■ While there is less opposition to the prospect of an atheist president, especially as the stigma of atheism has decreased in recent years, partisanship and religiosity may still keep voters from electing even patriotic candidates if they don’t profess a faith, a new study finds. In an article in the Journal for the […]
In recent years, a new generation of young left-wing Christians has emerged in France, challenging the notion that Christian leftists were disappearing in the face of right-wing Catholics, writes Pascale Tournier in the Catholic weekly La Vie (September 26). This group, primarily consisting of individuals aged 25–40, is beginning to organize and assert itself in […]
Australia’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2017 has opened the door to a series of federal, state, and territory-level religious discrimination bills (or proposed bills) that focus on anti-discrimination rather than protection of the autonomy of religious institutions, curtailing the capacity of such organizations to govern their affairs, writes Ian Tregenza in the Journal of […]
Al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda based in Somalia, is finding new support among the young as well as forming new alliances, such as with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, reports Tam Hussein in the online magazine UnHerd (September 16). The ineffectiveness of the Somali government in defeating the terrorist group was on display in July […]
While the practice of deprogramming or “faith breaking,” where members of minority religions are confined and submitted to heavy psychological indoctrination and various forms of violence, has been reported to be a common practice in China, these techniques are now being conducted in cooperation with an official religious group, Dong Deming reports in the newsletter […]
Albania is planning to create the world’s smallest, Vatican-style sovereign state within its capital city, Tirana. This proposed 27-acre enclave, about the size of five New York City blocks, would be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order and would serve as a symbol of religious tolerance and moderate Islam. The initiative is being […]
At this year’s conference of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR), which RW attended in Montreal in early August, it was obvious that there has been a shift of interest and emphasis toward secularism among scholars in the past few years. There were fewer sessions and papers on the growth of religious congregations […]
The entrance of JD Vance as the Republican vice-presidential contender reflects a new breed of Catholic convert that is reshaping Republican politics, Matthew Schmitz, a founder and editor of the online magazine Compact, writes in an opinion piece in the New York Times (August 14). Vance, who converted to Catholicism after attending Yale Law School, […]
More non-affiliated Americans have been seeking spiritual directors even as they lose faith in other aspects of institutional religion, reports Deirdre Pelphrey in World Religion News (August 12). Spiritual directors have seen increased interest in their ministries, especially from “younger people who no longer attend church but still want to nurture a sense of the […]
Vacation Bible schools, which function as day camps that churches provide for members and the community, are adapting to changing dynamics of family life and religious participation, particularly a decline in volunteering for vacation Bible school ministries, according to a report from National Public Radio (August 4). Jason DeRose reports that rather than recruiting volunteers […]
