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By Warren Bates
Review-Journal
If religious leaders in Las Vegas took one message away from the news out of San Diego that 39 men and women had committed suicide as part of an effort to transport their souls to another plane of existence, it was this: People are still searching.
Which, they say, makes the message of Easter -- that of resurrection, redemption and hope -- more relevant than ever, even in times of great skepticism and cynicism.
"As far as the world situation is concerned, I think people in the last few years have found it easier to look to God for answers because so many of our human institutions have failed," said the Rev. William Kenny of Christ the King Community Catholic Church. "They're open for a message and an answer from beyond."
Unfortunately, Kenny and others said, in the vast marketplace of ideas some people are going to be drawn to seemingly idyllic organizations that lead to self-destruction.
Today, as Christians in Las Vegas celebrate the cornerstone on which their faith is founded, church leaders say they are more than ever faced with the challenge of getting their message through.
For example, said the Rev. Marvin Gant of First United Methodist Church in Henderson, "Generation Xers are in a sensory mode: they gotta feel it, they gotta see it, they gotta hear it."
The trick, he said, is making people "feel the event" that Easter recognizes.
"For me, I think pastors and priests have to stay excited themselves. I always say that faith is more caught than taught," Gant said. "If I feel that, 'Oh, this is just a job and I have to do all this stuff,' people are going to see through that.
"People are searching for a greater spiritual meaning in their lives. For ages, they've tried to develop their own theology. They pull away from God's plan and cling to man's plan, and that leads to tragedy," he said, referring to the Heaven's Gate UFO cult members who killed themselves in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
"There are people who, through charm and charisma, come off as being the most gentle, kind, benevolent people in the world, but that doesn't mean they're any good. We need to basically remember who our boss is."
Gant's assessment of an increased search for spirituality may be correct, but according to George Barna, a California pollster who passes on research to religious organizations in an effort to help them market to potential parishioners, the news is not all good.
Barna said church attendance is lower than it has been at any time in decades. Only 1 in 4 Americans believe there is an absolute moral truth and, while 86 percent of Americans profess to be Christian, some 45 percent -- including 30 percent of those claiming to be "born again" -- say they believe that Jesus, while on Earth, committed sins.
Barna's numbers clash with those of pollster George Gallup, who says church attendance has held steady at about 40 percent since the early 1970s.
Nevertheless, said Ashley Hall, spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus "are as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago.
"His atonement and mission is of great importance no matter what the time," Hall said. "I think Cecil B. DeMille said it best. After making 'The Ten Commandments,' he said in a major address that the more he was involved in that movie, the more he was convinced that mankind didn't break the Ten Commandments; mankind broke itself against them. What that means is ... the relevance of the commandments of God does not change in terms of time, distance or space."
Sumner Dodge, spokesman for the Salvation Army in Las Vegas, said "it's unfortunate" that people often have to hit a low point before seeking a higher source.
"We work with hundreds of homeless people and we work with them every day," Dodge said. "We try to give them hope that though things are desperate, there is hope that good things are going to happen.
"People tend to try and get their spiritual lives in order when they're down at the bottom. When people are on top, they think they're responsible for everything good that has happened," he said. "I know the same was true in my own life."
Assembly of God pastor Vic Caruso of Trinity Life Church said Easter, for born-again Christians, is the "pinnacle of the year."
Keeping the message fresh, he said, involves a continuous self-reminding of Jesus' "suffering, death, burial and resurrection.
"You've got psychic hot lines operating 24 hours a day; you've got 39 brothers and sons killing themselves over a UFO. People are hungry," Caruso said.
If Caruso's services are more crowded today with those known as "Chreasters" -- who attend church only on Christmas and Easter -- he said he won't mind.
"They can still recommit to their church and recommit their lives."
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