Iraqi who operates an international food store. Missourian editors said they want to continue publishing community religion columnists, as they have come to understand and embrace the Center's emphasis on fostering religious literacy and public understanding of the country's increasing religious diversity. This Center-originated idea also contributes to the emerging practice of citizen journalism.

Fuerst, a 2006 MU School of Journalism graduate, also completed a master's project, "Connecting with the Religion News Reader." The project explored religion journalism's place at small newspapers such as the Columbia Missourian. The project aimed to help religion journalists better understand readers. Through interviews with 17 Columbia residents and three Missourian editors, Fuerst studied whether the interests of the community paralleled the direction of religion editors and reporters. The project was reported in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Religion and Media Interest Group News in Summer 2006.

The Center initiated discussions among faculty at MU's professional schools about religion's role in informing ethical standards, particularly given the importance of teaching a profession's ethical code and core values to new members. They also addressed the question of whether teaching methods and curricula of professional schools need to be adjusted, given the implications of America's increased religious and cultural diversity

The consortium's efforts included a number of presentations, discussions and publications. These are detailed below:

Center staff member Edmund B. Lambeth, University of Missouri Professor of Journalism Emeritus, presented "Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue and the Fourth Estate Post-9/11" Aug. 5, 2006, at the Conference on Virtue Ethics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, University of San Francisco. He also wrote an article on the subject intended for the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol. 19, 2007.

"An Introduction to Mass Media Ethics," by Edmund B. Lambeth, is the first chapter in Mitchell Land and Bill Hornaday, Editors, Contemporary Media Ethics (Spokane: Marquette Books, 2006).

"Media & Conflict Resolution: A Report from a New Academic Frontier," by Edmund B. Lambeth, an essay for the Center Web site, resulted from a Sept. 15, 2006, presentation at the Conference on the Media Impact on Conflict in Democracies, co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Conflict, Law and the Media, and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, University of Missouri. The piece will be revised for a future book chapter, and an expanded version will be submitted to the Journal of Dispute Resolution, published through the MU School of Law.

The Center's Ethics Group meets regularly to discuss selected books relating to ethics. Members of the group come from the disciplines of religious studies, public affairs, marketing, clinical medicine and journalism, as well as faculty and staff of the Center for Religion, the Professions & the Public. Books included "The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative" by Thomas King and "The Cheating Culture" by David Callahan.

The Center contracted to complete more than 20 public discussions that will inform work on a national survey assessing citizens' interests and preferences related to news on religion. The Center is working with local media to create models to be used in the discussions. In addition, the Center is conducting content analysis of media coverage of religion and most-read religion stories on the Internet. The findings will inform us as we design chapters for a book resulting from the religion journalism project, tentatively titled "The Future of Religion Journalism in the 21st Century;" and aid us as we focus the survey to best provide new and useful results.

Faculty members and graduate students have participated in seminars and pursued teaching and research. The Center's outreach activities have fostered religious literacy within the professions on our campus, in the working world and around the nation.

Former Center fellows have taken their research and skills learned while working with the Center to institutions nationwide. As an example, L. Scott Smith, a former senior law fellow with the Center, has been publishing steadily since serving with the Center, including several publications in a respected law journal. The most recent is "From Promised Land to Tower of Babel: Religious Pluralism and the Future of the Liberal Experiment in America," which has been accepted for publication in the Brandeis Law Journal. He expects to complete a book this spring.

Annual report describes Center's activities