Archive for the ‘Catholic’ Category
May 25 2011  |
Date-setting for the end of the world has never worked out too well for biblical prophets. Some social scientists, however, say increasingly sophisticated demographic tools can provide vauable insight into the future of religion. Under one scenario for the U.S., Hispanic Catholics and non-Christian religions will be big winners, while predominantly white religious groups will lag behind. Other researchers, however, are skeptical of such attempts to predict the future.
[Read Full Column...]Mar 31 2011 |
Add another important voice to the debate over the health of religion in the United States, a nation that is a symbol of the staying power of faith in the West. In a paper for the Association of Religion Data Archives, Duke sociologist Mark Chaves finds “it is reasonable to conclude that American religion has in fact declined in recent decades — slowly, but unmistakably.” Others say the religious beliefs and practices of Americans have been remarkably stable..
[Read Full Column...]Mar 16 2011 |
A major celebrity appears to be destroying himself with alcohol before the eyes of a nation, and his antics become comic fodder, fueling an endless thirst for celebrity voyeurism. What is obscured among the ridicule being heaped upon Charlie Sheen is our own discomfort in confronting alcohol addiction. Religion can be both help and hindrance in the battle against alcoholism, research suggests.
[Read Full Column...]Feb 23 2011 |
Americans have long feared religious groups they do not know. Islam and Buddhism are among the least liked religious expressions in America today. New research, however, indicates it does not have to be this way. Getting to know evangelicals, atheists, Muslims and Buddhists as individuals leads to greater acceptance of people of diverse beliefs, Robert Putnam of Harvard University and David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame suggest in their new book “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.”
[Read Full Column...]Nov 3 2010 |
Christian clergy are keeping pace with technological advances, a trend that should only grow stronger as a younger, more wired generation takes their place in pulpits, according to a new study. Ninety-five percent of Christian clergy use the Internet at least weekly, and more than three in four send e-mails to worshippers once a week or more, according to the latest wave of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey. What may be suffering is time spent in prayer.
[Read Full Column...]Sep 1 2010 |
Two studies presented at sociology meetings in Atlanta earlier this month — one exploring American Christian and Japanese Buddhist attitudes toward “honorable suicide“ and a second looking at the progress of clergywomen — offer interesting glimpses into the changing expressions of faith in history. One study found evidence the steps forward women clergy have made in obtaining more desirable pulpits are balanced by continuing concerns faced by many of their colleagues stuck under a stained-glass ceiling. The other study was more surprising. Even to its principal investigator.
[Read Full Column...]Jun 24 2010 |
If we build it, they will come has been the hope for centuries of congregations seeking to grow in the religious marketplace. But some researchers are observing an increasing willingness by local governments to challenge religious construction projects despite a federal law designed to protect religious freedom. And it is no small matter. Denying property rights to faith groups “may even represent a more invidious attack on basic religious liberties than whether ‘under God’ should appear in the Pledge of Allegiance,” says political scientist Anthony Gill of the University of Washington.
[Read Full Column...]May 17 2010 |
Recent news reports about Catholic malfeasance at the highest levels are again shedding important light on the problem of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. Yet it would be a mistake to give in to the convenient temptation that this is “a Catholic problem.” A growing body of research affirms what I have discovered in more than a decade of investigative reporting: Young people have been and are being sexually abused in evangelical and mainline Protestant churches, in mosques and synagogues and temples. And the initial response is largely the same. Religious leaders protect the institution, often angrily condemning or ignoring the victim lying wounded on the side of the road.
[Read Full Column...]Apr 23 2010 |
The more competition, the better for American religion. Major immigration from Asia, the growth into the thousands of religious movements within and outside the church and an active and influential secular community have not stopped the growth of the nation’s largest faith — Christianity. Instead, the expanding religion marketplace is proving to be a win-win situation for all faiths, according to J. Gordon Melton, founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif.
[Read Full Column...]Mar 2 2010 |
Religion counts in the politics of abortion. And some religious groups have far more clout than others in the debate. The issue of public funding of abortion perhaps more than ever holds the potential to tip the political balance with the prospects for comprehensive health care reform nearing life support. That makes the Catholic Church and evangelical groups key players in the conversation. Research shows their most committed members, the people they have the most influence over and are most likely to mobilize, are among the strongest supporters of restrictions on legal abortion.
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