WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans feel the “Christian faith” has a positive impact on help for the poor and raising children with good morals, according to a new poll, but it gets a bad rap on its impact on sexuality in society.

In a new study conducted by Grey Matter Research, more than 1,000 American adults were asked if the Christian faith had a positive, negative, or no real impact on 16 different areas of society, such as crime, poverty and the role of women in society.

Strong majorities (72 percent) said Christianity is good for helping the poor and for raising children with good morals. Around half (52 percent) said Christianity helps keep the U.S. as a “strong nation,” and nearly as many (49 percent) said the faith had a positive impact on the role of women in society.

Although Christianity has been criticized for its traditional views on abortion, contraception and gender roles, “Americans aren’t buying into it,” said Ron Sellers, president of the Arizona-based Grey Matter Research.

Sellers said he wasn’t surprised that Americans hold their most negative perception for how Christianity impacts sexuality: 37 percent felt there was a negative impact, compared to only 26 percent who felt it was positive.

In six of the 16 areas, sizable numbers of Americans said Christianity had little or no impact, including the environment, business ethics, civility and substance abuse. Americans were roughly split, at about one-third each, on Christianity’s impact on racism.

“What’s real concerning to me, from the perspective of a religious leader,” Sellers said, “is when people say, `Eh, it hasn’t had a real impact.’”

The total sample of 1,011 adults selected at random from all 50 states had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

At a time when only 60 percent of Christians believe that the devil exists, “Suing the Devil” became the best-selling faith-based movie in the nation on Christian Cinema.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the film also became one of the most illegally-downloaded indie movies in history. The movie stars Malcolm McDowell, Rebecca St. James, Corbin Bernsen, Shannen Fields, Tom Sizemore, Ros Gentle and Bart Bronson. Members of Hillsong also appear in the movie shot in Sydney, Australia.

In the film, Luke O’Brien, a washed-up janitor turned night law student, decides to sue Satan (Malcolm McDowell) for $8 trillion dollars. On the last day before Luke files a default judgment, Satan appears to defend himself.

On Satan’s legal team are 10 of the country’s best trial lawyers. The entire world watches Legal TV to see who will win the “Trial of the Century.” “This shows us time and again,” said Tim Chey, the film’s director, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” A

nti-Christian comments such as ‘Christian propaganda,’ ‘Christian-brainwashing’ ‘Christian idiots’ and ‘Eliminate Christians’ are permeating  message boards dealing with the film.

According to a press release from Christian Cinema, one  atheist group emailed the producers of the film warning of a “mob attack” on the Internet Movie Database.

Within three days, the film’s rating dropped from a near 7 to a 4 on IMDB, which is the largest film site on the Internet.

The film is available on DVD through Bridgestone Media, Wesscott Marketing and ChristianCinema.com It is also available through in 90 percent of all cable stations via On Demand (Comcast, AT&T, Time-Warner, Cox, Cablevision, Rogers, Verizon, etc) and iTunes in the U.S. and Canada.

(RNS) Bruce Boling will celebrate Easter Sunday this weekend among Southern Baptists, just as he did when he prayed at a tiny Kentucky church where his family filled half the pews.

After decades away from faith, “I slowly began to see what I was missing was the relationship with God that I could find in my church,” said Boling, 45, who has settled in with a little Baptist congregation in Hendersonville, Tenn.

Lydia Scrafano’s heart will again thrill to hear Catholic hymns sounding on a great pipe organ, just as she did as a child in Detroit.

“I missed it all. I missed taking Communion with a priest. I missed the stained glass. I missed the Virgin Mary,” says Scrafano, 55, who has reconnected with her faith through a Catholic church in Williamsburg, Va.

Like many Christians and Jews, Boling and Scrafano drifted — or marched — away from the religion of their childhood. Then, unlike most, they came back.

And they came back to stay, not just to parachute in for the Easter service this Sunday or a Passover seder on Friday night.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, more than half of Americans say they’ve switched religions at least once, but just 9 percent of U.S. adults say they’ve returned to the pews, practices and prayers that shaped them.

They’re not converts; they’re reverts. And religious denominations are stepping up efforts to reclaim, re-energize — and sometimes re-educate — these fallen-away faithful.

