Archive for the ‘international’ Category
Apr 20 2011  |
The days of the Beatles and pop stars like Donovan making highly publicized trips to India to study with popular spiritual leaders are over. But Hinduism never needed the buzz, or large numbers of Western converts, to make it in America. What is propelling Hinduism in the United States into a role as one of the nation’s largest minority religions is a steady stream of Indian immigrants who have built hundreds of temples across the nation, according to a comprehensive new Hindu census.
[Read Full Column...]Jan 18 2011 |
One of the last great efforts at state-sponsored atheism is a failure. No more than 15 percent of adults in the world’s most populous country are “real atheists;” 85 percent of the Chinese either hold some religious beliefs or practice some kind of religion, according to the Chinese Spiritual Life Survey. In a nation with few sources of independent data on religion, the spiritual life survey represents one of the best pictures to date of the Chinese religious landscape.
[Read Full Column...]Dec 28 2010 |
Amid widespread international disregard for religious freedom, one group of countries stands out: Muslim-majority nations. “Religious persecution is not only more prevalent among Muslim-majority countries, but it also generally occurs at more severe levels,” Brian Grim of the Pew Research Center and Roger Finke of Pennsylvania State University report in a new book, “The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.”
[Read Full Column...]Sep 23 2010 |
Religious freedoms are more often promised than delivered. Majority religions are tempted to limit competition and strengthen themselves by seeking favored status. Governments contemplate the strife committed in the name of religion, and see restrictions as a way to protect the public good. Yet it is the act of restricting religion, not the presence of diverse groups of faiths, that most likely leads to religious persecution and violence, Brian Grim of the Pew Research Center and Roger Finke of Pennsylvania State University point out in a new book examining “The Price of Freedom Denied.”
[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...]Feb 17 2010 |
Haiti’s efforts to promote religious freedom, along with a recent period of relative political stability, mean a wide range of religious groups have ties on the ground and are energizing faithful throughout the world to provide long-term assistance in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Religious discrimination can lead to persecution and political isolation, and in some cases foment terrorism among the marginalized. The flip side is that religious freedom offers nations such as Haiti the opportunity to benefit from faith’s sweeter fruits of a humanitarian calling to ease suffering.
Nov 19 2009 |
True or false?
1. Islam and Christianity share a similar history of connections between religion and violence.
2. Muslims in countries where they are the majority want more political participation, freedoms and rule of law.
3. Forbidding female students from wearing head coverings in public schools lowers the possibility of religious violence.
If you answered true, true and false, congratulations. You agree with some of the top scholars in religion offering their perspectives in a timely effort by the Association of Religion Data Archives to widen access to the best of international religion scholarship.
Aug 7 2009 |
Forgive President Obama his misstatement that America has one of the world’s largest populations of Muslims. He was only reflecting a larger lack of knowledge of world religion that has allowed some in the fields of religion, academics and the media to promote the ethnocentric idea that the United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world. The problem is, like many other claims of American triumphalism from the left or the right, it is just not true.
[Read Full Column...]Jul 22 2009 |
These are heady days for secularists. Increases in the number of Americans claiming no religious affiliation along with the success of books promoting a militant anti-religious agenda such as Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” give some hope of a secular great awakening. But getting rid of religion will not be as easy as it seems. It has been tried before.
[Read Full Column...]Jun 22 2009 |
Does placing time, talent and treasure in spiritual pursuits pay off? For many people, the answer is yes. Among the findings of recent studies in religion and economics, researchers report that children whose parents were observant tended to stay in school longer and get better jobs and that the poor in particular find religion a beneficial use of their time. Faith also extends to financial matters, with investors in religious mutual funds being less likely to react to market volatility even with lower returns than secular funds. There also is an economic downside for religious groups, however. Studies indicated that a rise in the welfare state contributed to steep declines in religiosity among some Western democracies and that the well-off are more likely than their less fortunate brethren to spend time at work and play than at prayer.
[Read Full Column...]
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