Faith

Karen S. Kim GLENDALE -- Dorothy Exum prays over each piece of religious jewelry she creates. And it's produced some strange results, she said. For example, Exum's aunt had been unable to speak after a car accident landed her in the intensive care unit of a hospital. But when she wore a bracelet Exum had made, prayed over and anointed with oil, Exum's aunt began to speak and even walk around, Exum said. "I don't say these have any miraculous powers, but it's just through faith," she said.

A new Pew Research Center for the People & Press poll finds that nearly four in 10 people say they would be more likely to vote in a candidate for president if he/she is Christian. Should a candidate's religion or faith play a role in voters' choice of candidate for the presidency? As for a candidate's personal faith, should it matter? I want to say no, and in a perfect world I would say no. But we don't live in a perfect world, so I guess I'm forced to say yes. At the same time, just because someone is a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim or an atheist, the public has no way of knowing how that person of faith or non-faith is going to vote on any particular issue.

Researchers Elizabeth Marquardt and Norval Glenn at the Institute for American Values studied how divorce affects a person's faith. Their four-year survey studied 1,500 young adults between 18 and 35, whose parents divorced. They found, among other things, that children of divorced parents are less religious than their peers, though many of them turned to God as a father figure in life. From your experience, how does divorce affect the faith of a child whose parents divorced?

A survey released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said that Americans are switching their religious affiliations, or simply abandoning a faith, at greater numbers than ever — at a rate of 44% — and that Protestants are on the edge of becoming a minority faith, with 51% of Americans identifying themselves with the faith. How do you react to this? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the preacher and theologian who was executed by the Nazis near the end of World War II, said one time that we are moving toward having no religion at all. Perhaps what is happening with mainline American Protestantism is part of the process that Bonhoeffer was describing.

I n a recent debate, Daniel Dennett, a professor at Tufts University, argued that religions are like genes, the most successful ones survive not necessarily because their ideas are true, but because they have succeeded as the "fittest" religious arguments through the years. Since not all religions can be true, he suggested that other reasons must be at play in perpetuating them — such as the idea that mankind may be genetically predisposed to being religious. What do you think of this notion?

I can be a creature of habit. I set my slippers in the same place every night to easily put them on first thing in the morning. I buy my steaks only at the Handy Market. I drink mai tais only when I’m at Damon’s. And each Sunday morning at church I sit in the same pew in the same spot (so long as no one has gotten there before me, which I take every effort to prevent). I’ve gotten used to this seat. It’s a place where I’m comfortable and not distracted by any new things or people around me. In fact, I find that most people sit in the same place in church.

BURBANK - It was a battle of the Liberty League's top two teams, as well as the two most potent offenses in the league, when the Providence High softball team took on Faith Baptist on Thursday. While the Pioneers entered the contest averaging a league-best 19.5 runs in four games, the Contenders averaged nearly 16 runs in five games. However, while there wasn't a big discrepancy in the team's offensive numbers, the defensive numbers were vastly different, as Faith Baptist surrendered only two runs in its five games and Providence gave up 27. The Contenders' ability to limit their opponent's offense came into play Thursday when they held the Pioneers to just one hit. That helped Faith Baptist earn a 10-0 victory against Providence at Olive Park.

“Whatever our vocation in life, we can sow the seeds of faith by how we conduct ourselves and by keeping God present in our daily lives,” said St. Finbar Parish's pastor, Father Albert Bahhuth. “Our honorees serve as great role models for us.” Those honorees - Auxiliary Bishop of the San Fernando Region, the Most Reverend Gerald Wilkerson and Dr. Raul Mena, who serves as the director of the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center - were presented with 2012 Harvester of Faith Awards at the 10th annual Harvest Ball held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center last week.

“Good mornin', ma'am. Are you saved?” That question, delivered by a newly minted Christian proselytizer to an elderly devout Catholic, opens a seriocomic theological can of worms in “The Savannah Disputation” at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. In the Los Angeles premiere of Evan Harris' humorous and thought-provoking exploration of faith and the underlying complexities of human need that fuels it, Melissa is a young woman with a mission: to convert Catholics to her splinter fundamentalist Christian church.

CANOGA PARK — In reflecting back on its recently-concluded season, the Providence High softball team is perhaps least likely to remember a 16-0 road loss Wednesday to Faith Baptist in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division VII playoffs. That's because, despite yielding 14 hits and committing 10 errors, the Pioneers started the season with a slate of newcomers to the sport, yet still managed to finish as the Liberty League runner-ups while clinching an unlikely playoff berth.

For the ninth year, parishioners and supporters of the Saint Finbar Parish School gathered to bestow the Harvester of Faith Awards at their Harvest Ball fundraiser held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center this past Friday evening. This annual event, that raises funds to help the families and children of Saint Finbar Parish School who are in need of tuition assistance, also recognizes individuals who have shown extraordinary leadership, inspiration, motivation, compassion and dedication to the school and the parish community.

Authorities are searching for a man who police say stole a large amount of cash May 2 from the US Bank branch inside Pavilions Market at 1110 W. Alameda Ave. At 5:15 p.m., the man told the bank teller that he had a handgun inside his black backpack when he demanded the cash. The employees, fearing for their safety, handed over the cash, and the man was last seen walking out the front door, said Burbank Police Sgt. Robert Quesada. According to surveillance video from the market, the man had stolen bottles of alcohol earlier in day on two visits.

?Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.? ? Leonardo da Vinci ? Faith comes in many forms, I believe. And in my search to find it in places unexpected, I?m learning a lot. I sat down with Steve Hines at Shaker?s for breakfast one recent morning to further my exploration. Steve?s an inventor, and I asked him what he had faith in. He handed me a photocopied page from Webster?

Pope Benedict XVI is under increasing pressure to directly address the sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church worldwide. Questions have been raised about the actions of Benedict while he was archbishop of Munich. The latest reports from Europe are from Italy, where three men say they were abused as boys at a Catholic school for the deaf. “To the Point,” a news program on KCRW-FM (89.9), posed these questions: Is this a smear campaign, as the Vatican claims, or is it time for the pope to explain his actions, in the interests of restoring his dwindling credibility?

In a city where major film studios and production companies are the norm, small, independent films based on the Bible stories have a competition of their own. Contemporary scripts based on Bible verses will be presented at the eighth annual 168 Film Festival, slated for Friday at the Hope Theatre in San Fernando and March 27 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. More than 65 films were submitted from all over the world, including work by African, Indonesian, Mexican and Israeli film teams, and from 16 U.S. states.