Catholic churches are adding adult programs to focus on returnees who often fear their actions or choices will keep them from the sacraments, the essential rites of Catholicism. Evangelical churches steer reverts to Bible study groups to help them establish stronger religious roots.

Rabbis reach out to young adults through a program called “Next Dor” (dor is Hebrew for generation). It’s promoted by Synagogue 3000, a consortium of leaders from Reform and Conservative movements, the two largest branches of Judaism in the U.S.

Several Catholic dioceses have reported post-Christmas or post-Easter attendance bumps after major advertising efforts, such as a “Catholics Come Home” media campaign launched in Phoenix in 2008.

The Archdiocese of Washington pushed to increase confessions during Lent (the 40 days preceding Easter) by opening church and chapel doors on Wednesday evenings. Their advertising slogan: “The Light is ON for You.” Within five years, the campaign spread across the country as more bishops adapted the idea for their dioceses.

But are they staying?

It’s not clear if these coaxed-back Catholics stick around, said Mark Gray, a political scientist with Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which collects and studies statistics related to the Catholic Church.

Gray said some must be back for the long haul because the Catholic share of the U.S. population has held steady at about 25 percent for several years.

“There is not enough immigration to keep it at that if our ‘leavers’ estimates are correct. Some must be ‘coming home.’ The match just does not work otherwise,” Gray said.

At St. Bede’s, a Catholic megachurch of 3,700 families in Williamsburg, Va., Deacon Dominic Cerrato leads a seven-week “Welcome Home” class designed to answer the questions and calm the concerns that kept lapsed believers from church. More than that, the course seeks to draw them into parish life, not just “punching your ticket at Mass,” as he put it.

St. Bede’s was just awarded a grant from Our Sunday Visitor Institute, a Huntington, Ind.-based foundation that supports Catholic education and evangelizing. The church will use the money to produce a multimedia DVD package on its program, so other parishes around the country can emulate it.

The class stresses the joy of following Catholic doctrine. Some of those teachings — on morality, marriage, sexuality and other thorny topics — may have been confusing or difficult for adults who last studied Catholicism when they were children.

“We take a very personal, non-judgmental approach, without ever undercutting church teachings,” Cerrato said. “We put things in context of real life.”

About 250 people have participated in the classes, about 95 percent of which have gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as confession is now called. Often — as Scrafano can attest — they emerge with tears of joy and relief.

Her mother led her out of Catholicism to an evangelical Bible church years ago, Scrafano said. She married a deacon in a non-denominational Christian congregation. “But it never felt right. It never felt the same,” said Scrafano, now divorced. Ten years later, while driving around for her job selling produce to area restaurants, Scrafano spotted a “Welcome Home” banner promoting the class at St. Bede’s.

“Three weeks into the class, my mom started coming with me. Now she’s back to the Catholic Church,” said Scrafano, who is sure she’s home to stay.

Synagogue 3000 is looking for similar results. Its research on synagogue life found 70 percent of young Jews are either not affiliated or not engaged with their religion. “And they’re not coming back in significant numbers when they have children,” said CEO Rabbi Aaron Spiegel.

Rabbi Esther Lederman of Temple Micah in Washington finds 20- and 30-something Jews who are curious about exploring meaning in Jewish terms and engaging more in religious practice.

Through enhanced programs and lower initial membership fees in 2009, Temple Micah has seen young adult membership jump from three to 30 in a year. Free services for the autumn High Holy Days— when members typically donate their annual support to the synagogue — prompted a surge of 350 people attending the evening worship for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 2010 and 2011.

One is Jocelyn Roberts. Roberts’ mother is the daughter of a rabbi, and her father is an atheist ex-Catholic. As a child, Roberts never attended synagogue or church. Yet Roberts, 36, fondly recalled the family lighting Hanukkah candles and singing together.

After doing graduate work in Asian studies — learning about Hinduism, Shintoism and many kinds of Buddhism — “I came home and found myself more curious about Judaism. I felt like I was Jewish, but I didn’t know what being Jewish meant,” she said.

She found Next Dor while living in Seattle and began attending synagogue there. After moving to the nation’s capital for a job as a consultant, Roberts joined Temple Micah’s class for adults who want a Bat or Bar Mitzvah, a life cycle event traditionally marked by a 13-year-old girl or boy. Her Passover Seder Friday night will be at the home of her Jewish boyfriend’s parents.

