Tag: Religion in America

God has placed the US church in a situation of enormous risk brought on mostly because of policies and attitudes rooted in a conviction of exceptionalism. Two by-products of the resulting anxiety, denial and despair, have resulted in a variety of strategies aimed at exclusionary absolutism, based on the fearful assumption that elimination of the “other” will ease that anxiety and bring well-being and security.

President Obama’s invitation to speak at Notre Dame this spring is causing a number of Roman Catholic leaders to boycott the ceremony, including the Bishop of the local diocese. The problem is centered in the President’s support for keeping abortion legally available in the United States.

Frank Rich points out some interesting implications of the lack of controversy over President Obama’s lifting of President Bush’s stem-cell research ban. He sees an

Is Barack Obama the anti-Christ? “Of course not!” say some Christians of the dispensational, pre-millenial variety. He’s just a warm-up act.

The latest American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) shows that more and more Americans claim no religious affiliation and that fewer Americans call themselves Christian than a generation ago.

While it’s no surprise that young adults are more tech-savvy than the older generation, a new study examines specific details of the differences that could help church leaders better understand how to get their messages to click with congregants.

The Associated Press reports that Temple Emanu-El, the only synagogue in Dothan, Alabama, has found a way to reverse their shrinking attendance and aging membership trends: offer “Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate and get involved” in the congregation.

The Obama’s search for a new church home for their family has opened up a conversation in some quarters about the American phenomenon of “church shopping”. Every pastor and priest says they deplore it, but most of them do what they feel they need to do in response to it. It’s been a part of the American religious experience for generations.

The National Council of Churches Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches reported a decline in Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist membership for first time in recent experience. The Episcopal Church declined less than United Church of Christ but slightly more than the Evangelical Lutherans.