| Show SATURDAYDecember 27 1997 fitalt Cakreribunr Section C ENTERTAINMENT Pages C-4- COMICSTV 5 Pages 55BT cn World Stages Major Events Of Spirituality BY T SfWSJgN THE YEAR IN RELIGION 7 W 1 LDS Church President Gordon B Hinckley and a huge throng of Utahns who had followed their daily travels through newspaper stories and teleiision news programs The drew worldwide and favorable attention to the church Just this month Salt Lake's Muslim community marked a milestone Although it retains its small Salt Lake City mosque the community built and dedicated a new mosque in West Valley City Last spring a tree in a Salt Lake City park new downtown became a shrine to religious pilgrims drawn to an image in a stump they said closely resembled that of Our Lady of Guadalupe the apparition of the Virgin Mary whom Catholics believe appeared to a Mexican peasant in 1531 in what now is MICIUKL J PAQIETTE RELIGION C-6- NEWS SERVICE Mexico City Citing safety conceins the city built steps and a platform to replace ncket v ladders used by the faithful to reach the image With winter came worries about snow and ice on the steps and the city announced it would rernoxe them But the decision mot with protests and Mayor Deedee Corradmi decided In the world of faith the past year was marked by events of sweeping religious and spiritual proportions as masses of humanity gathered around the globe to publicly act out rituals of collective yearning and grief to a degree rarely if ever seen before From the hundreds of thousands of Christian men who gathered in Washington to the spontaneous global grief over the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa Americans and others appeared gripped in an inchoate spiritual revival that transcended traditions and institutions Once again we have discovered that America is a very religious nation but one less and less tied to historic labels" said David Neff executive editor of Christianity Today magazine "People looked to public rituals to help them understand the big questions which is religion in its purest form the steps should remain Utahs Roman Catholic diocese continued to enjoy the beneficence of Utah-basegrocery store magnate Lennie Skaggs He donated his home in Salt Lake City's exclusive Federal Heights neighborhood to serve as the episcopal residence for the bishop Bishop George H Niederauer accepted and moved in late last spring d See UTAH Page SJ C-- 3 Contemporary Christian Performers Make Joyful Noise Employees Bring Faith To Work Jesus Christ knew how to speak his audience's language teaching in parables Is it wrong then to suppose he might employ a phat beat and jangling guitars to get his point across today? That is the dilemma facing Congress Pays Heed Considers Legislation ls contemporary Christian musicians as they strive to maintain spiritual integrity and be accepted in a genre generally defined by sex drugs and rock n roll Inspirational music gospel music contemporary Christian music there are so many positive messages out there but the music isn't cutting the dress code with some of today's audiences said Salt Lake City rapper Flexx aka Adrian Johnson "If it's God's will he'll find a way to make it happen Last month Flexx who also is a pastor at the Faith Temple Pentecostal Church hit No 29 on Billboard's gospel charts with his debut album So Real Who made the sun the rain the sky? Someone bigger than you and I he raps in the albums title song I grew up pretty sheltered here in Salt Lake City where people of all religions really love God he said "I cant sing about a stick-u- p or tell them how to do a drive-b- y shooting but I can tell them about God Christian music is one of the fastest-growinsegments of the recording industry According to the Recording Industry Association of America's most recent annual consumer report Christian music's share of the overall music marketplace increased 38 percent in 1996 It accounts for 43 percent of all music sales in the United States That totals nearly $538 million Along with that has come a jump in the number of religious-musi- c radio stations Of 10350 commercial radio stations across the United States 1063 are devoted to some form of religion Thats up from fewer than 200 in the 1980s Christian pop is anything but new Christian musicians have taken their cue for centuries from Psalm 66: Make a joyful noise unto God all ye lands Sing for the honor of His name Christmas carols were among the first Christian music to make their way into popular culture g SIZWNE BY CASSIDY and MVRYYURNER RELIGION NEWS SERVICE Bank employees gather in prayer before the start of their workday An Orthodox Jew wears his varmulke to work and keeps kosher even at office celebrations A operator refuses to work Friday evenings or Saturdays because of his Seventh-daAdventist faith Work and religion generally are thought to belong to separate realms But consciously or not overtly or not whether it is welcome or not many people bring their faith to work every day Workplace prayer groups are springing up across the country Business people who used to gather at restaurants to pray now are assembling in office conference rooms Companies are hiring chaplains to attend to the spiritual and emotional needs of their employees Evangelical Christians are declaring their right to express their faith at work in much the same l)ann Ia The Salt I akc Tribune w ay their children are fighting for Christian rapper Flexx at his TLC music store in South Salt Lake His debut album hit No 29 on Billboard" the right to pray in public schools gospel charts last month Religious minorities also are deHandel wrote The Messiah in the computerized tracking system ular music is that studies have youth to go that aren't associated claring their right to adhere to s never intending it that tabulates record sales directthe customs of dress and observance shown people who buy it are spewith drinking as Christmas music but it was ly from the cash registers in music cifically buying it to listen to the The federal government is payIn the same fashion dozens of made popular by choirs singing it stores around the country words and the lyrical content youth congregations from around ing heed in commemoration of Christ's SoundScan has been around since Romanowski said in a telephone Utah were bused in to attend the Congress is considering the