Bruce Boling was driven away from his family’s small-town Southern Baptist church by his mother’s insistence that he go every Sunday. “Once I grew up and didn’t have to go anymore, I just quit,” he said.

Years of moving between cities and careers didn’t give him any incentive to return, said Boling, a project manager for a contracting company.

His wife, Elizabeth, is Catholic, and though a priest married them, he never converted. The birth of their two children prompted him to rethink his choices.

“I thought if I went back, it would make me a better father,” Boling said. “What I found was it made me a better me.” Now, Bruce and Elizabeth worship on Sunday mornings at Grace Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn. On Sunday nights, they delve into Bible study in a small church group.

His Bible once belonged to his late grandfather. After he’d returned to church and stuck with it for six months, he says, “my mother mailed it to me for my Christmas present.”

DSB/KRE END GROSSMAN

WASHINGTON (RNS) If you’re searching for the most religious Americans, head to Mississippi. And if you want the opposite, visit the least religious state, Vermont.

According to a new Gallup Poll, 59 percent of residents in the Magnolia State were considered “very religious,” with almost 90 percent of the state affirming that religion was an important part of their daily life.

Vermont came in as the least religious state, reporting that only 23 percent of the residents were listed as “very religious” and more than half — 58 percent — were considered nonreligious.

The more than 350,000 adults in the U.S. and the District of Columbia interviewed in 2011 by the Gallup Daily tracking survey were asked if religion was an important part of their daily life and how often they attended religious services.

Based on those responses, residents were categorized as very religious, moderately religious or nonreligious, said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll.

Many of the “most religious” states are in the Bible Belt, including Alabama (56 percent), Louisiana (54 percent), Arkansas (54 percent) and South Carolina (54 percent), but heavily Mormon Utah ranked second overall, at 57 percent.

In general, New England and the West tended to be the least religious, with all six New England states scoring in the bottom 10. Following Vermont, those states included: New Hampshire (23 percent), Maine (25 percent), Massachusetts (28 percent), Alaska (28 percent) Oregon, Nevada and Washington (all 30 percent), Connecticut (31 percent), and Washington, D.C., New York and Rhode Island (all tied at 32 percent).

While New Hampshire and Vermont tied at 23 percent in the “very religious category,” Vermont (58 percent) had a higher share of nonreligious than New Hampshire (52 percent).

The findings for 2011 were unchanged from recent years. “Nothing surprised me too much,” Newport said.

Gallup researchers found that overall, more than two-thirds (68.4 percent) of Americans were classified as very or moderately religious, with eight out of the 10 most religious states located in the South. But the differences in religiosity varied across the nation.

Newport said he believed the findings reflect the “culture in the states.” For example, Mississippi has the country’s highest percentage of African-Americans, who are known for being the most religious group.

“Most people say that’s the reason why the state is the highest,” he said, “but even people in Mississippi with no religious identity are more religious than people in Vermont who are religious.”

The total sample of 353,492 citizens selected at random for the poll, conducted through landlines and cell phones, had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point, with some states having a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Tim Tebow is Howdy Doody in a helmet. No, he is Opie Taylor running for touchdowns — while reciting Bible verses, stopping to find a lost dog, visiting sick children in a hospital and helping a little old lady across the street, all before he reaches the end zone.

Now that Tebow has been traded to the Jets, New Jersey is about to experience a dose of wholesomeness it hasn’t seen since milk trucks stopped delivering to your door.

Tebow is the God-fearing, All-American evangelical hero — born to missionaries and delivered during a miraculous birth — who pledged his life to Jesus at 6 years old.

His priorities? “Faith, family, football.” He has overcome obstacle after obstacle to become the most popular athlete in the nation’s most popular sport, all while waging a personal battle against sin, temptation and the American way.

But you don’t have to know the “Our Father” to love him or admire him. He’s a dyslexic who can read complicated football defenses. He’s a home-schooled kid who could whup most prep-school prodigies in a battle of the SATs. Predicted to die at birth or before, he won two national championships as the “aw-shucks” quarterback at the University of Florida, and he is the only sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

He is the left-handed NFL quarterback with the weak arm that was ridiculed by scouts — until the Denver Broncos inserted him as quarterback last season and won seven of the next eight games (three in overtime), en route to making the playoffs.

