Hawaii’s ornate Buddhist festivals are increasingly popular among people of all faiths, but Buddhism itself  is in decline in the state. The New York Times (Aug. 10) reports that the Japanese Buddhist ritual known as a bon dance, originally intended to celebrate the annual return of departed loved ones, has become a custom shared by many Hawaiians. Bon […]

A growing number of congregations are dropping the tradition of church collections during services and adopting a soft-sell approach, reports the Christian Science Monitor (Aug. 23). Changing generational attitudes and church scandals have compelled churches to adopt the new approach, though not without struggle. Some congregations, such as a Baptist church in Houston, Texas, provides a central […]

Christian right leaders are gradually giving their support to a movement urging parents to pull their children out of public schools, reports the Washington Times (Aug. 7). Christian leaders, such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Southern Baptist officials, as well as conservatives such as “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger, have reversed themselves in […]

New congregations heavily influenced by hip-hop culture and music are emerging around the U.S., reports Charisma magazine (August). The first hip-hop congregation was established last January in Tampa Florida. Since then, several congregations have been or are being established in New Jersey (Universal Fat House), Ontario (Church Without Limits), Atlanta (Faith International Ministries), Memphis (City of Refuge), […]

A fledgling reform movement emerging from the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has gained national attention but observers are questioning if it can keep its centrist thrust and appeal to a wide range of Catholics. The six-month-old Voice of the Faithful movement was founded to galvanize Catholics on the sex abuse issue in the Boston […]

Thanks to the “intelligent design” movement, the distance between evangelical Christians holding to a belief in some form of evolution and those opposed to the theory has narrowed, though not without tension and divisions. The Christian Research Journal (Volume 24 Number 4) reports that the emergence of the intelligent design movement has helped  create a “big tent” approach […]

The non-official house church movement in China has drawn wide support among Christian groups in the West. But some house churches have developed in ways that are of concern to  Western Christians, particularly as some of these groups are setting up operations in the U.S., according to several reports. The Ledger newspaper (Aug. 24) interviews Rev. Gik […]

In a breakthrough to find a solution to the lasting war in Sudan between the government and Christian and animist secessionist forces in the South (2 million victims over the past 20 years, many of them dying from war-related famine), a framework for peace talks signed on July 20 agreed that the constitution would be […]

According to several observers of the Turkish political scene, the current crisis might lead to an unprecedented success of Islamist parties, due to the fragmentation of the secular political groups and to peculiarities of the Turkish electoral system. Long-time politician and ailing Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit clings to power and refuses to leave his […]