The Catholic Church in the U.S. has significantly improved its ministry to priests with AIDS and the rate of new cases of the disease may be on the decline, writes Jon Fuller in the Jesuit magazine America (March 18). A late January report that American Catholic priests are dying with AIDS at a higher rate than that […]

The use of Eastern religious themes and terminology in marketing cosmetics and other beauty products is growing in American culture, although observers are not sure how much the trend  has to do with religion. Beliefnet.com (March 24) reports that companies such as Cover Girl and the Body Shop “have given Far Eastern civ a makeover, using some […]

One of the reasons Buddhism may have difficulty spreading beyond upper- and middle class white Americans is the high economic cost of Buddhist spiritual practice, writes Joe Parker in Turning Wheel (Spring), the magazine of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. In Asian countries, most Buddhist practices, such as meditation retreats, are offered free to practitioners. In the U.S. […]

In the wide-ranging discussion among church leaders and scholars over the wavering future of denominational loyalty, new research shows such loyalty is indeed alive and growing. In the Christian Century (March 15), sociologist Nancy Ammerman reports on research by her and others at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research that included interviews with people in 549 congregations […]

In this highly contentious spring season of Presidential candidate primaries, some unexpected events unfolded, leaving the ever-present religious right bloc a crucial but unpredictable force for the November election. At least three developments bear attention; the impact of the Senator John McCain attack on Bob Jones University (BJU) and Governor George W. Bush; the decline, […]

The flood of non-Jewish immigrants into Israel in the last few years is leading the government to engage in Jewish education for prospective newcomers. Inside Israel newsletter (February) reports that in the earlier years of  immigration into Israel from Russia and other post-communist countries, at least 85 percent of those entering Israel were Jews according to Jewish […]

Christians of a leftist political perspective are finding their way into top government positions in several European countries, reports the German news service Idea (Feb. 1). Whereas in the past, European politicians on the left often were secular or excluded their religious affiliations from their public life, today’s politicians seek to combine their Christian roots with their […]

A clergy shortage is impacting synagogues as well as Protestant and Catholic churches, reports the New York Times (Feb. 14). The problem is most acute in the Jewish denominations and the Catholic Church. In Reform Judaism, about 200 out of 895 congregations are without a full-time rabbi. The modern Orthodox branch has a similar shortage, though the […]

Churches are increasingly engaging in coalition-building and other forms of unity in their involvement in faith-based public programs. As church-based programs move into place for prisons, inner-city youth ministries and job training, cooperation seems to be growing. In mid-February a major stride forward was taken by 57 religious leaders of all denominations as they met […]

A service consecrating two bishops on January 29 in the Anglican Church in Singapore has raised fundamental questions for the Episcopal Church in the U.S. about Anglican unity and the limits of dissent. The normal procedure in the worldwide Anglican Communion allows each national church to regulate its own ordination of bishops, with the Episcopal […]