And the first thing Tebow did, while his teammates celebrated? He knelt and prayed. Or, as it’s now known: He “Tebowed.”

But he makes enemies, too. Because for every fan (or teammate) who loves that Tebow begins every interview by praising “my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” there’s another fan (or teammate) who wants a constitutional amendment imposing a separation of church and sports.

“He’s a polarizing figure,” said Tim Lucas, lead pastor of Liquid Church in Morristown, N.J. “But whether you’re a fan or a critic, everyone agrees that his faith is authentic.

“Some players are flashy and invoke God when things go good. Tim Tebow seems to be the real deal. It’s been baked into him from early on.”

In one of those storybook victories last season, Tebow beat the brash-talking Jets by leading the Broncos on a last-minute 95-yard drive that some believed had given Jets coach Rex Ryan a heart attack.

Paramedics were called to the Jets’ team bus as it headed for a Denver airport after the stunning 17-13 loss, capped by Tebow’s 20-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds remaining.

As the charter flight idled, Ryan thought his life was ending. Turned out, it was only indigestion. But when paramedics asked how he was feeling, Tebow’s future coach responded, “I was doing fine until (bleep-bleep) Tebow had that (bleeping) 95-yard drive.”

How will Tebow’s new teammates receive his godliness?

“That’ll be very curious,” Lucas, the pastor, said. “New Jersey is the land of ‘The Sopranos’ and Snooki. A lot of people say New Jersey is a graveyard for the Christian faith, but the graveyard is where resurrections take place.”

Tebow might not find the local streets paved with rose petals. A recent poll of readers by the Daily News indicates fans are torn: 44 percent hated the trade (30 percent loved it), but 53 percent said Tebow should be the starter.

Yet those who know Tebow insist he will fight to be the starter.

“His work ethic is off the charts,” said Nathan Whitaker, the co-author of Tebow’s memoir, “Through My Eyes.” “I walked away from each encounter with Tim thinking, ‘Man I really should apply myself harder. This guy’s really something.’”

Tebow’s a self-professed virgin. He doesn’t lie, cheat, drink or use drugs. He’s handsome, goes to church regularly, has a foundation that builds hospitals, and he makes several million dollars a year. When he doesn’t come right home after work, it’s because he’s doing charity work.

Every woman with a daughter knows that’s code for: He’d make a great son-in-law. Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations in New York, has represented Sean “Diddy” Combs, Snoop Dogg, pro basketball players and a host of evangelical organizations, and he knows that when Tebow so much as hugs a woman, it’s going to make front-page tabloid news.

“He has always been someone who’s talked about being a private person,” Torossian said. “Well, the concept of being private doesn’t exactly exist in New York.”

Until now, encounters with women have been, well, cute. In Denver, women — single and married — wore his jersey and held proposal signs. At a recent Q-and-A session in Butte, Mont., 17-year-old Ciera Schwartz came to pop her question: “Will you marry me?” Tebow blushed. Then moved on.

In January, Tebow told USA Today that he was “too busy with football and life” for a girlfriend. Within days of the December announcement that pop star Katy Perry was divorcing, her parents — preachers Keith and Mary Hudson — were trying to fix her up with the squeakiest guy on Earth.

Perry’s mom told a friend: “The best cure for a heartache is to fall in love again,” and why not Tebow? “He’s handsome, charming, intelligent and, above all, a Christian.”

The meeting hasn’t happened yet, and Perry reportedly has a new beau.

“I’m blessed to have a close-knit (group) around me,” Tebow told USA Today. “I love meeting and talking with people, socializing and hanging out. But people can read it the wrong way.”

No matter how big Tebow gets in the biggest sports and media market in the world, his co-author doesn’t believe it will affect him, because only a few people have his ear — starting with God.

“People already watch everything he does and tweet about it,” Whitaker said. “He’s already so scrutinized and it doesn’t affect him. I’m not sure how much more intense it can get.”

(Kevin Manahan writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. Conor Orr and Matthew Stanmyre contributed to this report.)

