Conservative Christians stressing the importance of Israel in biblical prophesy and Christian right political leaders who are pressing the U.S. to maintain a strong pro-Israel stance are joining forces and becoming a powerful presence in the Middle Eastern political struggle, reports the Christian Science Monitor (April 16). The Christian right has long counted among its own ranks […]

A transformation is underway in Jewish attitudes and identification due to the intensification of the Middle East conflict and the growth of anti-Semitism. Last month RW reported on the growing “hawkish” attitudes of Reform rabbis during the escalation of violence in the Middle East. The crisis “has inspired more of a coming out than a run for […]

Christian churches are assuming a more prominent social role in Madagascar as poltical turmoil rocks the African nation. During the December elections, disputes broke out about the legitimacy of the process. Opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana claimed that the elections had been rigged and that he had won an outright majority. On Feb. 22, Ravalomanana declared […]

The use of the Internet to explore and study Buddhist teachings is finding favor among Southeast Asians disillusioned with organized religion, reports Tricycle magazine (Spring). “From virtually no online presence five years ago, Southeast Asia’s Buddhists have recently exploded onto the Web…In Thailand, where 95 percent of the country’s sixty million people are Buddhist, there are now […]

Untouchables who are protesting Hindu nationalism in India are on the verge of converting to Buddhism on a large scale, although Buddhist leaders are unsure of what to make of the phenomenon. The Buddhist quarterly Tricycle (Spring) reports that a mass conversion of over one million Indian dalits (those of the untouchable caste) was due to take […]

The widespread Gypsy conversion to Pentecostal Christianity in Europe shows no signs of waning and there are indications that evangelical Gypsies are having a significant impact in their communities. Charisma  magazine (March) reports that the growth of Pentecostalism has been called the largest revival in post-war Western Europe, although many Christians are still unaware of it. […]

A March academic conference on evangelicalism  in Paris — actually the first of its kind in France — looked at the increasing strength of Third World evangelicals in missionary activity. Mark Noll of Wheaton College addressed the growth of non-Western missionaries in general, as well as those working in cooperation with American missions. Overall, the proportion of […]

A current bestseller in Egypt, written by jailed members of a militant Muslim group, the Jamaa al-Islamiya, is causing a stir for its renunciation of armed struggle. The Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung (March 27) reports that the 600-page book , which explains why the leaders of the movement have decided to give up violence,. has already […]