NEWS BRIEFS The Presbyterian Layman Thursday, December 31, 1998 Evangelicals respond to WCC Assembly Evangelicals attending the World Council of Church's 8th Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, have drafted a response to the 50th anniversary gathering and proposals for the future. The evangelical document, titled "A Jubilee Call," was signed by members of the Association for Church Renewal, including Parker T. Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman. "A Jubilee Call" compliments the World Council of Churches on some aspects of the assembly, criticizes others and makes a number of suggestions to recognize the growing evangelical voice in worldwide Christianity. Church of England gets alpha booster A course that introduces unchurched people to Christianity continues to have a strong impact on declining parishes in the Church of England, The Economist magazine said. Organizers say 200,000 people across Britain are enrolled in the 10-week Alpha courses, which begin with a meal followed by a talk and discussion in small groups. Retreats are held for long-term participants. "The reconversion of England is almost unbelievable," British religion commentator Clifford Longley said. Alpha graduates often take their vibrant faith in groups of 20 or 30 to moribund congregations, and have saved a number from closure. Weighty faith Religious people are fatter than those who aren't, Purdue University sociologist Kenneth Ferraro found. The fattest states (Michigan, Mississippi, Indiana, and Delaware) are also the most religious, and the thinnest states (Colorado, Hawaii, and Massachusetts) had the fewest religious residents, he said. Ferraro analyzed two national surveys, including one of more than 3,600 people, Knight Ridder News Service said. The trend held for all 50 states and all denominations, Ferraro found. Problems with being overweight undermine the generally superior health of religious people, who frown on smoking and drinking, said Ferraro, who had expected to find that religious people would be thinner because religions promote moderation and the Bible portrays gluttony as a moral weakness. "Many firm believers do not have firm bodies," Ferraro wrote in Review of Religious Research. Churches are virtually silent about obesity, Ferraro said. It may be that indulging at the dinner table is the only sin left for people trying hard to behave, he said.

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