Religion Watch was going to press as the U.S. elections unfolded, so readers should expect more in-depth coverage and analysis on this topic in the December issue of the newsletter. Yet early on, the elections’ results revealed developments that we would be amiss not to note in this issue. The solidification of the Christian right and […]

In recent years, there have been in recent years indicators of a growing religiosity in Indonesia across all religious groups, as well as forecasts that the country will become more Islamic. But such trends are unlikely to lead to the establishment of an Islamic political system, said Prof. Merle Ricklefs at the inaugural public lecture […]

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-based group, has taken a low, sometimes secretive profile in the U.S., but has been instrumental in turning American Islam in a more conservative direction, according to the Chicago Tribune (Sept. 24). An in-depth article by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Sam Roe and Laurie Cohen reports that the brotherhood has operated in secrecy: as […]

If they do not produce more children, Zoroastrian Parsis may be heading for slow extinction, officials warned after releasing the results of India’s religious census. Indo-Asian News Service reported on Sept. 7 that there were 69,601 Parsis in India (33,949 males and 35,652 females), nearly 7,000 less than 10 years earlier. The death rate has overtaken the […]

Although the Jewish vote for the Republican Party has been slipping, the campaign to reelect George Bush is finding a new source of support from Orthodox Jews. Recent surveys have shown Jews supporting John Kerry by a wide margin [see September RW], but The New Republic (Sept. 13) reports that the Orthodox Jewish factor may be important […]

Ten years ago, evangelical historian Mark Noll attracted wide attention with a stinging critique on the lack of evangelical intellectual accomplishment. While there has not been dramatic improvement, today evangelicals have made significant strides toward increasing their intellectual caliber, writes Noll in First Things magazine (October). Noll’ s 1994 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, took evangelicals […]

The changes in religion affiliation and upbringing experienced among the children of interfaith marriages are also impacting their grandparents, reports Time magazine (Sept. 27). With estimates of about 28 million adults, 22 percent of the U.S. population, living in mixed-religion households, many of those who are parents end up choosing one religion for their children. “While many […]