Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

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Christian Scientists’ ecumenical involvement brings changes to faith

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Christian Scientists are forging new links with other Christians in such areas as prayer and fellowship since their church has engaged in ecumenical dialogues, according to the current issue of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies (Spring). The Christian Science Church began a series of informal dialogues with the National Council of Churches about five years […]

Celibacy gaining credence among gay evangelicals

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After a period of leadership controversies and disbanding of ex-gay evangelical ministries, groups stressing the importance of celibacy for gay evangelicals are gaining popularity, reports Sarah Pulliam Bailey in Religion News Service (Aug. 4). When the prominent ex-gay ministry Exodus shut down in 2013, it was a sign that the reparation therapy model that it […]

Gay rights making Korean-American Christians more public and more insular

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While the recent battles over same-sex marriage have brought once apolitical older Korean-American clergy and laity into the public square, the rapid victories and new protections granted to gay rights have created a mood of insularity among more integrated second-generation Korean-American evangelicals, according to political scientists Joseph Yi, Joe Phillips and Shin-Do Sung. In an […]

Findings & Footnotes: August 2014

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01: Sociologists Gerardo Marti and Gladys Ganiel provide a thorough examination of the postmodern “emerging Christianity” movement in their new book The Deconstructed Church (Oxford University Press, $35). Emerging Christianity has been a diffuse movement, stressing its anti-institutional nature with participants divided among themselves about whether they go by the designation “emerging” or “emergent” (with the […]

The bewitching of Romanian politics

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Paranormal and occult beliefs and practices are increasingly prominent in the media in Romania and are even playing a role in politics, writes Doru Pop in the online Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (Summer). There has been a long history of mystical and occult influences in politics in Romania—from the fascist Legion […]

Polish Catholicism facing dissent, secular pressures

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 A special report on Poland in The Economist (June 28) finds a robust economy but a more divided and less vital religious sector. The magazine reports that the Catholic Church’s unifying role while promoting dialogue on issues such as Jewish-Christian relations and democracy in the past has been eclipsed by a fear of dissent from […]

Current Research: August 2014

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01: In a paper delivered at the CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions) conference at Baylor University (Waco, Texas) in early June, J. Gordon Melton analyzed atheist groups as organizations similar to new religious movements (without a supernatural component) and the new public presence of atheism on the American scene. Actually, the percentage of […]

Religious editors and sources battle on Wikepedia

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Religion has become one of the most contested and “vandalized” topics on Wikipedia, the collaboratively edited online encyclopedia. In a July 24 Religion News Service article (with support by Google), Sarah Pulliam Bailey notes that religion is among several of the top 100 altered topics on Wikipedia. She cites a recent list by the FiveThirtyEight […]

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ recruitment efforts extend beyond doorstep

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Jehovah’s Witnesses are moving beyond their traditional strategy of door-to-door evangelism as they seek to reach a wider base of potential converts through a more non-confrontational approach. A BBC News article (July 7) reports that a strategy pioneered in New York City three years ago where the Witnesses distribute literature at train stations and other […]