The bottom line: At some point, parents in traditional forms of faith are going to have to teach their children — the younger the better — that their their home is different from those in which many of their friends are being raised. That can be tough sledding, but these hard topics Will. Not. Go. Away.
Read More(REVIEW) It’s been said, “You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you.” The same is true of religion. If you want to better understand your neighbors — and the cultural and political forces shaping America — “The American Religious Landscape” is the primer you’ve been looking for. Despite all the data, it’s also a book that does not disappoint.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the year of our Lord 1967, the Anglican Church of Canada had 1,218,666 members and 272,400 worshippers on a typical Sunday. In a recent report, the church found 294,382 members on parish rolls and 58,871 people attending Sunday worship services. It has been decades since Anglicanism was a dominant form of Christianity in Canada.
Read MoreAs a Christian ecologist and professor at Gordon College, Dorothy Boorse has endeavored to connect science to faith communities for over 30 years. Throughout her writing, she links the core Christian values of justice, compassion, and caring for the least of these to pressing climate issues. She recently spoke with Religion Unplugged about her career shift from pre-med to wetland ecologist, loving your neighbor, and polarization on environmental issues during the Trump administration.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The global media storm surrounding the election of Pope Leo XIV will soon fade to some degree (until he wears a Chicago White Sox jersey or something like that). This post centers on the fact that the priest and bishop who is now pope has, in the past, offered some strong, insightful appeals for church leaders to face the realities of the digital age.
Read MoreFounded in 2013, Radio Sharda has grown into a powerful cultural project — broadcasting Kashmiri-language content to a global diaspora and anchoring displaced people to their roots. Named after the goddess of learning and the ancient Sharada Peeth temple, Radio Sharda is more than a radio station. It is a living archive of a vanishing language, a meeting point for artists and a shared refuge for memory.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion and Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program, along with Gallup and the Center for Open Science, released on Wednesday the first findings of their ongoing worldwide survey examining what makes for human flourishing.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the United States, April is designated as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month and is aimed at commemorating and raising awareness about genocides that occurred in the past, including the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.
Read More(ANALYSIS) “Americans have lost faith in traditional religion,” announces the sweeping first sentence of a contentious book published during Holy Week: “Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America.”
Read More(REVIEW) Data shows that organized religion is better for society than disorganized spirituality. Whether it’s mental health, building social bonds, fighting toxic masculinity, creating safety nets to avoid poverty or creating social change (just remember the Black church’s important role in pushing forward civil rights), there’s no doubt that the house of worship has more power than cloves of garlic to ward off the evils that plague us.
Read More(REVIEW) The book boldly gives a brave, honest and forceful account of the realities of the effect of colonialism on Anglicanism past and present, Percy critically examines how the Anglican Church, which served as both a spiritual arm and a moral justification for British imperial expansion, is now struggling with the enduring legacy of complicity in slavery and colonialism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As a rule, I am not a fan of sequels — other than movies that complete a cycle of stories that exist in some existing form of literature (think “The Lord of the Rings”). I am also not a fan of live-action remakes of classic animated films.
Read MoreWhen it comes to basic statistics, the 1960s and ‘70s were the high-water mark for liberal mainline Protestants. Pews were often full and strategic mergers — such as the process that eventually created the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983 — led to membership totals that inspired ecclesiastical bureaucrats to dream about bold “reforms” in the future (click for a timeline of LGBTQ+ activism in the Episcopal Church).
Read More(ANALYSIS) This fertility issue has both political and religious (#DUH) implications.
Read MoreAyaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, author and thinker, has become best known for her outspoken views on Islam, women's rights and the societal consequences of secularism. Her religious journey to becoming one of the most prominent critics of Islam into her recent conversion to Christianity has been shaped by personal experiences of suffering, political activism and intellectual transformation.
Read MoreI’m not suggesting that the New York Times team that produced this recent feature — “Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley” — needed to dig into the works of this Orthodox monk. This business-desk feature was the hook for this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.
Read More(REVIEW) In “Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration,” Yii Jan Lin narrates how some Americans have used the apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation to idealize the United States as a new holy land, while simultaneously marginalizing immigrants. The U.S. is portrayed as the New Jerusalem, with immigrants viewed as outsiders exhibiting unethical behaviors.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Trust in American institutions has eroded significantly over the last several decades — things like major companies, the federal government, and the scientific community. But given the name of this newsletter, I bet you can guess which institution I want to focus on today: organized religion.
Read More(OPINION) I have one bit of advice for all those people fuming over Elon Musk’s hand gestures: Stop. I know it’s tough to resist the temptation to go into full outrage mode over the apparent Nazi gesture Musk made during an Inauguration Day speech at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena. A lot of energy has gone into parsing Musk’s gesture, and attacking those who don’t see it your way.
Read MoreThe second season of the global streaming sensation “Squid Game” introduced viewers to several new characters. One of the most intriguing has been Player 044 due to her strong religious beliefs. Player 044 is a shaman whose role was to curse others and deliver prophecies as the players moved from one deadly game to another.
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