Tidings

Who are the most influential personalities in U.S. religion? The Protestant weekly Christian Century asked 35 experts in the religious and secular press and found the "clear winner" to be Evangelist Billy Graham. Other members of the top ten in order of votes received: Church Historian-Journalist Martin E. Marty, President Jimmy Carter, Ecumenical Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, Notre Dame's President Theodore Hesburgh, Oral Roberts, Campus Crusade's Bill Bright, Jesse Jackson, Anita Bryant and William P. Thompson, the chief executive of the United Presbyterian Church. Lest the survey be taken too seriously, George Burns, star of Oh, God!, got two votes.

GROWTH ARRESTED

Next to their end-of-the-world expectations and their refusal to accept blood transfusions, the Jehovah's Witnesses are most noted for their dogged door-to-door evangelism. For more than three decades, that has paid off with one of the steadiest records of growth in Western religion. Yet according to the Witnesses' new Yearbook, the number of active members in the U.S. dropped by 2.6% (to 530,374) for 1977, the first decrease since World War II. Worldwide, the Witnesses, who often suffer persecution overseas, declined by 1%. Besides that, the number of baptisms of new U.S. converts has dropped 65% over two years.

At their Brooklyn headquarters, the Witnesses suggest that the decrease in active members may stem from "a problem in receiving accurate reports" because of a new rotation system for officers of local congregations. Outsiders speculate that the Witnesses might be in trouble because of disappointment that the world did not end in 1975, as the faith's leaders had predicted. Reviewing the new figures, the official Watchtower newspaper comments: "As we approach the end, times get harder."

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