A recent conference of French Muslims reveals that this group is increasingly pressing for mainstream acceptance while experiencing divisions within their own ranks. In early May about 75,000 people — the highest number ever — visited the annual gathering of Muslims in France near Paris. There are today some 17 million Muslims in Western Europe, […]

As Latino immigration becomes more diversified, Catholic parishes are experiencing competition and new borrowing between different Hispanic and other ethnic traditions. The New York Times (May 27) reports that the large Mexican immigration in New York in recent years has particularly brought new devotional practices, such as veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to many parishes, creating […]

Churches in cities are increasingly taking an active role in helping residents and members buy homes in their vicinity, reports the Christian Science Monitor (May 23). The new involvement has as much to do with self-preservation as serving the community, writes Mark Sappenfield. “Years of blight and crime have taken a toll on the size and vitality […]

American evangelicals have created several enclaves and headquarter cities in the last two decades. Wheaton, Illinois has long been viewed as the evangelical Vatican, but then in the 1980s many large parachurch organizations moved to Colorado Springs, and then some relocated again to Orlando, Florida. Now Dallas is becoming a new center due to the […]

The media coverage of Mormonism that accompanied the reporting on the Olympics games in February “created a new picture of the LDS Church and its members that is unlikely to be ephemeral,” writes Jan Shipps in Religion in the News magazine (spring). Shipps, an expert in Mormonism, writes that older images of Mormonism as a peculiar and […]

Chinese-American evangelicals are taking a more activist stance on such issues as abortion, challenging traditional ethnic attitudes that put a stigma on having handicapped children, reports Christianity Today magazine (May 21). Writer Tony Carnes reports that until very recently, “Many Chinese-American churches have often avoided prolife activities as too political, worldly, or culturally embarrassing.”  While ethnic Chinese embrace […]

A youth movement based on “extreme” spirituality and religious practice and striving for purity in lifestyle is finding a following, according to two reports. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (May 11)  reports that the drive for purity is part of many young people’s spiritual search. Until recently, purity often meant sexual purity, as upheld by the teen chastity movement (and […]

Anti-Catholicism may still be around today, but such bias has not been a strong factor in shaping public attitudes and media coverage on the sexual abuse crisis in the church. That was about the only agreement that RW could glean from most of the speakers at a late May conference at New York’s Fordham University. Early on, participants […]