birth Its Hallelujah Chorus is the late 1980s but it wasn't until interview from his office at Calvin recent Salt Lake City concert by Workplace Religious Freedom one of the most recognizable re1996 that it included sales from Jars of Clay at Abravanel Hall Act which would make it tougher College in Grand Rapids Mich frains heard as frequently in teleChristian bookstores where 80 Still we are decades away Jars of Clay is a national act for employers to refuse to accomvision commercials as in cathefrom the day that contemporary modate the religious practices of whose Christian-themepercent of Christian music is sold debut aldrals It still does not reflect the sales Christian music is heard in bum has sold nearly 2 million workers And President Clinton Traditional gospel music has its of the LDS Church-owmechain church he added For most copies alongside such secular recently unveiled guidelines clarroots in the blues Country music of Deseret Book stores or inderock artists as The Wallflowers ifying the religious rights of fedcongregations its a means of conwith its trademark tales of woe is eral employees It is perfectly and Counting Crows pendent stores such as Flexxs necting with a younger audience forTLC music store in South Salt The Calvary Chapel of Salt a generally a Christian-friendlIt was a great show the kids permissible stated Clinton mat Elvis Presley drew from both Lake Lake City recently instigated a looked and acted like they were Southern Baptist - to keep a BiAs contemporary Christian mugenres and became the King of monthly Calvary Coffee House enjoying themselves as much as ble or Koran on ore's desk or to Rock n' Roll sic becomes more popular it is wear a Muslim headcovering or a at any other rock show said Tefeaturing one regional or national In 1970 Andrew Lloyd Webber bound to become more accepted act brought in to perform alongJewish yarmulke to work Emresa Mooney of the Salt d as another means of communicaside two or three contemporary penned the rock opera Jesus booking agency United ployees even may proselytize as Christ Superstar In the 1980s tion within the religious commuChristian musicians from Utah Concerts We did some fliers and long as those they are addressing Christian pop-div- a do not object Moreover managAmy Grant Its not nity says Bill Romanowski auheavily things at churches plus the regustarted the current wave of Christhor of Pop Culture Wars: evangelical music said worship lar radio advertising but most of ers must at leas try to accommoh tian pop with her brand of lead Ted Morton who oversees Religion and the Role of Enterthe groups I talked to found out date workers who wish to observe love songs tainments in American Life the concerts We think of it as about the concert on the band's religious days Most analysts attribute the One of the things contempothe alternative to the alternative boom to the advent of SoundScan There are so few places for our See CHRISTIAN rage C-- 2 rary Christian music has over sec See FAITHFUL Page C-- 2 heavy-equipme- y mid-1700- d d y - Lake-base- soft-touc- If Your Car Is Cleaner Than Your Soul You Might Want to Examine Your Spiritual Status Depending on what faith you adhere to either today or tomorrow is the last of 1997 For purposes of this column it doesnt matter which one it is (and please dont send me irate letters to the contrary) only that its time to reflect on the past Sab-bat- year So how did you do? Are you a better or worse person at the end of 97 than you were at the beginning? Its a fair question considering that the purpose of religion is to make you a better person After all what would be the point otherwise? People are pretty good about improving themselves physically For example during the year you may have moved to a nicer house bought a better car or traded in your spouse for someone better Say you even lost a few pounds got your lips done and had hair plugs installed Nice you could still be going to hell See God isnt that shallow He tends not to be impressed with Beemers collagen and stock portfolios Which brings us to what God does care about: Our spirituality Me I think I stayed about the same in 97 spiritually speaking Some people claim this isnt possible that you are either moving up or down the scale of spiritual worthiness never simply marking time To that I offer the fact that I didnt shoot at anyone during 1997 including and maybe even especially them There are ways to tell whether you lost spiritual ground during 97 In fact its much easier to tell when you lose ground than it is when you gain ground Think about it If you improved substantially during the year you should be too hum- - but RELIGION ROBERT KIRBY 1997 The Salt Lake Tribune ble to notice One of the ways to tell whether you lost spiritual ground during the year is in the quality of your personal relationships If you have more enemies than friends you lost ground Same thing if you still hate Life isn't going to imyour prove until you get over it The way you drive is another great indicator of your spiritual slide If it takes you more curse words to get to work now than it did in January you are slipping If like me the number has remained the same but the intensity has grown you have to count it as a loss Another good way to tell if you are on the decline is in your preoccupation with yourself Truly spiritual people tend to be more concerned about those around them than they are with themselves For example if you spent more money and energy on getting a butt tuck this year than did on the poor chances are g your spiritual focus could use some I know mine could I spent more money on haircuts If you didn't go out of your way to befriend someone outside your comfort zone you probably retreated a bit Nothing robs a person of spirituality like emotional stagnation Look none of this has as much to do with church or what kind of God you worship as it docs with the kind of person you are and want to be As such it s up to you rather than God as to whether or not you are going to improve The good news is that with any luck God will give us all of 1998 to work on it some more Our job is to waste less of it than we did the year before Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby lives in Springnlle The d fine-tunin- 1 PO welcomes mail at OxyMormon Box 281 Springnlle UT 84663 or at rkirbysltribcom : I! |
