The battle over religious freedom is reverting to the statehouses since the Supreme Court struck down a federal law two years ago guaranteeing freedom of worship, reports the Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 30). There are currently 11 states considering adopting a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which would protect religious expression from state intrusion. A federal version […]

Opposition to legalized gambling and state lotteries seems to be a lost cause among Christian churches. In his on-line newsletter Sightings (Feb. 18), church historian Martin E. Marty comes to this conclusion after watching the results of the  gubernatorial inaugurations in Southern, Bible Belt states. Governors who waged pro-lottery campaigns gained decisive victories over anti-gambling forces. Marty writes […]

Books on religion and spirituality are few and far between in a review of the top 100 best-sellers between 1994 and 1998. The list of books, as reported in USA Today (Feb. 11), confirms the preference for non-traditional and generic spirituality over more traditional titles. The bestsellers in unconventional and generic spirituality include  the fictional Celestine Prophesy by […]

Christianity Today magazine (Feb. 8) looks at the new breed of evangelical theologians and finds that they are more ecumenical, more concerned about how theology affects life rather than theory, and are less tied to older views, such as biblical inerrancy. Writer Tim Stafford profiles five evangelical theologians who are both modeling new ways of “doing […]

Asians are increasingly filling the ranks of participation and leadership of Christian ministries on American campuses, particularly Ivy League and other prestige institutions. The Philadelphia Inquirer (Feb. 2) reports that such long-established Christian clubs and ministries as InterVarsity and Campus Crusade are experiencing a dramatic ethnic shift. For example, last year at Stanford, Berkeley and Yale, about […]

A growing number of Christian and Jewish congregations in different parts of the country, are sharing their physical facilities with each other and strengthening interfaith ties, reports USA Today (Feb. 16). In a move that Rabbi Gerald L. Zeilser calls “unprecedented in American life,” individual congregations are using their indigenous spaces and resources to support the ministry […]

Another type of split is emerging in the more liberal Reform wing of Judaism. While the divisions in many Christian bodies often take shape between more liberal church leaders and clergy and conservative laity, the opposite is the case in Reform. The Jerusalem Report (Feb. 1) notes that the split is taking place between an increasingly traditional […]

In recent months, observers of the American Jewish community are finding a steady deepening of divisions among the various groupings, especially the Orthodox. Rabbi Jack Wertheimer of  the Jewish Theological Seminary writes in Commentary  magazine (February) that the numerically smaller Orthodox (totaling just over 6 percent of Jewish households) are making a significant impact on the religious practices […]