01: “Not your mother’s broomstick,” is the motto of newWitch (http://www.newwitch.com), a magazine “dedicated to, featuring, and partially written by young or beginning Witches, Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and other earth-based, ethnic, pre-Christian, shamanic, and magical practitioners.” The quarterly was launched in September 2002; and has a circulation of 10,000 copies. It is a product of BBI Media, which […]
Pakistan’s religious schools modernizing?
For some time now, there has been a strong pressure on Pakistan’s religious schools (madrassas) to change their ways, since they have been widely seen as having contributed to the development of radical forms of Islam. In a major turnaround, madrassas run by Maulala Fazalur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam group will be modernizing their syllabus to remove […]
Yezidis closer to gaining autonomy in post-Hussein Iraq
The Yezidis, an ancient religion based in the Kurdish region of Iraq, are entering a period of greater freedom after years of repression and loss of their tribal lands. The Sydney Morning Herald (July 26) reports that many Yezidis were swept up in Saddam Hussein’s anti-Kurdish crackdown of the 1980s. More recently, the tribal religion lost more […]
Current Research: August 2003
01: A new nationwide survey of 2,002 adults, conducted by Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, shows that there has been a significant rise in negative perceptions about Islam. Fully 44 percent now believe that Islam is more likely than other religions “to encourage violence among its believers.” As […]
Not just Bibles in hotel rooms anymore
The American hotel tradition of placing a Bible in guests’ rooms is changing as these establishments broaden their menu of religious reading material to please the new diversity of guests. USA Today (July 10) reports that the Bibles placed in hotel rooms for over a century by the Gideon International ministry has become “an unwitting brand […]
Religious themes make appearance in new superhero movies
Religious themes and motifs are evident in the new wave of superhero movies, “from last year’s Spider-Man to this year’s Daredevil and, most recently, X2, the sequel to the 2000 film X-Men,” reports the National Catholic Register (July 13-19). The movie X2 features a super-strengthened “mutant” character who prays the rosary, views his suffering as a test […]
Judaica finds place in Christian bookstores
There is a growth in both visibility and presence of Judaica and Zionist books and related products in the evangelical Christian marketplace judging by the recent Christian Book Association (CBA) conference in Orlando, Fla. The e-newsletter Religion Bookline (July 22) reports that one of the most heavily trafficked exhibits was the Tent of Meeting union display. Organized […]
Gender, sexuality teachings sparking Catholic revival?
Pope John Paul II’s teachings on gender difference and sexuality seems to be a main attraction for the small but growing movement of young adults drawn to conservative Catholicism. In First Things magazine (August-September), Bronwen Catherine McShea reports that at Harvard and other Ivy League colleges, there is a phenomenon of young people converting or returning to traditional Catholic […]
Mormon racial beliefs persisting despite lifting of ban
Twenty five years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lifted its prohibition against blacks serving in the priesthood, the issue of race still haunts Mormonism. In his new book All Abraham’s Children (University of Illinois Press, $36.95), sociologist Armand L. Mauss chronicles how the LDS church has long struggled between its early teachings […]
Findings & Footnotes: July 2003
01: A teacher at a high school in Geneva and a lecturer at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), Tariq Ramadan has been enjoying a growing audience among young Muslims in Europe, especially in France. A charismatic speaker, Ramadan (b. 1962) is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Eygpt in the 1920s. […]
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