Bnei Baruch emerged from a small circle of students of the Kabbalah in Israel in the 1990s to become one of Israel’s largest new religious movements that is taking on a global expression. The movement, numbering 50,000 participants in Israel and 150,000 worldwide, takes a pragmatic approach to the mystical Jewish texts known as the […]
ACT for America, a self-proclaimed national security advocacy organization, is now in the spotlight in the Trump era for its anti-Islamic activism. The organization, started a decade ago, has been in the news recently for its advocacy supporting the travel ban targeting several Muslim nations, but its wide ranging agenda on issues regarding Islam has […]
While Neopaganism has been present in Israel for the past two decades, it was only recently that an indigenous movement has emerged known as Canaanite Reconstructionism, which seeks to revive ancient, pre-Jewish religion. Most Neopagan practitioners in Israel—who only number in the low hundreds—have drawn on Western sources, such as Celtic and and Wiccan deities […]
Described as a charismatic leader and entrepreneur, Venerable Jigwang has founded the most powerful urban Buddhist temple in South Korea while borrowing management, preaching, and proselytizing techniques from Pentecostals. The Nungin Meditation Center (Nungin Sonwon) was founded in Seoul, Korea, in the mid-1980s. Although it started with limited resources, it has now turned into one […]
Oasis is one of several networks of atheist or humanist congregations that have emerged in the past few years. As with the more well-known secular congregations known as Sunday Assemblies, Oasis brings together non-believers for church-like functions, involving services with live music, sermon-like messages, children’s activities, and testimonies of losing one’s faith while finding secularism. […]
º The Robloxian Christians (TRC) is unique for being both a virtual church drawing young people from around the world and for being founded by a teenager. Daniel Herron, 16, of Tacoma, Washington, started the church completely on his own, which is now “attended” by more than 4,500 members who gather at the virtual congregation […]
1) The Moorish Sovereign Citizen Movement gained attention for its black nationalist beliefs and politics after adherent Gavin Eugene Long killed three Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers in mid-July. Sovereign citizen beliefs, holding that adherents can claim immunity from federal, state, and local laws, citing divine or common law, can be traced back to the […]
1) The establishment of the Multifaith Campus at a mainline Protestant church on Long Island, New York, represents a novel experiment in different religions sharing the same worship space and using the experience as a source of interfaith education. The Brookville Reformed Church hosts the Muslim Reform Movement Organization, the New Synagogue of Long Island, […]
1.) The Brooklyn, NY, based Pop-up Shabbat is the latest in an ongoing trend of dinner-based congregations, but in this case the Jewish communal meal is not free and forms only one part of its operation. Building on the Silicon Valley business model of developing “engaged community, high quality content and commercial products,” Pop-Up Shabbat […]
Mariam Mosque in Copenhagen, Denmark, is among the first Muslim houses of worship to be led entirely by female imams, or worship leaders. Sherin Khankan, a well-known author and political commentator in Denmark, founded the mosque in February. She criticizes the traditional pattern of segregating a mosque according to male or female worshippers, claiming that […]
