PHYSICIANS VALUE SPIRITUAL BOOST AFFORDED BY TALMUD STUDY

"EVERY FRIDAY MORNING at 7:30 for the past 17 years, several doctors take their places at a table in a conference room in Good Samaritan Hospital and get to work. ...

"The doctors are part of a Talmud study group organized by Dr. Mandell 'Mendy' Ganchrow, the hospital's former chief of surgery and a leader in worldwide Jewish affairs.

"The group of nine regulars includes men and women, none of whom are Orthodox Jews except Ganchrow. ... 'It's spiritual rejuvenation,' said Dr. Harvey Peck, a radiologist, after the group completed its study session yesterday. 'It gives us a moment of respite before the hard day's work ahead.'

"For years, they have been deciphering and studying the Talmud, a collection of writings of Jewish civil and religious laws. ...

"The group uses an English translation of the Talmud with accompanying text in Hebrew.

"'It sharpens your mind,' said Dr. Lewis Bobroff, a radiologist. 'It provides spiritual sustenance as well.'"

Jane Lerner
"Talmud study gives Good Sam doctors spiritual uplift"
The Journal News.
July 30, 2005

CHRISTIAN MUSIC TOPS CHARTS IN AUSTRALIA

"CHRISTIAN ROCKERS and pop princesses are driving the fastest growing genre in the Australian music industry with sales now overtaking country music for the first time ever.

"Booming sales are being fuelled by faith–based radio stations and cable TV channels playing Christian music.

"The music is also much more accessible to the mass market as a result of lucrative distribution deals with major retail outlets. Christian music captured a $30.2 million slice or 5.6 percent of the total recorded music sales market in Australia in 2004.

"That makes Christian music bigger than country music, bigger than jazz, bigger thatn soundtracks, and bigger than classical,' said Wes Jay of Christian music monitors Woodlands. ...

"The corresponding arrival of faith–based radio stations such as FRESH FM and RHEMA and the Australian Christian Channel on Austar has boosted the revival by creating new forums. So too has the recent alliance of major labels such as SonyBMG, EMI, and Warner with smaller Christian music labels that has opened up sales channels through major retailers. ...

"The most successful Christian artist in Australia is Darlene Zschech of Hillsong, whose album God He Reigns debuted on the ARIA charts at No. 2 in July. Zschech said contemporary styling of Christian music has made it more accessible.

"'Especially over the last five years there seems to be a real groundswell of support,' she said. 'It has a lot to do with the fact it is music that has not been made with sales as the ultimate goal.

"'A lot of this music is very organic: It is people's prayers and lives put to music. And that kind of organic song really does resonate with people.'

"The Hillsong Conference in July attracted more than 25,000 people, up from 18,000 last year. ...

"The largest Christian festival in the country is the Australian Gospel Music Festival in Toowoomba with crowds of up to 30,000."

Adam Bell
"Christians rock on—Praise music captures $30 m slice of market"
The Sunday Telegraph.
August 21, 2005

MAPPING A NEW TOPOGRAPHY OF FAITH

"ONLY A GENERATION AGO it appeared from some vantage points ... that Americans were on their way to turning their backs on God. In sepulchral black and red, the cover of Time magazine dated April 8, 1966 ... introduced millions of readers to existential anguish with the question Is God Dead? ...

"What was dying in 1966 was a well–meaning but arid theology born of rationalism: a wavering trumpet call for ethical behavior, a search for meaning in a letter to the editor in favor of civil rights. What would be born in its stead, in a cycle of renewal that has played itself out many times since the Temple of Solomon, was a passion for an immediate, transcendent experience of God. And a uniquely American acceptance of the amazingly diverse paths people have taken to find it. Newsweek set out to map this new topography of faith ... A major poll, commissioned jointly with Beliefnet.com reveals a breadth of tolerance and curiosity virtually across the religious spectrum. And everywhere we looked, a flowering of spirituality."

Jerry Adler
"Where we stand on faith"
Newsweek.
August 29/September 5, 2005