While the Catholic Church in Canada has experienced a sharp growth in hate crimes directed against it, Canadian politicians and the country’s media have been largely silent about this trend, writes Douglas Todd in the Vancouver Sun (October 13). Citing a Statistics Canada finding that there has been a significant increase in hate crimes against […]
The massive influx of refugees and other migrants into Europe over the past several years has had a significant impact on evangelical and mainline churches, as they have rethought and retooled their ministries to meet the needs of such newcomers. Ken Chitwood reports in Christianity Today (October 3) that many churches have played important roles […]
The publication of some Yezidi sacred texts for various purposes over the past 50 years, as well as the experiences of a growing Yezidi diaspora, are giving rise to a process of canonization of Yezidi holy scriptures, reports Thorsten Wettich (University of Bremen) in the Zeitschrift für Religion und Weltanschauung (5/2022). Persecutions against Yezidis by […]
Hindu nationalist themes and plots are finding their way into an increasing number of Indian film productions, reports the New Yorker (October 10). Known as “Bollywood,” the global Indian film industry has long featured more traditional themes in its standard and ornate song and dance productions compared to Hollywood, but lately films critical of Hinduism […]
Women’s religious orders are seeing an increasing number of members from new immigrant groups and in the process are changing their structure and activities, writes Thu Do, a nun and researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Writing in the Jesuit magazine America (October), Do notes that “new members […]
The view that the January 6 riot was largely motivated by “Christian nationalism” and evangelical fervor is belied by new available data coming from the legal cases of those who have been prosecuted in connection with the event, writes Daniel Strand in the American Conservative magazine (August 23). Strand cites the Chicago Project on Security […]
A growing number of psychologists believe that religion and spirituality have tools that can help with today’s mental health crisis, which is leading to an increase in training opportunities to integrate faith and spirituality into psychotherapy, writes Richard Schiffman in the Washington Post (September 23). There have also been a growing number of articles and […]
Vaccine hesitancy may be taking place among only a segment of evangelicals, but is this new conflict with medicine signaling a more confrontational era between evangelical Christianity and science? Those were some of the issues addressed in a session on evangelicals and vaccine hesitancy that RW attended at the August meeting of the Association for […]
Since the decision reversing Roe v. Wade, leaders and participants in the pro-life movement are saying that the time has arrived for a more socially involved phase of the movement. But there are signs that the movement is showing new divisions, as well as disaffection from a key Catholic population group. Writing in the conservative […]
El Salvador is becoming increasingly authoritarian under President Nayib Bukele, as he draws on his multireligious background and connections to enforce an aggressive rightist agenda, writes Amy Fallas on the website Religion and Politics (August 2). In 2019, Bukele won the presidency on an anti-corruption and anti-establishment platform through a wave of popular support. To […]