WASHINGTON (RNS) Days after a lone gunman murdered a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, a new study reports widespread anti-Semitism in France and across Europe.   

The survey, completed in January and released Tuesday by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, finds that 24 percent of the French population holds anti-Semitic views, up from 20 percent in 2009.

When asked if violence against Jews is rooted in anti-Jewish or anti-Israel sentiment, four in 10 Europeans (39 percent) responded that it was the result of anti-Jewish sentiment.

In France, 45 percent of those asked held this view, up from 39 percent in the previous survey.

“Those increases are all the more disturbing in light of the shooting attack at the Jewish school in Toulouse,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director of the Monday (March 19) shootings in France.

About half a million Jews live in France, less than 1 percent of the population and the largest Jewish population in western Europe.   

The survey of 5,000 Europeans across 10 countries also asked whether Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country, wield too much power in the business world, and talk too much about the Holocaust.

The survey found particularly high levels of anti-Semitism in three nations.

“In Hungary, Spain and Poland, the numbers for anti-Semitic attitudes are literally off the charts and demand a serious response from political, civic and religious leaders,” said Foxman.

– In Spain, where Jewish civic groups say Spaniards blame their economic woes on the country’s Jews, 72 percent of the population holds anti-Jewish views, compared with 64 percent in 2009. 

– In Hungary, 63 percent of the population holds anti-Semitic views, up from 47 percent in 2009.

– In Poland, 48 percent show anti-Semitic attitudes, about the same as 2009.

By comparison, attitudes toward Jews in the United States are far more positive. The most recent ADL study, completed in October, found 15 percent of the population holds anti-Semitic views.

Still, nearly one in five Americans at the time said Jews probably have too much influence on Wall Street, a significant uptick from the previous study. As in other countries, tough economic times in the U.S foment age-old myths about Jewish control of the economy, the authors said.

About 6.5 million Jews live in the United States, about 2 percent of the population. The European survey has a margin of error of between 4.4 and 4.9 percentage points, depending on the country.

WASHINGTON (RNS) Even as membership remains relatively stable in U.S. churches, the effects of the recession have caused contributions to drop by $1.2 billion.

According to the 2012 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, the almost $29 billion contributed by church members represented a 2.2 percent decrease in terms of per capita giving.

The $1.2 billion decline in 2010 was nearly three times as large as the $431 million in losses reported in 2009, and “provides clear evidence of the impact of the deepening crises in the reporting period,” the Yearbook’s editor, the Rev. Eileen Lindner, wrote.

The Yearbook is produced annually by the National Council of Churches and is considered one of the most authoritative sources of church membership. The 2010 figures, released Tuesday (March 20), were collected from 228 U.S. denominations in 2011.

The Roman Catholic Church (No. 1) and the Southern Baptist Convention (No. 2) continued as the nation’s largest churches in 2010, and both posted a decrease of less than 1 percent, the fourth year in a row of declining membership for Southern Baptists.

Overall, total membership in the top 25 largest churches declined 1.15 percent, to 145.7 million.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, though still in the top 10, reported the sharpest decline in membership, dropping 5.9 percent to 4.3 million members.

Four Pentecostal churches out of the top 25 showed a continuing increase in membership, with the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. jumping up 20 percent, the highest out of all reporting churches.

Only six out of the top 25 increased in membership, according to the Yearbook. Some of those growing denominations include Jehovah’s Witnesses (up 1.85 percent), Seventh-day Adventist Church (up 1.61 percent) and the National Baptist Convention, USA (up 3.95 percent).

The 10 largest U.S. Christian bodies reported in the 2012 yearbook are:

1. The Catholic Church: 68.2 million, down 0.44 percent.

2. Southern Baptist Convention: 16.1 million, down 0.15 percent.

3. The United Methodist Church: 7.7 million, down 1.22 percent.

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 6.2 million, up 1.62 percent.

5. The Church of God in Christ: 5.5 million, no membership updates reported.

6. National Baptist Convention, USA: 5.2 million, up 3.95 percent.

7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: 4.3 million, down 5.9 percent.

8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3.5 million, no membership updates reported.

9. Assemblies of God: 3.03 million, up 3.99 percent.

10. Presbyterian Church (USA): 2.7 million, down 3.42 percent.