The strong Internet presence of the Lutheran Church in Estonia as well as in Finland, two countries on the shores of the Baltic Sea, came as a surprise to RW during the ECIC’s conference. In Estonia, 20 percent of the population connects to the Internet at least once a week. The country is far ahead of the […]
Christian internet expands in Europe
Around the mid-1990s, members of Protestant and Catholic Churches in several European countries began to pay attention to the Internet. Since then, the growth of interest and involvement has been rapid. For instance, there are today no less than 6,200 Catholic websites in Italy, Fr. Franco Mazza, web coordinator of the Conference of Italian bishops, […]
Current Research: July 2002
01: Close to two-thirds of bishops have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, “a practice that spans the decades and continues today,” reports the Dallas Morning News (June 12). A three-month study conducted by the newspaper, which involved studying the records of the top leaders in each of the nation’s dioceses, found that at least […]
Declining ecumenism facing new challenges
There doesn’t seem to be any sign that ecumenism will recover from its doldrums, particularly as interfaith relations and a concern for coexistence now outweigh the drive for church unity among most denominations. In an article in Ecumenical Trends magazine (June), Lutheran ecumenist William G. Rusch offers the above prognosis on ecumenism, noting that a long term decline […]
Voucher decision bolsters faith-based groups
The late June Supreme Court decision in favor of vouchers for private schools is likely to have favorable repercussions for faith-based groups seeking government support. A late June decision by the Supreme Court upheld that public money can support religious education as long as parents are given the choice of where to send their children […]
Violence and new religions: Lessons learned
It is difficult to predict violence in new religious movements based on objective measures, if only because such tendencies and actions are linked to a group’s perceptions of assault from the outside world, according to David Bromley of Commonwealth University. That was one of the conclusions drawn by several scholars gathered for a session on […]
Sex abuse scandals — Watergate for young Catholics?
The sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is likely to have a major impact on younger generations, such as Generation X, according to observers. At a recent conference on anti-Catholicism in New York [see last month’s RW for full coverage], historian John McGreevy remarked that just as Vatican II was the defining event in the church […]
On/File: June 2002
01: Interfaith Power and Light groups are being established across the U.S., in the attempt to convince congregations to adopt “green” or renewable energy sources and warn them about global warming. The groups are a spin-off of the Episcopal Power and Light movement started five years ago to make the Episcopal Church a zero-emissions entity by powering […]
Findings & Footnotes: June 2002
01: Historians do not only look at the past, but at the future as well — a fact illustrated by Philip Jenkins’ new book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, $28). According to Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University, the face of Christianity is changing and, in […]
Religious minorities still repressed in Afghanistan
The fall of the Taliban has done little to end religious discrimination against minorities in Afghanistan. The Boston Globe (May 6) reports that official government persecution, such as the wearing of colored badges to identify minorities as either Hindu or Sikh (the two largest minorities in Afghanistan), ended when the Taliban was defeated four months ago. But Muslims […]
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