On Oct. 27, Brazil elected a leftist president, Luiz Inacio da Silva, widely known as Lula, but there were few signs that the growing number of evangelicals in the country formed a voting bloc either for or against the candidate. He garnered 61 percent of the votes, while the candidate of the ruling coalition, Jose […]

Catholic theology is facing a new challenge as young theologians are often more conservative and are often bewildered about the polarization in the church today, writes Thomas P. Rausch. In America magazine (Oct. 14), Rausch writes that young academics in Catholic universities and seminaries are at odds with older theologians on matters of feminism, religious pluralism and […]

The priest sex abuse crisis is turning out to be as much an impetus for conservative activism as for liberal protests and challenges to the church structure. The Washington Post (Oct. 13) reports that when the  scandal broke last January with allegations of sex abuse cases and cover-up in the Boston Archdiocese “liberal groups were the first to […]

It has usually been the less ethnic Eastern Orthodox churches (such as the Orthodox Church in America) rather than Greek churches that have attracted converts, but that situation seems to be changing. A report in the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 19) notes that Greek churches are gradually opening their doors to non-Greeks. Since the early 1990s, “Introduction […]

American fundamentalism is facing a growing conflict within its own ranks over its traditional practice of  separation from liberal and evangelical churches. Fundamentalists, as represented by such denominations as the Baptist Bible Fellowship and Bob Jones University, have traditionally stressed that any association with “liberals” and more moderate evangelicals violates biblical teachings. Even such a strongly […]

Alternative rock music and identity politics are not often associated with atheist gatherings. But the Godless March on Washington, attended by RW on Nov. 2, was not the typical atheist event. The march, the first of its kind and drawing about 2,500 freethinkers, atheists and secular humanists, showed the growing unity between the various non- and anti-theistic […]

Acts of suicide for a cause, or “martyrdom,” among Muslims today are more numerous than in the past, and far more complex than generally thought, according to two recent books on the subject. Sociologist Farhad Kohosrokhavar of the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, has published a new book in French on […]

Survivors of the genocide in Rwanda are moving toward Islam, reports the Washington Post  (Sept. 23). The state-sponsored massacres between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples in 1994 implicated many Catholic and Protestant clergy and churches, who failed to protect, and in some cases, informed on those seeking refuge from the violence. In contrast, many Muslim leaders and […]