Archive for the ‘mainline’ Category
Oct 4 2011  |
The optimists’ perspective of the coming retirement crunch facing U.S. churches is that many older clergy will have the income to leave full-time positions, but the health and sense of vocation to serve smaller rural and urban churches unable to afford full-time clergy. The pessimists’ perspective is that many spiritual leaders, financially ill-prepared for retirement, will stay on in pastorates as long as they can, exacerbating the clergy age gap and impeding efforts for denominational revitalization. There is evidence to support both viewpoints. What is not in dispute, however, is that the time to address the issue is now.
[Read Full Column...]Aug 12 2011 |
Does higher education lead to a loss of faith? The answer, as indicated in a new study, may be as complex as the American religious landscape. Evangelicals, black Protestants and Catholics appear to become more religious the more steps they climb on the academic ladder, while the religiously unaffiliated are far less likely to pray or hold traditional beliefs as they acquire advanced degrees, according to the study, which analyzed data from the 1972-2006 General Social Survey. Overall, however, “The main contribution of this study is that education does not uniformly decrease religiosity,” the researchers reported.
[Read Full Column...]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...]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...]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.
[Read Full Column...]Jan 20 2010 |
There has been a compelling storyline throughout American religious history of the serious temptations endangering the next generation of faithful. Moonlit buggy rides, dance halls, live theater, radio, movies, television, the Internet and social media such as Facebook all have taken their turn as the latest threats to young hearts and minds. But several recent surveys available on ARDA reveal few major changes in the core religious beliefs of young people. “Faith,” one researcher says, “isn’t going anywhere in this country.”.
[Read Full Column...]Oct 12 2009 |
Mainline, oldline or sideline. Mainstream, standard brand or traditional. Progressive, liberal or moderate. The continuing decline of Protestant denominations that once set the agenda for American civil religion is forcing new ways of thinking about how to define the group of churches long described as “the mainline.“
[Read Full Column...]Jul 8 2009 |
They may be getting older, with average ages climbing well into the 50s and beyond in many congregations, but mainline Protestant denominations have lost none of their sex drive. In what is already a 30-year conflict, there are few signs that national church bodies are any less hot and bothered over gay and lesbian issues. But two studies indicate that some denominations and many congregations are settling in on one side of the debate.
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